Unit 21 - Spatio-temporal intro

GRASS GIS 7 comes with high quality and flexibility tools for spatio-temporal data processing, see GRASS documentation for details. All GRASS modules from spatio-temporal framework start with t.* prefix.

GRASS introduces three special datatypes that are designed to handle time series data:

  • Space time raster datasets (strds) for managing raster map time series.
  • Space time 3D raster datasets (str3ds) for managing 3D raster map time series.
  • Space time vector datasets (stvds) for managing vector map time series.

Spatio-temporal MODIS data

A new space time raster datasets is created by t.create.

t.create output=modis title="MODIS 2017" desc="MODIS data for Norway"

In the next step register to the dataset imported MODIS data from Unit 20 by t.register. Note that i.modis.import in Unit 20 - MODIS LST was called with -w flag and outfile parameter to generate special file which can be later used for creating space-time raster dataset (strds). The command needs to be run twice, once for Aqua data than for Terra data.

t.register input=modis file=geodata/modis/tlist-mod.txt
t.register input=modis file=geodata/modis/tlist-myd.txt

Let’s check basic metedata about created dataset by t.info.

t.info input=modis

...
| Start time:................. 2017-01-01 00:00:00
| End time:................... 2018-01-04 00:00:00
| Granularity:................ 8 days
| Temporal type of maps:...... interval
...
| Number of registered maps:.. 184

Note

See granularity. In this case a composed product from the daily 1-kilometer LST product (MOD11A1/MYD11A1) stored on a 1-km Sinusoidal grid as the average values of clear-sky LSTs during an 8-day period is used.

MOD11A2.A2017297_mosaic_LST_Day_1km|2017-10-24|2017-11-01

Time topology information can be obtained by t.topology.

t.topology input=modis

...
+-------------------- Temporal topology -------------------------------------+
| Is subset of dataset: ...... False
| Temporal topology is: ...... invalid
| Number of intervals: ....... 184
| Invalid time stamps: ....... 0
| Number of points: .......... 0
| Number of gaps: ............ 0
| Granularity: ............... 8 days
...

It is possible to see our spatio-temporal dataset also graphically using g.gui.timeline (Temporal ‣ GUI tools ‣ Timeline tool).

../_images/timeline.png

Fig. 117 Download MODIS data presented by Timeline tool.

Data querying

List of registered raster maps in spatio-temporal dataset can be printed by t.rast.list.

t.rast.list input=modis order=start_time

name|mapset|start_time|end_time
MOD11A2.A2017001_mosaic_LST_Day_1km|modis|2017-01-01 00:00:00|2017-01-09 00:00:00
MOD11A2.A2017001_mosaic_LST_Night_1km|modis|2017-01-01 00:00:00|2017-01-09 00:00:00
MYD11A2.A2017001_mosaic_LST_Day_1km|modis|2017-01-01 00:00:00|2017-01-09 00:00:00
MYD11A2.A2017001_mosaic_LST_Night_1km|modis|2017-01-01 00:00:00|2017-01-09 00:00:00
...
MOD11A2.A2017361_mosaic_LST_Day_1km|modis|2017-12-27 00:00:00|2018-01-04 00:00:00
MOD11A2.A2017361_mosaic_LST_Night_1km|modis|2017-12-27 00:00:00|2018-01-04 00:00:00
MYD11A2.A2017361_mosaic_LST_Day_1km|modis|2017-12-27 00:00:00|2018-01-04 00:00:00
MYD11A2.A2017361_mosaic_LST_Night_1km|modis|2017-12-27 00:00:00|2018-01-04 00:00:00

Printed maps can be filtered by various parameters. In the example below are printed raster maps with data covering March 2017 only.

