SECOND EDITION

Prentice Hall Series

in Geographic
Information Science

KEITH C. CLARKE,
Series Editor

Remote Sensing
of the Envi onment
An Earth Resource Perspective

'Three Gorges Dam, China

John R. Jensen

prentice-Hail Series
in Geogra phIc
lofor lion Science

KEITH C. CLARKE.
Series Advisor
un

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s\c I/ Hll'

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(Ill

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IUl:in/.:-in-Publicarion Data

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iro nment : n anh resourc pe rs pc rive J hn R. J

I f II en In e : phi inti rma i n - Olen c)
e and index.

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mol

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nd d.

n mg.

ducatio Inc.

All n iln re crv 'J oN,l pMI f'thi: " nllk mil. he repr duced, in any rorm or hy,lIl)
the pu Ii. her
Pea. nn l'runti I r. II r\l i~ ,I trtulem Irk 01 P 'arson l:ducaliClIl. Inc.
Priutcd in the lJllllcd Sl,lles of Amcri 'lJ
10

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ISBN 0- 13-18 8 50-8

1I1l:.lIlS,

without pernnssron m \ riun ' from

Remote Sensing of the E viro ment

An Earth Resource Perspective
Second Edition

John R. Jensen
L i

'(?1'

in' 0

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orofino

ppcr addle Ri cr. J

7-1-.- '

Brief Content

1 Remot nsin oj III

tram en ti Radiati

2 ,I

3 Hi
4

'n ironm 111

11 Principles

of -4 'I'; II Photography and Aerial Pial arm

(01:\

am ras, FiJI r.,

ri II Photograpl. ' - . nt ee Point.

5
6 Phot

J I II

11m 1

I tim

luterpretation

r nun tr

7 , 11I1t;

11'01 RemOI

\" tems

1 _

13 R ' 11/( 'te 'ell. ing the Uri ail Land. 'cape

14 R unot

443

ensing of oils , I iinerali ; and G somorpho

15 II/ Sit" pe tral Re 1 tanc Measurement

0111'

Index

In

.0

'R

5 c

using lnformatk n

J' 1

5/)7

Content
Ir

r, c
\

ironm nt

/ Limltatio

isin D

10

R qtn

tm

10
p

nt.

10 /11/(

. . 47

'
,
48
.' ... ... .. .. 48
." , ,
_1
I
5

'I

- I.j

hapr e r 3 Hi tOI

Ph

lII~lUr

. Ill" erl II I Phulo Jmphy und Aerial Plat furm '

,.,
Photograph _, ...... . . .. .. .. . .... . ...... .... ,..
f 19b' and ( 'olor
.. . ... . .. ......... ... . . .
/11 Camer Obscura
. . . .. .
Im 'CIlIWI/ of Ls, IJf-.\ nsltivL' Emu lsio n and Metho 1\. o] Perman m (,
N .\ 1tI~ tit ' lmag .
. ... " " " ..
II I

,lph: trorn en I Platfbrms, .

'Irntthop! . ". . . . . .. ..
/ I lucr Tlutn- fir Fligh t L illg B lloons

vii

"

"

"

(JI
.. ( J
II

tl ~

()

viii
()~'TE"'T

um l , bt'm(i
... .

. . . . . . . . . . 71
.. . 7I
~

..... . . 7

76

'"',

ha p lcr4 -

I' iint ,

'en i

. rnt: . f ill r a nti . ilm. . . . . . J

\)1
.. I

... 92

....'
.... I

Fttt, r

.. . 107

- . . JO
..... I I
.. ... .. . 11 1

. .. .
'"

. 1_2
. 1_4
. 124

.... .... . ...... .

... 1_5
. 12_

hupt er : - Ele men ts of Visulll lm a ge Jnt crp rctutlo n . .... . .. . .... . . . . . . . . . . .. .. ) 27

IntI' duction . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. .. . .... . .. 127
The lerial/R 'Riuflal I'ersp I 1'(

,. . 128
Three-Diniensionat Dep th I JI' J'I.'tqJ!i(}!I . . , .. . . . . . ... . ..... 12X
Obtulutni; Kno: '/ d!Sf! /1<:I'I/I/(1 O",. I1/iI/1{111 rI.I'II(// Ill''', eptio , .
129
II/SInd al l niag e N" 1'f1l'l1(///11 '/ulilge I)c'lc";,m / tocmneunn io , . . . . .
.
, 130

Clement.

or 1111. ge lntcrprcretion

Me thods of Se arch

. .

" . . . .. . . . .

..

. . . ..

Usin C ,!I{/({'1'tI1 lnformatinn .

. . "

( 'III/ I 'e , , I e-IIC/! I! 1'/(/"11 ('

n't

,I /I/Iri -coll cep t .

. . . .

. . . . . . .

,..

"

. .... . . . 130
.

. . 144

. . .. ..... . .. . I 4
. . I .. . . .. . . . . . 14

Phfllognllllllll'll') .. ... .. .. . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . .. . . . .. . . . . .. . )-t9

rtical , eri: I Ph Il grnphj .
.'
I 0
Fid uci al la rks and Pnncipall' in! ..
. ..... . 1'2
il:oll\l~lry
vert ic I erial Phot graph .
.
153

hup te r ) -

r hghtl i

C llf

, TF~

'

?:~

-., -~

.......

.. _ ) I

'''111 /1

,- -,
J

em II RI

..

U/I / 1

. .... ....... 2 1

._ 1
. 19
I In

m m n
lid I

kl

11

on
"III/('171

IUlII}

I
17
. 3_1
"

. . . . . . . . . , 23
huttle l11/aging Rudar : IR , . IR B. m ( tnd Topography \lis, i,11/ . . . ~_
R. W AR.. tT and IDAf, AT-~ '.
Lt
Europ 01 1 Space igenc; R5- / and J;!?S .... ......... :26
Europ an Spo c tgen y 1~'II\ 'i w, ""..If(
.. ..... . . . . . . . . . ' _Ii
R I AR lnicrfcrome try
.
.
...........
32X
lilt " .'lIYJI/I~fI"ic Top o truphic ;II l/lll lifl l;. . ........
. .. 32
interferometric Velocity Mappmg
.
2<1
Passive licrowave R .rnotc : cnslng ..
,
:. 0
Passin' Microwav Radiometers
. .. .
,,30
C hu ptc r 111 - LI DAR Remote Sensinu ......... ... . . . . . . . . .. . .. . ... .......... J. LJ DAR Principles. . . . .. ..
. .
U D. I R L iser mid , anmn .1'.'0' III .
Lll. AR L ~ tr 1.0 alU11/
l.ll. AR Antenn a Attitud: tUrien tatlan )....
LlD. IR Post -Pro esstng a/ MII/lifl ! Returus ,
1:"\11'0 it ion lIt Fir. 'J. lntcrmediat and/or La: I Refilm f
M.
. 'traction u Bare-Earth Di uat Terrain 1ft I. I .
\ccurac) of UDAR lea .urem nt . .. ,

xil

o 'TENT '
om rnunicat ions and I u liu es . . . . . . .. .. .
Urban Digita l Elevati II M lid C reation . , . . . . .
~k tt: roloa ical Dala .
..
l ' r a ll .Hydro logj
.
'ri rie: I Em ir nm III 1 A rea
. " menlo
DL" S ] r Em erne n ' Rc pon se . .

en ill "

or ~ oil. ,

. -l 49

, .. , .

. _ _. _, . ,
.. .
. . , . " '"

,.

9
.. -19

. . .. . . . . . . .. .. .
. . . ,.

. .:- 0
.. . . . .. 00

nd , '{lin rphulo '\ , . ,

. . . .. .. ..

-0"
'0
.. - 9

1
. 51

.. :L
I

\1m

In

W I'<!

. . .:- 1"
.... 'q .

1.\

unci Pall rn

C hllP1CI' IS - / 11 , it Refl ectan ce Ieu surem cnt . . .. . .... ... . .... . . . .... , . . 569
' pc rral Re flecta nce of a Material . .
" .,
5in
RdtrellCl' Materia l . . . . . . . . , , . , . .. . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . .. . .. ,
571

lllumination

onsidcrati ns . .

. .. . . . . . . . . . . ,

III Sitn . f11! tra l Re lectanc Measur enu mt LJ. i llg . 11/(//'/111111I 1/1(/( ;1111
III Slt .~i ectral Rejlec /IIII e M (!o .\'lIn/IWI1! sin 1 An{f; I I! 1/I/I/II/I1(/ / iO I/ .

Soil Ta.nJI//JI/lY .. , .. .. , . .. .. . , .. ' . ... .. ... .... .

...
Chuructcri tics or the Sp ec trorudiumcre r sed to Obtain /11 Sit Retlccuuicc ,

/ carat Region oj Interest

Ap p end l 'lude: .

. .

. 573

-1 74
, .. 574

"

. . .. . . . . . . . . . 5 74
, . . . . . . . . . . . .: 6
. . .. .. 57
.. 5 6
. , .5 7
5

_. . . . ., .. . _

' c n s i ll ~

ln furunui un
.

",. . ,

.. 5 7 1

Spect ral Resolution . , . . . . . .. . ,. .,... .

.
.I'c ' tral Samp ling /11/ 'Tal . . . .
, . ...
' IJ[~ t ro m et e r /)e s;gn {Jilt} D mu ' 011(" !WII '/1 'eel, . . . . . . .
Vie ll'lII}: Geomeu and Fiel I o /lie w ... . .. . . . .
utdldat 'p 1!(' ( rO rI1 J i OIll L'fcrs
u urce, of Remot e

."

"7 1

579

PR ..

I:

10 uu lizc the- remotef sensed da ta In i t: full p tcruial, it

musi l c interpreted correctly, This r iquire: an lind ' r, tanding
01 110\\ cllcrg. intern 'IS \\ ith the 111m , hen: nil I terrain,
how r .motc sensin YSICll1S fun ' 11011. and how to ex trac t
us ul In
iauon I m the rem 11' n., r datu,

nm

Each cha pter in l id'

lcsigncd I make

III U:I r.ll l n th I w r . P ' "I III

rnplcx pnnc rpl s C as 10 under sl nd,

1 ,1'11 chupter c 11 1111ll~ a subsuu ui vc '....renee l ist.

od

appendix contains lnternct addresses tOI many or the

ou 'C of rcmc I ' ensing intonnm ion and
publi md privatc : ou rc of'rem ielv c nsed da ta

1\ 11

I!l O 1 imp rt 101

ch
1

10

the

R mot nstn o lilt En ironm Ill. The h)

rc ully Id i om ' ill ,,; u lind rem ote ~~I1S111l! data

ondu -

m. and

! remot en ing -.
n epts
rc , fully defined ,
ranee curv 1:. f
select d marcnal- re introd uced . Lmphasis is placed on

mininuving the effe IS of aunospheric . eaucring

mizc the remote sensi ng . Ignal l'n III the I irrain.

maxi-

'haptcr -r ." " /Iis/It'elm / I? unot enslng S: stems. lul uS! ectral remote ensing termin logy is define 1. The mnj r
types Il l' remote sensing ill trumenr nrc described lonu

rM \ 1

_lin

Igm flCllnll) updaltd Illformal inn on lhe mlN ilTlpOl"bill rnn"lc ....:mol"! system
~ IC'nSol'f ~crns are
dlK\l~.aI
.~ .

MIo:h

ali

D'~llillGloho:'~

World\'ic>o I .nd It

\SA', Lao.b.II [);lUI ConllnUII)' \It

\F'OFS"

IOO ~

n..: USGS Glob.N tm.,Il;;<U_

_cd 10 hdr 51uJo:nl$ Ioo:atc ,..nou

1)"J'l:!'

iInd

"o,~-,n

.ino .... b

Il\U'l>

of mnol.: ~

Tho-t'WkIllntnvnJ Ro:-".. Sm.u~ Th.. ch.ipla

de.o:nbn 00'" ..urf....-.e lo:mpo:nturo: m.:IpplOg IS performed
ailll thmll..l in fL'llfo:\i I'C'mol': ~n~mg The hl~l<>ry of uee-

mil mtr.am1 remote s.:nslO1! induob lOon: IOf"mlilllon on

Hn1o:II.:I', c'JIl"rimml. Tho:rm:1I IO fnm! radi..lion proper110, raJlilhon la... s, and 11fTM'l';l'tM:no: ... Indn.....re wmmariled. TlIC drumal temperature charactel'l~ll\$of vegetation,
wlL 1'00;1., ... al .. r, aoo urban rhc'l<>I1lCf\.>1 an,: mlnlduccd . The
tllara<.:ICfNks oflho.rmalmfrar~",,' .nning m slIUme ms and
f(l(\llard Iot"'in~ infnu:d CFlIR) ~son. are peescmed. 1\<:\\
am:f1Ift lhcTm.:l1 mfrared n:mOI( sensing S>SI~-mS ;JR' inuudoco:d ~h I" the ( 'anaoh,1n Tho:nnal "irt>omc: Bruadb:md
I~ I HRil and the Thcrmlll A.lIhomc S~hic
llUl,~ HASh
CIIW: ~udll:S ~ pro. tdo:d. ,ncludmg:
lIlIpping.unm to:mpn;llllre In Orq;on. mlPr"nl! loCptlC un!.
~ 10 '\C. monltoong indUllnal roof f\IOI;.. turc in Ne,
... mOfllliwmg agricultura.l planl Wl:IoS d~ oilys.

c /tupfn' \I ,~< IlI'" IIIId I'uun'f' ,U1('7mR1>'f' R...,.,.. Snl'mg,

ph,
:rial
am-

=
i

of

'J~

=1
ilm

,or
dfc

"r

"'"

..r
~

mg

: ()f

'"n

d'lloltallnT.lln ml'dcl\ Atlmt:lOn "al'\oll 8'\('1'1 10 Iho: IlSCfulDn.1. o f LID AR inh:m.lly d&til.

Sr._,n,: of 1~'Jret.t.. ,..... PhotOS)"IItbcsl3;

mtrod....-.ed. The <.-haplCf Iho:rI idmtilin Ibo:
donunant f~OB ('Ofllmlhng k3f rcikc~ in lh.: \Dlble.
no:ar.infrua1, and mlddle-mlnred 1'"11(11l' l'ftbf: ${l'XUUm,
Tho: bio.hm:llo.ul reflectance dl~flbulion funo:1ltln tUROn
O:OIk:cp1 h ,Ji",~ The ImportaQl'C' uf undc:rstandm~ Iho:
t emponl phcnologio:al C)'dc of Itt.: "'q.."CUIH" n Iypo.~ undo."I'

Cllupla' 11

<-1IupIt',. ,~

TIl-',

nolog) , F.lTlphlI~i~ bo pllC>:don 00" llDAR ....-rlIOno functioa

and on ('<lTaCtlOg u:so:fu l inforrnollion from lin:t-. inlCtlnCdiare., and ~ n:tum l.l O.AR oilll A cue stud) docum.:nb
III.: w lht) of 1l1l:\R 10 PfO\'\de dcbikd dlJ1UllCllrlao:e and

,<'"

Tk IuRory o f ..u\e m~"~c n:-m"te loO:IlSI"I ~ ~'I<:\\o:d

\kthod!. of IClldmI! and ro:<.~l... ml J'UlloC of mt('fml>~H.o
~. Ifl: ~td. A Ik'" Iabk summatun lbe c~
ISta " f the most Imponani F.lIr1h-urhning S)-ul.hdic Ap:rIlm: RIdan . Imf'Ol1anl r.tdar 1)~~"'f'II pamd~TS w.;h as
fn:qu.:I'IC)', polamallon, pullC' length, deprt'SSion angle. look
dtm:hOll, ino:id<:nl anglo:, and ."'nl,mng... and ground-r.lngc
lmao:t' l!wmctT) arc d i..... u~-.:d The nla.l0 r (n \lmnmcnta l
factors intl u.:n.:inl! a':lh c mi.: r",,,a,,,' bach.:allcr arc prelI...rn.'ll, in.:l\lding: surf;....... rm q,;hn.:" . ':"l11l'le.\ diclc..-tric
wn'lo1l1l. o1,ul th... curd inal dl"c<;t . Sccli"n~ on the res p"ns.: of
vc\tc11l11111l. surtaee "".ll.'r, .tnd urhm pheno mena hi active
mi... wwll H' ...tWl gy are . xl' ;\lIded. f\e \\ inli>Tlllllt i"n i~ pmViJlxl lllll,ul Illl: ('alladi'lll KA\)AI~SAT-l ;md -2; lhl' F un ...
!"'<'UII Spa.e Age".:)"s EKS I ,md -2, lin.! 1' 1\\ i~a l "SA K; and
"iAS ,A'~ TR MM \li.:n l\\a \'.: Imager and ShUlll... Kada r
Topograph> I\hssion I SRT~n Th.....eo:tion Oil a~1i\e micro
",1\( inlcr fcmmelry inc ludes 111."" lJuh and Tanl a llla S RTM
eu101'lcs Pa.,~i\c mlcro... a\( r.:n1l' t... scn<ing 11\ di!iCllsscd
"lib 0<:" .uta on ,",ASA', AduIICC'd ""icw"'a\e Scilnning
Radi"lTId~"I' (A~ISR-EI,

.w.u.ng. Thi~ C'OnIplo:t....ly

n.:w

.Iti-

c...,.... III 1.I1HR R"-I!

'J ~

dlaplCf Illtmd~ lhe fund.1mtr'1w princTJ'1el of remote

""

~ \hU\g

light D..1 hon and Rmgmg IlinAR) toch-

Re",.,'~

funda~la1J an:-

rrt..:~tigali.," i e m('ha$il~, Tho: section tin I"I;:mOlC l>Clbingdo:m cd ......gelalinll md, ces now illl.ludo..., lTIorethan I......nty of
lhe mfKt \\ ldel)' adopttd atgomhms There i~ new informali" n \'" IIw: nunhtlC'a r n:-bllOn.JJil' t>t:1...eee the S,mple Rat iol
ind.::\ and II..: ~onnali/ed DilTen:no: VC'1!ctallOll Inde..
Il'tOD\'I). lbc uSC' of
e I) sensed lbll for cornJ'Uung
bnd'lClpt: ec.. k.) lTI<.'lOO and for aisUnl/. m the I>""-';Smrnl 01 hrod"<.'n1I)' an: ifltrodUCf:d. A _ ' \'al>C ""ud~ dtx:umen", 00" s.oulh "mean agno:ullu~ can hot: monllorcd to
pn:dld aplcul1unl Walei' demand.

R'ITI\"

awr,.,. I:. R,,_..

s.."UI~ Q
f !lUIa' Hus dwpto:r mtrodIKes Itovo dtr~ono:tlC ~ il'llcl'1lcb wuh Iho: ..'aid'
wrf~. 1IUhwrf~_ and the bNt<WTl at. I funo:hon of IIoI\CIenglh Tho: IITIpK1 uf organic le.g., ehlororh) lll.-nd Of innt'pmc tc , ., lU!IJ'Ct1'kd ~lmcnt' ItlItmal In Ihc .....Cf

column .'" "f'C\."'tr.1l n:-Iln:lant:t: IS dlscu~f>C'd fI~hl of lho:

It1O>I imJ'tll'Unl alo:"nlttms u:w:d 10 me-........, ph)'lopla.nJ..lon
al>undano:c in ""I.,. an: 00\Il prO\l&:d " """" ......."'1100
r...'.-i.....,s ,m l'rm emrnls in Nlh)m~'1ric m al'ping u.\ing pas.
)I\C IlfIIlo:all1lCTt;l1 phnl:ography) and itcme n:molc s.:nsing
tSO,",,,R and Lll> Alt ) Rcmotc ..... n\ ing rnclhllds fur muniluring wale r ..urfn.:( Icmro:r.alUrc.l'rccil' ilallon, .-lc rl,o;"lo; <lnd
duuds, \1' aICr \J lltlr, ;IllU snllW ar c prc""nle u. [h... ma joTsa l
e llite n:molC s~ n' lIlg ,yM cms ll~~U 10 1t\~IlS 11rt' l'~C'an l:ol ut
nTl 11<"1 sn mm "ri7ed.

Ch"I', ..r I J. H,'mole .'0"",1';'1,1{ II,, {Irh.m J."",Ar",,,,.

I( o: mole
SCll_1I1g c , lrad Inn u l' urban inlonml1 illl1 IS n"... I' ln,cd in Ihe
cunlc,t
the Nal iUllal Sl'alia l 1),11:1 Infras1Tuo:l urc t f\ S lJ I"
Urban Sf'J li,d. ~pc.:tral, "0,.1 l.:mf'Ur.l1 rcsu lull.lIl cumidcratiOf1ll arc llllmdllCCd. Thc rn,"it im""Ranl lanti Ul>C and ur
I"r>d ('0\'('1' b~~lfkali...n scllcmo:~ arc no....
id.-.l. Man y
_
1'1"ll\I"It 1)-scm.o:d Im,,~."S
TeSldcnu.1 I, commcrdal.
II1duslnaJ. u OIn"f'Olt<lI l<" ' , communkallOll.\, and IIhllllCS land
lIS(' Ire pro~ ,&:d Tht: u.... of "",ft-eopy pbotut;r:llmlT>ctr) and
llDAR for nlr'lCtinj; ~mmsKJN,1 IOlonnaltoa ID

"r

"r

rro..

xvi

I'I{EFA

ur 1:1n an:' S IS prescn tcd .

LL... surf c 'mapping nd

ere 'II C new .

lion. on Imp rvi-

no, I hill ( clin lion

Acknowledgments

to r l'h oto rrarn m \1') c Re mot e ensvrncn can I -og raphe r.. ieocano Intern.1 1 e ntre. Inc. and Iay lor " Franci . Inc. urunte d
[le nt il ' 1011 lor the uurh r l( ex tract '0 iyriglucd m mcri 11
I rom article. I' ll lished in Photngr munrtrt ~ I/g/llt' ' r lllg &
R -tnutc Sell. /11 ',Ih \I.,,"w ! () RcnuueS. -nsing, Man ual (J{
'olor Aerta! l'lnungraph; ( ;"11( '01'10 lnternatiuna l, and
m e .can So

III

t)

l a \l( n 0 1

111Ierl/{/flWwl,lo /lrlltllll/P , "' 0 [ ' St'I/.\/IIg.

John I{ Jcm -n

niversuy of outh ar ilina

CO 'T Io:

ix

I' ~

Meas rernent on Single crtical erial Ph 10' ph. .. _. _.....

- .
.s 01 , 01 a I erucal Aer ial L'l totugra pl: Un'I' t Ol ' I Tcrram . . ,
'
ale oJ I I crticul Aerial Photog ruph I 'r Vclriu II' rra tn , .
l le: ht .\ 1<: surem ent fi : "II Smg l f rial Photo ' nil}" .
_..
ere S pre leas remcn t of Obj Cl rleight Ir li rnun J ,
n
..
..
f /11/11.11I1 1IIL11 I I H un ar , I tlV( 0lll

,:'111: und l lci

l " ' Ol (

-reo

I il I F. le
I'h

15

h l

II II ( I I' I
rtho h l nil P' 111 1'me' at ur

1.
I

I _

16..
1
.1

UPI' App llf! I to Aerial l'hotogr Iph,l

(,p it .I ...ri II PI" l ogmpll, - l lo f)r

rion Mode

I':'

ntal m d Vern a/ '"'JIm J (UI I I

I Ph I l f " '11"11 II ( thr Rc mo t

It-

. or

I "',

dIU . .

... 1-,
,-I. I

"mll \ I"ct I

I
, 1
'h ph' ; haiti pc rr J Rem te : 11 ing . y,1 III
I g il J uJu
I I DOl
ol lc tion
IJ; ,ilal lm I Je' Termtn Iltlf!l
RII o t

. .

J
. I
I

.I

luhi pe
I lmagrng L; sing Dis
Earth R. ourc Tc ChIlO loK I' 01 lluc (Jilt! 111,' Lan lWI ('/1 II
IOAA \/1111111' tral Scann r . L'11 '01 :' .. .. .. .
_. .. . - IWI \ IAU L and
II :':> " H '; l 1'/I1" l Id, Fi ItI tlJ f i, l\ ' / (I I' ( etl Jl7~ )
~" r ll l' .\IlIlti_1' > tral l (1/111" /-"
lulti pect al Imaging L sing LU Il:,H Arm _.
Sl' T CI/.\'OI' .1 stems .,
ln it, 1I1 R ' II/ (}( C msiug . ,1:1(1!Jll. 1
idvanced po t!lO I7I L' Thermal EIIIIS.W

. III

' ,

IQ

_1:! I ,
_20
. . ~2_
.. __ 3
. --)

m el N -flcction Rudiometcr (A. TER) . 23 \

\fulli"lIIgl ' IlIIag illg ..../ .'C'fm mdioll/ le'I" ( ,\fl. ' /{ ) , . . , . . . .. . . . ... . ... _3_
I <.'n ', I I II~h -Re.WJ IIII/()/1 L ine /I ' rray RL'/IJO! iS: nsi ng ....).. \ U' I1IS _ , , , . 2""
(ilia ' III ' "p.:<.: l rlllllcl ry .im Linear and Arcn Array . . . .,
. . . . . , .. . 13
, 1I1'1J1JI'llt' Vlsib! Infrared IlIIw:!iI/,l.! ~/)t'('/ I'OIII ('II!/ 'I .-l l'lN IS)
. 24 1
'Ollll JiJU I irborn e Sf e trog rap lt ic IlIIag L'r 151)( , . , ' . " . " _. , " . . . 024 1
Moder: N CSO{W ;'fl/l III/aging Sp tetrameter (1\1 ){ IS . . ,
, . . - 241
I/l

igilal FI'lIIl1

lIm ' ras Based on A rea Arrays . . . , , . ,. .

Sl/Iil lf-/I I/'IIItI! lJig /w / ! / 1(/ n l l c ctio n : l .ci ca /(' ().IYS(('I/I .\ 1~'lIIcrg(' S('II.WII"
Lw, ' fo n uat Digt tn] Dalrt Collvctian: /.11 1)( utal \todlllol' '(//1/('/'(1 . _ .

, ., . 14<1
, , ,

. 2<1

- - .

2 ~5

Larg e-fo rmat Dlgital Dat I Collectio n. Vexcel ]: 'ltrat; 'alii has"r/ 01 1 I -a /11'/"(/.1'.1' . 2,1'1
ha Jl! '1' H- Ther mal Infra red Remote Se nsi ng
249
HI l( ry .C'Jhernial IIII' . red Rem te CII. ing
.............. . . ~50
T herm al lnf ired Rudiutiun Properties .
. 2: 2
Kin ' I II' He II. Temp erature, Radiant 1:1/L'1 '.\ '. and /{lldillfl l 1'/ II
. _52
t ll,tlm.!. 0 Trans errins: HI'II . . . . .
. . . . Ih n al lnfrnrcd Arm pheric \ indov s, .
. _5
0

T rermal Ra Iiati n L \\
I

m- Baltzm mn La .

. . . , ... _54
_. . . . . .

. . _5 .

ribil-dcx
.s in
006.
50106 .

"",.

IDF
ailmer,

,""

"reo
o lar
.SA

t:
~,.

iGS

leal
ico-

able
<:15.

,ag-

nd

'tin.

to n
.nc.
.aI"
nan

,,"

1,'1-

,r

tair
oni
ses
ec.cr-

Remote Sensing of the Environment

cie rnisrs ob serve nature. male measurements. and me n ;llh:m pt 10 ace..., .,l or
reject hypoth eses co ncerning these phenome na. Tho:data collection may talc
place direct ly in the field ( re ferred 10 as In .W I' or m-l'f<J<'t, data .:" II...- cuom, or
at some remote dist ance from the subj ect maun [re ferred [0 as ro:m"lc .<e""
ing of lh.. em iroruno:nt).

In situ Data Co ll ectio n

One form of it! Jitu data <'01111011 involves tile loCk-nti_' going out in the fidd
and questioning the phenomena of interest . F C'. ..ample. a census cnom...ralor may go door 10 door. as king people 'lue-,llons "ho:.ml tbcrr age. "'-"'. educalio n, inco me. etc. These data an: recorded and used I" dccumem the
de mog raph ic characteristics oflhe popul:lli('lll.

0'

Co nversely, a scientist may U~ a /r,,,,,,iuar o r other i" $IlU measuremen t

d.... vice at the ~tudy site to male measurements T ransdu ce rs are usually
placed in direct phys ical co ntac t w ith the object of interest. \l an y' diflcrcnt
tyT'~"S of tran sducers are available . For exa mple. a sci....mist coul d usc a therm omci cr 10 meas ure the tempe rature ofthc air. soil. or \\ atcr: <In anemomet er
tn measure w ind speed; or a psychrom eter to ITlC3Sun' air hu midity_ Th e data
recorded hy the trdnsd uccrs may he a n a nalog e lectrical sign~11 \\ ith \o ltage
variations related to th..- uuc nsiry ofthe property being IlIC;lsured. O ften the.....
an alog s igna ls are trans formed into digit al ~ a l ue~ uSing analog-to-digital (Ato-Ol con version procedures. In ~'il/l data collection us ing transducers
relieves the scientist of m<lTwt onous data collection oncn in inclement
wea ther. Also. the scientist can dis trib ute the transducers at important pcogr"phic locanens thrll ugho ut thc study Mea. allnwing the sallie lype of mea sure mc nt to be ob taine d at man y locations at the saruc time. Somelim cs data
from the transducers are tclemc te red clcctrouically to a cC!llml cottccuon
p(J im for rapid .... valu ation and archiving re.g.. Tc illet et al.. :ZOo:n
Two examp les of in suu data co llecti on arc dcmonvtrutcd in Fi",urc \ - I. Le;lt~
a rea-inde x ( LA I) r ncasurerncn ts arc being collect ed by a sci.' mi';l al a study
site using a hand held cepl" metcr in Figure l - !u. Spectra l reflectance mea , urelllcnt, of' vcg etatio n arc b.;:ing obtained ;11 a study , il., usinga handhel d
spcctroradiom ct.... r in Figu re I-lb. LA I and , peelral rctlcctaucc measurements obtained in the field may be used to ca librate LAI und , pe ctra! rctlcctallce mea surements collected by a remnte sCllsing system located on un
aircraft o r satellite [Jensen er al., 2005,.

(}lA l' .

lit .\";11l

~:I{

Rem ot e Sen sing 01th e Envi ro n men t

'lea~urclIll'nl

detec tor

a, l.ea f-area-ind ...,

( L\I )mea.~u rcmcnl

using a ceptomctcr.

Ftgu'e 1-1

b. Specsrul rcll ..x tancc measurement

using a spectrvradil 'mc1Cf.

/I, .<1/1, I In-I'III<:'<') da!.! ;m: <.... kc(c"<i in tit.: fiel d. ,j A ....; ""II"! ;~ c"U, 1;ng lo:a('aRa-1I1dn eLAI I mca",rnn""l~ "f w> b<.-ans
(GILn,... '",n f.. ' ''''''''jlll u' '''1l iI ceprometcrthat rncasllJ"C$ fhc numh.. of~"'Jlln<..:h.. lhal f"l'iS IhmUllh til.: "'1 lC1a1 ion cllIlOpy.
Tn.. Ilk .asUrt.'mt"fl1l. are made J"" "bo"" the eat>I.'Pl' ""d on 1M Ilmuod hdol" til.: c.Il'''I'), Tltc in >1"" L\l mClll'u remetlr\ rna)
k u!oC'l! wcahhOllC LA ! estimates d...r i...."d from '''mole >C1lSOf data b ) SJX"I.'tral relkct.u,,t" mcaw . c:m."nt, from \ e..'CUlion are
""mil colk"'cd u.sing a \ f'<'.\.trorad,omc,cr locescd 3Pl"' " ,mdldy' 1 m abo, " tlK> canopy. rhe' II! xii" "f"Xlral rcll""l3.n<:e mea~u .....mcn h may ...... usc..J to calibrate the sp;:clral rdkcu,n('<' m....' un:mcnls obL.1i",,-d f'om a rcmo'lC""' '''''ll S)M~"'.

Data colkX'1ion hy ....i... nli~b in the: lic ld o r hy instru ments

placed in the lield provid e much of' tbc data for physical. hiuk-grcal. and social scie nce research. I Inw("vcr, it is import a nt
1" rememb er lhat no matter bow careful the scie nt i~l is, error
may be introduced d uring thc ill >1/1/ data-cell ecdon process
First. the sci... mist in Ihc field can be imr",il'(,. This means
that unless great cure is excrcis ...d. the: scie ntist can actually
cha nge ihc c h a r".:t<:r i s t ic~ or thl: phenomcnnn being measnrcd during th.. d ala-eolle"'lion process. For example, a sci ,'ntis l coulJ lean out "I' a boal I" obtain a surface-water
sample fr om a lake, Unfortu nall.'ly,thc utovemcut of'thc hom
uuo the urea may have suncd up the water col umn in the
vicinity "I' the water sample. resulting in an unrc prcscntativc, or h"''''d. sa mple. Sim ilarly, a scientist collecting a
sp<:c tra l rcJlI:..'rane e r<:nJi ll)C could inadvertently st ...p on the
sample sue. d bturh ing the vegetation canop y' prior to data
co ll"-';lion.
Scienri-as may also collect Jala in the fid d using biased procedures. Th is lIltwdo.:es III</JIO,I-",,>J,UW! .'rmr. II could

ill\ olve the usc nf a bia sed sampling d.:sig n or the systematic. imprope r usc o f a pi..-cc of equipme nt. Finally, the /II
situ data -cnltc..'lio ll llIea' utcmelll device may be c alibrated
incorre ctly, This can result in serious measurement error.
Inln JsiH' ill Si l ll data colle ction , couple d with human
method-produced error and measure llJclll-J.:vic.: nuscali,
bnnion. all contribute 10 ill .\ i / 1/ dala-collection error. Therefore, il i. n misnomer 1" refer 10 il/ , 1111 d.ua asgmllmi 1m/II
data. Instead. we shuu ld simply refer 10 it ns ill ,1iIJl RI\J/mJ
/'('k,rll,,<' <I"'eI, a c'know kdging Ihut it cornu i ns error.

Remote Sensing Dala Collecllon

Fortunate ly, 11 is abo l"I>ssible 10 collect informarion aboul

an ohj eel lIT geo g rap hic a rc" from a dIStant vant.,g... point
us ing ft.'moll' "''I.Img instrumems IFigure l-:!). Remote scns-

Remote Sensi ng Data Collection

Rem ot e Sl' nsi nl: :\l casur{'ment

ing <.lata collec tion was o rigin'llly per formed using cameras
mounted in s uborbital aircraft. PlwllIJ!rmm,wln' "as defi ned
in the C3r1)" editions o f Ih.: Mml/l<l' of Phowgr.m"',,'lry: as:
the art or sc ience o f no tain ing reliable measu rement
b~' mea ns of pholo~ral'hy ( Aml."riea n Society of
Phvl og r<lmmel ry. I'>IS::!; 1')(>6 ).

Orl'o ilal
platform

Ph"'''gr"phu' InI,'rpl'l'I<llmn is de fined as:

lilt: act of examimng " hOl og raphi c imag es for the

purpose o f idenll fylllg obj s'\:b and Judging their signilieanceICol\\ ell. \%O}.

Sut>orhual
pla tform

Remote ,""I.~i~ " a~ fonnall) defined ,,)' the American SocifOf I'h<'l ogram ml."ll'y and Remot e Se nsmg ,AS r RSI as:

cl~'

I~ measure ment or

Suhomllal
platform
Remote

acq uis ilion of ;nf"nllatinn o f

scene prope rty uf an obJ1 o r phenomenon. by a
recording dc\ ice thool b 001 in phys ica l or intimat c
co ntact "'ith lhe obje..... or phen o menon un der ~Iud)
(Colwell , 19l1.l1

s...n~in i!
m~lrumen l

II
altitude 3oo\<'
~rouno.l k...d

("'(i Ll

fleld-cf-view (IFOV j
,,((hI.' sen ....r system

'm-

n an

:<11;-

ere111h
lind

O bject. area. or
materials with in the
ground-projected IFOV

I
1_

1)_

diameter (If Ill...

ground- proj ected In )\'

A remOle sc'l1s mg on'lmm" nl coll''''l' ;nfomm,;on

."
)m l

" hI' lli an " hj ,,,,l or phen om enon within lhe ;nstanl.3ne"us-ficlJ...r, icw (Ir OV) of tho:
s)'''I<'m
\\ ;111.'1'\ k in!! III tll,,"'l I'h~'sic" 1 ... on lac t w ilh;1. r ile
,emo'''' ..., ",mll in, lrument " My I'<: located Just a
rl'" met<'Ba!><',,' lhe gr...,,,,. /Ind'or onboard an air-

'ns -

craft

,<"1'S""

Of

smellI!e platform,

In 1'11': 1':. AS PRS ado plcd a cumhincd defi nuion o f pholO-granunetry and re mote ecnsm g:
Ph<'l ogrnmmetl) a nd re mote o;cnsing are the art. science. an d tec hnology (If o"lam ing reliable info nnalion abou t physIcal ohjL'Cls and the environm ent.
through the pn....'s'S.s of recording, measuri ng and
interpreting imagery a mi d igital rvprc.....nla l ions o f
erh:l);) p;llle01s derived fru m nlJn-,:Ol1la.:1 sens or
systems (C'l l" .-II. l ')<H),
BIll ,,here did ib c 11." 01\ 1\''''''''' Icm mg co me fro m"! The
actual co in ing of th c term g' -c, had .. ll\ an unpllhh~ ll<'d paper
in the earl y ] 'J( ,()s by Ihe sla lr o f rh.. U fficc of Naval
Research Geography Branch (Pruitt. 1 ~7 l)~ Fuss ell d al..
19R6 ). Evely n L Pruitt \I ;l S the author uf'th c paper. S h.. was
assisted hy stall' m emb er Waller H. Ha ilo:y. Aeria l photo
interp retat ion had become very im p ortant in World War 11.
The spa.... ag.: \la" jll "t gelling unde r w ay with the 1')~ 7
lilu n~'h "f .\ rJUm iA (U.S.S. R.J. the 1<) ~ ll launc h o f /:'xplol1'" I
(U.s .). >lnd the cotlccuon Ill' photography trom th.. then
secret CORONA program initiated in 1960 (Table 1- 1), In
addit ion. the Geography Branch of O NR W:IS expandi ng its
rc search usi ng instrumen ts other than came ras tc.g .. sca nnc rs, radiometers ) and uno rcgum s Ill' Ihe ctcctromagnctic
spectrum bey-vnllthc vi_ink lind ncar-infrared r..gio ns tc.g ..
thermalm frared, microwa ve ). Thus. m Ihe tate I<,lSOs it had
bec ome upparenttharrhc prdh "photo" was be ing stretched
100 far in view o r the fact th at me rool \\ Urd. l'hOl~ruJ,hl.

- 1

cu ' PU R

Iil<'ra lly me ans "to write w ith [visible] lig ht" (C"I,, <:II.
I'N7l_ Evelyn Pnnn (1~7<)) 'HOle:

The ,",'hole field was in Ilux and it .... as d illicu l1 for

the G.:ograph)" Program to kilt," whic h way 10
rnove. II "as finally decided in 1%0 .0 tale the
problem III the i\dvisnry Comm ittee. Walter II .
Ba iley and I p"!Hk' rcd a )"nl; t imc 11I1 how to present
the situation :mll Oil what '0 ,;all tho: broad er fidd
thai IH: fdt slw uld be encompassed in a program to
rep lace lOC aerial photointcrprctan on project . T he
term phot..>gr..ph' ....as too limited because it did nol
c01 cr the: fCj1 ions in the clccttomagncnc spectrum
beyond the "visih!c' range, and rt " as III these nonvis ihle frequencies lhal the fulure Ill' intc rpretarion
se emed to lie. "tw rial" wa s ,dSll tou lilllitcd in view
o fthe p\>t" uti"l ltlr scd nl: the Earth from space.
Th e term t'l:motc .fcn<mg was promoted in a series o f ~ympo
sia sponsored hy ():\ R at the Willow Run l.ah...raiones ofthe
Univcrsuy of \l ,,-hi ~an in cullJuIlI.1io n with the f'ational
Research Couuctl rhronghour thc [%Os and early 19i1hi. and
has 1>0......'1 In usc ever since (Estes and Jcns~' n . 199 81

Maximal/M inimal De finitions

x umerous othcr definuions of remote ~nsing ha vc been

proposed. ln fact . Colwell (19~41 suggests lhat "one measu re of the newness of a science. or of tm' rajuduy wilh
whic h u is developing is to hoc fo und in the preoc..c upalioll of
its sc icnusrs with m,IlICTS oftcrm illol"gy." Sno w have propos ed a n all-e n~(\l1\p."s i J1g "'"xilllill Je/i/lllilll!:
RemOle scns ing ,s the acquIring uf J:lI:! about an
ooJ<=ct ",ilhoult\J\IChinll it
Such a definition is short. sImple . general. and memorable.
Unfortunately, it excludes linlc trom lhe province of remote
sensing I Fuss..ll el al., l\j~6 1. II ell.-o mpasses virtuall y all
rClllot.. se nsing de.... kcs. ind ud ing ca meras. 0p lieal.m ec han,
ical ~c;t[lIlcrs. linear and area a rrays . lasc rs. radar syst,-ms.
sonar. sclslI101!raphs. lIra.... imel.'I'S. magnetom.:I.' rs. and s.:inIillati...n e(.unl<'f>.
Oth,'I"S ha\c sugg.'st.:d a more r'lCused, mmml<ll Jefinilwn of
remOl,' ~cnsing lhat adds "illah 1kr 3lkr qlJ:l lilicr in an
an.:mpl I... make I:l:'nail! lltm o llly I<:g ilimmc fllnclions arc
incl,ulc<l iII l h~' I ~'rnl 's deli nilion. Fnr e~a m ph::
Rem,)tc sensi ng is lhe nOllennta.:t rIXurding of
mformaliun ITorn Ihe ullra,'inkl. \I~ible. in fra..w.

Re mote Sensing o t t he Env iron ment

and microwave regions of the elect romagnetic spevtru m to)' mean, of mstrumeuts suc h as came ras.
scanners. Ia-"<,,rs. linear arrays. and/or area am)s
loca ted on platforms such as aircraft or spacecraft.
and thc: analysis of acqeired info rmation hy means
of visual and dig ital image proc cssm gRob ert (ir cen at NA SA' s Jet I'ro pulsum Lab (JPL) _, uggc,
Ihal the 1~'rmll'''hJle measurvmeet mi ght he use d instead
....." '0'<' S<''''IJI~ beca use data ...b rained using the ne,," hyp.
sJlCctral remote sensing s~'-.tems are so accurate (Rohhil
1'N91, Each c Ftbe defimuons arc correct in an appropri.
context. [ I is usefulto hrie lly discus, comp..lnenb uf the
rcmore sc nsing dc linitions

Remote Sl' nsinj!: Ar l aud/ur

S ci(' n~' c '~

S.:i,' n e~ : A ",1.'11"" is de fined as a broad field uf hum;

kno...led ge concerned wnh fads held Il"Igclhe r by ,'""cipl
lrub). Sc ientists discover and test facts and pnnciples I
the scientific method. an on.k:rl~ s)sh~11I of solving prll
kms SCicnl,sls gcner~lI} f,..,IIh:lt any subjcct that hUI1I3I
ca n study by uSIng the scientifi c method and other sp c ci
ru lcs o f thinking may he call ed a sc ience. The scicnc_
incllid.' I ) mothcmaticx and logic, 2 f I' h\'.,- kul _" -ience.l-. sue
as physics and ehernistry, JI bioluX""11 ...-i"nn'5. suc h as bo
any and 700[O!!Y. and 4 . the social $(i<'l'''''', such as geogn
phy.xiolog). and anth"'p"I"'lIY ( Figure 1-3). lnte resun gl
""TIlI.' persons do not consider mathematics and logic 10 t
sciences. Butthc fiekls of know ledge associated with IlUlII
emetics and log ic art' ~tt~'h valuable I,,,,!.< fo r science Ihal II
cunnor ignore them. Thc human race's l'arli c~l lJ uc~lilll
were concerned with "how mallY" alld "what belouge
tcgcthc r: They slruggkJ 10 c c um. 10 .:bss ify, to thin k sy~
rcenancatly. and 10 describe exactly. In many respects. Ih
stale of dcvelcpmer u of a science is indicated hy l.hc UM:
mak~ cf mathemat ics. A science seems 10 begm wuh sirr
pic mathematics to mca -arre. then ....orks toward rnore corr
plcx mathematic s 10 explain.

R"I1\OI,' Wl1s ing is a luo lllr kchniq lle simil ar 10 mmh"m al

in . Using sophisticaled Sl"Usurs to measure lhc amn unt 0
cl.-.:u...m agnelic en.:rgy ex iling an OOJC':I or geographic are
fro m a distance and then c'ltrnctmg \aluable inf" rm:lliOi
fn>m lh.. dala using mathematically and statist ica lly basa
algori lhms is a .fc i ,,"'iji<" act i\ily n: usscl l Cl al.. 1<)86)
R~'molC" s..nsing funclions 111 han nony "" ilh othcr S,....,graph i,
in li'rma lioll scie nces (oflc ll rdcrTcd 10 as (;ISdm<",,)
in d ~llli llg cartography. sur-'ey ing. and geog raphic ;nf(lffiW
lilln sys lems (filS) (C urT;m. 19Si ; C larkc. 2UU]; JellSen
20051_ Oahlhocrg and Jcn....n 119X6 ) and Fisher <lnd Linden
t,,:rg t I '1.~91 \ ugge;,lt.>d a mCKk! \\ he~ lhere is inl.:ractior

Remote Sens ing Data Co ll ec ti o n

.',.

I.
:l.1~ l hcmo.li<:.

a oo l ..gic
~'SI S

ad of
yper-bins,

m ate

these
SUit I

SIl.~2

T,~ - -.
FIQU<e , """

.rman
jple.f
es b~'

prob-

m ans
xx ial

cnccs

i"qJre 1-3

InlC'faclloo m<><lel dcpiClIng the rdalionsh,J' of tho:

~~ aphie ," formalloo sci<:nc~ (n:mol.. ....nsing.
~CO!T4pllle

,nrormanoo systmu., nrtosraphy; and

$lIl'H)mg) a~ lho:y fdal" 10 nlil,h"" IOl' ics and logic

.td me, phY"'uol. btol0tllClll...oo sociat sciences.

such
s botc s re -

ileto> em remlllo:' '''I1,i llg. canography. surveying. and G IS.

ingly.

"Acre 110 subdisc ipline domina tes and a ll are recognized as

bal' ing uni'lue yet o\crlapping areas uf k now kdg.: and intelk\.tIal activity Ihey are used in physical. biological. and
socal science research ( Figure 1-3).

,,""

113 1h

at we
'lions
mged

( svs-

s. the
use it
s imcom -

emarmt o f
: area
ration
based
91(6).

aphic
?nCl:) .

erm a-nscn.
ndcnIC1l0 n

Tho: o.k."Velopmo.....\il1

~1:Cl>

( Woll~. 1975~ Jensen

a,

The I!IC0f) of scw ucc , ugg~""h that scientific disc ip lin\"i go

Ihrough f\JUT clas sic ..Jeveloprucma l , lage ,. Wo lt,,'r ( 197 51
)U[:l;~Med lhal the growth o f a ~ci ent i r'lc ..jiscipli nc. such as
fl:m,,'le sensing, that has its own tcch ni'lucs. methodologies .
end intellectua l uricntmion seems to follo w the sigmo id or
logistk (' IlT\C illustrated in Figu re 14. The growt h sta ges o f
~: i~nll lk field arc: Singe I - a prchminnry growth periO(j
"itn smallmcrcmcms of lit"'raHl re; Sial'" 2 - a pcriod of
exponcnua l growth when the numbe r of publications doubles u regular imcrvals: Stag... 3 - a p... nod wh... n the rate o f
growth begins 10 dccline hut annua l incre ments remai n eo nstsnt;and Stage -l - a final per iod when the rate o f grow th
IlJI'i1wacncs zero. Thc characteristic s o f a scholarly fie ld durm~ each of the ' Iag... ~ nmy he hric t1y described as fo llow s:
Swge I - lillie or no socia l orguni/at ion; Stage 2 - g rou p~
cfcollaborators and ... xisicnce of invisible colte g.:s. ette n in
the iixm of ad hoc ins murcs, r..-scarch units. etc.. Stage 3 IrL'ml$ing specialization a nd increasing comrov crsy: and
"tJge ~ ~ dl,:d lllC in membership in hoth eo lJahoralors and
m,'~i~k colleges.

of a ..:i~....ltlk d,;c;phne

'*"" Dahlbeq:,

1~8JI

L:sing Ihis logic. it may he suggested lhal remote sensi ng is

in Stage- 2 of a scientific field. c 'JlC'riem;inj? exponenti al
gro\l,th vince Ihe mid I'H>Os wilh the number of pulllical ion~
doubling. at regular inlcl"'oa l~ Kolwell. 19.... 3; C rac kne ll and
Hayes. 199 3; Jensen. 200 5 ). Emprricalevidenc e is pr.......,nlL-d
in Tallie 11. inc-Iudi ng: I) the Ilrl!a nil ation of man)" specialized institutes and c...-nlers of excellence associated with
remote ""nSlng. 2) the orgamzanon o f nume rous professio nal l'(.cielics devo ted to remote !i<'nsing research. 3 ) 11Kpublication uf n uUl"'wn~ new ....ho larl) remote ,..:nsing journals. 4 \ sig nificant technological advanceme nt such as
improv ed sensor syst ems and methods of image analysis,
and 5) inten se self..c xurmnarion (e.g . Dehq anza da and
Fiorini, :!lH1()) , We may toe ap proaching Siage 3 ,\ uh mcrcas illg specialization aud t h~'<>ret ic,,1 coutro vcrsy, However. lhe
rate o f growth o f remote s~'nsiltg hol' nul begunto declin.:. III
fact. there ha~ been a tremendous surge in Ihe number s o f
persons speciali/ing in remote sensing and commercial
firm s using remote sensing duri ng Ihe 19<)Os an d early :!OOOs
( Davis, 1\)'1<); i\S I'RS, :!(HI-l ), Sillilitic ant improve ments in
the spatial resolution o fsa lcllite remote scnsinll (c.g.. more
usefu l 1 x I III pilllChr<11l1a lic d,lta) has broug ht eve n more
soc ial science GIS p ractit ion.., r; illl", the 10141. Hundreds of
ne w peer..reviewed rennue ~ens i ng rese arch art ides arc publishcd cvery nwn lh.
Ar t; Th e proc ess o f vivual photo or ima ge intc rprctaunn
brings 10 bear nOI only sc i<' nlilio: I n(m ledge. hUI all of the
backgro und that a JlCn<on has obtained through h i, or he r
life time. Such learning ca nnot he measured, prog rammed. o r
com ple tely understood. Thc syn erghm 01" combining scientific knowledge With real-w orld an:II)'SI expe rien ce allo ws
tIK- interp reter 10 dew lnp lM.'uristic rule~ o f Ihumh to extract

':i.lo.

--,

Table H .

.\1aj"f mi k"'l""~'" in rem ote sensing.

' .... . .d 17\'lh

INl~.~" I. . . , ..._ ' ,

,-

"".....,...........-1><.. "'.....,,__

'>f'h<&'< N_", 1M.. fo",

19 " ..
0-'<

..

I U 9. ~ \I '''''''''''''" ""_. _
"" 1"'_
..,...............,
I ~ W. ""n-Iw., F", , _
.. '_C~I"r", _ " . _~,<"'OO<>O
I _~S . 1 - . ( I<r\, " .... ~I
"'<
-.

I' SI< ' ( ~ I < I " f _ _ .. ~

1_ J_
l 'la\ " .. ....-lI_ _
)""'1 ~
1111 . , I

,...""
\bpI ..

- ~

"IfI &.. ........

....".....,.
poN.- .. or\

"qof_~"'~

y ..... _ _ f

,..

,J"""

,<Okl._

__ '" '
~

...,~

""'~

.....

. - ""'*"'~_

~ '"

,or..
1~

' 4 ' <) 1 _

) foor ""'

0, ( 1", ,1 _ .. ,'''''''''

\ '. . -

'",_<

... I\l.IO.h.:ra. . . . '_,....

' 91 ~

10"' . L-.... .I I--""' ~A~AI

'_ '1ouI><t><4 -

1" -" _

_Onl

,-

{~/_ (.""!l._

- .Ut:. R<_ - . . Sto.... ~ , __

1_

~I

sm-.

I_ ' l _~ -...,.<Jatod l.li'"

IU S" T. bo:

A_,
1.,..,.'[ r.._ _

a. ~s...-.

I_~~-.I~",h.- _-"' IM_

- r ........ Spk;c

l ...I. "

'

__

r~t-ln~

k<.' _16)

,:\lI,

Ill"' . _...,.-,

19) '

.... , . " ,

_ \r".,,1J lOot II pt.

,-

c.J

I....... IlAll-\,Jt
l-"WO..... .." .."

I ....:. K,.w.

t.-h

~f'

1_"

,.Ied to,' l ;""' ~

r. lolw-<o>l..... _
f,.
n V! ""." by \\<mhcf ,,,,,11,. .. ,0..')1

~" ''''d

I~l 1<.""" .

,.......

w.,...".. I'<WfI

i""".,_,/<
. . .,

19 <1 . l 'Io""" ..
I~ '"', ..

_..J>0Il<C>

"il ..

"""1 by ...,1'''1)
..

kt'roO"d IP""'~

So"''''''', l '.I<.. l

."t>._ ....... .y".m

',",,0""""'''''''' ~

1",,_<1<>.1,,,,, ........,. ..!

19S5., I"l~ li S ( ....,.,,,. ~. II,,'" "",,,,n'"~I'''I"~m
I"S" '" 1""" l'...,,,1
A~"", 11-1 "", .. I

If,"",..,n,;<

1"'7 ........ ,.. Un,.", ...."'.......'V'. 'nol

1,'" fU<, ~I
' '' ' 0 . I
S'."" I.o"",t>! F,pI,_ I '<lIi'. (1m J I I

',,,,1

I ...

'''''l!''
I""" . f I,,,IN",","'''''"'' .\',,,,,,,",,,,,,, "'" II..",,,,, !ie"'m~ ,off","",,,",..,.. A,"
M h ,', MI
I""" , . 1'Il'~ IJ< I. h""" . y r,,, A ~'i<l'~ ",, 1 Il,'", ,,,, s<n"n~. ( 1 _ ~ Il ') ""',,<
1%' I. ",~h .." r ' "" ' '' I, "" """,,1
pr"'''''<I n~
I'''''', '1 "I1I ~"" W,IIo""Il,,,, 1,, 1'' ''''hlfY ...,.... ..."I,<J " ,,, HI\1

1""0. - 1,,,,,,,,'1' 1t"n", l, S<n';"f 1.0" " !J,t' IIa ky IRob<tt , '01.. <111
19"", . I'll - u-m
pho" ,w .m .,.'ti< ode,,,,,,,,, "" r,,,,,,i'" .." okn"
IW.", - [)i~;,.1 '''''~ """''''''' .~ ; " ''' '<~ .' I.AR ~ , l1" kd. v. 1<. ," ", ." LIlI' 1
I""", . 1I\o." ti","", p f ,...... , nJ ,1""".1 ,,,f,,...,j >C'fI"'" ' 1"''''''
1%" - 1')72 Vn' LoJ S,.,.. t OI :0 1-; " 'p, ....1"1< I"''l!'''.
1""0 .11 "'" ,,/ /'I.""~"'I''''~'''''' 1" " 1'1
l%l' I
"',",~~ ""'''''l1 '"'''-'''''d !- b<tyn l'n,," _ ""'" V s . Ott"" 0'

'0""'"

"'

I~"",,,,'h~1

,aI'.

1% 1 y,., (..
1o,....... 1lt~ h " ", ,,, ~ , 11,,,-1 ,,, "I""""
1%1 I ~ b.l M rn;~ _,, _ _
1""1 . l ...... \l",,1e l'"".. l,;11''''''o ,,'''''' ............h'''.' " ~, ll>< ""Ho<
1'Ina SIl 1[ ~"''-"'...-d .. rr.... dnII l.yr><IolI ~""'" !""'O' Ion<fi""

f'I "' "''''

I""S ,,, 1'1(>10 O"n,...['<"

I""S /SI'/IS ./<o.....d '" /'!>i.W_ _" " 11-* ....... ,"ll
JIlt....
.'kot"w~ ~I h _ . , . , I 1.""'><1)

' <'Of<''''

......... _

..... ,

(("s.. ) ..-..I " ....

w-;..... _ _ .~... I (""" ~S I'o "' '''')'1

__
1"'1. "A
sron-~
(Sr1io- 11
1.... 1 Sf-< """"k 1_ -11 M...... 'SIIl
'.\ 1
I ~ ....... ~ . nc....... ' ' - ' atod "'SS ........ (' .' S.. l
~_~

.l'o<J""' . ~ . _

,1.,_

l...l11,_.,._ s.-..... .:nor u .

1_ "

19j..1 . ,\ _
!>Do; "", 01 ". .......... , ("S1 ,r....d<.l
19)1 . pr",""f<I'" " I< t _ c'''''I

19"" .

10S . tIl I ... 1_ (....-~. . 21

10"S. _ " ' - _ . " ' - IA'>PI
10"' - \ l fITflS.U.I l_thl"_Spa~)

1_

"...

I .~"
I"~ '

-...0<

_ " '.......... """""',..-.

,f_

..._ _

"*

1\l~Z

"""'..... "' "I'C"WlI< ,. "'...................., ...........

1_ 1<.1',"""_"",, "" . ... ,."."._co,

191.1. roru , _
t - - . ...-r;
19 14 "" " 11 _W'ol'..

1 9~

1971... "'

10"'. . - 1l_""'_~.....
1.......... .,.....
1011 fRTS _l
M-...", I,,' ~ .....11 \ Iaa:b<dl" "S.\)
!> 10'" SljWo I'f"Wh'" ("ASA I
101) . (_~"'k.-- j;,,,,,,,,,I( _
.. liS "' ''' ~ 1

1"1. n MOS' -...." ..... Ant Il M _

10-1 . sr .\....T
("AH ~ """""_

Ho......... ,1l 171

, ....J _",. . . \I... ,....

Rem ote Sensing 01 the En vi ro nment

Table 11. c"nrill u,'d

101110; .1..,

l ll,:~ .......,..,

---

L.-.-

I ~ . :'\pon

l . _

'.....

(>,l;I'l

.. M'I"I'f1 r-h<..I,'1\"-\,

..... I--.Ilkb- ,SI IlI<Ir-t.d ,NA"-\'

1_ SI'I.l! I _ _ ,S"-'l 1-"", 10<: I

I''''" . ,-_"..,,-0>1 .....11 ,I"""""", 1 ...--.... (-...... 1
I<W;I.

,r_...

n,.l""" <Oo-.- '''''M ~ s.-.

llol ,..1 ~ .n ...,,,,,

f h(l:hl (<lM<r1

""""""-'1' .'-. "r'F

1 _ - l!ft<. tr" 1) <It"", I'"'

'n ,
I
1.>J1n """"";,,. '"'" ,,-.., II,Ill,' 1l1

101>1<

""""",0(..

...... _"""""',.. '''''''I< .......

I
~"s
" S"'nlW ~'" (' ........ 1
19'1fi<.I""..-d _,~'bYJ"<f'lPld<->lanol l.n)AIl _ .....
1 ) SPIlT 1 _
h<..I'Sp.1I lmap, 1"".1
1
1

r,-,

,." ,.,.,j

1 - ' M"..... '"

I anh1 "'.\~A)
1 f.IlS I 1",""bN lb .,...... Sr> A~."'~l

I ""~ . IJ,~ t.",.I _ ~ .v",m~ IV..-...{,., ""'........ 1;",'

1.... 1 - la......., .<1<.... "'" II<h.... ,....., (H 1 ~ A r, I",,)

" n' l - ~ I ' rr J 1,"*"hoJ , SI ~ ' 7 h~, I"<l

~!ll"n. ' ''''~ I n~ K<klO( (SIR_t '~I '1A SA,
IW'; 1l_ \ll.\Ks.\ r I l.w"Io<J 'l" "~ .. . 1
1'lO' I llS-, 1."""l><.I ll'"""""''' 'ro<o A~,,'1"Y)
I....~ . IllS-Ir r..",..h.d (l l n,) Il,kI.." Il<n, .. ....."' 8 r",gt>I1I 1
1 'J'l~ . U ' Il' INA '" .. ~<ry oJ!u.iril.
1A"'h" "
I'''''' lt~,,""' "I/'.""'l:'"ph" /"",,.,..'I,,",,n. , . ,1 1:'1 lASI'KS,
1''''-' ~''' 'yhml do .... n," " h.". ,,,hll (1 , ..,h W,,,~ . I"" ,)
1'J'l~ \[ ,,,,,,,, L.. r l."... Fol,I, '""''' ''' '' I ...,h S",.." ,. b ,"'prll< l ' AS.-',
1'lO! II,m",,} " I R,.""" ,' s,"""" . R,,,i,,, (ASPIlS,

1"'3. Sr-'

".",[.,,1 ., ".'i, ....

I" ," . Sf'< >1'~ I...".-h<d lS I" >1 1",.,<. Ir", ,)

1'1'1< 1I..,m "'I ,~ II""",,,, ~C~""~ t:,;,."" ,<,,,,,.,( ,,-,. I 'II ~ ,

I 'NO . b Old.., ? U M ' 1" In, hlSl ' NASA.- AI"" lSI
I""" IKI"" " ",.... "," " 'h,,,,, ' ""' Ll~f"I<c 1""'1". " 11>< _, "I" !7 i
241
1- I'" '''iOS ~ I, "", I" J L' ,....... In~,"~, I"".,

""p'

1'1'1'1 r... ", E..,b ,.h"", ,n~ 'j',""m I. " ",,,,,! ( "ASA I

1_ . 1..,.",..,,, r..... hod 11....1 I!n,W' S" 1r0""" "'II, 1I

lOO",_ :, ..

"0<11
100~
1<Jo.U
;'1"1

""""I ("'

\l,U....., """".."
,~,
. QI<~. n,,~ 1" h<..I (I I1~".l<i~...... I )
. A_ F. ~I, ,~"'" "' F '1" .... '"'--ba/ "" ~ "'I
. E",VIM I louno-h<d(l._
"'~"""') '
. ( oty,>.1 -.",1<d ,.... lI" ... - .
I ,,"~ hm . inIro.l.a.od

:lU' ""

;'1.11 0 11>\'"", . ,

1>"",,_ InN IttM \(,1.

1"" . 1

cr....- (;I,,";""~ <l , ......... !o'-"''''l< ("-"1_...... PuN,"'J3, I... I

"0014 - -...tojl""-"'w_.,,_',I! I ~ I .. SPIlS)

:, .,~ - ~ "-'" _
Ill...... ik>l'c '"'" 1 _ n.t do1a
:'1J/Io, . C'lO n l'1 "" ; f ~ _
atod'~"""' .'C0c0f1"

b....,...,

Remote sens ing Data Co llectio n

,alll3blc informauon fro m the lmag<:ry. It IS a Iect .hal some

(0 other illl.a~" a n31Y'>ls because
~: II undcrsland the scientific principles better. 21 are
IlIOn' .ndcl) traveled and have seen man) landscape objects.
llld ~e<.lgI'3rhic areas, and/or
.he)' can syn thesize scicntllie principles and real-world kno",lcd1!c 10 reach log ical
and correct concl usions. Th us. remote sensing Im age ;nlt.-rpret.:uion is both an an a nd II science.

image analysts an" S Upo.-riUf

J,

Informati" n ,\ h,m l a n Object or Ar ca

,1

,,1

,jI

Sensors can " " lain w ry specific in formauon about an obj ec t

rc.g.. the diameter of an oak tree cro wn I or the ge og raphic
~'lcnl of a phenomenon ( e.g . tho: P,-,I Y ~{llllll boundary IIf an
entire <lOl l-.. forest ). T he electromagnetic energy emitte d of
reflected fro m an object or ge og raph ic area is used us a surmg31.... fo r t he ac tual propcrt y under invcsngution. Thc elcc tromagncuc en ergy m ea sur emen ts must he turned into
IIlfc,m latiuLl using visu al and..'or di gital image proce ss ing

n:mol.. SI.'Il<i nll of liM: terrestri al Ea rth. usi ng !'en"o rs t hai are
pla.:cd OIl whomllal alr-bn'a thing aircraft or ertsrta l satellite
platforms placed in the ..-aCUUOlof space.
Rc mole se ns ing:and d ig ilal image proc es sing techniques can
also be used to analyze inner space. Fur example. an ele ctron
microscope can I>e used to obta in photographs of ext remely
small OhJ,'<:h on the skin. in the eye, ell'. An x-ray inst rument
is a rC llIotc !>Cn"i ng syst em whe re the skin a nd muscle are
like the atmosphere thai mllsl be po:nd ratcd . and the interi or
bone or ot her mail er is the ubje..:1 u f intere"l.

Remota Sensing Advantag es and Limitations

Remote sensing lias several un ique advantages
some lim ita tiun".

i , well as

techniques.
Thl'lo~ t ru01 (>nl

(S \'o!'.u)

Rnoote sensing is performed usm g a n in!'tl\l rtll'nt. often

rejencd to as a sensor: The maj orily o f
sensing
ilNlUments record E\ 1R Ih;t tlra \C l~ alii \e1u"' Ity of 3)( 10"
m ~ I from lhe source. d jrectly throul,:h the vacu um of specc
or indireclly by rel1ectiOfl or reradiation 10 the M.'I1S01', The
t\l ll. repecscnts a very efficient high-~p<."'''Ii communications
hnl b<1,,~"("n the sensor a nd the remote phcooOlenon, In fa..:1.
\lot: know ofnuthing that travels faster tha n the speed of ligh t.
ChangO'!> in the amount a nd properties of the EM R become,
uP<Jn detection hy the sensor. a valua bk- sou re.. o f data for
Il1I<.'l'J'I'CtlOg im port a nt propert ies o f Ihe phc nomenon te.g .
temperatu re. co lor). O rner types o f forc ... field s may be use d
in place o f "M R. "ueh as acou stic; (son nn wave s tc.g.. Dartnell and Ga rdncr. 2004 j . Ho we ver, the majority of re mote ly
>l: il><'1.! data collected fur Earth resou rce apphcat lons is the
result ot'sens ors that record clcctrornagncuc enc rgy.

rctl11"'"

Ren1l>le >ensing oc cu rs 'II a distance fro lll 111\,' uhject or area

of intercs t. Im erest ingl y. Iher,,- is no clear di,l ln<;tion ahoul
h\l" great this distance sh<luld be. Th.. illl..rven ing d istance
clIIlld I>e I ~m. I m. 100 m. or murc than I rnilliull m from
the ohJCC1 o r ~ rea of inleres t. Much of il.~lrullnmy is based UII
I\'mIJle l\CJl<ing. In fill-'1. mllny of t he mO!-t innoval i\ e r,,- Olote
~ 1Og: ~y~h:ms and visual and digi la l Image proc~sing
IIIetbods were vriginally de vc lopcd for remotc sensi ng e >.tr1l1e!'T~ri.a1 lan,heap<.'S sU\'h as thc muon. Man;. 10. Salum.
lbpiler. ctc. This le\ l. howc , cr. is cooccm.."Ii pri marily' wilh

Remote sens ing i, ",,,,f>lm,.il't' if t he se nso r ls passavcly

rec..lrJ ll1g t~ eleclm ma l?lletic encrgy reflec ted from or e mit1,"Ii by Ihe p henom eno n of interest. Thi s is a vel)' important
considcrauon, aspt'.,.,il'(' n:mote "..n"inJo! docs no t di ,l urb the
obj ect or area of interest.
Remot e sc n<ing devices an: programmed 10 00111 data ~ls
tem alically, such a~ with in a single q x ',l in. frame of 'crtical
aeria l photography Of a matrix (ra,lcr) o f l and'lat 5 Thematic Mapper data. This systemanc d.Jla co ll<.:t ion ca n
remo\<, the sam pling bias introd uc....."Ii in so me /fI si," invesugations te.g.. Kara,ka C1 al., 2()O..l ).
Remute so:nsirtg K i...nce Is a l",-, dift,=rc nt fro m cartography or
G IS beca use these sciences rely on da la ota am ed hy oth ers.
Rem ote sensing scie nce can pro vide fc ndamemal. new sc icmilie informannn. U nder cont ro lled cond itions. remer..
sensing ca n prov ide fun da rncnt nl biop hysic a l inform ation.
includi ng IS loc at ion ; e lev at ion or depth : bioma ss: tern per atu re; " lid moisture con tcm.fn this sense, re l1\ote sCl1~ing
~c ienCl' i, Illueh like ~ u rv cy ing. prtw idin J!, lil1u lamc ntal
in formali'lIl that othcr sc k nn 's can usc whl'n C(lndud ing 51,,' i
em ilie invest igations. Ho wever. unli kc muc h o f su", ey ing.
Ihe renmlcly sensed data can Po: obtainc.l sy'tc matica lly' UHr
\'CI)' larg. gcographic ar eas ra ther than J ust si ngle. poinl
observa tions. In 1:1C1 , r,,-Olote se nsing -deri vcd infonnation is
no" critical to Ihe su ccess fu l mode h ng of numc rous nalural
(".g.. "aler,supp ly c>lima tion ; cUlro phicalion sludin;; IlOn
poi nt W1JK C po llulion) arid cultural Ic.g.. la ud-usc con \ersion al the uman fring e; 1ll31...r-dcmand estimaliun;
po pulalion C'S lim,1IionJ I"roce!;SCS ( Walsh et a l., 1Q99; Stow t:I
al . lt.ltl3~ :"cmani ct al., 1003: Karasl.1 el a1.. 101141. A good

example is the d igital ck\i1linn model that is so important in

""lOy <.palially-di>lnhutcd GIS motk ls , e l,,",e. ~OOII_ [>;gIla l Ck' 3Ii"n mode ls a rc- now produced main ly /Tom stereoscofliC lI11 ager) . lighl detec tion an d I1In ging ( L1 [)A R~ (e.g .
'-h um:. 200 I: Ii udg;.o n ,'( nl., 2()(l.'h: ] 005l, rad io dCI' -c'liun
a nd mngin g ( RA DAI{ ) measurement s. " I' interferometric
sy nth et ic aperture radar I IFSA Rj imagery.

Remo te sensing "den,'," has limitations . PcrhaP'> the grc-alc'l

limitation is that it is often ovcrsokl. Nt-"",J" ...." s;lJg
11
p" ",ln'<J lhat will provide all the infonuanon ncc t.lcd 1" conduct physical, " i" logic-a l, or suci al 'CiCIKC research. It si m"I)' pro,idl'S some spaual. spec tral. and te mp ora l
infoflll31iOll or \'3 Iu.: in a manner l llal we h<>pc is cfficlem
and economical.

i.,' ''"'

Human heinllS ",'11.'<:1 the nw st

appn>[l ri~ te

remote

a e mc te Sensing of lhe Env ironment

War. the ""ar in Bosma. and the war o n terroris m. \I any c

the accom plishments arc su m ma rized in Table I-I and i
('haplcr J l HistQl')" of Ae rial Photogra phy and Ae na ! Plat
forms }, Basically . mil itary co ntracts to commercia l curnpa
nies resulted in the M vc lopment of so phis ticate d elec tro
optical mulus pcctra! f<'mot", s...nsing ~y,t em s and thc rm;l
in frared and micro\v3\ e t ra da r r sensor systems w hnsc char
acrensncs are summarized in Chapters 7. 1I. a nd 9. respcc
uvely. Wh ile the majority of the remote scnsing system
may haw been in itially de vel oped for m ilita ry rec...m nais
sance applic a tions, the "y~lems an: also heavily used fo
m nnilo ring the Earth's natura l resources.
The re mote S<:llsi ng u~ tacollecti "n an d an alysis proccd ure~
uvcd for 1:1Inh resource apphca uons arc often implemenk"in a s)">temalic fa.J1ion that c-an he termed the Wm,,'( Jewiin"
I'n><"~5. The procedures. in the remote w lI,i ng proce ss an
summa rized here and 1!1 Fig ure 1-5:

~cthi l l g

~yst e !l11\l

c"l k ellb ... d"t ~ . sl'kld ly th... various res n hu i(>os of

the n..mote scnSllr datd. ca librat", (he sensor, select th... platform that will ,arry the sensor. dcrcrm inc ...OC'Tl t he data w ill
be collected, and ..pecify ho.l\\ the data arc processed Il uma n
me thod- produced error mOl)' he introduced a. th... remote
sensing in-arum c m and rmssion pa rameters are specified.

Powerful actin" r...mol e sensor sys tems that emittheir ,m n

ekctr')rn"gn.... ic r.t..h ation (c. g.. UDAR. RADAR . SO~r\ R )
can be intrusiv ... and atlect the phcnomen,m h<- ing invesl;.
l!all:'ll. Additional research is required to dt.tcrmin... h.......
imrusivc these active sensor; can he.
Remere se n"ing instrunu-ms ma> become uncalibmt cd,
resultin g in uucalibratcd remote sensor data . Finall y, re mote
se n....r data may be expe nsiv e to collect an d analyze. I in pe lili ly. Ihe info rmation ex tracted from Ihe renlnle SCnSl.lf data
jusnfies 1h<' e ' p.'Tl!ie. lntercsllng ly. the Jo!l'\"',l lot expense in a
typical remote o;,("nsing 1l1\'C.ti!U'llun is fCll" ,," elltrllincd
image ana lys t. nnt re m"I'" scnsur da ta.

The Remote Sens ing Process

I lie hY P"lhe~i s I" he test...d i~ dc!ined using a specific type

u f logic le.g .. inductive. dedu ctive ) and an ap pr. 'priale
plUC.:ssing IIMKI..11 e.g .. dcrcrmmrstic. st(!<:haslic I.

In situ and collatera l da ta 1lt.- .;r5S3r) to calibrate Ihe remote

sensor da ta and/ or Judg e its geometric. radiomc tnc, and
themat;, charactcrivtics arc ':lllle.: tcd.
Re mo te sensor data are co llec ted pas si\ ely o r ac tively
usin g .11131,'1: ord igilal r..-mote sc ns ing insnumenrs. Ideally
attbe samc limt.,as the In "III data.
111 .rifU a nd remutel) scnS<'d data a rc proc essed " s iug a l
a na log un a),:.. proc..." ing. b} di gital imag e proccsving, c )
modcling , ami d j u-dimcnsionnl visuaIizauon.

:l.lctadala. processing lineage and lhe a, cu racy of the

informat i(>f\ arc provsded and the rescus commun ica ted
us ing image'S. graplt.s. sl<lt istical l<l blcs . GIS dal ah.ascs .
SpIllial lkt:is;un Support Systems (SDSSf, ell.".
It is u"efultu rev ic\\' the characte ristics u rt hcsl' rCl11vle sensing prO<.'<..",~ pfl>ccdu f<'~.

Statement of the Problem

SckntislS have been devel...ping pn."..-dur",s fur oolku;ng
an d pnnlp ing r<:l11 otel y sells"d dal<l fur more tha n 150 ) can>.
Th " lir s! phnt"J,:f~ ph frum an a~'fial platfonn (p (l' thcred 1>,1 1.
100 11 1....3Su l>la ined in I ~ Sl\ I>y the Frenchma n ( iaspard Fl'Ii.\
T..urnad lOll (\lho cnlled Illmsc lfN" dar j. Sil,tllltkant str iut:S
in aerial phow gr::tphy and OIher fem"l': sensin!:! daLl colk-.:lion h1(lk place duri ng Wor ld \\-'ar I aoo II, the Kun:an ConIlid , the C uhan \{ i s~ i lc Cnsis, the Vietnam Waf. Ihe Gulf

Sum et imes tbe genero l puhli c and e vcn dl ild rell I",uk at
:lerial phulugf:lphy or nt he r re mu te sensur Ja t;\ and ..,t rad
uscful in l',rm alion. r hey t~ p i c"U) t!o t his wi lhuul a I"rmal
hypothes is III mint!. \Iore o llC'll than nu t. howe\cr, Ihc~
intLrpret til<: imag,-ry iIM.mr~ tly 1:>..'C.1USC they do Il()I undo.".
sta nd the nature of the remo te "",."sing sys tem II",-d 10 eollcl1

The Remote Sens ing Process

The Remot e Se nsing Pr ocess

-.

!<olal", ,,,,,,n l o f

()lIla

the Problem

(' ,, 11,'('1100

DlII la -lot-l nform ation ('0 0'(.....00

1'1'1:'. .. 01:0.1;00

- '\na l"~ I\ h ua l) Image P/"fKh~i n ll

' In S itu 'h-.'",",,"''' Oh
hel d h:.~ ...u:; fr om GI>S.
lJ~ll1!t tho: t:I"m"msoJ
biomass. reflectance}
Im'IK" Int,'rpf'l'tafUm
-.ell'C"1 '\ I,pru p ria le l, og;c
(...IIt'uralu"Y Ic.g.. n;lkcl.clllce.
- tnducuve and or
o ll igitMl hnMge l'n"'e ~, itl e
lea f area index )
- [kducti, c
Prcpr occ"ino:
Tccbnol"gical
- Radrom..rnc Correction
( '" th,tc r lll lllll a
- Diguu l elevation models
(I'"I11C IO.. (' ''rrcdi''n
St'h,.'1,\ pJ1rlIll ria k I\l "'...1
- Euhunccmcru
S"ilmaps
- rklcnnlr\ls!tc
. 1' h"t"J!.r:ml111Clri<.' allaly,i~
- Sllrtk i,d gc"lllg y mllpS
Empirical
Parumc uic. such as
- l'vpubliLlII dCllSily. ciC.
KJlowkd~chasld
- M;L\ lmllln1ik.:lih,'Od
l" f'oI:<'SS.h'I".,.-d
Remot e Sen, illl:
i\"np"r"l1ldri..:. su..:h a.s
Stocha..'11C
- Ani lk i,,1 neural n...lwork,
- 1''' ''' I' 'c aoalng
~ ..nmetric, ,"ch as
Frame camera
- Expert ")'lems
- \ 'ilkogral'h y
h '(ll1uble II, p"' he, i,
appro priate I

nr

.,

- h am.: Call1Cf1I
- S<:anlK'r!
\ 1ull l"'fl'....lral
- Il YT'er;rectr'l1
L in.;aJ' :lIlJ atl.":l .tIT;lys
\tulli~l

IIH'':'I>(lel:lra l
. .... cuvc

- \li,-ro" a\ i: IRAD,-\R l

Figure 1-5

Ihc dna or appreciate the vertical or oblique perspective of

'icienti\l\ whu usc remote sensing. o n the ether hand, ,HI.'

ucully trained in the sci('//t~lic n/(,thod--n way of think ing
about problems and solving them. They U~ a form al plan

lllal has at lea st five clements: 1) !>la ti n g the problem. 1)

rormmg the research hYJ'M1thcsis u.e.. a ptlssibk ex plnna1lolI ~ 3l observing and cxpcnmcming. 4) imerprcne g da ta.
.and 5) dra..... ing conclusions . It is no t nec essary 10 folio w thi s
I plan exact ly,

The sciennfic me-thod is normally use d in conjunct ion with

ell,

ten meue t models that are ba sed on IWO primal)' types

f1ogle.

, I

mducti\e logic

SUli K'",

l ~, i og hnl:agc
\ n ' lI r ll l' ~ ' As""." m,'n r

Ge "llIct ri..:

- Radiomemc

TIwl1l" lk
- { 'halill" derecnon

- ,\ 11:11" 10: lind [l igil;l l

- Imilg,,;,

Unrcctif... J
- Onhoimag..':S
. Ort horh')!l,nmps
- Th cm mc nw.ps
( , I ~ d.t.laoo.~"
,\ nmw.lIv ns

lI ~ voth ..."i,

-It-' ling

Accept " r reject hypothesis

Scu:ntlsts gen..rally usc th.. remote si:nsing process " 11,'n " ' Ir<l<.'ling inform ation from remotely sensed data.

lhell'rrain recorded in tile im agery.

- Imag, ~ 1t'llIda l ll

- Decision-tree dassili"o.
Ma..-hu'IC Icam in ~
- Simulati ons
Ilypocrr.pt.-.::u.d an:tly"i,
- Change oc1e,Ik>n
:--bti"tin
MOLkhng
Spatial looddmg ~in~ GIS data l.'ni\':1rlatc
\ tall i' analc
S(-enc 1Tl<>Jelin~
Scil:nr ilk g.....wi'l.la tiul ion
- Gra ph
- I. 2. 3, aoJ" Jnn.,.lh'..n'
- 1, 2, and 3 dun ... nsions

Pa,.,., i\(' digita l

La".,.r I U UAIl.)
Acou ."r ic (SO NAR I

Info rmalion

Models base d on deductive and/or induc tiv e logic can he

further subdivided accordi ng to whether they arc pro ce ssed
determinis ticul lv or \' 1(Jch(/\1i(,II(~I ' (J e rL"l'll, 10(5). Some sc ielit ists ext rac t new the ma tic information directly from
remotely sensed im agery w itho ut ever expl icitly using
ind uc t ive Of dcd uc nve logi c , T he y arc j us t interested in
c\t rJl:ting info rmation from the itllJ ge ry using appropriate
methods and tec hno logy, Th is technological appro ach is not
as rigurous , but u i!-> co mmo n in applied remote ~eIl.HI1K. T he
approa ch r un a lso genera te new knllw led gl'.
Remote sen~ in !:! is used in bot h sc ie ntific unducnve and
deductiv e) and tec hnologic al approach c,> to o btain know 1edge . T hcre is debate as to how rhe different types o f log ic
used in rhe remote scnving process yiel d n...... scientific
kno .... led ge ( c.g.. Fu ssell et al.. 19X6; Curran. 1987: Fisher
and Limk nherg. 19 !19; Dobson , 11JlJ3: Skidmore. 2iI(1) .

C II \PTF_R

10

Id entification of In situ and Remote Sensing Data

Requiremen ts
If a hypot hesis is formul ated using inductiv c and'or dedu ctivc logic. ;1 list of variables or observ ances are ide nnfled
that will be used du ring the invest igat ion. In si tu ob wrv urion
and'cr remote scnsinl; may be used to collect infor mat ion on
the most important var iables.

I,
,t

Sc ientists usi ng remote sensing tec hno logy shou ld be well

tra ined in fiel d an d laboratofv data-cotlecuon proced ures.
For example. if a sc ientist wa nts 10 ma p the surface te mperat ure of a lake. it is usually nece ssary to collect som e accurate em pi rica l in .rimlake-temperature measu rements at the
same lime the remote sens or data a re co llected. The i,! situ
ob se rvations may be used 10 1) calib rate the remote sens or
da ta, and/or 2 ) perfo rm an unbiased accuracy assessment o f
the tin al resu lts t Cong alton and Green. 1(98). Remote sensing tex tbook s provide some information on field and labo ratory sampli ng tec hniq ues . The in ,~ ittl sa mpli ng procedures.
however. are learned bcsr through formal COUfS<,.OS in the sciences (e.g. che mistry. bio logy. forestry. soils, hydro logy.
meteo ro logy). It is a lso importa nt to know how to collect
accu rately socioeconomic and demog raphic information in
urban environments base d on tra ining in hu man gc og mphy,
soc iology, etc.
Mos t in suu data are no w co llected in conjunction wuh gtobal posi tioni ng sys tem /G I'S} .T, .l: dat a I Jensen and Cowen.
1999 ). Sc ientists should know how to collect the G PS data at
eac h in .~ ifu data-coll ectio n station and how to perform d ifferent ial correct ion til obt a in acc urate .r. y.
coordinates
( Rizos. 20(1),

C u llate ra l nala Requirements

Many t imes collateral data t otten ca lled ancillary data),
such as dig ual elevation models. soil maps. geology maps.
poli tical bounda ry fi les, and block population stat istics. are
o f value in the remote se nsing proce ss. Ideal ly. the spatial
colla teral data reside in a G IS t C lar le-, 2(0 1).
Remote Sl' nsinl: natll Requirements

,l

O nce we ha ve a list o f variables. it is usefu l to determin e

w hich ofthem can be remotel y se nsed Remo te se nsing can
provid e informa tion on two differen t classes o f vari ables :
biop"-n"iculand hybri<l.

II

Rillph)',ica l Variables: So me biophysi.:al \ a riables .:an be

mcasur.:d d irectly by a rem ote se nsing sys lem. Th is mo::an s

"

Rem o te Sensing o f the Enviro nment

thatthe remotely sensed dat a ca n prov ide fundame ntal bio logical an d/or p hysical (hi(/phr_~ ic(lIJ informa tio n directly.
ge nerally wit hou t having to use ot her surroga te or anc illary
data, Fo r example, a thermal infrared rem ote sensing system
can reco rd the apparent tempera ture of a roc k OUICHlP by
measuring the radia nt l'ne rgy exiting its surface. Simi larly. il
is possib le to co nd uct remote sensing in a very specific
reg io n o f the spec tru m and ide ntify the a moun t o f water
vapor in lhe atmosphere . It is a lso possib le 10 mC:dSlITC soil
moisture co ntent d irectly using micrnwave remote sensing
techniques (E ngma n. 2(00 ). NASA's Mod erate Resolutio n
Imag ing Spectrometer ( \ lO DIS) can be used to measure
absorbed phc tosymh cticall y active radia tion (A PA R) and
lea f area index ( LA I). T he precise .r .1' locatio n. and heigh t
(:) of an obj ec t can be e xtrac ted d irectly from stere oscopic
ae rial photogra phy. overlapping satellite ima gery te.g.,
S POT ), ligh t detect ion a nd ranging (L! DA R) data , or interIcromc tric synthd ic aperture radar (I rS A R) imagery,

Tabl e 1-2 is a list o f selected biophysical varia bles that ca n

be remotely M:IISl-d and usefu l se nsors to acq uire the data.
Characteristics of many of these re mot e sens ing systems are
discussed in Ch apte rs 4, 7,~, and 9. Great stri des hale bee n
made in remotely sens ing many of these biophysical verinblcs. They nrc important 10 the natio na l and imcmanonal
effort under way 10 modelthe glo bal en vironment (Je nsen et
nl.. 2002; Asra r. 2004 1.
H) hrid ' -a ri ah lt...: The second general group of variables
thai can be remotely sen sed inc lude hrl>riJ variables. created
by sys tematica lly analy zing more than one biophysical veriable. For exa mple. by remotely se nsing a plant's ch lorop hyll
absorption charactens rics. temperat ure. and mois ture co ntent. it might be possib le 10 model these dat a to detec t vegcunion stress. a hybrid var iable . The var iety of hyb rid
var iables is large; conseque ntly. no uuc mpt is mad e to ide ntify the m. It is imponant to point o ut. ho we ver. that nomi na lscale land usc and la nd cover are hybrid vari ables. For
e xample. the lan d cover ofa pa rticular area o n an image may
be de rived hy evaluaun g several of the funda mental biophysica l variables at one time [e.g.. objec t location (.t .1').
height (: ). lone a nd/o r col or, biomass. and pe rhap s temperaturc ]. So milch atte ntion ha s been placed on rernorcly sensing. this hyb rid I/ol/linill sca lc var iab le that the interval- o r
mtio-sea lcd biophysical variable s we re largely neglec ted
until the m id- I9XOs. Nomi nal-sca le land -use and land-cover
mappi ng arc impo rta nt capabilities o f remo te sensing technology an d shou ld not he minimized, Many social and physica l sc ientis ts routinely use such data in thei r n:searl'h.
Uowevc r. Iherl' is no"" a dramatic increase in the ex tra.:tion
of inh:rval and ratio-sc<llcd h iophysica l data that are incor-

2 __
.J~IIIiIiiIIIiiI

J'

,, ,
"

~J

The Remot e Sensi ng Process

J io-

Table 1-2.

11

I,

:~

Sd~c1C<J

biu physic ai and hybrid varia bles and potentia l remote sen sing systems used to ob tain the intonuution.

hlv,
Biop hysical Variables

'lory
aem
\ by

"Ii\'

-1{ '

it

.t,y.: Gl'od l" il' Co nt ro l

.t.y L" clIlion fn Jlll O r thuc orrcctcd

~
I I1);l gl'r~'

.::).tcr
lSOil

y lion
"
lure
i :a mJ

, fr:[lt
,

pic

.g..
I!L'r-

]C,m
lata,

I arc
I<:CfI

j,n.

,bnat

Resolution Imaging Spectrometer). U DAl{. Canadian RA[)ARSAT I and 2

~ Tnl'''l: n ll' hylHll l h~ 111\'1Q '
Uigilill Elevauun Mudel () E~ l )

Digital n "thymdrie Mu,JeI ( DUM,

<I

and b)

Canopy struc ture and height

- Biomass derived from ve getation mdiccs
- Leaf area index (LAn
Atsorbed photosynthetically active radiation
- Evapotranspirution

,-. ari -

.. hvll
..

- Culm aerial photography. La ndsat ETM '. IKONOS, Quick uird. Orbview-J.
Orhimage Sea WifS. Advanced Spncebornc Thermal Em ission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER ). Mm.kr:ttc Resolution Imaging Spectrometer
( MOJ)IS ). ENVISAT, airborne hypcrspcctral tc.g., AVIRIS. HyMa p. CASI)
- Sterecsccpic aeria l photo graphy, U DAR , H.A.J)j\RSAT, IFSAR
- Color-infrared (C IR) aeri al photography, Landsat (TM. ET1\t "l, IKONOS.
QllickBi rd. DrhView-J. Advanced Very High Resofunon Radio meter
(A\" I mR l. Multianglc hll,lgin g Spcctroradiomctcr ( MISR I. airborne hyperspec tral systems ( e.g., AVIR IS. Hyl\l ap. CASI)
- ASTER., AVlI RR. GO ES. Hypcriun, M ISR. 1'....1 0DlS. So.:;J\\/iFS. airborn e
thermal in fr are d

'~

- (iI'S. ster eoscopic aerial photog raphy . LI DAR. 5 1'O T. RAOARSAT.

IKONOS. Qu icl..Bird. Orbvicw.j , Shuttle Radar Topograp hy M ission
(SRTM). Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar i IFSAR I
- SONA R. bathy met ric UDAR. stereosc opic aeria l photograph y

Vtl:elalio ll

Pigments (c.g., chlorophyll

~:11 et

.: hlcs
J led

Glohal Positioning Systems (GPS)

- Analog and dig ital stereosco pic aerial photography, Space Imag ing

IKONOS. ()i g ila I G l(~be QuickHird. Orbimage Orbvie w-J . French SPOT
IIRV, Landsat (Thematic Mapper. Enhanced TM'). Indian IRS-lCD. Lurepcan ERS-I ;md 2. microwave and ENVISAT M ERI S. MO DIS ( Moderate

",.ific

_~"riog

Potenti al Remote Sens ing Systems

SOli and R lIck \

Mcisiure

Mineral composition

- Iaxonomy

- ASTER. pa ssiv e microwave (SS M/ I). RAI1ARSAT. MISR , ALMAZ, land-

sat (T M, f.T ~I+J, F.RS- l and 2. lntcrmap Star v

ASTEH . MOD IS. hypcrspccual system s t e.g. AVI RIS, Hylvlap. CAS I)
- High-resolution co lor and ("IR ae rial pbrnography, IIi room", hypc rspcctra l
systems (c.g . AVIRIS. I lyMap. CASI)

- Hydrothermal alteration

Lan dsat (TM. EPvl '). ASTER. MODIS. uirhoruc hypcrs pcctrul (e.g .,
AVIR IS. Hyx tap . CASI)

Surfucc R " u~ llI1l's S

- Aeria l photography. A LMAZ. ERS -I a nd 2. RADARS AT. Intcrmup Sta r Ji .

IKON OS. Quick furd , AST F I{. EI\ VISAT ASAR

Atll1o'llhe rc
Aerosols (c.g . optical dcptb}
- Clouds le.g.. fraction. optic al thickness )

Precipitation
Walcr \apor (p recipitab le wate r]

-Dzune

- M ISR. GOES , AVIIRR, I'I-IOOIS, CER ES , MO rl TI. MER IS

- GOES. AVHR R. MODIS. MIS R, CER ES, l'I- l0P ITT. LJARS. M ER IS
Tropical Rainfall Measurement Mission (TRM f..1). GOES , AVHRR. SS~-IIl ,
MERIS
GO ES. MODIS .1'I-1ERIS
- MO DIS

\\ mer
Color
Surface hydrology
Suspended minerals
I'hlorcphyll/gclbsro ffc
lhssolved organic man er

- O d o r and (' IR aeria l photography, Landsat (T M , ETi'l--n . SPOT. IKONOS,

Quic kfsh-d, Or bvicw-J . AS TER . S," WiFS. MODIS. air born e hypcrspc cuu l
sy stems (c.g .. tW IRlS, I lyM;lp, CAS ll . ..W IIR It ( iOES, bathymetric
UD,<\K. f..l ISR . (E KES. I f ypcrlon, TO PEX, P( lS EI[) ll ]\;. M ER IS

----~

CfI.\P'TrR

12

--'''-"---''- -

Remote sensin g of the En vironment

Table 1-2 .

B iophysical Variables

Potent ial Remote sen sing Sys te ms

Snnw lind Su Ice

- Extent and characteristics

Color and CIR aerial photography, AVI IRR, GOES, Landsat (TM, ETM "),
SI'OT, Sea WiFS, IKON OS, Uuickbi rd. ASTER, MODI S, M ERIS, ERSI
and 2, RADA RSAT

,"o ll-lInie Eff.'ch

ASTE R, \1 ISR. Hyperion, .\;ID Ol S. airborne hypcrspcctral systems

< Tem peratu re. gases

KR Il F (bidirectional reflec tance

,i
I
I

di~"1ri lxition

function)

,, ~ Il S R,

.\ IOOlS, C ERES
Potenti al Remote sensing Sy stem s

selected Hy brid Variables

l. and u se
- Commercial. residcnnal, transportation. etc.
- Cada~tra l (property]

- Tax mapping
l.and Con"r
A gric ulture, forest, urban. etc,

" very high spati al resolution panchromatic, color and for CIR stereoscopic
aerial photography, high spatialresoluuon satellite imagery 1 x I m :
IKOl'\O S, QuickDird. Orb\,j..,w- J ), SrOT ( 2.5 ml , U DA R. high spatial r~'S{I
lution hyperspeciral systems (e.g.. AV IRIS, HyMap. CASI}

" Color and elR aerial photography, Landsat (MSS. TM, ETM ' ), S r OT,
A ST ER. AVHRR , RA DARSAr"I KO:"lOS, (juid..Hird, Omvicw-j, U DA R,
IFSAR. Sea WiFS , MOOl S, M ISR, MERIS. hypcrspcctral systems (e.g ..
AVIR IS, HyMap, CAS I)

\ 't'!:t'lllti" n

- slrC"iS

Color and ClR aerial pholography.lands.al (l ~l. ETM 'I, IKO ?"OS , QuickBird. OrbYk'w-), AVIIRR, S<:aWiFS. M ISR, aoms. ASTER, \ f ERIS. airboml." hyperspectral systems (l.".8". AVI RIS, lI y r.bp . CAS!)

porated into qua ntitati ve models that can accept spatially

dis tributed inforrna uon.

matri x (raste r) of brighIness valu es obtai ned using a sca nner

line ar array, o r area array] . A se lected list o f so me o f rh.
mo st import ant remote senliing system s is presented in Tabl.

Remote Sensing Data Collection

1-3.

Remo te ly se nse d data arc co llected using passive (I I' active

remote sensing systems, Pw .\'irt' se nsors reco rd electromagnetic radia tio n that is reflec ted or cmiued from the terrain
(Shippen. ::!Ot)4 1. For exa mple, cameras an d video recorders
can be used 10 record visible and nea r-infra red energy
reflected from the terra in. A mulnspectral scanner can be
used 10 record the amount of the rmal radiant flu x ex iting the
terrain . Actin' sensors such a s mic ro .....a ve (RAD..\ R J,
L1DA R. o r SONA R bat he the terrain in machine-made electrom agn etic energy a nd then record the amo unt of rad iant
flu x scattered back towa rd the senso r system.

Remote se nsing sys tems collect analog (e .g.. hard-copy

ae rial photography or video datu ) and /or di gita l duta [e .g.. a

The amount o f electroma gnetic radiance. L (wans Illl s(l

wat ts per me ter squared per sterad ian ). rec orded wi th in thl
IF O V o f an op tical remote se nsi ng sys tem (e .g.. a pic nm
demen t in a dig ita l ima ge ). iii a func tio n o f:
L - f ( A,. :o; . ,-, ~" . o . p. n ,

( I-J

where

A - wa vele ngth (s pect ral respo nse meas ured in vericur

bands o r at speci fic freq uen cies ). Wave leng th (}.) a nd fre.
qucncy (\J ) may be used interch angea bly based ron thei r rclnnon shlp with the speed o r light (I") where c = }. x \J .
J" p -

.r. .1', :: locat ion of the pixe l lind its s ize {r, y):

R 5
The Remote Sensing Process

13

Selected remote sensing systems and their characteristics.

Table 13.

Resolution

Spectral
Middl eNear -

Remote Sensing Systems

Blue

Psnchromattc tilm (black & white)

i,

~ir-

~
f e';

} the
~t.lrc
,

1,,)

1jous

!frc1~1a-

Spatial

Temporal

Iml

(d ay s)

Varia ble

0.4 - - - - - 0.7 nm

Variable

Variable

CASt- 1500

o.v 11m

0.5

Variable

Variable

0.25 - ;;

v ariable

var iable

variable

2.5 or 20

Variable

Variable

Variable

1100

14 ,5hla y

11 00

14.5/d "y

79

16 -I X

30 and 120

16

30 an d 00

1(,

15

l(i

20
10

Pointablc
Point ahle

71~

0 .5/h r

Digital Frame Cameras (CC O)

11.40

AVI R1S " irhome Vi sible I" fwr cd l11lil!.tin!Z Sl'c,;tr"m clcr OAO-

2:h,mds -

-1.0pm

-224 001\.1$ -

- - -2.5 u m

lntcrmap Slar -.'!! X vband rada r

satellite Sensors
!'iOAA'! :W l l1m LAC

NOAA- K. L. M

Landsat Multispectral Scanner (MSS)

Landsat ~ .1I1d 5 The matic Mappers (T M)

Landsat 7 Enh anced 1M (ET M' ) - M U lt l S ~ClrJJ

- Pauchnuuutic

SPOT -tI!RV -

0.51 -

Multispectral

I
0 ') Ilm

Panch romat ic

0.5 1

0.7.'1 IlI1l

0.52

0.72 urn

Eu ropean Remote Sensing Satellite (fRS 1 and 2)

VV polarization C- bam1 (5.3 Gi ll.)

26 - 2R

Canadian RA I1ARSAT (several modes!

