Delgado-Fernandez, I., Davidson-Arnott, R.D.A., Bauer, B.O., Walker, I.J. and Ollerhead, J., 2013. Evaluation of the optimal resolution for characterizing the effect of beach surface moisture derived from remote sensing on Aeolian transport and deposition. In: Conley, D.C., Masselink, G., Russell, P.E. and O'Hare, T.J. (eds.)

This paper explores new possibilities offered by moisture maps obtained from a remote sensing system to evaluate the effect of measuring moisture at different spatial resolutions. The data are derived from a moisture map generated from an image taken during an aeolian event on October 21, 2007 at Greenwich Dunes, Prince Edward Island National Park, Canada, using a camera mounted on a mast on the foredune crest at a height of about 14 m above the beach. Data from the original, fine resolution (0.05 m) moisture map was gradually aggregated through pixel coarsening. The simple method of local variance was used to identify the grid resolution at which changes in moisture were best depicted. Results indicate that the optimal spatial resolution at which most moisture variability was conveyed within a moisture map was 0.6-0.9 m, which suggests that finer resolutions do not necessarily provide the best representation of surface moisture that could be used in predictions of aeolian sediment transport.