Archaeological Research by Joseph Nigro
NASA Technical Reports, 2014
In fiscal years 2010, 2011, and 2012, Compton Tucker was the principal investigator of a NASA Spa... more In fiscal years 2010, 2011, and 2012, Compton Tucker was the principal investigator of a NASA Space Archaeology project that worked at Gordion, in Central Turkey. Tucker was assisted by an excellent team of co-workers including Joseph Nigro and Daniel Slayback of Science Systems Applications Incorporated, Jenny Strum of the University of New Mexico, and Karina Yager, a post doctoral fellow at NASA/GSFC. This report summaries their research activities at Gordion for the field seasons of 2010, 2011, and 2012. Because of the possible use of our findings at Gordion for tomb robbing there and/or the encouragement of potential tomb robbers using our geophysical survey methods to locate areas to loot, we have not published any of our survey results in the open literature nor placed any of these results on any web sites. These 2010- 2012 survey results remain in the confidential archives of the University of Pennsylvania's University Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, the group that leads the Gordion Excavation and Research Project. Excavations are planned for 2013 at Gordion, including several that will be based upon the research results in this report. The site of Gordion in central Turkey, famous as the home of King Midas, whose father's intricately tied knot gave the site its name, also served as the center of the Phrygian kingdom that ruled much of Central Anatolia in Asia Minor during the early first millennium B.C. Gordion has been a University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology excavation project since 1950, yet the site is incompletely published despite six decades of research. The primary obstacles related to the site and its preservation were two problems that NASA technology could address: (1) critical survey errors in the hundreds of maps and plans produced by the earlier excavators, most of which used mutually incompatible geospatial referencing systems, that prevented any systematic understanding of the site; and (2) agricultural encroachment upon the site that was compromising its archaeological integrity. Our NASA Space Archaeology proposal was written to address both of these problems. When we started working at Gordion in 2010, we added a third objective, (3) ground penetrating radar and magnetic geophysical surveys of threatened areas. The first objective our NASA Space Archaeology Project was to provide the University of Pennsylvania's Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology a system to rectify and incorporate all existing survey data from Gordion, including previous aerial photographs of the site, detailed site surveys, maps, and excavation plans, into a common mapping system. This was accomplished with a Geographic Information System (GIS) based upon a 60 cm Quickbird satellite image ortho-rectified using Shuttle Radar Topographic Mission (SRTM) 30 m digital elevation data and tied to a known datum at Gordion. This enabled the first accurate, multi-layer plan of this complex site, occupied almost continuously from the Bronze Age to the 1st millennium CE, and made possible Gordion's three-dimensional development for the first time.
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Journal of Archaeological Science, 2003
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Hydrology by Joseph Nigro
American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing Annual Conference 2011, 2011
There is a vast and ever increasing amount of data on the Earth's interconnected energy and hydro... more There is a vast and ever increasing amount of data on the Earth's interconnected energy and hydrological systems, and yet one challenge persists: increasing the usefulness of these data for, and thus their use by, the geospatial communities. The Hydrology Data and Information Services Center (HDISC), part of the Goddard Earth Sciences DISC, has continually worked to better understand the hydrological data needs of the geospatial end users, to thus better able to bridge the gap between NASA data and the geospatial communities. This paper will cover some of the hydrological data sets available from HDISC, and the various tools and services developed for data searching, data subsetting, format conversion, online visualization and analysis, interoperable access, etc., to facilitate the integration of NASA hydrological data by end users. The NASA Goddard data analysis and visualization system, Giovanni, is described. Two case examples of user-customized data services are given, involving the EPA BASINS (Better Assessment Science Integrating point & Non-point Sources) project and the CUAHSI Hydrologic Information System, with the common requirement of on-the-fly retrieval of long duration time series for a geographical point.