1111 polarization C vband (5 .3 Gi lL)

9 -100

1 -6days

30

Variable

Shuuk Imaging Radar ( SIR -C )

Sea-Viewing Wide f ield-of-View Sensor \SlaWiFS)

MODIS _ Muderare Re."" luti" n Imaging.Speerro"'eler

.3

1130

lJ.405 - - - - 3t, bands - - - _ 1 4. 3~5

(l.SZ-

ASTFR - Advanced Spaccbomc Therma l Emission

and Rcl1edinn Radiometer

MISR - Mu llian glc Ima g ing Spcctrokadiomc tcr

p.m

250. 500.
WOO

.3 hands - (l.Xf> urn

1- 2

6 bands -

204 3 urn

"
30

X.12 - .5 bands -

11,1'111

\)0

16
16

275 an d

1 -2

I .h -

wave

Variable

GOES Series (East and West}

Infrared

OJ - - -O. 1fl rn

Color-infrared film

(SWIRl

Suborbita l Senso rs

Color film

R.d lntrared

Green

inlrared Thermal Mi cro-

Nine CC D cameras in four hands (440 . 55n, C>7n, !o:(,O om )

11 00
NASA Topex/Poseidon - ,["Ol 'E X radar altimete r
- POSEIDON single-frequency radiometer

(lX. 21 . 37 GflJ:)
(l J .6.5 GHz)

Space Imaging IKON 0 5 - M uhispcctrul

- Pan ch romatic

OA5 - - - - - - O,l/

Digital [i]oh<: QuiekR ird - :\1ult ispeC1l<l1

Panchromatic

0.45

J I5,orK)

10

Pointublc

urn

0.9 um

2.4.:10.6 1

Point abtc

O I.\ P"I I::R

14

t temporal inform ation. l.c.. whe n. how long. and how

often the data" ere acquired;

o". set of angles

thm descr ibe l h~' geometric relationships

between the radiation source (c.g.. thc Sumthe terra in target
of illt,;orcslle.g. a corn tield). and the remote sens ing sy stem :

P = polarization of back-scaucrcd

CIll.Tg)

Remote sensing of the Environme nt

tor co mparmive purposes (Figure 1-63. c. and d). The ea

era 's bandwidths were refined 10 record info rmat ion in me
spec ific regions of' tbe spectrum (hand I = 45U - 515 n
band 2 = 525 n05 nm: band 3 .. 64 0 - 690 nm: and barn
"'" 750 - IJOO nm I. T here are gaps between the spectral sen
ti\ itie s orthc detectors. Note that this digital camera sy st(
is a lso sensi tive to reflec ted billc wavelength cncrgy.

recorded by the

sensor: and
12 '" radiometric rcsohnion (p recision) a! which the data
(c.g.. re flec ted, emiued. or back-scattered radia tio n ) arc
record...d by the remote sensing sys tem .
It is useful to bridly re vic-w cha racte nstics of the parameters
associa ted .... ith Equatio n I- I :md ho w they influenc e the
natu re of the re mote sensing data collected.

Spl'Cl ra l l nfnr m a tio ll nn d Rl'Mllu lin li

\.Ios l remote sensing invesuganons are based on developing:

a dctcrmmisric rela tionship (i.e.. a model) bctw c...n the
amount of electro magnetic energy re fl ected. e mitted. or
hack-scuncrcd in specific hands or frequencies and the
chemical. biological, and physical characterisucs o f the phcnomcna under invesugarion t e.g.. a com field canopy). Specfr"f rvsotut iU/I is the number and d imens inn t s il.e) ofspeci tic
wavelength inte rvals (referre d to as bands or dl<lll/lel.~) in
the electrcmagncnc spectrum to which a remote sensing
instrument is scns ui ve.
M ll ll i.\fH..'Cfm l remote: s....nsi ng systems reco rd ene rgy in rnultiplc bands of the elec tromagnetic spectrum. Fo r example. in
the IQ7& and early 19~Os. the Landsat ...Iultis pcctral Scanne rs ( MSS) recorded remotely scns ed data o f muc h of the
Earth tha t is still of sign ifica nt value for change derecrion
stud ies. The bandw idths o f the four MSS ha nds arc d isplayed in Figure l-oa (band I = 500 - flOO nm; band 2 = bOO
- 7(lO nm; ba nd J = 700 - 10100 nm; and band 4 = 10100 - 1. 1(ll)
nm ). Th. nomin<11 si/e ofa band may hi.' larg... (i...... eoars... ).
as with th... Landsatl\lSS near-infrared hand -I (lIOU - 1.100
nm) or relat i\ely ~mal1er (i.e.. finer). as wilh th.' Land~al
"'ISS ~a n d 3 p on - lIUI) nm ). T hus. I.;llld$at MSS band 4
detector s rl"t:o rd ed :I rd atiwly la rge range o f rdkcted nearinfran.-d radiant l1u.\ (300 nm w ide t \\ hiJc Ihe \-lSS band J
delectors recorded a much reduced range o f near-infrarcd
radian t 110.\ (l Oll 11m w idl:),

The lo ur multispectral bandwidths ao;;.sociated \\ ith the Pos iti\ e Sys tems A DA R 5500 d igila l frame camera a rc shol>. n

The aforementioned terminology is I)'pically usaf

describe a sensor"s IlOlI/in,,1 spectral resolution, Howcv cr.
is d il1icuh to cr eate a de tector tbut h;l.s extremely sha rp han
pass bound er!c s such as those shown in Fig ure l-oa. Rathe
th... more precise me thod o f slaling band w itlth is to loo k
the I) pica l Gaussian shape o f the detecto r sensitivity, such;
the example show n in Figure 1-6b, T he analys t the n derc
mines the f ull Width at Hnlf Maxi mum (F W Il ~ I). In th
hypothctical example. the Landsat \-lSS ncar-infrared ba r.
3 under invcsngauon iJ> s...nsi tivc to energy between 700 an
!lOll nm.
A hvperspectral remote sens ing instrument Iypieall
acquires data in hund reds of spectral band s (Goet z. 200 2
For exam ple. the Ai rborne Visible and Infrared lr nag in
Spectrometer (AVIRISj has 22-1 bands in rh.. region fro l11 -10
to 25U() nm spac ed just 10 nm apart based on the FWII\l cri
tcria (Cl ark. 1999; NASA . 2006 1. An AVIRIS hypcrspecrra
datacubc of a portion of t ill' Savannah River Site ncar A iken
SC . is sho wn in Figu re 1-7. Ultraspectral rcmorc sen.\.ll1!
involves data collection in many hundreds of ba nds.
Certa in regi\lI1s or spectral band s of the ctc ctrom agncti.
spec trum arc op timal for ob taini ng information on bio phys i.
ca l parameters . The hands are normall y selectcd 10 I11ni
mize the contra-a between the object o f interest and in
bac kg round (i. c.. object-to-background cont rast), Card-Ill
selec tion ofthe spectral ba nds m igh t improve th.. probability
that th.. desired information will he extracted from the
remo te senso r data.
S pa lia l ln fo rrnat ion a nd H,esiliution
~loo;;.t remote sen sing sludi.s reCllrd the spa tial attributes o f
ubj<:ets on tht: t<:frai n. For e'amp l.... each silver halid ... crystal
in an ana log ae rial photograph and t:ach picture d c ml:11\ in a
digi tal remote sensor image is loc ated at a spl'(;ifie loca tion
in the image and ass l>cial('(J w ith specific x.X C()('lrdinal.-s on
the gro und. Once recti Jied to a sla ndard map pfojl'l'tion. the
sp;tlia l in lormalio n assoc ia ted with eac h s ilver ha lide erYlilal
or pixel is of significa nt value because II allows the remOle
sen sing-tleriv.-d infonnatioll to be u ~ed .... ith other sp alial

,..1
I.

,,
\

The Remote Sens ing Process

'5

, j

camnorc
J nm:
'nJ ~
I,.-~ ns i

Sl' lt:lr al Resulution

100%

infrared

.,.

~ .,;

--\J In
J1"-"

1).4

0.5

06

I'o~iti ' e

'Iand,

nher,
I ok at
~ has

FWH .\I

50%

band -I
1.1

0.7 n,R 0.9 1.0

....ptclln ,\ 1),\ 1{ 5500

0,6

OM

[cter-

0.8

0.7
0.75 0 8
W3\c! cnglhlm l

O,l(~

(1.7 - O X11m
70n - soo 11111
IOU 11m [",,,,[width

0.'1

11. PrcclW hand,,:.ss mCaS" !CllK111 o f a d~'\cdor h" , cl!

011f ull Width al l lalf ...lax;IllUltl ! FWIl'v1 J ,-Tileri a ,

,rand

~,"d

~
~

NIR

, I this

Maximum ink ll, i,y

Near-

'~f"lc m

...-

0.9 1.0

1.1

Wavele~ b'1h.lJm

". ",ominal , !"" tra l r~,() I Uli"n

"r the Landsat

'v!u lll'l'C(l ral Scanner and Positive System,

tally

blue hand
(45U- 5 15 nm)

AnAl< 55(xl o.l i~i la) frame , "mem,

pO"

19m9

1-100
otI en-

~iclril l

~k,"-

1llSlng.

1I ~ 1 i<.:

~Ys i

haxi--tl its
(dill
bility
) the

Flflure 1-6

,
~,(l f

~slal

a) The spec tral bandwidths of the four Landsat Multispectral St anner i ~l SS} hands (green . red o and IWOnear-infrared] comparcd wilb the bandwidths o r an ADAR 5500 digital frame camera. b) The true spe ct ral bandw idth is the width uf the Gaussian-s haped spectra l profil e at Full Widt h at HiLII' Maximum (FWHM ) intensity (Cla rk, 199 '1). This cxr ur mle has a spec tral
bandwidth 0( 0.1 um {I00 nm) between 700 and llOO run. e) If desired, it i, possible to colle ct reflected energy in a single hand
of the elcctrcrnago ctic spec trum (e .g ., 7.'i{J - 'l00 nm l. Thi, is a I x 1 It spatial resolutio n ADAI{ 5500 nca r-in frared im:lgl', d )
Multispectral sensors wlleet data in mulnplc bands o f the spect rum (images courtesy \1 1' 1'<.lsitin: Sy ste ms. l nc.).

-, in a
Irion

data in a GIS
al., ~002 ).

l~

There i, a genera l relationship between the sile of an obj ect

or area to be identifi ed and the spatial resolutio n of the
remote sensing system. Spal ial resolution is a measure ctthc

~son

the

;'~Sl<ll
r ote
llalial

Of

spatial decision support system {Jensen 1.'1

smallest angular or linear separation between IWO objects

thai can he reso lved by the remote sens ing system. The spatial resolution of aeria l photograph y muy be measu red by I )
placing calib rated . parallel black and whit", l i lK'~ on tarps
thai are placed in the fie ld, 2 ) obtaining aeri al photograp hy
ofthe study area. and 3 ) co mput ing the number of rcsolvable
lim' pairs prr millimeter in the photography, It is a lso possible to determine the spatial reso lut ion of ima gery by corn -

_._

....

,.

C II .-\PT F.R

Rem ote sensing of the Environment

spatial resolution as be ing HI x 10 m or 30 x 30 rn. Fo

exa mple, Dig italG lobe' s Quid.:B ird has a nominal spatia
reso h nion o f 01 x 6 1 em for irs panchromatic hand aI1112.4:
x 2 .-1'" rn for the lo ur mult ispec tral ban ds . The Landsat :
Enhanced T hematic Mappe r Plus (ET M ' ) has a nom ina
spatial resolution (,I' 15 x 15 m for its punc hrum atic band am
]0 x 30 111 for xi.' o f its mult ispec tra l bands. Generally, th,
sma ller the no min al spatial resol ution . the gr eater the spatia
resolving powe r of the remote se ns ing system.

.\ ir ho r nc ' hilll\' Infrared hna:.:in:.:

Spectrum eter (.-\\'I R IS) J)al ill'uhe or th e
S:l\3 I1 na h Rb er Sile: ncar ,\ ikclI. SC

Figure I-X de p icts d ig ita l came ra imagery of an area 11

Mec hanicsville. :\ .Y.. at reso nmons ran ging fm m 0,5)( 0.:
m to 80)( 80 m . Note that there is no t a significant uilTerene.
in the mterprctabilit y o f 0,5 x 0.5 m da ta. I x 1 m data . <l1lI
even 2 x 2 m data . Ho w ever. the urban into rmanon conrcn
decreases rap id ly w hen using 5 x 5 m imagery and is pracn
rally useless lor urba n ana lysis at spatia l resoluuons la l)!:O:
than 10 x 10 m. This is the reuson hi..torica l Landsat .\ I S~
data (7 9 x 79 m ) are of little value for most urban upplica
linn.. (Jensen and Co wen . l 'l ')'); Jensen ct :1 1., 20( 2 ).

400 nm
Near-infrared 11l1a~~' lin top " r the dma l'ubc
is just olle of ~ 24 Ilands at 1f) 11 m n"mi nJ I
band.... Idlh acquncd on July 20. 1m.

Figure ' -7

II) pcrspecual imagery of an area on the '\ilvannah

River Sill.". SC oteamed t>y ,\:\SA's Airborne Vi~i
blc/lnfrarcd Imaging Spectrometer (A\' IRIS). The

nommalspatial ~ luaon is 3.4 x 3..4 m. The atmospllcre absorbs

IllOI

of the etecrromagncuc <.'1lcrgy

'''''<IT 1,400 and 1.'X)O 11m. causing the dark bandc in

the hypcrspcc tral datacubc.

pUling its modulat ion tran s fe r func tion . whi ch is beyond the
SCOpe of rlus Ie vt (Joseph. 20 (0).
Man y satellite remote se nsi ng systems use opt ics that have a
constant insta nta neous-field-of- view (lFO\') ( Fig ure 1-21.
T herefore. a sensor system's 1/"'"in,,1 spatial resolution is
define d ac the dimension in meters (or ft:l1 o f Ihe groundprojected IFO\' where Ihe diameter of the circle IV I on the
ground is a functio n of the instamaneous-field-of-vicw IIl I
times the alti tude (H I of the senso r abo ve ground level
IAG I.HFigure 1-2 1:
IJ

!i x /{ .

( [ -2)

"
Pixe ls nrc normally represented o n co m puter sc reens and in
hard -copy ima ges as rect an gles with length a nd v.idth .
Th erdlJre . we typ ically descr ihe J. SCI1SI,r system ' s nom in;J 1

,\ useful heur istic rule o f thumb is that in order to detect ;

fe atu re , the nomina l sp at ial resolutio n of the remote sltlsin,
sys tem should be less than one-half the size of the fcat un
measu red in its smalles t d imen sio n. For exa mple. ifwe wan
10 identi fy the loca tion o f a ll m aple trees in a park. the mini
mu m accepta ble spatial rcso hmon would be a pprcxima tef
one-half the diamcncr o f the smallest map le In-c's em....n
E'en this spanat rcso juno n. ho wever. w ill not guarantee sue
cess if there is no differe nce bcrw ....... n the spectral response 0
the maple tree (the object! and the soil or grass surreundim
it [i.e. its bac kgro und).
So me se nso r sys tems. suc h as LIDAR. do nOI complctef
"map" the terrain surface. Rather, the surface is "s ampled
u..ing la..cr pu lse s S":1It from the airc ratl at some no mina
time interv al ( Raber et nl., 2002 ). T he grou nd-project..-d lase
pulse may be ve ry sm all te.g .. 10 - 15 ern in diam eter ] witl
sa mples located app rox imatel y e\el') 1 10 6 m on the ground
Spatial resolution wou ld app rop riately de scribe the g round
projec ted laser pulse te.g.. 15 ern I hutfllmplinJ! tI.'n~i~l I r.e.
nu mber o f poin ts per unit a rea ) describes the fr eq uency o
grou nd observations ( Hodgson et al. 2005I.
Because .... e ha ve spatial informatio n abo ut the location 0
each pix el (.1'.1'1 in the image matrix . it is also pos sible t,
e xami ne the spatial relat io nship be tween a pixel and it
neighbors. Therefo re, the amount o f spec tral autoc c rrclutior
an d oth er spati al geosratistic a l measuremen ts can he dete r
m ined bused nil the spatial informatio n inhe rent inth e illlilg
cry (Wa b h l'l a1.. 1999 ; Jm scn, 2(05 ).

- - --,.-, -

The Remot e sens ing Pro cess

~or

17

S pa tia l Rcsolurfun

!!fial

IJ-....
" 7

\""

,"d

';! the

ial

~ I in

U.S

t rc~
) IHHJ

tent

rcur pcr

SS

mg

SJ'kllial Resolut ,,,,,

o<e

enlargc.J \.iI.....

'"

urn-

tely

In'lanlan<........'
fiddor' l~

" n.

In 20

c't:lcly
Ied"
inal
user
with
nd.
ndie.,
of

of

Figure 1-8

i~

Io:termag-

Imagery o r rcs idcntial housing nca r Mechanicsville. N,Y. obtained on June I. I 'N~ . at a nmmna l spati al resolution of 0.3 X
0.3 lI1 (uppruxunatcly I x I JI) \Ising a d igital came ra (cUlll1ny o r Litten Emerge. Illc .l. l 1H: original data we re rcsamplcd 10
derive the imagery with the simulated spat ial res olutions shown.

Iempnr al l nfurm a tinn and Re..olulio n

One of the valuable things about remot e sens ing science is

IMl it ~lhta i ns a record of Earth land sca pes at a uniq ue
moment in time. Multiple record s of the same la ndscape
obtained through time can be used In identify processes a t
work and to make predictions.

e to
Ilion

~o

~ lemporol resotunon of a remote sensing system g..nerally refers to ho" often the sensor records imagery of a parncular area. The temporal reso lution of the sensor system
shown in Figure J-9 is every It< days. tdea tty. the sensor
couins data repetitively to capture uniq ue discriminating
charactcrisucs of the object under inn .'Slig<ltiun (Haack cr

al.. I'N7 l. For example. agric uhu ra l crops have unique phenological cycles in each geog raphic region [disc ussed in
Chapter I I I. To measure cpcc lfic agnc unura ! ..aria bles. it is
nc'Ces:-a1) t,1acq uire remotely s..-nscd da ta at critica l dates in
the phenological cycle (Johan nsen ct al.. 2003). Analysis of
multiple..d ale image ry pro..-ides info rmation on how the ..ari al:01c:~ are changi ng through time. Change informa tion providcs ins ight into processes inllue ncing the development of
the crop [Jensen et al.. 2(02). Fortunately. several satell ite
sensor sysllms such as S POT. IKO:-':OS. lmageS at and
QuickBird arc poinrablc . meaning that they can acq uire
imagel')' off- nadir. Xadir is the point directly belo w the
spacecraft. Th is dramatically increas es the probability that
i m ~ l:1"' 1) will be obtained d uring a gro wing seaso n or d uring

j
"

-,

;;

;; 1 \ 1'"1 ER

18

",

'Ic mpo rat Rcsolutton

r
,"

Remote Sensor Data Acqu isition

June 17.

Jul y J.

2006

2006

2006

1 1 1

-,
,

June I.

Figure 1-9

days

'6

Tho: tempo ral resolu tion ofa remote ,;cll~in~ s)s!cm

refers 10 how often it records imagel')' of a particular
area. This example depicts t he systematic coltecuon
of data evC1)I 16 days. presumably at approximately
the same" tune of day. Lan dsat Thematic Mappers 4

and S had le-day revisit cycles.

an emergen cy, How eve r, o ff-nadir oblique vie wing also

introd uces bid irectiona l refl ectance d istr ibutio n function
(BRUF) issu es. discussed in the ne xt section.

,
,
I

Ther e arc often tradc-o ffs associated wuh the var iou s resolutio ns that must he made when collecting remot e sensi ng.data
( Figure 1 10; Color Plate I-I). Ge nerally, the hig he r the tempor al resol ution requirement (c.g.. monito ring hurricanes
e very half-hour). the low er the spatial reso lut ion requ ire.
ment te.g., the NOAA GO ES weather sa te llite recor ds
imag es w ith 4 x 4 10 8 x 8 lm pixel s ). Conversely, the hig her
the spatial resol ution requi rement (e.g., monitoring urban
land-usc with I x I m da ta l. tilt: lower the temporal reso lution requirement (c.g. ev ery I to 10 j ears}, For example.
Figure 1 11 documents signi lka nt res idential and cornmcrct at land- usc dcvc lcprucm for an area ncar Arlama. GA .
u, ing h igh spa tial reso lutio n ( I x I m) ac ria l phot ograph)'
obtained in I'NJ and IlJ99 . So me applica tio n, such ' IS crop
type or yiel d es tim at ion m ight requ ire rel at ively high temporal re solut ion data (e.g. mult iple images obtaine d du ring a
growing season) and moderate spa tial resolut ion dna (e.g..
150 x 150 m pixels). Emergency response ap plications rna)
requ ire very high spatial a nd te mporal resolut io n data collection that ge nera tes treme ndo us am ounts o f data.
An otlK' r :lSPl'CI o ftcmpom l informa tio n is 11lIw man y obscrvatio ns ar", recorded fmm a singh: pu Is.: o f enl' rgy that is
d ircc h:d a t th.: Earth by an activc Sl'nSl' r such as L1DAR. For
exam ple. mOSI U DAR sens ors l'm it onl' pu lsc of la~r
energy and record multiple responses from Ihili pulse. \ 1t:a suri ng lhe time dilTerenccs bt:l\\ l'en mu ltiple r.:sponSl."S
allows for Ihe det ...rm ination o f ohject h...igh ls and lerra in
struct ure. A lso, the length oftimc rl'qui red lO emit an energy

Remo te sensing of the Enviro nment

sign al by an active sensor is re ferre d to <.I S the pulse 1l' !1}.

Short pulse lengt hs allo w prec ise d istance u.c.. rang-c) m
surcmcnt.
Radiometeic I nfu rm a non and Rr<>ol ution
So me remote sensi ng syst e ms reco rd the re flected. cmit t
o r ba ck -scnu crcd electroma gn etic radia tion wi th more pre
sion thun o the r sc n si l1~ sys te ms. Th is i ~ analogous to maki
a measu remen t w ith n rulcr.H you want precisely to mcasr
the lengt h o f an object. wou ld you rather use a ruler with
or 1.024 subdiv isions on it?
R<I<lwfII('lric resolution is de li ned as the sensitivity 01
remote sens ing den..rctor to difference s in signal strength a~

records the radia nt nu x reflected, emitted, or back-scatter

from the ter rain. II de fine s the number o t'just drscri r ninal
signal level s. The re for e. radiometric resolution can haH
vigm flcan t impac t o n our abili ty tomeasure the properties
scene objects. The Landsat I \1 ulti spe l'trnl Scanr
launched in 19n recor d..-d re flected energy with a precis!
o f 6-hi ts (values ranging from 0 to 63). Land sa1 4 and 5 n
marie Map per sensors launc hed in IQX2 aOO IQK4. respc
rivcly, reco rded data in 8 bits ( \ clues from 0 10 !55)( Figu
1-12 ). Th us. the Land sat T\-l sensors had improved radi
me tric re solution (sensitivity) when compared wi th the on
ina! Lands ur \-lSS. Q uickls ird a nd IKON QS sensors rcc o
informat ion in II b its (v alues fro m 0 10 1.(147 ). Se vera l nc
sensor _~ystems hove Il-bit rad iom et ric resolution [valu
ranging from 0 10 4 ,()9 S). Radiomet ric resolution is som
nmcs referred to as the level of quantization. Ili gh radiomc
ric rcsolcnon generally increases the probability th
phe nom en a wil l be remotely sensed more acrcurat cly,
Pula ri 1;11iu II

III rorm III in n

The polarization characteristics o f elect romagnetic energ

reco rded by a re mote ~nsillg system a re a n impo rtant vat
able that can be used in many Eart h reso urce inv'estiga liOl
IC urnm et al.. 199XI. Suntighr is pola rized weakly. Howe ve
\\ hen sunlight strikes a no nme tal objcct te.g .. gruvs. roresr. .
co ncrete) it becomes depolarized and the incid ent energy
scat tered differemialty. Generally. the more sm oo th the su
face. the !:!water thl' polnrilation. It is possibk to usc po hlri;
ing filters on pa ssivI: rl'mot e se nsing systems Ie.g. aeri;
camerasl lO reco rd f'tlla ri/ed lighl ill vari ous ang lo:s. II is ills
possibll' to Scl el'livcl)' ~nd ;ll1d I'l.'l:eive IXllari l ed c nc'l!
using activ'e remote ~n.~ing sy,tems such as RADA R (e.g
hori zontal S('nd., vert ical rccei\ -e - HV: venical send, hOOn..tal Tl'c ei\ l' - VII ; vert ical send. vcrti cal rl'l'c ive VV: ho r
mnta l sl'nd. hori 7A1 nta l receive - 111 1). \1u lt iple-polari7e

19

The Remote Sensing Proc e ss

S p a tia l and Te mporal Resolution for S ele cte d A pplications

1(10

Topog raphy
10

o.1

________ __ ~ :':.J!:~ ~I: ~ .1.6. ~~~ !~"::~~1

...........~!~::~ ~~~. ~.~~J. ~:: ~~.

pI' a

bSlt
, cwJ
hlc
ca

I
~

J~ or
nncr
~ i(l11

..........._~:~::l~~:~.~~~~v.~:!~~ .

uur
(LUll I

0.000 1

t hepee-

-~~re

JrllO-

~)rig.

0.1 m

1m

~ lIrd
'fl ew

!-Oues

10

III

Nominal Spat ial

Rgure 1-10

nne-

I kill

1110 m

IOkm

IOOkm

R~~o IUli\ln

There arc spa tial and tempo ral rcsoh ninn c, ms ;"kr.ll;ons lhat TIlliS I he m ade fo r certain appllcationc (Color Plat e 1- 11_ A mo re
de raile d bre akdo ..... n otthc spati al and temporal requirements for ur ban apphcauons is tound in Chapter 13.

.mctthat

I)i ~il:ll

O rl lwphu lo s of:1II Area ncar Atlan ta. G A

-,.rgy

j,ri~ (lJl S

-lvcr,

-it.
, or.
'tv

IS

f~ur-

'arizerial

~IS{l

I ergy

e,g..

,70n.
ron~lcd

a. 191J] onhophoto.
Figure 1-1 1

h. 199\) orthophor o .

Pc nion s of digual-on hophoto -quarter-q uads (IXJVVf of all area near Atlanta. (lA _These dat a reside in the (korg i3 Spatia l
Da ta Intrastrucurrc ditl:lbitsc ,md ar\;, use ful for rnouitoring lan d-usc change thro ugh l ime and the proCCSS of urbanization.

f,
C1IAP-n :R

20

Radfom etrlc Resulutien

7-bit
...... (0 - 127)
8-bit
. 0 (0 - 2551
~,

-',

"

9bit
0 (0 511 )

R gure 112

Ill-bi t
(0- 1023)

The radiometric resolunoe ofa remote sensing S)"$tem I!> the sensitivity of its detectors to differences
in sign al strength as they record tm: r:ad iant Il u ~ rc Ilecned. crrnucd, or eeck-sceue red from the terra in.
The energy is normally q uantized during an analogto-digital (A' IOo l) l conversion process to X. 9. IU
bits or more.

RADA R imagery is an especially useful application o f pola r.

izcd energy.
.\ n ~ u l a r

Infor ma l ion

Remote se nsi ng sys tems reco rd ve ry specific angular characteristics associated with each exposed silve r ha lide crystal
or pixel (Ba rnslcy, 19( 9), T he angula r cha racte ristics are a
funct ion o f (F igu re [- l3 al:

Re m ole Sensing of t he E nv ironment

dimensional plOIS o f smooth co rdgra ss (-S,w rtilll1 otterniflo ra ) BRD F data collected at 8 a.m.. 9 a.m . 12 p.m . and -l
p.m. on Ma rch 21, 2000. for band 624.20 nm. The on ly thi nH
tha t changed betw een observations was the Sun's azimuth
and ze nith angles. The azimut h and ze nith angl es of the
specr roradiometer were held constant while viewing the
smoo th co rdgrass. Ideally, the BRDI' plot s ....'ould he idcn ucal, suggest ing that it doc s not mailer .... hal time o f day we
collect the remote sensor data becau se the spectral reflectance cha racterist ics fro m the smoo th cordgrass remain consta nt. [I is cle ar that this is not the case an d that the lime o f
day in fluences the spec tral response. The Mu ltiang le Imaging Spectrometer (M ISR) onboard the Terra satellite was
des igned to investiga te the BRD F phenomena. Reesearch
con tinues on how to incorporate the BRU t" infcrmanon into
the di gita l image processing sys tem to imp rove o ur understand ing of what is recorded in the remotely sensed imagery
{Sundmcie r. 2000; Schil l et a l., 20( 4).

A ngu lar info rma tio n is central to the usc of re mo te sensor

dat a in photogrammet ric ap plications. Stereoscopic image
analysis is based on the assumption that an obj eret on the tcrrain is remo tely se nsed from two an gles. Viewi ng t he sa me
terrai n from two vamage points introduces stereoscopic parallax . which is the foundatio n lo r all stereoscopic photogra mmetric nnd radargrammctric ana lysis (Li gh t and Jensen,
20( 2 ).
S ubo r bital (A ir bor nI') Remote Sl' nsi ng S)'Sle ms

the location in a three-dim ensional sphere o f the

illumi natio n source (e.g.. the Sun for a pas sive sy ste m or
the sensor itself in the case of RADAR, L1 DAR , and
SONAR ) and its associa ted azimuth and zen ith angles.
the orien ta lion of the terrain face t (]lixd) o r terrain cove r
(e.g. vegetat ion) under investiga tion. and
the loc ation of the subo rbita l or orb ital remot e sensi ng
sys tem and its associated azi m uth and zen ith angles.
There is always an an gle o f inc idence associated ~ ith the
incom ing cne!');y that illumin ates the te rrain and an angle o f
exi ta nce from the terrain to the sen sor system. Th is bidirecliol/a/nature o f remo te se nsing data co llectio n is know n to
influence the spec tra l a nd polarization characteristics of the
at-se nso r rad iance, L, reco rded by the remote sensing sysrem .

A goniurtlt'lt'r ca n be used to doc ume nt the cha nges in atsensor radia nce. L. ca userd by changing the position o f the
sensor and/or the source o f the illuminatio n (e.g., the Sun)
(Figure l -1 3h). For exa mple. Figure 1-l3c present s three-

High-quality photogrammetric cameras moun ted onboard

a ircra ft co ntin ue to pro vide aerial photography for ma n)'
Earth resou rce ap plication s. For example. the U.S. Geological Survey's Nationa l Aerial Photograp hy Prog ram (N APP)
systematicall y collected 1:40.000-st'a le black-and- .... hite or
colo r-infr ared aerial p hotogr aphy o f much o f the United
Stat es every 5 10 10 ) cars " Some o f tht'S<." pho tc gr amm ctric
data are now being collected using digital frame cameras. In
addition. sophisticated remo te sensing sys tems are routinely
moun ted on aircraft to provide high spatial and spectral reso lution remote ly sensed data . Exam ples include hyperspectral sensors suc h as NASA's AVIRIS. the Can ad ian Airborne
Imag ing Spec trometer (C AS l). and the Austra lian lI y Map
hypers pec tra l system . Th ese sensors can collect data on
demand whe n disaste r str ikes t e.g.. oi l spills o r t1oods) if
cloud-cover co nditions permit. The re are also nume rous
radars. such as lnterm ap 's Star-3i. thm can be flown on a ircraft da y and night an d in inclement weather. Unfortuna tely,
suborbital remote sensor data arc usually expensive to
acquire per k m! "Also. atmo..pbcric tu rbule nce can ca use the
dat a to have severe geom et ric d istortions that can be d ifficu lt
to co rrec t.

- --- r---r-"_~

The Remote Sen sin g Proces s

21

~i

"'4

j ing

Bidirectional Reflectance Distribution Fuuctlon

I' th
-II th'
~-r l i
~ wc

"k

Jion-

~ t of

---

the

---

'" df.,

dE,

~un

~"
a"sk
0,

lag-

~ was
ITch
into
der-

1"'b. Sandmcicr Field Goniometer.

a. Angu lar relat ionships.

Ilw r
jage
ter-

uto-

,,

; 'I

"0"

. l-l , J .~~.--J

", J I~ "'"
_____

y~-

BanJ 624.20nm

8:00 a.rn.

Hand 624.20 nm

12:00 p.m.

\'''''......

r r.p, Jn1.(f

Band 624.2Unm

9;00 a.m.

9,3U 1jI. //J. (r

9,57.rljl,/ft9"I'

Hand 024.20 nm

4:110 p.m.

0, ]9.0'(' tjI 14."1.1'

0, 10.

, 0'

ired
tri c

"10
t'ly
d-

F'
bp
00

c. Comparison ofhowly three-dimensional plots of URDF for smoot h c ordg rass I Spanina a!l.,,,,ijlom) da ta
collec ted at 8 a.m. 9 a.m.. 12 p.m., and'; p.m. 3 1 the boardwalk site o n vta rch 21 -22. 2UCIO. for hand fl2-1.20 nm .

) if
ous

, airely,
~

(0

the
uh

FiQUre 1-13

OI l The concepts and paramet ers o f the bidirectiona l reflectance distn hution Iencti..... l HRllF) . A target is ba thed in irradiance
(dE,1 fro m a ~f'<.'Clfic Sun le1lit h and azimu th angle. and lhe s<..n~"'f n....cords the radiance (JL ,) ~,iti ng tho:ta rget of interes t OIl a
spec ific azim uth and zenith angle. b) Thc San dmeier Fiel d G..smorneter colJ...-cting smoolh cordgrass (Sf'<lrtitl<l "/fl?rnij]o,..,1
I:lRDf measureme nts a t NImh Inle t. S('. Spc...-tral m<'a..uremenls an: m ade al Su n zenith an~le o f 8, and S un azrmuth an gle or
'P, and 3 so..nsor zenith angle or view of 9 . and sensor azimuth ang le o f 'P. A GrR .l7Un spe..-tl'llr.ld iflffi<'le r. attached to the
mo vm g !>I~ mounted o n the zcnuh arc. reco rd, tiM;- amo unl of radrence leav mg the targe t in 7~ ha nds al 7(, angles t'Sandmeier.
2000; Sch ill CI aI. , 2(04 ). c) I iou d y lhJl,"('di me nsio nal plots ...f rm u r <lata .

22

Cu r re nt a nd Pr0l' 0 w d Sa tellite Rcmnte Se n..mg S) 'l>Icm s

-'

J,

;
I

J{C1110(l' sensing sys tems onboard !><llcllilcs provide highquality. relat ively inexpensive data per km~ . For example,
the European Remote Snsing satctlues (ERS-I and 2) colICI;I26 x 2X m spatial resolution Ccba nd activ e microwa ve
(RADA K) imagery of much of Earth, even through d ouds.
Simi larly. the Ca nadia n S pace AgCIK'y RA I>A RSAT ob tains
C-hand ac tive microwa ve imagery. The United States has
progressed from muluspecrrat scanning systems (landsat
~ 1SS launched in 1972) 10 more:advanced scanning sy stems
( Land sat 7 Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus in 1(99). Th e
Land Remote Se nsing Pol icy Act o f 1942 specified the
future o f satellite land remote sensing prog rams in the
Uni ted Stales (Asker, 1992; Jense n. 1(92), Unfo rtunately,
Land sat (, with its Enhanced Thematic Map per did not
achieve orbit when la unched on October 5. 1993. Landsat 7
was launched on April 15, 1991), to relie ve the United States'
land remote scnsing da ta ga p. Unfortun ate ly, it now has serious scan-l im: corrector problems. C hap ter 7 reviews the
plans for the proposed Landsat Con tinu ity M ission . Mean .... bile. the French have pioneered the development oflinear
array' remote sensing tec h nolo gy .... ith the launch of SPOT
satellites I through :; in 19 S6. 1990. 1993, 1998, and 2002 .

The lnrcmnional Gcosphe re- Biosphere Program IIGBP)

and the Umred States G lohal Ch ange Research Program
(USGCRP I call for scientific research 10describe and understand the interactive physical. chemical. and biological processes that regu late the lola I Eart h sys tem. Space-based
remote se nsing: is an integ ra l part of'these research progra ms
because it provides the on ly means of observing global ceosystems consistently' and synoplically. The National Ae ronautlcs and Space Administratiun (NAS A) Earth Science
Enterp rise (ESE ) is the IWI11 C given tu the coordina ted plan
to pro v ide the necessary satellite platform s and instruments
and an Earth Observing System Data and tnformanc n Sysk'TTllfOSDlS). and related scientific research fur IG BI'. The
Earth Observmg System (EOS) is a series of Earth-orbiting
satcllucs that will pro vide global observations for 15 years
or more. Th e first satellites were la unched in the b tl.' 19lJOs.
EOS is complemented by miss ions and ins tru ments from
international partners. For example, the Tropical Rainfall
Mapping :'I.fission (TR" IM) is a joint NASNJapanese mis-

sion.
EOS Scie nce Plan : As rar and Dozie r ( 1994 ) co nceptual-

ized 11100' remote sensing science cond ucted as part of

NASA 's ESE. They suggested that the Earth COItSiSb of two
subsystems. I) the physical climate, and 2) biogeochemical
cycles. linked by the glo be! hydrologic cycle, as shown in
Fig ure 1-14 .

';'Il APT U {

Rem ote Se ns in g of the Environment

Th e p"y.~il'a/ climate su bsystem is sensitive to nuct uatn

in the Eart h's rud iauon balance . Huma n activities lu
caused changes to the planet' s radiative hea ting mcchani
Ihat riva l or exceed natura l change. Increases in greenhot
gases between 1765 and 1990 have caused a radia tive fo
ing of2.5 W m1. If th is rate is sus tai ned. it could result
gloh.tl mean temperatu res increasing abou t 0 .2 10 05 C ,
decade duri ng thc ne xt cent ury, Volcan ic eru ption s and t
ocean's abil ity to absorb heat may impac t the projccuo
Nevert heless, the following questio ns arc being add ress
using remote se nsi ng (Asra r and Doz ier. 19(4):

llow do clo uds. water va por, and ae rosols in the Hartl

radia tio n and hea t budgets ch ange with inc rcas
atmospheric greenhouse-gas co ncen trat ions?
How do the oceans inte ract with the atmosphere in t
tra nspo rt and uptake ofh eat"
How do land-surfa ce properties suc h as snow and i,
cover. evapotra nspir ation. urban-suburban land use. at
vcgcrauon influence circulation?
The Earth's biogeochenncal cycles haw a lso been change
by human s. Atmos pheric carbon d ioxide has inc reased by ~
percen t since IMS9. metha ne by more than 100 percent, ar
ozone concentrations in the stratosphere have decrease
causing inc reased level s of ultraviolet radiat io n to reach tt
Ea rth's surface. G lobal change re sea rch is address ing It
fo l l o w in~ q uestion s:
What role do the oceanic and terrestrial components ofth
biosphere play in the changing g loba l carbon budget?
Wlwt are the eff ects on ruuural and managed ec osyste m
of increase d carbo n dioxide and aci d depo s itio n. shiflin.
precipitation pa tterns, and cha nges in soil erosion, rive
chemistry. and atmospheric ozone concentrations'!

The hydrolngic cycle links rhc physical climate and bio

geoc hem ica l cycles. Th e p hase change of water between it;
gaseous, liq uid. and so lid states involves storage and release
of latent hea r. so il intl ucnces atmospheric circulation am
globally redismbutes both water and heat (As rar and Doz ier
1994). Th e hydro log ic cycle is the integ rati ng proce ss for tht
flux es ofwatcr. en ergy, and che mica l clements among COlli
poncuts uf the Earth system. Impo rtan t ques tions 10 be
ad dressed incl ude these three:

110 w w ill atmospheric va riabil ity, hum an activities. and

cli mate change a ffect pat terns o r hu midit y, precip itati on.
evapotranspiration. and soil moisture'!

- --

.
,,

,.

The Remote Sen s ing Pro ce ss

23

Externa l

Forcing

Su n

Volcan oe s

Fun ctions
cc
',th e

Jns.
t ied

I'h:n ,k al Climate Sys lc m

Hiu ~('och ('m ic al

Marine
bio-

Oce an
dyna mics

'.

Atm ospheric
physics and
dy na m ics

ice

aod

energ y

30

and
mo istu re

od

geo ch emistry
Tropospheric
chem istry ..

Global moisture

Terr est rial

<d

Cycles

Terrestrial
ecosystems

Soil and wate r

chemis try

cd ,

I the

, the
I

C lilllale
C ha nge

Carbon l>iO\: id c and Other Trace Gases

Land usc

Water pollution

nns
ing

Iluman Activities

'"
'oils

as.c

aod

FfgU re '14

The Earth system can be suhdiv idcd into I"''' eubsystcms-c-thc physica l climate s~st ...m and biogeochemical eyeles -s-that are
linked b)' the glohal hydrologic cycle. Signiticanl changes I n the external forci ng functions and human activities have an impact on the physical climatesystem . biogeochemical cycles, and the J;1,,1xI1hydrolo gic c ycle. Examination of'these sub~ y ~ tcnH'
and their linkages de fines tbe critical qucsuons that the NASA Earth Observing System ( EOS l is attempting 10 answer (adapled from Asrar and Dozier. 19'N).

Howdoe s soi l moistu re vary in time and spac e?

,"d
Ion.

Can \\ c predict chaugcs in the g toba l hyd ro logic cycle

using present and future observation systems and mod els"

These a nd other resea rc h questions arc art iculated in

r\ASI\'s current Earth System Science foc us areas (Asrar.
2U(4 ). The mod els tbar address these research questions
require sop hist icated rc motc sensing mea surements. To thi s
end, the EO S Terra satctlit c wa s launc hed on December IK
1\)I,l'}. It con tai n, tl ve remote sensing msrn nnc nrs ( MOD IS.

- - -r

24

'('IIA P! t:R

ASTI;.t. 1\11SR.CERES. and Mo prn ) designed to address

nuny o f the resea rch topics (King. ::!nOJ). The [OS Aqua
satellite was laun ched in May, 200 2. Th... vtodcratc Resolu tion Imaging Spectrom ete r (1\ 10 0 IS) has 36 bands from
U.-I.I)5 1\1 14.3R5 um th.u colle ct data at 250 x 250 Ill. SOO x
500 m. and 1 x 1 km spa tial reso lution s. \-lODI S vie ws the
en tire s urface of the Earth "'\"'1) o ne 10 "'H ' da ys. makin g
obse rvat ions in 36 spectral ba nds o f land - and ocea n-surfa ce
tem pe rature. prima ry prod uctivity, land-surface cover,
d ouds, a c rosols. water vapor. temperature profiles. 3 11 t!
fires.

.,I

Remote Sen sing of the Envirooment

multispectral bands (Table 13 ). Digita lG lo be. I

launch ed <)uiekH ird on October 18, 200 I , '" ith a 61 x 6 1
panc hro ma tic band a nd four 2.44 x 2A-4 m mu ltispec
bauds. Orh imagc, Inc , launched OrbView-3 lin June:
20n3. w ith I x I m panchro matic and 4 x 4 III muhispcc
bauds.

Remote Sensing Data Analysis

Remote sensor data are analyzed using a variety of inu

processing techniques IFigu rls 1-5 and I- IS), incl uding:

n

The Advanced Spaccbomc The r ma l Emission and Retl...' Cnon Rad iometer (AST ER ) has five bands in the thermal
infrarc-d region between X and 12 u rn with 9O--m pixels. II
also has three brood bands betwee n U.5 and U.9IJ III wnh 15*
III pIxe ls and stereo capability, and six ba nds in the shortwave infrared region (1.6 - 2.5 flm ) with 30-m spatial reso lution. AST ER is the highest spatial rc....uution sensor
system on the EOS Terra plat form and provides information
on surface temperature that can be used to mod e 1 evapotran sp iration.
The !\lultiangle Imaging SjX-ctroRadiom ct er (\1ISRl has
nine sep.wol te chargc-couplcd-dcvi cc tCCD ) pus hbroom
cameras to observe the Eart h in four spectra l bands an d at
nine view ang les . II provides da ta on cloud s. atmospheric
aerosols, and mult iple-angle view s of the Earth's desert s.
vegetation, and ice cover. Th c C louds and the Earth'.. Radiant EIl':ll!)' System (C ERES) co nsists o f two sca nning radiom crcrs that mea sure the Earth's radiat ion balance and
provide cloud propert y estimates 10 assess the ir ro le in radiative fluxes from the sur face o f the Eart h 10 the top o f the
atmosphere. Finally, the \kasurement s of Po llution ill the
Troposphere (I\10 PITI ) scanning radiometer pro vide s
informat io n on the d ismbution. tran spo rt. sou rces . and sinks
o f carbon monoxide and methane in the troposphere.
The National Po lar-o rbiting Op erationa l Em iro nmcn ta l Sate llite Syste m (NPOESS) Preparatory Project (1'\1'1') to be
launc hed will ex te nd key EOS measurements in suppo rt o f
long-term monitoring ofcli mate trends and g loba l hio logical
prod uctivity unt il the I'\POE SS ca n be launched so metime in
the fut ure, The NP I' will conta in MO DIS- like in.stTUnll'nts
such as the Vis ible Infra red Imag ing Rad iometer Suite
( VIIRS I. With a liw-ye3r dl'Sig n life "'PI' .... ill pro\ ide dala
pa.\ol the designed lili:l ime:- of E< )S Terra and Aqll/l s<JIell ites
thro ugh the launc h ofN I'OESS (NO AA NPO ESS. 2 (1ll(1).

I,.

C o nllll ('rda l \ t' lId ur~ : Spa"e Imag ing. lTIC_. launched
IKO :-.lOS2 on Septembl.'T 24, 1999 . The IKO )'\OS';! sensor
system has a I x I III pa nch roma tiC band and four 4 x 4 III

analog (\ isual ) image proc essing. and

d igital image proc essing.
Anal og and d ig ita l anal ysis ofremotely sensed data seck
de tect an d ide ntify important phenomena in the scene. O n
ide ntified. Ihl." phe nomena are usually measured, and I
information is used in solving pro blem s (E stes et a l.. l q~
Haack el al., I()lJ7}. Th us. both manual and digua l analyr
ha ve the sa me gen era l goa ls. However. the attain ment
these goals may follow d ifferen t pa ths.
Hum an be ings arc adept at v isually interp reting image s pr
duccd by certa in types o f re mote se ns ing devices , especial
cameras . O ne cou ld ask . ' Why try to mimic o r impro ve l
this capability?" Firs-t. there a re certain thresholds beyor
I I hieh the human interp reter cannol detect jusl nonccab
differences " in the imagery. For ex am ple. it is com mon!
known that an a na lyst ca n discri minate ' lilly about nir
shades o f gray \\ hen interpreti ng co ntinuous-tone. blad
and-wh ile photo graphy. If the data we re or iginally recorde
wi th 156 sh ade s of gray. there migh t he more subtle infomu
tion presen t in till' image tha n the interp reter ca n ex tra,
visually. fu rthe rmore. the interpreter brings to the task a
the press ures of the Jay. making the inrerpretauon subject iv
and gene rally unrcpc arab lc. Co nversel y. the results obtainc.
by compurcr a rc repea table (even when wrongl], A lso, whel
il comes to keeping track of a great amount ofdeta iled quart
uranve informa tio n. such as the spec tral ch ara cteris tics of;
vegeta ted field throug hout a grow ing season lo r crop idc nti
flc.nlon purposes. the comp ute r is very lIdep t aI st(.ring allt
man ipu lating suc h ted iou s info nnation a nd possibly m ak i n~
a nlIlre de liniti\'e conclusion a" to wh:ll c rop is bei ng gro ..... n
Th is is n(ll to say that d ig ita l image pmc cs sing is superior te
visual image ana lysis . Rathe r. there Illay be times when f
digi tal ap proa ch is beller suited t(lt he probl em al hand. O pti.
mum res ulls an' oft<:n ac hiewd u~ing a synl."rgistic l''Ombination of oolh \'isua land dig ita l image processi ng.

------r-r--_.~_==

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The Remote sensing Process

25

Fundam rntallma~e .\nal~~i' Ta'''~

Detect, lde nnfy . Measure

Solve problems

Applicauen oftbc ,H ulli concept

Mu llisp',:dral- Mulufreq ucncy - Multipolarization
- Mufurcmpora l Multiscalc . Mulndiscip hna ry
I
Usc of e "U,/ta ut IlIp"'/lI,ti""
- Literat ure Laboratory spc.:tru - Dichotomous kc}'s - Pnor probabilities
Fiel d training sires - Fiel d tes t s ites - Soil nmps - Surficial geology maps
"na lu!: i \ 'i, u,111
Im31.:C I'r uccl>sinl:

"0
nee
the

/:"Il'nlt'm\ oJ Im ug t' Int"rprt1uti,m

(i1d~"ClIk tone tblacl.. to wh ite]

~3;

sis

Color (ROB - red , green. blue]

of

Height

(~k\~IIOnl and

depth

ro Size (length. area. perimeter. volume)

If lIy

,h "

Shape

"d
hI<
nly

Texture

inC'

Pattern

cklk d

Shadow

rmacr

Site
Association
Arrangement

,"
he

lJi ~ihl l

Im a g{" Process ing

11"" '1111' 1"",,,,1.\ of Imu/:' !IlI.'rp r.'luri,m A rt"

HxtrU("I..J IIr U,sl'd ill lJittiwlln",gt' J'r./(l;'u ;"X

8 I" 12bll brighmcss values, Of scaled 10

surface reflectance or emutance
24-bit color loo k-up table display
\lullibanJ RGB co lor compcsucs
- Transforms tc.g., intensity, hue . .'Io1 Iurntionl
Soft-copy rhOll>grdtnrnl:try. radargrammctry.
RADAR interferometry, L1DAR, SO)'\AR
Soft-copy pho togrammctry. radargrammctry,
RAIlAR mrcrfcrcmctry
So ft-copy pho togrammctry. radargrnmmctry.
interferometry, landscape eco logy memes.
object-oriented image segmentation
Texture transforms. gcosratistical analysis.
landscape ceo logy metric". fractal analy"is
Autocorrelation. gcosratistica l unnlysis,
landsc ape eco logy mentes. frac tal anulys is
son-copy pluuograrumctry, radargr ammctry.
mcus urcmcnt from rectified images
Conte xtual. c:;.pcn "y"lcm. ne ural network anal}"is
Cllnle :;.1Ual. expert syste m. ne ural network an alysis
Contcxt uat.vx pcrt system. ne ura l network analysis

,,""

hen
an-

Figure ' 15

Anal'll; (\' i~uaIJ and digital image processing of'rcmorcly sensed data use the elements of image inlerpre lali(lll,

f,
li-

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(' huaJ I I ma ~(' rron"" in ~

ing:

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na-

Human beings usc the fundamental clements of image inte rpretation summarized in Figure 115. including grayscale
tone. color, height Idcpth), size. shape. shade w, texture. site.
esccuncn. and arrangement. The human mind is amazingly
good at recogniz ing and associating these complex elements
in an image or photograph because " e constantly process I a l
profile \ ic.....s of Earth featu res every day and (b) images

seen in book". magazines. the television and the Inle rnet.

Furthermore. we are adept ar bringing to bea r all the kno..... t,
edge in our persona l background and collateral information.
we then con verge all this e vidence 10 ide ntify phenomena in
images and judge the ir sign ificance. Precise measuremcm of
objects (length. area. perimeter. volume, etc.) may be perlim n coJ using phorogra m m etric techniq ues app lied 10 either

monosccpic (single- pho to ) or ste reos copic (1)\C'r1apping )

images, Numerous hooks ha ve been w ritten o n how to pe r-

26

form visual image iruerprctation and pho[()grJmmc lric measurernern.

There is a resurgence in the art and science of visual image
inrerprctntiou as the d igital remote se nsor sys tems provide
mcreavingly higher spatial resolu tion imagl'ry. M any people
arc d isplaying IKO :-.rO S I x 1 m and Qu ick Rird 61 x 61 em
imagery on the computer screen and then visua lly interpreting the data. 'lhe data arc also often used as a base map in
G IS proj ects (Clar ke. 200 1).

Scient ists have made significa nt advances in d igilul image

processi ng of remo tely sensed data for scientific visualize lion and h)[IOlh,.-sis le5ting Ie.g . E!.h..~ and Jens...n. 1\)9~ ;
Towns hend a nd Justice. 2002; Kraak . 200 3). Th e me thods
arc summar ized in Donuay et a1. (2(l()I l. Hossle r or al.
(2002), Jensen (1005 ). and others . Digita l imago: processing
no w makes use of many elements o f image iruerprctanon
using the techniques summarized in Figure I-IS. The major
types of dig ua l image p rocessing incl ude image prep rocessing (radiometric and geom et ric corrccnonj. image enhance memo pat tern recogn ition u.,ing inferent ial statist ics.
photogrammcm c image processing o f ste reoscop ic imagery.
expert sys tem Idl"Cision- tree) and neural network image
analysis. hypcrspccual data analysis, and cha nge detection
(Figu re 15 ).

Radiometric Cc r rcc uo n uf Rt'1II0ll' Sen-o r Data : Analog

and dig ital remote ly sensed imagery may contain noise or
erro r that was introduced ~y the sensor system (e.g. . electronic noise] or the environment tc.g.. atmospheric scariering of light into the sensor's field of view]. Advances hale
been made in o ur anility to remove these dele terious effects
through simple image normulizanou techniques and more
advanced abso lute radiometric calibration of the data to
scaled su rface refl ectance (for optical data}, Calibrated
remote sensor data a llows imagery and de rivativ e products
obt ained on diffe ren t dates to be c om pared (c.g., to measure
the change in leaf area Inde x between two dares] . Funda mental Jigi tal imag e processing princl pk-s arc discussoj in
Jensen (2005).
Gl'o nu.' tr ie Co rrec tiun of n l'm lltc Sen so r Dat a; I\losl alia
log and digital remote sensor dala are no\\ processt..'d so that
indi\'idual piCIU rl' eleml'nts are in the ir proper pla nimet ric
posi tions in a standa rd map pftljccl illll. This facilitates the:
usc of the imagery :ll1d de rivatiw prod ucts in GIS or spatia l
dt..~ is ion support syste ms.

CIIA I' I ER

Remote Sensing of the Environm en t

I ma!);t' t:nlmnCClllcnl; Images ca n hc digita lly en hance d

idemify subtle information in the analog or d ig ital image
that might cthcrw ise be m issed, Significant irnprovemcn
han ' bee n made in our abilit y to contras t stret ch and filt
data ro enhance low a nd high fr...-qucncy components. edge
and texture in the imagel') (e.g . E ~ ....on et al.. I 9QQ). I
add ition, the remote sensor data can be linearl y and nonlu
early transformed into information that is more highly corn
luted \\ ith real-w orld phenomen a through pr incipr

components analysis and various vegetation indices (To" !

shend and Justice. 2002 1_
Phnl ogramnH"t r y: Signi flc am advances have been made i
tho: a na lysis of stereoscopic remote sensor data ohtainc
from a irborne or sa tellite platforms using computer wor ksta
tions and digi tal image processi ng pho rogrammctnc argo
rithms (e.g .. Adams and Chandle r, 20(2). So ft-c op,
p hotog mnnuctric workstations can he used 10 extract acc u
rate digital elevation models I DEMs) rind d iffe re ntiall y cor
rectcd orthophl'togra phy from the tria ngu lated aeria
photogra phy or image ry (Light and Jensen. 2tl02; Linde!
20ll] ). The tec hnology is revolutionizing the way OEMs ant
onbophotos arc produced for rura l and urba n- subu rbcr
applications.
Parame t ric lnfurmarluu Exrrac tto n: Scien tists a tll'mpl in~
to e xtrac t land-cover informatio n from remotely sensed data
now rounnely specify ift hc classi fication is 10 be :
hurt/, with disc rete mutually exclusive classes, or jil::'''
where the propo rtions of materials within pixels arc
extracted (Seong and Usery. 20t) I );

based on ind ividua l pixels (referred 10 as a per-pixel

d<t.I.I ((inlfio ll) or if it will usc obj ect-oriented image

segmentatio n algorithms that take into account not on ly

the spect ral characrerisucs of a pixel. bur also the spectral
characteristics of contextual su rrounding pi",els. Th us, the
algori thms la ke into accoun t spec tral and spalial
infurrnation ( Herold et ai.. 200.\: Hod gso n cr al., 2003a;
Tullis and Jensen. 2003 1.
Once thcl>C issut..'S arc <ldd rcssed, it is a maner of detenni ning
whc!her to USl' paramet ric, l1 vnparantetric, and/or non metrie
c1as..iticatiol1 ll"Chniques . T he maximum likelihood classificat ion algori thm ellntinues to be the mos l widcly used para ml'1ric dass ification algorithm. lill fortunatl'ly, Ihe a lgorit hm
requ irl's nonnal !y d istributed training duta in II b:mds (rurdy
thc case) for com puti ng the class variance a nd covariance
matr ict..-s. It is d ifficult to illcorpo ratl' noni magc categorical
da ta into a maximum Iikclihood classification , Fortunately.

---The Remote sensing Process

"..,

'I

27

fuzzy maximum likel ihood cla ss ificat ion algorithms are

nnw available (e .g., Foody, 1996) .

rion about how indiv idual class ificatio n decisions were

made (Zhang. and Wang, 2(03 ).

\ onparaml.'l ric Informalinn Ea trecucn: Nonparame mc

clustering algorithms, suc h as ISO DATA, continue 10 be
used extensively in d ig ital image process ing resear ch.
Unfortunately, such algo rithms de pend (10 how the seed
raining data are extracted an d it is often d iffic ult ru labc f rhe
clusters to turn them into informat ion class es. For these rcasonsthen.' has been a significant increase in the developm ent
and useofartificial neu ral network s (ANN) for remo te sensing applicatio ns te.g.. Q iu and Jensen. ~OOS ) . The ANN docs
net require normally d istri buted tra ining data . A NN may
incorporate virtua lly any type o f spatia lly d istributed data in
lkc1as-~ification. The only d rawback is thai some times il is
diffic ult 10 dete rmine exactly how the- ANN cam... up .... ith a
rcrtain co ncl us ion because the info rma tion is locked within
\hev.cighls in the hidd ...n layer(s). Scientists are working on
uys to extrac t hidden inform ation so that the rules used ca n
be more formally stated. T he ability of an ANN to learn
should not he unde restima ted.

Ideall y. computers can derive the rules from tra ining data
without huma n intervention . This is refe rred to as machineImming (Huang and Jensen, 1997: Jensen. 2oo 5 \. The analyst identifies represe ntative training areas. T he mach ine
learns the panerns from these traini ng data. creates the- rules ,
and USI.'S them to c1assif)"the remotely sensed data. The rules
are available to docume nt how decisions were made.

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venmetrte Inform at ion Extrectlcn: It is diffi cult to make

a computer unde rsta nd and usc the heuris tic rules of thumb
and knowledge thai a human expert uses when interpret ing
an image. Nevertheless, there has been progress in the U~ of
artificial intell igence (AI) to try to make computers do
things that. at the moment. people do beuer. One area of A I
that has great potential for image analysis is the usc ofex pert
st...ms that place a ll the informa tion co ntained with in an
Image in its proper co ntext with ancillary data and extrac t
valuable information. Duda ct a l. (200 1) descri be various
t~Jl(S ofexpert sys tem decision-tree classifiers as nonmetric,
Paramet ric di g.i ta l image classifica tion techniques arc based
primarily on sum mary staustics such as the mean. variance,
IlId covariance matrices. Decision-tree or rule-based classifier; are not based on infe rential stat istics, but instead " let
the data speak for itself ' [Guhcgan. 2( 03 ). In other words,
thr data retains its precision and is not dumbed do wn by
summarizing ir th rcugh means. etc. Decis ion-tree classifiers
can process virtually any lype o f spatially distributed data
and can incorpo rate prior probabilities (Mc lvcr and Friedl,
~2 ). There are three approac hes to rule creauon : 1) explicitly extracting know ledge and creati ng rules from experts. 2 )
implicitly extracting variables a nd rules using cog niti ve
methods ILloyd ct al., 20(2 ). and J) empir icall y generating
rules from observed data and autom atic induction methods
(Tullis and Je nsen, 20(3). The deve lopment o f a decision
me using human- speci fied rules is time-co nsuming and diffcuh. However, it rewards the user with detailed info rrna-

H)'pt'r'opel.'t ra l: Special software is required to process

hypcrspect ral data obtai ned by imaging spcct romd iomcrers
such as AVIRIS and t\IO! JIS. Kruse et al. II <N2). Landgre be
and Hiehl t 2(06 ). Digital Research Sys tems (2006) and oth ers have pioneered the de velop ment of hypcrspccrral image
analysis software. T he so n w are red uces the d imensi onali ty
of the data (n umber of hands) to a ma nageable degree, while
retaining the esse nce of the data . Under certain condiuons
the software ca n be used tn co mpare the remotel y sensed
spectral reflec tance curves with a library of spec tral re nee ranee CUn.l'S. Ana lysts arc also able to identify the type and
proportion of diffe rent materia ls .... ithin an individ ual picture
clemen t (referred to "s end-mem ber spectral mixture ana lysis) ( Lu and w cng , 2004; Platt a nd Goetz, 200-1).
:\lndl'linl: Remote Sc n:> inl: Da ta Lsi ng a G IS A p prnac h:
Remote ly se nsed da ta sho uld no t he a nalyzed in a vacuum
without the benefi t of collateral information suc h as soi l
maps. hyd rology. and topog raphy (Ramsey cr al.. 1995). For
example, land-cover mapping using remotely se nsed data
has been sig mtica ntly improved by inco rporat ing topo graphi c Information from dig ital terrain models and ot her
G IS data (c.g. , Stow er al.. 20tH). G IS studies require timely,
acc urate updating of the spat ially d istributed variable s in the
database that remo te sensing. ca n provide (Clarke, 200 1).
Remote sensing ca n benefit from ace...ss to accurate anci llary
Informa tion to improve class ification accuracy and othe r
types of modeli ng. Suc h syn...rgy is cr itical if successfu l
expe rt syste m and neural network analyses are to be performed (Tullis and Je nsen . 2(03). A framework for model ing. the uncertainty betwe en remot e sensing and geographic
infonnauo n sys tems was develo ped by Gahegan and Ehlers
(2000 ).
Scene ,\ l uth" ling: Strahler et al. (19 X(, ) descr ibe a frame w ork for modeling in re mote se nsing. Basica lly. a remote
sensi ng model has three componel11s: I) a sce ne model.
which specifies the form and nature of'the cnergy a nd matter
with in the sce ne and their spat ial a nd tempo ral order: 2) an
atmospheric mod el. whic h desc ribes the interaction betwee n
the atmosphere and the energy en tering and being emitted

26

h ,

"

J
"

fro m the sce ne; and 3 ) a scusur mode l. \\ hich describes the
behavior of the sensor in res pond ing to the en..::rgy tl uxcs
incidcru on it and in producing the measurements that constitute the image. They suggc..t that the problem of scene
mferencc. then. becomes a proble m of mode l inversion in
which the order ill the scen e is reconstructe d fro m the image
and the rem ote sensing mod el . For example. Woodcock er el.
11997l inverted the Li-S rrah ter Canopy Reflectance .\loJd
for mappi ng fo res t structure.
Bas ically, successful re mote sensi ng modeling pred icts ho w
much rad ia nt n ux ill certa in wavelengths shou ld exit a pa rticular object (e.g .. a coniter canopy] even \\ ubout ac tually
scnsi ng the object. When the model's prediction is the same
as the sensor's measu rement. the r.:!atiolls hip has he...n modele d co rrec tly. The sc ientis t rhcn has a gre ater apprec iation
for cnc rgv-rnauer interac tions in the sce ne an d may he nble
10 exte nd the logic to other regions or apphcauons wuh co nfidencc. The remote sensor data can thcn be used mo re effcc
tivcl y in physica l dercrmimsuc models te.g., watershed
runoff net prima ry produc tivity. and cvuputranspirat ion
mode lsr thar arc so important for largc ecosystem modeling.
Recent wor k allows one 10 model the utility of sensors with
different spa tial resolut ions for particular app lications. such
as urba n ana lysis (Collins and Woodcock. ](99 ).
C ha nge nerocuun : Remotely sens ed da la obtai ned 0 11 multip lc dates can be used 10 iden tify the type and spa tial distribu tion of changes taking place m the landsca pe (Friedl et al.,
2002; Zhun ct ul.. 20(2). T he change infor matiun provides
valuable insight into the pI"OCf!,I'\TX ;]1 work (A lhc rti d al.,
2()()...1; Auch cr a l.. 201).;). Change detect ion algorithms ca n
be used on per-pixel and object-oriented (po lygon ) classificat ions. Unfortuna tely. the re is still no universally accep ted
me thod of dete cting change or {If assessing the accu racy of
chang e detect ion map products. Digital image pru~ cssing
ch ango: detr:ction p ri nc i p l ~ ,ITo: d iscu s!'>Cd in Jenscn (20U5).

C IIA I' T l: R

Rem ote SensIng 01 the EnvIronment

tographic theory or database topology de sign] o ften prod

pour output prod ucts that do not communicate dlcc t i \ e1 ~

tmage mapv offer scientists an ahemauve to line maps
many cartograp hic ap plications. Thousa nds of sate!
image map s have been prod uced from l and sat M
(I :25 U,OOU and I ;SOU.Utll ) scale). T~t ( I ; mo.ooc sca le) E
AVI IRR, and 1->100 15 da ta . Image maps at scale.. > ] :2t[
arc possible using imagery with a spatial reso lution of :::,
I III (Light and Jensen. ':WO.2 ,. Hecause image map produ
ca n be prod uced fur 1I fraction o f the cosrof conventioi
line ma ps, they provide the basis for a nat iona l map scr
oriented toward the exploration an d economic developrm
of the less-developed areas of the world. most of which ha
nOI been marred at scales of I: ]00.000 or larger.
Remote se nsor data lhat have bee n geomet ricall y rectified
standard map projection are becoming indispensable
most sophisticated G IS databases This is especially true
ort hophoromaps. which ha ve the metric qualincs o f 1I Ii
mar and the informnrion content o f an aerial pho tograph
other type o f image.

II

Unfortunately, f'rror is introd uced in the remote sensing pr>

cess and must he idenufied and report ed. Innovations
erro r reduc tion include: I ) record ing the lineage o f the ope
ations ap plied to the ori gin31 remote sensor data. 2) doc.
mcnting the geometric (spatial) error and thematic tanribun
error of the source ma terials, 3) im proving lege nd dt's igl
es pec ially for change detection map produ cts deri ved fnn
remote sensi ng. and 4) improved acc uracy assess ment. Th
remote se nsi ng and G IS community should incorporate ted
nologics thilt track all error in fina l map and image prod uct:
Th is w ill resu lt in more accura te information being USN i
the dccicion-rnakin g proce ss.

Earth Observation Economics

Information Presentation

lnformation dc rin 'd from remote sensor dal a arc usua lly
summarilcd 1Il> an cnhanced image. image map. onhophotumap. thematic ma p. 5Pilti:ll dataha~ li te. statis tic. or gra ph
( Figure 1 5 ). Thus. the lina l o Ulp ut products o ften Itl.]uire
knowled ge of r\'nwt t' sensi ng. ~anog fa p hy. GI S. and spatial
slat istics as \\c11 as the sy stemalie sc ience being imc"tigah:d
(e.g.. soils. agrit'ulture, urt>::m studit's). Scienti5lS who undcrsta nd thc ruk s and syne rgislic rd at io n"hips o f the Icc hno logit's can produ ce OUl pul prod ucts thai COllllllullicatc
e tlectively. Those who violatc lh ndam ental rules (c,g., car-

T he National Researc h Coun ci l rt'c ogn ized Ihat thcre is lit

ecunomic systt'm at play \loh.:n remote sensor data afe USC!
for earth resou rcc managcmcnt ap plications (Figure 1- 16
( Miller ct al.. 10t)l)_ It co nsists of an infom u tio n dcl i\cf)
sys lem wi th thrcc co rnpont'n1s: data co lkctinn. illl3gc pro
cessing. and in l;'lnna tion co nsumer (user ).
Thc data colkction system is composcd of commert'ial ven
dors and public agcncies thaI OpC'ratc ren wtc scnsi ng sy..tem s. Privale ind ustry prov idcs inti lflna lion al mllrkcl va lue.
Public agenc ies gc nt'ra lly pro v ide rt'mote se nsor d3la al thc
cost of fulllilling a use r request (CO FUR ). Rcmolc sensing

-------

29

Earth Obse r vation Ec on omic s

,J

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..,-

Remot e Sensing Ear th Ob servation Economics

1for

Information Delivery System

Illite
JifSS

Platform and
senso rs

"d

"
A nalog (visual)

and/or

Radiant energy

ucts

(pho ton s)

f}nlll

, es

(Use r )

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Data collec tion

- JlO!'
..- 1 x

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consumer

d igital ima ge
pro cessing

Information

Perceived

I rem

1_1-_

, lave

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econo mic. social ,

strategic,
environmental.
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h 0'
low high

Difficu lt (0
underst and

ro-

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::d in

Ftgure 1-1 6

Remote Wfl~ing Earth observation economics . The goalrs 10mimmize the /cfl(''''/f!I1Ke g"p betweentbe Intc...mal i~>n
delivery system. n:mo te sen sing experts. and the in form ation consu mer (user). The remote scnsmg-dcrivcd economic. socia l, strategic, environment al. and/o r pohncal mforma tion must be cosr-effecnve. and ('8.~y to use to achieve
equilibrium tadaprcd from Miller et al., 2003).

has been around since the 1960:.. There is an increasing

number of experts that can usc analog and/or digita l image
processing techniques til extract information from the imagery. f inally, then: is the information consumer (user) of the
re mote sensing-derived information. The user generally
needs information of economic . social. strategic. environmental and/or political value (Liverman ct al., 1998).
In orderfor the revenues generated by the information dclivsystem to be sufficient to support the capita l and operating costs of the syste m. there musl be a balance
tequslibriumj between the valu e o f the information. as perceived by the user (cons umer). and the revenue necessary to
>UpflOn the system {Miller er at , 20tH, 2(03). The equilibrium has been achieved for airborne photogrammctnc a nd
UD.-\ R mapping applications for several decades. Time will
tell if the balance between perceived value and cost can be
maintained in the spaccbomc case. Mergers arc occurring.
On January 12. 2006, ORBIMAGE acquired Space lmagings assets and now functions as GcoEyc. Inc.. providing
ety

IKONOS, Orbview-z and Orbvicw-S image produc ts, GeoEye plans to launch a new sensor in 2007 with a spat ial resolution of 0.4 I x 0.41 III (Geo Eyc. 2006) ..
Tho: equilibrium can also be impacted by remote sensing
technology experts that do not have a good understanding of
the user information requ irements. In fact. some remote
sensing experts.. are often baffled as to why the consu mers
don't embrace the remote sensing-derived information.
What they fail to consider is that the consumers generally
have no motivation to switch to remote sensing-derived
infonn ation on economic. social. environmental. strategjc.
or political attributes simply beC3U~ it is based on new technology. Furthermore. the co nsumers on the right side of the
diagram often hal e lillie know ledge of remote sensing technology or of how it is used 10 derive information.
Miller et al. (2001; 2003) suggest that this situation creates a
knowledge gap between the remote sensi ng experts and the
information consumers (user) (Figure 116). Bridging the

_ _....

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30

CR,W U :R

Re mo te Sens ing o f th e Env ironment

.~
Organization of

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Remote St'I B;II/: fll l ite EIII';rm",U'II /

Chlljlh'r I.
Rem e re Sl' lI ~i ll ~ !lf the Em'i"uIl 1l1l'ut
11/ Situ Dura Collection
Rem ote Scusiug Oat<J Collection
The Remo te Sen sing Pro ce ss

C hlllJIt>f 2.
Ra d iation Principll"
Conducnon, Convection. and Radiauon
Energy-Matter lmc racuo ns in III", Atrnes phc rc
En.:rgy-\1aner jnrcracuons wuh the TCITaIll
[I tc l rom a~n {"l ic

C hllptt"r J.
Jli slor) flf .\ t'fl ll l l' h o t ll~ r a p h)' .JIId
..\ ,' rl llll'llltll,rl11 s
His tory o f I'horograph y
Pho tography from Aerial Platforms
Photo-R econnaissanc e in \V\VI and WW II
Col d Wa r Phuto -Recon nnisvancc
Celestia l Sarcllihc Sentinels
Unmanned ..\ er ial vehicle s

C hap l('r ....

Aeria l Ph"l o~rap h)
vemca t and Oblique Vantage Po ints
Aer ial Came ras
Fihration and Films
Planni ng Acnal Phutography Missitlm,

C ha lll... r 5.
Ell' ml'nfs of \ 'j"ua l lll1 a!:(' IlItl' rprcl:llioll
Elements of Ima ge lntc rpretauo n
Method s of Search

Ch apter Cl.

Phni ogramlllet r )
FIi!!htline~ of Acnat Photogra phy
lmag... Nomenclature
Scale Height \ t easurcment on Smg je PhOl o~

Ch ap ter- 7.
:\1ult h pcctra! Renuue Sl' n , l ll~
Multis pectr al D;1Ia Collec tion
Discrct... Delector-, and Sunning .\1 i rro r~
\l uh i'l'cclra l Imaging Usi ng Linear Arr ays
Imaging Spectroscopy
Digital Fra me Camcras
Satellite PhOI(lgr.tph ie System s

Stereosco pic Mcasurcment

Orthophotos and Digital Elevation ~odcl s
Ar...a Measurement

C ha pte r K.
Therm al Infra red Rcruute St'n,ing
History
Thcrmullnfrarcd Radiation Prope rties
At mos phe ric Windows
Th erm al Radia tion Law s
Therma l Propert ies of Terrain
Th ... rmullnfrurcd Data Co llection
T IR Enviro nmental Co nsid era tions

Cha p te r 9.
Aclh (' and Pa", I,, ~ lic ro" l1 '"
IIi"tOf)
Acnv c Mic rowave System Co mpone nts
RADA R Environ me ntal Conside rat ions
SAR Remote Sensin g fro m Space

R.\DA R lnrertcromctry
Passive .'.1in o"" a' c Rcmo te Sensing

Cha pt er In.
I.IUAR Remote St'n ~in J:.
Princ iple s (returns, den suy, iutcusity }
Proc essin g to Create DEM. DS M. DTM
' Accuracy o f LI OA R-d\.'r ivcu pWdUt.' IS

C ha pt er II.
Hl'IlI"le Sensl n!: uf \"~('l lIl l o n
Photosynlhl');b Funda me nta ls
Spectral Cbaracrenstics o f vegetanon
Tem po ral C haracteri stics of'Vegctauo n
\ '~elat l o n Indices
Landscape Ecology' Metrics
Hiodiversiry and G A P Ana lysis

Vegetation Change Detection

,,
Figure 1-17

B".. ~ organin llllll,

------ -

--._---

Earth Resou rce An al ysis Pers pec ti ve

31

O rgan ization of
Remme Sensmg of th e Environment - continued

-,

C ha ple r 12.

Chapt er- 1.&.

R e mo te S('n ,i n ~ of " a ter

Surface Warcr Uiuph)'si,,;al Characteristics
Precipitation

Re mme Se nsing Solils.'I in e ral s, and

(;co nlo r p hulo !:)
Soil Charucrerisncs allli Taxonomy
Remote Sensing Soil Propenies
Remote Sensing RClC b and Minerals
Geology and (iet, m"'1"htlltlgy

Aerosols and nuu Js

f,

Water Vapor and Snow

Walc:: r-qu;)lity \ loJc1inl!

,r

C 1H1llh 'r D .
R emote S... nsin l: the I 'r -h a n Landscape
Urban-Suburban Resolut ion Considcrunons
Remote Sensing l .nnd Usc -Land Cover
R...sidcunal
Commercial and Services
l ndusmaland Transportation
Communications and Utilities

C ha p ter 15.
1,1 Sil/l Slll'l'tra l I{l'fll'l'tall fl' .\ It'llsu rl'ml'nt
Spectral Reflectance of a Material
llluminanon Considerat ions
Radiometer Con vidcruricn s

Urban Mo1'l etJrolog ical Data

Critical Envi ronmental Area Assessment
Di~1S1<."f Emergency Response

Fig u re 1 17 Book organization Iconunccdj.

Earth Resource Anal ysis Perspective

gap is manda tory i f \\e arc [0 use re mote sensing 10 solve
earth resource managemen t problem s. It is unlikely that the
user commu nity can devote the time to learn the phys ics of
remote sensing an d methods o f ana log and/o r d igital image
pmcl'ssing and G IS modelin g necessary to produce useful
ercrmauon. Conversely, there is considera ble iruc rcsr on the
echnology side o f till.' problem to build J co mmu nication
blidgc, Therefore, one .... ay ti l decrease the size of the knowledge gap is for the remote sensing technologists to work
IIIIlfC closely .... it h the user com munities to understand thei r
requirements. T his w illlead to more use fu l remote senvingd.:ri\l"tl infonnation of value to the user com munities.
Ad,at'lCes in remote sensing image delivery systems hy
commercial firm s suc h as Googfe. lnc .. and their Coogle
bmh application are having a tremendous impact on the
put>lic\ use: and apprcc ianon
remote: sensor data [Fal-

or

loY. s. 2006).

Rem ot e se ns ing is used fo r numerous applicunons suc h as

mellinll image ana lys is (e.g.. .r-ruyiug a broken arm]. nond cstrucuvc evaluat ion o f products 011 an assembl y line, and
analy sis of Eart h rCSlJUrClS. This hook /OCII.vt',\ on the an ami
\'delll'l' o f <l/'flh 'i"K 1"f'IIW le .\';: /IX illK{i. I/' t ill' t'xtl'll("(iml of I/,\/!Jill Earth I"f'MJlm.C illforma/ion (F igure 1-17 ). Earth resou rce
information is defined as any mformauon conce rning terresmal vegetation, soils. minerals. rocks. water, and urban
infrastructu re as wel l as ce rtain atmospheric characteristics.
Such informatio n may he usefu l for modeling the global ca rbon cycle. the biology a nd biochemistry of ecosystems.
aspec ts of the g lobal .... atcr an d enl'rgy cycle. climate van-

abiluy and prediction, atmospheric chem istry. characterisucs of the solid Earth. population estimation. and monitoring
land-use change and natura l hazards {Jo hannsen et al.,
200.\I,

32

Book Organization

Asra r,

(i

Rem ote Sensing of the Environmer

and J. Do/ i..-r, I'N 4. EO S: Sci ,'m'l! SlrUIt''!.I' .f(

F." rrl. Oh""Tm): :':nkm, Wood buT)'. M.-\: American Ins

"f Physics. _H 2 p.

, 'i

-,
,

This chapter define d 11'rmS and pro vided a perspectiv e on

how remote sens ing scien ce can be useful for Earth resource
mvesugauons ( Figu re \ . 17 ). Chapter 2 introd uces princ iples
of elec tromag netic radiation and how it is used 10 perform
remote sens ing of the envirenmen r. Chapter 3 reviews t ill'
his tory o f p hoto grap hy, lind aerial and sarcllnc pla tforms .
Chaptcr -! introduces aerial photography, filtratio n. and film .
Cha pter 5 prese nts the d e ments of image interpre tation.
Cha pter 0 reviews princip les of phorograrnmetry used to
ex trac t quantita tive in form atio n fro m aerial photography,
Chapter 7 reviews op tical-mec han ical remote sensing S) Ste rns. <.'hnp ter x introduces therma l infrared remote sensing.
Ch apter 9 re vic.... s acuv e I RA DAR) and passive microwave
re mote se ns ing , C hapter ](J introduces remote sensing using
tight detection and ranl;i ng IUDA R ) tech nology, Chapter 11
des cribes how remot e sc n'iing is used 10 e xtract biophysica l
c haracteris tics o f terre strial and aquatic vcgcrauo n. Ch,lpter
12 pro vides insight into remo te sc osio g o f .... utcr, ice. an d
snow as well as atmospheric wate r vapor and temperature.
Chapter 13 demonstrates how re mote s.:nsing can pro vide
uniq ue urba n/s uburban infrastructure information. Ch apte r
14 desc ribes ho.... selec ted soil and minera l characteristics
may be re mote ly se nsed and ho .... major ge omorphic features
on the su rface o f the Eart h rna) be identified . Ch apter 15
describ es ho w ill ~i/ll spectral re flectance mcasurcmcms arc

obta ined ,

Auc h. R. Tay lor. J. a nd \<i. Ace vedo. 20l14. Urh,m Gm..

.-l ",<'ri...1II Cili(".
Gfi"'I'~..I' ,,/
S, L'rh<tm;:ulion. Ci~
# 1252 , Washin gton : U.S. ( ico lo;;ica l Survey . 52 .

u.

Haruslcy. M. 1'1"". " Dil.lital Remotely Sensed Data and 1

Characteristics, " in Longle y, P, E.. Good child, M, F., V
wire. D. J . and D. W. Rhind ( Eds.). G""):mphical Inl"rmu
SI".'t'mI. N Y,: Jo hn Wi k y. 45 1 -1/'0.
Ho ssler. J. D.. Jensen. J. R.. .\ I c\la sler. R. H. and C. Rtzos . 2(
.\ Iumml (1 (j,'ll'f'U,i(lf Sci"II<'(" & To:ch""fuj{l'. Lo nd on: I"a:
.~ francis. 023 r .
Clark. K. N . 1'1'1'1. -"p",lm.I'rol',\" 01 RocK.. <llId ,1111/('l"lll." ,
l'I'illl"iI'J.:. ,,/ SI'.. ..troscopv . Denver: U.S . Geologic al Surv
hup:/fspecla b,c r,u.,{;s,gul'. 51!! p.
C larke, K .C.. 2()()I, CI'/fl/lg SI"rI"d '\'JIll Gl!oJ::mp hic In /i,m,
Ii" " Snlemt. Upper Saddle Rive r: Prenuce-Han. 353 p.

J, B. and C. E. w oodcock . I 'N':/ . -Geosrausncat Esnm

lio n o f Resolu tion-Dependent var iance Jl\ Remotely ,",c nS(
hl1 oie~. - Ph"u>xn1mm ,'lric F.lIgim t'n ng & R.'m"'.. S.II.lin,

("o lh n~,

6)( I j:4 I - 50 .

Col \\ell. R. 1\;. (i.d. ). 1'1M). ,\1<11111<11 "11'!wf<>grtlphic IIIIt'q'/'l'I,

Ii,,,, , Falls Ch urch: AS r &K5.

References
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-_._
,I

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Wr,he
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~

I
Jllh /II
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S,-,m;lIg. 55110): 14 3 1 141 4

" ... nsed Da la," {",!. Jm"."," "I H,'IIIOI" ,' ''''-''1'1);: , 17( 7 ): 1317[.1-10.

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io"

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" "rIJ.

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rrta -

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and E. L. Usery (fds.), A Research A/{enJa .fi". G,," /{rcWhi
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Johannsen . C. J.. Pete rse n. G. W.. Carter. I'. G. and "" , 1. Morgan
20 113. "Remote Sensing: Chang ing Natura l Reso urce Manage
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Joseph. G.. 100 0, "How Well Do We Unde rsta nd Earth Obse rve
non Electro-oprical Sensor Parameters?" ISI'RS JOI"."ol ~
Photogra"''''''lry' & R"m Q/" .'li"'l.mIK. 55:9- 11.
Kar aska . M. A.. H uguenin. R. L.. Beacham. J. L.. Wang, \-I.
Jensen, J. R.. and R. S. Ka ufma n. :!OO-l. - AVIRIS \lcasure
rncnts of C hlpfO phy ll. Suspended Mincrals. Dissolved Organ
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gr" ", mc/ rk ElJgin<,<'Ijng <I: R.IIIU/< S" " "inJ\. 7011): 125-1 3J .
Kraak , M.. 200 3, "tieovisualizaticn Illust rated." IS/'H.'i ) mm/rl.
0/ r l",tog r<llllm.'II)' .{ Remo l,' St.'m ilJI!- , (2003 J:3)()-'399.
Kruse . F. A., Let\. olT. A. B.. Boardman, J. W.. Heid ebrecht , K
R . Sha piro. ..\ . T. Bar toon. 1'. J. and A F. II. Goe tz, 1992"The S pec tral Image Proces sin g System . ~ Prvn:..JmK.' . Inl/.
Space }eu r COIlf(''''' ''Cf!. Pasadena. lOp.
Landg re be , D. and L Bie hl. 2(1116...I" lntrodnct ion
S I'I:C. W, Lafa yette: Purdue University .5(l p,

/0

MULTI

Light. D. L an d J. R. Jensen. 2002. "P hotogramm ctric and Remote Se nsin g Co nside rations. ~ in .Ut/m w l (If G"".'pul,,,1 .'It'I.."c<'.( Tedl/lo /0G.Y. nossler. J . 0 .. Jen se n. J. R.. f< kM a,lcr. R.
H. and C. Rizos (f.ds .l. Lon don - Taylor & Fran cis. 233 -251_
Linder. W.. 2003 . Dlgil,, 1Photogrammctry: Theory-and ..fpl'li<a 'i",r<. Ber lin: Spring er -Verlag, III" 1',
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n/ ,.fmericun GNJgruph..,... 92 ( 2): 2-1 1- 2M.

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,l

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,
n

--Jomb-

anopy
fEEE

Electromagnetic Radiation Principles

'3

{.14
I

~f,i. C.,

oc,i ,\-10~~

-):336 -

J)-

ne rgy rec orded by a remote sensing sys tem unde rgoes fundamental inte raction s that shou ld be underst ood to p roperl y interpret the remotely sensed data.
For example. if the energy being remotely sensed co mes from th e Sun, the
energy

'I II Usc

,! gcry,"

is radiated by atomic parti cle s atthe so urce (the Sun).

travels th roug h the vacuum o f space at th e speed of lighl ,
interac ts with the Earth 's atmosphere.

interac ts wit h the Earth's SurJiK~C,

intera cts with th e Earth's atmosphere onc e aga in. and
finally reache s the remote sensor, where it inter acts wi th various optics,
f he rs. Iilm emu ls ions, or detec tors.
It is instruct ive to ex am ine eac h o f these funda me ntal interactions that clectromag nctic ene rgy undergoes as it progr esses from its source to the remote
sensing system dctecto rt s). Underst andin g these interactions helps image
analysts extract useful information from the remotely sensed data Ic.g.,
Tuominen and Pekkari nen. 20{)4 ),

Conduction , Convection, and Radia tion

;
I

Energy is the ability IIId o work, In the process of doin g work. en ergy is o tten
tran sferred from one body 10 anot her or from one place 10 an other. The three
basic wa ys in whi ch energy can be transferred incl ude conduction, co n..-cction , an d radiation ( Figure 2- 1). Most peop le are fam iliar with conduction
tha t occurs when one bod y (mo lecule or atom ) tran sfers its kine tic energy to
unmh c-r by co lliding with it This is how a metal pa n is heated by a hot burner
on II stove. In convection, the kineric energy o f bodies is transferred from o ne
plac e to another by physically moving the bodies. A good example is the
hea ting ofthe air ncar theground in the morning hours. The wanner air near
the surfa ce rises. setting up convectional curren ts in the atmosphere, which
may produce cumulus clouds. T he transfer of ene rgy by electromagnetic
radiation is ( I f primary interest 10 remote sensing scie nce because it is the
only form of energy trans fe r that cau tak e place in II vacuum such a-, the
reg ion b.:IWC<:l1 lite Sun and the Earth .

37


Eleclromagnet lc Radiallan Principle s

38

I
Ene rgy Tra nsfer
Pulse
of

C o nd uc t io n

warm

ai r

Pan
in cont ac t
with burne r

b.

Rad iat ion

Suo

Eanh
Electro magnetic

c.
Figu re 2'

wa ve

En" rID' rna)' be tra ns ferred three wa ys : con d uction. convecnon, and radia tion . a) EnL"'1>Y rna) be co nduc ted directly fro m OII e
objectto another as when a pan is in direc t physical contact ..... ith a hoc burner. " 11k Sun tcmes the Earth's surface with
rno.liant C1ICrg.\' causing the ai r ncat th e gmu nd 10 increase in IL-l1l,,,..ratu rc. Tbe less den se err rises, c rcaun g co nvectional currents in the atmos phere. c) Electromagnetic en ergy In the lim n of'electromag nenc wa ves rna)' he uan srmneo through the veeuum o f space from the Su n to the Earth.

Electromagn etic Radiation Models

To unders tand how elect romagnetic radiatio n is cr eated.

how it propagates through space. and how it interacts with
other mailer. il is usefu l to desc ribe the processes using two
differe nt mod els: the Wll l' e mod e l and the parncle model
(Eng le rt et al.. 1994) .

Wave Model of Electromagnetic Energy

In the I Hf,(fs. James Cler k M axwel] ( 183 1- I H79) co nceprualizcd ele ctroma gnet ic radia tio n ( EM R) as a n electromag netic wav e that trave ls thro ugh space at the speed oflight. It
tonk many years lo r scientis ts like Leo n Fouca ult and A lbert
A. Michel son 10 determine the speed uf light, c, as
29Q,792 ,4511 meters per sec ond (i.e., m SI ), or 11l6,2112.397
miles Sl. Th ese valu es arc o ften ge nera lized to 3 x 1 0~ m s
1. 300. 000 km s ol or 186,000 miles s". A useful relat io n for
quick cal cu lations is thai light travels about I It per na nesec o nd ( 10. 9 s ) ( Rinker, 1999 1. Th e electromagnetic Wlll'e co nsis ts of two Iluctuanng fie lds-c-one electric and the ot her

magnetic (Figure 2-2 ). The two vectors are at righ t angles

(o rt hogona l) lO one ano the r. and both are perpend icular 10
the d irection oftrav el.
How is an ele ctromag netic wa ve c reated'! Electromagnetic
is gcnc nncd wheneve r an ele ct rica l charge is
accelerated . The wavele ngth ( A) o f the electromagne tic radiarion depends upon the leng th o f time tha t the charged part icl e is accele rated. Its frequen cy (v) depends on the numbe r
of accclcnuions pl' r sec o nd. WIII't'lel/g t h is fo rmally defined
<IS the mean d ista nce between co nsec utive max imu ms (or
mi nim ums ) o r a roug hly per iod ic pattern ( Figures 2-2 and 2J l and i ~ no rmally measured in microm eters (}.1m ) or nanomerers ( nm ). Ffl! III/I'/!()' is the number of wavelengths that
pass a point per unit lime. A wa ve that se nds one crest by
every second (completing on e cycle ) is sai d to have a h equency o f one cyc le per second. o r o ne 11I:rt:. , abbre viated I
liz. Freq uen tly used measures of'wcvclengrh an d freque ncy
are fo und in Table 2-1.

nuuauon

The relatio nsh ip be tween the wavel ength (A) and freque ncy
IV) o f electromagnetic radi ation is based on the fo llowi ng
formula. where c is the speed of light (Roll. 2(00):

,
,

39

Electromagneti c Radi ati on Mod el s

Electrumaanctic wave
~I

Figure 22

An elccwomaguctic wavc is composed of toot h electric and maJ!}wt i~' vectors that are llI1hot;"nal (at 'lO" angie'S ) to one another.
The "'a \ c~ tnne! trom the source OIl the speed of hgh t (.' )< IU' m ~ 't .

c ' A.\' .

(!-l J

,. . ,.

(22 )

aturc j. The total emi tted radia tio n from a blackbody (.\{..)
me asured in wall s per m ' ~ is proportional to the fourth power
o f its absolute temperature (n measu red in kelv in (K). Th is
is known ;I S the S'(:f;",~HlJ"=/II<11111 law and is ex press ed as
( RO IL 20 ( 0) :

(:! -Jf

( 2-.4)

~.

"d
i. =

,.
v

Note that frequency is im'f/ w ly proponionalro wavelengt h.

This n:latiollship I~ sho\.\ n diagrumrtuuicully in Fig ure 2-3,
where the lllngl'l' the w:1YCkngl h. the lowe r the frequency :
the shorter the wavelen gth , thc highe r t he frequency When
eleuromagnetic radiauon pa,scs from one substanc e 10
another; the speed of light and wavelength cha nge \\ hile the
frequen cy! remains the same.

All objects above ab solute zer o (- 27YC or 0 K) e mit clc cmimagnetic en ergy. incl ud ing water, so il, roc k. vegetation,
and the surface o f the Sun. T he Sun rep resents the initial
source of most o f the elec tromagnetic energy recorded b)"
remote sensing systems (e xcept RADAR. UDAR. and
SO\AR ) (figure 2-,-1; Color Plato: 2-1 ). We ma y think of rhc
Sun as a 5770 (,000 K bl<ldbo r (a theoret ica l construct
thai absorbs an d radiat es energy al the max imum possib le
rate per unu are a at eac h v. a \e kn ~t h j},l for a given temper-

whe re rris the Ste fa n-Boltzmann constant. 5.M197 x 10-" W

m' ! K ~ . Th e irnportnnt thin g 10 remember is that the amount
cf l"nergy emitted by an pbjct.: t such a s the Sun or the Earth

is a function or its temperature. The g router the temperatu re.

the greater the amount of radium ene rgy exiting the obj ec t.
The umoum o f energy emitted by an object is computed by
summi ng (i ntegrating ) the area under its curvc (Figure 2-5)_
It is d ea r fmm this illust ration that the tota l em itted rad iation
from the W OO K Sun is far greater than that e mitted by the
J OO K Earth.
In addiuon to comp uting the tot al amo unt o f energy exiting
a theoret ical blac kbody s uch as the Sun. we can dete rrrune
its domi nant wllwkngth (A....~ ) based on Wiel/ ~ di~l'lt1ci!
/I/\"II( lu ll':

(2 -5 )

,
Electromagnetic Radiation Prin c iples

40

In verse KdatiUlhh ip lt erw eeu

WaH'I\'II~lh

a nd

l:n'IjU l'II (,~'

,,
(" r <"1 Of
m a~ lmllm

Trough or rrummurn

-'

;~.~--, ---.'

Relarr.el)'.Jlorter wa\elenglh
-l
J
2
1

Figu re 2-3

Ib is cross-....-cuon o f several ckctrumagn dic wac L"!> ilIu.traIL'S th,,' inverse rdalil,">hip between w3\c1cnglh 0.)antl fn."lucncl
(v ) Th e longer the wavelength. rhc jower the frequency: Ihl." snort er the '" avc l...ngt h. lht' hig her the frequenc y. The amp htude
of an elcctromagncnc wave is Ihe hciglu of the \\ ave crest ;,100 \1: Ihe u ndeturb.."tl posuron. Succe ssive wave crests alt" numbcrcd I. 1. J, a nd -I, An observer at the po sition of the clock R"l.'"nfd~ th... number or crests tha t pa vs by in a second. Tl1 i< 1'",.
q ucnc y is measured in cycles PL'T ....-coud. ur 11<'1"/;:.

Tmnsmission
ul"rudiancn

utthe speed
of ligbt j "

Figure 24

The thc rm,muclcar fll~i'lfi taking pl;lC\' nn th... sur lace of'th e Sun yields a c"nt inll"u~ spectrum o f electromagncnc enefb'Y. I be
5770 _ t>t ~ )() kelv in I K I tem pe rature of this prueess pru.Iut:,'lo a la rge amount of rd<l lh d ) ..hort wa velength enc rg~ tha t tra v..ls
throug h the vac uum of spa,-e al the ,peed o f light . So me o r thi ~ t n" r!!) is inte rcepted toy the Ea rth. '" here it interacts with tile
alnl"sph..-rc and su rface materials. Th e Eart h r..lkl' ls ",1111" "I' the ..ner~y d lrl'Ctl) bec k OUl IOspa ce Of it may ahso rb the s hon
'" ;l\dcngth cnt:'fg>" and then ,...~mil il at a longer wavelength tatte r Slrah ler ,tnt! Stra h ler, l <IS~ )_

...
Electro magnet ic Radiati on Models

41

WJ \ d <,n glh and frequency sta ndard units o f

measuremen t.

n:~ ...

,,'

'--i , '

.r

Wavelength p..)
kilomete r (k m)

LOOOm

meter trm

I.Om

millimeter (mill)

O.OCII m - IO" lll

,,'

.)
"-\
,

0.00000000 \

'.

Angstrom ( ..\ )

10
<:

Frequen cy (cycle s per second)

"

kilohertz (kill)

itude
1'1111'0-

,,,, f-i .t- I- I

2lNR kim K
flnOIl K

Ekrtromagncnc energy from the- Sun tra vels in II min utes

across the intervening 93 mi llion m iles ( I ~ (J mi llio n km) (If
ljIaCe to the Earth. As shown in Figure 2-5 . the Earth
lIpprOlimatl.'s a 300 K (2rc ) blackbody and ha s a domin ant
'l\ e1mgth at approximately 9.66 um:
~t.6

. Th e

, vels
rh che
short

I.l

- ~

2~9:-< J.lrn K
]OO K

"Ithough the Sun has a domina nt wa velength at OAt; um, il

produces a continuous spectrum of electromagnetic radiacon rangi ng from very Sh1'l1. extremely hig.h-freljllcney
gamma ami cosm ic waves to long, very-low -frequency radio
waves (Figures 2-() and 2-7 ). The Earth intercepts only ,I

,-

I(/}{) K

IJl(ll U KXl.OIl(l '" 10"

II'

r,

It

'"

1IKre.l; is a constant L't/ualin~ 2898 11m Kmd T is the absolute temperature in kelvin . There fo re. a, the Sun approxi illites a 6000 J..: blackbody. its dominant wavelength ti......, I
1S 0A83 u rn:
='

1\

1.000.000 '" lit

s fr ...

(JA S3 ~ m

-,',-

...