t.rast.list input=modis order=start_time \
where="start_time > '2017-03-01' and start_time < '2017-04-01'"
# or
t.rast.list input=modis order=start_time \
where="strftime('%m', start_time)='03'"

name|mapset|start_time|end_time
MOD11A2.A2017065_mosaic_LST_Day_1km|modis|2017-03-06 00:00:00|2017-03-14 00:00:00
MOD11A2.A2017065_mosaic_LST_Night_1km|modis|2017-03-06 00:00:00|2017-03-14 00:00:00
MYD11A2.A2017065_mosaic_LST_Day_1km|modis|2017-03-06 00:00:00|2017-03-14 00:00:00
MYD11A2.A2017065_mosaic_LST_Night_1km|modis|2017-03-06 00:00:00|2017-03-14 00:00:00
...
MOD11A2.A2017089_mosaic_LST_Day_1km|modis|2017-03-30 00:00:00|2017-04-07 00:00:00
MOD11A2.A2017089_mosaic_LST_Night_1km|modis|2017-03-30 00:00:00|2017-04-07 00:00:00
MYD11A2.A2017089_mosaic_LST_Day_1km|modis|2017-03-30 00:00:00|2017-04-07 00:00:00
MYD11A2.A2017089_mosaic_LST_Night_1km|modis|2017-03-30 00:00:00|2017-04-07 00:00:00

In the next example only raster maps coming from Aqua satellite are printed.

t.rast.list input=modis order=start_time where="name LIKE 'MYD%'"

name|mapset|start_time|end_time
MYD11A2.A2017001_mosaic_LST_Day_1km|modis|2017-01-01 00:00:00|2017-01-09 00:00:00
MYD11A2.A2017001_mosaic_LST_Night_1km|modis|2017-01-01 00:00:00|2017-01-09 00:00:00
MYD11A2.A2017009_mosaic_LST_Day_1km|modis|2017-01-09 00:00:00|2017-01-17 00:00:00
MYD11A2.A2017009_mosaic_LST_Night_1km|modis|2017-01-09 00:00:00|2017-01-17 00:00:00
...
MYD11A2.A2017353_mosaic_LST_Day_1km|modis|2017-12-19 00:00:00|2017-12-27 00:00:00
MYD11A2.A2017353_mosaic_LST_Night_1km|modis|2017-12-19 00:00:00|2017-12-27 00:00:00
MYD11A2.A2017361_mosaic_LST_Day_1km|modis|2017-12-27 00:00:00|2018-01-04 00:00:00
MYD11A2.A2017361_mosaic_LST_Night_1km|modis|2017-12-27 00:00:00|2018-01-04 00:00:00

Univariate statistics can be calculated by t.rast.univar. In example below statistics only for March 2017 is calculated.

t.rast.univar input=modis where="start_time > '2017-03-01' and start_time < '2017-04-01'"

id|start|end|mean|min|max|mean_of_abs|stddev|variance|coeff_var|sum|null_cells|cells
MOD11A2.A2017065_mosaic_LST_Day_1km@modis|2017-03-06 00:00:00|2017-03-14 00:00:00|...
MOD11A2.A2017065_mosaic_LST_Night_1km@modis|2017-03-06 00:00:00|2017-03-14 00:00:00|...
MYD11A2.A2017065_mosaic_LST_Day_1km@modis|2017-03-06 00:00:00|2017-03-14 00:00:00|...
MYD11A2.A2017065_mosaic_LST_Night_1km@modis|2017-03-06 00:00:00|2017-03-14 00:00:00|...

Data extracting

Raster spatio-temporal data can be extracted into new dataset using t.rast.extract. In the example below are created four new datasets containing data of different satellite and datetime.

t.rast.extract input=modis where="name LIKE 'MOD%LST_Day_1km'" output=modis_terra_day
t.rast.extract input=modis where="name LIKE 'MOD%LST_Night_1km'" output=modis_terra_night
t.rast.extract input=modis where="name LIKE 'MYD%LST_Day_1km'" output=modis_aqua_day
t.rast.extract input=modis where="name LIKE 'MYD%LST_Night_1km'" output=modis_aqua_night

At this point we can check the basic information

t.info input=modis_terra_day

...
| Start time:................. 2017-01-01 00:00:00
| End time:................... 2018-01-04 00:00:00
| Granularity:................ 8 days
| Temporal type of maps:...... interval
...
| Number of registered maps:.. 46
...

and later time topology which should be valid compared to original dataset.

t.topology input=modis_terra_day

...
| Temporal topology is: ...... valid
| Number of intervals: ....... 46
| Invalid time stamps: ....... 0
| Number of points: .......... 0
| Number of gaps: ............ 0
| Granularity: ............... 8 days
...