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Remote Sensing of Hydrological Extremes, Nov 2016
Significant flooding is a common occurrence in many parts of the globe, and remote sensing from s... more Significant flooding is a common occurrence in many parts of the globe, and remote sensing from satellite platforms can provide near real-time information for response during flooding disasters. This same information is also valuable for flood mitigation, preparedness, and recovery including large-scale infrastructure planning, settling insurance claims following flood disasters, and planning community rebuilding. Here we review the basic considerations of mapping surface water and flood extent using remote sensing and describe the NASA Near Real Time Global Flood Mapping System, a fully automated, near real-time system designed to produce such products for nearly the entire globe each day. The NASA system, a collaboration between NASA and the Dartmouth Flood Observatory, processes data from the MODerate resolution Imaging Spectro-radiometer (MODIS) instruments on the NASA Aqua and Terra satellites to produce a range of products for use by both the disaster management community and the scientific research community.
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This paper documents the use of simulated Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer land use/... more This paper documents the use of simulated Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer land use/land cover (MODIS-LULC), NASA-LIS generated precipitation and evapo-transpiration (ET), and Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) datasets (in conjunction with standard land use, topographical and meteorological datasets) as input to hydrological models routinely used by the watershed hydrology modeling community. The study is focused in coastal watersheds in the Mississippi Gulf Coast although one of the test cases focuses in an inland watershed located in northeastern State of Mississippi, USA. The decision support tools (DSTs) into which the NASA datasets were assimilated were the Soil Water & Assessment Tool (SWAT) and the Hydrological Simulation Program FORTRAN (HSPF). These DSTs are endorsed by several US government agencies (EPA, FEMA, USGS) for water resources management strategies. These models use physiographic and meteorological data extensively. Precipitation gages and USGS gage stations in the region were used to calibrate several HSPF and SWAT model applications. Land use and topographical datasets were swapped to assess model output sensitivities. NASA-LIS meteorological data were introduced in the calibrated model applications for simulation of watershed hydrology for a time period in which no weather data were available (1997-2006). The performance of the NASA datasets in the context of hydrological modeling was assessed through comparison of measured and model-simulated hydrographs. Overall, NASA datasets were as useful as standard land use, topographical , and meteorological datasets. Moreover, NASA datasets were used for performing analyses that the standard datasets could not made possible, e.g., introduction of land use dynamics into hydrological simulations
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Hydrological Processes, 2011
ABSTRACT Evapotranspiration (ET) is difficult to measure at the scales of climate models and clim... more ABSTRACT Evapotranspiration (ET) is difficult to measure at the scales of climate models and climate variability. While satellite retrieval algorithms do exist, their accuracy is limited by the sparseness of in situ observations available for calibration and validation, which themselves may be unrepresentative of 500 m and larger scale satellite footprints and grid pixels. Here, we use a combination of satellite and ground-based observations to close the water budgets of seven continental scale river basins (Mackenzie, Fraser, Nelson, Mississippi, Tocantins, Danube, and Ubangi), estimating mean ET as a residual. For any river basin, ET must equal total precipitation minus net runoff minus the change in total terrestrial water storage (TWS), in order for mass to be conserved. We make use of precipitation from two global observation-based products, archived runoff data, and TWS changes from the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellite mission. We demonstrate that while uncertainty in the water budget-based estimates of monthly ET is often too large for those estimates to be useful, the uncertainty in the mean annual cycle is small enough that it is practical for evaluating other ET products. Here, we evaluate five land surface model simulations, two operational atmospheric analyses, and a recent global reanalysis product based on our results. An important outcome is that the water budget-based ET time series in two tropical river basins, one in Brazil and the other in central Africa, exhibit a weak annual cycle, which may help to resolve debate about the strength of the annual cycle of ET in such regions and how ET is constrained throughout the year. The methods described will be useful for water and energy budget studies, weather and climate model assessments, and satellite-based ET retrieval optimization. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
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Journal of Environment Quality, 2010
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Journal of Hydrology, 2010
... Evapotranspiration was estimated from the community Noah land surface model driven by the NLD... more ... Evapotranspiration was estimated from the community Noah land surface model driven by the NLDAS forcing data ( [Chen et al., 1996] and [Ek et al., 2003] ). ... All watersheds except for Little River show NLDAS/Noah ET is 5–32% higher than the RET. ...