~,

bclu(Hz)
ency

,
, .\

"

I-'- ~

10,4 m

J t ~ lO

\\,

0.0oo1 ... 10"" m

IUn..me ter (nm l

60011K Sll n

o(~

JOlI K Fan h

A\\\ ,t

K Dry ice

,
m

~~~ 'r'
100

WOO

\\ ... tlc lIJ,:l h. J.1 rn

Figure 2-5

Hl addlllJ~

r,IJ iatil-n curles for sev eral obj ......., I,. in-

eluding the Su n .111d Ihc Eart h. which ar pfll\ imale

emn K and jnn K hL1d.h.J<.!ics. rcspccuvcly, The

arl' a under each curve I1h l> ' be summed In o:nm[liite
tIle' 1<11al r.uliant o:n<:rgy ( .\1,) c\ilinj.! each ob jec t
( f' qu<lli" n 2-4). TIms. u.e Su n pr"duces mnre rad iant c xuance than the L m h I>cO:ilU';': Jl" temperature
is grea ter. '\ 1' the temperature of an ullJl'CI mcrca......s.
il.. . dommant wa velengt h 0..... I shi n . . toward the
"h" rt.. ,. . " 3\'ekn,L:lhli of Ihe lipo.:ctf\lTn.

very small port io n of the elec tromagnetic energy produced

by the Sun .
A<; men tio ned in Chapter I. in remote- sensing resea rch wectteu SIll:dl) u part icular regi on ofthe elec tromagnetic spectrurn k.g.. red lig ht ) by ident ifying a begin ning and ending
Voa Vl"kn g l h lor frequency] and then attaching a devc riptinn.
This wav elength (or trcqucucy) irucrval ill the electro.nag-

42

("11.-\ 1' 1 t: R

Table 2-2.

Electromagnetic Radiation Pri nciples

Meth ods of describing the color SPCClnJnl (a h a r.;~"'>all . 1'11(1 I.

Wavelength Descriptions

Energy Descriptions

(lLm)

Frequen c y
(Hz x 1 0 '~ )

Wave
Number
( ", e m")

Electron Volt
(e V) = 12401 A

254

O,~; 4

11)( 2

3t,l AIIIl

4./N

" ./l1>O

.1M

0 .306

lUI}

21.300

3.39

Violet (l imilf

4 ,000

400

0.40

75 0

25.()()(l

3.10

Bill':

4.500

45 0

11.45

n.M

22.21)(J

2.75

0,=

5,000

SilO

051)

b.OO

:W.Ol,lO

l AS

( ; reffi

5.~UO

5>0

0.55

5.-15

IlC:!OO

2.25

Yellow

5,800

"0

o.ss

5.17

17,240

2.14

Orang...

(>,0110

(,IMI

tI.(>I )

5.00

16.70(}

2.06

.'"

6.500

650

O.M

-I.tll

IS,4ilO

I.q l

Red ( tim in~

7.(l/\(1

70n

u.m

L~<j

14.Jotl

1.77

Infra red , nc ar

IO,OOll

.oeo

1.0

l.OO

10.000

1.24

.'11.00

0 .10

3.n

0 ,11-11

Ang st rom
IA)

Nanomet er
(nm)

Micrometer

sv>

2,537

Llltravielct . ,...

Colo....

Ultraviolet.

Infrared. far

300.0110

30,OOll

--r}piCOI I values onl)': I... ... long '" avclcngth; ' ''' - shon wavelength . bt-: ' ac i limn ..Jcpen..b <'II tho: ot>.....rver. light inten' tl}. e~e adapuunm.
and oth er factors . ' The wal'e number \ 1jI) is the number uf '" uves ill Hunit kllglh (u-ually p...r ern). There fore. 'r 1 I ;l.lcmj ~ w .ono I ;l.
(jJm )

I OO.OOO. OllO/ A(A ) in cm l .

netic spectrum i~ commonly referred 10 as a bund, chw lJI"!.

or region. The majo r subdivisions of visible light are ..urn rnnrized in Table 2-2 and presented diagra mmat ically in Figure 2-7 a nd COIM Plate 2-1. We ge nera lly th ink of visi ble
lig ht as be ing compo sed ofenergy in the blue (0.4 - 0.:" um I.
green {O.5 - O. t. u rn], and red (O.t. ~ 0.7 urm hands ofshe
electro magnetic spectru m. Reflec ted ncar-infra red energy In
the regio n from n.j to I .] urn is common ly used to expose
b lack -and -white and color-infrarcd -sens u.ve 111m.

Tho: m idd le-i n fra red reg ion [o ften referred (0 as the short
....avelc ngth in frared, S \VIRI inclu des energ) wit h a wavelen gth of 1.3 to J um. The thermal in frare d reg ion has two
ve ry use ful bands at 3 10 5 um and ~ ro 14 u rn. Thc, m ic'ro....ave por uon o f the spectrum co nsists of muc h longer \"01\ elengths ( I rom - I m}, The rad io-...ave pornun o f t he

spectrum may be subdivided into UHF. VI IF. radu ( !-I F). LF,
and 1I1.1. freq uencies.
The spectral resol ut ion of most remote .....nsing system-, is
described in terms o f ban ds of'the electromagnetic spectrum,
For cxamp le. the spectral d imc nston s of the four bands of
the Landsat Muhispcc tral Scanner ( MSS) and SPOT High
Resolution Visible (I IRV ) sen sors arc shown in F igu re 2-8.
alon g with the ~ra tial rcsolu uon o f each ha nd for compari.
so n. The exert Landsat MSS and S POT hand speciflcancns
are provided in Cha pter 7
Electre mugn etic energy may he de scribed not only in te rms
ofw avelength and freq uency bULalso in pho ton ene rgy units
suc h a s jo ules ( J) and electro n volts (e V). as sho wn in Fig ure
2- 7. Se veral of the more important mass, en<;." rg~. and power
convers ions arc summarizc-d in Table 1-3.

43

Electromagnetic Rad iatIon Models

"
,I--+-+!H nrt-+
.
,,.
,,
-+
r ++tlH
~,
,
lJllrlI'lol<'l

lt-

,It
A

Table 23,

Sun-tll-Eartll ilkom ing short...avclcegth radiation from

6000 I\: Sun wnh a oo minam
"'8\ck ngth " f O.4X ~m

.I

.~

Co nversion from Engli sh to 51 Units

Eanh-ro-spcce
eminoo Iong" 8\ ckn ll'lh
r;uji:l1;on

\1,l"-S. c",:rgy, and powe r conversions.

l'rom

300 K E:1l1h
...,lb a Jomil!Olnt
""a\ e1a1l1'lh

, +-+H-+~ - (lf q MJim

,+++H _At-'+-+----1

To l::~ I :

'\ I uhi pl y :

U,':

new rons'

pou nUs

4.4-tS

JOIJl~b

fHUs<

1055

joules

ClI k,ne'!

4.184

jo ules

kilow alt-h~<

3.6 ~ 100

joules

(OVI_ pou nd.sf

1.3 ~6

joules

horsepower'

745. 7

00

"
FlQure 2-6

rion,

) 0..

100

111e Su n approximates a (,l JOl) K blal;kOOd~' with a

dominant a .:leng th oh bou t 0 ..11'\ ~ m _ Th e Earth
epproxunat a JO() K bla.:ltotid y ... nh a dom inant

I' a\'cknglh of about Q.t'(, p m The 00011 K Sun prod uces ap proxunately 4 1 ~. o f ils cn<:l"gy in the visiI:>Ic region fro m 0.4 10 0 .7 j.l m (h lue . grc...n. , " nJ fl.-d
light). T11<." other S<J"I. of ih... l."ncrgy is in wavek nglhs s horter than hlue light ("'0.4 j.lm l and lo nger than red light (.>11.7 u nn. Our eyes are only
M:ll~ i l i ,,: to light fnuu 0.4 1<10, 7 ~lll (after Stra hler
and Strahler. l,>x'> J. Fortunately. II is possible to
make remote sensor del ~'Clol'S sensitive 10 ellergy in
lh...s... nunvisihl... r... gil'l)'; o f the spct:lmm .

Conversion from 5 1to Eng lish Units

To 1':...1:

'\I ulliplF

8, :

urus

Jou le'!

O.()()(N5

calori...s

joules

0.2390

kilowa tt-hours

jllu lc~

~.7 1l '\ 10.7

Ioot-pounds

joule'!

0 .73 75

hurs<:powl.'l

wa tts

0.00134

"n"wl""; 1"r,,1," tlC\.'J <-d'" ~" "" k'a\" a rna, . or I kit I>y. t rn .. :

~j"u k:;' Ii",:" "r I n"" lUn '''hngl h" ,,,!,:h I mel"r
' Urll"h lh"rmul ul" l. <OJ III U; e""tll) r''<l ui,cd In rui,,, the {"rnf""l"alurc " I' I ""lmd " I' walell>y I ,k~r...... Fanrenhe tt.
"~l, ,, il; ,n,''iY f'l.'q <url"l l" raj",

"I'" 01'" I>y I d"li' "'' Cd,,,,",

I . t.r,

the lelll!",TlIlllr, "r 1 ki lc>gr.uu

<~ il,'w,lllh",1" I ( ~~) j""k.

The Partic le Mod el: Radiation from Atomic Struc tures

ns is

rum.
Is of
High
2-R,

p ari.io ns

-rms
mns

gure
vcr

r':' " ".,,,d Ii>r I hUl l'.

fr( ~'I-I" 'ILl"I: " 10<":,, " I' I 1"',,nJ ,,,,un ~ thwug b I Ii"Jl,
'lInrM'I"'.. "r: ~~(I t; ~'I I".\", d , rcr ,,,,,,,,,.1 .

In Oplich ( 17114 ). Si r Isaac New to n stated that lig ht was a

uream of pan icl es. or corp uscl es. trave ling in straig ht lines.
He also knew tha t lighl hud wa veli ke cha ractc nsrics bused
en his work with g lass plates. Neverth eless. during the t w o

a parncular kind of mailer {Fein berg, 1 <) ~ 5 ) , T hus . we

somcumcs describe electromagnetic en ergy in terms o f its

hundred yea rs before [<)1)5, ligh t was tho ugh t primarily as

3 smooth and cont inuous wave. T hen . Albe n Einste in
(187Q...- 1955 ) fo und lhal wh en lig ht interacts w ith e lect ro ns,
it hil!o a ditlcrcru charac ter (I: i ~u re 2 1)). t ic concluded that
when light interacts wi th rnauer. it behaves as tho ugh it is
composed of many individua l bodies call ed photons, which
-Jf!)' ouch pa rucle- hke pro pe rties as e nerg y and mo me ntum
[Meadows, 1992 ). As a TCSUIt , most physicists today would
an~wcr t he question. " \\ hat is Iighl "!"' "y say ing that light is

1/11<1"'<1,

or

wuvcllk c prope rties. But wh e n the en ergy inte racts with mat-

tcr, it is usctulro describe it as discrete packets o f energy. or

[I is prucueal til re view how clecr romagnenc ene rgy
is ge ne rated at the atomic level ; th is pro vides insight as 10
how lig hl interac ts With matter.

Ele ctrons ar e the tin y ncg ari vely cha rged particles that move
around the posiuvely c ha rged nucle us (If an atom (Figure 1 10). Ato ms o f d ifferent subs tances arc made up of varying

numbers ofelec trons arranged in different

W:J y S .

The inter-

action between the pocmvely c harged nu cleus and the nega-

44

CH\ I'1 t :U

Electromagn etic Radiati on Prin cip les

Electromagnetic Spectrum and th e

Photon Energ)' or Visible Ugh.

Wavelength

in meters ( Ill)
10. 12

Photon energ y of
visible lig ht in
electron volts (cV)

Gamma

Photon wavelength
in nanometers ( 11m)

~.()

and X-ray

Ultraviolet

3.5

Su n

U hrav ;0'"

Ea rth

3.10

3.0

Visible

I (). f,

Infrared
10-1

,. o ~

"(N'

Vio let limi t

2.75 -ISO

Bl ue

1.-1R 500
2.25 550
2.1-1 5RO

Green

2.U6
1.9 1
1.77

Green limit

Ydl{l"

eoo

Oranuc

Red co
Red limit

650
70 0

1.5

Ncar-in fra red

1.24 IOOU
1.0

Micro wave and

rad io waves

0.-11

J Ok-/;--

-+ Far-infrare d

10

Figu re 2- 7

0.5

Til... CkClto l1l'lgndic spectrum and the rh"1<1I' ",n,' '1'Y "f\i~i h lc light. The Sun produc es a conunu ou-, spectrumof .'l1crgy from
~ a llll11a

l1s in~

rays

ttl

radio wave s 10m w nlil1l1all}' bathe th.. Eart h in

"'Ilcr~y.

I h... visibl c port ion o fthe spe ctrum ma y be me asured

" 'lVcknglh l1l1C" "llfC'J in micrumctc rc or l\"n" mclc'rs. i.e., ~ Ill " r lUll) Ilr ele ctron VOII, leV),

l i~ d)' cha rgvJ electron k...... ps th~' electron in orbit. Whik its
orbit is not e xplici tly fi xed, each elec tron's r uction i ~
restric ted to a defi nite range from the nucleus. The allowable
orbital paths of clc-ctrons moving around an alum might be
thoug t n of as energy classes or le vels (Figure 1-lOa l. In
o rder tor an electron to climb 10 a higher class. work must be
performed. 110.... C\ e r, unle ss a n a mount of c nerg) is available to move the elec tron up at least one energy le\ cl. it wil l
acce pt nil \\I 'Tk. If a sutfici c nt a moun t of energy is received.
the c lcxtron will jump to 01 nc w 1~~, c1 and the urom i~ said to
he (' rcitcd (F igure 2- IOh). Once an elec tro n is in a higher
orbi t. it PIISSt'ssc s pote ruialcn ergy. A tie r about I (r ~ secon ds.
the electron 11\1 1> bad , to the atom's 10 west empty ener gy

leve l or nrh il and gives 0 11" radiation (F igure 2-I Oc). The
w evclcng jh of radiatio n gi\ en o il' is a function ofthe amount
(If w ork dune o n the atom. i.c., the q uantu m of energy' il

absorbed 10 cause the e lect ron ltI becorn e e xcited and move
to a higher orbu.

Elec tron orbits are like the rungs of a ladder. Addi ng energy
moves the elect ron up the energy ladder; cm iuin g energy
move'S it down . Howe ver, the elwl);)' ladder differs from an
ordinary ladder in that its rungs are unevenly spaced . This
means that the . . nc rgy all electronneeds to absorb. or 10 g ive
lip. in o rder 10 jump from one orbit 10 the next may no t be the

Is

45

Electromagnetic Radiation Model s

10m

Iligh Resolution
Visihle IHRVj
Sensor

NIR

si

Alber-t Einstein

SPOT 3

Landsat
79m

7:

Ncar-

\iuhi~po:clrnl

infrar ed

ScannertMSS j

band 4
05

0.6

0.7 OJ'!

U,'ll

1.0

1.1

Wa\o:Icn~lh .lJ.m

Fqure2-8

UI

~d

- from
rsurcd

Th C'
roun t
gy it
nove

The nom inal spcctn..1 !>dnd" idths o f the iJ>dis'idu.:t!

bands of rh.. Land ....t MSS lind SI'() r III~.\" sen"'lf
syMcms arc Mlmmari"l-d along the abscissa. The
"JliIlial resoluuon of eac h individua l hand is , 00\\ n
tin lhe ordinate ask

same as ure t nerg> cha nge needed fo r some other step. Furlhmoorc. an electron docs nu l nec essa rily usc consecutive
IUlIgs.ln~lead. it follows what ph ys ic ists call .\e!f'ctirl/1 rules,
In man)' cases. an electron us.:s one seq uenc e of rungs as it
climbs the ladder and another sequence as it descends [NaslaU, 1983: IQl(4). Th e energy that is left O\ 'Cr wh en the electrically charged elect ron moves from an e xcited state I Fig ure
2lOb) to a de-excited state ( Figure 2-1 nc ) is emitted by the
310m a, a single packet o f electro magnetic radiat ion , a pa ni cle-likeunit o f light ca lled a p l/uMI/. livery rime an electron
jumps from a highlo r to a lo w er en ergy level. a phot on moves
allay at the speed o f light ,

Somehow an elec tro n rnu,t d isappear fro m its o rigin al orbit

and reappear in its dest ination orbit ..... ithnut ever havin g to
reverse any of the positions ill be tween. This process is
tailed a 1/11'111111/11leap M ' 11/1/11(/ 111/ j IIlII fI , If Ihe- elecrron le:1ps
flOm ils highest excite d sta te to till' groun d stare in a sing le
leap. it will emir a single photon ot'cncrgy. [ I is a lsu possible
for the electron to leap from an excited Moit to the ground
nne in ,I series (If ju mps t c.g ., fro m ..\ to 2 to I ), I f it takes
tw o leaps to gl't to the ground state. then eac h of'rhcsc jumps
\I'ill emil photons o f somewhat less energy. The ene rgies
emiued in the two jumps must sum to the total of the single
large jump (Trcfll and Hazen. 1995),

Frgure2-9

\I hcn 11"~lem
('"ngr,-" )

I II( N-l lj5511,'OUno:s~

Libra!) of

the frequency uf rad iatiun e\pre,s<."d by wave theory and the

quantum is:

12-6)

wh ere (J is the energy of a quantu m meas ure d in joules. h is

till: Planck constant (6 .626 x 1O ~4 J s], and v is the frequcncy ofthe radiat ion (Figure 2-11) Re ferring to Eq uation
2-.\. we can multiply the equat ion hy h.h; or I, without
dlil ng ing its value :

he
!Iv .
Hy sUhSl illlting

(2 -7)

IJ

for II V (from Equation 2-6), we can

witha 4 u<UltUI11 ill' energy

ex press the wa velength associa ted

,I, :

A : he
Q

(1- 1<)

'"
Q

he

(2- 9 )

erg}'

l'rgy
n an
This
gi ll,"
e the

" id s Bohr{ 1111\5-1'1(2) and Max Planck recognized the dismte nature ofexchanges o f radia nt energy and propo sed the

of electr omagneti c radiation. Th is theory

that energy is transferred in disc rete packers call ed
qwnta or photons. as d isc ussed . Th e relationship between

1pI01/Ilim theory
Slale~

r hus, we SC'e thai the ene rgy of a quant um is inversely proponional to its wavelength, i.c.. the longer the wavele ngth
involved. the lowe r its energy content. T his inverse relation..hip is important to re mote sensing because it suggests tha t
it is mo re d illicuh to detectlonger-wavelength .:nergy be ing
emi tted at thermal infrared wavelcngths than those at shorter

4.

CJ l;\ PTt: K

C rea tion

Electromagnelic Radiation Principles

or Lig ht from Atomlc r a rticles a nd th e Photoelectri c Effect

i
\

Electron

"(0

J
4

/)~xdt/lljrm

Excitation

Grou nd st ate

Photon of light is
em itted when an
elec tron drops from
a higher energy state
10 a lowe r energy state

quantum lea p
c.

photon is a bsorbed

b.

Em iss ion o f
<1 11 elec tron
currying the

of ligh t

is absorbed

same amount
of energy

3
Pholo..J..ctric t:JJn:1
d.

Figure 2-10

a-c) A phoion of elcc tromagneuc enefl!:} is emrued w hen an electron In an atom or molt,"('\Jled rops (rom a higher~ SlaU
10 3 lower-energy stale. The light emilled (i.e. its w;l\ cknglh ) is a function of the changes in the .'ncrg)' levels of the outer.
' <l ienee electron. For cvarnplc. ye llow tiltht IS produ ced from a sodium vapor lamp In Figure 2 12. d) "bner ca n also be subj eered In such high te mperatures that electrons. "' hich normally move in Cllpt ur~-d. nonradiating o rbits. arc broken fr~'(: . \.Vh~'lI
this happens.jhe atom re ma ins with a posuivc c harge equalto the ucgauvcly charged electron thal esca ped, The e lectron be.
comes a free electron. and the atom is culled an ion . If another fr~"1: elec tron fi ll ~ lhe vacant CIl<.:lgy level created by the free
electron. then radiation nom all wa vele ngths is prod uced. i.e.. a contin uous spectrum o f energy, Th... intense hear at the surface
of'thc Sun produccsn conti nuous spectrum in th is marine r.

visible wa ve lengths. In fact. it m ig ht be necessary 10 have

the sensor loo k at or dwelllonge r on the parcel of ground if
..... e a re try ing 10 measure the longer .....avelength e nergy,
S ubstance!' have color because of differences in their enl"TgY

leve ls and the selection rules, Fur example. consider energized sodium vapor that produces a bright yellow light that
is used in some street lamps. When a sodium vapor lamp is
turned on. severalthousand volts of electricity ene rgize the
vapor. The ou te rmo st e lectron in e ach ene rg ized atom of
sodium vapor climbs to a highcr rung on the energy ladde r
and then returns down tbc ladder in a certai n seque nce of
ruugs.jhc lust two of wh ic h are 2. 1 eV apart ( Fig ure 2-12 ).

The energy released in this la"t leap appears as a photon 01

yello w light with a wa velength of 0 .58 u rn w ith 2. 1 eV 01
eTk'tg) (~ a s"llU. I ~S 3) .

Matter ca n he heated to such h igh temperatures tha t elccIrons. that normally move in captured. ronradianng ortnts
break free. This is, ca lled the p hotoelectric e.Uec1 (J-"ig ure 2
IOd). when this happens. the atom rema ins with a pll!>iti\e

charge equal 10 the nega nv ely charged electron thai escaped

The electron becomes a free electron and the atom is ca lled
an ion . In the ultraviolet and visible (blue. green. and red)

parts of the electromagnetic spectrum. radiation is prod uced

by chang es in the e nergy le vels of rhe c urer valence clcr-

47

Atmospheri c Ene rg y-Matter Int era ction s

" 'n'IIU I'II Q

( III )
tW'U-

w'-

_I.

I tr~"' -

410

"

1O-!~-

",'-

111"27_

'll ' -

llf!b-

[07 _

IO-H -

Wl l _

1O-!4-

10'110 11>_

10- 22 -

10 " _

w "ll _

10

U1"2O-

11I 1 l _

10- 19_

12-

10 14 -

l oI ~-

IO I~-

1'-1"1 7_

101(, _

1
10 " 1017_

lU-I~-

101~-

10- 14_

1lI1"'_

10-'-'_

lrr!U-

, state

outer.
esuo,l.'hen
,n bee free
rtacc

In

of

Vo l'

clcc-

rbus
re 2

nive
pcd.
uled

re-d)
Ked

-lec-

Figure 2-11

Lons ...

,,'

IOOlmIOlm _
lkm lhd ~ ,

l oom IOm-

' m-

,=' mmArnm l-fu rnm I l1m - W"b m _

rn . . . 1-&..1"" -

10-' 1tJtI -

A hso rptio n
h' a tmn..phere

....,t",

ItllJUl m -

IOcm -

10, 2] _

"I)'P'" or
r adia lion

\ \ an-h."ngt h
(A)

", -

11.- 1

10"11",1O 1Zm-

"'.....

..........."" r

In atoms and mo lecu les. electron orbual cha nges produce

the shortest- wa vele ng th rad iat ion, molecule vibraucnal
motion changes produce nc ar- and/or middle-infrared
energy. and rota tiona l million changes produce long-wav e-

."1.TV

....
I

Radio

window

""""" ...

t nrro...,.j

I
--_._--_
.\I,i"'r
. . . ... . . . . . .
--....................

Dpucal wind ow

Ull,n",kt

I
X r. )

C;..,,"'~ ra)'

Th e eOl'ryy of (lU:lnta (photons) ranging from gamma ray, to radio W[l V':S

Irons, The wavelengths of I."rlerl;Y produc ed arc a func tion (If

Ihe particular orbitallevels ofthe electrons involved in the
excitation process. If thc atoms abso rb enough energy In
become ionized an d i f it Frce electron d rops in to fill rhc
vacant energy level. then the radia tion g iven orr is unqu antired and a ('O/1/111I1IJ1/1' ,I'{'eelm lll is produced rather than <I
band nr a series o f hand. " Every encounter o f o ne o fthe Ih:1;'
electrons with a positively charged nucleu s causes rapid ly
changi ng ele ctr ic an d magne tic fields, so that radiation at all
wav elength s is produced The hot surface II I' the Sun is
largdy a plasma in which radia tion o f all wavele ngths is
produced. As previousl y shown in figure 2-7, the spectrum
(Ifa plasma like the Sun i ~ co ntinuous.

U l
tn,..l.,:a>l

In

the elect romagnetic spectrum.

length infrared or microwave radiation. More will he said

about how therma l infrared radiation is produced and
recorded hy remote sl'nsing systems in Chapter X(Thermal
lnfrured Remote

Sl; ns in~ ) .

Atmosp heric Energy -Matte r Interaction s

Ru<Ji'1II1 ene,xy is the capacity of radiation within a spectral

band 10 do work, Onc e electromagne tic radiation is gc ncrated. it is propagated throug h the Earth 's atmosphere almost
at the speed o f hg ht in a vacuum. Unlike a vacuu m in wh ich
nothing ha ppens. how e ver. the atmosphere ma y affect not
onl y the slX'~'d of radia l ion hut also its wavele ngth. its inren"it}. and its spec tral distri bution . T he electrom agnetic redia tion rna) also be diverted from its original d irection due 10
refracuo n.

49

Atmospher ic Ene rg y -Matter Inte ract ion s

~-IU)

~JlCcd

Incident
rad iant l' IIC fg)'

mU!> 1

frac-

~a1er.

liter's

Optically
IIK~ dense
atmosphere

f\nmlill III

the surface

.,

0 ,. o;lral'''I,hnic a.:ro""ts
nl ""index of
refraction

this laye r of
the atmosphere

energy

of

"

I :Jn~

~-

r2 )

mill

hum

wi ll
relaana-x o f

I ( ~'"

J.-c

10 l m

Il~ . ('{) 1. trJCC ga-e o;

In

Ga,

atmosphere

"

le5s dense
atmosphere

.,
Path of energy affected
0)' atmospheric refract ion

Rgure 213

scalh:ringl

11 10. lrorosrh.." ;C a..TO"<>I~

TClTliin Surf.......,

FIQure 2- 14

Optically

molcrul~ (R.3y....igh

Op tically
more de nse
atmocphcrc

nadc

.tmosity).
lcusc
cuon
high
rrors
svcd.

"

h OmogCIlC'OU5

a-u )

ehcrc
~ i lh a
gated

kt

.,

P-.llh \If

that
mcc.

the
D the

~II

for

Refraction in IhTlX" nonmrbulcr u 'lIOl" ,phcric layers. Th e irKldc nt energy is rem Fnuu iL, normaltra jl'Ch l ry liS it travels [rum on e atmospheric layer 1(\
another. Snell's law call be u,."11 10 predict how
mud! t>,.-ndin g willtnk c place. hascd on a knowleUI!-":" I the anl,:lc uf mcrdcncc Oil and the mdex or
rcfr,1\:ti<>ll <>1' c<lc'h umue.phcric Ic\ d . III . .md " , .

retlecnon in rh.u the direct ion associated with Sl'altcri ng is

enprcdicrablc. whereas the direc tion of re flection (10 be
detmed shortly) is prcdicrahlc. There arc essen tia lly three
typ.;s Ill" scaucn ng : Ray lei gh, Mie. ,1IlU nons elc ct i vc sca ttering, Major subJ ivisiuns of the atmos phere and the types of
molecules and aerosols tound in each laye r arc show n in Figure 2-1-IIMilkr an d Vcnnore. 20M). l'h... relative siLe o f the
wavelength o f the indde1lt electromagnetic radiation. the
diameter of the gases. water vapor, and 'o r dust wit h which
the energy interac ts. and the I) pe of scattering lha t sho uld
occur arc sunnuur izcd in Figure 2-15.
Rm lel~h .1(..JII cr;flX totten referred [0.) as IIIfJ"CIII,lr .IC<1Il,:rIilg l occurs "hen the e ffect e diamet er of the mailer tus uall~ air mole cu k... suc h as o\yg<,n <I nd nitrogen in the
IllIIOSphere l arc many t ime s sma ller Iusuall ) < 0.1) than the

\lajor ~IINt i\i~ ions ofthe attuosp bere and the types
of m,.kcuk.. and aerosols found in each la)er
tadaptcd fmrn \tiller and vermorc. ~ OO~ I.

wuvclcngih u r the inc iden t electromagnetic rad ial ion {Figu re

1 -1 Sa I, Rayle ig h scatte ring i ~ named a fte r the English physil'i"l Lord R ,I~ lt~lgh . \\ hu offered the firs t coherent explanalion fu r it.:\ 11 "l:altering IS accomplis hed throug.h absorption
and rc-cnussiou o f radi al ion hy atoms or molecules in the
manner r rn iou..l;.' dcccnbcd in the section 011 radiation Imm
atomic struct ures. II is impnss ih lc 10 predict the d irec tio n in
w hich a srec i fic atom or molecule I I ill emil a phot on. he-nee
scanenng. , he c lle!].y required to excite all atom is associatcd with powerful short -wavelength. high- fre quency ra dialion .
T he lIppWX il11 alc' .uuoum of Rayleigh scattering in the at mosphere in opt ica l wa n-lengths (0 .4 - 0 ,7 pm) ma y be computcd 1I ,i llg the Ray le igll scauering c ross-se ction (1",)
ulgurithrntCrackncll and lluycs. 19 ')3):
I
~
.~ 1r" (1/

I}

~ .

r:] .\v

(2-U)

A )

" here 1/ " re fractive index . ,'1/ = num be r of a ir molecules pe r

un it volume. a nd A " "awkngth . The amount of scartc ring
IS in\ e rsd y rc kuc d It) the fourth powe r 1)1' the rad iation's
" a\ clcngth. For cvamptc. uh ruvink t light at 0.] P ill is scattered ;lrrru" ill1 ald ~ 16 limes more than TN light at 0 .6 urn,
i.e.. l fl. tl, I )J )~ - I t'>. B IIJ~'li gh l <It 0... Jim is sca ttered about 5
times more than red light al 0 .6 um. i.c .. 10.6 0.-1 )4 '" 5.06.
The a moun t of Rayleigh scattering expected thruughou t the
visible spec trum 1O.-I -n.7pITI) is shown in Figure 2- 10.

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50

0 1,\ )' 11:.1(

I n h 'n,il, of Ra, leigh Scatt eri ng

Var ies I n\'ero~l'l , " it h I.~

Atm osph eric Scatter ing

R:I,J('ilo:h Sca ll er in!:.
<to

I\li ~

b.

Elec trom agne tic Ra d iation Principle s

Cia,; molecule

1110

2.75 2.5

1.75

2.25

Energy in elect ron volts (eV )

Sea tl erin !':

'0

Smoke. dust
Photon of electromagnetic
energy mo..Icled as J wale

e.

20
Figure 2 15

lyre of scattering is u functio n o f I ) I t\t~ wavele ng th

of the incident radiant cncq;y and ~) the Sill: (If the
gas molecule. dust particle. and/or ware V3fl'1I
droplet cncocmcrcd .

Most Rayle igh scaucrmg by gas molecules fal-l'S place in the

atmosphere 2 10 8 kill above the ground IFigure 2-J 4J. Rayleigh scauenng is responsi ble for the blue appea rance (If the
sky. Th e shorter violet an d blue wavelengths are more cffl cie mly sca uc red than the longe r o range a nd red wavelen gths . when we look up on a clou dless day and adm ire the
blue sky. we ;In; w itnessing the prcf crcuual scaucr ing uf the
sho rt-wa veleng th su nl ight , Ray leigh scattering is als o
responsible for red sunsets , Since the 1I11lWSphCTC i ~ 1I thi n
shell of gravitationally boun d gas su rrounding the solid
Eart h. sunl ight mu st pass through :I longer slant pat h o f air at
sunset lor sunrise ) than at noo n. S ince the vio let and blue
wavelengths are scattered e ven mort: duri ng their now
longer path through the ai r than whe n the Sun is ove rhead.
what we SOX' when \'0 e 1001.. toward the sunset is the residue-sthe wavelengths of sun ligh t that arc hardly scattered away at
a ll, especially the oranges and reds .

Mie scattering [so metimes referred

10 as non -mo lecu la r or

aerosol particle sca ttering) takes place in the lower 4 .5 km of
the atmos phere. whe re there may be many essentially sphcrlcul panicles present with d iame te rs appr oxirnntcly cqunl to
the siz e ofthe wnv-clcng th ofthe inc ident e nergy (Figure 2
15h). TIll: act ual si ze orthe pa r1 i de ~ muy range from 0.1 ttl

OA

G
0.5

YO
0.6

R
0.7

Figure 2 16 The intenSIfy ofRa)'leig:h scattenng varies 1O\'ersd}

.... ith the fourth pow,;r of the w.rvclcnpth(A-4).

10 t imes the wavelength of the inc id ent energy. f or visihle

ligh t. the main scanenng age nts arc dust and othe r panicles
Tall,!;ing h om a fe w tenths Ill' u mic romete r to several
micrometers in dia meter. TIll' amount o f scatte r is greater
than Rayle ig h scancr. and the wavelengths scauc rcd are
lon ger. The greater the amount o f smoke and dust part icle..
in the at mosp heric co lumn. the mor e that viole t an d blue
light 'n il! he scaucrcd away and only the longer orange and
red wavelength ligh t will rea ch our cyes. Pollution a lso contributes to beautiful sunsets and sunrises.

vonsctecnve scattering lakes place in the

lowest portions of
the atmosphere where there art' particles > 10 rime, the
\00 avelengt h of the incident electrom ag netic radiat ion (Figure
2-150:). T his type of scattering is nonselec tive, i.e.. al l wave.
length.. of lig ht are scaucrcd. nor just blue. g reen. or red.
Thu ... the wate r d roplets and icc crysta ls tha t make up clouds
and fog ban ks scatter al l wavelengt hs of visible lig ht equally
well. causing the cloud 10 appe ar white. Nons ele ctiv e scattcring u f approxima tely eq ual pro po rtions uf blu e, green

"

51

Atmospheric Energy - Mane r Interact io ns

.lrld red light alwa ys appea rs J ~ while light to the cas ua l

obsm-er. This is tho: reason why pUlling our nutornobilc high
beams on in fi.)g only makes the problem \.I 0 1';<;: as we nons eeaivcly seanor c\ en morelight into our visual field of'vicw.
),:aJlwng is a very important considerat ion in remote sen,...
lIII inves tigations. It can ~\<:rd) reduce' the in form ation
roal<:nt of'remotcly sensed d313 10 the po inr rhnthe imagery
ces connast and it becomes difficult [0 ditf...remiate one

Chlo ro phyll in vcg ctauon absorbs m uch o f the inc ide nt blue
and red light for photosy mhcnc purposes. Chapter In
descnbc-, the imp ort anc e (,I' thc w chlorophyl l absorption
bundx and thei r ru le whe n rem otely scnsinJ!: veg etation. Sunilarly, wa ter is an ex cellent abs orber of energy (C hapter II ).
Many minerals have un ique abso rption characteristics in
\ery specific portions o f the electro mag neti c spectrum that
al low us to use remote sensing 10 identify them (Cha pte r I .l l,
assum ing there IS no (1\ er lying \egelali\1ll \ Cla rk, 199') ),

.:tljn., from another.

~bsOfPtion

lbwrp li oll is the process by .... hich radiant energy is

absorbed and convened into other fonns of energy. The
Il>so.lfjIlion of the incident radiant energy may take place In
the almosph~rc: or on the terrain. An absorption 00".1 is a
mlC or

avclc ngths (or frequencies] in the electromagnet ic

spectrum ithin .... fnch radiant energy is absorbed by a cubsece. The effects of \\ atcr ( 1 1~O I. carbo n dioxide (C Ol )'
~Yl;Cf1 (0 ) , 070ne (O J)' a nd nitmuv oxi de C'.j:O ) on the
lI3JI~m iss inn of light through fhe atmosphere a re s um manred in Figure 1-17 a, The cumulauvc effect of the absorption 1 the various const itue nts can cause the atmosphe re to
"close down' completely in certain regions of the spectru m .
This is bad for remote s":l1~ill g bec ause no <:llergy is a\ ailablc
\(I be sensed. Conversely. in the visihle r on io n of the spectrum 10.4 - 0,7 um l, the atmos phe re doe, not absorb all o f
th~ incident ene rgy but uunsmirs it rather e ffectively. Purtons of the spectrum thm tran sm it rad iant energy effect ively
Brc called (jllllmp h,'r il' 11 ';11.1" 11'1'.

'.

isible
-ricles

ouds

Absorption OCC UIT> when incident energy o f the same tr eqll CllCy as the resonant freque n..: y u f an ;Ilorll or mo kcuk is
abSllfb..:d. produo: ing. an e \ cited stale. If inslead o f reradi at
Ing a ph(lIOn o f the sante wa ve lengt h, the energy is t rll n ~
fnmled inhl heat motion ami is suhseq llcnt ly rcraLli'ltcd at .1
longer w3wlcngth, ahso rptiu n nee urs. Wh en dea ling wi th ;1
med ium like air. anso rption am i !iCalt l'ring arc frl' qu ently
mmbi ncd int(l all ('Xlilidioll em/fidel/f \ KOl!ecny, 20 03 I.
Transmission is irl\'eNely rela ll'd to the e xt inc tion coeOi
eirnllimes the l h i ('k n~' ~s of th..: layer. Cena in wa velen gths o f
radialion arc a ff~'..: tcd far mure by absorpt ion lhan by ~aller
ing. This is JMnin llarly t ru~' of inl'r:Hed a nd wavele ngths
JIlmer than visi ble lig ht. The co rnhrnell d Tec h o f almo;p~rie absorpt i(>ll, Sl:alt..:ring, and rd l ectancc (from clo ud
lOpS) can dram alically reduel' thl' am(lunt of solar rudiation
reaching the Eanh 's ~u rface:1I sea le veL as shown in f igure

ually

Z17b.

~ n'ra l
rcat~ r

d are
tiel es
blue
e an d
con-

os of
the
igun:

'3VC~d.

l-.ne~ reac hing the remote s..:nsing system must pass

through the a tmosphere twice. Therefore. it is common to
identify t\\tl dlllW\/,hl'ric trans mission C/H.fficil<nfS : one for
..:ocrg) com ing into the atmos phere (Te ) ar an incidence
angle related to the source of the energy (e.g... the Sun). and
one for Ihl' atmosphere that the Earth surface -reflected or
emured en.:"!!y must p<lSS through to reach the remote sensor
system fI, I. We .... ill M.'..: how important these tw 0 paramctcrs arc in the d iscus, inn on auuosphcnc correction later in
this chapter.

'T

Reflec tance

Rej7C'C'/( IIIH> is the process 'M hereby rad iation "bounces (111"
an object like the to p o f a cloud, a water body, or bare so il.
Act ua lly, the proc e ss is more complicated, involvin g rcradimio n of phot ons in unison by ato ms o r molec ules in a laye r
approx unarcly o ne-hal f wavelength deer. Refl ec t ion exhibits fundament al characteristics that arc importa nt in remote
sl'nsi ng . First. the inc ide nt radi ation, the re flecte d rad iat ion.
and a vcrucalto tbe surface from whi ch Ihe a ngle-s or incidence and rc flccucn arc measur ed all lie in rhc same plane .
Second, the a ng le of inciden ce an d th e angle o f refl ect io n
(exil;uKe) ar" ilppro ximate !y eq ual, a ~ sho" n in Figure 2 IK

r here art' various types o f re l1 e~, t i ng surl::lct:s. ,~il"cII1(lr

when the ~ lI r tilc" fro m whi ch th" rad iat io n
is re tlel' ted is essenlially ~ l11 o\lt h (i. e.. lnl' uverage su rface
pro ti k height is s.'\'l'ra l tirnes smalle r than the wa vcl ..:n~'1h o f
rad i:lIion striking the surfa..:c), Se\eral fcature s. such as ca lm
wat.'r bodies, ael likl' nc<!r-I">I}i'''' .Ip .'c/d<lr n:fhTlors (Fig.
ua ' 21 X:t, h l. II' there arc vcl)' li: w ripp les on the s ur face , the
inciden t ..:nl'rg.y .... ill k a\c the " <Iter btldy at a n an gl..: cq ual
and " prosite to the incident energy. We kno w Ihis occurs
!'m m our pt." rso na l e \]X'rie n~'..:. If we shine a l1ash ligh t at
n i ~h t (lll a tran'l llit poo l ofwat..:r, the lig.ht w ill boun.: e ofrthc
su rl:1ce :md intn lh(" Irees across the way al an angle cq ual to
and oppt1site fwm t h~' i n~' ident rad ial io n.
rl'/le<l ioll ll\: ctrr~

~at

I f t h~' surf~~-("

COX"".

the

has a largo.' sutfa...e h...ight re lati \'(" to the si7(" of

of the in..: idem energy, the re nCl:l..:d rays go

\\ a v e len ~l h

C11 -\rn:R

52

Electromag nellc Rad i atio n Princ ipl es

,)I

,~'"

11M)

e-I

-e

100

.~

'"
.e
c,

"e

"

'"'
0

reo

0'

OJ 04

0.6 Oll. I

f>

II.

10

wavelengthurn

2UQU

Su la r rad l~ I".m a t the

lOp of the .nmo-pherc

'sa,

Sola r radrauon at

"C3 1C\~1

C'
E ISOO
~

,.~
o:

O~ llfl

10110

II! )
II !)
I[ .,()

11,:0
Hf)CO~

lip . CO,

c
Fig ure 2-17

0.2

0.4

06

OR

10

1.2 1.4 1.6 U

waveleng th. um

2.0

22

2.4

2.6

2.11

3.0

32

01) -I he ab"'ll'plinn "f lhe Sun'~ incident clcctrceuagncnc CI\<:'f!t)" in til<.' rcgwn from 0.1 10 JO 11m by variuus a tmospheric ga~.
Tile Ii!";! (Ollr graphs dcpiL'1 the ahsnrplil'll characncrisucs of ~:(). 0 2 Jnd OJ. ('01' .1I1tl ll~O. while the fin:r.l graphic depicts
LIllO: cumulative result "rull these constnucnts I>cllllt III the atmosphere 31o ne II IllO:, The atmos phere c ssenuatly "dUM'~ <II'''''...
in certain portions of thc spect rum \\ hile "a tmoxphcnc \\ mdow s" ""i~1 ill other region s,that lransnut in" idem energy c ffcctiv cly tuthe gro und. It is within these window s thai remere w n~ i ll g ~y~lt"m~ mustfunction. 11) The com bined effe cts of ~t1llmrh cric
a bsnrpuo n, '>"lllering, and reflec tance reduc e Ilw amount or solar irrudi.mcc reachi ng the Earth's surfuc c at sea level.

53

Terrain Energy-Maner Interacti on s

,
Angle or

AIlgk"r

Angle of

l-._\ ilan

hl<:l.kncc

h iw",:c

Smooth ....t<:1

c. ~<'3f-pr;rrcct ,Jiffus<: 1"<:11""1:\or.

d. Pcrtect drffu-c reflector. <>f

La mbert tan surface.

Figure 2 18

vc~c

The nature of specular and d ilru ~<, rctlccumcc.

in many directions , depending on the orientatio n of the

smaller reflecting surfaces. T his dlUil sl' re flec tion doc s no!
yield a mirror image. but instead produc es diffused radiation
(Figure 2-18c). Wh ile paper. while powders. and other maleria ls retlecr visible light in this diffuse manner. lf'the SUrt:1CC
j~ very rough, then unpredictable scancri ng may occur. Lambert defined a perfectly di ffuse surface; he nce, the comlOOnl)' designated l.arnbcrtian .1'11/1;/("1' is one fo r wh ich the
radiant nux leaving the surface is cons:.mt filr a ny angle of
reflec tance ( Figurc 2-llld),

ril ed in Ch ap ters 4 und 7, It b a lso pos sible 10 obt ain spe ctral
reflectance mea surements o f the terrain tc.g., crops, soi l. and
warcT } h ) ' hlllding a spcctromdiornctc r just a few centime ters
abov e the ground a s shown in Figure J- I. Methods of
ob tainin g in ,1"//1/ spectral rcncctnn cc measurements m e prescutcd in Chapter 15.

Much Ill' the incident radi ant nux from the Sun is re fl..-cted
from the lor o f clouds and lither materials in the urmosphcrc .
A suh~lan tial amount (\1' this en..-rgy is reradiated back 10
>p31.'e. As \\'1.' sha ll sec, Ihe spe cula r an d diffu se reflection
pri ne-irks that ap ply to c loud.. also ap ply ItJ the terrain.

The lime rate o f Flow of ene rgy 111110 , off o r. or through a surface is calle d m di<llIIj1"-1 (IP) and is meas ured in watt s (W)
(Tallie 2-1). The characteristics of the radian t flux and what
happen s to it as it imcrucrs v, ith the Earth's surface is o f ernical importa nce in remote se nsi ng. In fact, this is the fund ame maltocus o frn uch remote se nsing researc h. Hy carefully
monitoring the ex act natu re o f the inco ming (incident) rad iant Ilux in selective wa velengt hs and how it inte rac ts with

Spectral re flectance ma y be measured from great d istances

\I.,ing multispectral remote ~cns i ng systems. Op tical rem ote
sensing systems that record slX'ctral reflect ance arc summa-

Terrain Energy Matter Interactions

C1I,\ I"U :R

54

Table 2-4 .

Electromagnetic Radiation Prin ci ples

Radiometric corn:q>t s [Colw ell. 198:3).

Name

Sy mbol

Units

Concept

Rad ia nt ,," erg;.

joules.l

Capac ity of radiat ion within a specified

spectral band 10 do \Iood.

Ib d ian t f1U \

wan ... \\

Time rail' o f no", of cnerg)' onto. ofT of. or

throu.:h 11 sunace.

Ihtl illlli nu x dc n, lly a t th e s u rfa ce

trr ao tan cc

wens per square met er.

Radia nt Ilia inc iden t upon a surface 1'1:1'

unit area of tha I surface.

RlIdi :mt e xltance

W m'l
watts per square me ter,

Radiant flux leavin g a surface per unit area

WI11 ,2

o f that s ur face.

walls IX'T ~ 'lu arc m eter.

Radiant intensity pe r unit of projected

source area in a specified direction.

Ra di a nce

per steradian. W ro' ? s( l

p,

dimensionless

dimL"flsionlc !>llo

"'..........

dimL"tlsionlcs.s

'"'.

the terra in, it is possible \0 learn impo rta nt info rmation a !'lllul
the terrain.

Radiometric quanutics haw been identified that a1l11\\ analysts tn keep a careful record o fthe incident and e xiring radio
uut n ux (Table 2-4). We beg in with the simple radiation
budge/ ('(/IW /iflll, w hich stmcs tha t the total nrnoum of rad io
ant n ux in speci fic wave lengths 0, ) inc ident 10 thc te rrain
( lIl; ) must be accounted for by e valua ting the amoun t of
tad i:lnt flux renee-ted fro m the surface (I,<n,,,,<'II). the
amount of rad iant flux absorbed hy the surface ( $ w....to<d,I,
and the amount of rad ian! flux transmitted through the sur-

Hemispherical Reflectanc e, Absorptance. and

rransmitrance

Hemispherical retlecnmce (PAl is defined as the dimensionless ratio of rhc radium flux reflect ed from ,I surface III tbe
radia nt tlux inc ident to it (Table 2-4 1:

(2-15
1It'l/Ii,fpherica l trtlll.\'IIIiu"",( ( t A) is de fined as the dtmcn.

sion tess ratio of the radiant nux transmined thro ugh

face to the rad iant flu x incid cm to it:

face ( $ u.n>m,,,,J/

sur-

1 2. 1 ~ )

It is important 10 not e that these: radiometric quamuics arc

based on the amount of radiant energy incident to a surface
from any angle in a hemisph ere {i.e.. a half of a sphere ).

r.

_"'~~
::::;:='C"",
,,,,.

'"'.

( 2-16)

tlermspherical ahsorptunce (u.) is defined by the dimensionless relationship:

win Energy-Matter Interacti on s

55

Spectral Reflectance

(j

or Sefcc tcd ~ 13I ('ria l ~

45

,/

Con crete

......

O.JS

-.

"

...-..
~.

--

'J<>

"'- '"

,
~

'.2<J
IUS

" '\ 1- -1-\

, /
i '
I

I,

i ../I/

I
,.

/1 Cent iped e

,i

gra.~ s

'/

'.

/I

0, 10

-;f-1--I-I--+- + -I-+ --I--\-\"ft-- t- ~hf~:l~ -11"---1--+-/+', "1-+ 1" 1

0.05

0.00
4(HI

500

~no

7011

~ [)!l

'IlM'

'1' '\;;ici31
' tutJ=.~I
I' I
1

Ir

warer

Hllln I Hili W ill I WII 14UO I l OO I MKl 17(10 I ~ O\l 1'10ll zcoo 21011 2200

nOll

N OO 25110

Wavelength (nOll

Oq..re 2-t9 Spect ral retleetance curves for orl;lan-.-sub\Jrban phentlm....na in the reg ion 400 - 2.500 nm obtamcd using a handheld SJllXlro-radiometer (Chapter 15 d....scribes how

jic nthe

in"',, spec tral reflectance m<-'as lrremCIll~ arc collected ).

(.::!.17)

(2-I R)

Ilese definitions imply that rad iant entOrgy mU~ 1 be coneoed. i.e. it is e ithe r returned back by reflc c-ucn. transmitltd through a mate rial. o r absorbed and transformed into
10m", other form of energy inside the terr ain. The net effect
llf ahsorprion of rad iation by mos t substances is that the
energy is conve rte'1.1 into heat. ca using a subseq ue nt rise in
ic: substance's temperature .
- I ft )

These radiometric quamiues arc useful for prod uc ing general stateme nts nbo ur the spectral re flecta nc e. absorpranc e.

ten-

md transmittance chara cte ristics of terrain fea tures. In fact.

If..e take the simple hem ispherica l rcnectance equancn and
muitiply it by 100. we ob tain an expression for percen t
enecaoce (p;... I:

P,....

(2 -1 \))

wh ich is often used in remote sensing research to describe

the spectral rctlecumcc characteristics of various phcnor ncna. Examples of spectral percent reflectance curves for
selected urban-suburba n phe nomen a arc shown in Fig ure 211/. Spectral reflectance curves provide no information about
the absorption and transmittance of the radiant energy . Hut
because many of the sens or sys t....ms such as ca m....ras and
so me multispectral sca nners record on ly reflec ted energy,
this information is still quite valuab le and ca n form the ba sis
lo r obje ct identificatio n and assessme nt. Fur example. it is
clear Imm Figure 2-19 that the Centipede grass reflec ts only
uppro xirmn ely 3 to 4 percent of the incident red rad iant
e nerg y ( O.1l - rl.7 I1m) while re flecting up to approximately
35 percent of the incide nt ncar-infrared radiant n ux (0. 7 0.9 JI m). If we wanted to discriminate between grass a nd
artilicial turf the idea l po rtio n of the spec trum to remotely
sense in would be the ncar -infrared region because artificial
turf rctlects o nly abo ut 5 percen t of the incident near-infra-

.....

56

Ele ctromagnetic Radiation Principles

1
red en ergy , Thiv ....-ould cause a black-and-white infra red
image of the terra in ttl display Centipcd<: grass," bnght
tones a nd the unificialrurf in darke r tones .

Hemispherica l re flec tance. tra nsmittance. and abso rpta ncc

rad iome tric quanutics do nul provide infonn ation about the
exact amount III' energy reac hing a ..pecitic area on the
grou nd from a !opc:cific drrccnon or abou t the CJHKI a mou m
of rad iant nu .\ c xuin g thl.' ground in a ce rtai n direction.
Remo te sensing sys tems ca n be loc ated in space o nly at a
single point in lime. and the y usually loo k on ly at a relatively
small portion o f the Earth a t a singlo: instant. Therefore. it is
impo rta nt 10 refi ne nu l' rad iometric measurement tec hniques
so that more prec ise radiometric information ca ll he
extracted from the rem otely se nsed data IDu cl a l.. 2002).
Th is requires the introduction o fseve ral radiom etri c quantitics that provide prn gn: s.<O; I\d y more preci.... rad iome tric
information.

Radiant Fill' Deustty

Radiant flux. lflA

,.

~\ 0, ";,"'.,.
r
.,

EA - - -

A rea, A

Radiant Flux Density

~\ /I;, "~.
Rad iant l1u:'(, $).

h.

A nat area (c. g.. I x I III in d imension ) be ing bathed in radiam tl ux ( If in spec ific .... :I\ ... lengths 0.) from the Sun is
shown in Figure 2-1lJ. The amount of radiant nux nuerccptcd d ivided by the area of the: plane surface: is the ave rage
rw limujlu,l d{'I1.\it:>~

i'

J f). = - A-

\
A rea. A

Rgure 2- 20 The co ncept of radiant nux density for an area

the surface of the Earth al/rra<li(ltlO.' i ~ a meaw
of the amount of radiant nux incident upon a surface per urut area of she surface measured in Wal
111 '). 1. Exum/ ,'" i~ a measure of the amount of ntdiantIlu x leaVinga surface per unit area ott be surf
me..surcd ill Wall ' m'~,

The amoun t "I' radian t tlux incident upo n a SUrnICe: per unit
area ofthat sur face is called irrodiance (),):
12-20 )
Thc amount ofrudiuur flux le;l\Iing II surface pe r unit are a o r
th,u surface is called t'xirwr,'(' (M,J
(2-2 1)

Both 4uulltitie s arc usuall y measu red in Watts pe r mete r

sq uared (\\ ' m ~) ...vlrhough we do nOI ha ve info rrnauon 011

the direct ion of euher the incom ing or ou tgoing radia nt

energy Ii .e.. the en.:rgy c an come and go at an) angle
throughoUI the entire hem isphere ]. \\ '" have now relined th c
m",aSUfl,'I11Cm 10 inc lude inform ation ab out the Si ll.' 11f rhc
slUdy are a of intercsr on the ground in 111 ~. Next we need to

refine ou r radiomet ric measuremen t techniques to inc lude

in torm.uion on what dirccuouthc rad ia nt [lux is lea ving the'

sunlyurcn.
I{a lliance
Radia nce is the rno preci se remote sens ing rad iometric
measurement. R,rdid""/! (I-J,, ) is the radiant intensity per unit
o f projected source urea in a spe c ified direction. It is 111"a
surcd in wans per II1l11' r squared per sterad ian ( W 111 ,1 sr I),
The concept of radiance is bcs r understood by ev alua ting
Figur e ~ 21 . First. the rad iant nu x lea ves the projected
source urea in a spc cifl c dire ction toward the remote sensor
W\: arc not concerned w ith any u rhcr raJi ant Ilux thar nught
he lcuv ing the source urcn in any other d irec tion . We are
imcrested only in the radium fl ux in certain wav elengths
( lfl~ 1 k a\ ing the projected SUII Ke are a (A ) withi n a certa in
d irccuon (C IIS 8 ) and solid a ng le (H) (M ilman. IQ99l :

57

llmospheri c Energy-Mane r Intera ct io n s

mtlucncc the rad iant nux once again before the energy is
recorded b} the remote sens ing system.

I{arlia nn ,

Xormal
10 surface

Energy-Matt er Interact ion s at the Senso r

0-

Side view
of source
Ilea-A
.'

L.L-..;]
"9Jre 22 1 The concept of r'hli"m"t' k a\ jng.l specific projected source area on the ground. in a sf'C'Citic direction.
and withm a spccitic ~ulid angle.

,>'ta on
:asurc
lour-

Wan s
tradi_

mace

rludc

glhe

Ictric
'unit

mea-

sr' ).
uing
~h..-d

uL = ~
.tcos 9

(2-22 )

ODe way of visualizing thc solid ang le is to con sider wha t

!Wwould see if you were in an airp lane loo king thro ugh a
kbo:ope at the grou nd. Only the energy thai exhcd the tcrTJin and came up to and thro ugh thc te lescope in a specific
lOId angle (measured In steradia nsj would he intercepted by
IDe telescope and \ icw...d by your eye. Therefore. the so lid
U1glc is like a rhrce-d imc nsionnl cone ( Of lUbe) that funn e ls
edram nux trom a specific po int source on the terra in
toward the sensor system. Hopefully, energy From the urmosphere or other ter rain features doc s not become scanered
iMo the solid angle field of view and cornanunarc the radiant
tlu\ from the area o f interest on the gro und. lj nfon unatcly,
thi\ is not often the cas e because sca ttering in Ihe atmoljlhrn: and from ot her nearby areas on the groun d ca n coulrioote spurious spectral energy, which enters into the so lid
IIIgJe field of vie w.

Atmosp heric Energy- Matter Interactions

Finally, energy-maucr interactions take place when 11K'

cuc rgy reaches the rem ote senso r. I f 'lI1 aerial camera is
being used. then the radiance wi ll intera ct w ith the ca mera
filter. the optical g lass lens. an d finally the film emulsion
with its light ..s ensitive silver hali de crystals. T he emulsion
must then he de veloped and printed before an analog COP) i!>
available fo r ana l}sis . Rather than storing a laten t image 011
fihn. an o pticnl -rncchanical de tec tor w il l d igiml l}" record the
number of photons in \el') specific wave le ngt h regions
reaching. the sens or.

Target and Path Radiance

Idea lly. the radiance (/.) recorded hy the camera cr detector

is a true function o frhc amount of radiance lcav ing the target
ter rain w ithin the msmr nanc ous-field ..o f-view II f" OV) at a
cpecitlc sol id angle. as prev io usly d iscu ssed . Un fo rtun ately,
other radiant energy Illay ent er into the fiel d of \ icw from
various other path s and introd uce confounding noise into the
remer... sensing proc ess. The refore. addi tion al radiometric
variable defini tions are needed to iden tify the major sources
and paths o f th is energy (Cracknell and Hayes. IQQ3: Green.
20(3). The cunables ere summarized in Table :!5. The van..
(lUS path s and factors that det ermine the radia nce reac hing
the remote sensor arc summarized in Figu re 2-22, including;
Palh 1 contains spec tral solar irradianc c U:" ) tha t was
atten uated ve ry little before illuminat ing the te rrain w ithi n
the IFOV. No ticc in this c ase thai we ar c interested in the
solar irmdinnc c from ;1 specifi c sol ar zenith allglc ( l:l,, ) an d
that the am ou nt Ill' irra dia nce reachin g the ter rain is a
func tion o f the atmos pheric trans mittance a t this ang lo;
( Til ). If a ll of the irradia ncc ma kes it to the ground. then
the llt mospht;'"ric tra nsmitta nce (Ta ) eq uals o ne. If none of
the irradiance makes it to the p ou nd. then the atmospheric
transmittance is zero

nsor,

Path Z con ta ins spect ra l d iffuse SKY irrudia ncc (Ed) that

l ight

: an:
Ig lhs
rtain

The radiant flux re flected or e mitted from the Earth's surface

once again enters the atmosp here, where it inleracts wilh the
l iuious gases, ",ale T v;lp"r, and pa rticu lates. Th us, atmn..
spncric scattcring. ah snrp lion. rd1ectilln , a nd refracti o ll

never eve n reaches the Ea rth's sur face (t he targ<.'t'study

area r because (If sca ttering in the atmosphere.
Unfort una tely. such energy is o ft en scatte red dire ct ly into
the IFO V of lh<.' ~cn~(lr system _As r re vinu sly d iscussed,
Rllyk igh sC<itk' ring 1'1' hlue light enntrihutes mm:h to this
dilr use sky irmdi anc e. That is \.I hy the b lue han d image

rC 11 ,.\I' I ~:H.

58

Electromagneti c Rad iation Princ iple s

I
Table 2-5 .

Radiometr ic variables used in remote se ns mg .

Radiometric Variab les

" .. solar irradiance atthe top or the aunosp hcrc IW m-Z)

E., .. spect ral solar irradia nce at the lOP o f the atmosphere
( 1,1,' m- l ..m' "}

EJ

.. diffuse sky irradiance (W m- 2)

Ed.... '>PtraJ d itl'usc sky irradiance (W m -: ).lID- I)

"",

,U, " the Jt'k'n"",rdn: nlam:e oflhc 3ImOSplk.'1C

.,

t:

m-~)

.. spectral global irradiance on the surface (W m- ).lm-I)

l

T .. normal atmospheric opticalthickness

T(j

..

Pmh 4 co ntains radiat ion that was reflect ed o r sca ttered b;.
nearby ternnn ( P I.. ) covere d by snow, concrete. soil.
wa ter. and/or veg.:iatio n into the IFOV of the senses
system. The ene rgy doc s not actually illum inate the stud):
area of interest. Therefore, if po...s jble, we wou ld like 10
mi n imize its e ffects.

Path 5 i-, ene rgy that \\ as also reflected from nea rby terrain
into tho.' atmosphere. but the n scattered or reflected onto
the stu dy area .

, '" the upward n:lkclan<:e of the atmosphere

E... gloo.l irradiance inciden t on the surface' ( \I.'

refers tIl th is q uantity as the downward re flecta nce of tile

atmos phere ( f J J J.

T here fore. for a give n spectral interval in the electromagnetic spectrum (e'~ ").. 1 to J~ cou ld be 0.6 - 0.7 urn or red
light I, the total sola r irradia nce rcaching the Earth j; s llr/lJt.l:.
E . is an integrat ion of seve ral components :

,.

aimospbenc transmittance at an angle Bto the aenuh

9" '"' solar lCTlith angle

E1>:1

P x. .. re flectance from a neigh borin g area

L .. tota l radia nce aith... sens or ( W m : Sf I)

L T .. 101.<,1 radiance from the target o f inte re st toward the

sensort w m 2 sr I)
L, ... intrinsic radiance of the targe t (W m"2 Sf 1) (i.e.. what a

(W m 2 p m -I). (2-23)

A,

8 ." = view an~ le (If the satellue sensor (or j;C3Jl angle)

Pi.. .. surface target reflectance at a spec ific wavelength

[, Ttl. co s 0t\ + Ed, ldA

II is a fun ction o f the spectra l solar irra dia nce at the to p of

the atmosphere ( E l m ultiplied by the at mospheric transmiuancc (TIJ ) at a"~cltain solar zen ith ang le (0 ) plus the
co ntrihution ofspl'Ctral diffuse sky irradia ncc (E; ,).
O nly a small amount o f this irradiancc is ac tually refl ected
by the terra in in the d irectio n of the satel lite sensor system.
If we assume the sur face o f Earth is a diffuse reflector (a
Lam bcrtian su rface l. the total amo unt ofrad iance exiting the
target study area (L r) toward the sensor is:

handheld radiometer woul d record on till: ground without inter-

vening unno sphcrc)

Lp '" path rad iance from multiple scatte ring (W m- l sr- I)

A,

Lr -

~ fP A Ttl.(/': '" Tll"cos8" + E,,)di...

(2. 24)

A,

produ ced I"ly a re mote se nsor syste m is oft en much bright er

than any o f the other bands. It co ntai ns much unwanted
diffu se sky irrudianc c th.n was inad vertently sca ttere d into
the IFO V o f the sensor system. T he refo re, if pos sible . we
wa nt to nunim ize its e ffects. Green (2 0D31 refers to the
q uantity as the upward refl ecta nce o f the atmosp here
( E J u.. ).

Path J contains energy Irc m the Sun that has undergone

some Rayle igh, Mje. and/o r nonse lective scauering and
pe rha ps some absorp tion a nd rcemission before
illum inating the stud)' area. Thus, us spectral co mposition
and polarization may he some wha t different fro m the
energy rb.n reaches the ground from path 1. Gr..ren (2003)

Th e average surface targe t re flectance (P,) is incl uded

becau se the veg eta tion. soi l, and water w ithi n the IFO V
se lect ively abso rb so me o f the inciden t energy, T here fo re.
not a ll o f the energ y incident 10 the IFOV ( E g , ) lean's the
1I:0 V. In e ffe ct. the terrain acts like a filter. selec tively
abs or bing ce rtain wa velengths o f light wh ile refl ecting others . No te that the energy exiting the terrain is at an angle
(8 v I. requi ring the usc o f an at mospheric tran sm ittance factor T6 . on ce aga in.

It would be ~ ondcrful if the total radiance reco rded by the

sensor, L$' equ ale d the rad ian ce returned from the target
study area o f interest, L, . Unfo rtunately, L s ole- I., because
there is ~0111e add itional rad ia nce frum d iffe rent pa ths that

59

Energy- Matter Interactions al the sen so r

of the

various Paths

or

Radiance Received h)'

a Remot e Sensin g S) vtem

cd by
soi l,

Remote

sensmg
sys tem

ow,
stud):
ke to

T('lill radiance
at the se nso r
Subr

radiance

rra in

I"l

L::J

onto

miagOJr red

V uct'o

Atmosphere

2-23 )

opof
ra ns-

s the

x ted
.tem.
or ( a

Reflectance from
ne jghboring area,

g the

P,
Figure 222

-24 )

ulcd
OV

e re,
the

.ely

othigle

fae-

"

mtnnsic valuabl.. spectra l information abou t Ihe target of interest. Conversely,

the f><Jrh radiance (1.,.) from palhs 2 and 4 includes di O'u'e ,I.y irradian cc "r radiance from neig hboring areas on the g round,
This path radiance generally introduces unwanted radromemc noise inthe remotely sensed data ami comphcates the image
interpretation precess.

R(Jdi(lnc(' (/' r) from path s l , J. lind 5 co ntains

may fall within the II-'O V ofrhe sensor syste m detector ( Figure 222). This is often ca lled I't/lll radiance, Lp Thus. the
loUl radiance recorded by the se nsor becomes:

can impede OUT abi lity to obtain accu rate spectra l me asurements.

(2-25)

remove the contribut ion o f path radiance (I.p). Me thods fo r

We see fro m Equation 2-25 and Figure 2-2 2 that the path
rJdiance (L p ) is an intrusive (bad) compone nt of the total
zmount of radiance recorded by the sensor system (I.x). It is
COOlJ'OS'.-d o f rad iant energy primarily from the diffuse sky
irradiance (Ed) fro m path 1 a s well as the reflectance fro m
ne:trb )' ground areas p ... from pat h 4 . Path radia nce im rodUC(';; error to the remote sensing da ta-collection process, It

i 1'J99 ). Radiative transfer model progra ms such as ~IODT

RAN , Se cond Simulat ion of the Satellite Signal in the Solar
Spectrum (toS). and others may be used 10 pred ict path radiancc on a particular day for a particular st udy area (c.g .. Matthew el al., 2000; lngpec , 2oo::!; vcrmorc et al . 2oo::!). Such
in fo rmation can then be used to remove the path rad iance (L p )

A great oral o f research has gone into dev eloping methods to

co rnpuun g pa th rad iance are sum marized in Richards and J ia

contribution to the rem ote sensing signal ( L.<) Ic.g., Research

Sy stems. ::!U03; Green. :!OO3). Song cr al. (100 I ) and Jen sen

El ectrom ag netic Radi ation Pri n ciples

60

(2IMlS) pro vide information abo ut when and how to rem ov e

lho: do:kl o:ril'u ~ e ff...d ~ o f path radian ce. Th e process is commonly referred \0 <IS rad iometric co rrectio n.

PmC'. A f).!orilhm .for \f" /f i.lpl?c l, ,,I. Hvperspectrol, and {"/.

"U.'I"..-Iru l I", ,,g" ry 1'1. 404<,l: 1<,l'-J.-21l7 .
\t Il ler. S. W. and E. vc rmorc. 2H02. .\'PO F.SS Vi.dNellnJf"<Jl"I?J

Methods of collecting ill !iiIU spectral reflectanc e measuremcnts thai can be used 10 atmosphericall y correct remote
sensor data arc prese nt...d in Cha pter 15.
Refer ences

I"'u g"r , Rudw(//,,'>:r Suite' : A lg urith", The'ur1!licuf BWi;j D<,,'u(//"",. \c r~i ..n 5. Lauham ; Raytheon. 83 p.
\ 111I11ao. A. S.. 1'l'J'l , .\ fu lh,", uti,'ul Princrptes uf Ho:"'u l,' Sens/IIg A(<I4/11g I"f,'"""",.1m", Vo;.'.I' D,lt". Ann A rbor : Ann Arbor 1'T\"~s . _l7 p.
Na'l~au ,

K. I')In. Th, 1'In'., icr un. f Ch...m'.ury "fCol",. Th.. FI{

NY.: Joh n Wile) .

It.." ( /lu.,.'.. .. ,-C.,I"r.

Col we ll. R. K. (Ed.). I')lB. 1I...."udl ul R",mu l. ' &m",);. 2nd ed ..

Bethes da : .>\SI' . KS . 24 ~O p .

Nassau , K. 1'1M . " The Physics o f Co lor," in Sc ic" ce )"or IYlt'4,

ChIcago: Wo rld Honk .

Crac knell, _\. P, and I.. W. Il a yo.'s. 1'193. - Atmos pheric Corr cc lio ns 10 Pa....ive Satelhte Remote- Sensing Data." Chapter R in
Rom.'t" SO''''''';':. NY.: Ta yler & Fra ncis, l lt- 158.

,,,,,,>JII<'/W" '"

Du. Y.. remer. P. M. and J . Ci hlar. ::!OO2. "Radiom etric :'>OlIrma lizario n of Mullilcm p<lral High-resolution Satellite Images
w ith Quality (' '' nlm l for Land COVl"r Change Detec tion," Remo l.' f).'m"'J! .,f 1:",',""""""'. Ie! :113.
Engll" M. IL Sc ully. M , O. and H . Walth er, I 'N.J. "The Dualny in
Maller a nd Light: ' S('/"IJ/~tic Am <rlnm . 271( 6 ):S6-"'1.
Fein berg, <1 . I <j X~ . -Ligju." in K. K. Holz \ Fd .J. Til l!' s",....'III" nl
S"I<!IK<! : R,"",I, S<"I-,ill,~ u.f III.' Em 'lru"",clll. Znd Ed.. :-;Y.:
John Wiley. 2-11.
Green, R. 0 ., 2()03, " [lI1 w d uct i" n to Atmospheric Corrccuo u,"
Ch apter 2 in el( "OR .V TlllrJri,j/. Bould e r: Analytica l Imaging
and tt l"uph yslcs. I.LC, 12- IX.
InSpl'C, 10m , ,'I CORA ./,11 V"lr:. U"i</". Bo ulder : ..v nalytic nl
Imagmg a nd ( .... " physics. LLC. 7h p.

knsc n, J. K.. 2 00 ~. Im m d/lcTllry /)i1-!i f<l 1 '''1<11-:'- I'ro n .... ill;: A

H,'III" II! S,I/.IinX l'er ,''f'.T/Ilo' , Upper Saddle Rlvc r: Prc nuceHi/ II, 525 p.
Konecny, G . 2fH).l. u".,;nto r""l lJ,m : Re"w!e Semin~. 1'11010Krumm..,,)' ",,,I GIS. 1\. Y.: Ta) lor s: Francis. 248 p.
Ma tthe w. ~ L W. an d 1J en-authors. 2000. "Status o r Atmus pheric Correc tion USing a ~' O nT R A "'4 ba sc d Algorit hm," S f'lE

1 ~ t>- JJ'l.

Rl""l":lTc h " ) st em ~. 2110]. IL H SH- Fm l Li1l<' -of-.. ig h l A im...

' ph ..,.i, .4 ,,,, /n;".if "', ,<,c ,,,,1 II rp<',..-u hI . Boulder : Res.:arcll
Sy~lem,. hnp:/I.... w.rsmc.co mrenvi Ilaash.asp.
Rrcha rdv. J. A. a nd X. Ji 1'l 'N , R",,,,o l,' S>:Il. mg Dlgllu f Image

1" ,,1.1';', :\ .Y.: Springer. Verlag. 363 pRinker, J. 1\.. 19<,1'1. l m " "IUdum to Sp"" 'frul R"" IllI'" Sen.,mg.
Ale xand ria: U.S. Ar my Topographic Enginee ring Center. htt p:! i .... ww ,tee.army.m ii, rcrra iwdcscn tutor ial.

ROll. II.. 201)(), " Physic al Principle s and Technical Aspects of

Remote Sensmg: ' in Schultz. G. A. and E. T. Engma n (Eds.j.
H,,"'o l, S" m IUK ill lIydm l01:..1'"'1,11~',j{<"r l/""ug ,m,,m. (k rli n:
S pringer ,l h -3 '1.
Song, C.. WouJ w d C. E.. S"lu, K. C. Lcnnc y, M. I'. and S. A.
\1 a wm"'-:r, 21Xll. "Clnssificufion and C han ge Detection Us.
ing Landsat 1M 1l,u a : Whe n and Ho w 10 Co rrect At mos ph e ric
E ffcc t ~"''' N,'/IIolt S''JI, i,,~ ,,{ 1::''''/1)" "" ,,111. 75;2.10-24 4.
l'rcfil. J and 1< . M. HH/ en . 1<,1"'5, The Scie nces: All tntegruted
,I/,{m ", ..h . NY.: Jo hn Wiley. 634 p.
fuonunc u. S , an d A. Pckkarin cn. 1004 . "L oc al Radiom etri c

Cor rect ion or Digital Aerial Photographs rot \1 uh i So urce

Fo rest In ve nto ry," Rcm" ,,' S,'n.ling oj En vironmem. IN :72 - 82.

r..

vc rmcrc . E.
EI Sulc ous. N. Z . an d C. O. Justice . 2002. " AI
mosph c nc Correct ion of :'-.IOU IS [l ata in the Visible to Middle Infra red : F i r~t Kesulls.- H,'molt' S..lHing "f Envirnnmeru,
8-3:'171 1 J.

V I.

,n.'<J

History of Aerial Photography and Aerial

Platforms

'0'.'/1.\'-

Fif

leClrn mllgnClic energy refl ected from the Ean h's surfac e may be recorded by
a variety of remote sens ing sys tems. T he camera is still o ne o f the mos t rchablc and useful re mot e sensing instru ments. This c hap ter fi rst review s the history of ph otography. It then documents the development of suborbital

plat lim ns used 10 obta in aerial photograph)'. Finally. a brief history of orbital
aerial photograph y data co llect ion is pres ented.

84.

' mo-

"h

'/11K.

Hi story of Phot ography

l'holugraphy w as an invention wa iling 10 happen from l R.B 10 1l\39 . Two of

the technolog ical co mpon ents had been around for centuries . wai ting for the
righl inve ntor to put every th ing together, includ ing: I ) a correct theo ry o f
light and color, and j a recording instru ment (the came ra ob scu ra ). A ll th at
was lacking was tbe invent ion of a light-sens itive em uls io n thaI cou ld be
mad e permanent ( fi xed].

ht-

Ught and Color

s of
h .l,
rlin:

v. hitc light is composed of a ll co lors Unfortunatel y. Ari stotle's

. A.

Useric

ned

trl e
.f CC

82.

A<.

For more than a thousa nd ~ ears India's as trologers have taugh t that the Sun's

belief IhJ.1all

co lors are created by m ixing blac k and whitt" prevailed well intc rhe 17'h century I Woli n~ky, 1999). Even Leo nardo da Vinc i could not make up his min d,
decl ar ing on different occasions rhar the re wer e six pr ima') colors - o r
eight. It look the genius of Sir lcaac Newton to put lo nh the co rrect concept
of light and color. In 1672 . whe n making public his New Tlwol) ' tlnour Light
II"" Calours, Newton wrote,
In till' bcgining o fthe yeare 1666 ... I procured me a Triang ular
glassc prismc. to try therew ith lhe Cele brated Phaenernen a o f
Co lours.
l'\c v.w n found tha t in using the prism . he coul d dl spc rse w hite light into a
spec tru m o f colors - red , orange . ye llow. gree n. b oe. indigo, nd vio let. Unlizing a secon d prism. he found tha t he co uld recombine thc colors into wh ite
light. lie was the first to sc ient ifically document the ~
1 natt~ ofliglu.
His idea s helped la unc h the era of modem optics.

lid'nt.

61

'-

62

Cll .\ PT F:R

History of Ae rial Ph otography and Ae ria l Platfo rm s

Figure 3-1

A portable ca mera obscure focu sed rd k ,:k tl li;:h'

from people Of land scapes throu gh a lens ( A I. 0,,10
a mirror (ll J. and sub....-qucllll) onto OJ cle ar 1'1<1\<: or
gl 'I"~ In The person then ..ketcbed the relanve
J>Tupurt iulls and shape o f ObjLOClS 01110 transpan:m
P.lpeT The camera obscura was an important tech nolo!!i....l stt.:ppll1;: stone in the dc\ clopmcnt of
came ras and T'h"l~raph)' (a fter Ganot. 11(55).

Ftgure 32

Jo-eph Niccphore Nrepce t 1763- l1B31.

Saon c. France. and reco rds the buil dings and vcgcrauor
the co urtyard ( Figure 33 ). O n the len of the photogra pl
the u ppe r loti of the Niepce family house; 10 the righ t i
pear tree with a patc h of sky show ing thro ug h an uP<-'llill~
the branc hes: in the middle is the slan ting mol'of the ham
rhe ta r right is another w ing o f the house.

The Camera Ob scura

fundamental camera principl es were known as ea rly as the

4'1> Cl.'nlury Be in C hina and in Greece, A device known lIS
the camera obscuro ta dark cham ber) had long been utilized
by art ists as a draw ing aid ( Figure 3. 1), Th e ca mera obsc ure
uses a simple len s inserted into a box to focus images ofthe
outside world onto a m irror and subsequently onto a plat e of

glass. The p..-rson the n sketches the desired information ont o

re lativ ely tran slucent paper (e.g., thin onionskin pa pe r ). In
this way. the relat ive p roportions and shape o rl, hj~ets can be
recorded , The problem facin g those w ho would invent phctog mp hy was how to captu re and preset...e the imag e on the
glass [Fanton, 19S' .

tovenuon of Light-Sensitive Emulsions and Methods of

Perman ently Fixing the Image

Joseph Nicephorc Nicpc c (1763- 1833) lived in Fra nce Ifigure )-2 ). lie prod uced the world's first photographic image
of nature. circ a 11'26 {Gemsheim and Gem sbe im. l1J521. It
was obtained from an upper \\ indow at his es tate "L c Gras"
in the \' i llag~' o f Saint Loup de va renne . near Charlon -sur-

Fhis is rhe li n<t successtut permanent photogra ph ti

remotely sensed im<lge ). But how was the first phorogn
Ju de a (a kind
produced? Nicpcc d issolved b itum...n
<lsp hnlt) in lavende r oil (a solvent used in varni shcs ). rl
coated a sheet ofpewter (met al) with the mi xture . I lc phil
the shec t in a canwru obsc ura a nd aimed the camera throe
an open wind ow at his courtyard. He expo sed the sheet
eighthours. T ill' shad ing ofthe b uild ing s is odd beca use
the dive rse lighting ca used by the Sun travers ing ac ros s
sky h om casr 10 wes t durin g t he e ight-h our exposure . In
dent light from th.:: SUIl harde ned the bitume n of J udea
brigh t ure a, and left it so ft in dark areas . Nicpce the n wast
the plate with a m ixture of lave nder oil and wh ite pcrroicu
This time it removed the soft bitu men tha t had not Ix
struck by light. "The rcsu n was a permanen t direct POSil
pic ture. in which the light s we re represen ted by bitu me n a
the shades b)' bare metal" t Gcrnshc im and Ciemshc i
]l)5.:!). Nicpcc had foun d a way 10 remove the uncxpcr
and sullltght-sensitive mate ria l so that the image stayed v
iblc. Njepce ca lled it a hd ioxraph. from the Greek helios
"S un" and grcll'''O.~ for " dr aw ing" (l ondo n and Up
1 1J~~ I. Niepce d ied in IX3.l and was never able to appreci.
the imp act thai photography would have on society.

or

p,

63

History 01 Photography

First l' hotog ra pn

'igu~e 3-3

J<lM"ph ;-":i.:cphorc Nicpce look the world 's first phorcgraphic image in I !t2n of his estate courtyard. He

used a camera (>bscura and a mclal plale of pewte r

coaled with an emulsion o f bitu men of Judea la kind
of asphalt). The exposu re last~-d d glu holm. The
parts tl f the plate C\JlO!'<'d to lig ht hardened . Areas
llull drd not rec eive light remain..d ...,ft. lit- removed
III<.' unex posed so ft bitumen by " 3shing the plate in
1,1\ endc r o il lind wnne P<'lro teum, 1his resulted In the
first perm ane nt ph\lltlgr~phic image (Gernshcim and
Gcms herm. 1<,1;2: ,C uernsbcrm Collection. Harry
Ransom Humanit ies Research Center. University of
Te~3~. Ausnn ; u~ \\ittlllcmli~,inn ).

ion in

aph is

is a
ing in
.m. tc

It

( i.c.,

?f'ljlh
-rd of
then

laced
-ough
:,:1 for

.sc o f
.s the

Inciea In
[shed
cum .

Louis Jacques Mundo Dagucrre (l n n -I S5 1) wa s a scenic

ani,l who created stage sets to r op eras and theate r (Fig ure 3~ ). lie and Niepce eOITl.'s pnllllcu oucn and bec ame bus iness
partners in 11129. Alle r Nicpc c's death in 1833, Duguerrc
continued experim enti ng w ith var iou s emu lsi nns and image
"fixers." Oil Januar y 7. 1l(N . he presented the dague rrro/.Ipt' process to the Frenc h Academy o f Sc iences . The
daguerreotype proces!> invol ved the fo llowin g steps (Quac kenbush. 19(,(); Newhall. I<,193; Londo n und Upton. 1( 94 ):

"''"
land

, A polished surface o f si lver was plated onto a sheet of

ieirn.

The plate was made light_sens itive by e xposi ng it to the

vapors from iodine crystal!> in a box . The , apor reacted
with the silver. prod uci ng thc light -s cnsuivc compound
silver iodide.

utive

oscd
I YIS'.\' for

PhotograrIJ of Lou is Jacques Maud e Dagc crrc

(IiH7-IS51).

t or landscape] had to rema in ' ery still . During exposure in

the camera . the plate recorded a latent inl<l~e of the sce ne.
which "'i1 S che mica lly prese nt but und etecta ble 10 the
huma n eye .
The laten t image wa s dev eloped by putt ing the: e xpose d
plate in a box that had a d ish o f healed me rcu ry at the
bouorn. Where many photun s o f ligh t had imp acted the
plat e. the mercu ry vapur form ed a fro sty amalgam, or
alloy, with the silver. T his amalga m made up the bright
are as of the image. Wh ere lew photon s of light impac ted
the plate. no amalg am was form ed. The p late W:l S th en
plac ed in 11 hath o f W T1l111nn sa il (sod ium ch loride ). whi ch
caused uuy une xposed silver iodide: to be come insensitive
to furth er light actio n . The p late was then wa shed in wat er
and dried. The result was a on e-o f-a-ki nd pos itive image.
1\ few years later sod ium thio sulphate (hypo ). whic h
Hersc hel had d iscove red in lX19. wa s us ed as the fi xative
a gent instead ofsodiurn c hlor ide .

copper.
T his d irect positive proc ess yiel ded a sing le po sitive prin t

oton.
ci:1I1."

Figure 3-4

, Thephoto-sens itive plate was placed in a camera nbscura ,

and an exposure was made. T he exposure (If the pla te o ften
lasted several minutes. during which time the participants

called a "Sun-d rawn miniature ... as the word "photograph"

had no t bee n wined . Dagucrrc made it dear that he co nsi dered the invent ion to he his own. bu t agree d to trans fer it to
the part nersh ip w ith Isidore Niepce (Josep h's son) "on co ndition that this new process shall bear the nam e of Dagu erre
alone: it may. howeve r. only be published simu ltaneously
wuh the first process. in orde r that the name of M . Joseph

....
64

CII ,\ I'n:R

3~

Histo ry of Aeria l Photography and Aerial Platforms

Daguerreotypes

a. Unite d Stares Capitol. J R.f6.

Figure 3-5

h. Presid c nt Abraham Lincoln, 1864.

1);tgU...rre...'lypt.-So f :I) tho.' L n ilNI Sidle'SCa pilli] "nd h } Pr~"SI J"'nl A braluun Lincoln tc ou rt.. s~' of Library of Congress ).

Nicc phorc Nicpcc Illa)' al w ays figure. as it should in this

inventi.. m" \ 1..HUlIU.... IX(,71.
The s..x rctary o f the I 11:11I.:h Ac ademy of Sciences marveled
at Il agm'rrc 's inve ntion and stated tha i " It upsets a ll scientific rhccri ...s (If light and optics. and will revolutionive the
an of drawing." Ot her imminent membe rs of the French
Academy o f Sciences. such as Ale xande r Von Hum boldt
/th e geographe r who conceived (11' ,11... "is ohn c"), \ erili ed 11K"
importance o f the invention. T he daguerreoty pe process W ;IS
purc hased hy ilK' t-rench gov ernm ... nt and borh Daguerre :and
Isidore Nicpcc were gramed lifeti me pen sions. Daguc rrc
wrote a 7IJ ra ge bookl et descr ibing t he dague rreotyp e process. which w as publi-hed in more tha n .10 editions an d J IStributcd thro ughout the world. A serious problem for earl ~
phnlograp hers making d apucrre orypcs. however. "" as thai
some of them went insane': a photographer exposed 10 the
mercury fumes o vvr ,I prolonge d period of time could obtai n
mercury poislming.

In the United Sta tes, thousands of dagu crrcorypcs were

made of landscape s and people by ..uch famo us phorog mphcrs as .\latlhc l-\ Brady. The daguerreotypes tha t remain
today in the Library of Congress an: important historic al
documents. Daguern:o ly pc<; (,I'the' United Suncs Capitol and
President Abraham Linco ln an: sho wn in Figure J-5,

Daguerreotype s recorde d ''''I)' fin", detail, and the public

loved them, Unfonunmcly, there was no way of produci ng
mu llipk copies exce pt by rephotographing the nriginal.
What \\'a~ needed was .1 process where any number nf positive images could be made tro m a single CX p('lSUTe. In I SW,
all I:nglishman named William Henry Fox Talbot (I :-\tlOIX?? ). ,, 1" 1 was II me mbe r of the Royal Soci ety {eq uiv alent
III the Frenc h Acadc tuy o f Scie nces ), d iscove red that an
im.rgc forme d un paper coated wuh silve r iodide. tho ugh
barely visible, could he de veloped o r strengthened with galhe ucut and silver n itmil' . He used waxed, transparent paper
l1ega ti \<: ~ , fixed in hypo, to make pos itive cop ies on silver
chloride raper. Photog raphs made in this way did not equal
daguerreotypes ill brilliancy or sha rpness. but the culntvpc
(Gree k kulos Ior " bea utiful" <JIlU t ypos lo r " imp ress ion" )
prlli.'ess made if p ossible to produce a numbe r of positiv e
copies From thl' negative. talbot's Pel/cil III Nature ( IXM I
"as the first boo k I II be illustrated with photographs.

Talho l"s negmh e 'l"'"ili\l: process is basically the same one

wo: usc today in rcrrcsma l and acr tal photog ra phy. Talbot
con tend d that his process predated Dagucrrc's process and
present -J his case 10 the Royal Slle;l'I). lnreresungly, when
the famed astronomer Sir John F. W. I lcrschcl of England
W;l S asked 10 co me to France and compare Daguerre's prtlce!>s wuh that of Talbot's. he replied, "I mu st tell you thai
compared 10 Ihi.'SC masterpieces of Dagucrrc. Monsieu r Tal-

65

History of Photograph y

~ produces not hi ng hut vague. fo ggy thin gs . There i ~

. .h difference betwee n these

IwO

as
produces as there is

berween the moon and the sun" (Ne wha ll. 19l(3). Hersche l
11;0 introduced the word photographr instead o f Talbot's
term " photogen ic drill>' ing" and co ined the te rms pvsiJin:

and IIt'Kali l"".

Photography was conside red miraculous atthe t ime because

prior to 1839 il

W;IS

impossi ble 10 know CX;ll'tly what any

person or place looked like without ac tua lly kno.... iog the

reson or visiting the location. Ponrainnc wus available

ooly 10 the we althy and "as subject to embellishment by the
U1l'it. b en th e N-SI descriptio ns of faraway wo nders {If the
..orld .... ere still on ly .... ords. Photography allowed the co rnman and w oman to reach into th e tlow of lime. stop it
fur an instant. and then preserv e that momen t for postent}.

!lOll

ubl ie
ICing

tmal.
post839.
gOO-

In 11\5 1. the Englishman Frederick Sc ott Ar cher found Ihat a

glass plate coated .... ith CfJII," Ii,m [nitroc c llulo..e dissol ved in
(1fler and alcohol ) co uld be used as an e mulsion. lie devcloped a way to coarn g.1 3 ~ s plate with the s ubstance (Ne whall.
l%!J), The plate was made sens itive by dipping it in silv er
nit rate. The silve r ions combined with the iod ine ions to
form hght-Sl.'l1sitivc iodide within th e collodion. The plat c
\Io':lS exposed while.' still mo ist and then de veloped in pyrogallic acid, fivcd in hypo. and washed , The collodion In'l
pia/(' process had to be pcrtorrncd on loc atio n. This requ ired
a complete mobile dark roo m if photograph y was acqu ired in
tbc field. From 1851 until 18SS this .... as the most popu lar
form of photo graphy, co mpletely replac ing the dague rreotype and calo type processes.

ale n t
It

an

)ug h

ga l.
nper
tlvc r
qual
~I"f'('

on")

hive
<-WI

one

lbo t

'""
he"
and
)fll.

that

Tal-

In the J>rocl'(!,Jillg~ o f the Roya l Society in I X55. the no ted

Sconisn physici st James Ckr" \1 axy,e ll (I X] 1- 1879 ) ( Fig.
ure 3-6) made \\ hat is believ ed to he tbc earlie st suggcs tinn
that objects coul d be rc produced in co lor by photograp hy
His paper consists (If ,t basic discussion 011 the theory of
color vision. Rde rring to early work s hy Thomas Young,
wtom he sa ys see ms to have been thc flrst to understa nd
'cew ton's suggt'st ion on the m ixin g of co lo rs, Max w ell
males the followin g statement:

This theory ofcolou r may be illustrated by a supposed

case taken from the an of photo graph y. Let it he
required to ascertain the co lours o f a lands cape . b~
means of Impres sion, taken on a preparat ion eq uall y
sensitive 10 rays flf every colo ur.
Ld a plate o f r...d b<: placed helem: the ca m('ra and an
impr...ssi<ll1t;lken T h... pOSItive ofthis will he transpa r<nt when:w r th... Tl.'d light has he"'l1 anun dan t in th...
landscap.... and <' p'Il.lue wh...re it has be...n wanting. Let

Figure 3-6

Photograph of S....ouish physicisl James ("1erk M Ol \well ( 11\J1 - 11'7')).

it now 0<: pUI in a magic lantern l i.e.. a projec tor)

along. \\ uh the r cJ glass. and a red picture will he
thrown on the scree n.
Lei this operation be repeated .... -ith a g reen and violet
glass and by mean s of three magic lantern s let the
three images be superim posed o n the screen. The
colour of uny point o n the screen wjl l thcn depend on
that o f the correspo ndin g point of the la ndscape : and.
b~ pwpo:rl) adJu' ling the intensities or the light. etc. a
complcrc COP) of tho.' landscape as far as visible colou r
is concerned. will he thrown on the screen ( Niven.
11\9 () ).

On May 17. I X61 . with the help of photographer Thomas

Sulton. .Ma xwel l demonstrated this ,,,I<iiti le color combining
technique. II c photographed a bow of mult icolored ribbon
four times using nlack -und-whue film . Each exposure .... a~
made through a diffcrcm filter : red tsulto-c yanidc of iron).
green (coppe r chloridcI, blue (a mmoniaca l sulfate of copper). and ~ e1k..... [lemon-colored glass). l ie the n project ed
light throu gh the red. g ree n. and blue Iihcred black -andwhite images and .... as able 10 recreate an image of thc how
of multic olored ribbon . HI.' fo und that the yello w filter was
unncc cssary. C hapt.:r ..J prov ides add itio nal inloTTTlation \ lf1
additive color-comhining principles.
G rea t impro vcm...rus in phutugraphy were realized after
Richard 1.. ~l ad d ox , a I.ondo n physician and photo-mic rng-

,
I

66

History of Aer ial Ph otography a nd Ae ria l Platforms

raphcr. inve nted the dry -p late p rocess in IX7 !. whi ch used
gela tin es the med ium for sus pending light -sensitive silver
salts {Maddox. 1871) . Th is was grea tly supe rio r to the collod ion wet -plate process in tha t tile emulsio n was I ) much
more scnsiuvc (approximate ly 60 time s faster than co lindion j. and 2) co uld he deve loped when the emulsion was
d ry. II was nil longer necessary \0 have a wet labo rato ry
nearby . The more scnsiuve emulsion was aIM) important
because it stopped action more rap idly. grea tly imp rov ing
the quality of dera il in terre strial and aerial photographs.
Building on this logic, ro ll film was invented by Leon
w am er kc in 1875.

In 1873. Herm an Vogel discovered that by soaking sil.. . er

hal ide emulsions in various dye s. he could ex tend thei r sen sitiv ity 10 longe r wavele ngths Sub sequent mvesngnnons
revealed that dye s could be re ndered that ex tend emulsion
se nsiuvity into the infrared port ion of the spect ru m (Th ompson, 19(6).
Prior to I xxx . the gene ral public co uld bu y 3 ca mer a ami
lilm. but the y had In know how to develop the film and pri n t
the photog raph s. In 18RR. George Eastman revolutionized
photography. Buildin g upon the work by Warncrkc, he used
a ge latin emulsion in whic h hgh r-sens itive silver sa lts were
suspend...-d. Thi s material .... as then co ated o n paper and prod uced in a ro ll fo rmat. This clea r. fl exible lilm support d id
mu ch 10 advance an d increase the use fulness of photography
(Tho mpso n. 111M). Ge orge Eastman fou nde d the Easunan
Kodak Company and developed a photofinish ing system
that lived up to the slogan, " You press the burton . we do the
rest." The general publ ic bought the inexpe nsi ve box cam eras, ex posed 100 neg ativ es. an d sent the exposed 11 1m still
inside the camera to Eas tma n's company. w here it \\ as pro cessed. The co mpany then sen t the 100 pri nts bac k to the
custome r. a long wit h the camera and a new ro ll of film
ins ide . Th is soun ds very much Iike the recycla ble cardboard
or plastic came ras sold today !
Finall y, in 192t Mannes and Godoucky patented the first

pnrt o f their wo rk on mult ilayer film, which led In the mar keung of the three-layer color film Koda chrome in 1935
1<.160).

(~lcCam) .

Photograp hy from Ae rial Platf orms

Mankind ha s had till' desire to lly like a bird a nd have an

aer ial perspective or bird's-cye view ofthe Earth lor a long
lim e. Even our earli est myt ho logy is consumed with nig ht.
For example, in Greek mythology Daedalus bu ilt wings of

Figure 37

A man-powered ornuhoprer. Flapping the arms ""

,>upl"O"'-'" 10 generate sufficie nt aerodynam ic liA
sustain Ilig.ht. Experi meruation wuh ornithopie
offcn resulted in se rious accidents.

feathers and w ax for himself and his son. Icaru s . The

esca ped fro m prison usin ~ the w ings . Unfortuna tely, lcaru
became caught up in the j~IY of llying a nd flew 100 close t,
the S UIl , T he wings melt ed , and he fe ll to Eart h. Th e Grcel
hero Perse us used w inged sandals when he tle w 10 resco
And rom eda t Lo pez. 1995). After dream ing about flying fo
ce nturies. man kind's cre ativity even tually resulted in 1
series of invcuuons that allowed us to escape gravity ani
obtain an aeria l perspective. Some of the aer ia l platform
mvem ...-d were more useful and sa te than othe rs.

Ornithop ters

Not su rprisi ngl y, the first rea l attempts at night invo lved
peo ple tryi ng to imitate bird s. Th ey bu ilt flapp ing devices
culled ornithapters (Figure 3-7 ). T hey j umpe d from high
places stra pped to these devices and o fle n d ied. For example. in 1010 a monk named Eilmcr. equipped with a n omithoprc r, look o tT from a n abbey in Eng land and broke his
kgs. Deni s Hulon ofFrance in 1536 tried lo lly usi ng w ings
flapped by a sprin g. He d ied w hen the spring broke.
Leonardo da Vinci 's notebooks wriuen between I -l K~ and
15 14 co ntain designs ofomuhoptcrs and sim ple helico pters.
We do not know if tl<1 Vinci actually bu ilt the d esign s. He did
s uggest that the devices sho uld be tested over water tor
sa fely.

Lighterthan Air Flight Using Balloons

The hot-air balloon was invented b ) " Joseph and Etien ne

\tonl go ltier III 1710 in Fra nce ( Lop ez, 1995J . They burned
stra w and wool ttl produ ce the less de nse a ir tha t lifted t he
ba lloo n and basket 01T the g round. The first balloon passengcrs \"I ere animals . The first humans 10 ride in a Montgolfier

67

Photography trom Aerial Platf onn s

'-

- the mapping of the land from a series o f overlapping

ae rial photographs (Nc\lo hal l, Iq6Q). Later in the mon th, he
ascended in a captive balloon o ver Paris. li e suffered many
failu res anempung 10 obtain an aer ial photogra ph. bec ause
the gas esca ping from the mo uth of the balloo n desen sitized
the collodion-coated glass pla tes he \loll.. using. li e fina lly
achieved success over the Val de Bic vrc on the outskirts
Puris when he wen t a lnn in a tethered balloon only X(l m
( ~ M H) above the gro und. ex p osed a photographic pla te , and
