A general formalism for the distribution of the total length of a geophysical parameter along a finite transect

Ivan Astin, Larry Di Girolamo

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

17 Citations (SciVal)

Abstract

The distribution of the total length of a geophysical parameter along a finite linear transect is required to determine confidence intervals for its true mean fractional coverage. The distribution is analogous to the total time a queue is busy within a finite time interval. As posed as a queuing problem, this distribution has been the subject of study for the last 40 years using a variety of approaches. Using a heuristic approach, the general equation for the distribution is herein derived within a geophysical context. As an example, the general equation for the distribution is applied to an exponential field and validated against a published simulation of an exponential field of leads in ice floes. The formalism allows for exact confidence intervals to be derived, and its application to hypothesis testing and experimental design in remote sensing is discussed.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)508-512
Number of pages5
JournalIEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing
Volume37
Issue number1 II
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Dec 1999

Funding

Manuscript received July 11, 1997; revised February 23, 1998. This work was supported in part by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Contract 959085, U.K. NERC Contract F60/G6/12, ESA Contract 11326/95/NL/CN, and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.

Keywords

  • Estimation
  • Exponential distributions
  • Probability
  • Remote sensing
  • Statistics
  • Stochastic fields

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Electrical and Electronic Engineering
  • General Earth and Planetary Sciences

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