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Public Health by Joseph Nigro
In many malarious regions malaria transmission roughly coincides with rainy seasons, which provid... more In many malarious regions malaria transmission roughly coincides with rainy seasons, which provide for more abundant larval habitats. In addition to precipitation, other meteorological and environmental factors may also influence malaria transmission. These factors can be remotely sensed using earth observing environmental satellites and estimated with seasonal climate forecasts. The use of remote sensing usage as an early warning tool for malaria epidemics have been broadly studied in recent years, especially for Africa, where the majority of the world’s malaria occurs. Although the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS), which includes Thailand and the surrounding countries, is an epicenter of multidrug resistant falciparum malaria, the meteorological and environmental factors affecting malaria transmissions in the GMS have not been examined in detail. In this study, the parasitological data used consisted of the monthly malaria epidemiology data at the provincial level compiled by the Thai Ministry of Public Health. Precipitation, temperature, relative humidity, and vegetation index obtained from both climate time series and satellite measurements were used as independent variables to model malaria. We used neural network methods, an artificial-intelligence technique, to model the dependency of malaria transmission on these variables. The average training accuracy of the neural network analysis for three provinces (Kanchanaburi, Mae Hong Son, and Tak) which are among the provinces most endemic for malaria, is 72.8% and the average testing accuracy is 62.9% based on the 1994-1999 data. A more complex neural network architecture resulted in higher training accuracy but also lower testing accuracy. Taking into account of the uncertainty regarding reported malaria cases, we divided the malaria cases into bands (classes) to compute training accuracy. Using the same neural network architecture on the 19 most endemic provinces for years 1994 to 2000, the mean training accuracy weighted by provincial malaria cases was 73%. Prediction of malaria cases for 2001 using neural networks trained for 1994-2000 gave a weighted accuracy of 53%. Because there was a significant decrease (31%) in the number of malaria cases in the 19 provinces from 2000 to 2001, the networks overestimated malaria transmissions. The decrease in transmission was not due to climatic or environmental changes. Thailand is a country with long borders. Migrant populations from the neighboring countries enlarge the human malaria reservoir because these populations have more limited access to health care. This issue also confounds the complexity of modeling malaria based on meteorological and environmental variables alone. In spite of the relatively low resolution of the data and the impact of migrant populations, we have uncovered a reasonably clear dependency of malaria on meteorological and environmental remote sensing variables. When other contextual determinants do not vary significantly, using neural network analysis along with remote sensing variables to predict malaria endemicity should be feasible.
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32nd International Symposium on Remote Sensing of Environment
Meteorological and environmental parameters important to malaria transmission include temperature... more Meteorological and environmental parameters important to malaria transmission include temperature, relative humidity, precipitation, and vegetation conditions. These parameters can most conveniently be obtained using remote sensing. Selected provinces and districts in Thailand and Indonesia are used to illustrate how remotely sensed meteorological and environmental parameters may enhance the capabilities for malaria surveillance and control. Hindcastings based on these environmental parameters have shown good agreement to epidemiological records.
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Integrative Zoology, 2008
The epidemiology of many rodent-borne diseases in South-East Asia remains ill-defined. Scrub typh... more The epidemiology of many rodent-borne diseases in South-East Asia remains ill-defined. Scrub typhus and lep-tospirosis are common and medically significant, while other zoonotic diseases, such as spotted fever group Rickettsiae have been identified, but their overall medical significance is unknown. Rodent surveillance was conducted from June 2002 to July 2004 in 18 provinces from Thailand. Traps were set up for one to three nights. Blood and serum samples and animal tissue samples (liver, spleen, kidney and urinary bladder) were collected. Chiggermites, ticks and fleas were removed from captured rodents. A total of 4536 wild-caught rodents from 27 species were captured over two years of animal trapping. Rattus rattus was the dominant species, followed by Rattus exulans and Bandicota indica. Almost 43 000 ectoparasites were removed from the captured animals. Approximately 98% of the ectoparasites were chigger-mites, of which 46% belonged to the genus Leptotrombidium (scrub typhus vector). Other genera included Schoengastia and Blankaartia. Tick and flea specimens together comprised less than 1% of the sample. Among the five species of ticks collected, Haemaphysalis bandicota was the predominant species caught, followed by Ixodes granulatus other Haemaphysalis spp., Rhipicephalus spp. and Dermacentor spp. Only two species of fleas were collected and Xenopsylla cheopis (rat flea) was the predominant species. Using both commercial diagnostic kits and in-house molecular assays, animal tissue samples were examined and screened for zoonotic diseases. Seven zoonotic diseases were detected: scrub typhus, leptospirosis, murine typhus, tick typhus, bartonella, babesiosis and trypanosomiasis. Most samples were positive for scrub typhus. Other zoonotic diseases still under investigation include borrelosis, ehrlichiosis, the plague, and other rickettsial diseases. Using geographic information systems, global positioning systems and remote sensing technology, epidemiological and environmental data were combined to assess the relative risk in different biotopes within highly endemic areas of scrub typhus in Thailand.