then wus rap id ly hauled back dOl"" II 10 Earth . where he
d ashed into an inn and deve loped the picture . ThC' world's
li ,""t aeria l phot ogra ph no longer cxists but Nada r described
u, contents:

or

.....as
if! 10
tcrs

1 develop Ill) picture... Good luc k! There is something!... It cannot be denied: here right under me arc
all of the three houses in the little village: Ihe farm. the
inn and the police ..ration... You can d istmg ui..h perfcct ly u ddhery va n on the roa d whose dri ver has
Slopped short before the balloon. and on the roof-tile s
two .... hite pigeons who have JUSl landed there . Thus I
was r ighl! {L , .\IIIIItI,-, 1Illl.l"lre. October 30. I!15K ).

se to
reck
scue
~ for
in a

.n"
urn s

lved
ices
tig h

am.mi-

his
ings

okc.
and
.ers.
did
for

FJgllre 3-8

Photograph of Gaspard fdi\ Tournad1<lII t IS:!O

l~ lo). the famous Parisia n photoprapher, HI.' calle d
him..:l f:-J adar. He re h" is seenkneeling in a fr'lgilc
hnlloou gondola. Ill' obtained the first uenalphorograph Irorn u balloo n in lSSK ucur Paris. Franc,-, nnd
pate nted the aerial sur ve y as Il l' k n ll\'. it today. Unfcrtuuarcly. th.,
"",rial photograph did not survive \ (" Roper- Viollet. l'ari s. I'rmwc; used with
penniion I.

Ii",

balloon .....ere J. F. Pilatrc de Rozier and th... Marquis d' Arlandes..... ho flew over Paris. People whn ventured Into the;' sky

-,n,
no"

the
;enfi ef

In balloons otlcn

referred to them-elv cs as

1I('n"'<1I1'-'.

Tile first-known aeria l pho tograph was obtained in 1X5X hy

lhe Parisian pt1rtra il phol\lg raphcr and Jl',s~lunatc aC' runa ul
Gaspard Felix TtlUnlachnn fhc ea lkd himsdf J\"ad<1r) ( Figure 3-1\). Toumac hon h:u1 a vision of w hal at' rial ph olog mphymighl COllt r ihUl e in the ttllu re . and on ( )dober 23. IX5X.
he applied for a palen l for what we now cal l an aer ial SUf\CY

Nadar himself referred III the photo graph as "a sim ple pesiuv c upon g la..S; made .... ith "detestable materials ." Ncvcnhc less, aer ial phot og raph y was ho m. Th e flrsr
suc cessful aerial ph<ltoJ,!raphs thai \\1' ha ve a reco rd o f
were r..x ordcd t\\O years later on October 13. 1860. fro m
the tel hered balloon th"'f'!1 of the Air in the United Stares
h)' Ja m..."'lo W. Black an d Samuel A . King from a hei ght of
I,~OO (1 0\ cr Bos ton . \'l as !>ao.: h u~tts l Figure 3-9). The
photograph s were obtained using wet collodion pla tes
(Ten nant, 19{)3). Blac k was a pro fcs..iona l photog rapher
from the linn of Black & Batbcldcr. King had his ow n
photog rap hy bu siness - King & A llen. At the co nc lusio n
ofrhc days ' ae rial plnuogruphy, King {I S60 j commented.
Th is is onl y the precursor, no doubt, of nume rou s other

expcnmcms : lo r no one ca n 1001.. upon thesc pic tures.

ob tained hy aid {If the ba lloo n. with out bein g convmced th at the lime has come \lo he n \~ hal has been
use-d .,nly for publi c amusement ca n be made to SC'f\ e
some practical end.
In Ju ly. IXfl3. Sir Oliver wcndcuHolmcs (a pho tograp hic
student of Samuel King) photoin terpretcd the conren of
this phott\l;raph for Til...AI/untie .\Iml1h1~' (f\C \lo hal l. 19(9);
Boston . a" thL' L'al;lc and the w ild go.\s ... see it. is a ~ "'I)
.li lk r...nl uhj eel ["rom th.....amc place as the solid ci ti/cn
loob up .11 its caves and chimneys. The O ld South nnd

...
C1IAl'rER

68

3~

History of Ae rial P hot ogra phy and Aerial Platforms

Fi r~ 1 ,\ r rilll I' hulflgra ph from .\

C a ll1iH' 1i;III"ull ill lhl' United Slah',,; Uu'l oll. :\IA

Figure 39

A I" ,ni<lll "f ,m ae l i..1 f'h(Oll'~r.Jph o f 0.10\\ nto ...n

Ilnshln , MA . uhtatned hy aer onauts JamC'S \\' . Hlac k
and Samuel A. KlIlg Ih" l1 II h:l hcr"J balloon . I' ,In
alutudc of I.::: uo Ii on tlctobc r 13. I l\Nl It is 1'1 clicvcd tobe the tirst J eri.l! photograph Ulk..,11 from a
cap' i \ " h" II'Il'1l 111 the United S(;l l<'S and th.., ..art ic,[
",",ri"t ph.l!('gt"l'h still i n nisl<:lIc<:. II was ",hl<:lilted
w ;1l1g J wet collodion pl.uc (use d" ith permission of
til<; Slllith"'l1i"n lnsli llltillll. W;" hingl" n. Dt'; t:) ll
151721.

Tri nity Church arc 1\\' " Iundmurks lHH to be mistaken .

W,lshinglnn SITn'[ , Iants across the pictur e as a nar row
d dt. r-.li l ~ Strcc r winds as ifthe cow path which guvc
it a name had been followed hy the builders ofits cornmereta! pa];h:es, Windo\\ s, chim neys, MId sky llg hl'
utuuctrhc eye in the central parts ofrhc vie w, cxqu tsircly d ... fined , hl.'l\ ihkring in numbers.... i\S a liTh!
ancm ptu 1\ onr he \\tllll... a remarka ble success: hUI
grl." llcst interest is in shu wing II hal \\ C may hope IU
see acco mplished in the same direc tion .

us

During the C ivil War in America. Union General ~ kC k lla n

used balloons 10 observe Con fede rate AmlY posnrons and
1IlIw cme nt. Fur c xamplc, in June. IXo2. the Union Ami)"
used balloo ns t crhcred at an ahitudc o f 1.-100 11 10 gath...r
illll' lIiglI1I... and draw maps o f the defenses of Rich mond.

Figure 3 10 Tht' hI/H'I'i d balloon Ix-i ng tethered by Union

1l (~ 'I" ,1\ th.. baulc " I' r air Oa b 0 11 Jun c I. 1861
( 11 ,~' [1

non.

with pcmus.s inn n f Ihl' Snurhsoruan lnsritu\\'a ,hillgl<,n. DC; N:: A-OJ71 0j.

Virginia, lhe bnfloou 1I//I1'I'/(1 is sho wn tet he red hy Union

1l"llI'P' on Ihc gnHmJ ut the banl c of Fair Oaks o n J une I.
1:\62, in l'igure 3-10 ()uach'nbus h, 1% 0; Fisc her, 197 5).
the /11/11:/,111 \\ as mtbll'l! USlllg a spe cial hyd rogcn-producill:": S) stern O' igure J- I I I, It i~ belie ved that sume aeria l photog rap hs we re ob tain cd h) lIhscrvc rs using tethe red
balloons. Howev er. lUll a single C ivi l War ( IXbl-I Xb5)
aerial photograph has sun ivcd t Colwell. 1<)97 ).

\ kan \\ tl1k', In t.uropc . ( ;a~ fla rd I- e li'l. Tournac hon t J\adar )

\\<l~ ~1111 acl i\ d) inHl h c J in bal loo n aerial photograph). In
fact. he design...-d and built :J tremendous balloon called ie

p'

'9

Pt<olography fr om Aerial Platform s

~re 3-11

Tbe halloon/llffl'f'"/hemg inlh wd l>y usmg Fhad dens Lo we's I'"rtllhk hydll~<.'n 1!0I11t'T1iIing system duri ng the Ci \ II War batllc on air Uak~ lin June l. 1 };6~ tu-cd wilh pcnms., iun uf Ille Smnh....>11 i"n lnstuuuon. Wa, hil1 gton . IX"; #2,\03675 ).

&ull/l Thc GianI ) in 11\63. The ba lloo n held :! \ O,OOO n ~ of

~<.. and us gondola consis ted literally ofa two-story house
fined " ith three-decker beds, a bathroom. and \'\ en a print-

ing press. The gondo la could l:Om ll lll at> ly house I :! pas s.:-nger,l1'\cw hall, I 'Jill) I. I\adar WH't C:

mon
Hfl2

titu-

The balloon Lt' Gnmf will be employed in various

acrostutic photography... the results Ill" \.hlch will be
so valuable li.!f all planispheric. cadastral, slrah:gical.
and other surveys.
Unfortunate ly, 111 October IXh] , the gigumic balloon
descended too mpid ly. Nine ra ~sl'n gn'i aboard . includ ing
\1,. Nadnr. we re :I111Hl'il kilk-d when the balloon was

lion

e I.
75 I.

ucho-

dragged ~ 5 mites acros s the French countrvvidc. No aeri al

photographs obtained from 1.1' (i1'<II11 have surv ived. UOWever, Kadar did slIl:c.:ssfull) nb tain oblique aerial photographs using perha ps the first aerial multiple-lens camera
from the lIiPJI''1lm///,' Ua!/m m tethered 1,700 Ii above Paris
in IIlM\ (Figure ]12).

red
OS)

The dry-plate process pioneered 0) Richard xta dcox in 11'71

\\ a~ 3 real boon to oh tainiug quality aerial phUh' l!rJ phs front

,,'
'"
Lc

balloons because uo wct luboratcry \ \ J'i required in the OJ I

Iocn gondola or nearby on the grou nd . and the emuls ion was
much faster. n:s uhin g III te-e- irna g.: blur. This resu ncd in a

Figu re 3- 12

Ol> lil]llC photo graph " f Paris obtained hy Ga spard

I'e h\ loumacbon 1:\'hJ.a n from the ffil'P<,Jro///<!
1l"lh ~ ", 1<:111,'r,'d 1.711/1 n abovc the grou nd in Ikbl<
ratt er I\,.."h.. n, l %<,ll.

70

His to ry o f Ae ria l P hotography and Aeri a l Pladonns

Ph'

--- ~

Figure 3- 13

A...na l photograph uf "S an r- runciscc in Ruins" obtai ned hy George R. l a wre nce after thl' April IK, 190n earthqua ke usingI
011)-11> camera an' ld lCd In :1/,,,,,1;1',' "ir.,hip e"n~ isl i ng of 17 kites tethered fro m a ~ hip ill San Francisco Bay. The kites achi... ,,~
an alutudc of 2.0(l() n above sea level tcoun ...,y Library of COllgres~: ~ lC- LTSZ 62- 16401 n).

great deal of balloon aerial photography taking place duri ng

the last few d c'Cades {If Ihe ninetee nth century, Gas ton Tis sandier publi shed the firs! man ual o n ai r phot ogra phy from
balloon platfo rms. l.a "h Olographic 1'1/ !la/{mm [ New hal l.
1969) .

Aerial photography from tethered and free-flying balloons

co ntinues tod ay, Stah ili7ing the balloon during the instant of
expos ure continues to be a major problem. Also. untcr hcred
balloons a rc at the mercy o f the pre vai ling wind. ma king it
difficult to navigate the balloon ove r the inten ded landscape
~ C\ cnhclcss. ma ny scient ists an d gro ups continue to obtain
aerial pholOgraphy usi ng balloons. A fe..... of the most act ive
organizauons are iden tified in Appe ndix A.

Lighter' than-Air Flight Using Kites

Ca meras carried aloft by large kites haw also been USl"J to

obtain aerial photography. Frenc hman A rthur Baun pioncc rcd the develo pment o f k uc ae rial photog rap hy. In UNO
he published La I'JlOfOKra!,hic ~!I'rk",1I' ptlr ('erj~vlJ/lII1f. in
which he o utlined the uses o f kite aeria l photograp hy for the
explorer (to vie w the land !l<:yond) , the archaeologist (to
loc ate ruins ), the milita ry uo reconnoiter]. and the agrom...
mist ( tll loc ate \ ine diseases). Baun fd l thar the k ue wou ld
bring aerial photography within the grasp o f the common
man t Hanu. I!'O'JO; Tenna nt. I'JIB).
Ge orge R. Law rence of Chicago was almost k illed twice trying to obtain ae rial phOl<lgraph" from capuv e balk-...lns. O n
one occasion he fell 121.< It in a gondola from a balloo n sus-

pcnded over the Chicago stockyard, and V,lb on ly !kI \ tIJ

because the free-fa lling gondola la nd..-d on telegr aph v, ira
Th erefore, it is not su rprisi ng that he switched 10 kite aerial
phot ograp hy, ti t' often used as many as 17 kites in a connccrcd "train" ( althou~h live to 10 us ually su fficed ] to cart)
alo ft ca meras we igh ing as much as 2.000 lbs. He call ed this
collection of tethered kucs a Cupfil"t' Ain;}llp ( Bal er, 1 99-l ~
A mo unt ha ng ing below the low est kite in the ser ies allowed
him tn fill the camera in any direction before sending it up
A system of booms, lines, and lead weigh ts p revented the
camera (rum turning hor izontally while at the same time
de creased the ca mera's tendency to sw ing. Law rence tripped
the shu ucr by incorporating an ins ulated wi re into the steel
kill." line. which was used to carry an e lect ric cu rrent 10 tbe
camera ( f'\ewha lt, Il)h<): Bake r. 1994 I. Some of Lawrence's
r no-a ce lcbratcd aeri al photograp hs were acquired si x weeks
nrtcr the April IR. 1906. San Fra nc isco earthquake using 17
of his kites at one time t l-'igu re 3- 1.'1. At first, ra in soaked the
line a nd shorted out the commend 10 trip the shutte r. Then,
the Sun cam e ou t an d dried the line , allowi ng the shutter 10
function. Panoramic negativ es were acquired using a 49- 1b
panoramic camera that held a celluloid-film plate 18.75 by
018 in. Contact prints created fro m the negatives at rhc' time
we re the larges t ever prod uced from an airbo rne platform.
The cam era l'O\ crcd 160" in a single swee p of thc lens, prod ucmg extremely deta iled wide -angle pho tographs of the
ruined cuy (Ba ker. 11)<)4 ).
The utajur problem w ith kites and balloons is tltat they are
not n:1\ igablc in lite strict se-nse o f the wo rd. Stilt , ma ny
e xcellen t aeria l photogra phs hav e bee n obtained using the m.

;,m"graphy l rom Aeri a l Platfonns

71

id ly. creating less pressure thanthe slower air 110w ing below
the wi ng . The higher pressure air below the wing e verts
PTl'SSllfC upward. causing the wing to lift. Tilting the ... ing
upwa rd w ill mcteese til<: aerodynamic lift even more. Howeve r. ifit is t ilted too mu ch. the aerodynam ic lift wi ll be to
and the w ing (a nd a irc raft !) will stal l and fall (Lope z, 1(95).

....;..

..,:=::-===-=
Figure 3 14

Pi l-:l' Ull S

UraS

~===== : 1~~>l;U1o(:el

A II ing that is curved Ull the top and rela tively !lal
onthe bottom creates w 'r'n(/n lllmi c fij i (a nee Lo pez,
1 ~5 j.

111m' i ~ an Internet user grou p de voted to obtain mg aerial

phoItlSraphy u ~ ing: kites l Appo;:ndi1l. A).
nved
vires.

Heavier-than-Air Flig ht Using Rock ets

lC'rial
conCarry
j this

99 4).
) wcd

it up.
:I the
ti me

PP<""
steel

e me
lee 's
ee ks
g 17
:l the
ben.
er to
.9 1b
5 by
lime
arm.
pro " the

arc
tany

rem .

h en before airplanes were invented , aeria l phot ographs

111m okaincd by rocketin g a ca mera into the sky and then
It'trin jng lho: camera and lilm . In IllRl( La Narmy.' descri be d
"photo roc ket" invented hy Ama dce Denisse. In UNl ,
l udw ig Rahrmunu received a Ge rman pate nt for a phot o~raphic system that wa s shot into th e a ir us ing a roc ket or
l3rt:e-caliber gun . The came ra returned to the gro und via
rarn hute (~ e'" hall , 1969 1. In 1903. A lfred Maul patented a
rocket camera . Aerial rhoIOk'1Olrh ~ from a rocket that
echieved an altitude o f 2.00(1 II ... ere publ ished in the /IIu.~
inned London .V('I"s on Dec ember 7. 1912 .
Heavier-than-Air Flig ht Using Pigeons, Glid ers, and
krcratr

All heavier-than-air birds, gl iders. and airplanes achieve sustamed flight b used on t he principle o f aemdynamic fiji .
Wind blowing ab ove and be lo w a wing will cuuse the \.ling
to achieve aero dyn am ic lill ifthe \\ illg has the proper shape .
,\ fiat wing share fights air flow, causing dra g (resistance).
..Me a curved w ing shape tF jgure 3- 14 ) allow s a ir to 0(,\.1
smoothl) aroun d u . A win g that is CUl"\- OO on th e top and
almost tlat on the bottom creates ae rodynamic lili. Th e molecules of air passi ng ov er the top o f the \.I ing surfac e have a
longer distance to travel and therefore mu st move more rap -

In 1'1(13. Ju lius x eubronner pate nted a breast-mounted aerial

camera fo r ca rrier pigeons that .....cighcd only 2.5 oz {Figure
3- 15a.bl . An aruc te o f the day described the p igeon data co llecuon process:
As a carrier p igeon. afte r sta rting. ,II first descr ibes a spiral
line. it is qui te ea sy to take a numbe r o f , iews uf a given po rtion o f the ground from different points of v iew. After o nce
determining the pos ition o f its cote (whi ch il recognises
from a d istance upward oeo miles] the pigeon flies toward s
its goal in a stra ight line and at the- un iform speed of an
express tra m, so tha i the ro ute to he recorded photograph ica lly can be readily dcrcnnincd in adva nce {Sciell /ific Alii('/' n-an, JlJ09 j.

Exposures were made auto mat ically at 30-second in terva ls

(Q uac kenbush. I qW; Fischer. IQ75 ). Fo r obvious reasons.
pi geo ns are nOI an idea l remote- sensing platform.

George Cayley and

John Stringfellow dra matica lly

imp roved the- aerodynamic s and cont ro l mecha nisms of
heavier-than -air gliders. Cayley' s coachman .....as the first
person 10 succ essfully Il y in a gl ider in 1&53 . From I &Ql lo
1K9f). a German c ivil engi nee r nam ed One Lilienthal co mplctc d near ly 2,(J()O glider flights. Sometimes he would g lide
for more than 1.000 Ft. I I.: d ied in a g lide r tli ght in llNIi
( Lope z. lli'-JS ). An America n engi nee r na med Oc ta ve C hanute built o n Lilientha l' s design s and dramaticall y impro ved
glidcr eonuol. lie wa s also a grea t suppo rter of thc aviation
work o f Orv ille and wilbur \\ ri ghl.
Orville and Wilbur Wr ig ht (Figu re 3-16) were fascinat ed
with the co nce pt o f tli gbt. Initiall y they e xperimented with
glideTl' al Kiuy 11;I\\'k. NC . wher e a consistent wind co uld he
round and the on ly ob structions were sand du nes and the
surf. Th ey hu ilt on the g lide r designs o f Lilien tha l an d Chanute and eventually designed thei r o... n gliders in 1900 . A
pho tog raph o f one of the Weighl Brot hers lying prone in a
g lide r in 1'ol1/2 is shown in Figure 3-173.

72

History 01 Aerial Photog raph y and Aerial Platform s

a. Pigeons as remote sensing platforms.

b. Aerial photograph obtained hy a pigeon .

Fig u re 3- 15

a ) A squadron of p i g<'(lH ~ <'qui pptxl with lightwe ight (appm ,i l1l;1ll'l y 2.5 I'll 70-mm aeria l cameras. bj Porli'ln of an ohliqllr
acriul pll" tugra ph ubtain cd fmm a camera carried by a pi!!"' '' l, r lil' pig..-,'!! \ VI inp arc vjsibh: {-\-"' J)CLl l, d ll: s Museum. Munich
Llcrrnany: LIS l' d with permission).

Airer~rt

In 1903, the Wright Brothe rs buih a I ~ - horselllw..er engine

and the first opcrauonal airc raft propelle r. By the Ilip of a
coi n, Wilbur Wr ight .... as given the ch ance to 11y the first
heavier-than-air motor-driven machine on December 14.
190 3. li e sta lled and era ..hed without injury. On Decembe r
17. 190 3. at Kill Devil Hills at Killy Hawk . NC O rvill e
Wright flew for 12 seconds ani! 120 ti (Figure 3 170 I. Both
brot hers n ew severa l timers tha i da~, w ith Wilbur llying the
longest dis tance of R52 ft. Manned heal icr-tban-a ir p owered
ll ight had begun.

T he Ilrig inal Wright Flyer was controlled by the pilot ly ing

prone on tlw low er .... ing (f igure 3 17h ). Turns were made
hy swi nging the body from one side to anot her. T his ca used
the rudder III 1110\'1:: Hn d till: wings to bec om e wa rped . The
p ilot ' s left hand co ntrolled the up and do wn mot ion (ascent
ani! desce nt) of the air cra ft us ing an "elevator:' The pilot
he ld on finuly to the aircraft with the r ig ht ha nd . No t surprising ly. no aerial photographs .... ere ob ta ined using the orig inal
Wright Flye r bec ause all hands were required j ust to ma inbin control and keep from crashing. Th e Wright Brothers
built a muc h improved airpl ane in ! 90 7 that allo w ed the
pilot and a passenger III sit upright on the lower wing.


73

Pllotography from Aeri a l Platforms

b. Wil bur Wriglu.

a. <mille Wright.

fi!,\Jre 3-16

()n ilk

and Wilbu' \\ right were mstrumental

ICsy o f WlJ..Ipc...ha ).

In

rhe <IC\ch'l"Tllt'nt of beav ter-than-air l!Ii,kn; ,md motor-d riven ..ircraft (coer-

bliqu c
tmich.

lying
made

.1.

Gli llcr.

b. The Wrill Flyer.

IU!>Cd

The
S!;1,:n1

pilo t
rpns-

Figure 3-17

al One nftbe \\ rlght Hrv lh<,....' In an uupo.....cred g liJ.:r at K i lt~ Ha""L. :'\C In 1'Xl1. bl The Wrigh t Fly........ <.1 a 12.hor5cpown
engine an d sJ"'.'l:iall) dc signed propellers. Orville hklk the (i rsl successfu l hc avicr-than -air eng ine powered I1 lghl on December
17.. 1'X13. Ii Ia~h:d 12 sc-.:""<1\ lind o;Ulcr..J 120 n l used \\ llll pcruus- aou ol"lhe SlIlllh""ni"l1 In,l iluli"". W~\h mglun OC) .

ginal

nai nuhers

d the

Ihe firs t time that an airplane was used as a plat form to

ob!.a in ae rial photog raph y '" as in I'lOX. w hen Pa the motionpicture photograp he r L 1'. Bonvillain arcompani...-d Wilbur
i'nghl. He took mot ion pictures 0\ er Cnm p d "Auvours. near

I.~ Mm France. The (lr i ~ ill il l monon-picture film ha ~ not

been IlH.JJ\d (Ne wha ll. J 9M I. but an enla rgement of one of
the frame s (If the motion pict ure was published in a Fren ch
magazine III 14011:.

'3

CII . \I ~r ER

74

a, Acriall'hotographcr and pilot.

Ftgu re 3 18

History 01 Aerial Photograph y and Aerial Platfo rms

b. Aerial pholography in W\\ '1.

:II An aeerial pho tographe r and pilo t in a Curtiss .0\ 11-13 airplane with (;r.l.t1c~ ca mera in 1915 . hI Elose-up \ ic... of a Worl d Vi
l Curtiss I N-4 Jenny with the camera mount ed lin the right silk {llscd with I'l<:mtission uf tlu, SmilhsO llhJl1 lnsriuniou, Was'"
il1glnn. DC; 1l2 n -417~2 and :!B-4 If,68. rcspccuv cfy).

Photo-Reconna issance i n WWI and WWIl

Numero us new airc ra ft co mpan ies came into existence fro m

1907 10 1930. Many nf thc founder 's names arc still associatc d with United Stares ' aircraft co mpan ies tod ay ( Lopez.
1( 95 ):

Glenn Cu rtiss in ltX.I7 - Curtiss

Aerial Photog raphy in World War I

In order III take <In aer ia l photograph in the early years of

Wo rld War I, il was necessary for the airman 10 point lhe
handheld camera out the side of the plane. ma ke an exposure. and then change the plate before taking another phor
g r..ph Came ras were initia lly strap ped to the photogra pher's
ches t or attached to the side of the plan e ( Fig ure 3. 18ab,)
Aerial photography was very dangero us d uty, especially in
the early formati ve years.

Wright Brothers in 1909 - eventually Curtiss-Wrig hl

Glenn Martin in 19 12 -

now Martin Marietta

William Boe ing in IQI6 -

Boe ing

Dona ld Dou glas in 1920 -

now McJ)(lOndl Do ug las

Ala n Lockheed in IlJ2fl -c- now Loc khe ed-M artin

John Northrop in 192Q -

1'\on hrop

Le k oy G rurnrna n in \9 29 - no w No rthrop.Grumman
A ircra ft prod uced by these co mpanies und othe rs in Ger.
many. Fra nce , and Brita in were used for military photoreconnaissance and ocher purposes in Wo rld Wa r I and
World War II.

Th e warti me usc o f aerial photography was not app recialo:d

in the heginning (If the war, In tact, wo rld Wa r I trenc h map,
deriv ed from phUlng raphs taken by the pilots 011 lhdr own
initiati\e were at liht d ismissed as bei ng "a mos t d isgrace ful
thing 10 have attempted" (New ha ll, 1 96~ ). Eventually, however. commanders learned the value of aerial reconnaissance
and It completely cha nge d the milita ry tac tics used in World
War I, First, aeria l phot ograph s were used h) ma ke rela tively
accurate maps tor planni ng rmlnary strategy over poorl~
mappe d terrain, A knowledge of existing a nd destroyed
roads, barriers. and constriction po ints was very valuable lOr
planning the movcmcm of troops an d materials. Second. I
vast amoun t o r military material was simp ly impossible to
co nceal trom t he aer ial ca mera len s (Quacke nbus h, 191>Oj,
Troop movements and the stockpilin g of arms and supplies
could be documen ted. For example. on August 22. 19 14,
World wa r I Hruish reconnaissance aerial photography
revealed a major change in dire ction o f the Ge r man fo rces

PI

.s

~Reco n na i s sa nc e

In WWI and WWII

75

IL '....~ '

..
Figure 3-20 Vertical acna 1ph"I,,~r<lph o f a \'-2 rocket launching

ki war

Was h-

~re

3-19 V<n ic..l plll>lography o f World Waf I trenches in

Europe. EuminllllOll of ~tcreoecopic photogra phy
re vealed tho: IlX.ltiofl of men. gUll cmpl~... rncn ts,
and am munition bunkers. Millio ns or men d ied in
lrclk:h .... artarc durinll World War I (used with permission of the Smlth""ni,m tn-murion. washington. DC; Iil H-1 1711).

facilil ) at Pccncmcodc in World War II. ]\'otl" the

large circular earth revet ment around 11'00: launch fa cilit res J~.... igncd 10deflec t the t-iasl du ring lifto ff or
10 min imilO: the d~"l mcti"ll during an acciden t.
Th~
f<l~lllli~.,.. '" ere ~'\ craually dO:SllTl)'l-d (cou n l'"S)
of Fe lcrauou (II" American Sci<:nll~b, lmclligcnce
Research f'rugram).

Irs of

11 the

expo~O!O

her's
Sa b.)
1y in

ated
naps
own
'cfu l
owmce
orld
{ely

crly

y,"
for

'-'

k1lancing on Par is. Th is umcly infon nation a llowed the

~Jlied army 10 fon ify its pos ition on the Marn e River and
wid off the German adva nce to Paris (Lora . I"1451. World
War I often co nsisted of trench war fare. Bunlc ficld trenc hes
'-' in World \VaT I fo r au unk nown area nrc d isp layed in
figIJr.- 3 Il.J. Trained phmo-irucrpretcrs rou tindy analyzed
sereoscopic photogruphy o f trenches 10 loc ate gu n em place ments and ammunition dumps. By 19 1x, Frenc h acnal units
~ cre developing lind print ing ,is many as 10.000 ph oto[:T~ph ) each nigh t d uring perilids o f intense activity. Du ring
!he Meuse-Argonne on cnstvc. 56.non aeria l phlltogr:'lphs
sere made and delive red to American ];xpcditio nary Forces
to four days. At the end or wor ld War I. Lieutenant Ed wa rd
Steic henof the Photog raphic Section of the Ame rican Expcdilionary Force s stated.
The consensus of e xpert opin ion , as e xpressed at tho.'
various inter-Allied co nfe re nces on ae rial ph~l\(l g ra p h y.
is that at leas t two -th irds of a ll milita ry in form ation is
euhcrobraincd or verifie d hy aer ia l photogra ph y.

: 10

-o).

the GCn11an Genera l Slall made a prophet ic state men t: "The

nmion w ith the best photo- reco nnaissa nce w ill win the nex t
war." By t<,l-H1, (ie ml<ln) led tho: II orld in military photorecon naissanc e. Fortunately, Gcmun phoro-irncrprctarion
stagn ated a<; the war prog ressed. The United States had
ulmostnocapalulity in m ilitllry phot o-mtcrprcuuion when it
entered \\\lrld \\',H II ( Fjschcr, [ ( 7 5 ).I1" \\'l\'c r, B ri tish and
Amer ican arri al photography data-collectio n and phot oimc rpretauon e a p'lh il i t i ~s improved qnic kty, After the
retreat from the ma inland at Dunk irk in 19.jO, the Briti sh
we re almost completely ('\II oil"fro m their normal sources of
military inrclligcnccuud had 10 rely O il ae rial photography as
their chic f source of infonua non. The pho to-ide ntification of
Gcrm.m inva sion nargcs in canals near the co ast o f Fra nce in
the sum mer of IlJ-\O constuutcd tho: maj or 0:\ idenco: thai an
invasion of Englund woul d take place in less Ih:1I1-\8 hours.
T he Brili sh launched suc h au ettecuv e air attac k o n t he invasion forces tha t Germ any wus fo rced 10 pos tpone the invasion and finally ttl abandon it (Q uack...nbush . 19( 0 ). Aeria l
photograph y a lso assi, t..:d in the destruction o f German V-2
ree ker fuc ilrucs lute in the war (Fig urc 3-10).

Aerial Photograp hy in World War II

lies
14.

.hy

Ac:rial photo-rec onna issa nce p layed a significan t ro le in

:cs

World War II. In 19311. (j,:ncral W~t." von Fritsch, Chid o f

\1lN rcc ormaicsa nce World War II airc ra ft had litt le de fense
capability. Therefor e. they were often esc orted by figh te r
aircraft. :-'Iillion s of recon nais san ce ae rial photographs " ere
n htam ed d unn g W" rld W,lr II by mnd ilied a ircraft such as

CIlA I' ITR

76

3--

,.

Histor y of Aerial Photogr aph y and Aerial Platforms

b.

Fig u re 3-2 1 HI A 11-17 H ying Fortrco, ofthe U.S. xth Air Force In a lower gl\lup [lew underan uppe r grou p just as bombs wen: released
01 The' ne xt (\""SUn- documcmc th.u the bomb crushed thwug h I1Il" port h"ri/ml1;l1 stabilizer of the Ill\\t'f aircra ft [us ed wi
pcmuvcion <lr Ihe S mil hS<1I1ian ln- tnution. Wash ingto n. DC: /l.1,.\20il5\1 and :!OX 51. rcsllCClivd) I

C o ld War Photo-Re connaissance

the P .H:. In adduiou. hom hc rv ofte n ob tained acri.tl pI101O"
graphs du ring hll ilibing raid s that w e re use d ill s ub se q uent

bomb-damage assessment. Fnr exam ple. consider the nccident documemcd d uring a bombing and ae ria l reconnai ssauce missiono ver Berlin. Ger ma ny (Figtm: J -2I ah ). A. 3 17 Flying Fortress ofthe U.S. xrh 1\ lr Fo rce in 1I lo w er group
flew un der an upper group just as bombs we re released. Th e
fi rs t ae ria l rhtllO~rOJp h re ve als details abou t the 0 - 17 f1) ing
Fo nr ess, such <IS se veral bom bs be ing released . clouds. and
the Be rlin coumryodc below. The ne xt ex pos ure d ocuments
that a bo m b c rashed thro ugh the po rt ho rizo ntu1 stabilizer of
the lo we r airc raft, clea ri ng the way for subsequent nn m ns. It
is unhkcly thai the darnuged 1j- 17 could have returned
s.afel). Ge rmany introduced j CI airc ruft platfo rms nca r the
end of Wor ld W3r II ( lio) lie. I'NJ I.

Arter Wo rld \V:lr [ I. thc arm s rac e betweenthe U ni ted Sial,

and the Sovie t Unio n caused the U.s. gov crtuuc nt to IhinL
that there was a trem en do us bomber a nd/o r m issi le gar
( ireOJ I cl1l l' h;l~ is w as placed atthe highcst levels on develop
i n~ tel'1lllol og y tt> collect informat ion. S imilarly. the Sovi
tnio n desired info nnmirm about U.S. activuics. Any ae ri
rcco un.ussancc lI\ c rllighl ofanother state w itho ul uuthortzanon W :lS cons idere d tn be au illega l and host ile act unle
nauonal I l'MIc ~ agree d to 11 befor... hand. BUI. such overIlights were ;lhso lutd ) ess<:nlial j f thc Unite d States wa s t
I n,m what wns lak ing place in the Soviet Union a nd oth
CIlUn!rIt:S. Un itl'\ l States Pre s iden t Dwight Eise nhower
approved thc U~ aeria l reconnaissance program in Dccc
bcr 1954 t Brugioni and D<'J)lc. 19l)7 j . Subsequently. Presi
dent Eisenhower all...n dcd the Fou r-Pow...r Surnrni

ln,

77

ColdWar Phot o -Reco nn ai s sa nce

Conference in Ge neva, Switzerl and, 1111 Jul y:! L 1 ~5 5 . and

pr=lt-d wh.uthc prl'ss c \ cnt u:l lI~ culled the histori c Op en
5i~ D
oc trine. He ~u ggt' ~led that the absence of trust and
Ihe prc~cncc o f" tcrr ibk \.\ capons" among )Iah;s provoked in
lhe lIortd " fears and dan gers of su rprise attac k." To e1im i;tie those fears. he urged that rhc Sll\lel Un ion a nd the
Unit<:d Stales provide "faciluics fur aerial photography 10
koth<-r country" and co nduc mu tually supe....-ised rcco nws..<.arn:e overtlighrs. Fi"'t SCn CI.i.l1) of the Commun ist
hrt~. Khruschcv. privalcl~ rejected the Ope n Skies Doct rine
die same da) [ Hall. I'Nf>j Nevertheless. the concept had
~pm<n !ed

.IiIsla fe\\ days later on Jul y 29 . 19:'5. Pres ide nt Eise nho wer
pIlbhd~ annou nced plan s for la unching " small unmanned,
bnh,ird ing satellites :.IS part 1' ( the U.S. parti cipatio n in
dlt 1957-19:'1' lntem auo na t ( ,t,,'ph)'sical Year." The real
/UPOSc, howev er. was 10 establish the principle in in tern elional la\\ of "freedom of space" \\ ith a ll that it implied for
mlcgic reconnaieeo nce conducted at altitudes abov e the
"urspace" 10 \I hich the st.ue, beneath claimed e xc lusive
IOlcreignt)' ( ll all , 19%). In dTI.'t.,1. the Presid ent wa s layin g
the groundwo rk for the already co nceived (,enelri, Reconll.J.ISWKe Balloon Proj...ct. a U2 suborbital airc ra ft project.
l.I1d subsequent satellite orbi tal reconna issance .

cvcr, [;,b le m European, Sevier, :.Ind Communist Ch inese ai r

defen ses r",spllOlktl quickly and wcre nhle "1 sto p many of
the balloo ns.
On February 4, 19:'0, SmiCI Deputy Foreign Minis ter
Andrc , A. ( if\lmyko protested to the U,S, Am bas sad or. O n
Feb ruary 7, 11)5(1, anticipaung the SIH ic t res ponse. Pres iden t
Eisen hower suggested 10 Sec retary of State John Foster
Du lles that the operation be suspended and "we shou ld h.I11 d ie it so it wo uld not lvv l- as though w c had be c n ca ugh t w ith
jam on our fmg...rs" t Day l'l a l.. l iNN). O n February 9. 19 :'0 .
the SIl\ il'ls held a prcss conference an d dis p layed about 50
balloons and instrument containers. The tnucd Stall'S sa id
the y were weather balloons . II was a major emba rras-anem
10 ihc Un itcd S' '' ' c, ( Day el al.. J99:S). Only 44 o f the -\...\s
balloons wcr .... recovered . Ho we ver. rhc cameras on th c o;('
bal loons ob tained 1 ~ . :SI ~ aerial phl11t'grarhs covering
1,1 16 ...\4 9 mi l Ilf SOl ict aull ChineS\.' terrain . induJi ng thc
very significcnt nuclear refining f:.l'ili ty at Do non ovo in
Siberia IP",el-l",s, l IN? ), T h i.. marked the end ('If thiv early
U.S . balloon rcconnaissancc program . Th e V::! airc raft
recon naissance p rogra m was initiat ed j ust a few month s
later, in July l<,l ~,., .

U2 Airc raft Reconna issance Program

Gene/fix Reconnaissan ce Balloon s

leased.
xl wuh

Considerable re search \Ia s conducted b) 11K' U.S . A ir Forev

and the ('ell! ral l ntcl l ig ~' nn' Ag en,'y (CI :\ I du ring 1954 and
1955 on the ut ility of usi ng unmanncd ha ll\~lll " op.-rilting al
v. ith ,'amenlS in their gn lldu las 10 obtai n
[Cnmnaiss:lIll'e inlo nll:ltil' n o v\'r vas t gt~"gnl ph ic area s. Thi s
'1ia, caliI'd the U raynad Prog ram , A Irial ha lloon \lias
IJ unl'heJby th... Cl /\ I'wm SClllb nd, which dritlcJ acro,s lhe
Sonel Union and \\'a , relr ie\\,d lwar SOUlh Kl, rl'U. Sim ilar
roltlllHls w...re also laund1l'd lind rel'm<:red in lhc Unitcd
States (Peebles . 19( 7).
bi ~h 'lhitud.-s

Slates
th ink
~ ga p.
le lo r )0\ 1<.'1

aeria l

orizamlcss
o\er'as to
olh ~'r

lower
:ce rnPrcs i-

romil

Ba!'l.>J on thl'st' sllt'l.:esses,the (j e nctri" l{ecl1l1l1a issanl'c BalPrujeet was initial...d in Od obcr 19;5. The g"al (,ft he
program was to on lain cl1 mpkle pholl)gral' hic e' ln' rage o f
Lire So\ iet laml ma ~ s nased on tht' prop,,~ ...d launc h and
m::OI Cry of 2,5 00 lInm:mned h i ~ h , alt i l ud e balloon s . Prcsi,
drn( Eisenhower g;I\ I,' appro\ a l l' lr Iht' laun ches (" beg in on
Dect:mber
1955 , !'WIlIJ anu;,ry Ill, 1956, through Fcbru II) 6, 1956. approxim<lldy 4..J1( b:Jll\luns Ih're launc hed
ITom Scotland . ""orway, Wesl Ge mlany, and Turkey I Peebles, 1997 ). The go ndolas .... cr... I" be rctri...\ed by a ircra ft
S'.JlioncJ in a large arc from O l-in:J wa lhrough Japan (0
Ala,la Many of Ihe ea rly hall"on.. \l l.'rc rt'\:o \ ered_ How ,
10011

n,

In Dec cmbcr 1954, Presid ent Eisenhower instructed the C IA

to contract w uh l .ockheed ( in cooperation with the U.S. Ai r
For ec ) 1,1 de velop " photo-rccounaisceucc jet aircraft ' hat
could n ~ abov e the Sovicr L'nion 31 wi ll to document their
military ~'<l r;, h il i t)'. This led h I th.: <: rl'a lion of Ihe selT.. . l
l o,kh....:J Sl-unl- \\'\'rb {n,lllwll a n n <l smelly lo,a,i\l ll in
the I II' AllTl,'r ('annon ~ ' r i r ) in Burnank, and later f'almda ll.".
CA, wh, re ", Ily Johnson and h is ,'nt/i llc,'rs dew loped the
,11 1I l11i nurn L!2 airera ll ( R i~ h and J'lIIos. 1()<)4)
l h... lHigi na l lJ2, w...re jl,lillk'd du ll hb cl- III pn:vcllt th...m
frolll gli llling in llw Sun ( l'igu r... },22 ,,). II I."l)uld 11)' at
70,l 11l(l n ano \ e se~l k ...d and ~"l. rns~' J, (,O(J n (lfh igh-reso lutioll lil m OIl,J sillgle lIIis~ ill ll. TIll: .:alllc r:.l \Ias de\ do ped by
Dr. r..l win La nd, ill\ ...ntn r (lftht' Po laro id "" Illll'ra. The origina l U-2 p:lyload l'I,[\s iste, ln f lwn high,resolu' illn .:ameras llll... a ~pccial IOllg.fo.:al. I lIgth sPl'lti ng came ra able to
reso lw ol-jecls two t(l tllr fee t ac ross from :I height o f
70,000 h , and ' ht' ot her a tra, ki ng ca mer a Ihal could produc<
a "'ollt i IlUOU~ l'tnp I,f lil Jlll, f Ill<: who le n ight pa th ( Rkh and
J;lnns, J(lQ,ll. The tirst Russ i;lIl o ver tlight occu rred (In Ju ly
-I, IQ5f>. It !ll(,k oi l" from Weisooden, Wesl Gemlan y w sur\ .:y SO\ iet na val sh ip~ a rds and sub mar ille co nstruc lio n. It
owrllcw 1'" land , Bdonls.vi:J, \l osco w. Len ingrad . and the
SOl iet Ba hi..: sta les I\IUl'h to the l' o nstemal ill!l of the "--\ mer-

3~

78

History of Aerial Photograph y an d Aerial Platforms

1
Loc kheed U-2

-'

-3.

U':! aircraft,

b.

Figure 3- 22

at The Lockheed U-=: hlgh-alt ilud~ rccoenaissancc airc raft was de\doped at
the Sl.unl. Wurb in Ilurbanl. and
Palmdale. CA. for President Eisenh'''\Cr.nle prog ram "as Mlpc..... -iscd
toy the Ccnrrallntclligence ,\ g('fl C)', h )
I' rullc is (jaf) Powers in fro nt of ali-=:
a ircT:lll tccurtesy Loc kheed .\!J rtin.
Inc 1 1.'1 f\l;m y U-=:s arc: still in service
:Is Ea rth res...urce ...beerv anon aircraft.
III thl ~ " \ :Imple there is a U-2 in the
foreground ..nd an ERl in the backgm ulll! in tli ghl near Sail Francisco.

CA ieourtcs)
Martin. Inc)
1:.

~ ,\S /\

and Lockheed

ER-2 aircraft.

leans, the Soviet rada r detected und tracked the first V-2 at
its lksign altitude of 70.IHlO It (H:111. 19(/0 ).
Soviet surface-to-a ir missiles and aircraft could nut touch
the lJ- 2 for four yea rs. lnfonnanon provided from the V-2
ll\w llig hts had a tremendous impact on our knowledge
about the Soviet Union during the 195f)s and early !%Os.
Howeve r. missile tCI'hm)logy continued 10 improve, and on
May 1. \'.1(,0. a dus ter of 14 S:\-2 air-to-air missile s shol
down V-2 pil111 Francis G ary Powers (Figu re J- 22b l. l k was
interrogated IlIT 10 In 10 hours a day tor o l days . In August

\960. SO \"j,:1 authorities staged a \\ iJd) publici zed. open

trial that wa s design ed 1,1 emba rras s the United State s. They
sentenced Fra ncis rla rv Powers to 10 years in a Sovie t
prison : however. he \\ as exchanged after ~ I months for
Soviet spy Rudolph Ab.: I. wh o \\as b.:in g held in the Lnitcd
Slat~s(Ptl\\ ~rs. lIN?),

Arter the Frnnci., Gary Powers incident. the U-l still providcd impunam strategic reconnaissance information
Ih['(lugh\Hl! the world. For example. in July 1 96 1 .l h ~ dircclo r of the CIA sent a mc tuo 1'1 Pres ident John F. Kcnncd
sa)ing rhat he believed the Soviets IH1Uld deploy med ium.
rung s: ballistic miss iles (M ROM )j ust 90 miles from the U.
mainland on Cuba: ex.:lell)' \\ hen wns un clear {Walte r, I<)Ql
(ioldo.:r g. 1'-J'I3) . On Oc tober I). lW.2. President Kcrmc
upprcvcd reconnaissance ni ghts ove r western Cuba usi
hig h-altitude U-2s. Hurricane Ella kept the planes on the
gn -und untilOctober I~ , \1)02, The photographs we re inter
preted on October 15 and presented to President Ken ned y
Octobe r 10. 1% 2 . " ponion o f one of the U-l photogra
..how n 10 President I\.ennl-dy is found in Figure 3-23a.
ohlil.j ue ae ria l pho tograph ob ta ined by an RF l0 1 airc
recorded \1RH\1 facilit ies near Sa n Cristo bal. Cuba.
October 25. IQtt2 {Figure 3-2J h),

5
Cold War Pholo- Recon naissance

79

C u ba n :\li!>silc C r i ~ i! October. 196 2

a Venical aerial photograph or s an Crt c obal. Cuba.

b. Ohllq ue aerial pho tograph o f SlIM Cristobal, Cub a.

I pm ration
dir cc-

mcdy
fium-

: u.s.
19Q2:
mc dy
using
-n the
interdy un

mphs
a, An
rrcraft

Figure 3-23 ill A portion nfthe 1)-2 aerial photograph ofSan Cri ~I ,, "a1. tuba. shown to President John P. Kennedy by the U.S .'s top photcintcrprctcr Arthur C'. LUlldahl on October 16 . 191,2. The pho tograph was uhlai !ll'<J on Octobe r 14 , 19(,2, at an altitude of
2 1J(H'1 m. h depicts missile trailers , a few launchers. lind l..-n ts thai wen: usedto prepare missiles and war heads for la unch.
President Kenned y as ked. .\ ro: you sure?" "Mr. President," Lundahl replied..-t am as sure o f this as a plnuoimcrprcter can be
sure o f anythi ng. And J think . sir, }'OlJ might a~'ll:'C' thaI " I." have not misled you on anyt hing we have refMln C'd 10 yo u. Yes, I
am con vmeed they are m is~llc~~ ((Jru~i0n i. 19%1(U.S. Air Force photcgruph l, bl Low -oblique aerial photograph of'Mcdium
Range Balli stic \I issik (MRHM) Launch Sill." I near San Cris tobal. Cu ba. ot>I;,ined on October 25, 1%2. hy low- flyin g RF_
I OJ aircrall. Long m issile shel l('\" 1~'11 ~ and missile transport..~ an: \ isib le ( U.S. Air Forc e photograph; court esy Federation uf
Americ an Scicnnsrsj.

On October :!5. IQ61. Un ited Nat ions U.S. Ambassado r

Adlai Stevenson challenged the Soviet Ambassador. Valerian A. Zorin. to de ny the U.S. charge that the Russians had
installed offensive missile oases on Cuba. -rn dill:' course.
sir, you will have your reply , Do not worry:' replied lorin.
Stevenson respond ed. ..[ am prepare d til wai t unt il hell

freez es over. if ihm 's your decision. I am also prepared to

present the evidence in this room: ' Aerial photogr aphs on
easel s wen: then broug ht in. and the peaceful Cuba n countrysidc in August was shown til contain missile facilities b y
mid-Oc tober, Twemy- fuur hours later there were unmistakable signs of mis sile inssatl ario ns. President Kennedy then

...
C1L\YI U {

80

His to r y of Aeri al Ph olo g rap hy a nd Aeria l Platforms

Lock heed S H:-71

F"tgu re 3-24

Two view s o f the Lockheed SR.71 reconnaiss a nce aircraft . h can 11)' at i!T<';llo:r than 70.0110 It
above sea le ve la nd achie ve ai ~roccJ~ greater than 2.(J()() m.p.h. (counCs) Lockheed .\ l.u tin. ln..:. ).

init iale d a na va l blockade o f Cuba. A tlcr much po litical

brin knmnxhip. Sov iet Premier Khruschc v relented 011 October l X, 1% 2, and the world retu rned fro m the brink of
nuclear war.

Interest ing ly. the de tail in the photographs was largely lost
on the uneain..-d pn: si(knlial sia n: A uomcy General Robert

F. Kennedy wrot e abo ut the ClA's e xplanat ion o f the photograp hs at the lirst emergency meeting: "I. fo r o ne. had 10
lak e their .... ord for it. I ex amined the p ictu res ca refulI)'. and
wh at I saw appea red 10 be no more than the clearing of a
field for a farm or the basement of a house. I was relieved to
hear later that this was tho: same reac tion of virt ua lly everyo ne at tho: meeting, incl ud ing Preside nt Kenn edy. Even a few
days later, when more work had tak en place on the s ue. be
remarked rhur it looked like a foot ball field" l Kenned y,
19(9) .

h igher than :IIlY other p lane. 11m it was slow. W,' needed
replacemen t thai could Ily higt1l'T. farthe r, and Iavtcr," ,.
Ke lly Johnson. T he Skunk Works subseq uently dcv cl
the SR-7 1 ( Figurc 3-24), II wa, delivered to the tf .S.
Fore... in lQ65, In 1'>7(1. it set the wur'ld speed and ahu
records o f 2. 193 m .p.h. in level l1 ight at 85.126 ft. " ".
exceeds the w loci t) of a 3n.flh rillc ou tlC1. lt is snllthe fu
<:-;.t, hig h..-sl -Ily ing arrcratt in tho: ",odd as tar a ~ "e kuow..
\-13eh-3 the glass of the coc kpit is blistering hot. 0 \
6JXlO"F. The S R-7 1's ti m mission was in 1%5 over Ha
the capital of xorth Vietnam, It l1C\\ dai l)' reconnaissa
mi ss ion s o ver North vietnam and was never touc hed.
S R-7 1 detected the So viet combat brigade in Cu ba in II) ,
Th e SR7 1 curries on ly remote sensi ng and sig nal hue!
gcncc equipment. Se veral arc still in usc altho ugh they hal
been o tli eia lly reurcd num ero us rimes.

Airborne Stealth Technology

O ther Presidents have used the suborbital U-2 p latformas an
intd ligen l'c asset. For example. I'n' sident Reaga n orde red
U-2 o\l'"r Oigh b of N ica rag ua to i J~n ti f)' Soviet arms bu ildup
in suppo rt o f rebe l forces. President Rush used U-2 assets III
the G ulf War in 199 1. Pres ident C1inlon used them in tho: war
in Bosn ia in 1998 -1 999. Specially mod ified U-2 airc ra ft arc
also used to suppo rt va riou s ;>\ASA Eart h resource ldcsignatcd ER) remot e sensi ng proj ec ts ( Brugj(mi. 19X5 1

The SR-71

"We knew in 19 5:-:. two years be fore it hap pened. that til,'

Rus:<i ans were go ing

til

shllo t dow n II U-2. Thl' U-2 e(luld l1y

From 1975 to the present. the Lockheed Skunk works a

other aeros pace co mpan ies thw ug houl the worl d havc dev
oped we,llth tec hnology, A stea lth a irerall is co nstru cted
co mputer-design ed facets of met al thai have spec ial sha
and o rienranons dt'Signed to dctlccr mcorn tog radar wav
away fro m thc sou rce o f rransmi ssicn o n the gro und or fr
another plane in lit" a ir. In addinon, special co mposite mal
rial is usually ap plied 10 the ain.:r.l11. which ah,orhs inctde
radar t:nergy i Rich ami Janos. 11)94 ). The se co nditions mill
the aircra ft rchuivcl y invisible 10 radar dete ction. The rada
cross-section (signat ure) of a non-stealt h a irpl ane looks a~
b ig as an l x-whcc l tractor trai ler. Conve rsely, the radar

.,

Satellite Remote sensing

edcd a
,- said
sloped
S. A ir
hitude

whic h

Figure 325 Various views of the Lockheed rll ' Nighthawk steal th nircrun . The unique fuselage geome try and c nc rgy-uhsorben t matc rials on the p lant' make it ditficnftto Ill'le,"' Oil couventiunal rada rs.

IC.' fast ow. ,\ 1

o\~r

Hanoi .
ssance
d. Th e
IQ79.

inte lliY ha ve

eoss-secuon ofan F-II ? is equivalent to that ofa small sl ...d

lIlIIble. This stealth rapa hi lny was dramatically un veiled to
!he world in the 1990 G ulf War when pr.. \'iously sec ret FI~airmti (F igure 3-25 1.... ere used to 11)' night rcccnnaislaDC\: and tacncal missions over Iraq a nd Kuwait. Stealt h
rechnology was a lso used ex tens ively in the conni e! in Bos-

niain lQl)X- I t)'W.

film. bUI abo the f irst object 10 ret urn from space a nd be
recovered in midair ( McDon ald. 1(9701), The age of space
reconnaissance had begun , In just one mission it prcvidc-d
mor e photographic coverage of the Soviet Union than all
pre vious U-2 missions.
Corona

Sate llite Rem ote Se ns in g

ks and
devel:100'0.1 o f
shapes
W3 \" e5

'f

from

, mu te-

rcidcm
s make
e rad ar
~ks as
radar

The firstman-made satellite to) orbit the Earth .... as SfJII1I1ili. I,

I:wocbed by I~ Soviet Union on October 24 , 1<)57, In a sin~Ic moment if effectively confirmed a world .... ide "open
!kJe:;- policy for obj ects launched into orbi t. The United
Slates initiated its Comll<l orbita l satellite recon naissance
progra m in the late 1 95 ()~ ami began launc h ope rations o n
February 21\. [959 . lt was managed j ointly by the CIA and
the U.S. Air Force. TIlt' ti rst eig ht reconnaissanc e missio ns
did not produce any imagery ( Md)ona ld, I ~N7 bl Howeve r.
00 Aug.u~t 18. 1960. foo l ission 9009 was successful. Thi..
lIiDth mission was recove red in midai r and beca me not only
~ fiN Corona to return trorn space .... irh reconna issance

Keyhole (Kill \1 as the codeword assig ncd tothe U.S , s pace

reco nna issance act ivities for th..., Corona. Argon , and Lanyard programs. T he KH abbreviation referred to the ca mera
systems associa ted w ith th c'!;.C reco nnaissa nce progra ms,
e.g.. KIII . KII-2. K H-3, and K U-4 w ere Coron a sensors:
Aq!on'" ca mera .... as KH-5. and Lanyard's camera .....as Kl I
6 . The in itial Corona spatial reso lutio n .....as 40 fI for Co rona
K H ~ I in 19(,() and ev ent ua lly 45 10 (., n for K U-4 B in 1972
( Ruffner. 1\)\)5; \ilcDo nald. It)t) j b ).

I hc first Co rona photo graph wa.. of the Mys Shrnidra Air

Field ( Figur.: 3-2(>a ). All of the KII came ras had a focal
length of ~4 inches . A ll KI I-4 sat ellites ( 1962 - 1Q72 ) conrained twin panoramic ca me ras that coul d obtain stereo..

('If , rn:H:

62

"'irsl C o m oa Sal tlli lt "ll"Con n.. i~~ .. nee rhmolilrllph

Sh mid ta ,\ ir F!e ld . 11.S.S. R. o n . \ u ~ u ~l l K 19641

.\ I ~ s

Artist ' s Rt'lld il ion o f I h... Co ro n a KII -4H Came ra in

H i~ hl

History 01 Aerial Photography and Aerial Platform s

Salem

Despite thc ir gre at valu e , the early rec onna issa nce satelli
were far from pcrtect. They returne d their images by
chuung the film back to Earth in a capsule. so meti mes m.
o r even we-cks a fter they were ta ken ( Figu re J-27 b)
delay co uld be c ripp ling . Both the 1t}1l7 Si x- Day War
Israel and the Sov iet inva sion o f Cz echoslov akia in 1%
ended be fo re the United States co uld ob tain satellite image
of the troub lc SP OIS t Richelson. 19l)2 ),
It is importa urto po int out tha t bo th the Soviet Unio n and t
United SIMes ini tiated their orbital space reconnais
sysrcms in 1956 , 110 " ever, d UL' to its technologic a l superior
ily, the United Stare s was able to attempt launching Co
hcg inning in 19;Q while the Soviet's Zenit-2 program II
first launched in 196 1. Rot h the Zcnir and Corona platfc
met their design objecnves :IS reliable reconnaissance S~7
terns o peratin g in an cnurely new orbital di mension IGorg
1991). The la.sl Corona image .... , IS obtained (In May 3
19 72. Over X()(),uno images were acqui red consis tin g
approximately 2. 1 million feet of film in 39.000 calll
(C larke . 1999 ).
III 19(,7. President Lyndon Johnson addressed a gro up III
ed uca tors,

,
Figure 3 -26

a) '1111: liPiI phmogmph colle cted hy Corona KI I-I.

The spnti;d resolution was llrrnl\imalcly 40 It . hi
Art ist's rcndiuon o f thl' inte rna l components of the
Conma KII-4 R omi ta! platform (co uncsy Xationa l

Reconnaissance Office).

scopic photographs. An artist's renduron Il l' the KH-4H

p lat form and internal component; is sho wn in Figure 3':!6b.
Th e deta ils ofeach Corona laun ch fro m June 25. 1959. 10the
final mission on May 25. 1972, are fou nd in .\ IcDo na ld
( 199 7b ). A Co rona KII-4 pa nchromanc photog raph obtained
on Oc tober 20, 1964 . fo ur d ays a fter China's fi rst abov egro und nuclear t~ st at Lop Nor is shown in Figu re J27a.
Corona played a major rule monitoring nuclea r proliferat ion.

I wo uldn't wan t to be q uoted on this, but we 've spe nt

thirty-Jive or forty billion doll ars (In the space prog ram. And if not hing else had come ou t of it exce pt
the knowledge" c ' ve gained from space photograph) .
il would be wo rth len times what the " ho le prog ram
has cost . Without satellites. I' d be operating by gue ss.
BUI to night INe know how many missiles the ene my'
has. and il turned ou t our guesses were way otT. We
were do ing thi ngs .... e didn't nee..1 to do . We we re
bu ild ing thi ngs we d idn't need to build . we were ha rbori ng fears we d idn' t need to harbor (Richels on .
I (j1J2; Walter. I li n ).
Pre sident Jo hnson "';IS res po nding 10 cr itics that said h.., had
spe nt Ii "-) muc h on th.. , space program a nd not enough on
poverty,
Onl) rece ntly ha~;t been made kno w n th'l l imagery from the
Corona program were abo used for domestic map com pilanon an d upda ting. For ex ample, the U.S. (il;"ologic a l SUT\cy
has use d the data 10 update the I :250,UOO and I :24.000- scalc
map series 1~IcDlmald, 1997a; Cl arke , 19991. A domestic
Corona image o f the Pentagon in Wash ington . DC is sho wn
in Figure 3-2 7c .

E"c
iam
pho

Th,
Co

of
rot

0,

H'

SlIellile Remote S e ns ing

h'

83

C o ro na

" clliles
Lllp

para-

I'h ol tl~r aph~

of

.' or. ( ' h illll, Ull ()\'luher 211.

11J64

s da ys

Th"
ar in
196 8

d the
sauce
pcrfororona
m was

"

i fonns

Figure 3-27

sysIorgin.
ay J I.
tng o f
i~'

I cans

)U p

of

s s.

ere
In ,

gf on

sm the

KH-" vertical punchromauc

I'h<lh't-",ll'h of Lor Nor, China, nhuvcground nuclea r te-a sire l 'll ( kll.","r 21J.
[' 1(,4. ht Phctogruph of'the parachute " I' 11
( '" wru T"'...,lllwis>anc... said lite c;' I'_lIk
!>cing C<l IJ!uR..J. The lilrn in the capsule
" as 111.-n de veloped and photorrucrprctcd
l ,.uu rt."l>~- Fcdcra uon of Arncncan S<: IL'1I Ii_lsI. "I I),mu"q i(" image of lh~' I','nlllg"n
!II Wa >l llngl~.n_ DC rec ord ed hy C"lOna
"' , ~~i(>fj I IHI on September :! ~. 1%7
l ,-"U "'~~ L SGSI.
:I) ( '''WIl ;l

Image!) acquired by the ~r;II.:e: ha.~t:d nationa l imc l!igenre rccunuuissancc sys k l11s known .Is the Co rona.
Argon. and Lanyard Mis sions shall. \I ithin I S months o r
lhe ti'llt: llf l hl ~ order he \ kl.' l a ~ s i lied.

,,had

caplure.

h,'Culj\C Order xumbcr 12951. issued by Pres ide nt WillWIl I'hnton on February 22. 19'-15, changed 111,' world l}f
phoc'''~h:llih: reconnaissance. T he or der direc ted:

ny
>II,

1':

[)~1"

Ihc We b sire for hrowsin g and ohli1 ini ng d uplil.,;tlCS o r

l owna film is fo und in Appcrxhx A. An t.'\Ct.'Jt t"11I overview
Or~1r Corona prog ram and the porcminl utilit), of the d ata
f,x Earth re~OUTCC analY!i i!i is found in Cl arke ( II.)'-It,l ).

Ongoing Satellite Sentinels

npilaUTVCy

-sca le

nc suc
rho wn

&

Ic~

and Kearney '\ rotc in D,:!,'",., ,\'.....1' ( 1991 ):

Figure 328

Saetlue data and airborne rolJa~ hav e replaced lhe: cavall) scout and the foot patrol a.s the commander's ...) I:S. . ..
1\l lhoul:!h the fog of war was no t chmmarcd. General
5o:hllartL,or fs view ufthe banleficfd ex cee ded anyt hing

A ".tT<:huux ..o urh uf ": u,""ail Cit) O>lbp<.'<:l'-..I uf

hOllsmg Ir.ll.ll aIT: r.t1i(U S "'a\"~ TA R ~ image reo

l.:a",,-U under Ih.: h n:d"m of Inf"'lnalloo Act to
Will iam \I. ,-\ rkin l.

-,
UI:\ I'HJ(

84

."1':'".-. ......
.': ".., .....
._. , . '

', '

3~

History o f Ae ria l Photography and Aeria l Platforms

I ."

i. ,a " I.\ ...l

3. Zhawar Kili suspectcdtcrronst training camp in Afghanisl ~n,

b. Shi ra phamlaccut ic" l planl in (he Suda n suspt-,<:l cd

or I'md"cin~ chentical wcapOM

Figu re 3-29

f , amr h:s "I' Kc)-ho k J 21 KH-12 1Imagcl') . I ll.hawar Kill train ing camp in Afghamsran (spatial resolution was appro\imal
10 '\ 10 e m ). hI Shira pharmaccuncal plant in th... Sudan. The'".,.."",dlile images w cr.. used by Scc rcrary of Slate William S
Cohen in his debneflng 1I11 n- crm-e missile allad,s 1m Au g.". ! Il. I 'No( (court.....y "r h :de:raliu" of Ame rican Scientists. Im
ligcnce RCloCanh Pro!;IOIm ).

before possi ble . Th ere " as far less uncertainty n: g:mJing

the en emy 's vulne rahiliries
They called (he G ulf War a hvperwar bec au se so many dcc isio ns we re rolled o n satellite and a jrcra fl remote se nsi ng and
sign a l intel ligence ( Wa lter. 14'12]. An exa mple of G ulf \ Var
ima ge i (l te lli gc n~' e is founJ in Figure 328.
In the United States.11 least four types o f sa telli k's 111m
gather intelligence infurmation. Laf' rossc bat hes the Earth
in m icrowaves (rad ar) and can resolv e throug h clo ud-c o ver
I,bjeets less tha n th ree feet across. au gment ing the wurk o f
the o pt ical remote se nsi ng satellucs when bad wc.nh cr
block s the ir v iew. Optical satellite re mote sensing systems
a rc far more powerful than the earl ier Co rona sys tems. II is
gene rally believ ed that some optic al senso rs Can he used to
re-so lve obj ects as small as (, in. across using linear o r are a
array charg e-coupled-device (eC D) ICd llllllogy discussed in
Ch ap ters -I and 7.

Ferrets (signal intctligcnce satcuucs - SIG INTl li.,ten w ith

"el)" scnsiuvc rece ivers to radio and mic rowave transmiscions. Even in the early" 1" 70.... a ferrer named Rhyo lite could
record !>igna h tha t aimed Sm iet anJ Chinese miss ttcs and al
the sa me rime monitor ac ma ny as 11,000 conversations
goi ng on between telepho ne, and walkie- ta lkies . Tra.:" mg
and Data Rela y Satd lilt: Sy ~t.: rn~ (T ORS ) orbit the glo be al

22,300 mill'S above the eq uator in geostation ary orbi t j

like Arthur C. Cla rke. the noted author, wrote abou t in III
11".\ Jjor ld in 19-15 r Walrcr. 1'l92). They may be used
transmit remote senso r data from satel lites 10 the ground.

Irc. ny compliance. anus-comr ol agreements. and borde

dispu tcs co nt inue It ' he monitored by nation s using hig h-rC'lohmcn imllgery o btaincd from sa tellite platforms ( Riche
SIIl1. 19() () I. For cxurnplc. co nsider the KI I- 1:2 punch romau
images of Zh awur Kili , a suspec ted terr orist training cum
supp ort complex in Afg han islan ( Hg ure 3.2 '1a) , and I
Shifa phanoaceutical plan t ill the Sudan. suspected o f pro
dut"ing chemical \\l'apo ns ( Figure 329b). T hese satcllir
images were used hy Secr etary ofStare William S . Coh en i
his dc hric flng aft er cruise mi ssile atta cks by the Unite
Suucs on Aug ust 20, I')')X.
Fortunately. huma nkind has als o devoted some of i
resou rces to placing remote sensi ng plat forms in space f
peaceful, Earth-resource upphcarion .... T he most note wmt h.
include Sk.r1u&. the Landsat Mulu spcc tral Sca nne r ( MS
( IQT!..! QX-ll, the Landsat Thematic \ t Jppcr series of satel
1 1I~'" t l" X-J (0 preSl'"nl ). the Landsa t Enhanced Thcmari
Mapper ' ( 1\)9q- pr~'sentl, the Space Shunl .... Phot ograph,
Progra m (ongoing). and numerous meteorolo gica l sa tetlu
(e .g.. U.S. GO ES a nd ..-\VIIRR. European .\IETEOSAT
[ >': \"I SAT). ""SA's Earth Obscrv-ing System b unchcd it

1'''

85

Unmanned Aer ia l Veh ic les

I
QuickUi rtl 111131:1.' or 110'101' , \1 A

on -hoa rd <iI'S and forward-looking vid eog rcphy and/ or

infrared ( FU R).

Tactical and Endurance UAVs

Th e Dcpa nmcm of Defen se (IX)D j has invested b ilficn s in

the dev elopment o f unmanned aerial \ chic l es s ince the
19SOs. The DOD w ant s UAVs 10 satis fy m ission un ique raetic al or endurance reconnaissance and surveillance tdesignared RQ -I) requiremen ts. Tactical UAVs func tio n within
1 00 km o f thc ir lift o lTpo int and usua lly stay aloft for retetivel y brie f periods of time . Co nversely, endurance UAVs
ca n trave l > 200 lorn a nd can stay a loft for many hours . So me
UAVs can stay alo ft virtually undetectable due to their size
for hou rs o n e nd, constant ly monit ori ng the same geogra phic
area.

m ately
liam S.
~ Intel -

330

Panchrom auc (,1 x (,I em image of RosIOll. MA.

collected by QllkU~lrd on December 27. 200 1. Circular high -ri st"'i ("I' Cti lllll UIl' [OfI Inner Hamor. The:
Wharf a t Ro we can be seen In the Io1A er-rigbr hand

corncr tcouncsy DigilalGlot>.:. lnc.),

Uln:' sed 10

firsl Earth-resource oriented (T~'n'u ) l>atcllitc in 1999 and the

second (..11/11/1 ) in ~ 002 . Com merc ia! firms launc hed
IKO~ OS 2 in 1l/W . Ima geSal in 14<N; QUil'kH ird in 200 1.

"d.

IIId OrbVicy, 3 in 2003 .:a 1l with nominal panchromat ic spa-

lit j u st

:'!Orde r
jt -r cs-

.icbclunatio
camp
sd the
r protcllitc
len in
Inited

if its
:0: for
orthy

\ISS)
satelmat ic

a ph)'
-llnes
r and
sd its

tial resolution s (lf ~ 2 " 2 rn. Cha pter 7 provides detai ls about
many ofthese re mote se nsing pla tforms and sensor systems.
AQuickBird 6 1 x 6 1 em panchromat ic image of Boston.
\1A is shown in Figure 3J O, Hig h spatia l re solution digital
Imagery sudl ~s this coru ainv so much spat ial deta il that it
be photo. interpreted as if it wer e a typica l analog aer ial
photograph.

.an

Severa l o f the more im portant UAVs and their cha ract eristics are presented in Table 3 1. VAVs range from sma ll. light
w c ight handh eld uni ts (e.g.. Desert H a....k is 32 in. long and
0.5 Ihf,)10 run" ay-opera red behemoths tha t wei gh thou sa nds
o f pounds {e.g.. Global 113y.lo is 44 .4 ft. lo ng and 25.600
Ihs ). Mi litary UAVs arc cosuy but not as expensive as los ing
hum an life or a more expensive aircraft. Each G loba l Hall, lo
costs > S15 million . A Sil1t:\ k predator co sts $4.5 mill ion . A
Shadow 200 co sts $)00,000. It. packa ge o f six De sert Hawk s
cost $JOII.onn. Th ese figures arc suhjec t ttl cha nge.
The Unite d SI:l1l'S' Pred ato r UAV wa s lIS l'(J in surveillance
m iss ions o'er sensitive areas (If Bosnia in 1995 (Figure 33 Ia.b) a nd in f\ t'ghan istun and Operatio n Iraqi Frccdom. The
smaller Shado w 20U is ano ther UAV used e xtens ively in
Ope ration Iraq i f-reedom. Table ]- 1 depicts a so ldier with
the U.S. A rmy IOlsI Military Inrclfigcncc Battali on gelling
a Sharlow 201l VAV ready for a m issio n over Iraq on Septcmbcr 22 , l OO+'

Unmann ed Aerial Vehi cl es

It issad that many ofthe improvements in a nalog and dig ital

eeria! phow graphy datu co llect ion and in tit... urt and science
ofphoto-interp ret ation have tak en pla ce du ring World w ar I,
World War II. the Kore a n " Car, the Vietn am War. the Gu lf
War. the confli ct in Bosnia, and Dpe rauon Iraq i Freedom.
~ ofthe most impo rta nt rcecru advancem en ts has been the
ese of /lI mlllnlu',1 acriul vehicles ( UAV , te.g.. \Ic I>aid and
Oliver. 1997; Lock heed ~lani n , 1 0()0 ). Store expensive
UAVs arc cont rolled from a ho me base by an ana lyst who
jnows exal't ly "here rh... UAV is located at a ll limes throu gh

Desert Hawk W:lS develo ped hy the Loc kheed Martin Skunk
works. It is made ofmold-injected po lyp ropy lene foa m and
is powered byan elect ric mete r driving a pushe r pro pel ler. It
is laun ched hy two pe rson s. w ho attach a bungee cord to it.
extend the cord to about 100 III and then simply let the UAV
go . Desert Hawk 's operationa l a ltitude is 500 ft. ( 150 m j. It
ca n cru ise tor nbout one hou r al a speed o f up to 57 mp h (n
kill/h ), and its operationa l radi us is about 6 na utica l miles ( I I
km), Desert Hnwk land s on its Kcvlar belly. Its payload consist ing l l f color ca meras fo r day or FUR fo r night -tim e survcillan cc. D es ert Hawk was used in Operation Iraq i
Freedo m ( Loc kheed Martin. 2()()6 ).

8.

History 01Aerial Photography an d Aerial Platform s

Predator Cnmanncd Aerial vchlctc (UA\ ") Illla~l'r~ lIf \ u~lI ..ca :\ mmun u ion Plaut

,J

a.
Figu re 33 1

I'r<.'t!;ltor unma nned ncrial whicle l tJ \ V) f'fI."'I,ih ("l all.1 P'''I ~l r i)'' ... (b) '111;10:<'11 of'thc V"g",ca Ammunition !' lmH in ll 0'0llU
John Pike, l cdcrauon of Amcnc.m :-'~i<'IllI,h. hH... lIig."l1c<.' lksc,lrl'h I>rn~rarn )_

h:"llr ks~

UAV Payload

Jig.ital camera twhnulllg.y. An example of their imager)

shown in fig ure .1 -31 _ Oct.} ils about the platform arc pro-

11.k-1I
lhc U\ V s summarized in Table J- I can carry payload,
ranging from a row poun ds In 2.0011 pound". UAV.. ma~
carry dig ital cameras. forward-looking infrared O I.UU .
hype rspcctra l Sl'n"ors .nnd.or synthetic aperture radar sensor
S) stent-, for all-weather capt.hilit)', IJA \ ', I) picalfy u-,c II ireless technology to tran smi t iJ1J;lgcs i ll rcahimc h I the horne
has e. or 11K') store the imngcry on-board lh ing d.na recor ders.

UAV Considerations

U,\V h:chnolo~y represen ts a double-edged sword. On the

one hand. Il\'nmltila~ UA\ ' ptallimm can be e-~prt'lally usclu i for low-cost remote ~e-n~illg data collection fur law
enforcement, Earth-resource :malysi~. urban planning. l"11,;.
For example. ~1,;1c nn ..lS h;J\ 0: li,r some ume equipped model
airplanes and helicopters with li~hl\\ eight cameras I" obram
qu al ity. high spatial resohnion al.'rial photography (c .g ..
llmc klcy and Walk e r. 1')'J.h Jack..on aml Hardin (20US)
doc um ented the 1I ~1,; of rclauvcly inexpe nsi ve mod el a irplanes to r co ll<.', ting large-scale ae ria l phowgr arh y !Ising

In

Chapter 4 ,

UA\', ere also extremely use ful lor military recon naissance
"The soldier ofthe future I I III hal e his ow n mec hani ca l !lin!
which w ill pruv ide him with pic tures. sound and e ven sm ell.
of \\ hat is invidc :1 hu ild ing or bun ker." .\.1 cDaid a nd Oli\ cr
(I \)'171 predicted. T his is true today . Unfonunatcfv. the same
technology C:l I1 be used to spy Oil thc gcncmt public or used
to conduct illegal ac tivit ies suc h as monitoring the coruhucus around a bank prepa ra tor) tna rob bery or for indu strial
l'~r i" lmg..:o when' one cu mpany spies 011 unor hcr. O ur genetanon o f remote .;;,:n"ing "tOilontis!s m ust he' careful how it utililes this nc" rem ote lo<tbin~ tc..- hnology (S lon.:.:!.c:r cl at
I<)<J~).

Commercial Remote Sensi ng Platf orms

The majori ty nfnnnmilna ry commercial ae rial pho tograph)'

', co lk ,t,'d l" illg single-w ing r urcratt. More a ffluent photogramill ctric en ginee ring and remote sensing co mpan ies and
nonmilita ry govcrmn cm agencies have access to jcr p lat.

Commercial Remote sensing Platforms

1K:Ie 3-t

87

Fharactcrisncs of several unm<lnll<.'d ill,,;al H'hides (UA\ '). The UAV imagl$ arc not tn scale relativ e to one another [images
C'OUrt<'S)' of ( 0 1) . 2005 and NA S-\ VAV.20061.

Vendor

Unmanned
Aeri al Vehicl e

Endurance
(ho urs)

Weight
(pounds)

Alt itude (ft)

Range (nm )

40

30.9

20 ,000
I.XIIO

Aernsonde
[Aerosonde Ro bot ic

Height
Length
Wingspan
(fee t)

n.a.
5.4

9 .5

Airtr311. LLC)

2.5

300

Cypher
[llmtrd Techno logi es !
Sikorsky, lnc.)

5 ,O(l(J

",

6. 5

500 n
6.7

2 5.600

65. 000
14.000

~rlllay,k

~~unl

Bosni a

. gcry

works: lockheed \ lanin)

IS

rc pro-

(;llIhalllay,k

Teledyne Ryan. lnc.]

"

2
n.a .

n.a.

n.a .
32 in.
52 in.

n.a.

4H
116. 2

rssunce

aica l bir d

," smdb

tI Oli ve r,
' he same
t or used

Ie condimdustrial
u r ge n...r,-lV. it uti-

rc r cI al.,

terms

uog raphj
m photo-

ames and
jet plat-

29

6.500

l'rednmr
(General Atomics,
Inc.)

~b.d(lw

200
(AAL lne.)
(000, 2005)

>4f1,OOO
0 . .1.

7.4

3.
M

::! 15

15.000

n.a.

"

1::!.75

~--~

C11 \ rn:R

88

3~

History of Aerial Photography and Aerial Platfonn s

Digital Ae r ia l Ph otogr a phy Obt ained Using

An In expen sive Un ma n ned Acr ial ve hicle

Figure 3-32 i\ large-scale aerial photograph of a portion of S"ll lh !'a<l re Island, TX ulnained in .!005 using an mcxpcnsivc uruunrmcd ae
vehicle. 1\ul <: the detailprese nt in the I'h"' o g raph s ufficientto idc m ify j et sl i",jcl l'ki docks . s mall boats. and aut ....mobiles. 11
UAV sys tem usn! to collect Ihls image IS di~l,ls "'-' d in t.'hapter 4 ( coune,~ o f 1'~'1TY lI ardi n and Milfl Jad .MlIL. Dcpartmcmc
Geo gra phy, Brigham Youn g Lniv crsity ).

fo rm s . These types of pla rtorms normally can not lly as high

or as fas t as m ilitary pla t form s, but they ure su fficie nt for
acq uiring quality metric ae ria l photography and ot her types
of rem ote sensor data for managing our cnies aml na lura l
reso urces , Most o f rbc aircraft nnw ha ve onb ourd G PS that
kl.'lp track of the uircm n 's e xact lo cation during remote
sensi ng data collect ion .

"'ng'.,:

R<lyne, W. J ., 1'1'/3. Si/l'a

A IInfUl)' oJl /I<' Unucd S(<ll~
Ai,. r"n.c, :-;Y; Sim on & Schuster. 3M, p.
Hrug roni. D. 1'1~ 5, " N ~\\ Role s for
z vne, Oe1<lhl.r. ')4 -I0 I .

Reeec, ~

Ai r Fune .\Ia)!'

Brug ioni. D. 1\ . I'NIl, " The A rt alit! Science of Phoru reconnab

sa uce." Sciennfic American. 2J.l(3 ):78-85.

Referen ces

Bailey. R. and 1". Kearney. I'N I, "Combat

Era:' V"/,,tu<, '...<' \n . l uly 22. 1')<,11.

Hru"" io ni. D. A . lIutl F. 1. Doyle. IOW7. "Arth ur C , Luntlah

Fo und er of lhe Image Exploitation Discipline." c,m m ,," 8.
M,','n Iht' .'l,m I/lt' t:ll rrh. R. A , Mcl><mald t Ed . l, Hc t bl' ,.,f
AS r & RS. 15'1-166.

Ba ker, S.. 1'1'14, "San Francisco in Ruins : The 1'100 Aeri.rl Phulug rJ phs of Geurgl: R, LUIH enee: ' /"w '/, cufl<'. 101 (0 ):9 H .

('I.trke. A. C. 1'145. "Extra-terrestrtal Relays: C an Roc ket SI

lio ns Gill: World-wide Rudie Coverage?" IOrd " n ' II " rid , 0
tobc r, 305- 30'1.

..1"""-"'11'1'",. Ca /- I',,/,ml. Par-

Cla rke. K_, 1999, I' ru/ ,'''' Corm/,I, s p...nso rcd by the Nation

Bet ue, A ., IINIl, La Phm" Il'""l'hil'

is: Ga uthier-Villars.

Science Found,lt inn. Santa Barbara : UCSH bllp:II"' ...

geog.ucsb.ed u - kclarke Corona Co ron a.t nml.

References

89

eel_ell. R. N_. I 'W1. " History and Place of Photographic Inte rprctlu ion: ' \("",1<11 ~r PhlJlax",plllc / n !<'rp fl." " tlOlI . "'", Ptulip~ \ Ed..) .

K en nedy. 11. . r . 1q6<J. Tlurle,m JJm.: A Mt' mu i r of the Cuban

.\ /n " i l t! Cl'u u. New Yorl : \-lcnto t Co . 19:: p.

Znd Ed.. Bethesda AS P&: KS. 3--4R.

Ki ng. SA .. I l<nn. "The Late n idl ,'on Photog raphic Expert-

~.

D. A.. 1. M. Logsdon a nd B. Latcfl, Eds .. 19'18. Eye in the

Sh Th.:- Sto')' vj Ih" Co,.,m.., Spy S" ullit... . Hist ory o f Avia tioo Series. Washin gt on: Smuhsonian lnsllta linn. p. 12K.

r ncrn," Ru.lon JI.rafd, Oc tober 16. IR60 .

Loc khee d \t.m in. :!1I06.lk. en Jim.'. ' m lfi ca /iuII., Ito ww.loc k-

hccdmarnn.cum.
Sepremb...r 2: . 10fi./ imagt' "/ SII,/do ... Jon V A V.
DOD photograph :lfI4IW 22-A-b'1 ~ 75n35 . Wash ington: Depertment of Defe nse. U.S . Aml ) . on- lint' Od . 2') .

DOD.

~OO5 .

Edtr. J. \ 1.. 1'145. }/i.IlO/)' <'.II'howgra/Jhy. translated hy Ed ward

Epstcan, t\ y: Col umb ia U uivc rsity Pre ss . J I N-J2.\.

London. II. and J. Up ton. 19'14. PlmlOl(r<lpll_l'. Sth Ed.. rooY: Harper Coll ins, ~22 p .
Lopez, U. S ., 1'1'15. ,.jl"i,Jlim l. roo Y: Macmilla n, :!56 p.

Maddox. R.I... 1Jl71 . Hrili ,h

Fanton. II. rvsv. " l'hOlol):ntl' hy: ISOlh Anniversa ry," SAY. K4-

"

l'hn /01:rop hy. 11<:422 -

~ lc (':Im y.

Pscher. W, A .. 1975. "History of

R" I11<1l~

S.. nsing," in R. G

Ree\c). ( Ed. ). MUllutl! vf lk", ,,,.' ,5<'".\11/1;. Bethesda :

,~ S P& R S. 27-50.

fouque, Y.. I 1\67. L<J ' <'r i l ,' lUr /';'/1 '.',,""" J. ' fll l'J" .'agr <1p Jrie:
\'lITpho rr S icf'Ct" ..fa l'i(', W f " ,~ ,. " n. " .. Irm <IIH. Pa ris; Li-

m ne d..... Auteu rs e:td e:

d aeri al
es.Tbe
nen t of

.toumat ol

42 .1 .

l'i~c aJc m k

C. S.. IW,O, "A Demon xtrntien of Color Perceptio n

with Abridged Color Proj..,.'l ions Systems." l 'lw lallrup hic Sd<"Ih ',' d Enginn'ril/K' H3!; 156 .

Md)a id. II. and D. Oliver. 19 Q7. Smur( lf ea/'(ms: Tap Secret
JI"/f>ry of Rt'm"',' Con trolled A;rh.,r,Jt' """pons. ~ Y: Barnes
& ~'Ihle. 20 X p.

de s, Bibl ll.ophlks. p. 61 .

GanoI;. A. IllSS. Traue d .m" n /,"" ,1"ph' Hqltl'. Paris .

Md>ona ld. R. A. ( Ed. ), I ()97a. CORO.....A: Bdwe('1/ the Sun and

th.. t:. Jrlh The f'f~ t .vRO Renmna/.Hance t..... t In Sp<K t . B.:thc sda : ASP &RS . 400 p.

Gemsh<;im. II. and A. Gern sbc un , IQS2, " Re-discovery of the

World' s Fil"'<l Photogra ph." T'Jr.'

eon ..I,I~lilY ) ;

J>ho/ll~raphu'

Journal, Sec-

1\!l- 121.

Md)onll ld. R. A . 19Q7" . " Coro na. Argo n. and Lanyard : A Rev-

u lUlio n for U.S. O verhead Recon naissance:' Carol/a ' 8,"

II" , Sun'" Ih., Ellrth. B... rh...sda: I\ SP& RS. 6 1- 74 .

1"', ..."

,."lIme .'
ooldkrg. V.. 1<J<l 3. The Pm"er of J'JIIJ/agmpln. I\ Y: Abhevill e .

287.
Mag,,-

mnats -

mdahl:
'a : D.'
besda:

e t Statd; Oc-

auonat
j llow w.

Gorgin. P. II., 1'1'H. "Z ... nil: Cornua's S,,\i ...l Counterpart," c,,roml' B"'IIt'.:.:n 1/',' SlI n <I.' I!I" L"'II'I IJ . I~ . A . Mctjonald ( Ed.},
Bethesda: ASP &RS. 1l5 -107.
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Grncliis o f Proj e ct Corona .- ('om/I<l: lk/ll"O'FlI II,, 50"" '" III"
Ear/h, R. A, \-lcllonald (!".d ,). Bethesda: ASP &RS. 25-511.

Hardin, P J. and \-1.W. Jackson. 2n 05. " An Unma nned Ae ria l Vejicle fnr Range land Photog raph y," Rmll(elarl<' t :('<.f<J){1" .",<1
,IIJ/IJ1!f.'/tl<''''. 58:439----44 2.
Hm.:kk) . T. K.. and J. W. Walker. 1<J<l) . " ( I!>la m m g and Csmg
te... -altuu dc Large -scale Imagery," Plw lol;mmmdric Eng i
Itrl'nllg ,( R,'mo l'" ....'m tn~. 5~ : J IO--J 1x.

NASA U A\'. 20()6. /j'l mwUlt!d At!r;./I Vell id ,'! . Washin gt on :

NASA Wallops Sp;lce Flig ht Cc nt cr: NII SA Go dda rd Spac e
1,'lighl l'elllcr. htl p:!lullv.wlf.na, a.gu v!.

Newhall. 1-1 .. IW,ll. Airborne- ('um,'m : Tile World J rmn 111(' Ail'
<llId Uute r Sp", e, N Y: I l a sl i ll ~s Hulls.... 14 4 p.
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Niven. W. D. f d. 1)(90. Th,' SCie nllJic {'apt',.. of James Clerk

.\fIL I ....ff. Cambridge : Cambridge Univ. Press. 1:136- 137.

Peebles. C. 1<N7. The Co",,,,,, PmWI;I: America; Finl Sp.v Snldlile.. ISB 'l 1-55750-68 8---4. 31- 33.
Pike . J . I Q'1I<I ~ . Intell/I(ence Rt:'u/lrch Pmgrtlm. Was hingl .m: Fedcraucn of America n Scicnli)ls. www.FAS.org.

U I.-\J"I ER

90

Powe rs. F. G, Jr. 191)7, " Forcward: From the U2 to Co rona,"

COR OY4: Rl'I""'t'JI rht' Sun "nd ,hI' Eart h: Tilt' Fir." NRO Re(""nn<li.<,' ,mn' cye ill Sp"...,. R. A. Mcfnm ald , Ed.. Be thesda :
AS P& RS. "ii . ix,
Quac kenbu ~h . R. S .. [<,lnO, " Ucvd op rllc nt of r hol O ln tcrp rcra -

uo n," M""ual "/ P/wl"gmphir /lIIt'rp",mioll. Bethesda:

Histo ry of Aerial Photog raphy and Aerial Platforms

Scil'nll tic American . 14114. "Pigeon Came ra s," Sciennfic Ant<r>

;n",. IUII( 4 );21.
Ston e ckcr . F. . T., I), M . Sha \O. and T. M. Lrlle sa nd, IW!
-Emerg mg Lega l and Ethica l Is sues in Ad vance d RcmOll
Sensing Tech nology," PI"''''grummNrie Engineering '"
",me .'I.,'",j"1:. M( f,);5X4 -5\l5 .

A:-i P& RS . I _ Iii.

Tennanl. J. A. 1'103.

Rich . R. R. and l. Ja nos, 19Q..I. Skunk HiJrb - A Persoeot

.\ ll'm m r of .\ ~r 1.,<lrJ al L'H.-kht'ed. I'Y: Li tlk 8 m.... n. 370 p.
Richelson. J. T., 1990. - From ("OROSA to L AC ROSSE: A
Shon H istory of Satellites," The Ijjl' lIin.l! /uII Po,u, February

::!5. 1990.11I - U; '

Richelson . J. T..

1 ~2.

"Spiel- in Space." A,,. &: Spuu.6(5):75-

RutYn...r. K. C .. IINS. CORO,V,,: ,4II1<'rin l s F ,rsf Su/f:lhle Pro g rum. Washin gto n: C IA.

360 p.

Photography," The Photo...\fl~~

Thompsun , ~t . \II ., I" M ." mllt,,1ofPhQ/ngrammt'try. Bet hesdl:

AS P& RS , ., ,.-1 Ed .. 1 :2 ~2.s5 .
Wa ller, W. J. 1<N2. Sl'd"e .~ g.,. NY: Ra ndom Heese, 335 p,
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i c, 1'1(,( I): 72-Q3.

'0.

~Ac,ial

WTl'.5(52):1.14-173 .

98.

Aerial Photography - Vantage Point,

Cameras, Filters, and Film

rote

R,.

first g lanc e it m ight appear that olltainin g a nd interpret ing aerial photography is a routine tas k because the tech no logy has been il\ ailuhlc for more than
a cen tury, Th is is not the casco Important dec isions must be made to ensure
that high -quality aerial photography is collected and interpreted properly
(Narurnala m et al., 200:!) . ~ Ian~ orthese dec isions are base d on principles of
optics and Ill'\.\ energy interacts with ligh t-sensitive materials, Some of thc
most important issues ttl be addressed include:
t

vantage point te.g.. \ cnical. 10\.\ -obliq uc. h i ~ h-oh l i q ue ,.

ph-

came ra (c.g. an alog single - and mu ltiple -lens. digi ta l).

flltrauon tc.g.. hale. mmus-blue.band-pnsv ti lle rs ). und
film emulsion [blac k-a nd-w hite. blac k-a nd -white infra r...-d. color. and
color-mtmrcd].
The more tha t an image analyst knows about how an ae rial photograph \\:LS
collected. th e better image uuc rprct cr h... or sh... will be . T his chapter also
descnbcs how imag ...ry is di giti zed.

Vertical and Oblique Vantage Points

Aer ial photography may be obtained from vert ical or oblique van tage points
depending upon project requirements .

Vertical Aerial Photography

A vertical photograph is obtain...-d when the ca me ra 's opt ical axis is within _
of bei ng vertical (pe rpendicular) to the Earth 's le ve l surface [Figure 4-13).
,\ portion ofa vertica l black-and-white photograph o f the Goosenecks of the
San Juan River in Utah is sho wn in Figu re 4-1 b. Th is aeri a l phorograph can
be \ isuclly interpreted to extra ct de railed q ualuauvc in formation ab out the
surface geology, geomorphology. and hydrology within the vcmcalficld ,)1'
view. This aer ial photograph in conj unction wnh another overlapping ve rtica l
aerial photogra ph o btained from a slightly different viewing po sition I ll a~' be
analyzed using quantitative ph otogrammcrric principles [discussed in Charrcr 6 ) to derive the fo llow ing type s of'mtormarion:
3~

91

92

C l l Al'TEn

Aeri al Photogr ap hy -

Vantage Po int , Came ras , Filler s. an d Film

Vertlcr

v er uc et Al'rill.1
Phot lll.:ra ph IIH:r
I....\('1Tt rrain
C.1JtlI.-ra
fi lm pl.me

Al' itude
abm e grollnd
le"e1 (AliL )

Figure 41

u] A vertical aerial ph\,tl'graph has ~.lQ of lilt (rom a ray perpendicular to the rerruin. b) A vertical aerial photograph of tbf
Goosenecks of the San Juan River in Utah.

planimetric (x..!" location)

map.~

of natural te.g. stream

networ k. rock outcrops} and man-made features (e.g.

trai ls, roads. bu ildi ng s);

digilll' elevation models (DEM s).

onhop hotograp hs (aerial photograp hs that are
geometrically accurate in x.y).
Reso urce mana gers so metimes forget thai the p lan imetric .

consider the vertical aeri al phot ograph of Gu lfport. M i ~is

sippi shown in Figure 4-2. wh ich docu ments \\ ind and Mom
surge damage to the Grand Ca sino. A portion of the casino
.....as broken uff and moved by the storm surge on to II igh\\a~
90. Ship cargo containers from a nearby .... harf .... ere SlJl:\\1
across the terr ain . A color version of this vertical aerial phetogruph is foun d in Color Plate 4-1.

io

0'

Unfortuna tely. the general public is no r used to ,iewing tix'

top s of objects s uch as bu ild ings . tree s. roads. etc . It takes
co nsiderable p ractice and experience to e llicient ly and accuratel y interp ret a vert ical aer ial pho tograph of the terrain.

C
1

Oblique Aerial Photog rap hy

topographic, and (lnhophowrnaps used in almost all geegraphic information sys tems (G IS ) arc crea ted us ing funda menta l photogra mm ctric princip les ap plied to near-vertical
ae ria l photog raphy (Je nse n et al., 2002; 2( 05 ). Fo r exam ple.
the tf .S. Geolog jcal Survey 's 7.5-minute 1:24 .000 map
series an d many d igital elevation models arc derived photogra mrnetrically ( Linde r. 2003}.
Vertical ae ria l ph oto grap hy is co llected for a wide varie ty o f
earth resource management and plan ning applications
( \.1ilkr er at. 2003; Pa ine and Kise r. :!O(3 ). For exam ple.

An nh/iqlle or nhed aerial pJmlflt.:rlll'h is obt ained if fhe

camera's opt ical axis dev iate s more than a few degrees from
vert ical ( Wo lf and DeWill. 2()()()). It is ca lled a low-oblique
aerial "ho!or,I"<I"h if the hor izo n i ~ not \ istb lc ( Figure 4-3a).
A low -oblique pho tograph o r :I bridge ove r the Congaree
River in South Carolina is shown in Figu re 4-J b. [I w a~
acqu ired at an altitude of NlO 11 above ground 1<:\0:1. VisU31

93

Mical and Obliq ue Vant age PoI nts

vertical Acrtat Photograph of Hurrtcane Katrina Ibma:,.:t'

at G ulfp ort. 'I S. on ,\ U ~ Il ~ I .' ". 21105

of tile

{isaissto rm

:asino
zhway
.trewn
I pho..

19 the
takes
aec u ~

in.

if the
from

,lique
l-3a ).
ga rec
wa s
"sue!

Figure 4-2

A vertical aerial rhnl<l~r.lf'h of w inti 'InU storm SU~ .. tlam a ~c Ill" ( iultp<,rt. .\1 lsshs ippi cau....:d by Hurricane Katrina recorded
nil August 30, :!OOS (courtesy 1'( ~O:\ :\ Rem" l'; S,'n,inl; Oil bam)

Interpretation (If the photogra ph y ields det ailed info rmation

about the bridge superstructure.
AhW,h.oh!iqllt' aerial l'hofllxroph is obtain ed i f the horizon
b visible (F igure 44a ). A hi gh-o blique photog rap h of the
Grand Coorcc Darn in Wash ingto n is show n in Figure 4.-4b.
This Impress ive 1940 oblique photograph represe nts a valuJblc historica l reco rd of the da m and the cult ural fun dscape
lhat was created adj acent 10 the dam during ils constru ction
toh{lu~

the worker s.

PNJ'le are generally bener able III p h\.t()-] n l~rprel oblique

atrial photography than \ erucal aeri al ph"tograp hy because
tilt) have a life time of experience look ing at the facad e
(Side) of objects as they navigate in the ir daily environment.
Obliqueaerial photogra phs record a fami liar faca de or side
\.~ of the terrain . For exa mple. II is much easi er for most

imag c analy sts to ide ntify features in the low-obliq ue ae rial

phutog raph (If G ulfport. Mis~i~ s ipri (Figure 4 -5 ) than the
vertical aeria l photog raph found in Figure 4-2. Note the
detailed iuformuuon found in the sec tion o f the Gr and
C:lsino sitting on Highway q!l andt he facade Il l" the Gran d
Hote l in the bac kground. A co lor version of this low -o blique
ac r!.. 1 photograph is found in Co lor Plate 4 -1.
Durmg nnagc imerpretauon, ana lY'> ls sho uld o rie nt oblique
phulug raphs so tha t the features of inter est appear in na tural
perspective. Usually this will mea n th,11objects wit h height
appear 10 lean away from the pe rson vie wing the image.

Scicmivs and/or resource managers may live their en ure

!i\ .:" and neve r extract q uamitauv c information fro m
oblique aerial photography . The refore, ob liq ue aerial p hol\lgrarh y photogrammcrric principles will not hoc prese nted
here . If it is nece ssa ry to ex tract q uanutauvc in forma tion

4'

94

Aerial Phot og raph y -

Vant age point, Ca meras . Filters. and Film

L,," -o h liqu l' .\ e r ial

I h"l "~ rap h ... er1.1'\ l'1 T err-ain

Fid ,l
u( ,i~"

/{m w ,"

" nlll , hown

on """>l ''llr~ph

Ftgu re 4 -3

01 1:\ It,,, -obhq uc acn al photograph h tilted 0 (Will vertical. and the horizon is 1llJ( .... isil>lc. b) A low-oblique ac ria l ph.
nf a t>ri<lg,' ,m the ( 'on ga~ River near ( '("Ilumb,a. Sl ', I be f'h<>Iogr.Jrh \\ 01' oh!:lln....1al an ..levalion o f a rrrn\ imald )
t.oo l\ aho, ... ground Ic,,~ l. On e shoul tl 011\\ '-1):> ,ic \\ an Ilbli'1uc aer ial ph"'''''paph so lh.ll lhe important Icauscs suc h as
Mdc fall :,"'ay IrfOITI 11K- . . icw cr.

{!r.Jph

I I illh-uh li'l ll" .-\ rr ill!

l ' h " l n ~r ;l p h onor
I.l'H I TI'nai"

" . \ Je W

110" "'",
" ,I "'",,n

on r""h\~r"f'II

~l'

Figure 4 -4

011 A hi ~ h-obl ll.J u, aer ial pho..'l,,!:,r.Jph is tilted > .1 (rum vertical. and III<: horizon is . . isiblc. h I . \ high .....bliquc aerial ph ,>t or.J
I ~"
I II. home-, ...... r.. built for .... llrkCf'o dllrin~ ~XlfI~ lruct ioll of tile dam .

of the ( ir:md ('oul~'\' [>-.. m in Washington taken m

95

.lIIia1 cameras

to" Obliq ue Acria l l'holOJ: ra p h uf H urr ica ne Katri na

Aerial Cameras

Damage .If (; ulfpnrt , ' IS. on .-\II~ u ~ I 311. 21HJ5

One of the \ ery first box ca me ras made for co mmercia l purchase was develo ped tor Lo uis Dag ucrre in France by Samuel F. 13. J\.ILlr~C' . who invented the Morse code ( Figure 4-6 ).
Whil e mod ern cameras arc much more sophist icated than
this simple bo x came ra. they ne vertheless s hare certa in fundamcr ua ! cha racteristics . A good \\ uy to und erstand how a
mo de m cam era fun ction s is to compare its com ponents w ith
those oft he human eye ( Figure 4-7).

Aerial Camera Components Com pared with the Eye

phlllOmatdy

FqJre 4-5

as the

A low-o blique aerial photograph of damage caused

oy Horn canc Ka trina obtained on ,\ ugu.'> l 30. 2f105
(COI.Ir1l'SY

of USGS Coostal and Marine Goolot,')

Progra m).

Tho: light- sensitiv e n-tma in the hum a n eye is analogous to

the light -sensiti\'elilm loc at ed at Ihefilm Illane at the back of
the camera. Bo th the eye and the camera use a tons to focu s
re flected lig ht from the rea l wor ld onto the retina or ti lm . In
11K' eye . the amount o f ligh t allowed to illuminate the ret ina
is controlled by the iris, which can ex pan d or comracr in dark
or light co nd itions and hy the eyelid, wh ich nets as a shutter.
Inthe camera , the amount o f light reaching the li lm plane is
controlled by I) tho: ,\;=t' of the lens " / >('I 'IW'I.' fll N:lIil1g , and 2)
a shnner. wh ich co ntrols the length of lime - exposure - that
thl' lens ape rture re mains open and allows lig ht to pa ss
through . Th e shutte r can be placed in the came ra lens assern hly o r just in front o f the til m at tho: hack o f the ca mera. in
\\ hich case il is re ferred to as a focal pl(ll~' shutter.
lI l' al "lan e a nd

FqJre 4-6

One of the first commercially available hm. camera...

was created for Louis, Dagucrre by Samuel F. 13,
MlJoP.'C , inH"fItor of tile \10l'1iC code.

from oblique photograph)', consult the algorithms in thc

.\f.,mlldl vj Ph"foW tlll/llldry (J\. k G lone. 2004 1. Th is discussion will focus 0 11 Ilbtainilig ncar-ve rtic al ae rial phot og raph )'
and extracting both qua litative and q uantitat ive inform ati on .

"'lIcll ll.(" n ~th

The a rea in whic h the tilm is hel d flat during an exposure is

call ed the ./fIca! plane or Jilm 1'11/1/1:'. When a camera is
tilCUS<.'J at inlin ity, the distance from the rear nodal point uf
till' lens to the film plane is known as thcJiwfI{ length , Some
fo ca l- length lenses used for aerial map ping include xx mm
13.5 in. ). 152 llllll (6 in ,I. 21 0 mill (8. 25 in. I. and 305 mm ( 12
in.). Z OOIll lenses have a co nstant ly chang ing focal le ngth.
Co nve rse ly. m" st met ric aerial came ras have a fixed focal
length. suc h as 152 mm (6 in.]. Lon ger focal-le ngt h lenses .
such as the J OS mm ( 12 in. ) lens, are especia lly useful for
high-alurude aeri a l photogra phy dat a collect ion . Miluary
photo-rec onna issa nce o perations co mmo nly employ lenses
of 3 to 6 Ii 10 obtain de tailed photographs from ex tre mely
high alt itud es o r to acq uire oblique photograp hs ac ross borde n;.

,
C IIA r l ER

96

4-,

Aerial Photog raphy - Vantage Poin t. Cameras, Filters. and Film

Table 4 -1.

hll~ malil>lla[

series off/sto ps and shutter speeds.

1{e1:IIi\e Apert ur e nrf lStoll

