PMODTRAN: a parallel implementation based on MODTRAN for massive remote sensing data processing. Issue 9 (1st September 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Huang, Fang; Zhou, Ji; Tao, Jian; Tan, Xicheng; Liang, Shunlin; Cheng, Jie
• Is Part Of: International journal of digital earth. Volume 9:Issue 9(2016)
• Page Start: 819
• Page End: 834
• Publication Date: 2016-09-01
• Subjects: Parallel computing -- message passing interface -- MODTRAN -- thermal infrared remote sensing -- land-surface temperature retrieval; Geographic information systems -- Periodicals; Sustainable development -- Information technology -- Periodicals; Social planning -- Information technology -- Periodicals; 910.285
• DOI: 10.1080/17538947.2016.1144800
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1753-8947

Abstract

ABSTRACT: MODerate resolution atmospheric TRANsmission (MODTRAN) is a commercial remote sensing (RS) software package that has been widely used to simulate radiative transfer of electromagnetic radiation through the Earth's atmosphere and the radiation observed by a remote sensor. However, when very large RS datasets must be processed in simulation applications at a global scale, it is extremely time-consuming to operate MODTRAN on a modern workstation. Under this circumstance, the use of parallel cluster computing to speed up the process becomes vital to this time-consuming task. This paper presents PMODTRAN, an implementation of a parallel task-scheduling algorithm based on MODTRAN. PMODTRAN was able to reduce the processing time of the test cases used here from over 4.4 months on a workstation to less than a week on a local computer cluster. In addition, PMODTRAN can distribute tasks with different levels of granularity and has some extra features, such as dynamic load balancing and parameter checking.