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Journal of the American Mosquito Control Association, 2005
Two recent outbreaks of locally acquired, mosquito-transmitted malaria in Virginia in 1998 and 20... more Two recent outbreaks of locally acquired, mosquito-transmitted malaria in Virginia in 1998 and 2002 demonstrate the continued risk of endemic mosquito-transmitted malaria in heavily populated areas of the eastern United States. Increasing immigration, growth in global travel, and the presence of competent anopheline vectors throughout the eastern United States contribute to the increasing risk of malaria importation and transmission. On August 23 and 25, 2002, Plasmodium vivax malaria was diagnosed in 2 teenagers in Loudoun County, Virginia. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) deemed these cases to be locally acquired because of the lack of risk factors for malaria, such as international travel, blood transfusion, organ transplantation, or needle sharing. The patients lived approximately 0.5 mi apart; however, 1 patient reported numerous visits to friends who lived directly across the street from the other patient. Two Anopheles quadrimaculatus s.l. female pools collected in Loudoun County, Virginia, and 1 An. punctipennis female pool collected in Fairfax County, Virginia, tested positive for P. vivax 210 with the VecTest panel assay and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). In addition, 2 An. quadrimaculatus s.l. female pools collected in Montgomery, Maryland, tested positive for P. vivax 210. The CDC confirmed these initial results with the circumsporozoite ELISA. The authors believe that this is the 1st demonstration of Plasmodium-infected mosquitoes collected in association with locally acquired human malaria in the United States since the current national malaria surveillance system began in 1957.
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Remote Sensing of Environment, 2003
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Urbanization by Joseph Nigro
We combine Landsat and Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) products to create o... more We combine Landsat and Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) products to create observation-based and scenario-based maps characterizing distant-past, recent-past, present, and near-future land cover and land use change in the continental United States at a ~5km scale. These maps show the nature and impact of urbanization across the continental U.S. from 2001 to 2020 with focus on the relationship between population and urban growth and how it varies across the U.S. The influence of culture on urbanization characteristics are revealed in the results at city-scale, helping to provide insight into both past and projected urbanization trends.
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Publications by Joseph Nigro
Investigations of the Belize River East Archaeology Project: A Report of the 2020 Field Season, 2022
As part of the fieldwork conducted in January of 2020, several areas within the BREA project area... more As part of the fieldwork conducted in January of 2020, several areas within the BREA project area were mapped using drones and Structure from Motion technologies. The overall goal of this mapping was to gather additional–as well as more accurate and precise remotely sensed data in order to enhance understanding of ancient Maya landscape management. This work was a continuation of our 2014 and 2017 drone mapping projects, in which we were able to demonstrate a number of benefits to the work: not only were we able to identify a large number of previously undocumented mound structures in the space of a few days, we have also been able to document the presence of large-scale wetland management structures, such as artificially constructed canals and ponds. The utility of these remote sensing technologies, and their affordable cost, are changing on a fundamental level the ways in which archaeologists collect, process, and display data. Further, remotely sensed data is helping to refine the kinds of research questions we ask.
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Archaeological Research by Joseph Nigro
Hydrology by Joseph Nigro
Public Health by Joseph Nigro
Urbanization by Joseph Nigro
Publications by Joseph Nigro