Larger lens openings ------------- Smaller lens openings
f l-- I A -Z -! .M --4 - - S .(' -II --- 11 - 1(' - -ZZ -JZ-- cl ~ .

Shulter :-.,K'flI,
Slower ------------------------------------ Faster
1. 1f.!.li4+1 II- I If>. 1fJO..- l/tIO-- l 1ZS_ If.! <;O..160l-11l OlKl-I ,':!C
U klc.
Cam.-r:l

1k, .. \XT1 l~~I""'i

shutter

r-Fig u re 4 -7

Focal kn~lh

not want 10 ha ve the image o f'a build ing sme ared across I
ca mera film plane a s the aircraft moves forw ard . T herefor
ae rial photo gr ap hy came ras generally have very fa st lenS\:
that ca ll in e ffect "s to p action:' T he fast len ses arc o ften co
pled wit h very se nsitive film (10 be discussed).

- I

:\ co m ra n so n of tit<; opucal comp"n,;ms or the si m -

ple ca mera with those uf rhc human eye.

Th e ratio o f lh~' camera lens focallength (j) to the diam eter

(If the lens open ing (ell i ~ known as the j7slop:

f sto p

lens foca lleng! h

~ l
d iameter o f lens opening
d

( 4. 1)

Th c ftSIOp ratio is o ft en use d to dl's ignlilc the rela tive apertu re seumg or .Iflet' d o f the camer a lens system. For exam p le.
OJ camera w ith a focallength o f )00 mm and a maximu m lens
d iam eter openin g of 10 mm (called .lidl a! w rllllt ' ) wou ld
have an fl l 0 speed lens:
[ 110 =

IOU mm
lu nun

If the lens diameter at full ape rture were twice as large. say
20 m m inst ead of 10 111m. the Ien s rat ing \H1U[J be 'p 5. Basica lly, the smaller the frating, the faster thc lens, i.c.. the
more light ad mitted through the lens opening per unit of
run e. In the previous na mplc. lhe.fl5 lees is said 10 be tas ter
than the PIO lens. The aircraft is alwa ys mo ving during
ae ria l photograp hy da ta co llection (e xce pt whe n u"ing a
hel icopter or tethered ba lloon or l ite ). Therefore, it is impo rtant to be able to <lequire the photog ra ph very rapidly We do

A complete syst em of apertures beginning: alfll ca n be

duccd by mu ltiplying an y ape rture by I'" 14 2 136 (the sqUd
mot of 2 ), which ) ields the succeeding smaller upert ure . F
example. the seq uence of full-stop mcrem c ms is flJ,
1.4 14 2. .P'1, f2.lQ~, r. fl5 .65t>. flX. fl l l , fll fl . on. ~
] 2. etc .. as shown in Table ~ - 1. Eac h lens opening in tIM
series trans mits one -half as much lig ht as the precedin g len
open ing (i ,e.,}l l<: tra ns mits o ne-halfas milch lig ht as jJ5.6;
For e xample. if WI: " stop down" from flll W f 16. 'II
dec rease bo th the apertu re (If the lens opening an d tb
amount ofl ight rt'a ch ing the film plane by two . Conversef
if \\C "stop up" from jll 6 to fill. .... e would inc rease u
d ia met er of rhc lens dia phragm and the amount o f ligh l ilk
rnmaring the film p lane by a facto r nf t w o . Thi .. ts ..hoy, n du
grammatically in Figu r..:- 4--K. Th e lens speed is the l numb<
of thc max imum effect ive d iamete r of the len s when the dis
phra gm is ..... ide open (fu ll ape rture) . T hus , we haw an fl2.
lens in Fig ure .r. x ( Lond on and Upto n. 199 4 ).

Shutter Sp t't'd
To ensu re tha t the film e mulsion receives the correct amour
of light d uring an ex po..urc . the ae rial photographer mu
se lect the correct re lationship be twee n the s jzc of the It'f
aperture opening (i.e.. theflstop J and ho y, long the light
allowed 10 illum inate the film p lane . The length of time tt
sh utter is open is ca lled C_lJ'mun: time. 11 is co ntrolled by tl
sh utte r mechan ism . Shutte r speeds on a ca me ra us ual
range from " bul b," whic h lasts as lo ng as the plw tug raph,
pushes the expos ure button , 10 I sec ond. 0,75. 0,5. 0 .2 5.
WH, r.zoo, 1/400 . 115UO. 1/10 00, and 1/2.000 seconds. F,
e xample. perh aps an idea l ae ria l photog raphy ex posure
1:00 p.m. in the a fternoon in cl ear Su nligh t isf l6 at I !~ (
second. If the sky above the aircraft sud denly becomes con

97

l.e!ial camera s

C llnll'raf''''tops
f'

ss the
cfore .
enses
cou.

Why is it import ant to kno w about/ SlOps and shutte r speed s.

when most o f the aer ial pho tog raphy you will e ver analyze
win be acquired by enginee rs work ing fo r phologrammeulc
engineering firms who pay meticulous attent ion to these
paramete rs? First . high-st ratus clouds. cloud shadows. and
Sun elevation d ifferen ces througho ut the day ca n ca use light
10 fall off o r increase. resulting in underexposed or 0\ erex posed aeria l photog raphy. respectively. Proper adjustment of
the 1'slOp and shutter speed can main tain proper exposure
throughout the day. Sometimes it is necessary 10 rejec t a
batch of aerial photography if it has bee n improperly
exposed. Second, most persons ",..ho USl' aeria l photog raphy
will at some time desi re to acquire their own phot ography
even if il is obtained by poin ting a 35-m m came ra ou t the
windo w of a light plane. Ar this lime you wil l need 10 select
an o ptimum combmauo n of flslop and shutter speed to
obtain a good exposure o Cthc terrain on film . It is also likel y
that rela tive ly inexpen sive unmanned aeria l vehicles (U AVs)
specifi cally des igned for obtaining aerial photography will
soon be available. For exumplc. Hinckley and Walker ( 199 3)
and Hardin and Jackson ( 2005 ) provide intormauo n on how
11.1 acquire aer ial photography using low-a ltitude UAVs.

f ,

prol<:J uarc
For

Ie

t"

r l. /1
~2 . J1
~n the

glens
(15.6).

fl. .... e
d the

:rsely.
se the
t iII un diaImbe r
c dia -

lOunt

must

~ure

4-8

Thcfl"ill'f'5 for IIcame ra lens and the sire o f the rr ap<n ure llpcni n~s. In this <,>.ample. t hejiS IOPS fange
from jn .'{/, to j!22..... it h lhe si/<' PI' the ape rtures
vhown hy the while circles The lo wcstJistop has the
largest opc nil1g and lets in the grl'al cS! amount of
light. 111\' greater theft'u,p. the less light admitted.
Eachjl'lllp II:(s in half tor dnu hlc) the light of the
next sclling. For example. it talcs four circles the
si..c Ill' Im jiS.n aperture to equalthe size of an.f2.K
a....mun,' tali...r London and Upton. 1'N4).

uall y
rpher

5. 1/
. For
re at

1200
co rn-

Types of Aerial Cameras

Seve ralty pes ofcarncras are often used to obtain aerial photography, including:
single-lens mapping (metric) came ras;
multiplc-lens (multiple- band} ca meras;

lens
tht is
e the
y the

al L200-sc..:. but for some reason the pilot sa id that the

pla ne 's spee d wou ld need 10 be Increased? The photographer
wou ld the n .... ant to increase the shutter spee d 10 perhap!> II
400 -Sf.."C so that blurring at the lilm plane would nor take
place . This woul d e ffectively cut the exposure ti me in ha lf.
The photographer would then have to compensate for this by
uoubling the apertu re o fthe lens by go ing from.fl 16 tof l l.
Hope fully, the new 1/41l0-see ex posure at)!l l would produce the des ired photographic results.

pkldy overcast and allow.. muc h less light 10 illuminate the

terr.l1n beto....... the aerial photog rap her migh r ha ve 10 increase
dle amount of lig ht illuminating the film plane. lie could do
lhis in one of two wa~ -s: I) oy increasi ng the size of the l'
Slop. e.g., from J}I f> to fill. which would double the area of
lheapcn ure openi ng, o r 2) by allow ing a lo nger ex posure ,
e,g.. a I/ IOO-scc ex posure would double the le ngth of lime
the aperture was open , Hopefully, e ither uf these adjustmons would result in an acceptable aerial photograph. But
"hat if the phnln graphc:or alread y had n good exposure all I11

misce lla neous ca meras.

S inl:l e-L{' n~

,' Ia p pin!:: ( Ml'l r ic)

C a ml'rll ~

Single-lens metric canwrus obtain mos r orthc aer ial photography used to map the planimetric (x.y) locatio n of features
and to derive topographic (con tour) maps, Th ese ,'ar lo -

4,

98

Aerial Photography -

Vantage Poinl, Cameras, Filters, and Film

.\ " 310:':

~I clric

Ca me ra

FIlm
Ma ga lllll:'

. ~-

Camera

" " dy

,
"

len s C"Il\.'
A'h cmbly

"
"

l.cns rear
"uJ al poiJl \

;: ::L:;t"I~~~'~;hmm

'il",ncr

l e'''' frum

nuthl point
b

Figure 4-9

a ) Systcm components o f a metric ca mera CO IIS;'l of I } vibnnion i, nbtinn clements, 2) fil m platen pre ssur e pla te. J ) llrilc
unit. 4 1control uuu. 5) mill feed fullers. II I film t ake-up reel. 711ilm magazine. It) U l1c\po~d fum- supply reel, '11drive unu ,
IH) forw ar d-monon compensation de vice. 11I m,nlHl. l ~ ) e xchangea ble universa l shutter, 1J) le ns cum: assembly. and 14 11cm.
h I Profile \ rcw uf a metric camera and s)'sk lll clll11[lt'nl.'l1ls. \.,) Example (If a metric camera installed in the Iloor of an .lircraft
compklc wilh (If'l:'r,t!llr ,on"1k and a terrain bnrc-sighnng instrurncm. d ) A plane with tw.. camera pons can e.'l.J>OM: tv. c types
o f c:mul"luns ,II 1.'.\;\<.:(1) the same tim e. e _I!-. , .. lor and color-infrared film . 1'\ole th at In th iS phlllOgrap h 1""0 camera pon s and
IW'1 retracted '" hn"ls are pr,'SCnl (c"uTt,-sy E. C'O)ot~ Enterprises.. Inc. \b ri l ~'n O'C cilinn. Z l Imaging).

Xmphic' ca me ras arc cal ibrated III provide the highe st gee-

metric and radiometric qual ity ae ria l photograp hy. They

usua lly co ns ist o f a camera hnd ~ . lens co ne assem bly, shutte r, film fee d and uptake motorized transport assembly .II Ihi.'
ti lm plane. and an aircraft mou nting p lat form . Filtc!"i s )
placed in Irom of thc lens dctc mune the wav elengtte, of light
that arc allo.... ed 10 illuminate 11ll: film pla ne . An artist's rcnditio n (If the internal co mpo nen ts of a metric camera is

shoy.n in Figure: 4-9a. A profi le , ie.... of a typical menlo;

ca mera is show n in Figu re 49b.
In the U nited States, FedL'f31 Aviation Admm tseat fon I FA A)

appro\ al is required to cui a hole in an airplane's fuselage to

accom modate an aeria l ca mera. An example of a single camera mourned in the floor o f an airc rart fuse lage is sho .... n in
Figure .J~Qc. tf two aerial came ras a rc mou nted in the aircraft

99

.&efial Cameras

C a m e r a Ll'lI S
,\ n:;:l{' of vi ew

-1,000 Ii -

1.000 ft

\'~\\. rh... greater tho:' am oun t of terrain I"h<>logr.l~ al a conSlaO! ahnude abcv e
gr01.lnd Ie, cJ. Narrow l ~{r l. IM>rTna 1170"l. ...iU.:-a.l1;;k "XY I. "nd s\;p.:r", idc-ang l... (1 10") ko"<.",an: !X"1r.lYl.,J, !-l Usi ng the
Mm e narro... (-lll" ) ang fe-ot-vrew camera 1e11 < :11 ' \\ 0 ditfcreu a llHUlk-; ",""ulb in dramaucally o.Ii l1i:Tl;nlllffiO,m h of terrain

FgJre 4 10 a l The greater the camera lens ang k of

!xing phoIugraph<.oJ.

(figure ~- 'JtJ I. it is J"I" " ih k to e x pose 1"'0 I)-pes o f e rnul- io ns

IIthe same rime tc.g.. color an d col ..lr-in fran:d) by sync h ronlling Ihe ca me ra s hu ucr re lea se mechanisms .

proper amoum ofend la p to be ob ta ined fur o ver lapping ISIC

reoscupic ) co vcrage .
Al'rial came ras usua lly 1'\ 1'IIls,: fi lm that is 24 em 19 .5 in.:

driv e
e un it,
) lens.

ircr aft
types
Is an d

jerrie

:Ar\ )
gc 10
cam -

mm

'em f!

Thl' lens cone assembly is rhc most imp ortant part of the
camera. It usually cnnsisls of a si ngle. expensive nndnplcdellll"' 1 It'll" tha t projects undis tortc d images o f the rc a !
1I'011lJ onto the fil m plane . Till' multiple-clement lens is
fixused at infinity because the airc raft typically tlics at thou..and, of meters abov e gro und leve l d uring dala collection ,
Metric mapp ing cam eras usc \;l riolls lenses wi th differen t
anf!lJlar fields of v iew. depending o n the miss ion requireI1I('nh . N llrnm ' camera lenses hJ\ c an angular Field 1'1' view
of < 60. normal 60 - 75"'. W;dl'-'lIIg'" 75'
100 '. ::md
'wpt"r...vide-angle > WIl"'. The v ider me angula r field Ill'
11('\0.. the greater the arnountof Earth recorded lin the li lm a t
a gi\ C'n alutudc above grou nd level. The high o:r the altuudc.
dle greater the am ou nt of Earth recorded on the film by eac h
lens. These relationships arc summanz cd in Figure ... 10.
," It If//t'n',llon/('rer is u ~e;'d to e;'XpllSl' thl' ph" hlgrap hic lil m a t
'i'CCilic intcl"\a ls of tim c Idc pend c nt upo n the ain;rali. al tiIud", aNn c grn und Ic \ ",I and sf'l'Cd) th:lI \\ III resu lt in thc

w ide in m ils 2: 100 10 51)0

n in

le ng th, de pending upo n the

thick ness ofthe film . Ind ividual ~ \ P,hurC~ arc typ ically v x
<) In. (23 x 23 ern). At the ins tant <I f exposure. the film is held
in place "f ilinst a fl at pla ten surtacc loca ted at t he toea!
pi a Il l.'. vac uum pressure is ap pl ied to the film v ia the pla ten
j ust priori" the instant of exp osure 10 remo ve any bubbles.
hum ps. or irreg ularities in tbc une x po sed tilm. After e xposure. the vac uum is re leased a nd the driv e mecha nis m mov es
Ill..: exposed film onto the tal c -up rcc! in preparation fur the
ne xt e xposure.
Depending on the vcloc uy o f the aucra fi II') and the a ircraft
a ltitude above ground !e\l'l llll. the tihn nug ht be advanced
_hghll) dcnng e vpos ur... to compensate lo r imag e motion.
Special-pu rpo se imag o' II/u/;"n Hml/"'//\mion (I \ t (") ma ga linl'" move the 111m acro s.. the local plane anyw here fro m ()
1iI ll4 mm per ....-con d. L'orrection is achi e \ed by sh ifting Ihc
plalcn prl'!>sUf\' pla t.:' w ith th..: li lm attac hcd via \ aeuum in
the tlig ht d ircrlilm in ,u:cordan,'C \\ ith a \ l.'locity-lo--hl' lg hl
r<lti o 11'; 11 ) illlO the (llCill kng lh I,f lhe le ns. Th is greall)

100

('II W I ER

Importance

Aeri al Photograph y -

ur Fnn\ard

Vanta ge Point. Cameras, Fil ters. an d A im

Im age 'l otion C o m pensa tio n

Aeti

Mo:
1<1/j,

Kis

infc
ca l

,-,

ar

s
y

h . W ith compensatio n.

a . Without compensatio n.
Fig u re 411

.I) " e rtic al aenal phnmgraph \.(.1 b;lCk).m.l sw irllllllll~ poo l Obl;lill..:.1 without r'.rv. ;lrd ImagO;' mot io n cum pensanon. 1\0\<: tbt
rescluuon IMg.e l lyin g on the ground. Il) I'hnln gr.lr h nt-tailwd Wilh torv anl lllla~c motion compensation. More elements o ftlx
resolution la~cl can be drscemed 'courtesy 1-. COyl'lC Lmcrpnscs. Inc. Marilyn rr'Cuihn n: 1, 1 Imag mg ).

An nolation

Figu re 4 12

Annotation around the pc-nrnctcr of an al'rial l'h"h,~r'lrh is \ cry uuponunt. Tfu particular metric camera provides the following inf(ll'll18 tioo : 1) a grayS<:i1k shop \\ edge. 2 1 tll.llepad . .1 ) altimeter, ~ J lidue lal mar~ ~. 5) cloc k. 6 ) lens cone se ria l uu rubcr,
7) f..K at length in mm. III fra me num be r. '>1mission name and dar.. ,m J IIII I\J l ig;n itln da ta (not \ i~ i hle). On ly one-half ofthis
aeria l photograph of 1,,1 11l~ral Wo.:I ls. T X. is \ h ihk (c '''H1l'Sy I:. ('''yule l-nte rpri ses, Inc .. Ma ri lyn O'Cuihun: :t.J1 Imaging ).

increases the q ualny o f the aeria l photography . An e xample

o f lhe effectiveness o f utilili ng image mot ion compensa tio n
and sla!'li1i13tinn is show n in Figu re -1--1 1, Nonce till'

imp ruved J ""Ia il in the ae ria l pho tog rap h that wa s obt ained
using image motion compcn....uio n

c
s
I
(

11m

Ier.al Cameras

lbt lOOl.!crn metric ca meras provid ... J c tailed imag e <llIfI" tmr3round the Q x Q in. image area of the film {Paine and

..\irhornl' Il is:it al C a nWf:ls

~ I>t,'I'.

2U(3 ). For example. nUl11l.TOUS t y p e s Ill' ancill ary

f(l(lllatioll arc displayed a round the perime ter of the vernoJ arnJI photogra ph ( I f Minera l We lls. T X. show n in Figu re
. I ~ A programm able liglu-eminlng diod e inside the ca mlI'lIt\poscd Il.'X I information onto tho: film . Important inferGlOOO present includes : I ) a grayscale step wedge used to
OCkmline if a proper ex pos ure has been obtains..-U. :! ) a not e,. 1IIilere the aerial photograp he r ca n enter mission crit ical
;(tS in pencil if necessary, 3) altimeter. 4) ""hu e c ros s-ha ir
&lucia! marks. 51d ock. (,l iens cone serial number. 7) focal
'en t"ll inrum. 8 ) project frame number, t) m ission name and

Digita l cam eras a rc revol utionizing airborne photogmuunct ric data collection. T he imaging sensor of a digita l camera is
u, u<1 l1y a cha rge-cou pled de vice , CCDt or Complimemary
1\h:ta l O.\ ide Semiconductor (C1\\0 5 ) co mputer chip. The
censor detectors conve rt lif!ht into ele ctron s that ca n be mea su red and con ven ed imo a radi ometric inte ns ity valu e
l~kG lone . 200-4). Digital cameras ma y be based on linear or
IIrrll arrays of de tect ors (Figure -1- 14). Tallie -!-2 summ arizes
the number of detectors found III so me of the commercial
area arra y ch ips c urrently a \ ailu btc.

dll~.nnd

Digit al c.nucrus ut ilize a lens w ith its associa ted diaphragm

to control the.f7sl11p, a , hull c-r to con trolthe lengt h o f expo sure . and a focusi ng device . However, the major diff erence
is that instead o f using film . CC O line ar or area arrays arc
located at the tilm pla ne. The le ns focuse s the light fro m the
out side wo rld 011I0 the lmcar- or are-a-a rray ba nk o f d ..-tcctors . The photons o f l i~h t illunuuating each of the detect ors
CJUSO: an electrical c harge to be produced that is directly
related to jhe amoun t of mc idcru rad iant en ergy. Thi s an alog
signal b then sampled ele ctronically and con ve rted into a
d igita l " rightnl'ss value rang ing from K-bit (values from 0 255 ) to 12-I-it ~ values t"WlII 0 1,, 4 0\)5), The brigh tness va lues
obtained frum till' analog-to-digital (A-to-D) conversion
may b c, store d and read by co mputer sys te ms . The'CCOs m'l'
Clcruall,l' nlOf'(' W:'n l' itive 1<1.\{,,'("Iral reflectance changes in the
.\C,.//(. Illw / (II.' silver Jl<lliJ. crystals used ill con ventional

10 ) navigation data (not visible). Hduciatmarks

eediscusscd in Chapter 6,

ole the
15 of the

s.."1lleI lm~ we analyze ae-rial photographs that a re- many

!'W> old, lIaving. detai led ima ge annota tion info rma tion is
>liliaIlto succc...sful in fonna tion extraction . es pecially if
;ophiSlicalrd pbotog rarnm ernc msnu me nts have to be cali!raIed or if the photograp hy will be used in co mputer so il~ pborogramm crry ap plications di scu ssed in C hap ter /l .

Mnre infonnation can usual ly be obtained abou t the env iron ment from a study o f photographs taken si muhaucou- dy in
~"('!1I1 regions (bnnd s) n tthc elec rro magneric spec trum than
fIt'm photog raphs tak en in an y single band. When cond uctIll!! multiband spec tra l rec on naissance (Colw ell. 19Q7)_ ea ch
tftbe camerae simulta neo usly records photo~'faph" o f Ihe
>lfIl( geog raphic area, but using d ifferent film and/o r filter
_ inations. Fur example. a four-cam era lI asselblad 70I\lll1 configuratio n is show n in Figure -i- B a. Hy ca re fu l I)
5tlecting the film and filter com b inations. spec ifi c wave length, of light rel1eeted from Ihe seelll' can he recorded by
each of the C'lmlras.

\lulliple-hand aeria l photogrJ ph y of CL'nlury Ci ty. Los

(' A. is shown in F i~ u re 4- 1Jb. r\ otke the difl"t-rent
iDfoonation recorded in the indi\ id ual bluc . ~ree n. rt.-d. a nd
a:ar-infran.-d I'h,)!ogra l'hs . A natura l-looking el)lllf comJ"O" deofthe<le photograph~ can t>c I'rodu cetl by' ~i mu haneou,l~
pruj.:l,.'ting blue light thro ugh th... blue pho tograph limo a
screen, green light throu gh lhe green I'ho toj;rnl' h. Jnd rt'd
light through lhe red phot og raph. A cn l\lf-i nfmred color
Clll1lp(l,ile could be created b)-' simu llancllu sly proj e!.:t!ng
blue light through thc grcen pholOgraph , grl'l'n light ( hf(l\l ~h
the red photograph . a nd red Iigh l through thc llca r- infrarl-d
pb:llQgraph. \lore will bc said aboul co lo r co m pos ites laler
ill thisehapll'r.
AIl~eks.

,1I0w_

mb<:r,
.fthis
Ig).

101

(Il1lIlog l /t' r i"I I'Jm/ ng rap hy

S ma ll-For mal Di~i1:l1 Ca me ra s: These ca meras ty pically

ha w < 15 mcgapixcls (~I P) , For cv ernp le.the d igita l cam era
show n in Figure +.1 5a is base d on an area ar ray with 3A5 6
c~,l u m n~ and 130-4 row s y idding alm ost R MP ( rab le -!-2) .
At lhl' in' tllni of exposure. th e caml'ra rap idly rec(lrd ~ three
versions li t" lh..: s,'ene using inlerna l filtratiull . T he resul t is
l' ne ilnage \>:I,ed S(lk ly o n td uo: light rdkcted fwm tn,' tC'rrJ in. alwtner Ila ~e d o n onl y green light re l1 l'1. t ~-d from Ihe terra in. ,lIId a li nJI image I'RlJuccd on ly fRlm rcflc ctcd " ..d
light , Th e th ree ind iv iJ ua l blad:and.... nitc ima ges arc
recorded in thl' ea me ra 's randum aCl'es" ffiCll1lll) (R .-\M ) and
ca n t>e w lllr-..:umlJOSi k-d us ing add ili\'e wlor theo ry to prod uce a n'lluml .[oo ki ng color pholograph. It is a lso poss iblL'
t,) mak e the detl'C,,' l\lrs !'.ensl tive tu near- infra red light.
T his ine xp"' llsive VAV sho wn in Figure 4 - 15h con ta ins an
inl,'rva l111l1clt.'r to nllla in phot ographs at speci lie inle rval s to
obtai n the nccessary end-lap. 'n ,e ima ge s Jrc rdpidly stored
on a dJ tJ reellfdcr, The o f'l'ral nr \lII Ihe gro und knows wher e
Iht.' plano:" based \ln the use Ill' lin on board G I'S ant enna Inot
:;ho" 11). Til<: 8 \IP uig ilJl camera ob ta ins vc: ry h igh resolu -

( II \ I'IH {

' 02

Aer ial Ph o to g raphy -

Vantage Poi nt. Camer as . Fitters , and Film

..

'1ulti h :lnd , \l' r i ;l l l ' h () f o g r;) r h ~

c. Green (0 5 (Ui

d. Red (0.(, - 0,7 ~m)

Fig u re 4 -13

~m )

c. Ncar-infrared (0.7 I ,0 um I

a I Four 7H-mm Hassclblud (a maas ;lrWl1gcd in a m"Llnl that rnay he installed in a specially designed ho le in the buuem " r ~
iii rcra 1\ II j( urr C,lInCril~ ure C~ posed c1,'i:lr{lI1 lcall y ,tl c \ad I" the <nmc ins tant. Di fferent film and tl Iter cornhinuu ons may \Ie
used in each canwru hoc) Multiple -band ,"erial p h "w~ r " Jlhy " r('em Uf) City'. Los ,'\ ngc lcs, CA. The lurgc panels inthe rJ r~ i n~
lot we re used hI calibrate the photography. Nonc e lu,.... hri ~h llill" \ 'q :ctal illil is around th... curv ilinear hote l In the center {'I tIII
blac k-and -.... hill' ncar-in frared photograph a nd h,,\\ d..rk it llp~ars in the blue. green. and re d photograph s.

n.

tion aerial photo graphy ( Figures " - [5cd ). As wuh any aircraft. g reat ca re mus t hi.' cx crci....d "hen using Ur\\ -s III
ensure that they do nor crash caus mg inj ury to life and propcrt). This is no trivial mailer.

'I ed iu m- fur ma l l )il:.i1a l ( anwra..: These ca meras arc usuall y base d on urea arrays w ith <lppru:>.:imaldy -t.OOO )< . . . oon
u ck"CIP!"S (y ielding I f> MPI using Fa irchild CCD-tS(, or
Kod ak KAl-"- IM O chips [ Table -t-21. Due to the rathe r limited numbe r o f pixe ls, the g.round eo \ crugc is not as !!(Iod a ~

rradinonal large-f..jrrnat analog fram e ca me ra s. Nevertbekosso mcd ium- fc nnat d igitn l came ras have proven usefu l fl1
many applicauons. T he Emerge Digital Sen....n Sysk,.
( l lSS I is a good exa mple of a medium-form at digital carnen
(d iscus....d in Chapter 7).

La rae-Fu r ma t UiJ.! il a l ("a l1l1.' ra..: These came ra.. surpa

the performance of large-format ana log. fram e c ameras
Some cameras such as Ihe Lcica Gco systems A irhtlmc Digual Sens or -to (A DS.....U) I ar c based I ," mul tiple linear arrays

Hm

/,erial Cameras

' 03

So lid-Slate C ha rgeCoup led- Devices (CC Hs)

Li near .-\ rr a)
2048 d etecto rs

Figure 4-14

a) Enlarged view of a 204!! clement charl!...-couptcd-dcvice (CCD) linear array.

b) Enlarl!cJ view ofa 3456 x 2 3114

Tabl e 42.

~rc a 3fTay

e CD,

Cha racteristic s IIf several commercially available rhergc-couplcd-dcv icc (c e O) arrays (McCo lonc, 2004; Nikon. 2(05 ).

Size

0110m otnn

ions may he
lht pa rking
-cnrcruf lIMo

Ncvcrth eusefu l for

or SY~I e: m
iT,,1 camera

ras surpass

e cameras.
rborne Digncar arrays.

Vendor

sensor

(horizon tal x vertical)

Pixe ls

Sikon

0 7.

30m : x 2(K)(l

(',,01 6,000

Koilill

DCS-4Nl

3060 x 2036

6.23 0 ,160

Canon

APS-C

3456 x 2304

7.% 2,624

DAlS"

D,\ LS,\ 4027

-WOll x 2M2

10 .709.376

Kodal

KA I-I WOII

40011 )( 267:!

1Il.7fN j 7n

Nikon

mx

421;1; x 2K4S

12.212.224

Fai rchi ld

CC04K6

4 0 '11, x -j.O'l6

16.777.21(,

Kodak

KAf - 16110

40% x 4096

16.77 7,216

[) ALSA

ITF-1 0 52M

.5 ]4 4 )( -\I~l l;

21, 4 11\,752

Phill i ~

DALS A-!)\l ('

7168:>< 40%

2Q.)hO.12 K

!M E

('0)595

92 1(,)('12[ 6

1\4346.656

The ADS-40 uses se ve ral forward. nadir. and ufl-looking lint.1I' arrays cons i ~t ing of 12_000 detector element s eac h (Figlire 4 15b). Other cameras. such as the lJl Ima ging Digital
Modular Came ra \ DMC) and the Vcxccllargc-format d igita l
cerera. arc based on the use o f mu ltip le area arrays. The ZJ
I uses four 70(l() )( -fOOO arrays 10 ob tain panchromatic data
and four 3(100 x 2000 arrays 10 ob ta in multi spectral data.
The Vexccl d ig ita l camera uses 13 eC D arrays w ith 40 0U )(
:'00 elements . C hara cteri st ics of the Emerge DSS. Leica
AOS40. VI DMC. and the vcxcct large-format d igital camera are presente d in Chapter 7 (Multispectral Remote Se lls-

ingS)"Slerns),

Because of the: large number oflarge-format analog cam eras

already in existence, digital ca meras ....i ll be used along with
the tradi tiona l analog cameras for so me time. Eventually,
howeve r, mos t photogrammc uic aerial pho tog rap hy will be
obtained usmg large -forma t dig ital metric cameras
tt\IcGlonc.2(04).
.\ li se d l a ll ~ tlLl ~

Ca me ra s

There are 8 "ariel)' of relati vely simple, inexpe nsive cameras

used bo th commercially and in a research mode that pro vide
high-qual ity ae rial photography. Fo r e xam ple. extensi ve use
is made o f 35mm ca meras mo unted inside a plane or hand-

( "!I Anl:H

104

...

Aer ial Photography -

Vantage Point, Cameras, Filte rs . and Fil m

Data recorder and

mlcrva ll'ITl<:lcr

01. UlUllJ,nllc u aeria l ,chick rlL'iClagc.

C. Ctrru-, grove ncar \\e-~I<l'\I. T X .

Fig ure 4 15

b. Splcm components.

d. Wale r treatm ent plant on South padre islan d . TX.

OJ 1,'\11 unmanuc...r acnal " ..b ulc modified to carrya Ji~ltal came ra. hI Sy~h:rn C<J lllpo m:nls include a data reco rder. imcrval
clef. ,IIuJ ( ii' S antenna (nOi shown). c and d j Exa mp les of n"r;;11 ph'lIngrap hy obtain..'<I using tho UAV [c ourtesy of Perry HaT
and ~lJ.r'" Jackson. Dcpanmcm c f Gcugrap hy. Bri~hJI11 YIl UIl/C Univc rvity: 1I,IrJin andJackson ( 2( ~ 1 5 l l

hel d by the ,o.;iciltisl to obtain aer ial photog raphy of sm all

research M,',\S rw.uncr ct ;11.. [ l) l) 6 j, Suc h systems can pmvide excellent. incxpcnvivc aerial photo grap hy i f prop erty
mounted, exposed, and proc essed .

the colors iruc whitc light {fig ure 4- 19}. lie published
research on till' properties of lig ht in ()fltick. in 1704 ( Fi
4- 17hl.
Add il i l 'f' ("11/(11" thvarv is based on wha t happens when ligh1

Aerial Photography Filtration

In 1666, Sir b;l..rc J"\ell ton l H14:!-17:! 7) (Figu re 4+17a). while

cxpcruncuring \\ ith n pri sm . fo und that he co uld d ispe rse
..... hilt: light ;l1ltl a .'p t'(" /J"/l m u f colors [red, ora nge. yellow.
green. blue . indigo, anJ \ iolct - ROYG BlV ) ( Figure 4-18 ).
A co lor example o f wh at takes p lan ' whe n white light is
directed through a prtsm IS pruv IJOO in Color Plate 4---.!a. Utilizing a s....cond prism , "1\'\1 Ion round tha t he could recombine

mixed. ( 'u ll' r Platt' 4-2b reveals that white light consists of
the colors of the visibl.... spectrum. Black is the abSl'IKC of
these colors. Blue, green. and red arc the primary ("(//
Ad diuvc ly comhunug green and red light c reates yell
lig ht. Add invc ly c\\I11bi nin g blue and green light crea tes C~
Addmvc ly enm hining bloc and red lig ht creates mag
Yeilim . rnagctua, and C) an arc referred to a ~ camplemen
( olll".~ I......cause. when paired. they prod ucc wh ite light, t.
yello\l plus bjuc, magenta p lus green, and cya n p lus
Cotor rclauonchips art: summarized in Table 4 -3.

1m

105

Aerial Photography Filtration

I
Large-fur-mar LCic':1C cusys te ms Airbone
I}igita l St'no;or

~11

( A DS....U1)

a, Sir I"lUC "<,.""Illn ( I f>.l2-17211

-

~"'='"

P PT I C KS:
... .1

T REAT ISE
". T.'
!l 11'I. E \:l n~ s . KF.F RACT IO....S
I I' .-L l );I O :-;S """ COLO URS

L 1 G H T. ,

~ ' ~: '~.H
F!Qure 4 16

111<: Lcic a G\"1),y,tcm, ADS_-1(1 digital camera uses

mil1111"1c hnear atnl }' cun, i, ling of 12.(" "1detectors
(cuu""") ur I .cica Gem) 'killS. !l1l'.I.

(0 ' ""

iS r l'l: lI'.s..,J

rvalomHardin

Tallie 43

.hed his
( Figul\'

Blu ~

,
'0 "<>0" . ~-I

..- ..,.-..
~~

H,~.
'11""""'
,IO, . ,,_,
.... 9

~.

h. {), ,' llkl'. ~C \I ton's published

on the rr"rl' rt k~ ,lfligh t,

r ': ~': llrl'b

Flg ure4- 17

Blue :IIlJ red

CUf'\'I IU1~; Figures,

i Y,,-' <
-

Colo rs of
light Absorbed

M .' C; l' IT tTD I'1

Ij'.." ...........
".. 1.. s,..,~ _~.".... ,

l'hc color (If un ubje":l :I, seen in \\ hitc light.

Color as Seen
In White Light

..... . I/. ..J.__

T~o TR.EAT ISE S

Sir 1, :\;[(" Ncwtnn published ( )p ,il 'kI' in 170-!, This

II<>I " eventually 1cJ to the inl cntion "fth..: rd lcetillg
tetesl."'!," .

lig ht is
as or al!

R,d

Hluc and green

llIue

;c of all

colors,

yellow
:-s cya n.
agen ta.
' /('mary

ht, e.g.,

us red

\IJ~cnta

(lillie and tc<ll

Green

f J1III (bIUl.' and grcc:n)

Bod
None

Equa l proport ions of hluc.

gree n, and red

..\ ddith e color theo ry is used In dispb y images 011 television

screens and on compul.' r monitors. L II::h picture clement
(r ixl'l) on a monitor -crecn uherc arc usually 4S0 ro ws oy
5~5 lines of phcb l ';{lnsisls of three color guns blue.
green. and red. Each colo r gun 's intensity in eac h pixel is
modulated a<:.,lfljlng mthe amoun t (If primary color present
in the scene be ing transmitted from the TV stuuon or from
the computer central proces..ing: unit (Jense n. 200Sj. The
resu lt I' a colo r vicua l dIsplay of the phenomena based on
uddinv c color theory.

106

Aeria l Pho tography - Vantage Poi nt, Cameras , Filte rs , and Film

, 11 ,\ 1' 1 H~

1.2 11m

W h ile

Li~hl

Separated Into

ils Spl'('lral C u m p Un l' IlIS

U!i i n~

a Pr-ism
O.7f.l.ffi
(Ui

um

o.s !Jm
Q.4 f.l.lll

tUp m

T
~

T
1

~.

~ '~

~~

e,

-ll

rn ~m

Agure 4- 18

Wh ite hglncan I.... separated into it.!. spectral componcms usil1!1 a p ri~m , a, originally discove red by Sir Isaac NI."WlOn in 1661
and publis hed in O, 'li""..< in 1704 . Only blue. green. and red light art:' visible 10 the human eye .

Xewron 's Classic Experime nt

Whil,' /igllt

Prism 1
Figu re 4-19

Prism 2

Screen

A diagra mmatic rcprc.....m ali"n of Newton's d assil"cv pcnmcm in which white light i" decomposed into its spect ral coropo
ncrus llsing one prism . and then recombined back into white light usi ng a second prism, before !wing projected onto a screea

SlIbJrtlclil'e color tllCm:1' is based 0 11 the usc of pigments or

dyes and not light. W~- use sub tractive co lor theo ry whe n we
pain t o r wo rk w ith filters. For example. we know thai i f we
m ix equ al propo rtions {I f blue. green. and red paint. we do
not get white but o btain so me d ark gray col or. Subtractive
color theory is based nn the usc ofrhe co mplementary color
dyes - yellow. magen ta. and cyan. An exam ple of subrra crive color theory is found in Color Plate 4 2c. If we projected
white light on to a translucer n filte r made ofydlow dye. the
filte r wo uld subtrac t the blue light and allow the green and
red lig ht 10 pass through. Simi larly. a magenta dye filter subtracts the green ligh t and allow s the b lue and red to be tran smined. A cyan dye filter subtracts the red light and allow s
the b lue and green lighr m be transmined. Hut wha t if we
supe rim posed 1.... 0 of these dye filters ':' If .... c superimpo..... J
the magenta dye filter and ihc cyan dye filter , everything but

blue light woul d be subtrac ted. Th is is bec ause the magcnu

ti ller subtracts the green light whi le the cyan filter su btracu
tile red l jght.Hwe superimposed the yellow a nd cyan flhcn
on ly gree n light would be pe rcei ved . Finally, if we supcrimposed the yellow an d magenta dye fil lers, only red light
would be pe rce ived , If all three of the sub trac tive dyes t yellow. magen ta. and cyan) we re used. they wo uld subtract [filter out I all ofthe white lig ht and we wou ld not percei ve any
color: it .... uuld appear black. It will be demonstrated how
subtract ive color dyes are used to create the colors we sec: in
I I deve loped co lor negauves. and 2 ) co lor positive prints.
A scientist can select ive ly record very spec ific wavelengths
of ligh t reflected from the scene on to a photographic emulsion. Th is is done using specific filler and film comblrclion s. We will first investigate various filte r options.

.lerial Phot ogra ph y Fil trat ion

107

I,h 'fl l'l"liu n

BI~

a.

0..

Red object 3t>s.orl>-< green

.mJ blue li~b!, l,...h 1\.'.1,
a
~ure

Ked

rilt,'r ;It-surf>., green

,,,,.I blue h~hl. I""h ..rd .

b.

420 ill A red 11hjn't absorbs mO,1 uf'thc hilie '111.1 green
incident Iighl and reflects ruo of the red lightto.....nnl our eyes llr J remote sensing instrument. Il) A
red filter looks red b.:C<lIIM.' II wlecli"'ly ab,orbs
blue uud gl.:en light whil.: allowing red lighl h' be
transmitted through it.

pes. Sizes, and Colors of Filters

in from of the camera lens docs exactly \\ hat

na:nc unplies. i.e.. II filt~r" out certain wavelengths of
~ before they Colli reach the film plane and expose the
To understand how filters work. consider \\hy a red
of pap<r lol,lls red I figu re -I.-2tl J. Whit. IIg.h l. w nsistJl!! ofcqUJI proportions of blue. green. and red wav clcngrh
~'). illuminates a piece of red P.11'l1.'T The pa per abso rbs
blueand green light bUI reflec t, the red li~hl. Therefo re .
-:othing that absorbs [subtracts bot h blue and gree n light
DId reflects red light will lll(lk r~d . Refe r III T'lhle 4-3 lilr a
fJIlImal') llft he~e relat ionsh ips. Converse I}. if IH' Iwld a red
filter ~I' til a \\h ile light. it w ill ap p.:ar rl'd to u.s he"' ;l u~,' it
kt, t hrou ~ h (i.e .. tra ns mits) "n ly the red lig ht \\ hi!..: il
lhsorbs both llll' hlue a nd gree ll ligh t. T his is tlK' key II' <Ill
IIldcrslanding tlf plwlographic Jiltratio n. nfl..r., suhtract
IO/l'I( (If lhe ligh t ret lee led from 1I scene heli m,' the lighl
rtath,,;; the film in the ca m..:ra. Ge l intu th..' habi t u f lh inki ng
Ifared tiher m't so much as Ol1l' Ihal l,"As red. but as nne
Iwabsorb;; lsu htracts l hille and gn..'l:n hghl.
Iihl'T placed

I;llIg thiS logic. J ydlow filter a l>l"o rbs I>luc light and allows
he transmiu.-d (lahll' 4- .'1. ()ur eyes
;me1\'C a mi.,!urc of red and green li~hl a~ yell'I\\ (i.e .. lhe
lJfbluej. Due 10 Ray leigh s..:Jtll'rin!! lChaptl'r 2). hlue
i. >o,:alll'fed in Ihe atmosphere I" a mut'h gre.ller degrrt
either !:!rt'Cn or red Iighl and can thl'rl'fur..: C.lUSl' at'ri al
ogr.tl'hy 10 n..'l:ord cons iderabl~ un\\ anted. sca llered
light. Thlrel' lre . il is Cllffirnon Itl usc a yel low lilla to
lI:ltcti\ d y remo\e !>()In..: of the seatter..:J rat h radiance

vren and ml fighl \(l

(l'spccially ullr:l\ iotcr and some blue hgh ll before it ever

n..aches the emulsion. Thi~ mmus-htne jifl..-r \\ ill be , ho\\ n to
be parucularlj important when collecting nca r-in frared
aerial rhnlography.
1\ 1""t aerial phu1o.lgmrhy is ac qu ired using at least one sta ndard filter, The spectral-rransmutance charactencncs of
selected K, .....;tk wraucn lilters ..cr the wa velengt h interval
200\tII.lOllllllllO.2 1.1 unu arc shown m Figu rc -t- j t . In
mkhnon. a tran-uunauce curve for Ko..lak filters HFJ and
wrauc n 12 are show n in Figures 4-11a and 4 -1 ~b. rcspc cl ive ly [ Kn..lak. I9')l) I. The se filters nrc important 10 aerial
phlltlll!ra phy. Wh en l'ul ke ting natura ! color aer ial ph" tog: r;;ph y, il is de sirable to elim inate mu ch of the scancrmg o f
ultraviolet rad ialion ca used by at mosp her ic huzc. For this
PUlp l"': and lU "hWi n a mor e salisl;lChH) ' co lor bala nce. haze
fi lters ( Ill') I\,"l'~' dev eloped thai absorb light shorter tha n
400 nm. Si milar!), 1\ hen collecting color-in frared ae ria l
r lit>lo gr:tphy. 1I yellow filte r is used. which suhtmctv a lmost
all or lhe blue light (wJ\elengths short er than 500 nm ). Th is
minus-blue tilrcr reduces the effec ts of at mospheric sca ucring and a ll,,\\, rhc proper l'n..:rgy 10 intcrllct with eac h o fthe
film's layers, tu be discussed shortly . If do:~iTl'd. it is possible
10 configure a camera ti lm filt er rombinanon so that it screelively records a \ 1.'1') specific oolld of rct lccred elcctromagnetic l'llerg~ on the film . This is called spectral band-pass
(illlring. For example, if one wanted tn photograph on ly
reflec t..J green light for a "pccitk aerial ph~lt\lgraphy
project. :1 K<lliak wrancn 5,'01 filte r could be used (refer tu
h guTl' 4-2 11.
In addi tion III the normal flhcrs. pof'lI'i:ing tiln-rs may a lso
he USl'd With al'ri:11 phnl tlb'T;l ph). To Undel'l'tllnd hlll-l p" laril.i n ~ fillers wllr k. il is neCeS,ar) 10 brielly rev iell' the nature o f
lighl . R~'mellllll'r that an ekd TOmag neti,' qu anta n flig ht d isclI';s",d in C h,ljller 2 vlhw t"s III a ll di rec tions perpenlliculu
to ils J il'l'cl io n uf lr;tlc! as !>hul'.n in Figu re 4-2J . When a
quanta o f lighl hils :1 non me tall ic surface, tilt' vihra tion in
on ly one dlre~'II(ln, or plane. is rdlected com p letely. Co n\..:rse ly. all vilmll ions ;Ire rctlc cled by a bare meta llic sur13Cl. :\011. dl'pc nd ing upon the angle at which lhe ca mera or
..'ur e~c~ a r~ \'i~win~ the IIhjett. \ ibratilln, in olhe r rlmll"S
af~' reduet'd or eliminaled ~nmpldcly. T hi!> renee k'J lighl \ il>ra ting III only onl' plane - is called f'"f(JrI:"d light. The
lighl fw rn a h lu.: ~k)' i, polarih-J b...'eaus~' it is rdleeteJ fw m
nonmetallic p(lnie1c~ in th..: al lllOSph..:re. Li kewi~. ligh l
re tl''l.1 cd fnlm .:I \\ heat 1l.:ld or a hody of water into Ihe field
...1' view ...1' a eamer.. is polilri/ed ~ince \\ heal and \I al<:r are
nonmdallic.
~.}metlrnes II IS

I",:ful to only \ iew a cenuin "angle" o f

polarihJ light Iea\ ing the ~elle. Fo r e'( amrle. Fig ure 4-2-1.

'108

Aerial Photography -

ClI \I'1 U~

Vantage Point, Cameras, Filters. and Film

Spectral-Transmittance Bar- C ha r ts for Selected wratten Filters

Transmittance
Wavelength

Transmittance
wavelength
:00

)00 _

700 _

'ItWllOO) II'"

:!OIl

soo ......

Transmittan ce

Wavelength

<W />Illl '<WI ... . "00 1000 llUl

".\ .~

""

.15

'"
2E

,
,.

45 ~ :IIIJ

,,, _

': IIIJ

' 1(,

""

II

_ Ill]

12
13

"
iO

lil A

21 _ I I I I I J
22

lJA

ITIIJ

,-

o
"'~'Y

72lJ
7J

Ill]

Tr~n,mll"

1% hI 111,

Tr:ms mia :> 10%

75

J2

Ill]
Figure 4 -2 1 Tran smis sio n characte ristic s o f ...:k"':k...J wr.mcn nncrs ( COUI1 ,:~y Eastman Kod ak Co.).

4erial Photograph y Film s

109

0.1-

-t-

1- ,

"

li n Fil lt'r

"

.~
~

:'i

"

,.

: - "j

'00

]
]

.. -

---

b.

-+7(1(1

f>{X1

I~

sou
~t

::'UCl

. . --

,,

1011

son

-! -

, ,.

Wavelengt h (nlll)

. .

,I

a.
11.1

II .

. .

.. ,
,
:;

l-t-

....
.
.

-1

11M)

,..,..,
. ,.

-f

' 00

' 00

..

i-'t-

i600

700

SIlO

" .l\ l.'lC'nl.",h In mJ

4-22

o lI<JU

al Transrnin ancc ,h,;Jra..: k,.i~I1C~ of a IIFJ hale filter olkn ucc-d in :k'ri...1 phOlograph y_hI Transmittance characteri stics of a
wrauen 12 (mlnus.hl lle! li ller used '" be n a..-q lll rin~ 1:" k>r- '11 frat~.,j pfl\>llll?taphy (cour1~"'y Eastman K.'<laJ. l"c.j.

dcmon~lra l':S ho.... 3 Ill.lla rili ng Iilrcr placed in Inmt 1' 1' a
csnera lens will pass the vibnuion (If a lig ht ray in j ust (Inc
plane at a lime. Some filtc r-, ev en hav e han dles wi th whi ch
10 adjust the filters so that tho:) pass Ihe light \ rbration ill a

plane parallelto the handle.

mi ts through it is then allowed to pass throug h the lens systern and illuminate the light-sc nsitiv e silv er halide crysta ls in
the film em uls tou.
Aeri a l Photography F ilm s

III' the most widely used uppli<.: ali(}!1 S of poJariling lil ers is when photog rap h ing watcrbodics. II)' manipu lat ing

O~C

mepolarizing filter. it is possink to filter nut [he unwan ted

rclkctions of so me types of polarized light reflected from
me water su rface. This c an improve our ani lity 10 sec furthe r
11[0 the water column. Po laro id g,lasw s worn t>y people are
~mply polarized filters thai pe rfo r m much the same fum>
1ion.lntefCSling.ly, no one ev cr ask s uv wh et he r we want \ crllCIlly or borizo mall y polarized !!Ias<;cs. whi ch prov ide
Jiffcrenl view s of the world to ou r ey es. Pola riz ed cn~-rg)
.-ill also be un portam in a..::I I\ C m icrow ave ( rnJ ar , rem ote
lellSing drscu..sed in Chapter 'I ,
Ihes.f iltcrs al low us to sel ec tively filter out certa in type.. o f
ligfn while allowing vel') ' spec ific wavelengt hv of
tight to pas s through the filter. The ligh t that the filte r trans-

lII.... anted

Frlm is usually e xposed in n came ra mounted in a n aircra ft

thai i.. 1I11l v ing relatively 1::lS1 (c. g., > ISO m.p.h. ). Fortunatcty, films ma de especially for ae rial pho tography ca n stop
action and yield high-quality aeria l photngrdphy if 1) the
pro pe r film/filter com bmcuon is used, 2) the aperture ope ning (fS!(lpl is appropriate. a nd J ] the len gth of the ex posure
i ~ correct. Unfortunately, analysts sometimes arc forced to
interpret unde rexposed ( toe dark : nor enough light was
allo .... ed 10 create an e xpocurc } or overexposed ( IOO hrig ht:
an exsc..-i ve a mou nt or Iig.ht .... a.. allowed to create an exposu re} aerial photography. Th e refore, il is important for
pho to-interpreters to understan d the rundamemal natu re of
fi lm emulsi nn s and thei r speed in o rder 10 properly interpret

11 0

(" II \'"' EN

Aerial Photograp hy -

Pul:uiud I J:.:llI

Vantage Point Cameras . Alters, and Film

V<'rt ic ;llI ~

Light ray

f' ulari ll'd U ~ h l

- >

- >

Polarized

light ray
Vertical filter
<I.

IInri/llnlall~'

h.
Figure 423

from nonructullir surfaces suc h ns atm"..phe rrc JX!rwater. tree... co;>n,:rdc. etc.

aerial r 1w1ogr.lph) or 10 understand "hy prob lems occur ill

..om... aerial photog raphy,

General Characteristics of Photographic Emulsions

is the science of m<:asuring the scn, i,i\ it}' of

rhOlo~ raph i .:

materials (\-leGlonC'. 2nllll. II is used 10 cU IItrolthc operation s of " '(pos ing and pw ..:c",,,,ing photogra phic
mate rial... Crosv-sccuon, through lo ur I) pical films I fig ure:
~ - 2 5)

Vert ica l ti ller

light clllcrillg thc ul'po.'r p ortion ,)1' the a lm"~rh<:r.

is rmpotarived II l~ I'lllari.ll.-.J "hell it is rd lc ,'1C11
lid~.

S I'(/\'lfillll(' f r y

Pularizcd I.i:::ht

rc veal that the) con sist o f:

ra) l:rbl containing Iig hl-!>l:ns itiYl: sihl:T hal i..Ie

crys tals (..J,!!X whe re .\ . is the ha logen sy mbl ll) l' l11 ncdd eJ in
a gel at in:

.'11111/.1111/1

a hase or \lll'/ JUr f ncu cnat thai n1<l ) he tranvpa rc-m (ac eta te
film or gr' lss l o r ,'p.t<.1u c rpupcrt;
a n IIJlli-hti/ulioll Jayc-r that ah..,)rh~ ltght tha t passes
throug h the emulsion and the base 10 prevent reflection
ba.. k 10 Ih......mulsion.
Th e sc:ns iti\ il)' of a photographic cm ulsion is a funct ion Ill'
the si / .... shape, and numbe r o f silver halide u')'.'I"l\ in Ih...
l:mu lsion ]Xr uni l ;Irea and the \\ awlellglhlo uf light to \\ hic h
lh.. grains are s.:ns iti\ .... This is re..ll ~i hcr. and al tlw llgh it is
pr,'sent in rd al i...d y slll<l ll 4ualllities in a m il o f ti lm. il J oes
aCl:ounl f(,r the n' fali \'c1) high co,,1 o f Ii1m ,

To unde"'lanJ Ih.. relat io nship belween grol ln SITI: a mi de nsity. \ \1.' \\ ill dl:pie t a pi.....c orphotogrnrhll: n...gali, ... ti lm as

Figure 4 24 a) \'.."11ic:Jlly p...lan l.<..... Iighl b all'-"......... 10 rthrouph J vertic ally !wlarih-d Ii Itt"!". h l ll nri",nta
polarized light '" nOI all.." cd to pass throu gh !lit
h, nJ<.: Jlly p" l"n /.\.J filter.

h~ in g composeu of si mp ly silver halide crysta ls and supror.

h' Kk ing (F igun: k!t>tJl. Film A has III sil ve r halide Cl')stak
pe r un it d ista nce II hile Film 13 ha.. only SC"":11 crys tals. Al
gra in si/'" inc reases. the tota l numbe r (If grains in the CI11U~
sion per umt distance decreases. Ifa n cmul s ion is compos
of gra ins one-hall a.. lar g... as thos ... in another c-mulsion.s
will require approximately twice as mu c h lightto ex pose Jt.
T herefore. Film B i.. said to he laster than Film A beca use il
req uires k~ s 111,!l1l for prope r e \ p<'su re. Indcr the ~ann i1'f
electron mic roscope. co nve ntiona l vilve r halid.. cl') slals
appear as cubes. octa hedra (c ighl-sid..-J so lids ), Of irrcguIarly sha p.:d pebbles (Fi gur..: -t.26h). A!5I'. note thm th... cl)\l"
lab arc not ullc xacrly the same size.

t-a-ter li lm.. can be used ad vnutagct , usly when photog raphing objects that arc mov ing rapidly a..-ros-, the IiIIIl plane. ali
in aeria l p hoto~.-raph y. Unfortunately, a s scnsinv uy an d gr:J1
Silt' in..-rca...... Ihe res u h ing image becomes merc coats c. ani
rc solution rsharpn ...ss M l' ris pness of the Image ) m Ol) be
rcduccd Fil m resolution can hc t cst...d b)' phutograp hing I
sta nda rd 1.....1 pattern that cons ists o f groups o f line pairs (parallcl lin...s " r varyi ng thick ntss st'pamted by lop;K'CS I:qual w
th.. line Ihlc kn.:'ss ). An c.\ar n pk or a resolu tio n I.:'sl pallCTI.
tall!l:t I" as sh(,,,,, n pn.:\ iously in Figu fe 4- 11 . The nUmhl:f of
lin...s p.:r millimcler in the "ll1 all~1 lin... pall...rn thai Call
d"':Jrly he d i"Cerncd on Ih... d"'Il.:!l.>p<.:d fil m is the r...solutioo
o fl hl: tilm , It is common hi h.: lIhle to rcso lve ~5 to 100 lin.:
pa i~ l'Il.'r millil!l..tcr on 1: 11l,1)lt( ) ~ealc a.:ria l ph utog rnphy
po~ itlH' prin l~. T hi~ Iype uf spalial re..u lulio f! res u lts in
ilt'rial phutugra phy \\ ilh 1''':1) high spal ial dct ai l.

Ae,

Ae!lal Photography Film s

111

Genera lized C russ-Secnons of Black- a nd-wh ite Pan ch rom atic,

Black- and-While In fra red , Color . and Color-Infra red Film
81:.1(...-a nd -\ \ h it e Film

llI;u:I..;lnd-\\hill' Infrarl'tl Film

"~ ..,hnlm. l i<:

- bl"". tu""fI
~ ....r-infrllrnt

and It'd sen<i" , C ('fIlul,l(lll

of ... 1,,....... ti c<)sLl ls

10

pa~s

lOnl.1 J1y

( 'Illur in fra re d . ilm

l'urmul Colo r Fum

tll \l~

ugh th..

'Io.'n, il'vc layer

lYell" " dycl"m' inl.lla~crl

;":.,
>'. -,',';.': :
... : ' ,. '+'

.. '.' . :

' .~ +

J\... r illr,.....d (alld blue ) sc" , ;liw

I~ ycr

[cyan dy,,j'>I1T1;" g lay.....]

[yell .." dw t' >I1T1 lnl/. layc' l

Ked l al...l I>hl<" K,,,,i ',,,,, layn-

j""',cnta dye- rOIT",ng l~y~"'/ I

K.d (and hl..... ><."11"1"" lay~'f
lcy-an dye !',,",,;"!! l:aycr]

up port

. . r.

Gn.." (d'.,j hi...., se,\>.;I;le layer

't "'1" .. "'lerna ! jiller blO('k , blue h ~ht

(;rffn land blue l ,,,,,,i n>',, l:J~ c r

ry xrals

"""'II"" lay'C'f

[""'g" nla .Jy". f"..,.,,,n~ uyCfJ

l is. As
emulrposed

lio n. it
sose it.
ause

Inn ing
ryst als
rrcg ue crys-

.\ " I ;' h ~I"li"n

1"'H

<.

Figure 425 GCllc rali7cd cross-a.:cl i"n s (If a l panchro mruic black -und-w hile lilm. III hlad.-anJwh ilc infra red film. c) norma l or natural
co lor film. an.1 ,1\ color-in frared film

graph-

me. as
J grain

-c. an d
lay he

hing a

s (par-

lua l to
sauc m
ocr of

)( can

.hnion
~) lin e
uaphy
rhs in

Blackand-White Photographic Emulsions

JIlIl as the retina o f rhc hu man eye is. se nsit ive 10 dif ferent
u leloml;lhs of light rang.ing, from " 11K' throug h red (0 ..,1. 0.: j.lml. il is possible fo r film man u facturer s to create blackmd-white photographic emu lsion s. that hav e the lo llo w ing
Itll>ll l\ itics ( "kG lone. ~ ()( ).4I:

Mhochromm ic em ulsion.. arc scnsmvc 10 blue and gree n

ligl1l1oappm~i matcJ y 0 .0

urn :

J!I1II'ltromotic emu lsion s arc se nsitive 10 ultraviolet. btuc .

green, and red light to approximately 11.7 um :

_infra1l'd emuls ions arc sensiti ve 10 Hue. green. red.
m ncar-infrared hghr ro ap pro ximurcly 0.9 urn.

lhc lowe r wnvclcngjh-lirnit of ligh t scn- uivity is. approximalcly OJ ) I-l m und rt:~ lI lt ~ Irom the lighrubsorpuon c haractcristic s or rhc !!cbtiJ1llSMKiJ k d with the em ulsion.
The spectra l s.:nsili\iIYo f vtaudard black-a nd-white primi ng
paper, panc hrom atic film. and ncar-infrared film arc summ arized in Figure ,l. 27. The d iagram revea ls why it is JlO"s il'>le
1O use a red "safe light" in a photographic darkroom. The
prinuug paper is sim ply not se nsit ive 10 red light- Con versely. black-a nd-white panchromatic film reco rds ultraviulct, blue. green. and red re flected light Therefore, a haze
filter [suc h a" the Kodak IIF J prev iously d isc ussed ) is often
used 10 ke.:p ultraviolet and blue light from e\posing the
fi lm. Panc hromatic film is the mosl Yo iJd) used black-and.... hnc ac nalfilm. as il prod uce s graytones that are expected
and recog nized b) huma n beings. i.e .. wa te r is dark. sand Is
.... hue . concrete is gray. clouds urc \\ hue . vt uch o f the ae rial

Aer ial Photog raphy -

112

Electro n '-l icroscopc Photograph

of Silver Halide C rystals

Two Films with Different Sizes and

Densities of Silver Helide C rvsrals

Vantage Poin t. Came ras, Filters, and Film

F ilm A

I un it distance

Film R

QQQQQQQ
I'"
FlQure 4-26

"' 1

I unit d istance
a.

I ) Films A and R rq>res<:01 hypot hetica l pro files.oflwo mm~" ilh ditTcrt'1ll socs and densities of silver halide cry sta ls. bt,
ekctrtlfl mic ru!>O: ur": photograph of actual sih cr halid e crys tals . 1'\,>1<: thaI the crystals ere nvl p...,.f~-':lly unifonn in size, ~
or ~dng (ctlu"e~y Ea..... man Kodak Co.j.

Spect ral Sens itivity of Selected Bla ck -a nd- Whil l'

f ilms and Printing Paper

Printing Pap er

Infra red film

Panch romatic film

z-

:~
'~

'"

'J)

.3

HF3
filter

uv

Uill':

OAO

Red

Green

0.50

Reflective inlh m: J

0.70

0."

o.sn

O.9(J

Wavel engt h. u r n
F igu re 4-2 7

S[">lXlrdl sc:nsili\'il)' ofblack-and-wtrire li lm and paper emulsions o ver the wavcl":lll,:th interval 0.35 - 0.9 u r nl,,:oollcsy Eastman Kodak Co.).

pherography acquired for photogrammetric purpose s 10

make planimetric and topographic maps is panchromat ic

aerial photography. Typical panchrom atic aerial photogra-

phy films marketed hy Eastman Kodak Company arc summa rizc d in Table 4-1 .

and Rim

113

AHla l Photography Film s

Table 4-4

I:as tman !\(.tlal. aerial photography Iilms [courtesy Eastman !\(I<!a k Co.: all film name'S are tradem arked ).

Characterisllcs

Black-and-White Aerial R Ims

' _ 11...."'-.\ .\ [ RI)(; R \ P l ll l 11 1-112

Ir...l_k- \ .\ [ f( }(; IU I' IIIC II ~I!

ecrystals. h I ,~ n
:n ill size. shape.

Color Aerial Films

i.rROCOl OR II

" ~a 'i> r 2-U~

('...10.... ~,crs.aT film f.. \mo.- ,... ml",m'ah,">dor acnal m'f'I',ns and =onna;<<.3nce

HROCIIRfI\IF " \ 1" 1-1-111

\fIlOCltlU "n: II.. ~O_.l""

U Il()Clt IU I \ I ~:

l IS MI-.\'" ,-

URlJ( 'Il Il'''I~: II Infran"d 2-1-1,\

H,ghsl'<"Cd C"'' '''l>C'gal'' c tilm for I"" .alunidc 3m1 1phiM"!!"'rohY

---------...,

",.';:-:'--,.,.= = C1"UII
= film
= r,,, 10" =::=;,:::::;,c:::;:======-------.,
10 n>ed", m-ah,h>dc marrina and

+1H,gh...-p."C'd enlor

I hl<,('--c'Ok... ~,

I film, h,~h d,mcn,,,_l sUI'o, I'ly h... \<;:~'\au"n

=on~'"""""c .

<U"~'YS. cam,,~tl,,~..: d~'t<.-':hon. and

Elin h rc"..,un;c ill' CSli~ali<lII'.

, r ROCl UUI\ If. 1II nr... ......... r SO_Ll-l

courtesy EaM-

oany are sum-

Similar '0 H~ 3 ; gre~lcr mr",red = I"'",,;c, -ui lal'ok ror ah illltk... "1'00.... l ~ll( Ml Ii.

"black-and-\\ hil': panchromatic aerial photograph is show n

m Figure 42Xa. A Hack-and -w hire nea r-infra red photo~ph ofthe same urea is show n in Figu re 4 -2Xh. Ca re mus t
be exercised whe n interpreting ncar-infrared photogra phy
because the camera has recor ded energy that is beyond our
human Pt'rn~ pli{ln, Consequently. ce rtain tones might not
represent what Wt' wo uld umicipate inthe imag e. For cxumpic, healthy green vegetation is dark on pan chromat ic pho \lIgraphy because it i1 hsor hs <I lmllst Xfl -90 pe rcent Ill' the
incident blue, green. an d red radiant ene rgy for phutnsyu!hclic purposes. Conversely, hea lthy vegetation is hri ghl on
lhe black-and-white ncar-inf rared photogra phy bec aus e il
eflccrs -10- 70 percent of the incid ent ca r-infrurcd energy.
human beings have very lillie idea how milch ncar-infrared
radiant elll'rgy is reflected lT1l1TI commonplace materials
such as vegetalion , water, and conc rete. There for e, we
>hould constantly refe r to spectral re flectance cu rves (If
~ phenomena that sum mar ize how much green, red. an d
aear-infraTt'U energy the se objects typically reflect t rcfc r to
Chapter 2). In this mann er. we ca n understand and even predid 00" certain objc':l s in the real world w ill 1001. on infra red photography. It is instructive to review the proce ss
.hertby simple black-and-white aerial photog rap hy negames and posili\ v prinl~ a re produced .

C n' ;lI i n ~

a lUac k -aud-\\hilc

Acriall'hulu~ntph y'

,~ t'J.::l1 h l'

Consider the simp I.: binary terrain de picted in Ffgc rc 4-29

that consists of ca lm, non-t urbid ocean water and a sandy
hear h with 1)(1 vegetation tHI it. Assu me thatthe silv er halide
crys tals in the film in the ncr-ialcam crn arc sensitive to blue.
green. and red light from 0.-1 - 0,7 p m. T he no n-tur bid ocea n
wa ter \\Ou ld uhsorb mud! of the incident blue. gree n, and
red radiant n ux from the Sun . Conversely, the sandy beac h
wo uld re flect muc h of the Incident radian t flux . Some porlion of this ene rgy would be collected by the op tics o r the
came ra lens a nd focused onto the silv er halide crystals at the
film plane . When the required amount o fli ght ex poses a sil
ver halide cry sta l suspe nded in the emulsion. the: entire cryst;11 becomes ex pos ed. regardle ss o f its si ze. Basically, the
htlnll between the ilvcr and lite halide is weakened when sitvcr halide cry stals arc exposed 10 light. Notice in our example that there was s ufflci cru e ne rg y to expose the s ilver
hal ide c rystals o n the Iclt side o f the li lm hut ins ufficient
energy to expose the crystal s o n the right side of the film. An
emuls ionthat has been expos ed 10 1ig ht co nt a ins an in\ isiblc
image ofthe object ca lled the latent im"Kt'. To turn the latent
image un the l.'mulsioll inlo a n e ~ti \ c. il mu sllx: dl...d vp"J.

Aerial Ph otography - Va ntage Point, Ca me ras, Filters, a nd Film

C"l1\JYfEH

114

Panchrumatlc

Bl ilc l;-a ll d- \ \ h ill' l nrran 'lI

h.

a.
Fig u re 4 -2 8

Black -and-w hite IlllllchwlIMliC phlllngTa ph 'lf Th"li ",,,nil II:!) on the Hud , ,," River. :-- Y. Vq:o:tatiun i~ reco rded in lelltivcly <l ar~ tones because it absor bs much of the inc ide m green a m'! red cnc ll;)'. Som e green ;1Il1lred energy pasS('s through dx
water co lum n and pm .... ido:s information on sU'I'I,"n dcd scduuenr pancms und submerged aquatic vegetation (V " ild cell'
l 'llli,H,.r-,i" "m",irmw l tll A black-and- white nea r-in frared ph..." .. gra ph J ,'pu.: IS the [and-Iea l,Of inter face " e ll. O"''C2.usc IU!<r
at.so rb!. m..".l of th e indde"Tlt nc ar- infra red o:nO:fg) CJus ing 11M appear dark. ConH:T.....ly. l!ld uous tree, on the isl.l.IId and
\\ "tland vege tation (l cattail, T:1T'hu "1J-'~I1"'li,lil/; P ~ common r~-c..J. Phrc'!:""k' <1/1<. ) aro: hri ~ h l h~'\:311Sl' health y \'q~"'la\i~
reflects muc h of the illl'idcll l ncar-infrared .'ncr f)' ( lkrglulld, 1'J<J'l ) I pleusc refer In t.'nlor Pla t... ~-~a h l.

:I )

( .rutinn of 1I n .\ f rilll r h" t" !:n1l' h ic ~ c!:lIth l' b~

and the n O{' \ d"r i n ~ S ih er lI a lidl" ('r~\IIII ~

f.\ I"" in~

{,I<'~r It ll~

O'..c" ol
" "r "t".. a flc
.kwl"l'n\C"n t

linl....,ham !lu,
lra"ng """ seer><'
~"tHurbtd

'.. .at
t

F'9u re 4 29

""c.m
"I" ml'" ", uell " I the
'dem r<id;anl !lu'

l ",~

or r.rotllm II".

tea.Ul~

II><' ....,,0.:
S:mJy read,
m",-II "r the

f~ !l ~Cl>

""'ide"l ""ltM I

nil.

A diagrammat ic rcpn.....:l1latK\l1 "fhOl' 3 blac k-and-white negatiH' or a n "e call-b.:ach '-"':"'11(.' is .... posed and de veloped.

film

115

AtrIal Photography Films

C r eat ion u f a

rtJ ~ i ti n'

Pri nt (rum an

A (' r ia ll' hntn~ nt Jlhy :'<I ('~a th t'

"'q:.."~c ~ft,""
<10:' d",,"'''nI

l mJ., r:oJ
1"l-~""8

, llu'

w l!!' lhe

""F:oI"'-"

l ob of r.aJunt

11 ~ ,

1"<' ,..t/,Il ......" " It.:

""FA " ' -"

F..1A'g<'f k."..

Ln<k, ,,I..op<.-d

in rete-

.ugh the
I celery.
Ie water
nd tidal
geta tion

1""""'If\a!,,,t'"

fIhot ~ph ,,,

pi"'""

00000oo

Figure 4 -30 Il iagrammillic representation (It' how a p,,~iti\e t"!\ad ,an,j.w hit" prim of the ocean-beach
S<:<': I1~' is prod uced trom a developed negativ e.
WhCll the latent imago: is develo ped with the proper chemicall,areas of the emulsion that were ~'.\Pl1S\:J 10 inte nse light
um to free silver und become bla ck (dense or op aq ue). as
eew n. Areas that received no light become cle ar if the su pport is the typic a1 tran sparen t plast ic film. The degree Ill'
dark ness of the developed ncgmivc is a function of the tota l
exposure i product o f illurrur mncc and CXp llSU rC lim e), which
caesed the em ulsio n til form the latent imago:,
( rutin!: ,I l 'lI,hi H' '\ l'ri al l'hrtllll::r ilphif !'rint Irum :1
81Ick.a lld \\ h ile ,' l'l.:utin '
l\'hat good is a negat ive'! Most people do not photo-interpret
beca use they arc a reve rsal o f both the tunc and
geometry of the rea l " odd. as sho wn in Figu re -I-:!9. TheretOre, II is customary to pro d uce a positive print of the scene
from !hi: negative I Figure -1 30 ), A P(J,\ ili ~'t' flr i", is produced
b) placing the develo ped negative in nn enla rger with the
(IlIU 1~ion side o f the neganv e facing me light source. White
1It'I:(//lW J ,

light is tra nsmitted throug h the negative. passed through the

en larger lens, and onto photng ruphic paper th ai has its ow n
silver I wli d~' crystal se nsitivity and film speed. In thi s cusc.
the dense (d ark ) bench urea o n the negative nlfows w ry litt le
radiant nux 10 pas s through the negative wh ile the clea r
(occunt area I'll Ill l' llo:gnlivc allow s a lut nf radiant flu-e 10
pass thro ugh it. The energy is focused thro ugh the le ns onto
till' undeve loped photographic paper. a nd once again the
individua l silver hal ide crys tals a re either compl etel y
ex posed or une xposed . forr umg a laten t ima ge on the phot ogra phic paper- 1\111:1' development, the exposed ocean area
becomes dark 011 the paper print and the sand beach area
becomes hgfu. rh us. we now ha ve the correc t to ne an d
geollletl') of the terrain in tho: form o f a pos itiv e pape r print
that can hi.' visually interprete d . If we want a po suive film
transparency ltl view, then posiuvc transparency- mate rial is
subs tuu tcd for the pho tographic paper, This lypieall y creates
an airphoto with unprove d fine detail and more gray tones.

116

C I f..\ I~r E: R

AdlllnCl.'d Radlom otrjc

C harll ('t('rhlic ~

Aeria l Photog ra p hy -

of Bla ck-and-

Table 4 -5.

Relano nshrp bet wee n Trausrmuancr. Op ac il:'. and

1)c n~ ll y.

\\ hil l." Him..

or

Tra ns mnta nce : The ability o f 11 portion a developed film

to pass light is caned it:-> trunsmittance (T,) . A black portion
o f the lil m may tram-m it no ligh t. \\ hill.' a clea r portion ofthe
lilm may transmit almost 100 percent of the inc ident light.
Therefore. the transm tn.mce at loca tion iJ in the ph' llograp h
is (Mikhail 1:1 al., 2001):

r'. ,

Vantage Po in t, Cameras. Fille rs . and Film

light passing throu gh the ij lm

100ai incident light

Percent
Trans mittance

o'.1 : _'
T

I. j

U('" 'it)' : Transrmuance and opa cit y are t.... o good mea sure s
of the dark ness of any portion of a dev eloped negative.
However, psychologists have found that the human visuu1
system doe s not res pond linearly to lig ht stimulation. bUI
rather .... e respond logar ithm ically. Therefore. it is common
to U!>C ( /c fU i l )' (D.). which is the common logar ithm of opacity. as our measure or cho ice:
14-1 )
If 10 percenl o f the light can hi: transmuted throug h a film at
a certain L] toc auontransminancc is 1/ 10. o pac ity is 1'0 ,10
or 10. and densit y is the co mmo n loga rithm o f 10 or LO.
Table 4-5 summarizes the general relat ionship between
transmittan ce. opac ity. and density values .

Opa city

Density

T"

0"

0"

lUll

(4- 2 )

Opacil y: There j" an inve rse relationsh ip be twee n transmitranee and ho.... op :ll.jue an are a on the film is. Something tha t
is very opaque doc s no t tra nsm it light well. 0l'iJ dty (0,) is
the recip roc al o f transmi ttance :

Transmln ance

0.00

511

0 .50

fUO

zs

o.zs

0.60

'0

0.10

10

\. 00

\.0

0.01

100

z.oo

0. 1

0.011 1

ro eo

3.00

the tota l exposure of the film is plotted inlogurithmic un

un the x-avis ( ~ kG lonc. 20(4 ). We w ill usc rela tive
Expos ure un its instead o f ergs 'ern- or meter-candle-sec
use d in phorometric science. Differe nt films hav c diffe rent
log E curv es. but the shapes lire generally simi lar. consist!
of' th rcc pans ~ the too, a straight-tine or linear section.
the shou lder, The curves provide im porta nt in formari
ubourthc fllrucmulsion.
Unfortunately, e ven if no e xpos ure has been mad e ( e.g.,
aerial photogra ph has not e ven been take n ye ti, there is .
density alr eady presen t in the film . The d ensity of the uno
posed emuls ion is catt ed fo.~ . There is a lso some dcnsi
from the film base material. Gross fi Jg is the sum of
une xpo sed de nsi ty from the fil m base and the emulsi\lI\fi
th e gm,\ ,I'fill{ level is loc ated in the low e r position o f the tc
and labe led D".", in Figure 43 1. In o rde r It, begin to create
image of value in the pholOg.raph. .... e mus t hav e an e.'!X1S
greater than lJ",w
At [his poi nt it is use ful to gi \e a formal definition o f er
(1. which is a funct ion of several factors prc\'iouslj:
discussed , including jsstop ti.e.. I'dl, the amount of radi
em' rgy co ming from the scene (\' j measured in Joules mm
sec'. an d the ex posure time (I) in seconds :
\ U Tt'

C ha ra clrr i, tic C u r ve: Se\C'r31 va riables. such as the lengt h

11 1" the exposure. length of lilm development, type o f film

emulsion. and film SJK'c-d ca n cause differences in ho w a
g rven obj ect is recorded on the ii lm and us de nsity. Therefore. it is impo rtamro understand the nature of the characteristic c urve of mill s a nd now this impac ts the creation of
properly ex posed areas on the pho to graph ic ne gat ive.
The characteristic curves of rwo hypothetica l blac k-andwh ite negative films. X and Y. a re shown in f igure 4-31.
These arc called D loX E CWY l.'S where the de nsity ofthe portion o f the film under investig atio n is pinned on the y-axis
(a lready in loga rithmic form. as previo usly discussed ) and

r -

4 (~ '

(4-

As e.\ POSUre beg ins. the de ns ity Increases curvilmea rly f

poin t a to point h. Thi s is call ed the 101:' of the curve.
objec ts are recorded w ith just th is leng th of e xpos ure. [
maj be underexposed As the lenl,'1h of the exposu
increases, there is a portion of the curve; from h to (' wh
the increase in den sity Is nearly linea r with cllang<:s in t

Hm

117

/,erial Photography Films

C ha rac te r istic C urves of T" n Films

Film Y

Film );

[) ma.'

00

1.30

'.27- ::l---- - - - - -/
c
2.0

00

xo

00

1.0

t c un its

0'

h e log

0.'
o.

'second
erem D

0.1

]sisling

on.

-------_ .0

03 abo ve
gm-s lilg

j,

log E

I
a
foe

and

marion

0.9

L.

Relative Log Exp osure. 1."

~.g

.. an

s so m e
: unex-

fcnsity
o f the

:m/iJg.

ngure 431 Ch..ractcri stic curves of two hypothetical black -and-whnc films. TI' \l1;ltain de nsities in the tk'\dupcd negative o r O.5. Film X
req uires a relativ e log " " I'OSIIn: of 11.'1 units while Film Y reqUIres I.n unu-. Th" s _Film X bj<l,I/t'r than Film 'f. This me ans
that IH' could ubl,tin the same dCllSi lics in Film X us ing a shorte r n'...." un: time. This ..could 1>0: very import ant if " c want to
swp action when collecting aerial photography to obtain quality aeria l ph,.\ographs, Film X also hils a muc h Sleeper gamma
(y). meaning lha l ;1pmd uc<:s a much greater r.lng<: (,1' d<:ll, ily nc.. l"l.lIlra,l) than Film Y in tbc linear (straight. lin.:l sectio n o f
the n h'S E cu rve .

fhc to e

eute an
posure

, expo-

io us ly
adia m
nun "

I~ of exposure. This is ca lled the linear or straig ht-li ne part

oflhe characteristic curv e. I ligh.q ua lity aerial phot ography
TJ1.1y beobtained if the expo sure is made in the linea r portion
trhe curvc and perha ps a small part of the toe. A, the lengt h
of theexposure ti me Increases from {' to d. dens ity increases
at a dcn l.'using curvilin ea r rate . Th is is t ill' shoulder o f the
wve. The maxi mum den sity of the fi lm is f)~"u ' Objects
recorded in the shoulde r o f the curve nrc usua lly m ....re:...-

pol>scd.

(4-5 )

fro m
ve. If
, the y
osu re
A- here
in the

1k slope o f the linear section of the [) log E cu rve is called

~lII11ma
and provides valuable in forma tion about the COl/lTal/ofthe film . The grcnter th e slope o f the line. jhe higher
t!I~ gamma and the hig he r the contrast of the Ilhn. Nonce
!hat films X and Y in Figure -\-) 1 ha ve signilica ntly different
~mas . If the sa me le ngth of exposure re.g.. 1.6 rereuve
log Exposure units ) .... ere applied to both films. Film X
.-culd have a greate r range o f dens ity (approximately :!.:!)
_JUIt Film Y would only yield a den sity of a p p m x rrna tely
OJ at this same ex posu re. Hopefully, Film X w ould pro vide

(n

con tinuu m of grays from white to black. wi th plenty of

gray to nes in between II I this expos ure . Conversely, Film Y
might nut have such a full r.mgc o f gra y tones at rhis expo sure. We o ften want to retain rhe su btle gray tones in aeria l
phnlognlphy because mos t natural landscapes (soi ls, rock s.
vcgcrauon. watcr l nrc relativ ely low in contras t.

;1 full

This brings us (ofilm 1'I,{,t'/-1once agai n. So me film s arc: 11I0 re

sensitive' toliglu than others . In ou r exam ple. it app ears that
Film X is the ta-acr film . II requires a shorter exposure t ime
to prod uce a wi der range of de nsity (a nd there fo re c o ntrast ).
T his ca n be of vuluc fur eri al photog raphy because we may
wa nt to "stnp" the act io n as the aircraft n ics above the terra in ur hu ndred s of miles per hour. Unfort unately. fast film s
requ ire larger silver halide crystals that ca n als o reduce the
spa tial resolution of the fi lm a nd impede o ur ahih ty 10
resolve ubjl'c ts that arc spectrally differ ent yet spat ially near
to one another. Convcrsety, h im Y would require a lon ger
exposure \CI product' the same range of den s ity. It wo uld
proba bl ~ be composed elf smaller silver hali de crystals. If

( ' Il,\ PU :R

118

Ae rial Ph otograp hy -

Vantage Point Ca m eras. Fi lters, and Fil m

film Y were properly e xposed. il m ight prcv ide high spmial

reso funon and su btle grayscale info rmation. But if fi lm Y
was no l fast en oug h 10 stuI' action. Inc resu h m ight be
blurred aeria l pho tograph y. Obv iously there must be so me
quantuonvc Wfl Y ofco mpa ring one film speed w ith anot her.

and introd ucerd Kodacolor 400 Film . In 19X3. the Koda

VR IOINl film was introd uced 10\ irh an .-\ S/\ of ](XJ().
most sign ificam si ngle adv an ce in silv er ha lide tcch nol
in more than 50 years.

Every film speed system requires the selec tion of a .'p ced
rOm! to compare the speed oftwn films . For aerial photograph y fi lms. lhe speed poin t is "density - 0.3 + de nsity above
gross fog" I Kodak. 19X!! ). Th erefore. since gro ss lilg is O :!
for borh bypotheuca l ae ria l films. the speed po int for both
films is O..l'" O.:! = 0.5. as shown in Figure of 3 !. The 0.5
de ns uy line ir ncrsccring the tw o films can he' used to determin e ho.... much fa ..rcr o m: film i.. tha n another. f {IT example.
to prod uce a den sity o f 0.5 on Film X. appro xima tely 0. 1)
unirs o f relative log Expos ure arc requ ired. To produce the
sa me de n..uy (11.5) on Film Y. ap proximately 1.6 unus Ill' retarivc log: Exposure are required. Thus, Film X is faster than
fi lm Y by approx imately 0 .7 relative log unuv of Expo sure.
For eve ry 0 .3 log E, there is unefstup difference in eXpU1>Uf<.'
(Kod<lk, IlJ88). Thus, these two films differ in speed by
greate r than two Jlstops ( i.c., 0.7/11..1 = 2.33 j . I r we requi red
a great rang e orimage densi ly in our plllllograph1> such as a
valu e uf2.0 (i.c.. well-ex p osed blacks . white s. cud iurcrrncdiatc gray tones] but we had to hav e short e xposure ume-, 10
stop action. as is common in ae rial photography.. then w e
m ight wum III select Film X because it would provide the
de ns ity range ..... e de sire w ith .1 much shorte r relativ e log
Expos ure than Film Y. It i" poss ible to compute the exac t
film spee d I FS) of an aeri alfilm usin g the formula ( Kodak .

Aerial 1;\ p oslIl"c C OII/P I' h'I' C,IIl be use d to determine I

If one mus t pl an an aerial pho tog raphy' mission, the hI

1i)l(X):

f""S

3
21:'

( 4 -6)

where I: is the exposure measured in meter-candle -seconds

( ~1( 'S ) al lh..: p"im ,m the c h<ITac t l' ri ~ t i c curve where the dcnsity i~ 0.3 un ils abO\'..: D"" w(i,,,:.. g m~s fog). as disell s~cd .
S\ lmetim~~ WI," a..:q llirt' han dh eld dl'rial photography u~ i l1g
nUIla..:rial phutugmphy IiIms. Th..." SIX'l:d o f thc s...' lilms is
delermin...'d by Ihl," Ame rican Standard.~ AssociatIOn (A SA l
lilm s ~ sys tem that a , sign s a n umb..:r to a film that i ~
approxi nl.Jtdy !"'qua l 10 thc illWfSC of thc shulter speed (i n
s...,<:onds ) requi red for prOfl('r c 'tptlSure in good Sun lighr tor a
l en~ ope mng 11ft Io . The re fore. if a film is pro perl ~ c.'tpvsc.:d
in good Sunlig ht at Jl l6 and \1200 scw nd. it is d as~i licd as
an ,\ SA 20() tilm (Wol f and [kWitt. 2fl()Oj. The on g lllal
Kodaeo lur h im int rod uced in [\)42 1\<It! an ASr\ ,pecd o f
j ust 2 5, That spccdjlllnpcd 10 ASA 32 in 1<)55 and to ASA
Min 19(,) w ith the int rod uction or Koda co lor-X Film , In
1'J77. K"d,lk improv ed Ko<l:!l;(,l,'r II Film lu all ASA of 100

mos t appropriate lens apertu re (flSIOp) and s hutter spc

once in forma tio n is pro vid ed o n the following variabl
erfccti vc ac'rial film speed .. haze factor. spee d ofair...' ra ft, a
tud e allo w g roun d Ic-\ el, latitude, and t ime of da y.

llil:!iri1in J:, Hla ck -and - \\ hil e- l a nd (""Inr) F ilm

Densitometry is the measurem ent of tran smi ssion or relT
lion characterisucs o f objec ts ()T feat ures in photog ra
images. The: den!i i(~ ID) ch aracteris tics uf a negativ e or
itivc trans pare ncy film can be measu red us ing a densitc
ter: The re are seve ral type s o f den s itcrneters. includi
na rbcd ( Figure 4 -32 ) and drum mic rodcnsuomctcr s. vi
dcnsitomcrcrs, and linc-nr or area array charge -couple
dcvicc, dcnsuometers.

,\ l i,' r ut!,' n"itnll1 l'!l' r DiJ:iti /lUlnn : The chara cteristics 0

ty pital /Jatht'd nncmdensitomcter Me show n in Figure 4-3
Th is instr umcnt ca n mea sur e the den s ity charactcrisucs
very small portions of a negat ive or positive transpa
down 10 j ust I few micrometers in size. hence tile t
mia1J(/.'/ullumt'1l'r. Basi call y, a known quan tity of lighl
se nt from the lighl source toward the rece iver. If the
encuu ntcrs a ' el) dense portion of the film. vc ryliule li~
will be tra nsmuted to the receive r. If thc lighr encoumc
very clea r portion of the fi lm, the n much ofrhe light will
transmuted In the rece iver. Th e densitometer can o utput
cbam crc ri...ti..:s at each iJ loc ation in the pho tograph in telTQ
of tran smittance, opaciry , o r dcnvity, as p reviously dIS
cussed. T he amount of light rec o rded by the recdv..:r is Illlll'
Cllllllll'lIlly CllIlvcr1...' d into :t dig ital brigh tn...' ss va luc desi!
n:lIed . HI:J,Awhi ch relc rs III the location in the phmograph l
row i ami col umnj and "and k , "tthe end o f ..:aeh scan Jill
the lighl suurce steps in Ih..: .I'd irectio n 5Ome ..\y 10sca n alOll
a h nl." co nt iguous a nd parallel to the pre \'iou s o ne . As lb
light sour!;..: is scanned ac ross the i m a g~, the ...'Ont inuo us 011
put from the rccei\"er is eOIl\CTk'd to a sc ries of d iscrel
numl.'r ieal \J lui."S o n a pixcl -by.pi.\e1 ba sis. Thi s ana log-u
d igita l (:\-to- DI clm\"C~ ion proce ss res u lts in a mat rix I
\"alll":s th;lI arc usua lly recont.-d in K-b it b~ti."S (n\l u..., s ra~
ing from 0 10 255 ) or more (e,g .. 12-hit dala). T hl."se d<lla at
then sto red 011 d isk \If tape fur futurc analysi s.

lid

dFllm

~erja l

Pho tography Film s

Koda co lor
1000, the

119

reg istered three- band d ig iul data

Flatbed Densitometer

Sl.' 1

for su b.....quent image

processing .

cchnology
( '0 101' Ii her .... hee l

the Kodak
rmine the
{aer speed
varia bles:
t L'raJl, ulti-

Bnghtnevs value
in rhc diginzcd

phOlograph
RI' , ' I

'J

t b tb..'d
surface

ur rene etographic
Ie o r posinxitomehcl uding
rs. vid eo
coup led-

ics o f a
rc 4 -32.

isncs of
sarcncy,
10: term
lig ht is
10: light
lc light
nte rs a
will be
'Ill the
terms
} d isrrnorc
desigaph at
1 line,
al{lng
.5 the

F90re 432 Schemalie of a flatbed microdcnsitomcter. A blacknnd-whirc negatiw or positiv e tra nsparency is converred from an anal(,!: photographic image into a
single mumx or dij!itJI bnghtnoss value s. RI ;J,A' A
"'<1101' negative or positive tr;losparenc~' is separated
into three registered marne..~ based on the dens ity
of the there dyes (ycll<:,w, ITI.lgenta. and cyan} found
at eac h loca tion in the photo gra phy The s['Ol siJ:e
that is analyzed during Ihe digitiLatioll procL'';'s may
be as small as a few micrometers: hence the tcn u
mwn>d"'II.'i/"ml'/,r.

Scanning image ry at spot s izes < 12 u r n may resun in no isy

digitized data. beca use the ~pot "i/(" approa ches the di mcn son of th(" film's silver halide crystals (Mc<jlone, ~0ll4).
Table 4-6 summ arizes th c relationsh ip between cligitiJ:L'r
lClnning spot size ( I H >V ) measured in dots per inch or
lIlCromet("rs and the pixe l ground resolutio n at various
\(,lie's of aeria l photo graph y or i ll\a~er), Fur simple photogrmunctri(" invesugauons, a va lue of hOl) o r l m.IY be USL'J
bn:ause'l scann ing rcsul utioll l,f 6(JO D PI (42 IJm ) is n("ar to
the g(.'(llllt tric aL'cu racy of mo st tlalbeJ sca nne rs (a nu ul 50
~m)( l i ndcr, 200] ). The ,1!l!urithms for ("on\'en ing fWIll Drl
\)IU!I and \ ice veru an: presented in Table +.6

; Olll-

c re te
g.-IO-

Ix of
a ng I a re

" simple Mad .and -", hile ph(ltogf3[lh ha ~ IInly a si ng le

band, k=/ _lIowe vcr, w(" may nced to d ig iti/ c Cllln r phn tog .
In such circ um"la necs . \\ (" usc three sp..'Cially
~igned filters Ihal clel(" n n il1e the am.lu llt of light trn nsmi tted by t ach o f th(" dy(" layl'rs in thl.' film t F i~u re 4- 321. T he
Mgati n: or ['OSili\ e transparency i ~ scan n..-d three tim..:s (10. =
I 2 and 1). eac h lime w ith a J i ll~rent Ii Iter. Thi s ext raet~
Ipm1lIl informatio n fru m the rL'spt:eti\ e d yc l.-..yt'l1< fo und in
roIor and color-infra red ao.' ria l p hotog raphy and resu lts in a

.y.

\ 'idt'u D i ~i lil :lt inn : It is po ssible 10 J ig iti/ e hard-copy

image ry by; se nsing it through a video ca me ra and then perfonn ing an analo g -to-digital conv ersion on lhl' 525 lines by
5 1~ row s o f data tha t are within the sta ndard field of vie.... (as
es tablish ed by the National Television Syst em Co nunincc j.
Video d igili/ing involve s fW:Ling and then d igiti7jng a
frame (If ana log video camera input. A full fium c of video
input call be read as rap idly as 1/30-sL"C. A hig h-s pee d ana log-to-d igital convener. known as a/ rutile grabber. digitizes
the dau a nd stores the m in a buller memory, The memo ry i ~
then read ny the hos t computer and the di gital information
stored on d isk o r tape .
Video d igit i":lliun o f hard -copy image ry is performed \ e!)
r apidly, hU I the results arc not a lways use ful for dig ita l
image processing purpose" . 1'0 1' exam ple, there ar e dra matic
d rtfcrcnces in the radiometr ic scusiuviry and re pea tability o f
\ ar iuus video came ras. " serious proble m is vjg ncning
t light fall-n m away fro m the ce nte r o f the imag e be ing drgitized Thi s C;1I1 e ffect the spectra l signatures e xtrac ted from
the scene. AI",). any d iston ion in the vidicon opt ica l syste m
\\ ill be transferred to the dig ita l rem ote sensor data, making
it ditli("llit to edge-ma tch be tw een adjacent imag es tha t hav e
been d igitiz ed in this manner.

Lin ear- and Arl'll A r r;I ~- C hll rj!l'- C ou p ll'Il. J){'\ kt (f TIl )
Dil!it il aliull : Ad vance s in the personal co mp ute r indust!)
have spurred the develop ment o f tlntbcd , desktop linear
array diginzcrs based o n linear arra y ch arge-coupleddevices tha t ca n he used to d igitize ha rd-copy negative ...
pa per prints. or transpare nc ies at JO(J 10 3.000 pixel s per inch
( I-'igurc .I-_1 .1 ah). T he hard-copy phot og rap h is placed nil the
glass . T he J igili/L'r o ptical system illuminates an ent ire line
of the hard -copy photograph at one time w ith a known
amoun t o f light. A linea r arra y o f det ectors records tho.'
.tmUUll t u f lig ht rdle("ted fro m or tra nsm ineJ thwu gh the
phowgraph along tho: arra) ;lI1d p.:rliJrms an .\ -to- D L'On\-("rsio n. The re are linea r CC Ds \\ ith up h) 20 ,00 0 dements an d
trilinl'ar CC Ds w ith ur to 14.000 d em L' nh ( ~1cG lllnL"
2CMl4j. T he linea r array is ste ppeJ in th(" y d irect io n. and
ano ther lin... o f data is dig it izL-d. It is po ss ibk 10 pu n..-hase
USL'ful dL'sktl'p co lor sca nne rs for less tha n S300. "'an )' d igital image pHlc essing la bo.lratoric s llSt.' thLosc ine xpc nsi\-c
dL' ~ k h'p d lgitil (,rs 10 co nvcn hartl-cupy reml ,td y sensed ltata
intll a d igita l fom lat. Ik osk top sca nners pro\-idc surpr ising.
good spatial precisi o n and a rcasonahk eharac to.'rist ie {'Ur\C
whe n sca nni ng h lael -nnd-white images, A n optiona l "t ran silluminalcr" can be pun::hased to r the back light ing o f lilm
(l' r J5-mm s lidc ) tn be scan ned. Un fo rtunate ly. mos l desktop

( ' I I,\I' !t.W

120

Ta ble 4-6 .

Aerial Phot ography -

Vant ag e Point, Cameras, Fillers. an d Film

k elnnonsbip betw een d ,g ilil cr ins l;Hllane ' >Il> [k id "f \ k\\ ( IFO V ) 1l1O,: as uIl'd indou, per inch or micromete rs. and t he pil ei
ground rc".,lul i"n ur \ uncus ....:a!cs " I' ph" lugmr hy.

Pixel Ground Res olution at Various Sca les

01Photog raphy (meters)

Di g ilizer Detector IF OV

Dols per inc h

Micrometers

1:40 ,000

1:20 ,060

1:9,600

1:4 ,800

1:2 ,400

1:1 ,200

,,~

254.00

10. 16

5.0S

24 4

1.22

0.61

0.30

200

127.1111

5.011

2.54

1.22

U.6 1

n.jn

n.15

300

1'4.6 7

3.3'1

1.6'1

0.1<1

0.4 1

11.20

0.10

400

('.'-5 0

2.54

1.27

0,(,1

lu n

0.15

lUlll

'~J

50.1<0

2.03

1.02

OAf)

0.24

e. u

0.06

soo

42.34

I.lw

0. x5

11,-1- 1

n,20

O. It)

n,OS

7UO

30.2'1

l AS

0.73

0.35

0.17

n.lW

0.114

'00

3U 5

1.27

n.M

0.30

0.15

O,OK

0.(1.1

~~

21l.23

I. IJ

0. 56

0.27

0.14

n.07

nm

"'00

25 m

1.02

0.5\

0.2-1-

0.12

O.l)f>

0.03

1200

2 1.17

0 .1l5

tl.-I 2

0.20

0.10

0.05

0.03

151 Ml

1{>.'4

0.(i7

0.3-1

0.16

U.OX

0.f14

(J,02

20llO

12.70

U.51

0.25

0.12

0.06

0.03

fUl:!

.lOllIl

X,-I7

O. 3 .~

0. I7

unx

o.u..:!

o.rc

0 .01

4000

td S

0.2S

0.13

0 06

0.03

0.02

0.001<

Useful Scanning Conversions:

1)1>1 = dots per inch; lim mic rom eters: I mchee;
From Dl' Lto nucrorn cte rsurn " 1 2 .~ -I 1>P IIIIl.flfMI
From nncromercrs to Dr l'
0 1'1 (2.5-1 ~mJlO.OOO
From inches to meters:
\ 1 I x 0.11 254
h um meters ro inches:
I ' I x 3'1.37

\1

meters

Computation of Pixel Ground Reso lutio n:

PM "" pix e l ~Ile In meters ; [IF = pixel sii'e in fCi."I; S c pooh. scale
Using DP I:
1'\1 (Smr l)/39.)7
1'1 .. (SiI>PI)/ 12
Usini:! micrometers: I'\-f = i s x ~m)ll.OIKK)O I Pf = (S x um) 0.(I0000328
For ...sample. if a I :6.000 scale ae rial photo graph is scan ned at SIlO DP!. the pixel Sill' will be (60110 500 ) 39.37 0.30-1)0( meter> per pixel
or (t>lIOtJ SOO )' 12 - LOll fOOl per pixel. If a 1:'I.t>OO scale aerial photograph is scann ed at 50.1! um. the pixel ~I /~ will be
(9.600 x SO.8)( 0 .000001) - OA'Ime!ers or (9.60lJ x SO.1l l\0 .OOOIl(132lt j " l .to feet per pixel.

sca nners arc: designed tor :-1.:5 x I ~ in. originals. and most
aerial photog raphs arc 9 x <) in. Under such conditions. the
analy st must digit iu- the Q )( t) in. photogra ph in two sec tio ns
(e .g . X.5 x t) in. and 0 .5 x t) in.) and then d igi tal ly mO\lI ;C the

two pieces tog ether. TIle mosa ick ing process ca n inlroductJ
mull geomet ric and radi ometric er ror,
Linear array

CC D~ arc used in many inexpenciv e !'Cannn",

diguizcrs, such as the one show n i n Figure 4-3 t a. Arcaarra)'~

121

ilelial Photography Alm s

Li near AHa) Ce D Fta tb od

n i~il il {'r

a.

~re

4-33

il)

lucvpcnsivc de!>!..I,,!, linear alTJ ~ (T[) dlglti/""". h, An rmagc dlgllln'r

ha~ec1"n

area alTllY (,<.'llt<Xhnoltlg) tcou rtc ~y \<:'1.-

eel. tnc.j.

en)" are used

in certa in digiuzers like the one sho\.\n in

which diguizes from 160 dpi 10 3.000 dpi
tppro'l.imatdy 160 gm to x.S umj ovcr a 10 x:O in. Image
Rl1254 mm x SOX mm). The system scans thc film (lhe
lItI~inal negative or pos iti \ e transpuren cyl as a sc rics of'rcctlIlg lliJr image seg ments, or tiles. It then illu minates and
;cam a f(',wall grid, w hic h is an array of precisely loc ated
.-rosshalehcs elchcd into the glass of the film carrier. Th e
~ grid coordinate data are used 10 locate the 1::>;3l-1 oritlIlatlOf1 of me CCD camera during scanning and 10 gcomctFI~ ~-3 3 b,

mil)' COIT~t cach dig iti/ed tile o f thc image rel ative to al l
"Ihm . Rad iometric calibration algori th ms are then us cd 1"
compensate lin uneven ill umination en ...ouutc red in any of
!he tile regions. Wh cn scanning a color image, the sca nne r
llIlpSOll a rectangular image section and capture-s that mfor-

_ion sequentially wuh each Il l" lo ur color liltcrs rblac,

red. and n... utral ) before il mo ves tu anoth cr section.
\1051ether scanners digit i!:c an enti re im age with one color
r,1:~r and then re peat the pro ccss with the oth cr color fih crs.
Ihis can result in color l11isreg i~tra l io n and loss o f image
~lil), Area array dig itl7 illg lechno logy has obtained geeIlltIric accuracy er s 2 JII1I o......r 23 x :!3 em images when
~ at 25 um per pixel. and rep cala bilily of :::, J '1m .
~.

Hupefully there is a rebtiu nsh ip bet w...... n th e brightn...ss

\'lluctBI;J,k) or de ns ity 1/),) at an y particu l;lr loc at inn in the

fikn and me energy rell~ted from th... reill-w~Jrld llbje-ct
spec (0......' al lhe exa..:t Io..:ation. Sc i<:n1bls take ad\ antagl'
ofthi~

relationship hy I J maki ng careful i/l .~illl ohsr:rvat ions

field. such as the am llun l of hio lllass li,r a I x I III s pul
Ol1 lhe Earth lU":lIt...d al eJ, \'and lh...n 2) m... asu ring llll' bri gh tlltSS value (H I;.,.) or density of Ihe Ilhjtx ' t ;1\ thal l:'l.act Incal/OlI in the phntogmph using a d,mitome/cr. If "'Iwug h
1III11'1(S an: k'cal ... d in Ih... field and in Ihe ph,)tography. it
i~ the

'.

ay

m:l) be po ssible to dev elop a corrclanon betwee n the realwor ld objcx-t space and the image spa c e. Th is is an important
usc of digitl/cJ a.. ."rial photography.
lli~ il i 7('d

:\ali"n:!1 ..\ l' r i l, II' h nl u~ ra ll h y " rugn llll t:'\A )' I' )
UllIa : Th e 1\: '\ 1'1' was initiat ed in 19S7 as a rcpla c...m... nt for
the N;lt iul1 al lligh Altitu de Aerial Photography (NHAP )
Progra m. The objccuve o f the :'\A PP \\ as to acq uire and
arc hiv e phcuogruphic ":0\ c rage of the con tcrminuus United
Sialcs at I :40.000 scale usin g cuhcr color-infrared or blackand-w hi ll" film, T he p hol ogrdp h) was acq uired at a n altitude
( If zooon n above ground bel (AG L ) with a o-in. foca llen gth mcr ric cxun c ra. The photogm phy wa s acqui re d ideally

on a five-year cycle, resul ling in a nation..... idc photographic

dat aba vc that is readi l) available thro ugh the EROS D at a
C...ntcr in S ioux Falls, SO. or the Aerial Ph(llt~'fap hy Field
Olliee in Salll.a ke Ci ty. UT (US(iS, 199 4}.
Th is high spatial resolution N ,\P I' photog raph y re presc nts a
wealth of information li ,r on-sc reen photo-mrerprcta non an d
can bccomc a high-reoluuon basc map upon wh ich other

GIS information (c.g ., parce l boundaries. utility lines. and

la 'l ,lata) m:ly he o\erlaid after it is d ig itlL...d and rel; l i fi ~-J to
a stand;.If(! mJp proj ...... tio n. Light (1993) sUmmJri'Cd tht:
op timum 111Clhnd s for r Ol1 Veni llg. lhe NA P P data into a
natillna l datahast' 1'1' d i1;!ililed ph ot ogra phy th at Illeets
f'al ional ~ Iap A...cura...y Standards . M icruuellsit(lmcte r scanning of th... phot(l&.'l1Iphy, IIsinf! a spot sill' of IS ~m, prl'servl"S Iht' 27 rel<ol\ ablo: lin,' pair per millimct.. .'r (Ip,mm )
spa lial r...solulion in th.: origina l f' i\ PP pho togra phy. T h is
proc...ss gcn~'r Jlly yi... lds a d ig it:1l d ata ~et th;ll ha s a grou nd
spatial res\l!util,n Il l' I x I nl . dqllndi ng on orig inal sr.: cne
conlrdst T his 1Jleo:ls most land- ... ove r and land- use mapp ing

use r requirem~"Tlts.

122

C1I,.\I'lt:R

Aerial Photograp hy - Vantage Point, Camera s, FItters, and Film

The J lg ll ll l-J informa tion can be color separated into scparate ballth o f information if desired. The 15 pm scan ning
spot size wi ll su pport most d igua l snll -co p) phoiog rarnmeIf)' for whic h coo rdi nate measureme nts arc l1 hldc using a
computer and the moni tor screen ( Lig ht. IQ93 1. Beca use the
d igitized NA PP data are so useful as a high spatial reso lution
GIS base map. many states arc en teri ng into cost-sharing
relationships wuh the tj.S. Gt.'Ological Survey and having
thei r ~A I' P coverage digili/J.-J and ou tput a., digital onhophoto maps . A large amou nt of NAP P da ta ha n ' been J igitired and con verted into digital o n hop hoto quads. Much o f
the d igital dam is availa ble and can be bro wsed a nd o rder ed
at the USGS onhophotoquad We bsite in A ppe ndix A.

COIOf Phorographic Emulsions

Normal co lor and color-infrared photog raph ic emulsions arc

heavily used in phorogram mctry and photo-interpretat ion.

' or mal Co lo r Arrha!

f' h u t u~ra p h)

Normal co lor photograph y records energy in the regio n from

O,.j. - 0.7 ~111 (hluc. green. and red light) and dep icts the tcrrain in the same hues (colors) as o ur eyes pe rce ive the landscape. A hale filter is normally used to prevent ultra vio le t
light from exposing the tum Ie.g.. Koda k lIFJ). Co lor film
emulsions generally consist o f three laye rs o f silver halide
crysta ls arra nged as shown in fi gure ..I -25e. T he top laye r is
se nsi ti\ e to blue ligh t. the second laye r is sensitive to blue
and green light. and the bo tto m layer is se nsitive 10 red and
bl ue light. To prevent blue light from exposi ng the bouom
two la~en.. a yellow blue-b locking filter is placed in the
em uls ion between the top twolayers tMcG lone. 201"14 1. T he
spectral sensitivity o fthe blue . gre en. a nd red emulsion layers is show n in Figure 4-3 4a. Co lo r aerial pho tograp hy films
mar keted by Eastman Koda k Co mpa ny a re summarized in

Table 47.

Primary and compleme ntary colors

Primary Colors

Complementary Colors

blue

yd l,,\\
magenta
<y,o

mod, tim the negative. Color reversalfilm P""'"" "

color transparency directly on the film, This proces s is U~
fur mak ing slid c-s or positive transpa renc ies .

The sec ond step in the creation of a po sitive no rma l coli:

pho tograp h from a colo r negative involves the use o f spccu
dyes, Si lver ha lides in each laye rth at tu rned black in the tir
step an: replaced w ith J.I '~'~ of the ('omplem<'lItary coton I
the layer (Co lor Plate 4 -3a: Table -1 .7). Dense blac k sil"
grains in the blue-sensitive layer are replaced wuh yclle
dye (yell ll\\ is the co mple men tary color of blue and is con
posed of green and red light ). However; III(' amount l!f Jj
placed al each location In 111(' /ilmldyer I.~ inversely propo
nonat 10 the intcnsitv of1Ig1l1 that illuminated thut /oC<ltio
Therefore. th...more blue lig ht that illuminated the area. d
le~s yel low d ye Chat " ill he present. Black silver crystals
thc green-sens itive luyc r a rc replaced wi th magen ta If)
Black si lver c rysta ls in the red-se nsitive layer arc replac
wit h cya n dy e. Th is process resuhs in a negative that is COl
posed of ye llow. magenta. and cyan dyes. Th is is the rcas
tha t" hen we loo k at a co lo r negativ e we sec strange cok
Iyello" . magenta. and cyan) instead of the tradi tiona l bit
green. and red found in the landscape. We arc not used
see ing na ture in hiles o f yell ow. ma genta. and cya n; ther
fore . we ra rel y photo-interpret color negatives.

Table 4-4 .

Blue, greren. a nd red lig ht reflected fro m the various (~hjech

in the scene interact w ith and activate the blue. green. and
red- sensi tive silve r hali de crys tals in the til m, fonnin g a
laten t image. A colo r re ndition o f the process is shown in
Color !'Iate ~-] a .
Co lor film deve lo pment is exactly like the firs t slep of h iad:
and-white lil m de \ d opmen t, i.e.. the expose d s ilver halide
crys tals in e;\ch laycr are turned into blaek cr)'"ta ls o f "il\er.
Thc re mainder o f the proccss. how(,'vcr. deren,ls on whether
the Iilm is mlor nega tiw or co lo r rc\'er sa l film. With ('o/ur
11(")!i1til\' film. a negati ~c i ~ produced a nd cllloT prints are

Tn produce a color positive prim from the negative Ih31 '

ca n photo-interpret. white lig ht is proj ected throu gh I
col or neg3ti \ e 10 expose a three -laye red color primi ng pal
em ulsio n. T he color nega t ive acts as II li fter. ex pos ing t
three layers on the pho togr aphic paper to the three co).
yellow, magen ta. and cyan. When dc ve lopi ng the posit
pri nt paper. ho wever. the complementary colors o f yell!
magenta. and cy an (i.e .. blue. green. an d red ] arc produe
This sl'Cond col or rc\'crsal )'idds the o rigina l c(>lors of
scene (In the positive print that arc lh...n suitahk for pho
IIltcrprctlltion l Color Plat c -l--Jal. A llllm la l co lllr lleria l pi
lograph o f T i\"O h No rth Oay. l\" Y is shown in C olor Platf

,,-

123

!.erial Photography Film s

SI)Cct ral Sl' lI!>it i, ily o f the Th ree La yers of :"Iorl1l31 Colur Film

1-

Yel l,,,,, <ly e 1.1) ,or (conlrol~ bin...lil'hl o n the illl"gC)

llF.1
Ill'"r

I
{-

\l" !lornla ,h ~ 11I),o:r lC""" " , I~ greo:n hs:hl nn 11k' Ima~ ... .

Cyan ,J~ o: I"),,, 1~"nlr"l ~ red

hg.ht " 11 tile IIn.l~c l

,
d

",{

Gm:n

l!V

0"'

0."

O,iO

0",

1l.'lO

\\ " 'Ckn!llh. ,UIl

",f

Spt'Clra l Sl' lI!>ili\ it) of Ihe Three l.a) c rlo of Color-I nfr a r ed f ilm

"

W nlll fli 12
' r ll n.. Ill,..r

'.

uv

Blue

nAo

Green
( J.(~ l

0.50

0.70

Wavctcugrh.

u.ve

~!11

Figure 4-34 a) Th... spc"lml ,e nsitivity ofthe three dye layers of normal color film. ,\ hu" filter (q ;.. 1lF.l) mny re 11,,'<1 that tillers out
much ,,( til" light less (hm! 0.4 u m. hi The spec tral scnsitivuy of the three dye layers 01' c"lor-infrared film. A wraucn 12
()'dlowl filter is oft en used. which filters nut much of the light shorter than 11.5 p rn(courtesy Eastman K od ~ k Co.j.

Iuler-ln fra red

A cr i al l 'lwtu~ r a p h ~

Coler-infrared film was originally developed J uring World

Willi!. when the re was great interest in increasing the scnsi-

ti'lity of films in the infra red reg ion of rhc spectru m to detec t
cnouflage. In I~ I , S. Q . Dum Ie) (If the Mas..ach use u..
Institute of Tech nology headed up a study on op tical an d
\lsual camouflage detection . T he rc-search concl uded that
fie vegetation chlorophyl l absorption hand located in the red
5p(ClI31 region (0.60 - 0.(,101 um t and the high amo unt of

ncar-in fra red re flectanc e from veget at ion in the region > 0.7
urn wou ld be diffi cult ro be replicate d in a camouflage paint.
Th ere for e, in 1l)~2 , Dumlcy req ue..ted thai Eastman Kod ak
Co mpany. produce a false-color cam oufl age-dete cti on !ilm.
Or. Ma nne.. o f th... Eas tman Koda k Company dem onst rated
the tes t r.:sull:-. on October 1<), 1 <)~2 . It was d uri ng this lim e
that the dccision was made for foliage to appca r red in the
n nishcd co lor-infrare d acrial phn\(lgrar hy. It w as made
available to the military under the na me " Aero Kod aeol or
ReI ersa l Film. Camou flage [ktect io n", Co l\\ 0:11. 1997). The

124

CII .w n :R

Ae ria l Photography -

film was success ful in the war for locating targets covered
w ith camuu ll'lgo: netting or pa int. II has ulso proven to be of

sig nifican t vafuc for mo nitoring the conditio n an d location

ofvcgcrauon in Earth resource surveys. Co lor-infrared aer ia l

photography films mar keted by Eastman Kodak Co. are

summarized in Table -I-t The most popular co ntinues to be
Kodak AE ROC HROME II Infrared Film 2+ 0.

Co lor-infrare d tilm records reflecte d energy in the region

from approximat ely O.35j.l rn [0 just above 0.<;1 u r n ruluavioIt.'t. blue. green. Clod. and near-infrared) and portr ays the
energy on the tilm in false colors. i Rundquist and Sam pson.
IlJXX: Kodak . llN<J). Li ke norma l co lor li lm. color-infrared
film also has three emu lsion la~ ers. each sensitive 10 a di fferem pan of the spectrum (Figure 4-25 d; 4-J4b). The lOp layer
has a ~n!>i t i\ ity from uhrav iolet through near-in frared. The
middle layer b 1Il0!>t ~Jbith c to green and blue light. The
bottom layer is most sens itive to blue and red light

The color-infrared film is e:\.po"l:d through a dark yc lI~ ..... Iilter tusually a Kodak wratten 12 minu....blue filter) that
allo.... s the green. TI...J. and ncar-infrared light from the h:IT31n
10 expose the film white prevcmm g light sho rter than O.5 lJm
fro m renchmg the Iilm ( Mct'j lone. 20(4 ). Co lor Plate 4-.'h
depicts how the d~c!> mtrcduccd into each of the film layers
are diffe rent .... hen compared to the development o f a st anda rd color phOIO. Bavicafly, they are "offse t by o ne ." meaning. thaI the gree n..sc nsuivc layer rece ives yello.... dye , the
red..se nsitive layer receives mage nta dye. a nd the infrared <;.ensiti\ c lay er rec e ive s cya n dye, Thus. .... hen white lig ht is
eventually projected throu gh this negative and a positiv e
prim is produced. anything that re flected only green light in
the scene shows up a" hrighl blue. a nything that reflected
f)IJ~I' red light in the sce ne "ill appear in bright shades of
green, a nd a nything in the sce ne that reflected (m ~l' ncarinfrared enl.'rgy will ~ reeunk d in hrigh t shildes (1f red. If
s lll n ~ lh i n g rd kctl:,J l:'-IlMI prupurtiuns ufr.:J an d JlO.: ar- infrll ~
red light hut nn g rel'n light, Illl' n it would show up in shadl's
of yel lnw on the: ro lor inl'rared fi lm. Similarly. <'qua l
amounts of grcl:r1 , rt.:d , and ne<l r-i nfrart.: u rd l el'ted from tht.:
scene. such 310 fro m ,\ concrete surface, will yield a med ium
gray lone.
Th us. co lorinfr:Irl'd li lm exhlhits II color h{/hlllc('~hil' when
co mpared In trad ilional eu l'lr aer ial phlllO~ra ph )' . What Clln
be co nfusing III interprcten; is the fad that as human beings
we have no idea how much nellr-infrared energy is retl eett:d
b) cc rtain phe nonwoa since we C<lOn.lt see Il l" app~ciat e
energy in Ihis region, Fo r example, a color-in frared ae ria l
photilgraph is shnwn in ( 'o lo r Plate 4-41'1 . This pholOgra ph
was o blai nt."'d using Kudak AEReX"HRO\o1 E II Infra red
::!4B tilm with a f> in. focal.lenglh lens. D<'Cp, dear waler

Vantage Po int, Cameras, Filters, a nd Fil m

absorbs alm ost a ll o f the near-infrared radian t flu x incid

to it whil e reflecting somew hat more gree n and red lig/lt
T herefore. if the .... atcr is dee p and free of suspended,
menr o r any organic ma tte r. it will appear da rk or alm
black on color-i nfra red film. Howeve r. if there is substar ui
s uspended se dime nt in the water, it m ay appear in rela tiv
da rk sha des ofhlue and gree n on the near-infra red ph otogra.
phy. Co nversely. vege tation absorbs ap proximatel y ~O pe
cent (If the green and red radiant n ux incide nt 10 it whik i
retlecrs approxi mately 40 - 70 pe rcent of the incide nt nearinfrared radia nt n ux. This co ndit ion ca uses heahhy g
\ egctauon til he recorded in sha des of red because the ne:ll"
mfrared crn.:rgy is dominant. Concrete streets or gravel r.ai~
ro ad beds reflec t approxima tely cequal proportions o f g
red. and nca r-infrared e nergy and are reco rded as a
gray" signalUre on the co lr-infrared photography.
M

Similar color reversals are evide nt in the examp le of a bui

ing at the Unive rsity of Nebraska phot ographed us ing c
and co lor-infrared film (Color Plate 4-5ab) . O bj ects m.
reflect Mue light e xclus ively are reco rded in black on
color-infrared photogra ph (..... g.. the car o n the left ). The mI
curpct o n the steps of the b uilding is recorded in shades
green . The ule roof is re corded in shades of yellow, m cam~
that the tile abso rbs m uch of the green light w h ile reflcc u
heavily in the red and Ilear..infrared portions of the sp...-ctrum.
Color-infrared aerial photography will co ntinue to he one
the most important remote sensin g tools. In fact, it was tht
emulsion of choice lor the USGS National Aerial Photognphv Program. New high spatial resolu tion (:5 I x I m pan.
ch romatic and ::.....'; x 4 m multispectral) satellite remote
sensor dig ita l data from co mmerci al vendors such as Space
111111g ing and DigillllUluhe, Jnc. arc red uc ing ou r dependency
on large..sco!c analog color-in frared photograph y.

Planning Aerial Photography Mission s

Time of Day - Sun Angle

The i.ka l time of da)' to (>otilin lIerial photograph y is " hen

thc Sun is bctw l'c n Joe and 52 above the horizo n_ i .c~
" ithin two htlun; nf so lar nnon . A Sun ang le less than JO'
may nul allll.... prnpcr illumination or adequato<' relke tanct
from the sce ne. Thi:'> ea n resu lt in u nde rex po~d aerial photography thaI i~ J itlicult to interpret. Also, pholograph)
lakl'n at 10.... Sun an~ks is usually una..:-ee ptah\e l:M:caust: of
the e.\tremely I,'llg shado "s cast by trt.-es and buildings thaI

ide m
light.
sediImost
mial
ivel)

t ogra1'<'ill.' j t
nearreen
ncar-

rai lrccn.

125

II!!trences

QlI~ re

valuable infonnation. How eve r, some scicnusrs

IOjleClally g~-, logistSI prefer 10.... Sun angle photography to

e terrain represe ntat io n (lyon and Falkner. 1(95 ).
~ ~ ar.j! le greater than 52" may yie ld h/'b/"'f,\ o n the r ho-..graphy_ These an: unu sually b rigfu are as on the phot o-

tl ighrlmes. .-1) ground di stan ce bet ween e xpos ures. 5 ) map

dis ta nce betw een exposu res, and 6 ) tota l number of exposures required. Man y of these \ ariablcs are described in
Ch apter 0 t Pho tog ram metry).

References

J!'3Pb. which an: a

function o f Sun and ca mera ori enta tion .

lbc) become especially bot hers ome H thcrc is a 101of water

the slooy area.

~raph ic flighrlines can be oriented in a ny d irection as
kmg as terrain and safety factors arc co nsidered. The angle
'11111\' Sun at a particular latitude and s pe cific umc o f day

rna) be obtained from so lar ephemeris tables.

Berglund. J. A., 1<,11,1<,1. Em/ll<lImg the u.,.. fit HAIJAHSAT SAR

,m " JE RSI SAR j "r E.,r im,,/"'/; LAI ,,,,d Dd"" 'uli ng Upland
l.fII,,1C"" ,' " nnd Tidal Fn'\'hwutrr " " 111'", 1 Vtx clatifm Species
m Il,,! Tlm /i N"r/h Buy. An'" . .<\Y. Columbia. SC; Departme nt
of Geograp hy. unp ublis he d maSlers lhl'sis, J I() p .

's teel
Wea/her
b u ild -

' co lor
5 th a i
In the

re TN
Ics of
aning
~l ing

trum.

'ne of
ts the
ograpanm ote

ipace
lency

oS

hen

i.e..
13 0"
an,:e
ph~

Iph y

;;;" of
thai

Aaial plllllography is ideally collected a fev. day s after the

pt;\.aj!Cof a fronlal sy stem. v.hich removes wate r vapor and

paniculatcs [es pec ial ly smog ) fro m the air and allow s the
lind ll.......x-iated WIth the front al syst em to de crea se . Aerial
pboto)j!rnphy ob tained in H'I) humid co nditions is deg raded
M:auSC of atmos pheric scatte ring o f unwanted light into the
fJdd of view of the camera. Al so . the water vapor may
Itlsorb some of th e sig na l w c are try ing to rec ord on film ,
Slrong .... inds can cause the pla nt: to d rill o tT co urse. res ult_in poor fligfulinc coverag e . los s of stereosco pic overlap.
aid sometimes oblique rather than vertica l phot ography.
CbIu.b in aerial phorogruphy, of course. arc una cceptable.
~Ol only is a port ion o f the terra in ob scu red by a cloud. hut
1~ cloud shado w causes tonal va riations that mighl he interpreted incorrec tly, Aeria l pho togr aphy ob taine d pr ior to the
p.t\sage of a fronta l system may be ideal if the relat ive
~um ldi ty is low and the v. iuds are not stro ng.

Flrghtline Layout

Tllootain the desired aerial photograph y, it is necessary to

\00.... the de sired photo sca le (e.g .. 1: 1O.{)(J()I. the scale of
tilt base map on \\ hich a ll info rma tion is to be plouc-d (c.g ..
1.1 2.0001, the x.y coordi nates o f'rhc four corner po ints o f the
\I~y area {latitude. longit ude or UT \ ll. tho: size o f th e geo gnpltic area to be pho to graphed (e.g. 100 km!). the a verage
fo!v,ud O\c rla l" of each fra me o f p hntog raphy (e.g., 60 peremU. the a\erage ~i dclap or eac h fra me (e .g._ 20 percent),
tilt film tl.lmlat (c. g. 9 x 9 in.). and cam l'ra foca l-length.
Once lhis inlo nna tion i ~ kno wn. it i ~ pos~i hle to compute 1)
!hi: ~'C"'sa r)' !light altitud..- ahove gnlu nd le\ c1 (AG Ll. 2)
the number o r llight lines re4uired, 3 ) map <.Iis tunel.' b.:h\ ......n

tlll_slcl, J, D" Jens en. J. R., Md\l astcr. R. B. and C. Rizos, 2002.
.\I<1m/</1 "I Gcosput ;,,; Sci,It" " alld T,,II11"logy. London: Taylor &.: f rancis, 623 p.
Col .... ell. R. N.. 19'17. "History and Place of Photographic In terprctation, Philipson. y,.... [Ed.}, Man/wi nf Pholngraphlc Inl<'Tf,rt'llw"n. Bethesda: ASP&RS. 1nd Ed.. 3-47.
M

l: ~GS, 1<N4 ,

{)/K"al O,.,hllphm n.1 f -'l rl ShC't'l.

Washi n ~l(ln .

DC;

U.S. Geolcpica ! Sur"ey.1 p.

Hind le}. T. K. and J. W. Waller. IIN3. "Obtainmg and L'Mng
L..,.... Alutud c. L u ge-Scale Imagery," Photog rammetric En~ i
If",'r"'g ,{ Rcn",t, S,II.< ing. 5Q( 3):3 I 0 - J II(.
Ih.op.:r. N. J. and G. C. Gustafson, IQIIJ. " Automation and Rccording of the Image Intl'rpreters Mensuration Ta_1Is for
M an m~ldt' Objects." SP IE Pmnt'dingl, " 24:5n---67.
Jensen, J. R. 1l1'l5. "Issues lnvofving the Crcauo n of Digital EI~ \'<II I (ln \'lodels and Terrain Corrected Orthounagcry Using
sun-copy Phorogrunuucrry." Gl'o.-arlo ' " IU II"I iml(ll,
1 ()(1 1: 5 ~ 2 1.

Jensen. J. R. 2005. brtrud" clOIJ Digi l<I! lm ag" Pro...-ssing: A

R"mtotc S,n. ill}; Per.lpe etil C. 3rd Ed .. Upper Saddle River:
Prcnuce- Hall. Inc.. 525 p.

Jensen. J. R.. Botch way, K., Brennan-Galvin . 1:.. Johannsen. C ,

Junta, C, " abogunjc..-\. \li ller. R. Price. K.. Reining. P,.
$1.01<.'. D.. Sundv IT, " and D R. F. Taylor. 1002, Du ..n '"
f'-arlh' (;N>gro"hic Infnrmati,,"In,. SII< lai""hlr {A>1'r!""m"nl
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126

Aerial Photo graphy - Vantage Poin t. Cameras, Fillers, and Film

C11.\PTER

and E. L. Us<:ry Ih h.J. A R".,,,,urd, tlgt'ndufi,r <i<,"~ml'htc

17 --6 0,

i\tikhal l. E, "t ,. Be thel. J, S , a nd J. c. \1 c(jlono:. zont . In

Iwnw .If"..!cm I'hm"Kr""'''','ln', :-.i, Y.: John Wiley. 47~ p.

Ko'.Jalo.. 1')1'41'1 . " Kod a k Tec h nical Information [Part 111): the
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'-lilkr. 1-1.. Ii.. AI1!'!"ll, \1 , R . Hardi ng. L. W. Jense n, J. R..

haro n".. n. C. 1.. \laca ulcy, .\ l.. Macljonald . J, S. and J.
Pea rlman , 2Cl1l3. U<i/ll; R,II/of., S,n..ing in Sf<lft' ,m J
( ;"....rm".'nl ' III(i,rlflmm n .li,r ,~ f",wg/'",em " lid Det-n
M"l",~, \\ J~h m glon : National Re,;car c h Council. '17 p,

I"ti,r"",';,,,, Sci,",,<!, B u~ a Ra ton: eRe Press,

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~C""

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SOIl l>.

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a-, a

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' '1'<''
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250 p.

Amh<'r,l MC'<li ", lOX o.

Jim

f"

Elements of Visual Image Interpretation

p.

\ R., JoInd J . S
V Local
~<"("i_.i(ln

Irma lion
r. J. o..

lIlaa! 01
. for-In .

~"J

1m.

rtanon.

?ltllirm.

Pru'

umans are adep t at mterprenng image" of objects. After a ll. they have bee n
this all their lives".With some in~tn~C l i\;n they can become excellent
Image a nal~'-sts. Photo or 1It1U~., uuerpretunon IS ..Ieflncd as

~()ing

till: examination of images for the purpose of ident ifying objec ts

and judging the ir s ignificance (Phil ipson. 199 7; McGl um: . 2(04 ).

This chapter In troduces the funda mental conc ep ts associated with the visual
interpretation of images ofobjects recorded primarily b)' remote se nsing system s operating in the optical blue . green . red. and reflective near-infrared
port ions of the electromagnetic spectrum. Till.' imagery Ihat is interp reted
mal be acquired us ing a \ ariet) o f sen sors, including tr adit iona l ana log earneras te.g. Leica RC 30 ). d igita l cameras te .g.. l.c ica ADS 40). mu ltispectra l
sca nners [e.g. Landsat Themati c Mapper ). and linea r or area-array senso r
sys tems (c.g., S POT, IRS- Ie. MOD IS. J KO ~ OS, Q uicWird. O rbView-3,
lmage'Sat]. Method s of extract ing quamnauvc information fro m re motely
sense d images ob ta ined in the optic alportion of the spectrum arc presented in
C ha pter 6 (Phorogramrnctry). Distinctive dements of image interpretation
associated with therm al infra red te ,g.. surface tem pe ratu re ) a nd ac u vc microwave (RA DAR) imagery arc presented in C hapters Na nd 9, respectivel y,

grtcut ~7

p.

In t ro d uction

" Fo r

'ther st:

There are a number ofimponunt reaso ns \'lhy photo ur image uucrp rctauon
is such a power/ill scie nt ific tool. incl ud ing:
the aerial/regional perspe ct ive:

III/III I!_

~o'"

p.

three-dimensional depth perc ept ion:

the abi lity 10 obtain know ledge heyond our hum an visu al percept ion:
the ab ility to obtain a historica l image re cord to doc ument change.

T tus chapter discusses these conside ratio ns uml the n int roduces the fundumental c leme nts of image interpreta tion used by image analyst s ro implement
the m. Various me thods of search are also presented. incl ud ing the use of co llate ral (ancillary) informa tion, couvergenc e
evid...nee. and a pplicat ion o f
the multi-cone cpr in image ana lysis.

or

127

128

C11,\PH : R

The Aerial/Regional Perspective

Eleme nt s 01 Visual Image Interpr et at io n

Ea r th :IS S een from A poll o 17

A vertic al or oblique aer ial photograph Of othe r 1) pc of " 1~ 1

hlc/n ca r-in frared image rec ords a detailed bu t m uch red uced
version of reality. A si ngle image us uall y e ncompas scs muc h
more geographic area than hu man bein gs could pos s ib ly
traverse Of really appreciate in a given day. For example.
consider the pho tograph o btai ned ,",y the astro nauts throu gh
a port hole on Ar'''U" /7 that capt ures o ne- half of the e nti re
Earth (a hemis phere ] at one time rltigur c 5- 1). ~1 uch of
A frica is visible. from the ar id Sahara to the dark vegetatio n
of the Congo to the Cape o f Good Hope shrouded in d ouds.
Converse ly. a single 9 x 9 in , I:63.J60-sealc (I in. = I m il
\ ertical ae ria l photog rap h reco rds o nly RI m i ~ of geograp hy
at o ne lime.
Figure 5 1
Examinnuon ofthe Earth fro m an aerial pcrspecuve all('\\ "
scientists and Ihe gen eral publi c 10 iden li f) obj ec ts. patterns.
end hu ma n-la nd imcrrclaucnship s that may ne ver he co rnpl"' ldy unde rstood if \\.e were co nsrrain ed 10 a terre-anal.
Earth-bound ven rage puim. II docs not matte r whether the
ae ria l pers pec tiv e is from the lOp o f a tall bui lding. an clcvatcd hills ide. a lig ht pla ne. a high -altitude jet. or a !'atd !itl."
platfo rm. Th e resu ltan t re motely sensed image provid es sparialterrain informatio n that " C w ould not be able to ac quire
a nd apprec iate in any other man ne r, T his is why rem ote
sensing ima ge imcrprctarion is su impo rtant for military
rcco nuais snncc a nd c h' ilian Earth resource inve stigation .

Care must be exerc ised. h . lWCVC r. when interp ret ing vertical
and oblique imagery. Huma n being s are accus tomed 10 looking: at the facade (side t of objects fro m a terrestria l vantage
point and do nut normally han : an appreciat ion fu r wh at
object s look like \I hen they arc recorded from a ve rtical o r
oblique pe rspe c tive [ Haac k et a l. IlJ97 l. In addi tio n. \I e arc
nut used 10 look ing at and interpreting the signi fica nce of
many sq uare kilometers oftcrmin at one time. Our line of
si g ht on the grnund i~ USU1t![ y Ie ,~ tha n a kilometer. th erefore . the rq !imml ;l1l(llysis o f vert ical and ob lique remote
senso r data requires training and practice .

Three-Dimensional Dep th Percep tion

We can vicw a si ngle (Il:rlal photograp h or ima ge w ilh ou r

eycs a nd ohl a in an apprec iation for Ihe geog raphic distri hu-.'
IiI," of featu res in the land s..:apc . I lo \\eve r. it is a lso possible
10 obt(lin a Ihll. -.Jim. /l.~iol1(l/ l'itw of th... tl' IT:Jill as if Yo e
were :lemal l) in an airh<.lme hall."l<.m or a in:rnl't looking \lut
Ihe window . O ne wa y IIIu btain this thr.x-dimen siona l e nc cl

" phOlc>gr.I ph of the Earth obt.1incd b). the aSIrao

nautv unb..ard ApuU.. /7. soootl ng through a pMoole: of' tbc spaccerafi. Almolit lhe '''I'Ilil\' colll inrnl d
A frica rs visih1e as well as Saudi Arabia and pan
Iraq ;Jnd Ind la _ Note the arid Sahara an d the dart.
,egelatct! terrain of the rain f\lrCl'1 alon g Ih", eqU3llf
in central A frica. Ama rcnca is especially appa reraa
rh... Soulh PIlI... Photograp hs like nus helped I\l3fl ind hi realize how vulnerable and precious iii:
Ea r1h is as it rests hke a multicolored jewel in !he
blacknes s of srccc (coo" ",sy <If !\AS;\ l.

is 10 o btain two rh OII)graph s or imag es o f rbe terra in from

two ~[ igh t l y different vantage poin ts. \\'e can trai n our eyes
to vi.:" the two images o fthe te rrain at the same time. Our
mind fuses Ihis ste reoscopic informauo n into a thrce-dirnensional model o f the landsca pe that we perceive in ou r mind;
<IS hcillg real ( Linder, 200 3). For example. the stcrcopair of
do wntow n St. LOll is, \1 iss(' Ufi. shown in Figure 5-2 provides
de taile d ihr ee-dimcnsionul information whe n viewed uliinga
stereosc ope.
\\' c know fro m lire tha t it is impor tant to ne t only know the
Si/.I' and shape uf'a n obje ct hut that its height. de pth , and w lumc are also ve ry d l:\gno sl ic characteristics. An alysis of ~1~
rco- r op ic imagery in three d imension s all ow s us 10
ap precia te the three-dime nsiona l nature of the undulating
terrain and the slop... and aspl"ct o f Ih.: land. In add itio n. the
stereosco pic nnalysis proc ess USU<lUy cxaggemtes the hci ~hl
or dcp th o flhl' terrai n, all ow ing liS to ap preciate \Cry suht[e
dille re nn 's in ohjec i heighl and terrain slope and aSPt:\:1Ihat
\I e mighl ne\'er ap precia lc from a tern: :strial 'antagc po int
C hapter (, l Pho togmmme tf)-) int rod uccs the pri nc iples oi
stercoseu ry and Iw " Ih.:) are used 10 cx tract throx-dimen
sional infllm lalio n from r.:mot e lienlollr da ta . Th rce- di men-

129

~uction

Th ree-dtmen stonal Perspect ive:

Ste ree sco plc Im age or St.Louls, :\l joi\ltUri

astroport -

cn tuf
an of

dark.
uator
~'1l1

at

manIUS th...
in

l h~

fro m
eye.
. OUf

~ mln.
jninds

jair of
vidcs
LSi ng a

Rgure 5-2

This ercoparr o f St. Ltlu i ~, .\I t,,-,o uri. consists ottwo view s o f lhc h:rra in ubl.l il1l:<1 Jt two d ilTer..." t exposure statio ns a long a
single.' llighl linc.Thrcc-d imcI1 s ional informat ion abouttbc l<'rT3I1lcan he obtained by vie w ing the modelusing a sh..rreoe ccpe.
The human mind US\'S the parallax in formation inherent III t he images to produce J thrcc-d im" l1 silllla l modcl thut can y ield

detailed terrain infom wt i'li L

:d \'0 1

O)1(lal Information can ab o be obtaine d by analyl inj!

R.\DAR. L1 DAR. and SONAR remote sensor data .

of SIt;'us to

Ob.-aining Knowledge Beyond our Human Visual

IW

the

Jat ing
Ifl . the

Perception

~e ight

subtle
:1 tha i
po int.

I~~e~~

lml:o,

(Aa~es are scnsui vc pr imarily to blue. green. and red ligh t.

Thm:fore. we sample a vel)' lim ited portion o ft he ele ctro..
magnetic energy tha t is actua lly moving abou t in the cnv ironment and inte racting with soil , roc k. wate r, vegetation.
theillmosphere, an d urb an structure. Fouunatc ly, inge nious
ensors haw been invented thur can meas ure the acti v ity o f
XTJ~'~ . ultraviolet. ncar-inf rar ed . middle-in t mrcd, therma l

infra red. microwav e . an d radiowavc enagy. Carefu lly ca f ..

orate d remote sensor data provides new mtonnancn about
a n ohject that humans mig lu nev cr be able 10 appreciate in
an y oth er manner ( Rob bins. 19Q9). For example, con side r
the imagcr) o f an ag ric ult ural a rea in SauuI Arabia shown in
Figure 5..3 . Healthy vegetation abso rbs mu ch of the gree n
lind red light fro m the Sun (fir photosyn the si s. Therefore,
agric ultu ral fields sho w up in dark shades of gray in green
and red multispectral imagery. Conversely. Iii... grcatcr the
amount of biomass presen t in an agricultural field. the
greater the amount of ncar..infrared e nergy reflected ca using
hcuv ily-vcgcuucd fields to appear bright in ncnr-intrarc d
imagery. The green and red images slIggcsl that veg etation is
presen t in almost <1 [[ of the dark cen ter-pivot fields . The

~5

C II.\ r UM

130

Remot e .sclI"ill ~

C ~ II

Provide

KIIO\\ l l'd~l'

by

Elements of Visua l Image lnte rpretattcn

'llll.~t1 rilll! [I\l'r~y

.-.-.s.;:
I
.

'....
.
.....
..
. ...- "''''"".. ~~
II

C ha rac tc r b ttcs

in Spectra l Rcg tons Bl'yond Ou r Huma n Visual Per ception

,"'0

\~CI~ted

~~!
~

r,,.. ,... e!

I.

I.
a. Green re flectance.
Figure 5-3

.,,
r:!."

...
...- ...
b. Red reflectance.

c. Near-in frared re flecta nce

Indian IRS-Ie L1SS III imagery (23 x 23 m) ofen agttcuhural area in Saudi Arabia. a.b) V"fctal,on absorbs milS! of the
,md red incident ('nl.'r~y causing vegetated fields to .tppcar da rk. c) COll\cf'\('I)<. vegetation reflec ts a suh~tan tial amount
cidcnr ncar-infrared energy ca using it In appt"aT bright. In this example. several Ik ld s :IPPl.,.tr dark in thc i;1:IL'rn and red ima
(po~\ibly due: to recent Irri~allon. ~Iubhll: from a prcviou.\crop, or plowi ng) ..uggC"ling that ~egdalj<ln b present. CarL'Cul
aminauon ofthe same field.. in the ncar-infrared image rCH'al~ Ihal \I:ry liLL ie vcgccnion is presen t 111.. nca r-in frared im ,
also provide s detailed inform auon lll\<lul the spat ial dbLrihutio n o fthe biomass p resent in each Ik ld. A c" ltOf composite of
imagcr) is found in Color Pial': 5-1 (images courtesy of lndta n ~<l ll"nal Rcm ore Sensing Agency).

ncar- infra red imagery provides mort> de finitive informa tion

about the spatia l drstributiun and am ount of vege tation [biomass) found \\ ith in the lie Ids , A col or co mpos ite o r tho:
bands is found in Color Plate 50-I ,

Historical Image Record and Change Detection

Documen ta tion

A single aerial p hotograph or ima ge ca ptures the Ea rth's su rface and atmos phere al a uni...uc momen t in space and time.
IIUI ttl hl" l'l'l>t:atcJ ag;lin. These phowgraphs o r i m a~c , arc
valu ..blc historical records of the spaual distribution of na tural and human-mad e phe nomen a. When we acqui re muhip lc
images o r the Eart h. we can com pa re the hi~ torh: image ry
w ith the new ima ge ry 10 determin e if there arc all) subtle.
dram atic. or pa rticu larly significant changes [Je nse n and
Cow en, 199 9; \1 c("o y, :!005 j. T he study of cha nge usually
increa ses ou r understa nd ing a hou l 11Ie nat ural and human induced pn't"tfHl',1 at work in the landscape. Know ledge
abo ut the spatial and tem pora l dynamics of phe nomena
allows U.,;IO develop predictiv e mod els about .... hal has hap pe ned in lhc pasl and .... hat may happen III the tiuure ( l.une na
and Elv id ge. I <}\}K). Predic tiw mod el ing is one o f the majtlr
goals of science. Remote ~'ns ing ima ge illlerp retation is
play ing a n increasi ngly important role in p red icti ~e modeling and simulation (i llel..., 2n02; r-. IiUer et aL 2003; h: nscn
el .11.. 2fl(5).

or

Rem ote sens ing i.. es pecia lly use ful for mon ito ring huma
activity throug h lime , wh ich can hopefully lead 10 sus ta
able development and good govcmnnce. For example. ccesidcr Figure 5...t w hich doc uments the e ffec ts of Preside
Ro bert G Mugabc's o rder 10 de mo lish rura l poo r inform
sett leme nts in Mozam bique in l OllS. Pres iden t Muga bc sa'
his urban cle an-up ca mpa ign Upe ra non .\lllrW f/haf.\\, ;f/<I w,u
needed to "restore sanity" to Zimbab w e's cities. w hic h h.o:
~;Jid had be come ove rrun with criminals. Tho: n pposint
po litical pa rty has us suppo rt mise am ong the urban
and say s Operation .Hur<111/ha l.u-i l/<I was aimed at to rci
the m to rura l areas where the Mugabc gove rnmen t t:oul.l
more easi ly control rhcm. It is cstim;ttcJ tha t more thai
:!(KI,(MlO people became homeless. Remote sensi ng provided
a detailed historic record ofthe tragic events (IHK, 2(KJ5~

Elements of Im age Interpretation

To perform regiona l analysis, \ie" the te rra in in three

dim ens ions. interprcl im3g.l'S obt ai neJ fro m mu ltiple regions
o f lhe elcct ro magnt:tic spcc lmm. and per form change detec
tion. it is c usto mary to use princ iples o f im3g..: imerpretatjoo
IhOlt havc been dev dopt.--J through em pirica l cXpt.'ric nce fOl
more lhan 150 ycars (Eslcs CI a l.. I t)K3; Ke lly et al.. 19 ,
:\lc Glone, 2ut)4). The m,lst fund ame nta l of thes e principln
are the t"lt'l1Iellh' of imuXt' imerl'n:lu/io1/ thaI arc roulill(~

13 1

t1fments 01 Im age Interpretat ion

Remute Sl' n ~ i n ~ Ima gl'Ty a,..\ Hist or ical Rec ur d:

Informal Ci ty ll t'O!oliliun in Haran', Z imh all\H' in 2005

- . ,.- --.---.

a, C)ui,:kBird t.l-< rn image obtained UII Ap ril 11,. Z005.

FqJre 5-4

b. Q ukkUi rd

61-~1l1 jmil~c

obtained nil JU flC 4 , 1005.

Hig h ~pallal ~ll ul "m (61 x to 1 ern) J"lIlCh W lll;ll ic satclht... imagery ca ptured the d.."' lru,'l jnll (ral lllg l o f informal ho us ing in
Har are. Zimbabwe. tha i began \b y 1,.1Iln5 . Pn:sid,'nl \l uga Oo: vrJcr.:d pohcc '" illl Nlllrl...,,-rs ;m d sledgehammers 10 dcmnlish more than 20.0nO informal housing structercs, causing mo re than :!cn J lIMI people In becom e h.,mck"" f im.t,:,~ cnunC)}

of l)igitaICllnhc. lnc.).

IIIci when visual ly photo-i nte rpretin g an image ( Bol>sler <:l

II.. 20(2), The dement s of image mtcrprcuuion include
location, tone and color. size. shape, texture. paucru.

ibado'o\. height and depth. 'Illume. slope. aspect. site. suuaIJOO. and association ( Figure 5-5) , Som e of the adjectives
hilX l.lll>J with eac h o f these cle ments of image interpretslion arc summarized in Table 5- I. t-ach image is composed
of individual silver halide cry stals or pixe ls thnt have a
~ color or tone at a ce rtain geog rapfuc locatio n. This i1>
Ibe fundamental huilding block upon which all other etcrr.:nts art' based . The refo re. we may consider these to he rhe
pimary or first-o rder elements of image uuer prcrauou
( ~{JI\f'Cny, 2(MI)I. The secondary and tertiary elements arc

bas il-ally spmialarrangcmcrns n fto ne and color. The h igher

order ctemc nr-; of site. suuanon. and assoc iation a rc often
bas ed on Ll i !1'cr~ 111 methods of search. inclu din g : the use o f
cullatcrul information. convergence of e vidence . and rhe usc
of the rnulu-conccpt.

A wcll-r mincd image interpreter uses man y oft he ele ments

o f image uuc rprcration d uring unalv sis "" itho ut reall y think ing abou tthem l lloyd el :II.. .:!()(J2 ). However. a novice interprctcr may have to s~ sremaucally te rce him,,<:lf o r herse lf to
con sciou sly evalu ate an unknow n obje ct with respect to
these elements In fina lly identify it and judge its signi lkanee
in re lat ionship In all me other phe nomena in t he l>o.:CII<: .

- 5

132

C II \ I'Tt:I{

Elements 01 Visual Image Interpretation

Elt'lIwll h "r Im :I!:!' lnterprotaun n :

On k r and .\ Il'l h oth u f Sl':trd l

Or der
Pr im lil')

.\f'uti,,1
""""flX,-,," ,'1J1
" llml<" ,-,,/,,/

Figu re 5 -5

1'11<>10 or il1l<.lgc intcrp rct auou is usually based on the usc 1'1'Ihc c tcmcms o f imag l" interpretation. The location of ind l\id
viiver halid e cryetals m a photogra ph or [l1 \ ds in a n im:lg,' representthe p ruuary (Iirs( ord c rj clements o f image intcrprcta '
Secondary and tertiary d ements arc spa ua l ammgcmcnls of lone amI c\.I.,r lhe highe r-order cl... mente o f sue. l imalion.
as...ucia linn ort en male usc of various M"arch methodsto perform accura te image imcrprctanon.

x,y Location

The re aft: two primary me thods of nhla illing precise T,r

coo rdin ate in formatio n about an o bj cx t: I ) ~UI>'C)' it in the
fi eld using traditio nal surve ying techniques or global posi-

tioning

s~stcm

rfi PS ) insuumems, or 11conecr remote "...n-

sor JOlla of the object. rl'gi ster \rcl'lify) the i lll a~ e 10 J

bas cm ap, and then extract the X.Y coordinate infonu auon
directly frum the recti fied ima ge .
If opt ion one is se lected. mos t scicnusts nnw lI \ l ' relative ly
inexpens ive urs instruments in the tid tl ( Figure 5 (,) h i
ob tain a precise measurement of all obj ect's location in
d...grees of long uud e and latuude on the Earth's grntic ulc or
in me ters <:asling and northing in a map projection re .g.. L'mvcrsa l Tra nsverse Mercator } (\kCuy. 10OS)_Scicuusts must
then transfer the coo rdin ates of the po int te.g.. a <pcc itic tree
locatio n ) or polygon h: .g. the perimeter of a smalllakc j onto
an accurate planimetric map, \Iosl scicntisrs in the United
slales use U,S. ( ;co log ical Surve y 7.5-minute quadra ngle
maps, In Britain they usc Or dina nce Survey maps.
\Iust 3 l rc l'.l l't or sp.Kecra ll: lh eu to ..:olk"t.1remme se n~ r d:lIa
no .... h;ne a G PS r<."C..:i,,'..:r. Th is allo s Ihe remol<. se nsi ng
inSlm ment onhtlard 10 ohlain aCCllr:lt t ..I'.: G PS coo rdinate,;

at each photograp h expos ure station or the cen ter of \'3~

hue scan. In the caw of aerial photog raphy, th is means thal
\\ ... ,',III obtain info rmat ion about tlK' exact location of the
center II f each nc nn I phllto!?r;1ph (i.c.. the prillcipol I'" ill l) !l
thl' instant \If expos ure . We ca n us", the (I PS in fo rm anon
leered hy the sensor (and perha ps some collected (In tk
ground I \0 register (rt.:ct il) 'l lh-c uncontrolled pho to or imag
to UT \ I or anoth er ma r projccnon. If " e also correc t forw
relief displaceme nt o f the topography. then the photo
image OcC\l11 K'S :10 01"1/'",,1"'/0 or " r/lwimag<' w ith ali lh/
metric qual ities \11' a line: I1WI' (\1cGIllne:, 2t ltJ4- I, (jc(lgrarh~
coo rdi nates ( 1,.1') of poi nts and polygons can then be
extracted dir ectly from rbc recti fied image . Chapter () (Photogra mll\etl') ) J iSt:u s..ses III IW \ mhop hoto s an: created, JO:llsell
(lll05 1desc ribe, me thod , use d 10 d igitall y rectify O.C.. reg:'
Iste r) remot e sensor data III a stand ard map projection

Tone and Color

Real-world surface ma te rials such as vegetation . water, and

bare 'oi l o tteu re flec t d rtfe rcm pro portions o f energ y in tbe
bl ue. green, red. and near-in frared p oruon-, of tnc electromag nltl,: liJl'.'l'l rum. We can riot lhe a moun t o f enl'rgy
rctlCi.tl"tJ f l1.lln o:;,,:h o f ,b<"So: materia ls at spt'<.'"i lic wawlengths and creale a lio p'-"t.-Iral rctle t:ta ncc .:ur..... s(lm cl i ~
cal k d a ,\P"{ '/r al ,igll<lf/l/\' (Jensen et aI., 1005 1. Fo r e: u m-

13 3

&ments of Image Interp retati on

(; PS Ilala ("olll."("l;On
Elements o f Image mterp rctation.

Element

Common Adjectives
(quantitative and qualitative)

"

"1 IO\'~I I"n

x.y image coordinates: column (.rj and row

(.1') c<l"rdi I1J I':~ ill an uurcctificd image
r..r image map co ordin ates : silve r halide
crystals cr pixels in phot ogra ph 0 1 illla!;e arc
rectified In a map proj ection ((". g. VTM)

I. ( 'oklr

gray tone: hglll (bright). intermediate

(gray ). dark (black )
color: lIl S - inten~i ly. hue (color). saturat jon; RGR - red. green. and blue: Munsd l
len gth. '" idth. per imeter. arca ( m~ )
small. medium urucrrnediate j.large

Intu re

an objecr's geometric characteristics:

linear. curvilinear. circular. elliptical.
radial, sq ua re, rectangular, triangular.
hexa gonal. pen tagonal. star. amorphous, CIC.

Figure 5-6

characteristic placement and urraugcmcru

TOllt'

of repcuuouv of tone or color

smtloth, intermediate [medium). rough
(coarse). mottled . stipple d

P..,,~

spatial arrangement of objects on the

ground: systemanc. unsysremanc Of random.

linear. CU1\ ilinc ar. rectangular, circular.
elliptical. parallel. centr ipetal. serrated,

striated, braided
a silhouene ca used by solar illumination
from the sidl'
H! I~~ L' Uepl lt

z-elcvation (hctghtj. c-bathyrnctry {de pth},

Inlumt ISlopl'!

volume(m'). sl<>p<,; 0 , aspect 0

" jlCCI

"ilr
~I uali u n
~\\O('ia lilln

Silt': o:I e\ ~li\lrl , sh'~, aspect. exp osure,

adj acency to II aiel, transportation. urilines
Siw'II!(l" : (lOJlXts are placed in a particular
order or o rientation relativ e to om.' another
AHocj"ri<>n: related phenomena are Ilsuall)
pr csem

pie. generalized spectral reflectance C Uf\-CS for objec ts foun d

Iusoot h Florida mangro ve ecosystem are shown in Figure
$,-a (Dal'is and Je nsen. 19')11), Spectral reflectance curves
ol selecrcd materials provid e insi g.ht as to why they appe ar
.lIthey do on black-an d-w hit e or color ima gery, Wt willfirst
,oo~ldcr why objects appe ar in certain grayscale tones on
bockand whitc ima ges.

Sciemisl collccnng global I"' >si t il,"m~ system

j ( i PS ).l . y. llIcul jpll data in smooth cord gnl~s (Spar11/1<1 A ltcrmf/"I"<I ) in Murre lls Inlet. St'.

r\ band of electroma gnet ic enefl:Y (c .g. gree n light from 0 .5

- 0.0 Jllll) recorded b) a remote ensing system may hi.' displayed in sh ades of g r<l~ r.-mgin g from b lack 10 .... h ite. Th~":>C
shades o f gr ay are usually referred toas 1011<'. we 0 111'1\ sa),
"This pan of an image has a ' bright" lone. lhi s area ha s a
' dark' to ne. and this feature has an intermediate ' g ray'
tone ." O f course, the degree of da rkness or brightness is a
funcnon of the amount of light re flected from the scene
w uhm the specific wave length interval tbandj. Fo r example.
consider three black-and -white images of a so uth Florid a
mang rove ecosystem ( Figure 5,7 0----'1.11. Th e three images
record the amount of green, red. and near-infrared ene rgy
reflec ted f W ill the: scene. res pectively.

Inc ident gree n lig ht (0. 5 - n.e Jlm ) pe netrate s the wate r cuiumn farther than red and ncar-infrared ener gy a nd is
re flected offthe sandy bonom or the coral ree f! Figu re 5-7h ).
The refore. lhe green band provides subsu rface detail about
the ree f structure surrounding the mangrove is lands. Mangrove vegetation ahsorbs. approximately 1'11 percent of the
incident g reen lig.ht for photosynthetic purposes and re flects
approximately 1-1 pe rcent. This ca uses mang ro ves to appear
relat ive ly dark in a smgle-band green imag e. Sand reflec ts
high. equal proportions of blue. green. 1'<,;1.1. and ncar-infrared
incident energy. <;(1 it appears brig ht in all images.
Mang roves refl ect app roxim.ucly 9 percent of the incide nt
red energy (O,n - Il.7 u ru1 while ahso rhing approximate ly \) I

- 5

( "II W n :R

134

Elem ents 01 Vis u al Image Int erp reta tion

To m' and Color

~
1

~"

"e
E

' b nltro. ~
\\ a r~ r

4_"'~
Sum

a . Spectra l retlectaree curves lOr- sand.

man~r(>\'1:.

and "'"3ICr In fl"nth.

d. lliack-and-...hite photograph of
near-mtrared rCll('c!l;'(Il'n<,r(1~.

b. Black-and- ...hire rru.>C''Er:Jph of ~Tl'"n

from Hu...Ja mangroves.

c. Blad-and-.... hite photr~ral'h

of red reflected encr~) ,

rcfk"I~'\I "nc~)'

e. Stand of pine 'Ierg rccn ) surrounded hy

hardwoods

(<:UllnC"'~' Ell1cr~c. rnc.l.

l!. U2 photograph " f a Rl1ssiilllSpuTn ik

launch srrc tcourtcw John Pike. F,,\S .

h. Hil1h -c-ontms r terrestrial

phuhlgraph "r J Dalmation

Figure 5-7

Elements Il f Ima..>< Int<'Tf!<clal llm -

percent of the incident energv fur photosy ntbeuc purpos e..,.

T his causes the mang roves to ap pear very dark in the red
photog raph (Figure :;7c). Red light docs not penetrate as

f. Vegetat ion is <brl. fallow is bright. and

turbid " ,I1 Cr is gray (( ;,"<,Eyc, lnc.j.

i. lI iglH ontmsl lcrrcstriul

photugraph "f a cow .

Ioee and Color

well into the water co lumn. sorhc water has a slightly darker
Wile. espe cially in the deeper c hannels. As expected, sand)'

areas hove hrighl tuncs.

pn

Elements 01 Im age I nterpre ta t ion

I!Ie black-and-white image recordi ng only ncar-infrare d

\0,7 - O,IJ2 IJml. vegetation is displa yed in brig ht
mes (f'igUfC 5-7d I. I lca lthy vegeta tion re flects muc h o f the
mddcnt ncar-infrared energy (ap prox ima tely ::! K percent }.
Ieneally, the brighter tbc tone from a vegetated surface. the
~,(r the amount of biologic al mail er (biomass] prese nt
Ikr!sm et al.. IQQQ). Convers ely, wate r abso rbs most of Ihc
iIcirlenl near-infrared energ). ca using the wa ter to appea r
M . There is a great co ntrast be tween the bright upland
aJOSisling ofvegeta non an d sand. and the dark water. ThereM.11 is not surprisi ng that the ncar-infrared region is CUlI!idered 10 be the best for discr im inat ing: betw ee n the upland
merg)'

1fII1I3k'l'

interface.

AblJck-and-whitl' inf rared imag e o t'a u ev ergreen pine 51:1nd

ssroanded hy dec iduou s hardwood fo rest is show n in FigIRS-Ie. The tona l co ntras t makes it ea~)' to d isc rim inate
khIn the two major spec ies.

ODe mw.t be ca reful, ho"e\ cr. when intcrp rcung indiv idual
1mI black-end- white images . Fu r exam ple. co nsider the
Ladsar Thematic vt ap per band 3 (re d ) im age ~, r a Col orado
I!riWltUI;l1 area t Figure 57 1). As expected. the greate r the
IlI100nl of vegetation. the greater the absorp t ion of the incident red light by the veget at ion, an d the dar ker the vegetated
area within the center- pivot irrigat ion system, Conv ersely.

::la rke r

sa nd y

fallow ficiJ s and a reas no t in agricultura l p roduction show

~ In much brigh ter 1,ln.:s. Unfortunately, the lake also
Jikl>Is up as <In intermedi ate sha de o f gray. T h is is becau se
!be ble has recei ved a substan tjal amoun t of suspe nded sed causin~ it to refl ect more red r,lJ ianl energy tha n it
lllIllIally would ifit we re dee p. no nturbid water. If 1\ ': had
lriiitional blue, green, :1111.1 perhaps near-i nfra red hands to
II'IaIFe, it would probably he d ea r that this is a water bod y,
H(}\\cler. when view ing o nly a single band 11f imagery dis~ai'<d in black-and- white tones, we cou ld come to the co nclu,inn lhal the luke is si mply a large vege tated field perha ps
Illlh.: early stages of development whe n some o f the sa ndy
hire soil is still ..-isihle thro ug. h the canopy, In facl, il has
JPPrn:llmald y Ihe sa me gray lone as s.:\ erlll Ilf the adja..:ent
lieIih willlin the ccn lcr-pivot irrigalion systems.

Human beings can d ilTcrem iah: bct'ol. (.,\:n ap pro.\imlllcly -ll).

50 illdl\idulli sha des of g. ray in it h lad :-an d-wh ite photopph or remote se nso r imag.e. Ho we\ e r, it takes prill:lice
and skill to extnlct useful infurmat ion from broild-ba nd pan
,hromJlie hlol'k-and- wh itc images (lr hlack -llnd-wh ite
imag,<, (If ind ividual ba nds . FI,r exa mI1!\" cu ns ider Ihe U-2
pilolngraph o f a Russilln SpllfJlik lilunchi ng s ile sho wn in
figure 5-7g. Careful exam inalio n of Ihe gray to n ~ and the
sliadows by it trained an alyst reveals Ihal lhe <:.\cal ated ea nh
&om lIle blIDot are a dl' pression was deposited in II b 'lle

135

mou nd nearby. Human bei ngs simply a re nOI used to vie wing the tops o f objects in shades o f gray, They must be
tra ined. Furtuc nno re. human s o fte n havc n very d ifficult
time identifying featur es if the scene is co mpos ed of very
h igh contrast information. This is exemplified by view ing.
terres trial photographs o f two very we ll know n objects: a
Dalm atian a nd a co w in Figure 5-7h.i. respecti vely. Man )'
nov ice analysts simply cannot find the Dalm atian or the co w
in the photograp hs. This snggesas that e xtre mely high co ntrast aeri al pho tographs or images lire d inicult to ime rpret
and that it is bI.."Sl to acq uire an d interp ret re motely sensed
imagery th:it has a co nt inuu m o f grayscale tones from black
to gray In white. if pos sib le.
( 'olor
We may usc add ui vc ector-com bining techniques to crea te
co lor composite images from the individual bands o f remote
sen sor data as pre v io usly d isc usse d in Chapter -l . Th is lnuoduces hue (color) and MIff.ration in add ition to grayscale
tone (illtt>n.,it.r l. A co lor composite o f the green. red, and
near-in frared bands o f the mangrov e st udy area is found in
Color Plate 5-2. Notice how muc h mo re visual info rmation
is presen t in the color co mposi te. Huma ns ca n discrim inate
among tho usands o fs ubrlc col ors . ln this false -color image.
all vegetation is de picte d in shade s ofred (mngenta l, sand is
brig ht white , and the wa ter is in various sha des of hluc. Mosl
scie ntists prefer to acq uire some forrn of multispec tral data
so that color composites ca n be made. Th is may include the
COIlII I1O of natural cotor aerial photogra phy, co lor-in frared
aerial photograp h) . or multispec tral dat a. whe re perhap s
man)' indivi dual bands arc cottecred and a select few are
additiv ely co lor-combined to prod uce color imag es.
Unfo rtunately, so me peo ple 's col or percep tio n is impaired.
T his mea ns tha t they 110 nllt experience the surnc me nta l
impression of II co lor (c.g.. g rccm as do es the vast major ity
ofthe popul ation . While this may he somewhat ofa disadvan tagc w hen se k c li ng a shin or tic 10 wear, many exce llent
image llnlll)'s1S h<l\ e so me col or perception dis order. T he re
are spcc ialtesls suc h as those show n in Co lo r Plale 5-3 tha t
cun hi: l ie" ...-d to delenn ine if color bli ndne:>s is present.

Size - Leng th. Width, Perimeter. and Area

T he si l e o f all ohjeci is 1I11t' 11f ih most d istingu ishing char acteri stics and o ne o f the most importllnt elem ents of imllge
interp reta tio n. The mos t co mmun ly meas ured pa rameters
are length 1m). w idth (m) . pe rimeler ( m I. a rea (m 21, and
tlC..:as ionally \ olume (m '), Th e anal yst sho uld ro utinely
measun:' Ihe sile of unkno wn ohjects, To do this it is neccs -

'

"

..

,
~

"C II AI'TE R

136

Elements of Visual Image Interpretation

Size

-i

".'
~,

,r
a. Automobi les: diverse, bu t approx imate ly
15 ft in length and 6 ft wide .

b. Railroad : 4 .71 ft between rails and

8-in . between the rai lroad ties .

c. A si ng le trailer on a trac tor-trailer rig is

approximately 45 to 50 ft in lengt h.

d. Baseball : 90 ft betwee n bases; 60 ft

from home plate to the pitcher's mou nd.

e. Diving hoard : approximately

12 ft in length .

f Cars and trucks can be use d to scale the

size of the air-co nditioning units.

.,j
~

,P
I

Figure 5-8

Elements of Image Interpretation -

sary to know the scale of the photography (e .g., 1:24,( 00)

and its genera l unit equiva lent or verba l sca le (i.e.. 1 in =
2,000 Ii). In the case of digital imag ery it is necessary to
know the nominal ground spa tia l resol ution of the sensor
sys tem (e.g., I x J m).

]
1
J

,i
i

"r

Measuring the size of an unkn own obj ect allows the interpreter to rule out many possible alternat ives. O ne mus t be
careful . howeve r, because all of the objects in rem ote sensor
data are at a sca le less than I: I. and we are not used to looking at a miniature version of an object that may measure only
a fe w centimeters in length and width on the image. Measuring the size of a few well -known obj ects in an image such as
car length. road and railroad width , size of a typica l sing lefam ily house, erc., allows us to understan d the size of
unknown features in the image a nd eventuall y to identify
them . Th ere are seve ra l subjective relative size adj ectives.
including small. medium, and large. Th ese adj ect ives should
be used sparingly.

Size.

Objects that have re lative ly uniqu e sizes can be used to

judge the size of ot her objects in the sce ne. For ex ample.
midsize cars are app roximate ly 15 ft long and 6 ft wide in the
Un ited States (Figure 5-8a). The y may be two-t hirds that
size in Europe. Asia, etc . Notice that it is possib le to differentiate betwee n auto mobiles and pickup trucks. Al so note
that the 6-in. white line separating par king spaces is quite
visible. g iving some indicat ion of the high spatial resolution
of th is aerial photograph y. The dist ance between regu larga uge railroad tracks is 4 .71 ft in the United States (F igure 5
8b) . Thi s provides diag nost ic information abo ut the length
of the individual ra ilroa d cars. The average length of a trailer
on a tract or-trai ler rig ( Figure 5-8c) is 45 to 50 ft, allowing
us to apprecia te the size of the adj acent wa rehouse.
Field dimension s of major sports such as soccer. baseball
(Figure 58 d). footba ll. and tenn is arc sta ndardized worldwide. The distance between the bases on a baseball diam ond
is 90 ft, while the distance from the pitcher's mou nd to home

137

Elements of Im age Interpretati on

plate is 60 It \1 0 5t swi mm ing poo l diving boards t l-igure 5St)are 12 It long. Additionalexamples a rc found in Chapter
ll( Remole St"nsing the Urban Landscape).
Iilhesc obje cts arc visible w ithin a n imag c. it is po ssib le to
I!&rmine the sil'e of oth er obj ects in the sce ne by co mpa ring
lbeir dimensions w ith tho se o f the kno .....n objec t's dun cn\lOll. For example, th... diameter (lf the two rooftop air -condioolllng units shown in Figure 5-x f is at least the length o fthe
aranJ truck also \ isiblc in Ihe Image.

and d istinc tive ly shaped ...had,\\\ s. Huma nkind '... re...idcmial

hnu~i ng and public commerc ial hui lding... may range from
wry si mple rectang ular mobile ho me-... fo r sale 1Fig ure 5-9b)
10 co mple x geometric patte rns such as the Pen tagon in
Washin gton. DC I F i gu r~' 5-9c). Th.: 0.5 )( 0.5 m blac k-endwhite in frared image of the Pe-n tagon .... as ob tained using a
d ig ita l camera. Hum an tra nsponation systems (F igure- 5-91.11
In deve loped cou ntries usua lly have a curvil inear shape and
exhrbn e xten sive engineering.
Il uman kind mod ifies nature in a tremendous va riet y o f

k is ri4.y to meas ure the- precise length, pe rimeter. and area

ciobjects in unrecnfled aer ial photo graph)' or oth er types of
Erediticd rem ote- sensor d ata , The- terrain is rord) compltIel~ tlat w ithin the msramaneo us- field .... vjcw of an
ICriaI photograph o r othe-r t~ pi." of image. Th is eauscs points
.. are highe-r than the ave rage elevation to be closer to the
\(lb.ll' and poi nts that are lo wer than the ave rage elevation 10
\l: fanhcr away from the sensor system. Thu s, differ ent pans
ofthe image haw diffe ren t scales. Tall huildi ngs. hills. and
*f'ressions may have sign ificantly d ifferent scales than
'dlo>t at the average clcv aucn .... ithin the pho tograph.

l'',

Theref"rc. the opt imu m vnuauon is .... here- the aeria l pho togIlphy or other imag e data ha ve been geometric ally recti fied
lid terrain-corrected to bec om e. in eff ect, an ortho photograi>h or orthcumagc wh cre all objc...-ts urc in the ir pro pe r
planimetric x,y location . It is the n pos sib le 10 measure the
Irngth. perimeter. and area of features usi ng several met hco!,. incl uding pola r planunctcr, lat-lel d lg ilil.3li" n, dot-grid
analysi~, or dig ita l image <.I na lysis. The se sizc measurement
mtlhods arc d iscussed in Ch :lpler (, (I'hotogra mmc try),

Shape

kI\llUltl be wunderrlll if e vcrything had a lIni'l ue ...hJ pe IIMt

tlluld b... L'Jsily di sl'cmcd from :I ~ert ical o r ohli qw: pe rspcc
til'e. Unfortunalel y, novi ce illlerp n:tcrs s (] lll e l i me ~ Il;lve di''''
Iicullyl'vcn identifying thc ...h;lpc o rthe bu ild ing the y :Ire in.
much less ap precia ting tIll' p lanirnelrk .\..1' shape of n:Hural
llId rnan-madt" o h)e ":ls rceordetl in ae-rial photo graph y o r
other illlllgcry. L'\c \cnhcless. ma ny feal ures do hav c . . ery
lIIl ique shapes. Ther e arc numerou s shape adjectives such as
IfaMe 5-1} linea r. CUf\ ilirll'ar, e ircu lar. el liptic al. radi a l.
!qUare. rectangu lar. lriang ular. hcxa gllliai. sial', e1onga lcd.
lIdarnorphnus (no un ique sha pe),

Thm arc an Infinite ....a ricl)' of uniquely shape d natural a nd

lIIJlI-rnade ohjec ts In the rea l .... orld . Unfo rtunately. we can
lAI) provide a fe.... l'\ampks I FiguTt.' 5-QI. \<I odcm jet a iraaftiFigure 5-9a ltypically ha\ e a trian!tulJr (ddta) shape

w a~ s. MKlIe o fthem \ cry mtcre-amg. Fo r e xample. Figure 5-

oc depicts the curvihnear shape of carefully engineered

levees (rising just 2 tl above the- ground) that direct w atcr
cominuously thmugh a rice licld in Lo uisiana . An adjacent
field h'b been s)slcmati":;llIy plo\\ c-d. But nature design s the
mos t bea uti ful shapes, patterns. and te xture-so inc luding the
radial fro nd pancm of palm trc...., sho .... n in Figure 5-9f.
The t>o:st image interpreters spen d a gre al amou nt o f time in
the fie ld vie .... ing and apprecianng nat ural and man -ma de
\lhj ~.... ts and thei r sha pes. Il c or she i... then in a good position
to unde rstan d how these shapes appea r when reco rded on
vertical or oblique imagery.

Texture

Tcxnm- is the characteristic p lacc m...m and arrange ment of

repcuuons of tunc or color in an image . In an ae rial photo grap h. it is create d b) tona l repe titions o f g roups o f object s
lh:ll may t-c tl" l sm:lll III lx d isl' lm ld ind ividually. So metimes two fcil lu r~'s that hllve H' ry ... IlII ilar ~ llCC (ral dla raL'l cristres (<:.g.. Similar h la<: k-anJ- wh ilc IOllC'" or <:olurs ) cxh ib it
di tl"crcnl ll:x ture char ac ll'risl ll's thai a llow a tra ined inlerprl'k' r til d i" llllg ll i ~h he lWCl'n them . W.... o lkll usc the te xtura l
adjccti\cs "'11I ' IOlh (uni t"iH'III. hOIlHlgl'llCOlIS ). ink'r llled i;lte.
:lnd n1ugh (lnarsc . lwkrogen ellll ~) .
Il is illlpo rt,lIlt to untler...lund tha t the le\l ure in a cClta in portion of a phomgr:lph is strict ly a timc tion of scal.... Fo r exa mp le. ill a w ry laqt e-,ca k' aL' riitl l' howgra ph (e ,g., 1:5( 0) we
mighl be ahle to actua lly sec the le:l\'es ;1111.1 bra nches in the
ea nnpy of a stand of trees and descri hc the a rea as ha ving a
Ct,a rse t<: Xl tJre. Ilo .... .:\lr. IS the ..ca lc o f the image-I)"
become s sm aller (e.g. 1:5.(1)(1 ), thc ind ividual lea \cs and
hr.:mlhes and e"en the IreC' crow n.. migh t Ct13 lcscc. giv ing us
th~' Impre-,sitlll th;lt thc ~Iand nil\\' has an internlcdiale lexturc, i.e., it is not ~ mooth but dcli l1 i t el ~' not rough. \ \ l len the
same s!;lnd o f trees is \'ic .....cd at a \ ery sm all scale fe-.g.
1:50.0(111). It mig ht ;lppcar to be a uni li)rm lilres t "I.tnd w ilh
smooth Il' xturc. Thus. lexture is a functi"n of the M.'alc u f the

"

OI.\PTER

138

~5

Elements 01 Visua l Image Inter pretallcn

Elerno

Shap e

b. Rcct.mgubr single- and

dooh le-wlJe mobile h",,,\\.,,, ror -.ale.

a Triangular (delta) ~apc of

a 'Yrical pa"~l!CT j et.

c . 8lJ,ck-andwh'lc infT3red image ofdic

I'cnla~," ~~ ..,,,,<:~y

p"SIU\C S~slcrns.11lC

d. A curvrlmearc1llvcrkafhighway
IntcN;~li"n i n the ( 'AIll'l.t S,al.-s

f Radial palm tree

c. The curvili near shape of can:fully cngt-

R gu ra 59

Ele ments ,, ( lmag,- Interpretation -

f~>nds

in San Uicgu . CA.

necred rice li ",ld levees in luui,j,m>t

Sha!X'.

ima gery a nd the ability uf th e interpreter to perceiv e ,I1lU

Finally, the wurcrlilics give way 10 dark . sm\lu tht cxlu~

de scribe it.

water.

Several othe r textur e udjcctivc , a rc often used. incl ud ing

mo ttled , stip pled, ere. II i ~ diffic ult to de fine e xact ly wha t is
meant by eac h of these tcxurres . It is sim ply bener 10 presen t
11 fe w exa mples, as shown in Figu re 5- 10. Both the avocado
orchard and the trees in the court yard have a coa rse te xture
on th is large-scale photograp h ( "' i gu r~ S lfIa). Cooversety,
the co nc rete ma d an d much of the grdss yard huvc a smooth
tex ture. Just behind the pool, t he soil ex hibits vary ing
degrees o f mois ture co ntent. c;lU~ i ng 11 mo nied te xture.

Two piles of 50-n pine logs lit a sawmill in Georgia ilIt

show n in Figure 51 nc. The logs exhibit a coa rse. hctcrogeneous tex ture with ,I linear puucrn. Th e shado w between the
stacks has a smooth tex ture.

In Figure 5-10b. the pi ne fo rest on the le ft ha s a relat ively

tex ture a s the individualtree crowns lire visible. The
bright sa ndy beach has a !>I1100th tex ture. Bo th cattails ncar
the shore and watcrlilics fart her out into f -Lake o n the
Sa van nah Rive r Site ex hibll intermediate to roug h tex tures.

Co..1r1>C

Figu re 511ld is (Ill interesting photog rap h of sys temat ieall)

placed circ ular marijuana plarus i n l e rspe rs~d in a field oj
co m. Th e physio logy (stru ct ure) of the two types of plants.
the ir ~paci ng, and or ientation com bine to produce a coarse.
tex tured agr kul tura l field. The shado ws produced by the
marijuana plan ts contribute substantially 10 the texture oflbe
area. lnlere~ti ngly, the goal of the farmers appea rs to be
working. Few novice interpreters app reciate the subtle diffcrenccs in texture visjblc in the field.

139

Bemenls of Image Inter pretati o n

Texture

Rdalh e1y coarsc-rcxrurc ;I\'l<;aoo fidd

TIle ~ and road hoi>" a ., mont h rcwu rc.

I.

oJ- ('oa..,;cIC\lurc Soulh C~r<.>lil1a corn lk ld

illIcr,~rsed \\ nh circular marijuana p l~IlI'.

b. Pmc ltd, coa~ l""lure: cattails and

C. Ccerse I", lure o f Cre,hl) cut pine

ha>" Illh:nnedlate l"'lur" ,

l~, ~l a sawnullrn li"''''jo: ia.

c. MUlll" d te xture on fallo w <oil ill a

cer uer-prvct img~ll"n 'y,I.m

C A \-"ri.:ly oftextures ;11"1111

a tril.llll a r~ "fille "h' M.__ ll'pi,

"dl~"flil ...~

t j""r~la

Figum 5- 10

Elements of Image lntcrprccuion

Pwt orlhc agricultur'll li.:lJ in Figur e 5- 10.' is bei ng culu\~Ied .. hilc the remainder is in fallow . TIl(" vegetat ed sourh~\~, portion of Ill.' ccuu-r-pivur irng auon system IlJS a
'fblil'dy smooth text ure. Howe ver, the remaining fallo w
x nion of the field appears to have areas with varyi ng
lIIlOunt, of soil muisrurc or diffcr cm MliI type s. T his causes
i!Iis erca til have a monlcd texture . O ne par t of the mon ied
:e1ture region still bears the ci rcular scars of six wheels o f
drt ,rnTer-piHlt irrigat ion system.
Il!iQu>vegetation an d sa nd hnr textures arc present in the
o f a tributary to the Mississippi Rive r
ilFigure 5-1 Of. A dense stand of willow s para llels rhc lower
>bDrdine. creaung a relatively tin e texture whe n compa red
l'ihlh~ Itardl'. Otkl behin d it with its coarse tex ture. The sa nd
\1m ererspcrscd wit h wa ter crea te a uniq ue. sin uous textu re
II \\ell as a serrated pattern . Som e of the individua l tree
.:liI\lllS in the upper portion of the ima.!!(' arc spaced \\e11

Pattern

Panern is the spatial uuun gcmcm of'obj ccts ill the land scape
l Figure 5- 11), 'lhc obje cts may be arra nged random ly or systematica lly. They may be natu ra l. us w ith a dra inage punc ru.
or human-mad", as wi th the Tow Ihh ir and Runge land tenure system presen t in the western United Sta ll'S. Panc m is a

very d iugnos uc character istic I l l' many features. Typ ical pat-

tern adjectives include random. sysl ellMtic. circu lar, centripetal. o val. curvilinear. linear. rad iat ing. rec tangula r,

iI:g~ $C3 k photograph

he xagonal. pcmagouul, octagonul. ere.

lplt creenng

Exam ples of typ ical pallem , r upture d on remOle se nsor data

are shown in Figure 5- 11. The fi~1 example depicts the systcmatic. triangular pat tern o f B - 5 ~ s be ing dismantled at
Momham ..\ I r f- orce Hase IFigure 5- lla l. A large metal
blade cu ts rhc fuselage mro a sl>o:cilic numbe r o f ports . The
parts must remain \ isiblc for a certain numbe r ofda ys so that

a mo re coarse tex ture .

~5

ClIA l" n :R

140

Elements 01 Vis ua l Image Interpret ati on

Pattern

3. S> ~ ..:m al ic.lriallj!:uIM pattern of

B 52s !It'mll d''ilTl.anl lcd Icoll r1<.'sy U ~(jSI,

b. Seven circular grai n silos ...,h,bil a cu~i

hnear pattern on Ihis southeastern farm

c . Random. ~inlKl\ls br.tiu...-d stream pancm

(\Il a 'WId)' soil at Pen Branch. Sc.

d. T.. wnshi p & Rang...sun ey

e. Systematic. linear row~ of potatoes

wnh some dama~d ldan.: l hy late blight.

f. Radinnng road paucm in Paris (S,wln-

pancm nn mullll"<.! "'HI III Te xas,

Figu re 5- 11

Elements of Image lntcrp rcmtion -

fo reign countries can usc thei r own aerial reconnaiss ance

Icd1tlu!ogy to verity rhar the ~pcl: i fled number of 11-52s have
been rcmov .'J from service as part o f the strategic arms limitation process. Heuvy equipmen t mov ing between the a ircraft creates a unique curvilinear transpnrunion pattern .
Seven large silos USl'U to store agr icult ural gra in are seen in
Figure 5-11b. The indiv idual si los are c ircu lar hUI they arc
s itua ted in a curvilinear puucm on the landscape. Num ero us
rectangular farm hu ild ing s orie nted nort h-sou th arc arra nged
in a random fashion.
..\ random. sinuous braided stream patte rn is present at the
mou th \.1" Pe n Brunch. SC . in Fjgure 5- lle. Th is particu lar
pancm resembles braided hair. hence the terminology. The:
major dra inage patte rns , isi Me m remote ly sensed data are
d iscussed in Chapter 13.

fnnn <pu![uk aru.l Acr-a l Inml!cs.l nc .).

Pattern.

Figure ~ I I d dcpicrs the syst ematically surveyed Townsf

& Range cadastra l syst em superimposed on an ag ricuhun
region in Texas . The NAPI} photograph reveals sma ll farmste ads separated hy large t ract s of agriculrumllund, T he ,oi
moist ure and sllil ly pe differences in the field s com bine t
cr eate all unsystcm.uic, mott led soi l texture.
Poutocs arrange d in sys tem atically spaced linea r ro ws iII't
she.... n in Figu re 51I e. various rows arc arranged in a reo
ang ular patte rn. T his nea r-infra red photo graph reveals tRl:
so me o f rhe fields tha t appear da rk have ex perienced latc
blight damage.
A KV RIQOO Russian sat clluc photograph revea ls the s~,.
tcmatic, radiat ing mad pattern cemcred on the Arch de Triumph III Pari s (Figu re 5- 11 I).

EI

14 1

Ele ments of Image Interp ret atio n

Shadel"

t. People .mJ bcndlC1> recorded in kire

photoil12phy

.wurtc~~ ' Cn~

11.:"1,,,'11 ,

d, Pyramitls of Gi"a I C\'lIr1cs~'

"e So" in-

f"'Wlllnik and Acr iallmJl!cs. IIK I

b. Shadows ca'<t from La Gkw-i<-tlc A~h

of (j lor~- - In "icnna. ,\ ..>In..

c, Shadows provi de inform at ion about

object heights (cmcr~c. lnct.

Figure 5 12

Elements of Image hucrprcrmion

Shadow

"p

""n
)iJ
10

.re
ct01

ue
.~

,.

M,I\( remote sensor data is collected within .!. .:! hours of

srbr nonn to avoid extensive shadows in the imngcry. This
sjecause shadows from OOjl'C(S can obscure other ohjects
lhatmight otherwise be detected and identifi ed. On the othe r
WiJ. the shadow or .,illwll;'f/(' cast hy a ll object may he the
ooI~ rest due 10 an object".. ide nt ity. FI'r example. consider
*c shadows cast b) 1\1.0 people stand ing 011 :1 pier and the
ibadows cast II)" benches in fi gure 5-123, The shadows in
il: image actuall y provide more m fonua uon than th...
~ themselves. La Gtoncuc
Arch o f G lory - in
Ilelma. Austria. has unique statues on lnp o f it ( Figure 52b1. Through carcfulcvaluauon of till' sha dows in the vcr.DI photograph. it is po....ihle to determine the location of
ibeltitues on lOpo f the huild ing. Siml l:.rly_ sha dows cas t t'ty
s:p:s or bridges IFigu re 5- 12..: I arc otlcn more mformanvc
. . the objects thcrnsclv es in vertical aerial photography.

c. Rridgo:: and sign shaJo"~

Il'"",.dc valuable inf"m.ali"n.

r. Onenr images stllhm , hadows fall

t"..'anithe newer durinl! illla!:c allalysb
Shadr",. ,

Very ,111;111-s"';tlc photog.raphy or irnagl'r) usua lly docs not

ronrain sh;ulo\Vs ,l ( objects lInle'ss lhcy protrude a great disranee above su rro und Il l !:!. terrain suc h as mountains.
extremely tall buildings, etc. Fur cxumplc. consider the
shadows cas t by the g reat pyrnmirts o f( jin in Egypt (Figure
5-12 dl, lhc distinctive ~h; ld ow~ arc very diag nos tic during
image interpretation.
In certain instan.:es, shadows can provide clue.. uhout the
hciglu of an object \\ hen the image inte rpre te r do es nut have
accevs ro stereoscopic imagery. for exa mple. the building
shadows ill f igure 5- I.:!e provide valuable mformauon abo ut
111..- relati ve IK'ight o f the bu ildin g abov e the ground. i.e. tha t
it lS~' one-story ..ing le-farm ly residen ce. Chapter tJ (P hotogranunctryj describe... how shadow in for mation can hoc used
10 measure the hcighr of objects.
When uucrprcnng imagery w ith substantia l shade.... s. it is a
good pracncc to oncm the imagel')' !>O tha t the shadows fa ll

C1t" .' n :n

142

Elemen ts o f Vis ua l Image Interp re tation

IIcighl a nd Dept h

a. Rei ic f "ll ~I'IaCCI11 <nt is au importa nt

mnn" 'l:opi ,' cue about object h ci ~ hl

Fig ure 5 13

h. Shadow s lind m;L, "il1!ol in duwmown Sun

Francis.." (c(ltlnc'}' (iO:(1I-yl', Inc. I.

c. Buthytnctry o f Montc ruy Buy. CA

(court..-sy l UW.l n..:.: S['<lI' Image. In'l

Elements of Image lntcrprctauon - Height and Depth.

toward rhc image interpreter such as tho se shown in Figure

5- 12f. This kee ps the anal yst rrom cvpericnci ng p.\ t'''c/'' n 'opic il/u.\iOIl .... here 10" points appear h i ~h and vice n :rsa.
Fo r example. it is difficult to interpret thc ph otogra ph of the
forest and .... etland shown in Figure 5- 12f\\'h..:n it is " 1(".... 00
wuh the shade .... s fallin g away frcru the \ ie.... cr. Please turn
the page around 1ROO and sec how diffi cutr it is 10 interpret
correctly. Unfortu nat ely. most aeri al phot og raph) {If the:
no rthern hemis phere is obta ined during the lea f-off spring
mon ths when the Sun casts sha dows nort hward . This can be
quite disc oncerting . The solution is to reorient the photographs so thai so uth is at the top. Unfcnu uarcly, if we ha\e
to ma ke a photom ap or on hop hotomap o ft he study area. it is
ca rtographic conv enuon In oricmthe map with no rth at the
to p. Th is can then cause some pro b lem s when laypc rsun s
irucrprct the photomap because they do not know about
pscudoscopic illusion.
Shadow s on radar imagery nrc comp letely black and contain
intormauon. Fortunately, th is is 1101 the case with Sh~IJ
ow s on aerial photograp hy, Wh ile it may he relat ively dar k
in the shallow area, there may still be sufficie nt light seattcrcd into thea rea by surrounding ohjcels to illuminate thc
lcrrain to so me de gree and enabl e car e ful image intcrprctuuon to take place ,

lin

Height and Depth

The ab ility, to \ isua lly appreciate and measure the hvigh t

(elc\atiO!11or de pth (hmh)'metl) I o f an ohjC'Ct (lr land lonn is
one o f the mo.;l d ia g n~lst ie clements ( I f ima ge interpretation
( Figure 5-13). Stere oscopic para llax i ~ intr. 'dueed 10

rcrmnely sen sed data w hen the sam e obj ect is viewed fra
two d ifferent va ntage: points along a fhghrline. Vie:\\11
these ()\ cr la pping photographs o r imag es using 5 rl'rtU.~('O~
in-arumenrs is the op timum method lo r visually appreciatia
the three -dimensi onality of the terrain a nd for e,\ tractil
acc urate x.y. and c topograph ic and'or bathyme tric mforra
lion . Tech n iques of stereoscopic analysis are presented i
Cha pter f> 1Phot ogra rnmct ry j.
How ever.t here are als o m mUHl"fll'ic cues tha t we ca n use t
apprecia te the hc igfu or dep th o f a n object. For exam ple. aD
obj ect such as a building o r utility pole that protrudes ab.n
the local da tum w ill ex hibit radial rel ief d isplaceme nt ott
ward from th.: princi pa l p oim III'a ty pical \ ert ica l ae rial phi
tc graph. In effect, we arc able to sec the side of the fcatur
as dcmon strated in Fig ure 5 IJa. Al so , call o bjects protrudu
above rhc local datum cust a shadow that pruv ides d lllgnust
height or elevation infonnmion such as rhc various buildinj
in San Francisco shown in l' ig llTe 5- 1.~ h . Also. maskir
rake s place in some images \\ here tall objects obscu
I,hjce ls behind them. ll1 a~ ill g it cle ar that one object II:
grc urcr elevation than anot her. For example. the build ing
the IUp of Figu re 5-lJb is ma sk ing the buildi ngs beh ind
su~es ti ng thai it ha s greater he igh t.
T h!." o pti mu m me thod o f obt a ining harhymctnc measur
ments is to usc a Minar re mot e !>Cllsing de vice wh ich SI.-'I'lI
OUI a pu lse (If sound and measures how long it takes lor d
sound 10 pass th roug h Ihe water co lumn. bou nce off the: be
10 m. and be rc-ccrdcd b) the se nso r. Th e image o f r.lo ll1c:n
Hay. CA. in }-' igu re 5-l.k "as oh ta in~ using SO NA R ar
ntc:f)!.l,.oJ " ith a SPOT ima ge: \If the: t .:rre~tri al lands ca.po:.

Elemenls a t Image Inte rp rel a t ion

143

Site. Sit ua tio n. and Associat ion

r
a. TlImn;I.I electric lI..yll<:~ Slo,:..m
Plan' 111 Lonlll-k..ch. CA

Figure 5-1 4

b. A :S.a\'-mlll \'-ilb its assccratcd I'rlc~

tlf raw and Iimsbed lumber .
Elements of lmage Interpretation -

SiIe. Situation, and Association

r-

,.

f. siluutiUll, and associatum characteristics an: ve ry

IllpQllanl ~ hen try ing 10 identify an objcxt or ac uvuy, A site
unique physical and/or socioeconomic charactensrics.
The physical charac tcrisncs might include elevation, slope.
I:IpCCI. and lyre o f su rface cove r (c.g.. ha re so il, grass.
lluub scrub. rangeland. f(lre~I, water, as pha lt. concrete.
iooling. ctc.]. Socioeconomic sire characteristics might
1lC1ud<. the value (If the: land, the land-tenure system at rhe
!lk(metcs and bounds \l'r-.us To\\n~hi p and Range ). adja~n.:y I.) water, an d. LIT adjael'ncy to a certain type o f pop ula IXIn (pr{lk~~ional. blue-collar. retired . etc.).

5il~ali(JIl

,~

s,
s
rt

I.

,
e

y
j

refers IU how certain objects in the sce ne: ore crg nlIIed and oriented re lative to nn e another. Otten, ce rtain raw
aaeria!s, buildings. pipelines. and finished produ cts arc s ilsated in a logical. predictable ma nne r.

,l uo(i"lio" re fe rs til the I ~lct that whe n yo u li nd a cert ain

Jil~nomcna or aruviry, you <llmosl invariably encounter
elated or associated features or activities. Site, situation,
Ild association elements of image imc rp rctauon arc rare ly
tied independen tly when analyzing <I ll image, Rather, they
are used synergis tica lly to arrive at a log ical co ncl usio n. Fo r
rumple. sewage d isposa l plants arc a l m o~t always located
iIIItlat sites situa ted nca r a wurcr sou rce so they ca n dispose
oithetreated water, and they ex isl rel:lliwly close 10the prookln~ communi ty. Large commercial shopping malls typially' have multiple large buil dings o n k\c1 siles, massive
tmking lOIs. and arc ideally ,iluall-d ne:lr major tra nsJlOrlallOI'I anerics and populatiun centers.

c. Vot/:k I'\u.:kar Pewer Planl

near"U~LJ'la.

OA.

Sileo SrIUJli.lll. and i\s....xianon.

Thermal electric power plants such as the Hayne s Steam

Plan t in Long Bea ch. CA. sho w n in Figure 5-1 4a are usually
located 011 Ila r. ....eu-engmeered sites wi th lal}!e: tanks of
pct rolcumror other type of natural rc-sourcet nearby that is
burned 10 create steam 10 prope l the electric ge nerators.
vta n- made levies. ca lled "rcv cuuc nts," often cncom pa..s the
tan k farm to contain the petrole um in the event o f an accident. Thermal electric power p lants arc ofte n assoc iated with
some type n f ro:circulating cooling J'l'lIlds. The wate r is used
10 cool critica l steam-generating com ponents.
Sa" mills such iI" the on e shown in Fig ure 5- 14b arc usually
sued on flatte rrain .... ithin 20 kill o f ma ny stands o ft ree s and
ass ociated wit h larg c piles (If raw tim ber. well -organ ized
piles o f finished lumbe r. a fu rnac e to d ispose of w ood waste
prod ucts, and a n ex tensive pro ce ss ing fac ility. Railroad
spun; arc often L1 Sl'd 10 transport the finished lum ber or
wood-chip p rod ucts to marke t.

Nuclear power plants exist nil extremely we ll-engineered

level sites . The)' ha ve large conc rete reac tor co ntainment
bu ilJing(sl . Th e , ile may contain large recircula ting cooling
water pond s or enormous cooli ng 10 \\ crs such as thos e und er
construc tion at the VOJl tk Nuclear Pow er Plant near
Augusta. GA, in Figure 5-14c. Po wer-generat ing plants do
nor need to he ndjacern to the co nsu ming popu lation as elcctncuy can be transported economically great dis tanc es.
Expe rt image: a nalysts bring 10 hear sue, situation. an d association knowledge III an image interprc-rarion problem. Such
know k-dge is obtailll-d by ohse1\' illg phenomcna in the: rcal
w{lrld. The best image ana lysts have seen an d ap prec iate a
d iH'r.>c am I)' o f nat ural ilnd man- mad.: en \ ironmems. It is
d illicult 10 iden tify an objeci in an ima!,:e: if Ol1e has never

C " :\ I' IH-/.

144

the object in the real worhl and docs not ap preciate its
site. si tu auo n. arul associa tion cbaracren-aics.

"lOC Il

Ele me n ts of VIsua l Imag e Interpretation

Table 5-2.

Methods of Search

t 'olla rcralm formauon l\!Im use d in Ihc inte

tion l)l' aerial photography a nd u lher rcrllVld)
sensed data 1Il the Umtcd Slates.

ColiaterailntormatJon

Topic

lmcrnational Map o f the World I :1.000,000 I

" Itilma l Gcospmal-Inrclligcncc A g L'11l")'
i:>;GAl t.l()(I.OOO: I:ZSO.OOO
USGS 7.S-min 1:24,000
L'S(iS IS-min 1:63.360
Image hro ...<in:sysk'ms: Googlc Emit.
Space Ima lling, l>ig ilaIGloho::. S POT

Gc:nl'ral
oden.alio n

Phoro-i nterpretauon ha-, been taki ng place since Gaspard

Felix Toumac hon (NOlda!l too k the fin>! successful aeria l
photograph in France in 1l'5X. Over the years. scie ntists
have developed some valuable app roaches 10 interpreting
remotely sensed da ta. including; I ) utilizing colla teral
(anci llary) info rmat ion, 2J converging the c vid...nee. and J)
apply ing tho: multi-concept in image analysis.

Bouodario.' ~

or

d ist r icts

Using Coflateral Information

USGS 7,S-min 1:24.(100

USGS IS-min 1:63.360
Boards "tatc, ccurny. ciry. school. fire.
voting, ...ater. ....wer

e ' ly and counly 13' maps

Trained image unc rprcters rarely interpret aeria l photography or other remote se nsor da ta in a vacuum. Instead , they
collect as much ('vlfuItTtll (u ll en called " " d ll,,,)' ) informalion about the subject a nd the study area as poss ible. Some of
the major types of collateral information arc summarized in
Table 5-2. incl uding the usc of a variety of ma ps for o rientauo n. polit ical boundary information. prope rty line cadastra l
data, geodetic control (x,!,,:). fo rest stand dat a, geologic
data, ha za rd informatio n. sur face and s u bs u rface hydro logi c
data, socioeconomic dam. soil ta xon omy, topographic and
bath ymetric data, tra nsportanon fea tures. and wetland information . Ideally, these data nrc stored in a gcogr.Iph ic information sys te m l (, IS) fo r cavy retrie val and ove rlay wit h the
remote sensor da ta ,

It is useful In contact the loc al :-.J ati on al weather Se rvi ce to

obtain quanrirnuve inform.uiou onrbc meteo rological cond itions rhat occurred 011 th<.: day the remote sensor data were

colle cted (c1ollll cover. visibility, a nd precipi tation) a nd tor

till' d<t y s preceding data cnlk d ioll. US( ,S water-supply a nd
strcurn-g.urgc report s urc al so use ful.
Scicurisrs also obtain local st reet maps. terrest ria l photographs. local an d rcg jonnl geogra phy boo ks. and j ournal and
popular mag-al ine aruck-s aboutthe loca le or subject m ail er.

G("od etic

USGS digita l line graph - clc vatioe

("onlr,,1

:>.GS - nautical and bathymetric charts

Fu n ..., !}

L'SrS - furl"'l stand illf" rm'lIiofi

USGS - surfece and su bs urfa ce
FEMA - flood msura nce maps
USCG - environmental s.,:ll)iti\i ty mdex

USGS digu a l line graph - surface h~dml~

!'\GS - nau tic al and bathyme tric charts
US(iS - water-supply reports
USGS - strea m ga uge reports

Sud ,,
l'ClJllt1 ll1 k

- l'e n "l l ~ I m c l ~

Sl"S. NRl"S
T"l' u ~ nl tJh)'1

hnl h.\'IlI\'lry

soil taxon omy mars

USGS - Na tional e k va liull da lase tl NED)

~ (i '\ . d igil:iI terrain elevation data (DTEDI
USl( j - nauti cal ;IIlU bathymetric <.:h'\I1$
USUS d igital line g raph - rraus port ation

lJUrtll'iun

County and state transportation maps

W Clll11l'r i

~ati<l I\:l1

Wcmller Service - ;..j EXRAl>

a tm"" ph H l'
US( iS - National ,""clland Inve ntory map'
;.!OAA - Coastal change analysis program

data can be geome tric ally regist ered 10 the s pa tia l informsin the (ilS d.ua bace and im portan t in te rrelat ionships

uon

evalua ted.

O tten muc h of this co llateral spatial information is stored i n

a G IS. Th is is particularly use ful since the remote sensor

Tran c-

Th e y Ialk w ith local experts . well-trained im age analy sts g el

into the fiehl III ap precia te firsthand the lay of the land, its

subtle so il and vegetation cha racte ristics. the d rainage and

geomorphic conduicns. and human cu ltural impact.

Bureau of the ( 'ensus - de mograp hic data

- T IGER bl,,<,.'k data

lletllod s 0 1 Search

Convergence of Evidence

b is 3 good idea to "01'1,. from the known 10 the unknow n.

fill'ua mplc, perhap s we arc ha ving diffi culty idenutying a
pmicular type: o f i nd u ~ l ry in an ae rial photog raph. Ca reful

euminuuon uf wha t W I: l,hl know about things surrounding

r.r.d influencing the objec t o f interest ca n provide valuable
t!ut"> that could a llow us to ma ke the identification. Th is
might include a care ful lntc rprctauon o f'thc building ch araceisncs (len gt h. w idth. he ig ht, num ber of sto ries, 'ypC' of
~Irul'ti on l. the surro unding trans portation pattern fe .g ..
pui1l1g fae iliti l"S. railroad spur to the building, adjal'e f:t 10
.. mtl'J'Stale L sill: slope an d as pect. site drainage ch arac ter1ItlrS. unique u l ilili~ coming into or ou t o f the faci lity (p ipe~ water intake or out pull. unus ua l raw materials Ill'
fiaished products in \ iew ou tside the build ing, an d methods
ofuansJ"'lIr1i ng the raw and finished goods [tractor traile rs,
Iroding docks, ram ps. crc.). We br ing all thc k ne w ledge we
!live to the image intcrp rcunlon problem and COn\'t'/b'I ' our
nid<'l1('I'tu idc nti fy the object or process a t work ,
Let us consider another exam ple of conve rgence of eviJrnce, Sup pose we " ere asked to desc ribe the type \ 11' airport
f&: ility shown in Fig ure 5 15. AI first glance we migh t conclude that this is a c ivilian airport wnh com merc ia l jet s.
ihlYle\eT. upo n closer inspection we lOCe that jets ~ . J. and 6
appear normal [c.g., larg e de lta-shaped Boein g 707s), but
,IrtS ~ and 5 ex hib it substa ntially di fferent sh adow pa lleITlS
III the fusda" e and on the ground. Jcl number I a lso exhi bits
~ unusual sha dow char acteristics. Funhcrrnorc , \\ e no te
wt jets 4 and 5 have an un usual da rk c ircul ar o bj ect with a
ll.bilC bar on it Ihat appea rs to lit.' on lop o f the jcts.

An Image analyst th:n has see n a Boeing E-J A irb(lmt,. W:-lm mg and ('onl wf Systc m (AI,l.'ACS ) a ireratl o n tht,.' gro und
~ llu l d probably ide nti fy the AWACS aircra n <.] ukk ly, NOIlmilitmy image ana lyst, wou ld need to

145

The li~t step 10 curnoullagc an [ -3 sittillg tin the tarmac

\\t'ultl he 10 alig n the whit e bar w ith the fusdage t ple ase
r...fer 10 jet 11.

The Multi-concept

Kober! Colwell ofthe Forestry Department at the Unive rsity

(If California at Be rkel ey put forth the /11l/ fri-l' /JI/('{'PI in
imag e interpretation in the 1960s (Colwell, 19(17). Il l.' suggesrcd that the most use ful and accurar... met hod of sc ient! fie
image uucrp rcration consisted o f perform ing the 1'0110" ing

types of ana lysis: multispectral. m/llfidi ~drl;lfan', 111II1Ii-

scale. and nmltnemporal. The multi-concept was funhc r

elaborated upon by Es tes CI at ( 1983 1and Tcng ( 1997).
Colwell pioneered the use of nndtiband aerial photograp hy
a nd ItIllltiv><,aral re mote sensor da ta . lie docu mcnrcd tha r in
agric ulture and forest environments. measurcmenrs mad e in
mult ip le dis crete wavelength reg io n, (ha ndsj ofthe elec tro magnetic spectrum we re usua lly more valuable than acquiring sing k broadband panchrnrnmic-rype imagery. For
cx amp le. Fig ure 5-7 d{lCIl111C l1 h~d the s ig nilic a nl difference
in iuformarion content fo und in green . red. und ncar-in frared
r nuluspcc unl images ofmangrove .
Colwell a bo suggested that mulnscale (o fte n culled multislage) photography Ill' imaglJ;.' o f an area was very im portent. Sm aller -sea It' Ima ge!) It.'...J :XH.!)fI()1 was useful lo r
placing intermediate scale imagl'T) (c.g.. I ;40 .000) in its
prope r regiona l co ntext . Then. very large-sca le imagery
te.g.. > 1: IO.f)lXI) could be used 10 provide detailed inform arion about local phe nomena. lnsuu field invcsrig urion is the
Iargesl scale utilized and is w ry importa nt , Fuc h sca le of
image ry pro\ ides uniq ue inlilm wlinll Iha l ca n be u ~ed to calibrat e the others.
Prn lt-ss<l r {'ulwe ll

\\I llS 11

g rt'at bc lie\'l'r ill bringing many

flllI lridi,I{";p lilf'II'Y' exp.:I1S togl,tht.' r 10 locus o n ;l re llWh: se ns-

' nute Ihe absc llec of co mmercia l a irptln passen ger

hoarding/unloa ding ramp lae ililies suggl'sting Ihal this is a
military ai rpt.Jr1:
namin"' lh... unusua l shadll\\ palte ms:
, consult manuals containi ng c.\ amp1cs o f va rious l'a ndi da le
aircrnft thai could casl slll' h shado\\s (e.g., Figu rt.' 5- 11 hl:
, com er!:'... the e vidence 10 arri\ e allhe co rrccl conclus ion.

illg illl;!g.e alla lysis nr info n nat iol1 ("x tralti.)n prClhle m, Thc
re<ll \\ (lrld t,."{' ,"sists of so ils. ~u r f3ee and subsu rface gt,.' o log y.
\,ege lali.1I1, \\'a ll.'r. al mt1sphere. and man-m ade urb an strucIUTC. In th is age (If incre as ing sci("fltific s('II:'C iali7.:1lion, it is
,h llicult 1(11' any (lne ~Nll1 10 be ab le 10 unJen.land and
e.\l!a..:t all lht.' pc rtinl'llt and \al uahk infomlalioll present
wilhin a remote se nsor image. There fo re, Colwell strongl y
S Il~l'stetJ that image analy:.t~ embrace Ih..: inpul o f ot h...r
rnult id is....iplinary sci lnt i:.t~ in the image intt,.'rpreta tion proClSS. Th is philos ophy <l ml process often yicl ds s) l1crg islie.
011\"'1. a nd unex pec ted re~ u lt s as m ullid isci plinary sci"'l1l ists
each bring the ir expert ise to he;lr O il the landsenp"c a pprt.'e inlio n pfllblL' lll (OOI1I1.1y et al.. 20( 1). Tahl e 5-3 !ists thl' rlisc i-

-5

C H , ,.., Hoi

146

Element s of Vis ual Image In terpretation

,II fl diam rer

h. Ruynl S~udi Air Force ll CX' iol: f . Aimumc

Wami"g JnJ Contr,,1 Sy ,t,-", (AWACS ).

Figu re 5- 15

al Panchromatic image (6 1 x o [ em) 01an airport in Riyadh. "n udi A nll:..ia, obtained ou December 9, :WOI (court..':>} of D; ~~
wlG lubc . lnc.). b) Tcrrcstri...1 \ le\\ of the Roya l Saudi A il Force version of the E .l Airhorne Warn ing and Control SystM
(AWACS) aircran. The 1:-3 is equipped ....ith a I,)(.k-4,.... n" radar lhat can separate <inborn.: targets frum the ground and liQ;
cluucr returns. It, n...Iar "eye" ha>. a 360" view of tbe iwri/un and can -'<.-0: m<>re tha n 320 km CWO mil. The U.S . Air Forte,
!\AIO. I Me<! Kingdo m, France arK! Saudi :\r.lN a ''fIl"I'3''~' AW,\C"lspecd > KUO kmlh r t500 mi/hr); Ceilmg > 10.670
(35.000 ft); Lndurance > II huun. WIthout rt:"fudin~; Ran b.... , 9.150 km (5,000 nautica l mi)1 ( R,)Cing. 2005 I.

phn es of co lleagues that etten colla borate when

ancally sluJy ing a certa in topic.

s~ stem-

While single-date remote sens ing invcstigauons ca n y ield

impo rtant "information, they do not alway s provide inform-

11011 abo ut the proce sses <It work. C onversely, a multitcmpo,.,,1 rem ote sensi ng investigat ion o btai ns more tha n one
image of an obje ct. Monit o ring the phenomena through time
allows us \0 unde rstandthe pro cesses ut work and to develop
pred ictive mode ls (Lunetta and l.Ividge , 19'IX; Sc hill er al.,

Conclusion

T~ 5-3 ,

147

Multidisc iplinary s<: icm i~ls bring their unique training Itl th e' imn!.!... ime rpretation proc('s s.

Topic

Discip lin es
A t;wnn rny. agric ultu ralengineering. b iolo gy.

biOfl'Ogl':lphy. gL"t,I,). landscape ecology,

soil science
liodi'f"I'lit y.
u billl
Da[lbl~

and

Ilptil hm
prqllu lH."

Tomlry.
~tllnd

Concl us ion

8iu hlJ:!.) , I"" lugy . biogeography, landscape

C:C01og)'. marine science, soil science

Ca"~raph).

G IS. comp uter science. ph<>t,..

grammctry, I'rt'1,'Tarn ming. analyt ica l

modelrn g

Forestry, Igrooomy. rangeland ecology . tandscape ecology. t>iog>g' J.phy. wi l SCk:ncC

\ \ 'e: now havc an unde rstandi ng o ft he funda menta l eleme nts

o f image interpretation . w e can untize the elements o f image
intcrprctauon III care fully analyze aerial photography or
other tyJ!"s (If optica l (b lue , green , red . and nca r-infra red
....a\'dcnglhl re mote sensor da ta . Based on this foundat ion ,
we ar... pr... pa red to pro~n..'1>s to mo re so phist ica ted ima ge
ana lys is techniques . incl udin g the extracrion of quanutauve
informauon from rem ote sensor d ata us ing pri nl i plC.'~ of
photogramrn... try,

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Geo logy. g....wnorpbology, :tP \JnOfJ1 Y.

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Il yd n.l logy, chcnusr ry.

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bllh ~m<:l r~
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residential urban developmen t. ha ve bee n fo und 10

liIldergo pred ictable c ycles tha t ca ll be monitored us ing
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all

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1:""I"I"IIIn",,,I. 7<,1; 14 5- 14/>.

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wilh A"/,Jwufw,u In GIS, rc v.: \ I d 'r<lw H ill. (lUll p.

,"

Photogrammetry

"

,.

P
/

lOl Og r Um m err y is the an and science of mak ing accurate meas uremen ts h)
mea ns of aeria l photograph) . .-t"<1fog pho('IMrammltry is performed using
da ta that are in a hard -copy format such as a 9 x Q in. ae ria l pho to gra phic pri nt
Of positive transparency. {Jix ita1flhotogmmmt'rfy j " pcrfOrTTh."1J u..i n ~ a cornpurer and digital or digitized aeria l photography. Xcit hcr method is su per io r
to the ot her. Each a pproach has an appropria te m it: depend ing upon the nature
of the remote sensor data and the image anal) sis go,als, Th is chaprcr focu sc~
011 meth ods to extrac t qnuntuutive infcrmauon from aeri al pho tography using
hOlh analog and digital photogrammctric rcchrnqucv

lido..... arc important mcasurc mcms that can he obraincd from a .\I1Il~h verti cal aerial photograph using analog or digital photogrammctric techni ques:
scale of'thc photography:
object height:
object length:

area o f an objec t or polygon;

perimeter of an object or polygon:

the grayscale tone or color of an object .

The follo wing qua ntitative measure ments may he made using multiple [overlapp ing ) ste reosco p ic aerial ph otographs and analog or digiralrncasurcmen t
of stereoscopic paralla x (to be defined]:

precise planimetric (x.y) object location (If buildin g footprints, streets.

hydrolog y, and shorelines in a standa rd map proj ection:
precise o bj ect heig ht (z) .
In add ition. digita l photogn nnmctric techniques applied [0 stereoscopic ae rial
photography can yield:

digital elevation models (D E\1 ):

bathymetric mod els :

149

CIIA PT ER

150

FliJ;:h l li ne., r .\ n i al

J'huI Ol:noph~

Block 01( " l'r ho! f'h olol:l"aph )

-------- [)trC<..1 ion o f F1i~h l------....~

bposurc :;!<IUoo

"
V
'V""'"
"

.,
V

Obh<tue p/Jol~ 11<1)

:x:qui~ al the n>d or,

r--lL..,=,1,,'E~l--\
'5::':':~"::;=.
Fli~ll;"" III

Alu!Ulk
ab,,'-e
ground

1"",,1.11

Flighllinc 113

l--

(,()% on-dar
Stereoscopic m"JcI
("".",age <lfphmol1.aph - l

nmm recorded on three

1---1SIKC,",S' '''Cp hlll"l1ra phs

Fig ure 6 -1

Photogrammetry

A single Ilightlinc of vertica l aeria l photo graphy

wuh 60 percent ove rlap Icndlap j obtain c ,J utrhree
csposurc sranons /I O1, OIl"N abo ve grou nd level.

Figure 6-2

T 20 - JU"

.1 ~'dd4'

..

A block of "~'riill photogr aphy is produce d by

rographing multiple tlrghttines that have 20-J{I

cent sidclap . SUUle ~,hli~l le aer ial photogr aphy

be acquired at the end of a thg t uline if the
came ra is not turned oIl"<l uring the turn.

vlope and as pec t in form ation deri ved from the digita l
models:

So metim es ae ria l photographs are acq uired w ith >80 pc

overlap in mountai nou s terrain [Konecn y, 2003 ),

planimetrically accurate (f..l ) onhophotogra phs.

\I ost aerial photography project s require multiple l1ightl ~

of pho tog raph y to cover the ~eogra phic area of mr
Wh en th is occurs. the Iligh tlin cs are normally overlapped
20 -]0 pe rcent. referred 10 as 5it1c1"p (Figures 6- 2 and 6-3
To acqu ire mu ltip le thghtfines, a pilot mu st make a ISoot
al the e nd o f a lli ght lin e and the n fly in the o ppos ite di
non. Care shou ld be exerc ised when ana lyzing vert ical a
photo graphs acquired al the en d of a Ilighrlin e beca use s
photography obt a ined w hile the plane was banking dun
the tum may be oblique. The algorithms presen ted in
c hapter work best with nenr-vcrncal aerial photographs l::
From nadir). Sometimes wind or pilot erro r w ill cause I
plane 10 drift to the len or right ofthe desired line offlig
When th is occurs. the footp rint o f each photograph or
entire night lim: may be offset as shown in Figure 6-3b, Th~
is 111) 1 a se rious condition as lo ng as it doc s not become t~
seve re and the 60 percent overlap and 20---JO percent side
arc maintained.

.:1<: \ auon or bathymetric

FJig htiines of Vertical Aeri al Ph oto g raphy

It is nec essa ry to unde rsta nd how individual aer ial photogra phs arc acqu ired at various exposure .\'/(11 ;011.1' along a
n ight lim: befo re we can correctly apply photogrnmmctn c
tec hniq ues 10 ext ract quannta nv c measu rements .

or

A j/i!f,ll/lim'
vertical acriaf pho tography is obtain ed by
mounting a camera in an air cra u, he licopter, or spac en aJl
uml obtaining pluuographs the terrain di rect ly beneath the
p lat form at speci fic exposure sta tions. 111C geometry o f thre e
hypot hetical vertic al aerial photog rap hs tak en in succes sion
over rela tively leve l terrain arc de picted in Figu re 6- 1. Th e
time betw een individu al exposures a long a l1ightl ine is
determi ned by selli ng the came ra intcrvatomcter. The aerial
photographer takes into acc ount the spee d of the ai rcra ft an d
the scale o f'thc de sired photography and sets the intcrvalometer so that each vert ical ae ria l pholog raph overlaps the next
pho tograph in the tlighrline by approximately Nl pe rcen t
(referred to as stereoscopic overiup or end/ap) ( Linde r.
21)03). This mY'r/ap is very important beca use it provide s al
kasl two and sometimes three phtllll gra phie \ iew s of each
obj ec t in the rea l worl d along a llightlirK' [ Figu re 6- 1).

or

\1u ltiple tligfulines with 20--30 pe rce nt sidelap art' ref

to as a bJ,J':1t. o f ae ria l photogra ph) ' ( Fig ure 6-2). For exa
pie . co nsider a po rtio n o f a b lock of'verrical aeri a l photo~
phy of d(ll'." town Columb ia. SC . shown in Figu re e- Ja .
block consists oflhrcc photog raphs in each o f two llighlli
(#3 and ,,4\. The p hotog raphy were acquired on March
IIN3. at approximately 3.oon It above ground level wit h a 6in. ( 1 5~ .lo:2 mill ) focal- length lens and a Wild RC 10 carren
yie lding approx imat ely 1;6.000-sca lc photo grap hy. Th ere '

151

F1ighltines of Vertical Aeria l Photography

IUm..k of A ('ria ll'hotn:.:rap hy Cum pll ed to C rea te an Un controlled Phntu nmsaic

F~ure 6-3

a ) T\\ {l t1 i1Chtlin\'~ ( liJ and ~ 41 of I :t../l(I()!'oCalc vertical nc na l ph'lltl~r:a l'h ) (\fl 'olumbia. Sf', obtained ;It .l,nOfl It. allow local
gwumllnd lI~lng a o-in. (15!.K:! mrnj focal-length lcn c. I'll An uncontrolled phU"'I11<J'iOlie urthc t>l<Jd of aerial photography,

60 percent 0 \ erlap along each Ilight hnc and 20 p...rcent videepbctwccn the two Oightline!>.
h i~ possible to combme seve ral vert ical photogra phs III the
block orphotog raphy tu create an unccmtroltcd photomosaic

n :igurc (>-_'11 1. This exa mple depicts on ly six 1:6.000-!>Ca k

photographs. Acquirin g photography of a county, state or
country somenrnes requires thousands of photograp hs.
depending upon the sill.' of the country a nd the scale of the
phllll'graphy .Tahlc 6- 1 provi des several metric and English

ClI\I' I t :H.

152

Figur e 6-4

Ph otog ram metry

F'l ightl ill ." 1/.1. I'lw lll /;~ of \ ,'(1 ic 111 p.mchromat ic aerial ph,'1og raphy u f C olumbia. SC, " bla in,-ll I'll :\bn:h ~ (J. 1'1'l3, at apl'rox
im al d y :U J(llI It alll)\ ( g round level usmg a Wild ftC 10 camera '" uh a b-in. fo cal-lcnp th lei'S. TIll; pho lOgraphy depicts the
slate cap itol in the !ow<;r rihl corne r amlthc Univ...rsiry o r South Carolina campus ill Ill!; <:1:111I:r 1'1'the image . Eight fiducial
mark, arc r rCII' l1\, I he -urling" ancillary dxta conta ins w ry valuable mfonuutum. indmHng it verba l sca k ( 1 in. = 500 1\) 0U1
unfortunately l.h,l.'s tl llt show Ihe c xnct ultitudc. t ime oed"y. .uuount ofuh. ctc., th,u man y 111" \f i,' cnmcne, no w ro utinely prov ide , l his is;1 rcdlKt;nn ofth... original!) x <) in. I :6.!~ II),\ ak phlliogntp h.

unit eq uivalents tha i ca n be o f s ign ifican t val ue whe n measuring the length a nd w idth o f tligfufincs.
\1os1 of the acnul phl'll'gmphy acquired eac h year is
obtained in the ea rly spring lcaf-o ff'pcr iod when snow is nor
present and deciduous trees a TI' ~t; 1I dorm ant. This ma kes it
easi er for the image anilly"t tl' sec through the branc hes of
the ca nopy to the ground surface. This is es pecially importa nt if one is trying to ex tract topngraphic information from
st<:rel,scI,pit' ae rial phohlg raphy Ito be discusv edr .

Fidu cial Marks a n d Prin cipal Points

A typicule x I) in. p;lI1 d m llllJ li..: \ cnical aerial photograph is

sh""n in Figure 6 -4 ( reduced for printing purposes ). Note
the clght /i, Jllt'iallllarh locate din rbc four co rners and in 1m
centers uf the tou r s ilk s. Slime metric ca meras ha ve only
to ur fidu cia l marks. l>mwing a linc between op posite fi duera! mark s locates the
/1'1') o f thc photograph. which is the c.\ a":l pouu on the Earth \\ here the optical

,"''''<'iI'' ' '''!I!/!

153

Metry of Vertical Ae rial Photography

FitlUCial /
mark

,
~.
J.

Line of flig.hl

Principal
Point of

principal
Poiru of
Photo # I
1'1'1

!'hotl' Ir~

1"':

Lmc of

I'rincipill l'''"il ul
Photo " 1 eq ua ls
CUlljut;;II": Principal
Point of l' hoh' ';2

c.

Figure 6- 5

11/

I' rind pa! Pcim of

I' h" h' :12 equals
CUlljugat.: Principal
Point of Phoroe l

tiO% overlap ----" 1

stereoscopic model

a t G .."lI11elry " fa ~i llgl.: acrlnl phulllgrCl ph (Photo # 1 f. n il' pri!lcip;t1 point (1' 1') is 1"':llI l'l! Oil the intcrscctionof'Hncs dr awn
thnlligh Ilpfl< \,111 g" fiducm l mar ks. hI (i t'O O1ctry of Phoro 112. c ) Supcrpoxit inn \If ptn ,11' :: I und P!ll' h' #2. 1he /,1) percent overlap
urea cun be v ic w..J stcrcoscopicull y. NOll' the locat ion "I' the princ ipa I p"in l \ 1'1' llll id \,m jIlgale I'ri nci pal poims (Cl ' 1'1o n ea ch
I,hntr>fnph. .\ line drawn bctw ....-n th... pri ncipal points ilk'nt ilit.'s tlw hue .. r Il lght.

axis of the camera W ll~ poilltillg. tluring the instant o r '::1\1'0sure (Figure 65). By c.m: fu lly c:>.amining the \ icinity ofthe
principal po int on an airphoto. its locution C;Jn he visua lly
uansferred 10 each of the two adjacent p llt't"~ in the fligh tline. The transfe rred prind pJI point is called a {"(mjll~lll<"
prilld"..,' PfJilll lel'l'). The actualImc of l1ight (as opposed
kltne des ired line of n ig ht l can be dctcrrmucd b} laym g o ut
the photography an d draw ing a hue thro ugh the princ ipa l
points and conjuga te prmcipal point (Figuft' fl-; J.

Geo me try of Ver tical Aerial Photography

t\ diagram of the geomet ry ofa single vertical aerial photograph of dow ntow n Columbia, Sc. is show n in Figure 6-6.
In this e:l\Jmplc. :.l ') x v-in. negative w as obtained 011 e xposure station I. at
above ~3 level (If I wit h a local elcvauon nf:' tK lli (1Jl. '1he dev eloped nega tive image space tc',
b', r", and ,/ ', i ~ a revers al in butll tone and ~(,Cllllt:try of the
Eart h object !>pac ,' (A. fl . C. and n ) and is suuatcd a d istance

3.:mO n

en \ .. 1 Fit

\54

Photogram metry

tt

"l'~alh t'

(reversal of tone c
and geometry ]

Foc31
leng.th.

f
Exposure station. L

Camero len s

A lurude

abov e
sea leve l,
I!

Cont act posil iH'

print or
transparency

_ Sealevel
Fig ure 6-6

(i comc'lry .. fa vertical aeria l photograph oetaincd mer Ilattcrtain (C\ l]umbia. SCI .

eq ual tu the focal length I [d istance ,, /. , bchmd the rear

noda l point of the camera lens. A positive version or the
scene ca n be produced by co ntact-primi ng the negative .... ith
e ither photographic paper or pos itive transparency material.
The result is a posi tive print or positive transparency ~\ uh
tone and geometry t he same as that o f thc original obj ect
space. Th e re versal in geomet ry from negative to posi tive
space is seen by comparing the localions (,fnqwl iv<: image

p',ints ,, ', If, c', and d ' \.\ uh thei r corres ponding posinve
image points u. b. c. and J in Figure b- b .
The photographic coo rdinatc axes 1" and y radiate fro m the
principal po int in the positive co ntac t print, These axes are
import ant for photogmmmctric mcasu rcmcnu to be discussed. Because photoir ucrprcters often work with posulve
pruu-, or positiv e trans parencie s, they arc primari ly intercstcd in (he positions of images in the pos itive plane. Couse-

Selle and Heigh t Me a sureme nt o n Si ng le Vert ical Aerial P hot o g ra phs

155

example. if I ill. 011 an aerial photo graph rep resents .:!,OOO ft

(:!4.lXIO in. ) on the gro und. t h~' scale may be e xpressed as a:
Selected units and their equwalerus.
' ~rh.A scale:

hfetric

English
t.m ee r

Co nve rsion

;\' l'a ~un;-m('n t

,..,I,m. I'" (e", )

;" eh ( m.f

I"", 1l.~<JJ7 ; " ,

I in, "'2~4l'm

Mer/m)

f"..llfll

1m
I

ml\ctmif

sqlU~

,och ("'I m.J

1 ,2 ~1\

fl - tl ..\U~ m

I lm 0621 mi
I nu - I b l l m

I em! _ O. l~~ "I,n,

I "lilt. - bA5l b

"'l"a~fo<>l l"lft)

.m'

Im ~ -I07f>.l"l fl

I sq Ii . - 1l,1~12" m~

' 'I"alC " IL k (''I m , )

lofUlIIl' \:. ilom"'e r

('m~)

I k1l\'

1I..1 ~1,1 "l ,m

1 "'l mi " 2 Y' kll1 ~

1tCn:

Ina - IO,(NHI

m!

It...

2.4: 1 aUl"S
I....,,,, - 4 3 ,~I>f ' "l Ii.
I acre .. O.4U471u

' olume \I en ul"\'mt'nl

CIIbo:cmulTlCler(cm'l

e ub", ino.- h leu in.)

lem '

" .Ilt>I"um .

I ell,n . - 1t...1H7 em '

OOicmclatm l)

cllh,elOo4 leu tl.,

Im1_ H .3 15 cun
I ell ft. ., U, U2l<.\2 m'
l lo-I,I HHle m'

11o -1l 2N J!al

I J!.I 2~1 ,u in.

I in. = 2.000 fi

R" I"~""II/{/til'e.frl/{Ii" n:

24, I l) o r 1:24.0( 1),

On

When co m paring two scales. remember t ha t the larg er the

numbe r in the scale e xpress ion. the smatter the sca le. For
example. com pare the scale expressions 1/1 1,000 and 11
12.0(J1). The image of a g iven obj ect on the aerial photo gra ph
Will a":11I31 1y be large r on the larger scale 1/ 11 .noa-scale photograph. i.e., a l OO-)ard football field wi ll be larger on the I f
11,()()()-scale ph oto than on the 111:!JlOO-scale photogr aph.
Table t>-2 is a useful scale con version ch an.
.-\ verbal scale is somet imes found in the nthng ancillary
intormanon on the border of an ae rial phot ograp h. Wh ile
this scale ma y be correc t. it is much be tter to calculate the
e xact scale o f C \'CI) phlilograph that wi ll be used to ex trac t
phutogram metric measu rements . Se ver al methods arc ava il,,1\1<: for computing the scale o f ncria l photograph s obtained
o ver level or var iable rcficttcrrain.

Scale of a Vertica l Aerial Photog raph over Level Terrain

There arc I" 0 ma in met hod s of determining the scale of singlc a..ma l photog ra phs o btained o ver leve l terrain . One
involves com paring the looj,e uf objects measu r..-d in the real
world or from a map {c.g. the length o f a section o f road)
w ith the sa me object measu red on the aerial photograph. The
sec ond met hod involv ..' l' com puting the rctarionship between
cam era lcus focal len gth and the a ltitude o f the airc mtl above
grou nd level.
C u mpuli n;.: Sca lI' h)' C u tlll):lr in;.: Real-W orld Ohj eet S ile
ve r~ ll ~ I>hntogr:lphie Im:l\:l' Sin'

I [[<I I - 3.7K53 II

\OO111y, most of the line dra wings in this ch apter depict the
rositi\e rather than the negative p lane.

The sc ale. a. of a ve rtica l aeria l photogra ph obta ined over

nearly level te rrain is the rauo of the size of the ohject me asured on the aerial photograph, ob; co mpared 10 the ac tual
len gth of the obj c-ct in the real wo rld, A8 :
I

e-o

(6- 11

SC a le a nd He ight Me a surem e n t on S ingle

Vertic al Aerial Photograph s

The scale of an ae rial phlliog raph may he exp ressed as a rer/.v1.I'cule or as a 1'1'/11"/;'.\1'11/'1 / i Ie fract im l (dim ensionless ]. For

Th is relat ionship is ba sed on the geometry o f similar triangles l.an and L I B in Figu rl.'"s 6 6 and 6-7. To co mp ute sca le
\Ising Equation 0- 1. the image ana ly st ti rst idcn ufies an
object ill the vertical aer ial photograph whose leng th (A B)
was measu red on the g round or. more comm on ly, 'l\a s mea -

156

C H .,\ I . t K

Ph otogrammetry

Table 6 -2.

Scale

--

I :bUIl

t- I:-1.114111
-- --

+-

1: 2.000

I
1:3.t1410

in.

mi

permi

per In .

sq. In.
(" )

O ,I ~ l ~

ll .I I1'J ~I'

U , l ~ ~J

1>3.11>

(lUI"

It>O.1'>7

31.NI

0. U32

!~lt~1

21 12

nnn

J.n.))

15.114

uoe

1 : ~1I 11

I :~.OOO

1.(,7

50,00
~U l

I
I

m
per em

em
perkm

km
per em

0,11 11>1

_~ .l ~ 1

IH IOS

1I.IlS73')

lJ.(l! J 2

""

I" UO

I f>(>.f>l>

1l.0ut>

el ' ~<,l~ll

n 06.15

rom

iOO

0. 010

O.b377 1

O_~ SI

!o.un

~UJU

0.0 20

II.Sl<07

10 IMI

JU3

0 .0].0

!_S ~7

Im:J

40 .110

25.00

0 .(1411

,q~~

' 10 12'1

SO,OIl

10. 011

0 ,050

--

H4 ~

O.C P'l

1:6.000

~KI,(M I

10S6

l l,(~ I S

s.n'l!

!.J2! t>

1>0.00

I b.N>

uoeo

1: IU.lMNI

~ ,\ U _\

!>.J.l t>

II 1 ~ lI

I :;.'J.f~ I

hA S17

l l KI

l l UKI

0.100

1: 12.Il IHI

ll HK U IO

S .!.~ ll

0 ,1~ 'I

! ! .'JShK

\l.2<) (l5 ~

120.lx )

O J

11.120

4 ,224

II D 7

\ 5 ,K 71 ~ l

14 5 16-\

1 ~ IU ~ 1

I' .M.

0 , 150

J .I (,~

(Ill,.

63.7(>'12

25. ~070

2110. 00

'0

O.21 ~ )

2 Mll

I)

'1 1 ,~ 27 1

H. lf>2n

2.tll UO

" ""

0.240

I : IS.Ul Hl

12sn,<HI

l : z n ,( ~ 1O

lbN>67
210)(HI

I : H.lMHI

I
1:25.0011

2I1Ji.\.JJ

4' M ~J . IM I

1:4 110l 1O
1 :~.lIOO

41(06 .67

~21'1l.l 1l.1

1:t..1_lt>O
1 :I{H~

-2.5~
1.2!>7

(U'. :!.4

1 :2 5() , (lI ~1

2Ul\,\ .\.\.\

11 2<' \4

1:.'1 0 0 ,111111

1 11' (,(,.67

0 . 12 (,7

I: J. OIlII.IHHI

~ ,l\ H , I ,l

11 1)(>., 4

H' "f.-

(, J 3 1l(l

12

--

."U!l

p "

4O.J 2:H

HlI.(JO

' .00

1I.25 0

\f>7

\l~J

14 ~. M ~ 1

4~ O . Ik J

: 11M

O.41lO

J'IIU~"

11>1.:'93 5

"," 00

2.00

'-"0

Mll.1 1l1l.1

2:,'100~

f>.\ J

so

15K

0,634

1~ ?4.0(J

N 5. 174

1.(J(IU.(I(J

~ 'h.l "1J

4I).l! ..U ~

J 'I ~ 5 5 ,b J

15.n \

15'1422 ,4"

.",,,it
-633Wl

l " \.

I
1l . 7~ ~

0.7~"

--+I

1.5711
.\.'141>

--

'I'I .t>J~7

IU"~

U~1I

~ H l _ .\ \

11(,.72

sq. in.

12.61

0-

h.
pe'

-Ilb.1>1

1:5.0UU

acres
po<

ft
per in .
(.)

7.~ ') 1

,
H."tlO

sured fro m a re ference map . The analy st then mea sures th,,'
correspo nding dis ta nce on the photograph (ubI and so lves
for .f .
F{lr example. consider the ve rtical ae ria l phcrog raph of
downtown Colum bia. SC previously show n 10 Figu re (>~ .
The titling info nnanon sa) s the origina l pholognlph was
obtained lit II nominal scale { II' 1 in. "'- 5UO 11 ( I;/l.OOO). BUI is

2.~( HHH I

/lAO

2. 50

11> 129 .3 5

5,( IIM).(IO

0.2

5 .1 111

1>45 17.4 1

IO.lHHl./1l1

o.too

10,00

---

-scale
--

...0l...
2 ,47[

crate
,,~

IOCM MIO
S<',,/t-

1 0oo

uus l"\IITl..'CI"! ~' a ny subsequ e nt compmanons will make use

o f the sca le parameter. so it is imponan t m ma ke sure that lilt

km1" the ac tual sea l... of the photograph a nd not j ust a nomina l sca le.

In this e xamp le, we will firs t determine the sca le orrhc pholng.r<l ph u ~ i ng the road sho wn in Figure Il-X. The road width
Inun curb to curb " as 56. 1 n (AB) as measured in the field
lIsing a surve yo r's tape. The wid th of the same road was

157

Scale a nd He ig ht Me a sure me nt o n Single Vertical Ae ria l Pho tog raph s

Expnsure Statum . f.

Camera
lens

Pocaljcngth.

5'(1 , J I

"

llma~e

f>

spac~'

Allllutk:

above

ground
level,
H

Optical
axis __ I

-.

0, 1 M"

Priocipal Point

Real-wor jd

p nbjCCI space

The geometry of a vertica l ae ria l ph.>Iograph col-

F9Ure 5-7

lCCI~'<1

O\l."T rclOltl vd ) nat terrain.

t.m in. (./b ) on the \ crucal aerial photograph ( Figure 6 -8) .

Usi ng Equatio n 6- 1. the scale o f the photog raph is:
;

-".

0 . 113 "
56. 1;

AB

,"

0 . 11]'"

-190.46 ft .

Ju.lt to be sur e, the widt h of a nearby sidewalk was me a-

sured. The sidew alk was () [] in thc rea l world and (J,OI 2 in,
ontheaerial photog raph. I f we usc the wid lh of the sidewalk
tocompute the scale o f the phot ograp hy, we get 1:0.1100 :

".

AH

0.012'"

n.ol.:!"

6'

72"

Representative traction -

An enlargement of a portion of the aerial photograph show n in Figure tH. The gra pt nc sh.. ...s the
...idth of the f('I.l d from curti to clllto ( 50.1' ) and the
sidt:...aIL (6') as mea sured .bln g a surn~y ..r's tape
and measured on .he 3m 31phol ograph (O.llr and
t ) , (l 1 2 ~, fe~r":CII \ ely ). These measurements may be
used to compute the ".:~ lc (lflhe photograph in this
porti.. n "rIm: phOI' '1!fl< jlh.

5957.5 2"

673.2"

,
. r '
Rcprcscmu uvc
racuo n: 5957
Verbal scal e: I in.

Fig ure 6-8

'"

0(01)"
I

"lIno

verbal scale: I in . = 50n I\.

'o\'hcn computing scale, the goa l is 10 modify the inpul va lues so tha t the nume ra tor has a value o f one and both th....
eemerator and denomin ato r arc in the same unus. e.g., in
iJl,;hes, feet. or meters . Sometimes th is requires mul tip lying
bolh the nume rato r and denomin ator by the rec iproc al of the
numerator. T he best way 10 conceptualize scale is as a reprc-

sentativc fraction. The re fore, in this last example 1 in. o n the

photograph equals to,lIOO in . in the rea l wor ld ; I n on the
photograph eq ual s b ,OOO It : a nd I III on the ph otograph
equals 6. ODO m. W ith n represe nta tive fract ion , we elm work
in any nnu s we des ire.
To offsetthe e ffect s ol'airaaft t ill al the instant of e xpos ure,
the mcavurvmcnt o f sca le usin g this me thod sho uld he based
on the a verage o f SCleral scale checkpoints in the photograph, When possible . some ana lysts l jkc to co mpute t he
sc ale hy selecting object s alon g lines suc h as roa ds that intersec t ap proximately 'I t riglu ang les and are cen trally located
o n thc phu tl>graph . T hey rh... n co mpute an average scale
using seve ra l scale mcnsuremer us (~hk h ;t i l el al.. 200 11.

vertical aeria l photography scale can also be determ ined if

objects whose lengths are already kno wn appear on the photog ruph. A baseball d iam ond , foo tball field , or soc ce r field
may be me asured on the phlllOgraph and the photo scale
determined (1<; the ratio Ill' the photo dist ance 10 the kno .... n
gro und dis tance . For ex ample. what is the sca le of a vertic al
aerial photograph on wh ich the dis tanc e betwe en horne plate

n l -\ I~ n: H.

158

and first ba se eq uals 0. 5 in'! The d istance from home plate to

firs t has ," is (Xl ft. Therefore.

ah

AH

6
-

l'
(,0000 '

0.5 '"

Pho tog rammelry

,
6()(J()()

Verbal scale: I in. - 5000 ft .

By lra nsptlsing Equ atio n (>.2 ttl r..ad.

/I

'"

.,

2160"

""
I
Rcpr escnrauve
racuon: !160 '
Examp les {If ~ rorh field dim en sjons found throughout the
world are summarized in Chapter 12 (Remote Sensing thc
l

(6-'

man Landsca pe) .

Com pu lilll: Scetc h ~- Rchtl in l: Fuca! 1.001I1:Ih 10 Ahilu uc

A hoq' G r ound I ,("\ d ( ,\c ;I .)
Scale rna)' also be expres sed in terms o f camera focallength.

land llying height above the ground. 11. hy e qua ling the
geometrically sim ilar lri angk~ 1.011 and I.P-1 In Fig urc 0- 7:

Li x s ,

it is pt~s ih1e tu determine the a ltitude above grou nd level. H

of the pho togra ph at the instam o f c xposure, or the foal
length./. of the came ra if the scale of t he photo graph, .t . is
known all'llg uh o nc ofthe other vari ables. For exa mple. iI
the ca;,.c o f th Cohnnbia. 5('. photogra ph (F igure 6-4 ) 'ole
know that the sca le ofthe rh(l( <>graph base d o n the meas uremcm o f wad width is I :5 .957 or I " "" 5.~5T'. and the focal
length is (> in. Usi ng Equat ion ,3. the altitude of the aircraft
above local damm at the instant ofexposure is:

(5915~")

16-2 )

From Equat io n n-2 ie is evident that the scale o f a vertical

aerial photng raph is direct ly pnrporuonal to camera focal
length (image distance ] and inve rsely proponionalro Hying
height above ground leve l tobject d isl;m ce ). Thi s mea ns that
if the altitude above ground levcl is hel d consnuu. increasing
the size of the focal length will resu lt in larger ima ges of
objects at the li lm p lane. Conversely, if focal leng th is he ld
constant, the imagcs or objects will b.... smaller as we ga in
additiona l altitude abov.... ground level. If the focallength of
the camera nnd the alutud.... o f the aircraft above ground leve l
are un"11\1\\I1. the image ana lyst wi ll hal e to cousuh rh....
anc illary in formation appearing nu the edge s of the photograph. th... llig ht roll. or th.... acria l photographe r's miss io n
summary.
For example. a vertical a..ria l photogra ph is obtain ed over
n at tcrrum wuh a Ilin . foca l-le ngth eamera lens from an
altitude o f M .OOO n M, L. Using Equat ion f>..:! .the sca le is;
J

'"

/I

12"
hOIlOO'

Simila rly. if we on ly kn c w the altitude above datum

(2.971(5' ) and the sca le ( 1:5.957 ). we could compute the
focal length o f thc camera system using Equ ation 6-4 :

r-

- 0.5' - 6" ,
-1lJ7X ..<;' x -'-'5957'

Scale of a Vertical Aerial Photograph over Va riable

Terrain

One of the pr inc ipa l diff e rences between a ncar-ve rtical

aer ia l phlltogm ph and n pla nim etric milp is that for pho tograllhs taken ll\ c r l ariah ll" t.... rrain. th....re arc an infinite numher of d ifferc m scales pre sen t in the a.... rial photog raph. If
topograph ic elevauon decrease.. WI th in a certain portion of
uic aerial photograph relative III other a rea s, the n that potuon of tho: photograph .... ill have a smaller scale than the res!
of the photograph because the land w ill ha ve "moved a w ay"
frum the aerial camera that is flown at a consta nt altitude.
Conversely, if a topog raphic feature suc h as a moun tain or a

!cIIe and Height Meas urement on Sing le Vert ical Aerial Photograph s

159

L(I .. -L
U'
H h

Lb

LR

(>-6 '

Substi luting Equ ation 6-6 into Equ at ion 6-5,

(6-7 )

"
Ahuuoc
above
ground

In c!.
/I

OIlJ C~'l
~ P;lCC

C.

)
A

, L
/I

llighc>1clc..aU""
abO\c s.:a level,

'_.

? e 69

lfthclmc between points a an d h in the ve rtica l aerial photogra ph I:> co nsidered to be infinitely small, Equatio n 6- i
reduc es to an express ion for pho to scale at a specific poin t.
Dm ppin g suhscriph, the sca le at a ny po int " host' elevation
abov e sea le vel is h and whoso: camera altitu de above sea
level is JI, may he exp ressed :I S:
(6 -~ )

11

lnou r e xample in Figure 6-9 . different scal e va lues would be

compuu..d ", loc ations c and d in the ae ria l photogra ph. One
scale value wou ld be a func tio n o f the m inimum elevation
ubuvc sea le\ cl within the pho to graph 1, _1 while the oth er
would he a function o f the maxi m um elevation abo ve sea
level within the photog raph ( ~' .... ):

C..rom.. u) of a vc-n'cal acna l pbotogr...ph .....tamed

0\

er terrain with variable relief.

~ ,.,,"

In

alilding protrudes above the average elevati on of I.' loca l

erain.jhen the sca le in thai area oft he phot og raph wiltbe
~cr beca use the la nd wi ll ha ve " nlUH:U c loser" to the

erial camera.
The geome try o f a single vert ical ec riu1 photograph taken
0\1."1' terrain with variable local relief from exposure station
Lis ,hn", " in Figure 6-9 . Po ints A <ll lil if in the real-w orld
object space arc located on level terrain and recorded Oil th...
j ositivc pr int image space at a and h, res pectively. Points A
e d Ii arc located at an e leva tion o f" units above sea level,
As previously discussed, the sca le ofthe aerial photograph at
ocmon
in the posit ive p rint is eq ual to the ratio o f tho:

II"

photo distance ah 10 grou nd dis tan ce A H. By vimitar Irian~ Lab and L 4B, the phot o sca le al location lib in tho: vc ni....1 aerial phot ogr aph ma y be co mputed using seve ral
rtlilionships. incfuding:
ah
Lh
s.= A-=
-I.B
.
B
d

Also, by similar triangles Lob and LPB.

(6-5)

.1 ...,11

II

II

(6-9)

II",,"

(6- 10)

h",.. t

Usu ally an a verage o r noounat sca le is co mpute d to defin e

the ov er all sca le of a verti ca l aeria l photograp h tak en over
variable terrain:
(1'1-1 1)

It sho uld be reme mbe red that the average sca le is only at
those IXli lll~ thaI lie at ave rage elev at ion, and it is on ly an
ap prox unntc sca le for a ll o ther locat ions I'll the photograph.
To demonstrate these rela tion sh ips. Jet us co nsider the maximum ele vanen. h",~ average elevation, hoNf!!' and mi nimum
elevat ion, h...,~, of the terrain in Figure (.. 9 to be 10.000.
RoOOO, and 1>,000 11 above sea level. respectively, The Ilylng
hcigfu 1' 1' the arrc ratt abo v e sea leve l is 20J.lOfl ft, and the'
camera 101;31 k n!!-th is 6 in. ( 152JQ mm). Th e maximum.
minimum, and a ve rage scale of the vertica l aerial photograph woul d be :

160

( ' 11 \1' 1 t ,1{

~'",,,.,

.)

(,

10()(l()'

The amou nt o f the rehef d isplacement. d. is:

""'

1oo'

...,,, ...

I: ~ OOOO

.-

2OO'

bono'

."

14000'

.' ...,,, - I ; 2 ~mO()

,hrrctf l" f'fflf'orlm " ,,1 to lhe d ifference in elevation.

bct w ccu the lnp o f the ohj Ct.."1 who-c image is displaced am
the loca l da tum, i.c., the grea ter the heigh t o f the 00'
above the local da tum. the gre ater its di ..placeme nt.
d in':CI(r P'lJ/HJ/"tiul/altolh.: radia l dis tance, r, between til;
lOp ofthe displaced ima ge anti the pri nci pa l point, i.e..
farther the object is from the prin c ipa l flIlint, the grea!(:"
the d isplacement.

mvvrxetv praportional to the alt itude, II. of the canen

above th e local datum. Th ere fo re. a redu ct ion in reli
dicplacemcru o f an o bject ca n he ach ie ved by ino:rea~
the fly ing heigh t.
Th ese rela tionship s arc dep icted in Figure 6- 10. 'vouce lro.:
sim ilar tr iangles III the diagra m that:

"

/I

.-

zoono-

snor-

""8'

((iI ~

Rearranging thl' relatio n<,hip. we cnn sec that the amount af

di..place ment. d, is dirl'ctl y PWI'H..rt ional to the he ight o fllr
object. h. and its distance from principa l poi nt. r, and
inve rsel y p ropo rtion a l h' the altitude above IO L' 3 1 datum. If:

!I x ,.
/I

.1' '' 1:

Photogrammet ry

arc abov e the loc a l datum. a nd illw ,trd or to w urd the pnno
pal poin t lo r objects w hose c tcvano ns are below the I
da tum. The d irection I,f relie f d isplace ment i.. radia l from
priuci pal po int of the photograp h.

6"

:!oooo'

(6-13 1

I: 2..+000 .

Heigh t Measurement from Single Aerial Photographs

T here are two primary r nethmls o r com puung the heights of

obj ects on s ingle vertical ucriul photogra ph.., The first
involves the mea surement ofirnagc relie fdi splacement. and
the sec ond is bused I'll the measurement o f shado w le ngth

The image of any object lying above o r below the horizo nta l
pla ne passing th ro ug h the elevation ofrhc principal po int is
displaced on a tru ly ve ruca l ;u: rial photograp h from ib true
planimetric Lr..1') locati on. The ,.did di.\plan,,,,t'111 is outward fro m the pri ncip al poi nt lor objects whose elevations

If we solv e fur til", heigh t of the obj ect. h; the equation

becomes :

Therefor e. .... '" can com pute the height o f 3 11 obj ect from It!
re lie f di splac crncm characteris tic s on a s ing le verticalacral
photograph. It is imponen t that both the to p and the bonon
o f the object being mea sured arc dear ly vis ib le an d that the
base IS on leve l rerrum.
For e xample. let us co mpute the he ight o f the Se nate Condom inium sho ....n in Figure n- llla _ The photo grap h has been
rotated 90 " cou ntercloc kwise to la c ih ta te vic w ing (sh ado ws
no .... fallto w a rd the view er, and the d isp laced facade of tho:

'-

161

5cIIe and Height Measu rement on Sing le Vertical Aerial Photographs

.,
:i

he

h,
ut
ct

re

te

"

'a

,r

".

a.

(/ .

Expos ure statio n. L

"

II
:)

,.

.". h _ dx

tt

"

<J

r = 2.2.\ in.
J 0. 129 in.

II 2')7IL5 1'1 a bo ve loca l da tum

h = 172ft

b.

figure 6 10

L o c a l daru III

-I

PI'

Measurement o r uhjc<:I he igh! ( in this <,'II>C, thl' Sena te L'ondoununun in Columbia. S( :j From a sin!lk vertical ncrinl ph'll ogr aph
based ou relk!" displacemen t principks. a l Th e radi al d istance frnl11 the principal l" ,i11l (1'1'I and the tOP of th.. buildin g is r.
The d ivtance nom the base ofthe build ing I" the lOP.. I'thc buildin~ isd. b) The heigh t ...fihc build ing (h I ahlwe loc al datum
i ~ cumpuIl-d i!a-...x1 on the rela tionshi p I"..tween simitar lri,,,'gl,~

t>ul ldin~ leans co mfortably ;twa) from

' hi' \' icwcr I. Based on

previous me as uremen ts. thc 31111ud e o f the ca mera a bove
llICal datum. H. is kilt'.... n tll be 2.971\.5 it the rad ial J is1;.Il1cC
from thl' princip..al point to th... top of the t>uildlng. 1; is mC3sired as 2.23 in.. and I1mlding relie f dis placem ent, ,I. is
6,1 2Q in, The ph"l ll~ ra l11 m "'lr i c ally CUlTI pUll'J height. h. o f
th~ condominium is:

0. 129" x 297X.5'
2.n"

I72. Y.

T he actual heigh t of the building measured \\ uh a ..urve)'or'"

tape is I n,75 n. iii obt ain accurate obj ect hdghl mea surerucnts using this tec hnique. it is imperativ e that the alt itude
( I f th e aircraft abo ve the local dat um no: as precise as possihlc . I\ ll'll_ great care !'oh\IUIJ be e xe rc ised \\ hen measuring r
and d on the photogra ph. Keep in mind that r is measured
Imm the principa l point to the lop o ft he obj ec t.

CI I ,\ l'T EI{

162

f1 {'i~ht ,' l ('3 ~ u r(' nlt' n l

or

Hawd o n Shudow Lt'n elh

The height of an object. h. may be computed by measuring

the: length o f the shadow cas t. L, nil vertical aerial phoro graphy. Becau se the rays of the Sun are essentially parallel
throughout the area show n on vertical ae rial photograph s.
the length o f an object's shado w on II hori zontal sur face is
proportionalrn its height. Figure 6- 11 illustra tes the trigonometric relationshi p involved in determining object heights
from shadow measu rements. No tice that the tangent ofangle
jl wou ld be equal to the o pposite side. II. ove r the adj uccnt
side. whic h is the shadow leng th, L. i.e..

Ian II

Solving

'"

Photogrammelry

or

M ea!lurt'menl
th e H eight
Objects Based on S h a dow Le ngt h

tan .1 _ op posite
adjacent

height . h
shadow , /.

h -Lx tana

f"

,,

h
I.

Figure 6-11

for height yie lds :

cast on levelterrain.
()' 16 )

" '" t.: rana .

The Sun's elevation angle. ( I. above the lo c al horizon ca n he

predic ted using a solar ep hemeris table . This requires a
know ledge of the geographic coord male:" of the site [longitude and latitude ), the acquisition dat e, lind time o f day.
Alternatively; the sola r alti tude may be c-mpirically cumputcd if sharply defined shadows o f known hei ghl arc
formed on the phot ograph. fo r exa mple, we kno w from previou s discussion that the height o f the Senate Condominium
in Figure 6-12 is 172.75 It. II cas ts a sha dow onto 1C\'d
grou nd tha t is 0,24 1" in length 0 11 the photog raph. The scale
of'the photography is 1:5,Q57 or I" ~ -$l)6.4(j. Therefore. the
sha dow length on the ptllliograph is 119 .65 tt. The tangent of
angle a can be found using Equation 6- 15:
lan a ... ~ .. 172 .75 ' '"' 1.44 .
L
119.65'
Oth er shadow lengths on the same aerial pho tograph ca n be
meas ured and the ir le ngths mu ltiplied b)' 1.44 to determine
thei r heights. For example, the to wer on the nearby pa rk ing
structure in Figure (l-12 casts a shadow tha t is 0.119", or
59.\' lo ng onto lev el ground in the photograp h. Therefore ,
the he ight of the tower is:

II = LX la n" - 59. I' x

The: height of ubJccts can be measured from \'ntd

aeri al photography based on the length of ShatlO\l.l

1 .4~

o n uulcve! terrain, shade.... s prod uced from lea ning objecii

shadows not cast from the true top ofthe object. and SOO\\ II
ot her types of grcundcover obsc uring the true g roun d level.
~

Stereosc opi c Measu rem ent of Obj ect

Height or Terrain Elevation

A single ae rial phot og rap h c aptu res a prec ise recor d o f the
positions (If objects in the scene at the instan t of exposure. If
\.\e acquire multiple photographs along 11 tl ighthne. we
record im ages of the lands ca pe from different vantage
po ints. For example, the top of a ta ll bu ilding mig ht be on Ihe
letl side o f pho ro e I and in the middle of overlapping photo
='2 because the aircraft has mov ed hundreds o f ml"tCT>
between expos ures . If we ope ned up the ba ck of the aerial
ca mer a, he ld the shutter open. and loo ked at the grou ndglas,
at the foca l plane while the aircraft .... as Il)'ing alo ng a Hight
line, we would literally sc-e the ta ll huilding first enter tile
gro undglass field o f vic .... ami then traverse ac ross tilt
grocndg tass umil it eve ntually leaves the camera's field of
vrc w.

- S5.1O' .

The actual height of the lower is R6 It measured .... ith a su rvcyor's tape.
Care must he exercised when computing the height o f
objects base d on shadow length III aerial photography.
lrnponant factor s 10 be considered include shade w s fall ing

T he change in position of an object wit h he igh t. from one

photograph to the ne, t rela tive to its background, caused b)
the aircraft's mo tion, is called ,\/erf'o,\copic parallax. Pam/lax is the appa rent disp laceme nt in the posi tion of a n objeci,
.... ith nesJX-"Ct to a frame of reference. caused b)' a shift in tbt
positiun ofobse rvation. Pa rallax is a nonna l c harac teristic (If
aerial photog rap hy and is the basis fo r th ree-d imensional
srer..eoscopic vie w ing , Differences in the parallax of varices

"

163

iMoscopic Measurem enl o f Object He ig hl o r Terrain Elevation

Eyt

11.119 "

!i9. I '

WI;

-~

tt~'

'If"

I\:I\C

;.-,-_ --'c b -,_ _ ~

lllterrupillal') drstarwe
l eft
Right

t't't

1"/ ? ,~ R
al

-s

~---'--'

"

'.

Figure 6-13

"'gure 6-12

The h<:ight l,ft h", parking garage tower may be c"rn

pured hy dClcrmining Ihe relanonship betw een ns
shadow lc ngsh i1IUJ lhe k nglh of' th.... shadow cast by
a hllilding of kno.... " heIght sucb a~ rh.. nearby Senate: Condomuuurn. It is important lhat 1110.: shadow
fa lls nn Ic\'('1 !,.'Totmd and That bUlh the begmnmg
.rnd end of the shaJ..," are vtsible .

tIjrct., of mtcrest (called ,Jillt'flmtial pardl/,nl ca n I'll: used

"measure the heights of objects and to extracttopographic
:nf0flll3lion such as contour lines from aerial photog ra phs
by means of ste reoscopic ins truments. The measu remen t o f
seco scopic pa rallax is the basis for the creation o f almo st

lIJ topographic mill'S ( x,y, and =) and planimetric maps (x,1")

wi is a very im port ant ele me nt o f plllltngnull111dry and
rem(lIe ~cn~i ng .

Wamenrals of Human Stereoscopy

WrrmCUpJ' is the sc ience of perceiving depth using. two

C:.'(> When a human bcings two eyes tbinocuiar \"is;'''I) are
iJrustd on a certain point. the optical axes o f th... eyes contrge on lhal point. forming a porallucnc u,,~t.' (()). The:
!lWcr the objccr. tbc greater the purallacuc angle. Fur exa mple. in Figure (,. I J the optica l nxcs of the tert and rig ht eyes.
land R. ilrc se:paralcd by the ere hasI! or tlllt'IP/IfJll/III:1 111,\llIPlC(' (Konecny. 200] ). T he eye base o f the n\cnlgc ad ull is

r" r:l!lad ic a n g:lc~ "re formed when our eyt's foc us

on Ob)<"t:1S In the real world. The mimi associates
differences in paralla ctic :Ingle, with differences in
dislarh:C III thl.' \ ,InIlU, obiccrs. This allows U ~ hI
have wI) sensitive depth perception .

bctwc...-n flJ and 69 mm [approxima tely 2.5 10 2.7 m.). When

the eyes are focu se-d on po int A. lhl: optical axes converge.
forming parallactic angle 6. _ Similarl:". \lo hen looking at
po int n. the optical 3.'(CS con ve rge. forming parallactic angle
'\,. The brain has lea rned to ass ociate d ista nces 1>, and D Il
w ith correspond ing parallactic angles o~ and 9t. a nd gives the
viewer the \'iS1I31 and mental impression thai object A is
clo ser than o bject B. This is th.... has is or dO-fl t h flt',~t'/lti(lll. If
both objects we re exact ly the same distance from the vic .... cr.
then " - G\ and th e vic w cr wo uld perceiv e tncm as h('ing the
same distanc e away.

When we w an. outside . the ma xim um dista nce at which distinct stereoscopic depth p..-rccpuon b pllssi hl.: is approx imatd y 1.000 m for the ave ra ge adu lt. Beyond that distance .
parallactic angles are c\1rl'md y small. and change!' in parallacuc ant::k necessary for depth percepnon may not be discerned . This is why humans ha ve trou ble de termining
whether 01\\.' house is behind another house . or one car is
behind another ca r \lo h.... n these objects an: thou sand s or
meters away' from us. Conversely, if we could so meho w
stretch our eyes 10 he a me ter or even hundred s of meters
apart . the n .... e w ould be able III resolv e m uch more sub tle
differ en ce s in parallactic an g les and dctcnumc which
nhj,:cls ar.: closer to us owr t1I lIch grclll.:r dislnn ccs. Su ch

' 64

C II M ' I t :l{

Photogram metrv

hypersternucnpy d.:pth pe rcepti on wo uld hi: ideal for hunt -

scopic photographs

ing and spo rts acnv ines. but il would requi re a su bstan tial
mod ificat ion of tile: human hea d. Fort una telythe re is a si mple method that we ca n usc 10 obtain a hypc rsrcreo sco py
cc ndiuon when collect ing and inte rpreting stereoscop ic
aer ial photogra phy.

need arises. It is particular ly useful when cond ucting

Stereoscopy Applied to Aerial Photography

Overlapp ing aeria l photo graph y (usu ally 00 percent cnd lap)
obtained at ex po sure sl.llions along a Ilig hdinc cornam SICrcoscopic paralla x. The ex posu re stations arc separated b)'
large d istances. Xevcnhcless. it is pos s ible [0 lei ou r eyes
view thc photographs as i f ou r C}CS ....ere presen t at thc two
exposure stations at the instan t of e xpos ure (Figure 6-- 1-Ia) .
This results in a Inp.'n ti'n'lI.\C0f'.I" con diuon that a llows us to
vie w the lerra in in three d imens ions. We normally v iew the
ste reoscop ic aeria l photography using a lens o r mirro r stcreoscopc with magn it) ing. lenses. These instruments
enhance the rhrcc -duncnsiona l nature of the stereo scopic
mo del. There lire oth er stereosco pic view ing ahcmativcs.

The vast majority " f image- analys ts pre fer to usc a simp le
lens pocket ste reosc ope or m irro r ste reoscope that assis ts the
ey es in keepin g pa ralle l lines of sight and ill add ition. IISU lill y magnifies the photog raphs (Figure (,-14 11,1." ). T his pro duce s some eye strcm. Jt is suggest ed tha t no vicc interpreters
only view photo graphs in stere o for 10 to 15 m inutes at a
time in the beginning while the eyes bec ome acc ustomed to
using a ste reoscope.
So me peo ple arc adept at forcing the rr eyes 10 rem ain paral lel and thus do nOI need to use a ste reoscope (Figure 614c.f). They simply situ ate the overlapping port io n of two
stereo pho lOgr.l phl> adjacent to on e a not her, po sition their
head approximatc tj I( in. Ircm thc photograph s. and the n lei
their eyes relax as if the) were loo king at infinity. G radually,
the m ind will fuse the t....'o stCfeos copic image s into a third
image d irect ly in the midd le ofthe two stereo photo s. Th is is
a good skil l to acquire ~ i n ce one cnll the n easily view stereo

itho ut a stc rcos L"Opc whenever

.... or k. Howeve r. this is un nat ural for the eyes and mal
uncom fo rtable and ca use eye strai n.
So me image analyst s arc ab le to reverse the order o f the ~~
reo photogra phs (Figure 6- 14d .g ) and then Ilxurc on a pc
directly in front of the photos. Th is causes th... eyes 10 cr
Th is produc es a true ste reosc opic impressio n. hut i! is \ <
strenuous on the eyes and is not recommend ed .
Anut her wa y o f making sure that the left and righ t eyes \
d istinct images is 10 use anaglyph o r polarized glasses
conjunction with specially prepared image mat erials . It
possi hle to produ ce aeri al photograp hy .... here the left i
is de pict ed in shad es of blue and the right image is pro '
in shades o f red , The ana lyst then wears anag lyp h ie g!
.... uh red (kil l and b lue (ri g.ht) lenses. T he mind fuses
two views and crea te s a th ree-dimensional sce ne. Simi!
il is pos s ible to view the len and right photographs throe
specia lly prepa red pol arized glass es that acco mplish
same go al (Ko necny, 20( 3).
I.(," ns an d :\-!irr ur

Th e photo- interprete r can view the ve nically e xagg erated

stere oscopic mod el o f the 60 percent endlap area o f two sueccssive aerial photographs us ing one (lf four me thod s : J)
keepi ng the lines of sighl par allel .... ith the aid of a ste reoscope. :!) keeping th~' lines ofsig ht para llel w iloo ut the aid o f
a stereoscope. 3 ) cros sing the eyes and reversing the order of
the stereoscopic images. or 4 ) using anagly ph or pol arized
g lasses .

110

St{' rcuw(l p~ ~

a nd Ste ren

Cll n l~ rll s

The stereoscope is a bi noc ular viewing syst em special

de \ elo ped to analy ze te rrestrial stereoscopic phorogra
(not aeri al pho tog raphs) . It was inve nted b) the Eng!'
physicist Ch arl es wheatstone in IX33. a ltho ug h he did
d escribe il publicl y unul IIUg. Wheatstone used a pair
mirrors, o ne be fo re each eye, o rie nted at -I5 G to 3 110.... pictures p laced at eithe r side 10 be fu sed by the eyes, as Sh(lll1
in f igu re 6-15a. David Brewster invented an ah ema nve stereo scopic sys te m using lenses in 1849 (Figure 6- J5b ).1ll
pic ture s were smaller. hill they we re en larged by the lense
Th is became the parlor ste reosco pe so pop ular duri ng l~
I !'I OOs and earl y 1900s for view ing s pecially pre pared stereoscop ic photographs .
Thro ugh out mos t of the I SOOs. stereo pho tog rap hs wen
obtaine d by lak ing o ne- expos ure a nd rhcn picking up tbt
ca mera on a tripod and moving it a certain dista nce to the let
or right and ta king another pictu re. Th is introduced stereoscop ic parallax between the IWO photographs. For example
co nsid er the 1K99 ste reogram o f rhe Sa lt Lake Temple. il
Sa lt l ake C ity. Utah. in Figu re 6- 16a. A wealth ufh istorica
Informa tion about the tem ple is available when the sercopa ir is \ iewcd usin g a stereosco pe.
Stereos copic photograph s may a lso he acq ui red using specia l stereoscopic cam eras that conta in two ident ica l tenses
tha t ;lfe s ituate d 60 to 70 mrn apan (2.36 2.75 in.) that Llke

....
165

Sl!reoscopic Measu remen t of Ob ject Heigh t or Terr ain Elevat ion

the:
dd
be

St e n,'fl~c opic Vit'wi nl: Ba ~ ...d on

Pa r allel E~'",s a n d II Sl rrt'o s( opC

Sl...rroscop i... Mod r l

. ~W-'
j.,

.~ \

- ,-

~~

ne.im
.ss.

~~
-

Len s

Relax an d
keerh~

: .lolerISCOf'C

of <il; hl

parallel

'"m

.'.,
ts

-+

,d

S ICfW mud d

<t-

es

BII~oo

on C r ussed

c.

b.

Ste reosco pic \ "i... ",ing

t:) ~

Iy,

gh

h,
Sl e roo~op

f(IC US

\!

/\

I,

,.

-rs

"
,

II po int
in fronl
o f r hoMs
and reverse
photo order

d.

"'

E ~ es

~ , ('"

r/><~ " 2

C ros ",d

Par-allel t:) l'S

~~
...
s,'""""

"
,..r

ee

...

on

f.

fqu'e 6-14 at A hy perste reos copy condition can he ach ie ved by takm g II I crtapping vertical aerial phutugraphs alu ng a l1ightlinc . The an ulysr then vie ws one photo nf'ehc stcrcopair with the k fl eye and the adj acen t pJwt\l with the rigbt eye. Wh en the viewer focuses
beth eyes un a sing fc featu re withi n the nereosc opic model, s uch as the top <II haM: " r a buildmg, the mi nd subconsciously
associates differences ill lhc paralla ctic angle betw ee n th c base and the top of the huilding ns depth -pe rce ptio n information.
We perceive a rei\ li~ l i c three-dimensiona l model of the tcrrainm our llllnl.b , Th i~ mea n, lhat we can litera lly view an y landscape in the world Iromthc c omfort o f ou r o ffice in vel)' realistic three din1c n,ions if'wc 1111W ste reoscopic ae ria l photography
and the prope r view ing equ ipment b.e ) A len s or mirror sler eu,cupe :I.'sists pur eyes' lines of , ight til rem ain parallel ra ther
thun converging, which is our naturaltendency , Th is analyst is look ing at a specially prcp.rrcdsrcrcop.ur of ph otograph s. c.f)
It is possible 10 ob tain a stereoscopic view by trainin g the eyes ' lincs Ill' s igh l tl>remain par allel" ilJH >u l using a stereoscope.
Th is is very u sef ul in Ihe fi eld. d,g) Som e pe ople can sce stereo by focus ing on a p oint in front ofthe slert:tlseopic photographs
and lettin g their hn es of sigh t cross. Th is is not a na turalthin g to do and ca n e;lll"t' ey~ ~lrain .

,.

,
I

ree phorographs of the seeno: at exactly the same lime . The

Q.' IIeaS

obtain pho tog rap hs of obj ec ts from sligh tly di fferlanlage po ints, introduc ing stereosco pic parallax . Note
the reo separate tenses on the vm tage ste reo scopi c ca me ra
iD Figure 6- 16b, Compa nies cont inue to produce stereo-scopic cameras .

till

The de velopment o fthe co ncept of stereoscopic photograp hs

a nd the inve nt ion of stereo scopic cameras a llowed people 10
view marvelou s stere oscopic vie w s of local and foreign
lan dscap es in three dimens ions as if they were rea lly a t the
location. There co ntinues to be s ig nilic3n1 interest in the co llecti on o f stereoscopic photog raphy by the pub lic . The
Natio na l Ste reoscopic Association promotes the st udy and

ctl.-\ pn :R

' 66

Photogram metry

Wh eatst one's Mirror Stereoscope

M irror

a -h

::rl

FlQure 6-15 a ) whearsrooe 's mirror srereosccoe used [\1, 045" angled mirrors la and b) 10 reflect the left and nghl imago of phot~
(A .md R ) toward the vic-wCT. A sc r-ev" mechani sm adjusted the vie ws 10 llC'Comn'lOd.att vouious interpc pillary distances, hI . ..
example of BI't'III ....er's lens stereoscope.

Ste reogra m

Stereo C amera

!"""I!"'111"\

a
Figure 6 16

b.

a l A terresm al stereogram o f the tem ple in Salt La ke City. UT, obtained

col lection of stereog raphs. stereo ca meras. and rela ted materials and publishes Stf'rt.'1J H'f}/"Id
Vil.',,"'inJ:: Sft'rI'OM."O plc: Aerial Phntographs

The same ste reoscopic princ iples used in the origi nal ste reoscopes are used in our c urren t photogra mmetric ste reoscopes. The sim ple pocket lens stereoscope consists of two
convex lenses mou nted on a rigid metal or plastic frame
(F i~'Ure b-. I7a) . The distance betwee n the lenses can be varied to accommoda te various eye bases (interpupillary d istances). The specia l lenses help keep the viewer's lines of
sight para llel and also ma gnify the photogra phy. The prope r
method of arra nging stereoscopic photo gra phs for analysis
using a pocke t lens stereoscope is demonstrated in Figure 6-

In

IXlN. b) A vintage "Into camera.

I xah. First, the principa l point and conj ugate principal

points are located (1'1' and ( 1'1', respectively) o n each photograph . A line is then drawn through them o n each photo
graph. This is the line of n ight previously d iscussed. The
flightlines o n each of the photogra phs arc oriented so that
they form a continuous line tl.e.. they beco me colinr ar) . The
analyst the n s lides one o fthe pho togra phs left or right so that
a portio n of the stereoscopic overlap area is visible. Then.
the stereoscope is placed above the overlap area and stereoscopic viewing takes place. The co mmon overlap area thai
ca n be vie w ed in stereo of a pair of 9 x 9 in. aerial photogra phs taken with 60 percent o verlap is about 5A in. Unfortunately. .....hen the photographs are aligned tor stereovision
usi ng the pocket ste reosco pe. not all of the 5A in. of the srereo mode l can be seen at one time . When this occurs. the

....
~op ic

167

Measurtlment of Obje ct Height or Terrain Elevat ion

Stereoscopes

a. Lens stereoscope.

b. MIrror stereoscope.

phs

A,

c. Zoom sterem'\:0Jll:.

d..-\na ltll:! stereosco pic zoom -transfer-scope.

c. l>igil;L1 stereoscopic zoom-transfer-scope.

FKjUfll 6-17

J) Lens sl<'rcoscupc "jlh attached parall ax bar . situated ev er stereoscopic ncrial photograph s h;w inll oO ['creem nwrlap. Onl y

portio n of the cntir... SlCft.'oscu pic model can be viewed i.ll one 1;11\1." using a lens stere oscope. b ) All unaly stusing it mirro r
stereoscope can view the entire , lcrl"u"<:,,pi l' mudd at one time. c} :\ 100 ln ~ICrl'{lSCOr""" functions like a mirror stcrcoscopc.fn
this example. positive transparency photograp hs are heillg viewe d on a lighttable. d ) An analog stereoscopic zoom -trans ferscope can be used Itl \je ..... SIl; r\"OS!,:\lpie "erial photographs ,lllIla llhlp at Ih.. samc time {courtesy [l11age 111ICrpr<."t"linn Systems ,
Inc.I. c I " digit al '1t"rt"tl~cnr ic 7II"m-lran,fer-Sl."P<' (c"urt""y 0 l'l",m. lnc.).
it

'IIlnprelcr ca n gem I)' lift up th c edge o fl he to p photograp h

esee what is undem e ath .
~ III1PW' stereoscope ( Figure 6- 17bJ pcrmus the en tire steIMCOpIC model of the two ove r lapping aerial photograp hs
kI be viewed. Mirror stereoscopes oncn Ita\ e magnificauon
oplions (e.g.. 2x. 3x. 6xj available that greatly increase jhe
-=rpreter's ability 10 mag nify and inrerprcr fme de tail in tlk:
eeeo model. For example. a more sophisticated and ... xpcn-

sin ' mirror stereo sco pe wit h zoom ma gni fication is show n
atta ched tt . a light table in Fig ure 6-- l7c. This configurat ion
allow s the image aualyst ro view stereoscopically success ive
ove rlapping aerial p hotographs (In a roll of li lm w ithout having to cut the roll of lilm . St ill more sophisucated ins trumcnts. b",,:d on the cem cra- fuc ida principle . allo w the
anal)'si 10 view stereos co pic imagcry .... hi ll.' simu ltaneously
viewing a ma p in superposition t Fig ure 6-17d ). Th is ls corn monly ca lled a zoom-transf er-s cope and is (I11cn used to

C1 1\I' n:R

168

Pho tog ram metry

Srercopatr l'reparnrlon

-,~~~=~~3~ i-:~:-;c-;;;;\~-'-_

cee

pp

_ - l airphceo
lnilial stereoscopic
ahgnrnent

line o( flight
a

: pp

ii11 :i

: 0--

,
,
h

0--:'- --,0
pp
,

cpp:

Fina l alignmeTll

'

-.:
urea that can be viewed
u"ing a len" stereoscope

Figule 6 18

Prepa ranon o f 01 secrcop uir for \ iewinl! u~ing a lens ~lc re,,-.c<lf'C a l The pnncipal pI'Il11 and conju ga te prirn:ipal point are
tificd fln each phoh'g raph. and a line is Jra wn Ihfl."g.h them wilh a str.J ighlcJge_ Th ,s locates thc line o f n igh!. h I A portioo
(he c ouuuon o ctla p :11':-01 lilill i ~ uf imcresrtc the imerpre ter i ~ II H l\ l xl parallel with the line of Ilight. 1lI<.' interp reter (hen '
the (lverlap area ""mil rbc tcns sk reO<."fipc_

transfer infonuanon interp reted fro m aeria l photography

onto a map base. Digital stereoscopic zoom-trans fer-scope s
are now available ( Figure 6- l7 e l,

Stereoscopic Aerial Photograp hy - How Does It Work ?

A hypothetical e xample II ill demonstrate how the unage
analy st percei ves the third d ill\clI"io!l ill stereosco pic ae rial
plauogruphy usin g a s tere osc ope. First. consider the profile
view of'twn ste reosco pic aer ial photograph s tak en from two
exposure stations. 1,/ and 1._, in Figure (,-I() _ Let us eval uate
the churacrcrisucs o f the lo p o f a very tall bu ilding (which
we w ill des ignate as object .4 in the real-w ortd object space I
and the lop of a smaller hu ilJ ing l ohj..:el H in the real- world
obj ect space) lying on extremely na t ground just abov e sea
level . The d istance betwee n the 1"'0 exposure stations. /.1
and L!. is called the air bcN' {A-hm d. The air base in effect
becomes a stretched inte rpupillary distan ce. This condiuon
is responsible lor the e xaggerated third dimension when annly/.ing the phOl'I~r.tphs stereoscopically.

night. Th e fum urd progre ss of the aircraf t causes the i

of objec ts a and h to move aLTOSS the ca mera's foc al pi
parallel to the line of thgfu. Wh en exposure L. is made.
captures the image of objects A and B at locations a ' and b
on the left phorog rnph ( Figure (,-I Qa) . T his chang e in
(ion o f an illl<lge llr an ohj ec l from one photograph 10
l1e.\1 ca used by the a ircr a ft's motion is referred to as stcrto
sco prc r -!,<ll'tIflllx (\\ 'nlf and Dew itt , 2UOO).
Th ere al e some very inte resting prop erties associated with
f'aral/(u that allow us to ob tain precise photogrammetri

measurements from vertical aerial photography. To unde.

~ t .. nJ

these relationships. consider Figure 6 1ge. whicb

dep icts the two photograp hs taken at exposu re statio ns L
an d 1... in .1'I1f!l'IJI",iliu lI. Su pe rposi tio n IllI:R IlS that we adjus
IhL' profllc views of photos L/ and L: so that the vertical line
runnin g th roug h eac h o f the p hotos " principa l po ints ~PPI
and I'I)~) a re supe rim posed on top of one anoth er, This
allows us 10 dete rmine 110.... much the obje cts have mo\ ed
across the li lm plane fro m one e xposu re to the next .
Nonce that the imag e o r object A moved fro m" to a ' on

ln our example. OhJl'Cts ..I and H arc rec orded on the right
photograp h I L l l al IIlt.'aliu ns " a nd h. rl,.'Spceti\cly [Figure llIgb). Th e airc raft then continues alon g its de signated line of

t/l(

two successive aerial pho tographs. The pa rallax of point Q '

" " = -1".. ' -'",, " Similarly, the image of ohje':l 8 moved from
to b, The parallax o f point h is Ph = x~ - X~ . The imponaa

....
169

il!r@oscopic Meas u remen t 01 Object Hei ght or Terrain Elevation

Stereoscop ic Parall ax
I" ~

A ir ba w - -

... I.,

Pos itive
Image
h'
pon t ,.._ _-''+f-Ji''-__
~ s pac e

"'

OkJeel
span:

line o f ni gh l

-L--\!I--.L

rr,

-<>-~

cr r l

.b-_...L...iL .L_ _~
b.

L --<>-

L,

c rr1
I ' ....1

"

en (If

h'

"

lmagc
space

'\\'$

'.Xl.'

"'it
,,'

~ 6-19

:-ih,' rcost,'< 'pie paroll,lx is rmrod uced v, h~'1I an object IS ,i..,,,, ..' (j from l'no ditfercm ' lllll'lg.., l"'lIllh, a.hr () hJl'Cls A and 8 in the
real worl d arc recorded as points ",11I..1 h in ex pos ure L! "nJ al., ' a nd '" in e>.["-'Sure L~ . "'J When till: locations of" and b and
11 ' and h ' art' placed in sU['<:1"f'I ISili" ll. Ih,.' im age of nkj":cl . ~ ha-, gn:"ll'Tx-parallax l1'., ) lhan the imag.., of nt>Ject 8 (P h )' This
difference in par.lila>. (culled ,b(fi.'n/IIi,,1' ''l/",'Il<l.\. df') can t>c rdaleJ to tlie a<"lu,,1 height " I' Ih... obj..'c-rs.

~ I'

h,

'"

-cic

,.
h
,,
,t
-s

lbing to recognize is that <J (the taller bui lding ) moved a

pener distance ac ross the fi lm plane than h (the shon cr
i'lulding)because 1/ had greater stt'reo,copic paralla x (han b,

overlapping photograph bec.au sc the bnll wou kl hav e exac tly

the vnm..' amount o f r-p.rrallax l'\'l'I)' 11 herc' in the stereo
mudd! Therefore. the .r -parallax of a ny po int is:

l i, also important ro undcrstand (hat ailobjects il/ the .l'C('II(.'

' lillie elevation will hove 1/'1 idf'llI/l'O! a/1/OI/!11
i/ 1.Jl<Jrall,u', f or example. any po int loca ted on the top ,)1'
t.lilding A win have exactly JI" t -pamlla x when the stereo~icphutogrllph s are ana lyz ed . Simi larly, any othe r buildIIlg In the entire stereosc opic mode l that had the same heig.hl
Ii l\Jilding ,4 wou ld have the same .r-p amllax .

di rect ly re late d to the elevation of the poin t above mean

tcrmtn:

IlIf.w('I~\ ' the

s
d

J.oothcr v, ay of thinking abo ut .r-purullax is 10 place a beac h

IllIHl'ohieh we w ill call obj ec t Ai an ywh ere o n a H'11: tla t
,r.m.:, such as the Bonn eville Sa il Hats in Utah oron a lak e.
Mdtlk.'1I acqu ire stereoscopic photog raph s. No matte r where
itbtach ball is in the stereo scopic mode l. its image, lI. o n
f1eiim photog rap h ..... ould traw l ex actly the sa me distance
IIoog the ima go: coord inate syste m to ( l ' 011 the adjacent

grea ter lo r hig h points tc .g.. those close r to the aerial

camera: than for 11)1', p oints.
Thc' :ahility to mea sur e small diffe rences in the parallax [i.c ..
the dilft-Il'lIIiolp<ll'lllJo d between a ny two po ints u"ing 1\10
overla pping phtll(l~ra l' hs allow s Us to determine elevation
diff erences \Ising stereoscopic para llax eq uation s. T his is
htl\l almost a ll 1<I])\lgm phic TII.:l p" are mad e and ho w very
prec isc tree and buildmg height measurements can be
obtained u~ing stereo photogra phs . In order to do t his, we
USl' the fundamenta l slcrel''''I;I'pIC paralla x eq ua tio n.

170

Ph otogramm etry

J ) find ing the nmjll!:llt" "I'indl'l ll point (el''' ) un both

To compute till' heigh t of an object. h". us ing stcrcoscopic

p horog rarnm et ric tech niq ues. we usc the parallai: equation:

to:-;. hy locat ing the position o f each pho tos princ ipal
on the other plunograph.
oJ) posinonmg the photographs along the ll ighthn..: oyal"_

((,,17)

whe re If - " is thl' altitude ofthe aircraft above gro und level
(AG L): P is the 1Ih.1'IJ {1I/1' '-/f'l"{'oyc0l'ic parallav at the ba se (If
the object being measured (w e us ua lly usc the ai r base for
th is measureme nt ), and dp is the d ifferential parall ax .
Th is equation may y ielJ inco rrect results un less the following conditions arc mel;
the vert ica l aerial photographs hav c ::::.3 lilt:
the adj acl.'nl phot ograp hs are ex posed fro m almos t exact ly
the sa me altitude above gro un d level:
the princ ipa l pe rms (PPsl of both photogra phs lie at
approximately the same elevation above ground level;
the base of the nbJects of interest arc at ap proximately the
sa me elevation as that ofthe princ ipa l p!., int~.
Ifth esc co nd itions arc met , then Wl' only need to obtnm three
mea su rements on tile ste reoscopic photogruphs tn compute
the absolute height o f an object found with in the stereosco pic overlap portion of a stereopr nr, For example. consider
the ste reoscopic characrerisucs of I'hot o.(..4 and Photo~_~ of
Co lumb ia, SC. show n previous ly in Figure 6-3 and shown
diagram maticall y in Figure (...20. kemernbe r that the aeria l
pho to grap hy was acqui red at an a ltitude of~.97K .5 n above
ground leve l wit h J e-!n. focal -len gth lens yie lding a nounnat scale of apprnxirnarely 1:5,457 , We will compute the
height of the Se nate Co ndom inium. The computa tion ofthe
he ig ht o f the condomin ium is accomplished by:
I) detl'nnining the a ltitude of the aircrati ab<m: ground level
(H - hi which Wt,.' know to be 1,1,17/<'5 ft. Whcn using the par-

ing the ['P and CP I' of each photograph so that they areII
straight line, This represents the /i'll' offhght , ~ot~,that
line of nIght is fro m right to kit in Figure fl-:!O. ~O\
interpreters often think that ll ightli ne" must progress f
k ft III right. They do not.
5 ) det erm ining the uvctuge phnlo ai r base ( absolute ,(<:ref
scopic pa rallax , Pl First. measu re the d ista nce between
principal perm U'P~ .~1 and the conjugate principal
tC I'!'...s) on Ph~'IV4 .~' w hich \I.e \.\ ill call A-ba"c~ ... (figure
20b.d), This was 3.41 in, Do the same thing for Phol04-j'
this case A-t>a"e...s "as .\ ..W in . ( Fig ure "-10a.c). The
cf rbcsc two mcacurcmcms is the average photo air baser
between the two exposu re stat ions (i.c.. abso lute st
scop ic para llax. I' = J .-J in. ). Absolute stereoscopic pnral
(1') and diffe rential parallax (tip) mu:-;.t he measured in
same units. c.g.. ci ther mi llimeters or thousandt hs of an i
b) measuring the different ial parallax (tip) between the:
of the building and the top o f the building. T his measurs
meat is ~st obtained using a part/lim: bar [ottcn called a I
1'.'0111<'1"1"). \\ hic h " ill he dis cus sed shortly. Jill" ever. itll\ll
also he poss ible to com pute the Ji fTer.:I1CC in p Jr~l r.
betwee n the olljel"ts u ~i n g a qu a lity ruler. In this example.
top corner of the building i~ designated as heing Obiea
and the bnsc of the huil ding is Objl'cJ B. Notice in Figure
20all lhat the building is just v i~illk in the lower leftJ>OniuflUfPhoto~ ... but that it has mov ed dramaticallyam-.
the film plane and is located ncar the vertical linc ~
the pr inc ipal poi nt in Phm o~ _~ . The loca tion of the Hlp of
buil ding is labeled u in Photo H a nd </ ' i n l'hut (J~ , l ' The 100tion ofrhe 1l,ISC otrhc building is labele d b in P1wlo4-.l anJi
in I' ho hl ~ .. The r-parallax of the lOp (from a to a') and 1Ir
.r-parallax of till' base (If tho: bui lding (fro m II ro b '} can
measured using a nller in one of three wa)s: I l measu re
using fiduciallin~. 21 mea'iurem.:n t based on superposit
or 3) !lleawremcnt uloing a paralla\ haT (stereomeh:r).

a lia:>. l-quat inn, it is necessal)' to e' pres" tht,.' a ircraft height

ahou' gro und k\el (11 - M in the uni tlo desirc."t.I. In thi:-;. eUM~
we w il1u"e feC't.
2) loc ating the pI';lIdplI1I'oilll (I'/') o n each o f the phUttl~'Taphs Ily drawi ng lines through the opposing four fidueilll
marks on each pixlwgraph.

Figur e 6-2 0e,d dCl' iL,t a di:lgrumlll atic p lan view o ft hl' infO!
,'olltr:nt o f lf\(lto~ .4 and I'hot0 4.S' ~ (l t c tha t the lon ,
tiu ll l)f the principal points (1'1' ). conjugate principal POi
,CPI'), h.1se of the building , and top of the buil di ng an
k'Cillt,.'d (In o:ach phmograph. Al",l note that the diagt'3lt
depieh the bui lding leaning aw a)' frolll thc principal poia
due to relief d isplacement. as prcv io u"ly d i~usseJ.
m a t i ~ .n

"

17 1

!ltreoscoplc Measurem ent of Object Height or Terrain Elevat ion

/. /

',2
Profitt' view of

Pr ofil e view of
Phot e 445

rh ol o ~

~n

na
the
ice

,m

"

"

-o,

'he
iru
6-

,.

Plan ,'ie"
of Photo 4-S

PI
o-

flu ,Ie"

of Pbolo 4-4

ax

h,

!' -ba",...,
U <r'_

h.

Ab&>c~

.-

"

err.-.

,.

O.'t

o-

H I"

<:1'1'.. ,

0 . . '_

b - '"'"

II I.",

~ , . - . ) .k]"

". ... -O.27U"

'l

L-_ _-''"-_

, '-- - --'"- - - --'

tx
rc

---' d

Profile \ 'jt' Vo uf
4-5 a nd 4-4
in supe rpositi o n

;.

Ph"lu~

is
h

,.

"

I.- ' b - .),- "

I+- r"

t+-

J ,gr

p" l , W~

"

" b,-.l)21>7"

, . 0.270'
JI' .

J ~~ . J.JJ~'

Jp _0211

I+ p~ Dj'l-.1

"

"

F'9ure 6-20

('nmp ul il1g the h.:ighl of'th e Senate Condominium ill Columhia. St", hy measuring the stereoscopic .r-parallax of the top

ami bast uf the building Irom Photo ' ...and P h ()IO. s- When placed in superposition Ie). the l.lilfcrential perallax (Jpl of
the building is determined and can be used to compute the height of the building. Refer to the next illustration 10 view
the actual a...rial photographs used in the computauen .
I~ ronjunct io n w ith the planimetri c map. it is useful to actually view the imag e of the Senat e Condo mi ni um as reco rded

m Phot04-4 and rhl)to4-~' T here is a m uc h enlar ged v iew in

Figure 602 1. Note that the pr inci pa l point line ( fiducia l line)
IS visible near the bu ild ing in Pho to... s (Figure 602Ia). but
!!uI the prin ci pal point line is far aw ay from the building in

.l

PhOlO4-4' nec ess itating a break in the line ( Figu re 6-11b ).

Us ing the rea l aerial phoillgrdphyo it is possible to measure
the .r- paralla x of the top o f the: bu ild ing on Ph oto..... (designated -'",,:0 -J .R:! in.] and r -parallex of the base o f t he building
[designated x h - 3.606 in.) fro m the fidu c ial line . Similarly.
it is possible 10 measure th e r -parallax o f'rhc lOp ofthe bu ild-

172

.\ hl h od ~

o f \I t'as u r ing

Stereuscc pic x.para lla ~ Irum

Ow r ia p iling Aeria l PhUlugraph\:
- Measurement using fiducial lines (a,b)
- Measurement based on superposit ion Ie )

Figure 6- 21

Photogra mmetry

I'P4.~

:t,Il) l' hc measurement or stereoscopic x-pcralla x using the fiducia l Iinc's for !' h llll)4 ~ and Phnh14.4. respecu vely, c ) MCaJ;ulfo
",elll or stereoscopic .r p ~ril llax using supcrpcs it ion.

ing on I'hoto 4 . S (designated xu' = 0.270 in.] and the base of

the building (dcsignall-d .\"6' = -0.2ti7 in. ) from the fiducial
line. The absolute value of the .r-parullax of the top of the
building is Pol - ].55 in. and the r-parnllax of the tMS<.: of the
building iSP b = .l.J 3') in. The diff...renual parallax (fip) is the
difference between the two values. dp - 0.2 11 in.

Je

ho ( H -h ) p+tJp)
yields

' 97'S'

fU ll '"
)(3.4"'+ 0.2 11"')

h., - 174' .
Substitut ing the measured values into Equation 6-17
The actual height of the building is 17211.

...
173

iltreoscop ic Meas urement of Object Height or Terr ain Eleva Uon

Len s Stere nscup e lind P;aralln Rar

IS pos-sible to orient the two overlapping photographs as

awon in Figures 6-201.: and 6-2 1c where the base and top of
bnldmg are a ligned paralle l with the line (If tli ght. II
lleS not maue r how much d ista nce se parat es the two photo-

ilP1L1. The .r-parallax ofthe lop orlhe building is meas ured

' lh ~ d i sl 'I1ll: C fro m the top of the building on I' htllO~_ S 10 the
)pofth!.' same comer ofthe building on I'holO4-4 (P ol '" 0.30
l~ The.r-paralla x o f the base ofthe bu ilding is the di stance
lh ~' rose of the huildi ng o n PhOI04. S 10 tile base on
106~ (PI> = 0 .5 11 in.). Th e differentia l parallax between
tcll1l and base o f'the bui ld ing is identical to what was co musing the fiduci al line method. Jp = 0 .211 in .. and
IJ yield the same bu ilding hei ght esti mate. Some image
.11I:o'>1$ prefer this simple parallax measurement techn ique.

Figure 6-22

CI~- uJ' \icy.

that we haw the altitude of the aircra ft abo ve ground

I' f a parallax bar wilh lhe- Iloaung

and vernie r me asuring mechanism. It is attached to the lens stereoscope and placed over the

(1/ h) and the absolute stereosco pic paralla x (1') com-

stcrco parr io rnukcpa rallax rncusurcm cnts.

11I311.",

for these two photographs, it is possible to measure the

"<<tom and top of other features within the stereoscop ic
aJd~1

and compute their differentia l para llax measurements

'fl), While it is simple and usefu l to he able 1('0 measure the

80IJnl of differential parallax usin g a ruler as just
ItICribt,tl it is also po ss ible to usc a parallax bar that was
t1igncd specifically for measu ring stereoscopic parallax .
f.Pan llon. v t ee surcmcot

t:sin ~ .\

rarall:n. Ba r

The parallax o f specific objects in a stereopair can be comlUd accurately and quickly using a parallax J>.: ,,. (somereferred to as a storcometert. The para llax bar con sists
bar with \',\'0 clea r pla-ne or glass plates attac hed to it
tk@Uft 6-22 1. One of the plates is fixed, while the othe r
ecan IJ(o moved back and forth along the length of the bar
~odj usli ng a vernier dial. Th ere is usually a brig ht red dot
\\Chcd uno each ofthe plastic (glass) plates. These arc called
",a~lIril1g

marks,

'lim using a s imple lens stereoscope. the image anal) sl

the photographs I that the object of interes t (s uch
,the corner of the Itlp of a huilding ) in the kfl photu!ctraph
rewed by the left eye and the same object in the righ t-.:I photograph is viewed by the right eye. l'eXi. the anaadJ usts the stereo meter so tha i I) ihc lett measuring
IlI1 is placed exactl y o n the co rner of the top of the buildI! in the left- hand photograph, and 2) the rigfu measuring
lID. i ~ adjus tlxl so that it is pla ced on the same come r o f the
lIlpofthe building in the right-hand photograph . The meallring marks are shifted in r nsilion on the stereo mete r lIsing
Iiie I'ernier ,cre w device until the)' visually fuse toget her
mng~

into a single mark. ....-hich appears to exis t in the stereo mode l

as a three-dimensiona l red ball that lies at the particu lar elevation of the corner of the top of the bu ilding. This produces
the same e ffect as if a red ball had actually existed at the corner otthe top of the building at the time the two photographs
" e re exposed. If the measuring marks arc success fully fused
and hove r exactly a l the comer of the top of the build ing ,
then the stereoscopic .r-parallax of this point may be easily
read from the verni er scale o n the parallax bar. We ha ve j ust
used the principle of the f loating mark.
If WI: wish to measure the para llax o f the base of the co mer
of the same building, W ~ simply focus our stereoscopic
vis ion on the ba se and adj ust the two llell and ri~ h t ) measuring ma rks until they \ lI KC aga in Iuscas a three -dim ens ional
ball that JUSl touches the g round ntt he base ofthe building .
We can then read till;' vernie r scale to ob tain the .r-pa ralla x
meas ure me nt of the base of the bu ilding.

The sign ificance of the /lof/fillK 1II,Irk for photogrammcmc

measureme nt is that it can he used 10.> accu rately measu re the
para llax at any tw o po ints O \'C-T the stereo mode l. It can be
placed at the top of an objcct such as a building and the parallax or the point read. c.g ., P... Ihcn. the floating marl can
be placed at the bonom of the object and the parallax read.
e.g., Pt> . The differe nce (P,,- Pt results in the dI/Jell!nliul parvl/(1..{ (dp) measurcmcm required as input 10 Equation 6-17.
lt ma kes no differe nce if the obj ect is man-made with vcrtical s ides or if it is a terrain feature. i.e., it can be the top and
base o ra build ing or lower, lhe peak of a mountain ur a rive r
floodplain. From thc ditfi'Il'/1/ial parafla>: betwee n the two

174

meas urement po ims. th...... lcvauon di ff ere nce may be

dc nv cd.
The principle of the Iloa ting mark can be used 10 map lines
o f constant ek\'illi,)n in th e terrain . For exam ple. if'the Il03ting marl (the fused. red three-d irnensjc nal ball] were moved
aroun d the stereo model so Ihal it mai ntained contact with
the terra in. i.e .. it was not allowed to floa t above the terrain
or go down below the terrain (which is possible when viewing in stereo! l. then a line ofconstant stereoscopic .r-pamllax
would he iderniflcd. If this were do ne along the side of a
mountain. the line of constant .r- paralja x cou ld be determined. \\ h jch cou ld then be converted directly into elevation
above sea k H' I. Th is line of constant par-diu is related to
actual elc vauon through the use o f horizontal Lr..I' ) and venica l 1=1 g round-co ntrol markers that were surveyed in the
field. This i.. !lcl" US( iS topograp hic map" with contour
line.. arc produced . Till': stercoplouer operat or places the
Iloating marl on the terrain ( representing a specific elevation) and then mow.. the l10aling ma rk about the te rrain in
the stereo mood whtle keeping the mark firnuy on the
ground. One can convert the .r-paralla x measu rement 10
actual elevauon It) kll:a ting ho rizo ntal- vert ica l ground-control points (e.!:!.. I(10 II. above sea levd al locat ion x.y l in the
stereosco pic model and determining its .r-parallax. Any
oth er point wit hin the st~t"C'n",-,opic mood w ith the same .r para llax must then lie at l OtI II above sea level, It is also pe ssiblc 10 map buildmg perimeters by placing the ihrcc- dirncnsional nn ating mar k so that it Just rests on the roo ftop. and
then trac ing the mark around the ~dg~ o f the roo ftop. This
resul ts in a map nft hl: planimetric lX,y ) location of the bui ldm g.

T he si mple parallax bar (stereometer} is the least expensive

and one of't he least accura te of all instrum ents that are based
011 the concept of the !lualing mark. Very expensive analo g
am! digital stereosco pic plotting instruments arc available
that allow precise paralla\ measurements to be made. For
CX;II11p k, a Zc i~~ unulytica l stcrccploucr is shown in Figu re
(,-13 . When used in conjunction with ground -control infer marion collected in the field . tIll' system ana lytically co rrelatc ~ and co mpulc.. the amo unt of-,-pa rallax tilr c<ll;h pieturc
ele ment (PiXel I WIthin th.... two st.. . rcosen pil.' aeria l pholngraphs i n~ illc thc sy~ tem . A ste renplntll'r operator interac ts
with thc analyt ical instrumen t 10 pr\k.luc.. . plani metr ic and
topo graphic maps. In .Idd itio n, they I.'an he used to produce
r:lstl' r digital cleva tion nwdds. An exampk of typica l ,f. y
planimetry and contours 1=) der ived from a stcrcoplotl....r is
shnwn in Fil:Jut"C' 6-2..J. hu a detailed d iscuss ion ofholl. ana lytica l slcrt'op lotlcrs function . rdi:r lO tht' Jlal1lm / 0" PhtJI(J-

Ph oto grammelry

I,t'n \ S lrrru..cope a nd I'aralla:>; Bar

Ftgure 6-23 A Zr1S~ PJ Planicom p analytical ~t~'TCtlp lomr

anat) , I vic.... s the stereo mod elthrou gh t~
lar I~~ s~ stem and can adjust the Ilcanng mart
iny the c urs or "" the table loounl"'~' Carl zess
Krwnml'lry published by the Ame rican Society .
l' hotogra mm etry a nd Remote Sensin~ ( ~kGlonc, 200;).
Stercns('(lpic photography may a lso he acq uired on
gro und. The stc rc..e copic photog raphs 1;3n be analyzed u
the principle of' thc floating mar k III produce a detailed
dimensiona l rcp rcscruution of the facade o f buildings
dc sired (of coursc. field X. >
:Z ground-control m....as urem
nrc req uire d to scatc the ste reo model ). This is culled clrange I'hmogm m/1/l'lry ( Warne r et al.. I'N ('I; Wolf and [
iu. 10001. Ste reoscopic phorogramm etric tec hniq ues can
app licd III terrest rial photogra phy til restore historical bu
ings or recons truct a human 's ann. kg. or face.
,~

or

Digital Elevation Models, Orthophotos

and Planimetri c Features using Soft- COP)'
Photo gram met ry

O n.:
the mllsl illlp"r1<lllt c\ellts in the history of ~
sc nsing am! photllg ranmll"try h,IS t1\.'c n th.... d\."\'dopmcnt
mJI-copr "h"togr' /lwl1\ lry. The le nn .ff~/i-copy mcans thaI
digi tal v.:rsiulJ ofthc sll'rc(lscnpic a....rial pholug raphy is
IYl l-d rather than 0 hard copy. James Case del'elop..:d the
phlltngfllmmctric solt-1:0PY syslem in the early IlJxOs. (
r.... nt so ll-....opy phllto~ramlllctric "yst....ms (e.g .. the L
G\.'OSysh:ms Phlltog rammelry Sui te) allow the ana lyst
pmcess dig ital im;lg~'ry on a pt."rsonal cnmpuler, \ ie....stL'rl'O mood in thrl'C d imcnsio n" on a computer scr

....

c.;ital Elevation Mod el s, Or1hoph otos and Planimetric Features u sin g Soft-c opy Photogramm etry

Figure 6-25

ocuI

extract ion o f
tion mode ls:

for

00'
c e-

~re 6-24

al t jne aerial photograph of a stcreoparr of Covina.

C A, bj A line dra w ing of the planimetric (.l.y ) loca-

linn of the roads. " uilding fO<llprims. fences. and

landsc;apc dements (trees. shrubs), as wel l as l -It
contours derived fro m the stereo model.

;f

nt;
\"t"

w
be
JU-

'y

'"

.,o f

,.
.r-"

digital elevation mood s ( OEMs ), extract co nto urs.

jrrducc orthophotog raphs. and extract planimetric feature
detail. An !IMI)'SI usin g so n-copy photogrammetry SOnWHe
Illd wearing anagl yph g la.'iscs \0 analyze a stereo model in
llife( dimensions is shown in Figure 6-2 5.

The stages o f deve lopment required to prod uce O E[\1s and

main-correc ted orthoirnagcry, a nd extract them atic features
If i ~ leresl using sort-cop y photogrumrnctry are outlined in
figure 6-26. lmpornmr consideration s include :

-ccllecrion of ground-c o ntrol point d ata:

' collection o f stereoscopic aeria l photograph y or othcr
moote senso r d ata;
' imagc diguization ll'Chnology:

ic

n.

~pol

elevations. con tours . and dig ital eleva-

creal io n of d igita l ort hoimagec:

extraction o ft hcrnatic features of interest.

Coflection of Accurate Horizon tal and Vertical Ground

Control

&1\1'<:

aa

'0

An imaSo.' analyst vee.....ing a stereo mood in threeanaglyph J1: 1 a-~",""S and tho: Leica
Gt'OSy$lcms Photograrnmetry Suite.

d mlL"fI~ions u~ mll

; us-

t he

175

lQft...:opy phorcg remm ctry soli" arc;

For man y years the ground-control point (GC P) data were

onl y obtained hy registered land sur veyors using tradi tional
ground surveyi ng equipment. Th is situation has changed in
two very important way s. First.the usc oral'S for Gcr data
collection is now routine ( Figure 6-26a). T he availability o f
surv ey -grade O I'S techn ology makes it possible to collect
acc ura te GCP info rmatio n wi th X Y.l root-mean-sq uarederror l f{l\ lSE) o f <3 e m when the data ar c ditfercnnalty cor reeled ( l\h:Coy . 2005 ). Remem ber, how ever. that GPS is
most e tt en used 10 com pute horizonta l posit ion . G PSderi ved vert ical posi tion (Z-ekvation ) is rel ated to the ellipsoid, not the geoid or mea n sea level. T herefore. to relate the
GPS-dcr ivt'd ele va tio n (ellipso id heigh t ) to co nvent io na l
el evation (orrhomet ric he ight). a ge o id model is nec ess ary
( Wolf a nd Dew itt. :!OOO). Second. the G PS-J e ri\'ed GC P
data necessary to prcpare a block of Renal photogra phy fo r
infor matio n extraction can he obtained by non- s urve yors
(i.e.. geo gra phe rs. foresters. geo logi sts).

C II _ \ I'IH~

176

Ph o to g ra m metry

Colle

E atract inn of Digit al Elt-, ,.Iinl! :\10<1('1\. Orl hnim a gl' r~ ..

a nd Planimetr-ic Fea tures L\ i n~ So ft ~lJP~' Ph "l o~ rammltr~h. I'hn rnJ:ra mmt'lr ;c
Tri all l:ula ti"l1 " n l1l1l,,~1.

c. ( 'rrll l . ""d ' -k ..

( -" nl rnl , :lind l h'm"t.: ~(' n, ,,r

Data ("" I!(oel ;""

<;0 11,;<;( ~ru l.ln d-<:" " lml

,\ dj u, I IlI ,'nl
- reg isl.:r fr;u"c~ of ima>:.I)" 10

- \ ' 11'\ \

:II.

Pla n

n i~ h l lin('.

G r", ond

J~lJ

lI-sing (iPS

- ul{uirc rcn)lltdy sense d data

300 Jigl lll,c It' ncssa~
- a,s.:s, qua lity "fGC-r ,mtl
rem" l,'
d,lla

"'''' ' 1

"' c'ght~on_'lr.IIlICJ

Oth e

l ligh
prod.
plani
scale
been

Rc!o:i' ll'rt'd Stertor"; "_

ground cumr,,1 u_mg uucnor

and "'~lcli"r MI<.'Tl131;Uf\
1=,(

, t('rc'o Illodel U , il l ~

an.,g lyr h or f'o larl"ed

gl,),sc~

- eXlno:t _pol d<,I'ali'lns

lI-, ing thcjl.>Uling m"rt If

te.g.

desired

squall.... bundle ;ulJu'<Im..',u

DigiU

I'rog

Man
linn

men
so r :
C:>I'S ::ruund-

Int.-rio r

cUll In,1 pulnr

H..mu... , o: n"" dau

men

data

d ahl cutlcc no n

tncr
DEl

be ,
phy
SOl

sea
pic
sor

\ l1l' ~:l~ l' h

'h"r('<)I';' ;'
(,ho .... n in hl;'cl and .... hile )

<e'

Th
d. blr3("t Il i!:lt a l .:1\,\ 311,,0
\ Iml d ( 1) "1)

- automated c'l llel'l i" n or

D t :-'1 1ll a uscr-spcciflcd J::rid
- ~It cln allt,n M",'slllll:'
.... h.le &.ap..-..J o'er 30 , -ie....
o r Ilk" rertam
- ....nl" DE\! lo OUl plll tile

e. t:, lra,t lIi !:ila l O r1h" iflllll:'"

- " ""' DL\ -l l" en" ,te orthoimagc
- ere,lte orth...iul;,j,lc flU",,,.... IWIll

indi\ idlUl framc,

_O'... rld~ "nlw.''' na~ ....... ,Ih
themallC dua to produce
ortIk ,ml-lge nul'

lui
ua l

r. t:,l racll'la l1 ll1.d ric

Fca tu r.....
- \ -Il''''' .maglypfuc or pohmzcd
triung ulnted , tcrcuHH>ucl
- 1'1;,.... I1INIIII/I<! mud on feature
of ill"'n:~l ;11101 "Ullinc il
- LTt:,Ue coraocrs b~ lceplIlg tlll:
ll o, ,llllg nurl on rbe ground
al a CUllsranl ele..,ri"n ri..:.
con,la',l amount of parallav )

1m
to

,n
h.
se

tic

p'

c,
I nr. ,rr..r INl

In : \1

huilding
f""lrrinl

O rlh ni ma ::l" cr .-al ed l" ing

cn rn '\'r\',l ll E\ 1
Figu re 6-26

Typical

~lagC'<

in the CI'e'311Oll o r drgttal elevation m""kk "nhvirnagL"ry. ,md the extraction o r pbnim<:lIiL' features

....ut-c op~ photogranuucmc tec hniq ues .

u,i~

....

Illal Elevation Models , Orthopho tos and Plani me tr ic Features us ing Soft-copy Phologrammetry

tectiOn of Stereoscopic Aerial Pho tog rap hy

lO;t

or

Remote Sensor Dara

177

spatial resolution satel lite rem ote senso r d ata becomes available for use in the creation o f Dl. Ms and onhoimJ ges.

Image Digitization Technology

:h-quality stereoscopi c aerial ph\l lograph y are required to

dee accurate OEM s. orthophlltography and extrac t

erecic d..nail (Fi gure 6-2bal. Co nsiderable medi um Irll :20.000 1'1 I :-W.(J()O) metric aerial pho tograph y has
II acquired by' subcontractors for gove rnment agcnci..' S
~. LS. Geologica l Survey Nat ional Aerial Photography
".am. U.S. Coa st a nd Get ...Jeric Su rvey. Bureau of Lan d
Dagetno:'nl). Co mmercial pho rogram mc m c engineering
acoetinue to collect most o f the large-scale ( > I :20.1)00 )
:nc aerial photography. They U~ anal og a nd di gital sensystems. which provide improved geometric and radio:nc resolution (e.g. Leica ADS 40). Mo sr remote sensing
r
platforms are no w equipped with GPS and
1iaI navigation sys tems . \'ery high spat ial resolution
:'o k orthophorographs. and planimetric fe ature detail can
:Itri\ed from such imagery. Un fort unately. the photogra
.md derived products a re ~t ill expensive .

ceuecnon

Linear and area -array dig iti7ation technology hased on

cha rge coup led de vices (('Cl)~ ) o r phot o-dil:Mks have revolutionized image d igitizauon. Scicnrists now have access to
desktop systems t hat " 111 dig iti7l' black-an d-white imager)'
to 12 bits (va lues from 0 to 401J5 ) and color imagery to J u
bits (>1 b illion colon ) at repe atable spatial resol ut ions
approach ing < 10 urn. Seienti sls ca n inexpcnsiv ely sca n hISto rica l images at high sp,lI ia l resolution fur phorogrammctric
proje cts ( Koncncy, ::00 ) . The importance ofimage d iguization will become lo s im portant as mo re of the data analyzed
in soft-copy phot og rarnrnetric sys tems arc cotlcctcd by dig ita l rem ote se nsin g sys ll'lIls.

Soft-Copy Phologrammetry

remote ly sense d dat a suitable for mediumk pbnogrammctric app lica tions arc a vailab le. For exa mit is possible 10 o btai n stereo panchromatic remote sen data wnh a nominal spa tial resolution of 5 x 5 m from
:atSPOT and Ind ia n IRS-I C sensors (re fer to C hapter 7).
epanchromanc data may he used to derive med ium -reso (l/l DEMs and or moirnagcs. de-puc the fad that ind i\ idhouses and sma ll buildings cannot be resolv ed .

Soft-copy pho lo gr.JlIln1l'tri.:: so ftware has made it possible

for scientists and lay penoons rc create OEM s. pTl'pare on hophowgraphs, extract contours. and map thematic features of
inte rest. Th is .::apahility is largely due to unprovcmcms in
the photogrammctric so ftware that performs a) inte rior o rien tation, I'll exterior orienta tion , and c) ae ro-t riangu lation .

ager), with a spatia l resolu tiollof tl.25 tu 2 ,5 1Il is requ ired

resolve trailers. houses. small buildings. narrow roa ds,
. drainage networks. so importan t in many urb an-suburapplicauous (Jens en lind Cowen, 1 9 l)9 ~, Fortunately,
iCraJcommercial lirms now provide high sputinl rcsoluI satellite-deriv ed remote sensor dat a that can be used to
fide DEr>.ls. orrhoiruugery , lIlId some pluuiructric fe ature
'aCtion. (refer 10 Chapter 7):

tmerior onematiun is the procedure whereby the geometric

characrcrisncs of an aeri a l pho tograph an: mathematica lly
related 1( 1 the geometric cha racteristics (including de formitics) o f the camera system that took the photograph. Th is
means csruhlishmg the Tl'l;ltlon,hip between I ) the camera
internal coordinate sys tem and 2) the image pixel co ord inate
system [Lind er. 200Jl. T his sk p requir es informa tion abo ut
the camera sys tem , which is typically found in the camera
ca libration report . Most frame cameras )1;I\-'e ;1 camera calibrarion report that was c rea ted at the time the camera was
pro duced or rccahhratcd. Ty pica l info rmation required tor
inte rio r orientation that is available in the camera cahbrauon
rep\ln incluJ .::s;

De satellite

ieoEydKONOS I x I OJ panchrmnunc duta:

jrhlmage OrhVicw-3 I x 1 m pa nchro matic ,tlta ;

tnt crtor Ortcntatlnn

ligitalGlobc Quit:kBird 6 1 x 6 1 t:1n pa nchrolllut it: data .

iIe sut:h digital satellile re mote M:nwr data may never

lace tht: demand for h igh-4 ualit)' lurge-scall.' aeria l phoraphy, there w ill be many appli ealion s where the DE\! s
,ortOO-rel.:tilk d satdli t.:: data an: su llic il' nt Thus. anoth.::r
ior ~um b ling blod is bl'inl; Il .... ercoml' as re lati\ cly hil;h

r.y locatilln u f thl' prln .::ipal po int (e .g,. x.r " 0.0; rd er to
Figure 6-6);

x,y locat ion ofal lli,lul:ial mHrks (m m );

len s focal length t crn );

178

deformation ch aracterist ics orthc lens.

Th e an alyst ob ta ins this information from the ca me ra calibrauon report and imports it into the interio r o rientation progra m. The image ana lyst then iden tifies rhe r.j- loca tion of
the fiduc ial mark s assoc iated ..... ith each phot og raph produced by the camera. For example. consider Figure 6-27
where an analyst ts in the process nf pe rfonn ing interior cod entation for one of the photographs o f Columbia. Sc. Tilt"
analyst is collec ting information abou t fiducial mark /12,
[OC3 Inj in a comer of the photograph. The coord inates of a ll
four fid ucia l mach from the camera cal ibra tio n repo rt a re
labeled Fi lm X and Film Y in the d isplay. Th e image coor dinates of all four fidu cia l ma rks measured by the ana lyst are
labeled Image X and Image Y in the d isplay. The- fiducia l
mark calibrat ion report coordinate, arc then rela ted 10 the
coordinates o r the fiducia l mark s measured hy the image
ana lyst and res id ual s computed. The relationship between
thi ~ partic ula r image and the came ra ce bbruuon informa t ion
ha!> a root-mean-sq uared-error (RMSF.) of 1,12 pi'els (5 (,.76
f.lm ) \>, hich is ve ry good , Interior ori entatio n is performed fur
each ph otograph in the block of phot ography. It relate s thegeo met ric churactcrisucs o f the aer ial photograph to the
internal geometric cha racte ristics of the camera that prod uced it.

[ " e rior Orientatiun

All aer ial photographs are t illed somew hat. We need to
know how to model this tilt if we arc go ing to ex tract useful
meas urements fro m aerial photogr ap hy. There arc s ix eleme nts o f ex terior orientati on that express the spat ia l loca tion
and angular or ientat ion o f a tilted aer ial phot ograph at the
moment o f exposure (Xl ,1'i .2l ,w, ,,,,). Th e three-dim en sional coordi nates of the a ircraft at the mom ent of exposure
arc XI.' Yl,ZI. where ZI. is the altitude of the ca mera above the
loca l da tum . Atthe instant o f exposure the cumcm might be
rolli ng. pitching. or yaw ing. These three an g les of orientation arc om ega . phi, and kappa (oo-O-K ). All the method s
developed 10 det ermine these six param ete rs for eac h ae ria l
photograph require pho tographi c images of at least three
grou nd-c ont rol points whose X.Y.Z coordinates are kno.... n
( Wolf a nd Dewitt, 2 ()()O). If we can determine these param ctcrs for eac h ae rial photograp h. we ca n use the info rmation
to re late image coordinates tu real-world (e x le l"ill r ) ma p
coordin ates.

Exterior orientation determines the mathemat ical relat ionship between imag e coordinates (.l,):=) and real-wor ld map
coordmate, lX [ X) for select ed ground-contro l points. r\
g rf/lll/d comrot point lCC!') is defined as any object in an
ima ge for which real-world .r y.7. gro und coor dina tes a rc

C II.\ PT ER

Ph otogra mm etry

known (Linder, 20(3). We need to locate atIeast threc vel

distributed GC Ps in ea ch image. Th is means that the y s
be distribu ted so that they fonn a triangle in the image ,
shou ld not be loca ted in a stra ight hne.

High-quality orttficial (or ('III/d) Gel's arc usually rna

in the field using a white L'roSS with ea ch o f the four leg!
lil t' cross being 50 long and the width of the bars beingU
wide (e.g.. 0.(, m) ( Wolf and Dewitt. 200 1). T he color of
artificial Gel' sh ould contrast w ith the background rna
{c.g., a while cross o n da rk as pha lt). ~ Iost analys ts have
a rnfi cia l Gt'Ps at selected street intersections in the
So met imes Gel's are located at strategic loc atio ns in
countrysi de , The hcrizonrallccation (X. Y) and/or Z eleva
o f the (;C P~ arc obtain ed using diff erent ially correc
{static or kinematic) (i I'S measurements and the r
geoi d mod el. The more horizontal/vertica l ground con
points that can be located thro ughout a b lock (If aeria l
tugruphy, the bcncr. The most acc urate exterior oriental
w ill take place in areas surroun de d by art ific ial GCPs.1I
zonta l contro l points arc usually sym boli zed with a tri an~
Vertical control poi nts arc symbolized using a ci rcle. II
zonral and vert ical co ntro l at a point is sy mbol ized usingl
tr iang le wit hin a circle.
In addit ion to art ific ial ho r izontal/ve rtical GCl's. the i
an alys t ca n select {'II'" points [som etimes referred to as
ura l points ) w ith in thc ove rlap a rea of a ste reo pair. P
points should he cle arly visible in each photograph of
stereopair te.g .. the corner of a st reet, base nf a tclcph
pole. irucrsccuon o f two fences ]. The analy st obtains the
locat ion o f these pass poi nts in each image o f tile stcre
Pa~s po ints can be used to pass cont rol from o ne phot
to the next in a strip of aerial phot ograph y. Tie poifftJ
pass points located in the : 0 percent s ide lap area (refer
Figure (,-2 ) that ca n be used 10 pass control from one lli
line strip of <I n ia l photography to ano ther.
Unlike inte rior orientation . which on ly work s on one p
graph at a time. exterior orien tation req uires that the anal,
loca le the image coord inates o f the con tro l poi nts in
images in a stereopair. For e xam ple, co nside r the ext
orient ation ta king place in Figu re tJ-2R. T he an alyst is in
proc ess o f co llcL'ting image coo rd inate s for grou nd-comns
point P I. located on the gro unds o f the South Ca rolina Sta~
capitol. T he len imag e is Pho to 4 .....t and the right image
Photo -1-5. Th e ana lyst has already input the X. };Z gm
reference coordi nates ( X Refere nce. Y Refe rence, Z Ref.
encej.
A eru-t rian gil la tinn

'-

)gilal Elevation Models, Orthophotos an d Planimetric Features us ing So ft-co p y Phot ogrammelry

179

Interim' Orteutauou :

Fiducial :'olar'" Image Coor dinalcs Related 10 Ca mera Ca libra tiun Rcpnrt Cun rdina tcs

lEi f' .QL~J ID

rtf

co,

""...,.x
l 'il s:

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"111[<'

FlJure 627

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"

fI", ....... "

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, ' :'l

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"

otH

I n ( ~ n llf oricmu\i\l l\ hC' IIl~ pcr (ol"m<:J "" Olle' HI' the aer ial p h" I ,,~ w pll~ "f {-"lulllbia. S( '. 'I he a lla l .v ~l is iuthc process of collecting intormauou .\h"\1\ Iidll<: i,i1ll1nr" 111. The coordinates "rail tour l i <l lidall11" rh 1i"l 1lT1 till: cnnu-rn cntibnuion report arc

labeled l-rlm X .md l'i1 1l1 Y. Ihe illl" g.: w urdin<tl<'s ur"l1 fo ur r,,]ucl,,l lllar" , 1II'e I'K illed in th.. ill11ll!<:r:v ,IIlU labeled lmugc X
and Imagc Y.

an.t lhe interior and e xterio r onenunion ur... completed. the

informallon can be us...d In perform 1.1f.'m- lri ,IIJ!!.III,lIiol/.
A.:ro-lriangulation is the proce ss I I hereby the real-world XI. and Z ground coordmarcs can he determined till' any pl",... 1
a stercc pair based UII photo coordinate Jll...avurcmcms
IWolf and Dcwiu. ~f}()(I ). This is a powerful capahilil). It
lDCans that the geom ctnc chara cte ristics obrainc d rrom Iht'
~:l1i\'el y small number ur GCrs u~J Jurin~ c vrcrior uric nlIliOll can be extended 10 CH'I} pixel wnhin a d igua l ste reo
1IIOlk1 and Ih;1I \ \ t' can obtain the .t r locauon and Z .:1 1'\ allIXJ al each o f lhe"... piwh w ithout ha \ ing to go out in th...
field and do forma l GrS surveying. Aero-tr iangulation

all oll" the relativ ely small amoun t o f g round co ntrol In be

passed (o r !wi,fl!..,/j from one photograph 10 another in a
block of aeria l ph(,togmph) using image-de rived pass and
lie ptlinh.

The nero-triang ulation proccvs crea tes stcrc opuirs that can
be viewed and used III extract drgual elevation models.
onhophotog ra phy. and rhcmauc features o f interest IFi gure
0-:!5 and O-~Oc l, The analyst l) pically views thc rriangularcd
imagery un the -creen using unag typh cla-ses. This prod uces
11 thrc-c-dirncnsioual mood in the observer's mind a" prc viousl) discussed . Co lor Plate 0- I presents an anaglyph SI C-

,
~

180

( 'I I \ I"I EI{

Ph ot ogrammetry

Es re r lo... Orientation :
S te reosc o pic C ulll'ctio n of Image Coo ...diuatcs of G nlUnd Cu nl rill Points

z
.-"'l

' +11 1:1

0_1

", ~ A ~

i6 ZZo 0

Digit f

~ I

.,#

-,

-""..I

-.-r- ,.'.

j C

~ - r-

"iit I

n r:'"~-r-

:t

rn- 'j0 -

_.-

--

,.

r-- ,.
......

Fi{

wi

IP

th-

.-
,.

Fig u re 6-28

"

cc
Ie

or

:;;i~~ ;it

~~;~ :~--

",N'N I

..... , '~

T
d,
P
P

,_"

0"1."1 ,,",1

JI> ,. ,n.

. 'fIOlOW

l'>'W ~ U

M., p C'"'ldi"at,.,.

Exl,:ri" f oncnt.uion i~ h<'illg performed " II part of th~ Co lumbia, St.'. stcrcopair. 'I he :In;liyst is in the prlll.'l.'ss III'collecting imngc eour-tinat., IX r ile. y r ik ) for g round-control point 1'1. lnc alcd on the g rnonds Ilfthc South Carolin :! stale ca pitol. Th
analyst has 1llready inputl l1 c .\'. ):"': g round rcle n-ncc w"ru ilJ.'lcs IX Reference. Y Rcti;felll:c.1. Reference ( masked fw!!
vil'\\ )]. Thc irnagc coord inates "f nll grnltml-cnn1fo l po ints mll<t Ill.' determined.

rcop air of'Columhia. SC , prod uced trom the uforcmcmioned

interior and exterior oricnuuion and ncro-muugulation.
Acro- tria ngu lauon IISCS a "Clghl-eunstraincJ least-squa res
bund le adj usuucru 10 Pfllpcrly orient all uf the imagcs in a
block of ae rial photllgraphy, Th i ~ adj us tmcut is ba-redon the
usc of colhncarity equations. C"{h,,,anf." is th... con d ition
'" here the camera exposure slat ion (1.) . an obj ect on the
gro und (,11, and its photo image fa ) al l lie on a , trdlght line
in three- d ime nsional space te. g.. Figure 11-29} ( Wol f and
Dewitt, 2000 1. TIle collinearity con d it io n fo r any point I ll)

in all acriul ph"togrilph ca u bc ex pressed by two equ ations

one for thl' .\ photo coordinate (x ) and one for the y pholo
coordin.uc (r,,):

,
"

{ " I I I 1".1
"1I 1 \~

,
" "

{ .. ~III".j

"

"'11 1.\.4

\ l ) ' '' I ~ lI ,(

rL)''' lJll.' ~ -/./]

\ ) "1 ~( 1'..I

r, "

\ L) "'~~(

rl.l "~ J(L,( -L,.)

1,(

.I", ) ' '' l ~ l r..l

" ll(l,(

)'I. '"l1 l L ,(

L r)

LI J

to-IS

(6- 1lJl

a
s
I

"

J9ta1 Elevat io n Model s , Ortho photo s al'ld Plan im etric Fea tu re s using Soft -c o py Photogram metry

along lines ofequa l clcvauon t creat ing a co nto ur):

C ulli ru:a ri l:" Cllndi liull

I

bf'osur~ sl:IlIon ,l. - . . .

hll~g~
coordin<ll~s (,'(/., J'/..7./). _ _,..,"'''';,--_ _ ,',ool<liI1<lIC.'
/

Focnl knglh.,

in a sys tematic g rid creat ing a dig ita l elevation mudd .

(,r,l')

Tih..-d aer ial

E!,,:I atin ns ... xtracrcd hy the a nalyst at vel)' spe cifi c locations
tc.g.. at road imcrscctions. corners of buildings, ma nhole
cov ers} in the stereo mode l are com monly rc tc rrcdto as sf/o/
etrvntions or 1(>(11 heights , The ana lyst obtains the X rz
courdin,ltes of a poi nt b~ placing thcjlmlTi/1g II'drA {prcv jously discucscdj flrrnly on the ground \ nor be low the su rface
and nor hm cring above the surface) and ta kin~ a reading.

pt...' [Ol,:raph 1
;
Grnullu
eo<>Tdin alCs
(X~.
I

rt./..j

,I

--1'"
~" lewl

;
::)

.. XI

......'
f9Jre 629

r,

Colhn<,:;<ril} condincn ,,,.,....:ial.:d ....ith a lilted aer ia l

phol<'ilr~ph _

~hcrc

r-

"

.r, and .1'" arc t ill' cooniin.ncs {If the principle poin t
IPPI from the came ra cuhb ratlo n rc' port: XL' r l. am! 1./. are
;1" gwulld coordinates of exposure -uuion I.: the ground
ordinates of point ." a rc .\"../' 1'1' and Zi; cam ..-ra focal
~'lh is): and me ",'s are functions of rotat ion ang les
a. phi. and l appa (oH)-to;) ( Wolf a nd Dewitt. 2UOO).
llI: collineamy cquatillfls arc u..cd in V"ln' ....I'.Tli,," 10
dcltrmine the six elcrncms 01" evtenor onemauon for both
~raphs of a sh.:retlpair. Spu{"1! lfll,r:. . 'Ctiml can then take
ID=< to iJ enlif) the rea l-world ground coordinates of any
~)Int in the srcreomodcl . Tho: intricacies o f space resection
1Mspace intersection base d on collincaruy are beyo nd the
sopc of this introductory hook, Pleas e refer to \Vo lf and
M\'m (lOOD). f.,li khail et al. {2 0 1lI l. (I I' the "\/(//1/11110(1)//11 ",,0)11111I1:111' ( Mdi lon.... 10(4 ) I'o r <Jdd iti(lnal inlorma tlon .

As prcv iOllsly me nt ioned , contours an: obtained by the analys t specl l):ing the des ired elevation, c.g .. lOll m AS L. Th e
'lI1alyst then plac es the llo.ni ng mar k o n the g roundm a lc ca tinn known In be 100 m AS L (b,1SCd on its parallax prop ertic,,). Sh... then moves the floa ting mark along the ground at
the sa me de\ anon c rcunng a co nto ur. when the contour line
is com ple te. the analysl increments 10 th... nex t co ntour inter val t e.g .. 110 III A SI. ). places the cursor on the ground a t 110
III ASL and procc c ds as be forc . This is an accurate ye t physically demanding method (0 extracr co mours.
Ulo ing son-copy phorogrannucrric systems, groun d co ntro l.
and came ra cubbrario n inform atio n, it is p,)ssihlc to perform
ae ro-triangu lat ion ofthe pho tog raph) (lIT imagcry ) and utilizc infcrmation obtained d uring the prowss to gen erate a
lamcc (g rid ) o f elevation va lues \\ ithin eac h stereo mod el of
a !light line O;igur., h-26J ). Th e ..o nwarc au to matica lly pe rform.. stereo-c orrelation on onhcrcctificd pa tch ...s of imagcry and computes the paralla x land related etevanon)
a~"'ll:i3tcd ~ nh cecb new point in the ..tereo model. The ~t ...reo-correlation i~ performed for all points in a use r-spec ified
gr id. Typica l SySIL'IlIS can proc es s tho usands o f po ints in the
stereo model per sccond ( Konecny, 2()()JI. A n exump le of a
digi tal el eva tion mod el produced from the C olumbia. Sc.
stcrcopair is shown in Figure o- .lU~L The Il EM was process,'d to appvar as ,I plast ic sllllJ" d- re lief mod el.
ca n m;a mple and mosaic Ihe li na l DEl\l to whal....Hr spat ial n:"'l lulion IS dL~i rt:d It:.g .. 5 x 5 Ill.ll) x ~O m l.
In this manner Ihe DEM can be brought into !!l'Omelric congnlC'nce \\i lh data in a fi lS. Thll~. M' /c>11IiuI ,md lt~lperl'(//U
h"h' lilt' c"/,,,bili~I' (~l Cll!allllX ~'t'ry-' <laural.: DE.H, un
t/t' /I/(III,/ for .I'i/t'-J/>td/k pmi<'( '/.' 1I.1;lIg dc.IA/o!' ,m ft-eo!,y
S ci~' nllSl~

f rtTaC fing Spot Elevatio ns. Contours. and OEMs USing

SoIt-COpy Photogramm etry

18 1

lkgrounJ con lrl,1 incotpor,lted illh> the e \ terior orientatiun

lIIIl JLw.-lriangu latilln makes it ptlssible to ass ign an clevalinn la,tuaUy a cc M,lin a m,lu nl o f para lla\ ) III eac h conjugat e
Ima\ehing l pa ir tl f pi \e ls I'n unJ \\ ithin a stcn:o pa ir, [ !":valioo infonnat ion ~'a n 0..' c \ tracted from Ihc tria nglilatl'd slcJ'tl'Jmoocl:
II '~1) spt.-cifie locat ions iJ el1l ili .'J by the operntnr;

IJ//f' f' jgramml'lry .

T he ;Kl'u r;IC Y (If th ~ d igital c1cv:llion modc l Ihat can bc

."traeled t1si nj; pholOgrall1ll1ctril meth ods is a fU tll'lilltl o f
Ilw scale an J re~o!u titl n Ofl llC' r~' lIwte se nso r daw , the' !lyi ng
h ci ~ht :It whic h Ihc imagcry wcn' acqui red. th., base/he ight
r;Jt io (i e., g''i'll1ctryl oflhe slC' r.'osl't'P1C imag",ry. a~'Curacy

182

CII\pn:R

a. Un..-orrccted DEM ,

Photogrammetry

b. Corrected DH.t

c. DE\1 .... ith buildings and 1r(~S removed.

Figure 630

a ) Uncorrected d igi l~1 elevation model derived ll~i ng ""n-C<llly photogramrnetric techniques. h) Fotrcctcd DEM c) DE M 1'01"
I'>uildi n~, and trees re moved . d ~ Slope map produc ed trom n E ~1 \\ ith builJi np and trees removed.

nfthe grou nd control. and th e quehty of the soli-copy photogra mmetry softwar e used. Users so mcumcs f..-el tha t a 0[;\1
derived u~ i n g soli -nlpy photogramm erry w ill he erro r tree .
Th is is notthe case.

detailed ete vauon mt ormat ion for each bu ilding and tree it
the study a rea.

Tall Structure" a nti Tre..,,, IlIIjl:U'1 the Cn':lIiun or

" hOl.OJ:n1mmcl r icaIlJ Dc r h"'d UiJ:ila l t h,'\ll l iu n J\)nd,, I..

So ft-r opy photogrammctric sys tems allow users 10 view tIx

gnd of DE'A ele...arion " pc>sli" gs " supe rim pose d on a SICrcopair in three -d imens io ns . The analyst ca n edi t indi ..idual
elevat ion po stings by moving them so thai they come in C(lIItac t \\ nh rhc ground us ing the "principle of the floating
mark," whereby each posti ng becomes a lloaling mark . :11Ic:
:lIla lyst may l) correct indiv id ua l posrings. 2 ) select a pol~
g,>n of rust ings and c hange all of rhcm (0 the same clevauce,
or 3 1 selec t a polygon
posungs a long a slope and halt
them scale d 10 lie between the hig.hesl and lo west poiras
encountered w ithi n the polygon. When care fully use d. lilt
unulvst cun correct mos t problems enc oun tere d in the OEM,
f or exam ple, the D EM in Figure 6-30h was edite d so thattht
It'p of each build ing was at the correct e leva tio n. DEf<.ls IIw

The automatic stereo correlanon used to c reate DE\1s wor ks

well .... h.11 the terrain is devoid of trees. buildings. overP;IS~t:"S . hridges. ctc .. which extend above the nomina l rcrrain. When suc h o bject!> tire pre-sent. ho\\ ever. the alg ori thm s
assume Ihese o bjec ts arc te rra in anti com putes the diffc rc ntia l parallax and resultant height of such surfaces The
height -, an: then p laced in the DE M. l-or "ample. Figure t>W a depicts a DEM o f a four -b lock rcg ron of the Universit y
of South Carolina campus derived tron: I:6.000-scalo: photog ra phy. Tho: hlocky appearance of the I>l :~ is du e III

\ Id hnth Uxetl tu Edil :1 DE\1 Im pa tt Its Acruracj:

or

~tal

...

Elevation Mode ls. Ort hophotos and Planimetr ic Features using Soft-c opy Photogram metry

ede elcvauon informat ion a bou t buildings and tree s may

J ofuse if the ana lyst desires to drape a n o rthophoro o n top
~ OEM and perhaps do a "fly-by" through the city.
eWT. i f the analyst wanted a DT\1 o f j ust the nominal
und terrain ill the four-brock regio n. this is certa inly nor
nr in Figures 6-30ab.
10 create a [)E M of the region thut docs 11m have building
Jd tree informat ion in it, the analyst must usually manually
i!il the clcvmio n "postings' in the DEM that co rres po nd
l ith the building s and tre es anti etfecuvety drive OT pu -h
f.'tm 10 the nom inal terrain he igh t in the area. Th is c an be
iffirull if a buildi ng or stand of trees is large. UOWCWT. if
buildings a nd trees arc not too larg e it is possible to iden" the general tre nd of th e terr ain bctw ecn b uildings and
I.ge trees such that th e -postings" of bu ildin gs and trees ca n
mov' ed to the nominal terrain elcvauon. Ca reful editi ng o f
original DEf\1 in this manner ca n p roduce a revised OEM
depicts j ust the local re lief ofthe area, withou t build ings
trees. as shown in Fig ure 6- 31k;, A percent slope dataof the reg ion (important ill ma n)' cnviro nrncnta l and
~~'drol()gic slUJ ies J cannot accurate ly be computed from the
OEM with buildi ngs and trees in it. II can be pro duced from
~ OEM with bui ldings and tree s removed. as sho wn in Fig -

m 6-3Od.
l.Ttbanil c-d areas wi th buil d ings and trees ma y hav e to be
laIlually edued to obtain a OEf\1 (If j ust the nominal terrain .
fbi;; can be a labo rious process and is subject to error bei ng
LKc-d by the ana lyst. Th e larger the scale o f aerial pho~ ph~' and the greater Ihe hei ghl (If the bu ild ings and
res in the study area. the greater the di fficulty of
ibtaming an ac'curate OEM o f the terrai n. OE f\ls are most
curare ami requ ire the least ed iting w hen prod uced for
11:1111 areas that do not ha ve sig nificunt "l eaf-on" tree cover
II!man-made struc tures (bui lding s, bridges. ctc.).
for example, consider the high-quality DEM ex tracted from
kge-!lCale aer ial pho tograph y with few trees or bu ildings
iIIown in Figure 6-3 I . These four te st pads (In the Savan nah
l iler Site ncar A iken, SC a rc used to evaluate the effe ctiveess of various haza rdous wa ste site clay ca p ma terials .
Iege-scalc ste reoscopic ae rial photography of the test pads
Illesplace rout inely w tha l any subsidenc e [i.e., dep res sion I
i1lhc clay cap!> can be documen ted immediately. Figure 6l la OOcumen ls the sck-clion of sround-e(lntrol raint ;:5 d uro
i;g the exterior or icntat ion ph ase \If the project. Cu ntrol
p.>int 1:5 is a IS-i n. plastie pipe e_\ tendi ng 30 cm alxlVc the
pnd, whic h was sUr\cyed to wi th in ::!:.3 em using (iPS.
The digital elevation mo\leI t'x tra~ ted a ner aero- tnangu l,lIed
lI<:reo model is shown in Fig ure 6 ) Ih . This view was (re
1!Cd Ily drapin g one nfl he photog raphs in lhe slercopa lr over

' 03

the O EM and view ing it from an oblique pe rspcc uv e . A

color version of this example is found in Col or 1'1",1..: 6-2,

Creation of Dig /tat Orthoimages

M ore than ) 0 yea rs ago . Thrower and Jensen ( I Y76 )

revie we d how analog t hard-copyj unhophotogruphy was
created , a nd ide ntifi ed num erou s cartographic npplicutions.
They sta red:

O nhophoto- mapping rep rese nts 3 tech niq ue by w hic h

spatially arrayed data migbt be both more acc urately
mea sured and com municated because of the special
attributes ofthe o n hophoto map. namely, the image of
an aerial ph.lIo~'Taph and the me tric q ualities o f a co ntrolle d line ma p.
As predi cted , there has bee n a tre me ndous inc reas e in the
use o f d igila l onhonnagcry and d igital c fcvauon mod el s ill
ma ny applications Lay per sons. plann ers, G IS practitioners.
cartog raphers . and the media (e .I;" news papers. maga zincs.
tcle r is io n ) lI~C onbonnagcs us cartographic backdro ps upo n
wh ich themarie information i ~ ovcrluid (c .g., property line s,
uti lity lines, dr ainage ncrworkv. contours. troop deploymcrn j
( Rumsey and Punt. 2JXl4 ), .\!<I/~I imugc ullu~r.\ b urv 110'1'
using 111'.\(/"1' soft-copy IJlwtograml1lj'tric S:\:HCIII,f /IJ gl'm',.all! ,lin,. IIIl"'f personal OEJ l. ami orthop imroj{raplis .lor
input to GIS. This sec tion de scribe s how ort hophotogra phs
are c reated using soft-copy photogrammcuy and importam
issues that shou ld be con sidered when c reating and using
the m,

()rthoiml1ge.f are created from remotely sensed images . The

g...o mc try of an un rccti ficd Jigi tal phot ogra ph is cha nged
from thutufa conica l b undle cf'mys to parallel ray s that are
orthogona l tothe ground and til the imag e plane. Therefore,
instead o f ha ving a pers pec tive center.the \"iew ing pcrspcctiv c is mo deled as being :111 infinite distance from the
grou nd, Figure />..31 de monst rates the ch ange in image
geometry and the remova l of te rrai n-i nduced displ acement
(t.s). Thc po int I' tha t lies at a specific elevanon a bove mean
sea le ve l on the ground is found atp in the imag e p lane coordina tc sys tem whe n it should be located at c. Th e correction
oft he sh il\ fro m p 10 C (i.e" As) is the goa l o fonhorccti ticalion . Ea~'h pan {If Ih~' terrn in is in\lerll:nJen tly corrn:IL"l.1 du ring til<: n:': li fieati\lII pron-ss.
The d li.'Ch o r hl l'ogra phic rel ief d isplace m.:m and Caml.'Hr
a ltitude variat ions arc r<:lllu\ cd in urtllllimagery. T he res ult
is ;1 p l:mimctr i.:nlly cor Tl'e t un lll1lmag e. For e.\ tlmplc. Figur e

(1I\ I'n:R

184

Phologrammelry

E\Ct'riur Orte n ta uun : \\"t'~ l in l.:h ,," 't' S/t\llnll ah Rh t'r Sill'
S IUl'OSCU I)!c C olkc t inn of I mage Co ordi nah'\ of (;rnllud,ClInlr,,1 I' oi!lh

, + . 1:1 '
.., .., I! !l'
~

Draped over

Figu re 6 -3 1

rholograllll11drica ll~ -l"" rhcd

Uigilal Eh'\'alinD .\ (odd

;I) Exterior orientation taking pl"cc un " slt'rc'up"i r "r the 1,,' 1 p.llis on the Wcslingh" usc S'l~ilnnilh River Sill.' ncar Aiken. SC

Thc ph\lt,,~r.\phy .... as oh tam cd in I 'N ~, h I Display of the ph"lll~"" lm mllIica llydl'ri v ...d J >J-:t-. I dr.IJX"t1 with one of'tbe sten-opair
photographs.

6-33 dc picb a po we r trans miss ionline in rug,gcd ter rain. Th e

powerline wnv sur-eyed 10 be very ~I raigh l in the real world.
but the: substantial local rcli... f causes re lie f dis placeme m ro
lak e- pta, c in the photogra ph. Th is causes the po we rlinc 10
not be in its proper pla nimetric posil ion in the unrecnfied

aerial photogra ph. The process of differentia l bit-by-bit

orthographic rectific ario n removes dist o rtio ns caused by tilt
o f the camera at the m-aan t of ex posure and IhC' effects of
re lief d isplace me nt. The po.... crfinc is no w in its proper
planim ctnc posiuo n. and its shape and geo met ry are co rrect.

tligilal Elevat ion Models, Orfhcpbotos a nd Plan ime tric Features u s ing sort-copy Ph o togra m me try

Pe n pect h ...

~P
~~ C
_ ~,

.
. /

~, ;,
"

1m" ,
plane

()rlh l,~ra p hi c

z' ,ziT- P,,cz'

zZ/J2r
..
'
'
'

()rlh()~nnal ~

Conica l\'

..

'1

t'n correcred verucet Ae rial l'hnluj:raph

'

ra ys

r3 } S

~~

c; \~

\l ll p Prujl'(:lion

w hen creating

a,
() I't hllil hut ogr ap h

Fgure6-32 a ) A perspective proj~...:tion aerial photograph deplaces th... image of ol'>Jts away fm m their Ink'
planimcnic posinon. Fur example. r is located at p
in the phuwgr.tph when ir should 1'>". located at c, 1'
..\ n orthogreph ic projection places al I images of objeers in the correc t planimetric posuion. The goal

Figure 6 -33

photograph of a JIO\'\t'r
trancmrvoon lme in rugged tcrram, b j PlanimemcatI) accur.uc onhophotograph after correction 10 rcmove roll. pitch, i\lld yal' errors mteoduced by the
aircratt at the insuuu or exposure und Ihe effects of
relief divplac cmcnt .
a ] An uncorr ected acnnl

all orthophotog ruph is III 1l11'VC ob -

jects recorded on an aerial photograph specific distances and directions..I:" h) their proper planimetric
position .

11Ir photograph is now an orrhophotogra ph \'\ith the accul1C) or a Iraditionalline map.

This plammemc accuracy allows ana lysts lU use ort hoim~g..'S Iik... maps for making measu rem ents of geographic
location, d istances. ang les . anti area. On unrec ufie d imag ery
suc h measure me nts ca n only be approximated beca use of
image displacclIlell t and scale change caused by va riations
in local relie f ti.c.. relief d isplacement) and nirphoro tilt .

Soft-ropy pho iograrnmctric instrum en ts can produce tcr ram-correcte d onhoimagcs on demand . The genera l proce~as summarized in Figure (>-26a~.
The user selects
My mangulated imag e in the bloc" of aerial phcrcgraphy (or
SPOT data) and its a ssociated DEM 10 generate a digua l
ortlloimage . During rhe on horec ufica uon process. the
cffecl~ of elevation upon the image perspective arc removed
reproduce a geocodcd data set with an even pixel spacing in
map space. For each onhoimage pixel t,f knt' '>\ n latitude and
Ion~i tude" the algori thm first uses the D [ ~l to determine the
height of the point . The ration al fun ctions to r the image are
Inc" used to determine the pix el in the triang ulated image
Ihal curresponds to the po illt in gro und spatc. The intens ity

durt

185

of this point (rcsnrnpled based o n its neigh bors using a bilin ear interpo lation scbcme t i~ the n assigned to the {lUlPlll
o rthoim age pixel. This proc ess typically runs at a rate
> 200 ,000 pixels/sec umi l thc rectified output onhoimage is
completely filled. The res ult is a terra in-co rrec ted onhoimage thar can be used ;I S a cartographic map.

Prnh lem .. a nd Su lutio n.. " ...." d al ed '>\ i1 h Orlhn im a 2:er ,.

Dertv ed U:ooin g So fH.'Op" l' holugranullcl r ,.

The accuracy of a d igital onhoimage is a function of the

quality of the imagery. the ground co ntrol. the phorogrammet ric triangu lat ion , and the DEM use d In create it (Fig ure
fi-2fi), An onhoirnage m ay be produced from the original
DEM . a DlM with bu ild ing roofto ps cleaned up, or even a
[) EM .... ith buildi ngs and trees removed . A DE r-. t produced
from th.. collection of li e ld surveying or even digi ti/oo contours ma~ also be used 10 create the orthoimagc. Th erefore.
th c an;llyst sho uld al.... ays have ac cess to the metadata (history ) of h.)\\, the DEM .... as c reated, In Ihis '>\a~ on ly the most
approp riate DEM data .... 111 be used in the creatio n o f the
orth ruma gcry .
Large-scale te.g.. I :6.0(0) urban unhoimagcs de rived from
uncorrec ted DE1o.ls etten ex hibit severe distortion of bui ldIng edges [ Nal... I'I94 l. For e xample, the orthoimagc in Figure ()J -ll was derive d using ;:111 unco rrected [) [ M whi le
Figu re 6-J 4h wa s prod ucc d usin g a D EM wi th I'ouild ings and

186

( "HAPI t:R

3.

Orthop hoto derived from uncorrected OEM.

Figure &34

Pho togrammetry

b. Orthophoto derive..rd from corrected

D E~ 1.

The qu;l1ity orth.: OEM i nll u'.l~(~ tbe quality of the onhopboto.

a. OnhopholOdraped ove r uncorre cted DE\ t.

FIg ure 635

b. Onhopho to draped over corrected OEM.

The qu;alily of Ilk- DfM influences the <l uality of the orthop hoto. The impact of trees
buildi ngs are sha ped (011'11)", wben rhe orthophoto is draped over a c orrec ted DE"'.

tree ele vat ions co rrected, The mo l' edges at -e' an d "b arc
correct in Figure ()- .1~b
The importance o f the qua lity o f the DEP-.I can be appreciated ev cn mor e .... hen the un hoimage is draped hack ont o the

DEM used in ils creation . For example . consider the two

onhophotos in Figur e 6-35ah created and drape d o ver \lOCO!rectcd ami corrected DI:Ms. resperuvely, T he edges (If

i~

mmimized and

buildings arc " smea red " due to the eflccts of adjacent trees
in Figure 6-353_Con ve rsel y, when the rooftop and tree elevanons are corrected in the DE M. the resu ltant onhoima ge
..kp il:b the same bu ildi ngs w ith sharp. d istinct edg:t"!i {Fjgure
6-35111. Th is is the type of'orthoima gcry that should be used
in simulat ed Il y-bys th rough urba n enviro nme nts. xtore
sophist icated soft -copy photogrammct ric sys tems can produce cx trc-mc fy acc ura te d ig ital elevation model s and ver)'

....
~ila l

187

Elevati on Mod el s. Orl hophotos and Planimetri c Features using Soft-copy Photogramm el ry

,,
' lelh..d fOr t:uraclinll l'i",t
Rril:hlm...' \ ";<lu.., from
a "I ~ i''''l: ul;<l ,-d ,\ H lnl
lh..I ,, ~ra l'h I" rrud un '
a t ra,lIl"onall lr1h"I"" ,I"

,
h l"',urc
SIJla'" . !

'!

1/-,
l),lt,ul

~~, al"'"

Fg$e6-36 A quaht) L'I'1 rn'l'ho tot!l'aph of Rosslyn. VA. draped

over II careiull) ~..hted digital elevauon model
lcuurtC"S) L- II S)Slcm~. Inc.. and ~bn;ulli . lnc.; ~
S()CET SCI )

daD onhophorogra phy, suc h 3~ the three-dimensiona l \ ie\\

lIiRo<,s lyn. VA. in f igure fl-Jb.
Traditional Orlhfl _TcCl ili ra t io n 1)11\'\ :'\r, ol [Iimina ll"
b dial and K('lit>f Ui ' lllan 'lI wlll of Tall Sl ructu n.'..
\losl users have the mistak en imp ressio n tha t the ((If's of rai l

il'.:lldingsor extremely tall trees in a ll rthoimuge arc in th....ir

proper planimclr ic locauon. i.c. that the ro ofs oftall bu ildin~s are over their fo und at ions , Thi s is o nly the case v. hen
Ilk: sensor acquires [he data from a great altitude and the
relief displacement o f the buildings or other structures
oused by radial disron ion is minimal. Unfortunately, w hen
u:; tng large-scale aeria l photograph y with sign iticalll building and tree relief displacement. onl y the base of the buildmg, or trees arc in thei r proper planimetric loc ation in an
atboimage. A traditional J igital orthophoto d\le~ not correct
flll' ''buildillg lean" c ause d by radial d istorti on , Indeed, the
"building lean" of tillI huildin gs (Ir ot her struc tures {hridges.
nerpasses. etc.) may com pletely obs cur e the image of till'
Earth's surface for sev era l hund red feet. If we attempted to
digitiu buildings fm m a traditional d igila l orm o imagc. we
..ould discover that the huildmg locauons arc misplaced on
tile Earth's surface relative tu the bu ilding he ights (Nalc.

1m\.
FortUJl.1tcly, an accurate method of creating /I 'lI<' 1",'llOphnta.~
basbfcn developed , In orde r 10 understand how il is der ived.
l is first useful to rev iew ho .... a uadiuonal onhophote is proWttd. The brightncss valuc (If pixel II is obtained by sta rting

L_---'~L1U--'-----~L---" h

..............L
b

Ullhoph<ll" I'"cl>

l
~

Figure 6-3 7 ;\) The I-righ1l1"" valu.. n fri ~ d h in a traditional orIh"pl1<"" "' ''Hid ".... c"flIct..d from the t" r "I' the
building due to relief dispb ,:emcill. Pixcl l.l would
have the n,n,x' l gray ,had.: because it is not ,,0.
srurcd from viewN ote th;,t both pixe l, nrc c xtractcd
from a smglc ph'1\" " ot,lIl\e(l m II sillgk exp(l>lIre station, o j plx.' l, " and " ill ;1 true 0I111"ph"'<1 arc' dcr in'l! tmm ,he rnangul.ued phoh) in the ni ghthne
rh.u i, mos t appropriate. For e xample. pixc 1 a is de rived from Ih,' plml<l uhtainct] 'II Exposure Station
113. 11)<,' 1,'11 .... ur hi" extr,let,..d from r xpu s ur. Suuio n
q l. where l\ I' not ohseured hy building displacemen! \ S""l ha ru. I'N-I; court....sy "I' L- II System...
Inc.. and Marconi. lnc.; ' SO<'ET sell.

at a ' , ground ", .)' pos ition. inter po lating the ele vation lim n
the D Uot. trac ing up through the ma th modelto the imag e.
inte rpola ting the pfOp"'r shade o r gray from the image. and
as~igning the rcsulung gray "hade to pixe l ,I in the new
orthophoro (F i:;urc 6-37a l. The procevs is acc eptable for
pixel " becau-c there is no obstru ction te.g.. huilding)

188

CI I ,\ I'I

n~

Photogrammetry

between the g round x.y.z loc auon ar II that obscu res the \ icw
I l l'

the grouml from

I h~'

exposure sta tion. The problem that

aris es is illu strated by pix el h. In the origi nal ima ge. the

ground "bchindvthc building ut b is not depicted because of

th... he ight ofthe bu ilding. Pi-eel h w ill haw th... tone or co lor
of the mo l' of the building. The tinal traditional onhophoro
will show the bui lding leaning 3\\ 3Y from the center of the
photograph as in Figu re t>- J 7a . T he roof will be sho .... n
wh ere there shou ld be gro und at III..: bad .. of the bu ildi ng. and
the ~ i dl;' ofthe building will he shown where the roor sho utd
he . 11\4' ground behi nd the huiMing will not he sIK1\\1l ill all.
Th ese disp lacements arc relat ed to the hci gh r of the bu ilding
and the pos ition o f tho: bui ldi ng in the origi na l pholo . The
greater the ht'i ght of the buildmg and the closer u i, 1(1 the
side of the o ng mal photograph. the worse the displacc rncm

11.

Conventiona l orthoohoro.

will he.
An elegaru sol ut io n 10 the above onhophotu proble ms wa s
deve loped ( Walker. 11)Qk B:\E Sysle ms. ~Oj) 5). In Figu re 6-J 7b \ H" see th ree tnan gutated aeria l pholl}graph s and a DEM
cov ering the e ntire Ioorp rim of the projeel a rea . L: si n~ tradirional ihrcc-drmcnsiooat stereoscopic feat ure ext ract ion
tools, the ouuines of hu ildi ngs. bridges. and other obsuucnon s arc identifi ed. Howe ver. the bri~h lness value or gra)
to ne fo r p ixel /I is interpo lated fro m rhc mos t nad ir (direct ly
overhead ) Expllsurt' SIal io n (=3 in Figure b- 37h ) that has the
be st \ icw of the ground at location (I. The a lgori thm then
exa min es the DEroo! an d feature d ata a nd determines that the
\ ie\.'. of the ground for pixel h is obscured by the bu ild ing at
Exposu re Srauon #1 and automatica lly sele cts image ry frum
Exposure Station # I to ob tain the proper p ixel color for pixel
h. The application o f these algori thm s results in a trueorthnp ho /I! whe re :

building rooftop, arc ShUll n iuthcir correct planimetric X ..I '

Iocauou:
the ground on all sides of a ll buildings is shown in ils
prope r location:
tops and honoms of O\i~'rp;hSl'S arc shown in their proper
locat ion s:
o nhopluuov anJ map sheers can be made that are larger
than an )' o f the input illlilgCS.
A comparison be tween a rraduional o rthopho logrl1ph an d 11
tN<: ort hophoto o f the U.S. C lpi lOl is shOll n in Fil;ure 6-3lS.
Ru ild ing lean cdis p lac <: ml"nn has heen rem o\ ed. a nd a ll
bu ild ing lUt..fto ps ar c in Ihci r proper p lanimt:tric l(~a t i"n.

b. True orthophoro.
The diff erence between a concenuonal urthflll~
graph (a I lUll! a true orrhophcro (01 ofthe U.S. r:apilol. IlUlI.tmg lean has been l\"mOl l-d. and IU
bmldmg fI1ol h 'r~ arc in their proper plummctnc r-'
fol li"n (S"lllh;1rl1. 1')<)4: courtesy of l -ll SyslClIlI.
Inc. uud Marconi.
0 S() ( E r setj.

Rgure 638

rnc.:

The abili ly III create true urthoimagcs is accclcratiug tb:

;]J1Pli,'nl ion o f o l1hn imag l'ry in G IS (BA E Systems. ~()O5).
Extraction of Thematic Features of Interest Using So~
copy Photogrammetry

or

Almusl " II the dcuultound in traditional planimetric and

or h' pngTllphil' maps suc h
the U,S. geulc' gic"a l SurveY'J
7.5- m inuI<: ( I ::!4,(J()[)-sc<l 1c1 producr-, is c'Ir.Jct ed using plio>
togmmm ct ric tech n iqu es. With the pro per groun d control,
high-quality stereosc op ic ima g.:ry. and sun-copy photcgrurmnc tric
w arc il is nnw poss ible for b~ persons I
ex tract man y types oftbcm ntic in formauon. This is a signif
iea nt t"1 <"nl in lhe hislt>ry Ill' cartogra ph y a nd re mOle scnslIIS
dala ana lysis as l>Ci<:nlisls and Ill h.:r res carc h<: rs arc no lunger
dCfI'Cnden l on any ;\g~'ne) II' pro\ ide the infonnal ion 1h1.1
rt''lui re. Th~"y (" Ill g:el1<..'rale lhd r 0\\ n lh<:ma lic prod ~1S
ac n ,rding 10 the ir sp<.:cifica tio ns.

Slln

a,

189

h a Measureme nt

E\ lraCl iu n o r Pla nimcrr tc Feat ures l :si lll: Snrt -cu p ~

Ph lll lJ:,: rallllll ('l ~

bui lding
footprint

building
footpmu

building
foorpr uu

retlecnng Il<)I)J fooqrrtm

f9Jre 639 Huildmg foot prirus. rethrcting pond t....up nnt. <11111a ~In:d .:cntcrlinc cxtracrcd from the anagl; ph slcrc,'pair shown In Coluf
Plate f>..3. r k Jl.)o; \klO. I h i~ stcrcopasr 10. illl d ~k'f\'''''''''lf'C"

Area Measurement
[he thematic inforrnarion exrrucuon procedure is cxuctly
le the one previously Je~<.:ri bcJ Ior creating contour lines
ecept that in this ca se the analyst extrac ts \ ario us thcmauc
Itltures or interest, Fo r e xample. Figure 0- .>9 dep ict s three
~~ of feature.. being e xtracted from the ae ro-triang ulate d
llereOpair u f Co lumbia, Sc. sho wn in Color Plat es n-I and
H To extract building fo otprint info rnuuion. th o: analys t
~ lIeIT\lI l ica ll y places the rhrce-duuc nsional j loa/illg "/<Irk
til<: several co mers of a bu ildmg. Th e soltw are auro mauall~-creates a rubber-band line tro m on e bu ild ing corner III
me nexl. The rcsuhs is a po lyg on th at co nta ins the planimctric location of tho: 1'>11 i 1.1 i IIg footpn III as if Ihe I"coordimucs
afthe j iJllfl/iar hm we re measured o n the ground. The plauiIImlC location Ill' the rc flcc ung pond is produced in J simi-

.r.

. manner_
lmergency response agencies (e. g . 9 11. police . fire l require
dtlaiktl stree t ccmcrttnc info r ma t ion . Thi s is obtained hy
leeping the tloa llJlg mark firmly on the grou nd a.. the a nal) st
tltts thc center uf thc roa d wh ile viewi ng the th rcc-dimcn JIOIIaI anagly ph stcreopnr. Si mila r proc edures are used til
IlIJP telep hone tran smissio n lines and othe r unlnics \ isilJlt'
(lIl (hesurface
the earth. A J rai nagt' netw or k map can be
mated by ket' ping Ih... I1llal illg mark ('11 lhe gn1und II hi Ie
ncingIhe ce ntl."r hne o f major slrea m~ and their tributa ries.

or

It is pos sible 10 ob tain area mcasurcr ucrus directly from

unrccufic d vert ical ae rial r hot og r.lphy rtthe terrain is \ el)
level. IIpwCHr. If the loc a l topographic e levation w itlnn the
field o f I icw o fthe plwtllg.fLlph varies by more than about 5
pe rcent o frhc tly ing bcsght :10.)\<." g round leve l t e .g.. :!IXI m
if /I "" .!.001l nu, the n se rious urea measure men t e rror could
occur. If the loca l relief varies by more than 5 percent, tho:
image interprete r co uld carefull y ~I rol l il:" the photog raph into
geograp hic areas tha t ha ve uppmxirnarcly the sa me sc ale.
For example, if <I sing le ae rial ph' llog raph co n-acte d primarily of the image ora 11:11 pla tea u al one ele vauon te.g.. 40(}
m above -<3 k\ ..:11 and a gent ly sluping river valley OI t
anot her elev ation ( 1.'.;; . 150 III abo ve sea level]. the inter prctc r could stmtiry the phnhlg raph into two parts . He co uld
then compute nil' ...xacr sl'ak of the plateau portion o f the
photog raph J II J the ex ac t scale ofthe river valley po rtion o f
the photogra ph. These two di ffer ent scales would be UM.'d
whe n measvnng the area of select ed features found in th ese
1\\ 0 d iffc rcmlandscu pcs. The opt imum solution is to co nve rt
the ae rial phorogrnphy into ort hn ima g...ry as previous ly J i..en-sed . I he area measure men ts will Ihe n he JCl;urall.'
hc..:au,;e the o rtlto pholograph ha~ a un ifon n scale.

e-n

190

Area Me asurement o f Well-Known Geometric Shapes

\ I'H.K

Photogrammetry

Are'

Hoi Grid

It is a Slflligh tfull\' aTu task to det erm ine the area o f well-

known

p:llm~trk

shapes such as rccmugles. squares. and

circles in aeria l photography. The analyst lirsl me asure s the

IC lljotlh. wid th. side. Of d iameter of the featu re 011 the image.

110: or she.' then converts this mea surement 10 <I ground dis lance ba sed on th... scale of tho: photography . The ground drsranee is then u~J with the appropr iate mathcm..tical
relat ionship It) compute the area :

,
Area ota crrcle '"
Area of'u sq uare

Itr~

.\

Areuof a rcctanglc -

{ XII'

Yo hcrc s is the sid.: o f a square: I is the length .. I' a rectangle-;

and II' is the .... idlh ora rec ta ngle . For exam ple. ifth c diarnctcr of an agncuhura I cent ...r-pi \', 'I i rrigar i'){l "l'sl"-Ill h u.s in.

II

hen measured

011

I :2-1.000-'><:;lk (I in. '" 2.000 II) aerial

pho tog raphy. then the ground drstnncc dia me ter (d) is I.n(m
It and the ra,liu" lr) is :'1111 n. ThL' CL'lIh:r.p i\ I\1 irril;a liun sys tem wo uld couraui 3.1 -116 x 5(101 or 785,-WO n!, A n acre
contains 43 5(,( ) tl ~ . A hect are l ila r contains 10.11( 1) m ~ (Ta ble
fl - 1J. One acre "" 0.-11147 hn: I hit = 2...7 1 ;KI<:s. Therefore.
the center-pivot irr igation system comains 1fl.0 ) acres (7 .3
hill.

Area Measurement of Irregularly Shaped Polygons

The re arc several me thods for oluuming accurate area mea surcmc nts from irreg ularly shaped polygona l tc-nturcs such
as lakes. fo rest a'l1lds. and urbaruved areas found III vertical
aeria l phot ography. The most popular met hods includ e rhc
use (If Jo t grid, and o n-sc reen d igili/ alion using d igira l
image proc esving ,lr sllti-(Oll~ photogrammetnc techniques.
Ilnl Grids

,\ dOl grid is simpl y a piece of dear acetat e Ihal hns J usersp ecified number o f dots scribed on"} II per sq, in. tor cm 11.
e .g. 15 dIllS per sq . in. r t' igur.: (,~O ,. The glIal is tn u\oe a du t
grid Ihat has a dOl d<:ns ilY su llici<:nt hI ca plure lh<: ess,'nn: o r
the subject maile r you want to m l.'it ~ ll rC (<:.g._ li)rl' '>1 c(w,'r
aC I'l:,lg"'l y ~ l Ilill ~ o d" l1 ~e that a I rc lll<: ndo u~ l1um ber Df dots
must h<: cllul1\eu. 11 i. use ful to t:r<::lt<: :l grid th;}1 is most su itahle th r the '>ealeof thc photo graphy or map und...r im esl igk
11111I . "'or e'lampk. i f an anal~~t ":l ~ g,)in~ ttl u ~<: a dUI grid

'"

,..

Figure 6-40 ,\ dut grid co nsisting uf:!5 dolS per 'G. in. O\erlli!
on I 'ollll-scale (lin. = ~ n ft l aerial photography.
thl' cvamplc , the !;:ual IS ILJ d crc nninc the .:ll.1/S

r!wl'tmc, ) of tcr rnin cove red by torc,

l'n I ::!" ,II(IlI-sr a lc a... ria l photography . 1\ wo uld be wise If

mAe a Jut gn u \\ uh nin... duts per in. 2 be cause at I:2H U
scale. I ill . ~ equ a ls approximately " ac res . lfmorc precis~
" ...re desired . I " dillS could be ~~ sremaricaljy plac ed in ead
-quare mch Ill" the grid. The a rla l ~ st then randomly dr ops !be'
grid ove r a po lygon o f interest and co unts the num ber of doo
tilll ing \\ uhin it. An alte rnative me thod o f increas ing til:
;In:u rac) o f rhc measurement is. after the first count. to lid
lip the clcnr plavtic do t gr id and randomly drop it aga in aTld
recount. Wh...ll the re sults Irom 11K' tW\1 c,'wlls a rc uvcraged
the answer \\ ill gene rally be closer to the tru e va lue . This call
he repeated any num ber or tunes . Again, the- best result s are
ubta mcd w h... 11 the phcromterprctcd p()I~ ~wns haw bee
trans fe rred osuo a bJSL' map and the dot grid is overlaid ~
IhL' map .
r he (, x 6 in. lln hopholO in Fig.u re (>..4 0 is I :600 scale ( I~ :
50 iiI . Th ...rc!il rc. it co nta ins IJO.OOO ft~ of t...rrai n (2.OM
a n<: ~ or tUUfl ha). II is 0\ " rl,lid w ith a do l g.rid Cllll~ i s t ing 01
:!5 dot s per i ll~ . A t this s';'-Ile, cach sqU;lre illCh cOllt;lins 2.500
n1. h K h dol Ih,'n:fo r,' rcp r...se-nt, lOll n~. T he interpreter
'1!1 :l 1 ~ h'S Ih<: imag<: and highl i~hlS IhllS<: do lS Ihat ap lll.'arI()
co ind d<: 1,\ ith the Il'Cation of I(lrest ll hcy arc ".\ ag.g.<:rated in
lhi s c\Jmpk 10 im pw h ' \lsihilit)") . The ,1I1alyst sImp!}

~'N

I.leasurement

19 1

On -screen Dlgltlzatlon

Digitized Polygons

'.
,.
Fipe 6-41

h.

a) Example ofon-sc reen dii!iti/.Oltiun using a digital image process ing system. bl Pnl)"i!oo attribute tallIe'S for each of the: indi-

Vidual polygons coeuam information aboul the- penmererand area.

;0

"
m

fi
U

J,

,n

cents the number o f dots represen ting fo rest . 336. which

equates to 33.()f)0 111 or 0.771 ac re (0.3 1(i hOI). Forest occupirsJ7J percent of the study area (0.771 /2. 006 acres).

k IS obvious fro m the example tha t there arc some sm all.

old vegetated fo rest features that d id not fall neatly below a
illand ....ere not counted, Ano ther interp reter might have
lI:!uded the dots closest to these features. Thus. the usc o f a
lid grid involves "method -in duced error,' which is prima ri~ a function of the me thodntogy (logic) use d by the imagc
ualyst as he o r she alloc ates the dots. T he im portant thing to
renember whe n using a do l grid is 10 be consistent. Dot
areavailable fro m fo restry-sup ply companies.

,od,

"

wid ely usc--J rucrhod of obtaining polygon

fro m aeri al photogra phy or ot her remote sensoc data is to analyze rhe image using a d igital imag e proessing system or GIS (Figure 6-4 1), While it is easy to sca n
.. unrectificd 9 x 9 in . aeria l photog raph and pe rform area
~Iali{lns using the system, it is bener if the ae rial pho to g~ is scanned and then geometrically rect ified to a map
hR, All major digital imagc processing systems I ERO AS.
PCI. ER Mapper. (;1\\ '1. erc. : and G IS (ES RL Autodcsk.

Pcrlups the

"c

,
n

With the aeria l photograph rec ti fied to a ma p base, it is a

straig htfo rw ard task to utilize the syste m sotiware and the
cursor 10 pla ce a "rubber hand " polygon arou nd the area of
interest. l'o r example . Figure 6-41 a depicts hand-d rawn
polygons aro und the fo rest land COVl'r, The ve rtices of the
po lygo n ca n be easil y cxfued. The: beau ty of th is on-screen
me asuremen t ap proac h is thnt eac h of the indi vidual po lygons ha s a record in a "po lygon attribute table" ass oci ated
w ith it that summarizes the attribute type te.g., fo rest or nonfo rest}, per imeter. and area ( in hecta res or acres). For example. the re arc nnly 14 fores t polygons in Figure 0-410. The
anribute-, for all 14 polygons [e .g .. hectares can be summed
by the image processing o r G IS so ftware to generate totals.

mO!lot

1JU estimates

,f

etc.) have th is fundamental cap abi lity. Details on how the

ima ge rectifica tion is pe rformed arc found in Jense n ( 20 llS) _

In su mmary. it is not w ise to dig iti/ e polygo ns di rect ly from

aerial photo graphy tha t ha\ l' not been geometric ally co rrected. esp ecially when the te rra in has sub stantia l loca l
relief Fo r exam ple. one sho uld never ex tract area iufcr matio n by digitizing polygons draw n on unrcc tificd so il photomaps. If the loc a l reliefis mi nimal , so me relat ively accurate
area measurements miglu be made ifthl' imager)' has been
geometrically rec tified to a standard map projection using
techniques described in Jensen (,:!00 5). However. it shou ld

192

he reme mbered that any re lief dis place ment p resent in the
imagery .... ill introd uce error inro these area measurem ents.
The preferred method to c.,lnICl area inforrnarion is 10 ae rotr ia ngulate the aerial pho tography an d then use so li-copy
photogrammctry thcrna uc information e xtractio n tech niques
previously d iscu ssed .

P hotog ram met ry

'-kCoy, R. \1 .. lOllS, r k '" .I/dl",..l, ill R.:mm ;: Sensmg, Xl(

tiuilford Press, 159 pMdJlvnc. J. C ., 200-1 , M"'I/I,j{ "f rJwt,,~r(JI'III"lry. 51h Ed, &thcsda : ASP&R '\ . 115 1 p.
Mi kha il. E. ' 1.. Ret hd. J. S , and J, C. \IeG lo ne. 1001. llUro<Dt
linn '" ,H' Hlern Phn/"gra"'''','lry. I\Y: John Wiley. -I7':l p.

References

Xalc. D. K., 1'1'1-1, "Drgual Orthopbotcgrapby: - Whal It ls

IsnI.- GIS "'nrM, 7(6 ):21.

RA E Systems, :W05. SO CET .'1<"/. Or/I".. M"d,,!.', San Diego .

HAt; Syslcrn s. Inc., www.tatlsm.com.
Bos stc r, J . n.. Jen sen . J. R., \ lo;\t.JMcr. R. B. and C. RiLOS. 200~.
H"m",1 of (;f''''{'<I/I(11 Sr "..> trt' "'ltl TJ"w /ngy . london: Taylor & Fra ncis, bl3 p.

''''''g.'

Jensen, J . R. 2ou ~. '''''''''1'''''''1) I)ig lw f

Processing: .4
R.'" w t.. S""''''K /."/,,..-/1 ..... J rd Ed.. Upper Saddk Rive r.
Prent ice -Hall, 52 5 p.

Ex,,.

Rumsey. O. a nd E. M, Punt. 10i)4 . C<lrt<ll!.r<lplll<'<l

natre: Th.. fhu nriCdl .If,,1' Tmn<ft,,.,,,.',i, Red lands: ESiI
Pr,;ss. 1-17 p.
'southard. <i ' Ii .. I<N-I , TI'I<(' Ort" n!'h",... ClIf'Ol>ilili e. af .'IOCr;
SET. Engfc .. ood. CO: Lcic a Helava. luc .. I< p.
Thrower . 1\ . J. v. . and J R. Je nse n. 197h. MThe Onho photo
Onh ophorcmap: Characterisucs, De velopm...n t and Al"l"halio n.- TIr.. . Im,rinm ("<lrl.,~r,,!,Ir..,.. 3/ 11:39 -56.

Je nsen. J. R. and U. J. C.." ell . I'N'!. " Remote Scn~ in~ or l..;rranl
S ub urba n lnfra-aructurc a nd Socio-Economic Attributes."
l' I",lt>l,!m mm" lri,' fn/:/I1" "ring,( N,'mot;- .w,,,,inK, 6Sf 5 ):6 116:!:!.

\\':tIl..':I. A . S.. 1'1'1-1. Correspondence eonce rmn g the SOCEt

Konecn y. G . 2UlI.l. (if'<'m l" rmum m : /In''''''' S.>n<illg. 1' /"" ,,_
gr",,,m" ln' ,md <i"",l!.r"I'''''' IlI/i,,'m<1l1"" .';\'," " '11.' . London :
Taylor &. Frauds. 24 ~ p.

Warne r. W , S,. R. W. Graha m and R. E. R.:ad. I 'N 6. Smull Fr>r"'<II Aeri"l Ph"'(J~r(l"'n'. Scorland : w hnue s. J4 ll l"

L i n..Jcr. W. 2U1l3. DI,I!.I/ul l'I"'I,,~,-uJl/IIl<'lry: lh"'''n' und App!lmti" ". , Flcrbu: Springer-Verlag, IXl) p,

Wolf. 1'. R. and n . A Ik will . 2/lUO, Ef' I11,"t" vj!'h"'''l.!-I'ammetrl

","1, ,'!r p lu'/Tliom i ll { ;<,o~r<lf'h l(' tntor manan Sy.l'lems , \Y
~k(jra w lhll. (,Oll ll.

SET. San Diego: Lcic.. .-\ G Photogru mmctry and

Inc .. December 2n

M ';lrol~

Multispectral Remote Sensing Systems

I/ffisp ec/ra l remotv: sensing ~y~ I ": I11~ recor d reflected Of emitted ene rgy [film

an obj ect or area o finterest in mu h iplc baud s (regions j of'the electromagnetic

spectru m. H yperspectrol N /IIOf/' _\ " I1.~ mg s~'s lems record data in hundreds of
bands. U /l ru.\pe("fr tl l rem ote wmi",l! sys tems collec t da ta in thousands of
bands. Mosl multispectral and hypcrspectral remot e sens ing s}slemS coll .."\:1
data in a dig ital format. This chapter li rsl introduc..' S the fu.ndamental swoc lure of a di gita l image. The chaructcnsucs o f historical, curre nt. and proposed
multispectral and hypc.rspcctra l remote sensing systems an.. then presented.

Digital Multispectral Data Collecti on

Cha pter -I d iscussed the digi tizat ion of hard-wry aerial photography. Diginved co lor and col or-i nfrared aer ial photograp hy may be con sidered three band multi spectral data. Diguized natura l color aer ial phologr,lrhy can be
converted to blue. green, and red hands o f regis tered dig ita l dat a. Dig iti/ cd
co lor-in frared ae ria l photography can be con ven ed to gre en, red, and nca rinfrared bands of d igiLaI data. Alt hough these three- band mult ispectral
datascts arc sufficient lo r many app licat ion s. there are times ", hen add itional
~pectra l bands loca ted at optimum locations in the electromag netic spec tru m
can be usefu l for a spec ific application. Fortu nately. engi neers have de veloped dete ctor s tha t arc sensi tive to hundreds of hands in the elec tromagne tic
spect rum .
An O\CI'\ ic.... o f ho w digital remote sen sing da ta arc turned into usefu l info rmat ionis shown in Figu re 7- 1. TIIC remote sensing sys te m firs t de t..-cts deeu umagnc nc energy that cx ns fm m the phenomena o f interest and passes
through the atm osphere. Th e energy d etected is recorded as an ana log clccmca l sig nal.....hic h is usually converted into a d igital value throu gh an analogto-digi tal (A -to-D) conversion. lf'un a in:rnlt plat fo rm is used, the digita l datil
a re simply returned to Earth. lf a spucecrati pla tform is used , the d igita l data
a rc te lemerered 10 Eart h rece b ing stat ions dir ectly or indirect ly via track ing
a nd data relay satcllit c~ (TORS}, In e ither case. il may be nece ssary to pe rform so me radio met ric and or geometric prep rocessing of the digita l
remote ly sens ed da ta to imp rove its ir ucrprc tabi luy. The data rna} then be
enhanced for subseq uent human v isual anal ysis or processed further using
digi tal unegc proce ssing algo rithms. Biophysical anti/or laud -co ver iafortnuno n e xtracted using ViSU31 or d igital Image processing is dis tribu ted and used
to make decisions. Hopefully, the decisions resu lt in sus tain able de ve lopment
(Je nse n cr al.. 20(2).

193

19 4

Remo te

.se n~i n~

S)o~ l e lll

Multispectra l Remote Sensing Syste ms

Onboard

analog-to-digna l
conversion
and calibration

Al lllos p hcrc

Direct tele me try 10 Eanh

or indirectly through trackin g
and WIJ. relay sarcllucs (TO RS)

Ground
Da t a P.....p r occs sinl:
Rad iomet ric
Geometric

Ftgure 7-1

Distri but ion

a nd Use of
In fo rm atio n

An ovc .... ic.... of the \\ay digital remote ly ><:11"'--.:1 data are trans formed into u...:ful information. The data recorded by the 00ll
are often conven ed from an analog electrical signa l In a digital value and calib rated. Ground preprocessing removes ga
mcmc a nd radiomcmc dis tortions. This may invol vc the usc o f ephemeris o r a ncilla ry (collateral ] data such as map.(
coordirwtcs, a digita l etcv aaon mood. ere. 111(' data arc then ready for visual o r digual analys ts 10 extract biophysical or Iaal
use/l and-cover inform atio n. Future sensor systems may co nd uct prc prcc c ssm g and mformanon extraction onboard the r~
ton;

s~'ns mg

system.

Digital/mage Terminolog y

are d iffere nt; othcrwisc. uhc inform ntio n co nte nt o f the till
image s is redun da nt.

Dig ital remote sensor data arc usually store d as a matrix

(array ) of numbers. Each digital valu e is locate d at a specific
row (i) and column V) in the matrix (f igure 7 2). A pixel is
de fined as a two-dimensional pic ture ele ment that is the
smallest nondivis iblc clement ora d igital image . Each pixe l
at row (i) and column (j) in the image has a n origi nal brightIICU I 'a /III! (H I) ass ociated w ith it. Some scientists call it a
"i~i(<I/ number (VN) va lue. The da tas.. .1 may consist o f II
individ ual band s (1 ) (If m ultispectral or hypc rspcctra l imagery. Thu s. il is pnss ihle to identify the brig htness va lue UH')
of a part icular pixe l in the dataset by specifying its row (i) .
column (i ). and band (k ) coo rdi na te. ie., B/ "JJ.* ' It is irnpo rrant to understand that the n hand s are a ll geometrically registered to one another. Therefore. 3 road ir uersec non in band
I ar row 4. co lumn 4 (i.e., BV1,o ) should be located al the
same row and column coo rdinate in the fo urth band [i.e.
VI H )' Hope fully. the brightness values at the two locat ions

T he analog-to-digital conversion that takes place on boae

the sensor sys tem usually creates pixe ls with a brig htnes
val ue range of H to 12 bits. This is culled the Ij llw l liz<1lirJ,
level of the remote sensor data . Remote sensor data qUM
til ed 10 K bits have brightness va lues that range from 0 I'
255. Data quaruizc d to 12 bits ran ge from 0 to 1023. etc. Th
greater the range of pm sio lc brightness val ues . the more pre
cise we may he able 10 measure the amount o f radiano
recorded by the detector. On e can think of q uantizatio n as i
it were a ru ler. We can obtain mo re acc ura te mea surement
{If an object using a ru ler that has 1.024 subd ivis ions llul
w ith a rule r tha t only has 256 subdiv isio ns.

Remote Sensing Sysfems to be Examined

There are a va riety of digital multispectral and hyperspectn

remote sen sing systems. It is beyo nd the scope of this ~

,.

.1'

~ita l

195

Multispect ra l Da ta Collec tio n

..

Diaital lm uee
... Tcr minoloev
....

Col umnsU )
J
4

Rows (i)

J
4

15

10

15

\1

1R

\,

\.

\, '0
"

17

'0

'0

21

2SS

.... hne

(J

black

~ra ~s calt'

,
Bands (k l

22
24

'\ssol."ia led

Rri !.:hlnl'ss \'a lm'

r uuze (oflt'li X-bill

"

Picture clement IpIXel ) at loca non row 4. column 4 . ha nd I

has a hrighloc>o" value or24. i.e. B I 4.4.1 = 24

:;pe 7.2

Oigilal remote Sf.'11'iOT d ata are SIOI'Cd in a matri x format. Picture dl'tne'I1t tpr aelt bngb tness values ,H I) are IClC31l'd at ro w I.
c<ll um n;. and ba nd k 111 thc mult i"f'<X'u a l or bypcrspcctral dataset. The digllal remote l>ClbOl"briglll ncss \alul"5. are normall)
stored as lI.bit bytes 110 ith \'al\lC'S ran ging fm m 0 to 255. 1I0"e\ ". 1<\<",,1 image digitl/dunn sys te ms and som e remote <,('n",i ng
s~"'t ...n h no w rou linc ly collec t HI-. I I, or 12-bi t

bprm idc in fo rmati on on a ll o f them . H o w e ve r.

it

is

da4.

Jl(w.i-

;\Iu h i!loll t r al l ma::.inl,: l id o!.: t .tnea r

Af r a ~~

~ torevie w selected remote M:llsing syste ms that

arc or w ill
be of sigmflcant valu e for Earth reso urce invcs ugau ous.
Tbe~ are organiz ed according to the type of remote sens ing
lfChoology used. as summ arized ill Figure 7-3. incl uding:

SPOT J. 2. and 3 High Rcsolotio n Visible ( HRV) sen sors

and "1'0'1' -t ;IU,I :; High Resolution Visible lnfrared

11ulli'f!('ctr lll Im a ~in ~ l is in ~ t u scrctc Detectors a lld

\c:an ninl! Miffurs

Ind ian Remote Sc nsing System (IRS ) Linear Ima ging

Selfscanning S.... llsm ( L1 SS llI an d LlSS IV l

Lmdsat Muhispcctral Scanner (f\-t SS )

NASA 7(,1'1'11 Advanced Spacehome l'h crma l Emission

and Re flec tion Radiometer (A ST ER )

Landsat Thematic Mapper (l "-'l)

landsat 7 Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETf\-l' l
' \JOr\A Geostationary
SatelliletGOESJ

Operational

Environmental

(1 IRVIR) and 1.. ~I. 'fa {i<J" sensor

NASA Terra
(M ISR )

Mlih iallgk

InHlgi llg Spcctrorudiom eter

Di gltal( jlllhc. l nc. ()uid..llirdl

Space lmaging. fnc. ( IKONOS)

' :--.I OAA A dvanced Very H iJ!;h Reso lut ion Radiometer

(r\VHRR)
:--.I ASA and ORBI~IA< ; E. Inc .. Sea-vic....ing Wide Field of-view Scn,;.oriSe aWiFS I
Daedalus. Inc .. Aircra ti Muhispectral Scan ncr (A~IS)

NASA Airbornc Terrestrial Applic atio ns Scnso r t ATLAS I

1111agcSa t lnternatiunal . Inc . (E ROS A I)

OR HI\1A(iE. Inc. (O rb Vil'w-3 and Orbvic.... -5)

Leica C cosyste ms. Inc. A irhoml' Digital Sensor System

tADS-40 )

~7

196

C'H At>'1t:R

Multi spectr al Remole Sens ing Systems

Remote Sensing Systems Used to Collect Multispectral and Hyperspccrral tma gcrv
A n a lu ~

Fra me C a me ra
a nd Film (sih cr
halid e c r~ s l al s l

Linl' IIT .-\ r ra ~ " Pu sh h r nn m"

Scan ner
Detec tors

Scanning mirror
Ei' :'\IR

Photo graph

/-GJ ' d

~G' GrC'n Objecnve . ....-1

-EtJ BIU('

Discret e
de tectors

object
space

e
b

1liJ,: i1 al Fra me Ca me ra
A rea Arr a) s

Detecto rs

Linear Arra ~ - wh lskbroo m"

lilLIe

e.

d.

Agure 7-3

Si ~

types of remote sensing systems used for multispectral and hypcrspcctral dna cclfccnon : a) rradinonal aerial photography
0) multisp...c tral ima~i ng us ing a sca nning mirror an d discrete detecto rs. c) mulnspectral imag ing with linear arrays (oft"'
rcfcrred tc as " pushbroc m" tec hnology], d) imaging wilh a scanning mirror and linear arrays (olicn referre d 10 as "whiskb room " tech nologyl, e) imaging spec trometry us ing linear and area 3ITaYS. and I) dig ua l frame camera aeria l photograph)
based on area arra ys.

"

...
bispectral lmagi ng Using Discrete Detectors and SCanning Mirrors

laI;:ine SpeClrOIl1l'l r~

U~ il1 ~

Linea r a nd Area

, \ rra ~ "

MSA Je t Propulsion Lab oratory A irborne Visi ble ,'

lafrared Imaging Spe ctrometer (i\ VIRIS)

, r ompact Airborne S~..:lrog.ra plw.: Imager 15tX) t CAS l

lSOOland hypcrs pcct ral $WI R sensor (51\5 16110 )

197

notewort hy sensors ha ve be..... n scveralLands nr Multispectral

Scanners and LlIld.~a l Th emauc .....ta ppe rs t Figure 7-4;
Tab les 7- 1 and 7-2). TIle l and sat program is the United

Stares' oldc stlnnd-xurtace observation sntelfitc system. having obtained da ta since 1')12. It has hada tumultuous [Ilstor y
of'managcmcut and fund ing so urces.
The ch ronologicallaunch and reurcmcru hist\'1) l.f thc satel-

'ASA Term vt oderarc Rcsoluuon Imaging Spectrometer

(' IDOlS)
r-.~SA Eart h Observer (EO-I I Ad vanced land Imager
u rn Hypcriou. and lEISA At mospheric Co rrector
ILM.'I

, Lrica Ge'lsy ste llls Emerge Digit al Sensor Syste m

\ C\cd Ultra (':am l arge Fo rmat Ca me ra

, 1Il DigitalM od ula r Came ra
wmeau t I'bllllll:r a ph ie

S~ s t l'lIlS

l\t\SA Spac e Shuttle and lrnc mauonal Span' Sr.uiou

Imagery

Ii t l~ is shown in Fig ure 7--4, T Il<: ERTS-l sa rclluc.faunc hcd

on Ju ly n. lQn, was an e xperi mental system des igned to
tes t the tCalil0ility of collec ting Earth resource data by
unm an ned satellites. Prior 10 the launch o f [ RTSn on Ja nu;11) ~ ~ . IQ75, ;-.I ,\SA rena me d Ihe- F I{T S prog ram t .aodscu,
dist ingu ishing il from the .'it'll',11 acnv c-microw uvc satel lite
launched on Jun e 26, ]<H8. Atthis lime . ERTS-I \1 as rcrroactivef y named Lands at- I and ER.TS-B became l.and sar-Z at
launch. Landsat-j wa s launched Mu rch 5. 197 1(: Laudsat -I
on J uly 16, 1l)X~ ; and Landsat-S on .....{arch I. Il}Jo(4 .

The Earth Observanon Satellite Company \ [05-"1")

obta ined con trol of the l a ndsa t satcllucs in Se pte mber.
19K;. Lnfortunatcly.Lands ar e. with its Enhanced The matic
\!I ap~f ( ETt>.l l (a 15 x 15 m panch roma tic band v.as added ).
failed 10 achicv c orbit P II Octobe r 5, IQ93, Landsat 7, wi th
its Enhanced Th ema tic Ma pper Plus ' E T~r ) sensor system.
was launched on April I S, 19')') . Please refer tu the NAS A
Land sat 7 horne page fur a de tailed history of th e Land sat
prog ram (NASA t .nnd vat 7, ~ Otlh ).

The: following d iscussion tdernmcs the spatial. spcctrat. tcm-

,.:n1. and radiometric cha racteri-ncs of the remo te sensing

~'lICilh.

Mu ltispectra l Imagin g Using Di scret e

Det ectors and Sc ann ing Mirrors

l1le collection o f mu ltispe ctra l remote sensor dat il using d is(rrte detectors and scan ning mirrors begun in the m id- I960s.

lk.pill." the technology's age. seve ral new remot e sens ing
1} ;(C'Tll~ still use II.

Em Resource Technology Satellites and Landsat

sensor Systems

In 1%1. the- :'-J:ttil\l\;tl Aeronautics & Spare Adm inistration

encouraged h) the U.S, Department o f the Interior,
iMiatcd the [anh Resource Tec hno logy Satel lite (lOInS )
program. This prn gra m result ed in the launch u f sc H'n satcl lites carrying a \ ,u iet) o f re mllte se nsi ng syste ms designed
pnmatil) to Jcq uin.: [ anh resoun:c in fomla tilln. The most
I :-',~SA ) .

Landsars I thro ugh ] IICn: launc hed into Sun-synchr onous

po lar "wig at a normnal altitude 0 1''119 km ( 570 m il. The
pla tfo rm is ~ h\'V. 11 in Fjgure 7-5a, The satcllncs had all
orbital incl ination of 99, whic h made them nea rly pol ar
I hgufe 7-50 ) and caused them 11\ erose the equa tor at an
ang le of app rux uuatc ly 9 from nor mal. T he sa tellites
o rbited Earth once every 10] minutes. res ulting in 14 orbits
per day (Figu re- 7-5c). Durin g ... uch polar orbit. the eatell ire s
crossed the equator nt app roxim ately the same local tim e
{9:JO to 1,, :00 a.m. ) un the illuminated side o f Harth.
Figu res 7-5c a nd 7..(, illustrJ le hO\1 repeal CO\cragc o f a geographic area was o btained. From on e orbn 10 the nex t. a
pos mon d irectly be low Ihe vpacccratl moved 2J05 km
{ I,71\5 mil at th... Equ ator a" the Earth rotated benea th it. The
nc.\1 day. 14 l.rl:oils later, it v.as bac k til its origmallocarion.
with o rbit 15 d isplaced v.C"lwun l from <'r!'lit I by 15Q km (Q9
m il at the equator. Th is cuutiuucd for IR da ys, uflc r whi ch
or bit 252 fell direc tly ovc r orhi t I nnc e ;Igain , rh us, the
l.andsat st>nsnr systems ha d the cap"h il ity of p!'lserv ing th..:
entlrc glol:oe le.... cq)\ pokw urd o f ~ I ~ I unc e..:\ cry III da )'s. or
ahl.m ~ O l imes a ~' e'lf. Th~'rc were ap pro,ima lcly 26 km (1 6
m il " h ldela p belv. l"en successi\e omits. Th is siddap v.as a

198

C HAPn :R

C h ro n o l o ~ i c a l
i2

'4

71>

. ""

Multispectral Remote Sensi ng Systems

Laun ch a nd Retirem ent lIisto r )"of th (' Landsat Satellites

711

"" I"

91"

u1

04

I I I

LlIunch a nd Rll'l ir l'mc-nt Da l('5

Land~1

UncI ...,

I - J ul~ n , 1972. \(I Janual)' to, 1 97 ~

January 22, 19 75. to July ~7 , 19~)

landoW ) . Ma n:h

S. 19711 . to Seplmlbn 7, 19113

Land,.. , .. - July In , l "'K ~

5 Mar<:h J. 19K4
Land..., II OCtober 5. IIN3, d Id nOia ducve oml1
Laoosat 7 Af"l l 15, J999

Lan""".

LallJsat 1I - appnm:J by OST I' Dco:embo:r 23. 2U05

I
Agura 74

Chronologicallilunch and retirement history of the Landsat series of !'alellik-s(I through 7) from 19T:!. 10 ~OOt

maxim um at RIo non h and sout h latitudes (300ut 85% ) and

a minimum at the equator [about )4% ), The sidelap has
proven use ful for stereosc op ic a nalysis application s.
T he natu re of the orb iting Land sat sy stem has given rise 10 a
Path and Row Worldwide RL'{t'It 'IICf! .s:1'Jlt'IIJ ( WRS) for locaring and ob tain ing Landsat imagery tor any area on Earth.
The WRS has catalogued the world's landmass into 57,711.J
scenes. Each scene is approx imately 185 km wide by 170
km long.

An elegant method of determining if remote sensor data.

(e .g. landsat MSS. Themat ic Mapper. Enhanced Themat ic
Mapper Plus) are available for a specific location is to use
the U.S. Geological Survey 's Global Visualization Viewer
t USGS GloV is. 2(06). For example. suppose we are interested in locating a landsat Them atic Mapper image of
Charleston. Sc. We can enter the Global Visualization

Viewer and specify WRS Path 16 and Row 37 and scarchthe

data base as shown in Figure 77. If we do not know the pau

and row designation. we could a) mo ve the cursor on the

regional map and place it on Cha rleston. SC, or b) inputtlx
latitude and longitude coordinates of Charleston. SC (33.2'"
N . _Sl o W ). We can specify the month and year {c.g .. May
20(5) and the amoun t nfacceptable cloud co ve r, We can alSo,'
spec ify whether the search should be conducted regional ~
as in Figure 77a (pixds resample d to 1000 m) or locally.
in f igure 7-7b {pixels rcsampled to 240 m). t\ color verua
of the Globa l Visualization Viewer interface is shown a
Co lor r latl: 7-1.
In Ihis sect ion. we are interested in the type of sensors car
ried aloft by the Landsat satell ites and the nature and quali~
of remote sensor data. provided for Earth resource investigalions. The most important sensors are the Multispecml
Scanner and several Thematic Mappers.

'199

lJltispectral lmag in g Us in g Discr ete Detectors and Scanning Mirrors

~7-1.

Lan,j" u Muliis pl.-':lral S..:"mwr l \I SS I ilJlIl Lm"h at Thematic \ 1"PI",r l 1\11 M:u",r ~ ~st~m cha racteris tics.

Landsat Multispectra l SCanner (MSS)

Spectral
Resolution

Rad io metri c
sensitivity

IJ>m)

(NE..lPt

Band

landsat 4 and 5 Thematic Mapper (TM)

Spectra l
Resolution

Radiometric
sensitivity

IJ>m)

(N8.P)

OAS O.5:!

0.'

o.sz o.eo

0 .5

Band

"5

05

0.6

0 .57

0.6

0.7

0.57

0.7

0.'

O.,,~

O,n3 _ O.nQ

0.5

O.S - 1.1

o.m

0 .7(> - 0 .90

0.'

1.55 - 1.75

1.0

[0, 40 12.5

2,1lK-2.35

lOA

"

l A K (NEAT)

1 ~ .6

7'J x 7'J m fur balllb'; through 7

.'0 x J(J III fur N ulls I thWllgh 5. 7

:!~n){ :!~fl

1211x 120 m for band e

m for band S

O.5Il\ E.H )
2.-4

15 Mb,_s
Qllnt iu ti"n 11.'\..,1\

(, Oil (\ alues (Will ll t" 631

I fi days Landsat

IXdays L1nds.11 I, 2. 3
1fJ

da )'~

~,

.5

Landsat 4, 5
7(l~

'11 '1km

km

I X5 km

Inllinatioll

'J')"

Th. rn,bClmctrie ""n, it '\ 11 i. , :In: lh, n""c""I""'3!ent retk .:tancc ,hlk ", ,,,'c, 1" 1 Ille rct1<"'m e " hem",,!. cw rc"e'd a_ pt:,ecm,,~c, ( ~ t-!>I') and
lomp-'rat"' '' dinCrCII ".' Ii" the' thermal Ull"a,,,d ....",,1, t " r,\ fl.
~ \l ~ S h"nd, 4, 5, 1>, and 7 " ,'r" rc" ,,"' ......rcd Ix""l, 1. 2..'- ." ,,14
Landsat, 4 ~ "d~.
' ~ SS bond ll ..... a. ptc"'1\1,.nl>" nl ...",I, .1t ,

<",

~ landsat Multis pectra l Scanner {M" S ) \Ia" p laced on

lmiMl satellites 1 throu gh 5, The :'v ISS multiple-detector
and the sca nni ng system arc shown dia gmmmaucally
Figure 7-Na. Sensors suc h as the Landsat :\l SS (a nd The1lI!IC Mapper to be dis cus sed] arc optic al-mechanical sys!tms in which OJ mirror scans the wrra in pcrpcnd icu lnr to 11K"
IhPtt d:rection. While it sca ns. It focuses cn l'rg ~ re fl ect ed or
minoo from the terrain omo di-crctc detecto r elements. Th e
dcttctc~ ccn vcrt the radiant llux measured w ithin eac h
1II:italIianeous field of\ i.,;w II H)V) in the sce ne imo lin eteclDlic signal I Figures 7-.\ b an d 7-Xa). T he detector ele me nts

Jr.!:

an: placed behind tillers that P;lSS broad portions o fthe spectrum , The MSS had tour set s of filte rs and dete ctors.
wherea-, the I \.-1 had SO:\CII. Tho: primary limitation o f th is
approach il> the short v iew ing residence time o f the detecto r
in each Ir O \ '. Io achieve adequat e sig na l-to-noise rat io
with o ut sacr ificm g vpuual resolunon. such a sensor must
ope rate in broad spec tra l bands of ~ 100 11 m or must usc
oplics wit h unrcnljstically small rnuos of foca l length 10
apertu re (j I , lop ).

Thc M'\:-' scann mg mi rror ovcillat es Ihro ugh an angular displacement 1, 1" ::1:;.7':<' o tl-nadrr. Thl~ I I .5o ~ fi eld -o f-vie w

200

Multispectral Remote Sensing Systems

.\ ttunde -cor arol

sUhs} ~I..:m

So lar arrJ.y .........

wltl.:band
recorder
electronics

land....' at
<J :~ 1

),(::'--', - "\'.:\"1

1f..: a 1 time

Dala- /
c"lkcllon
.. nt<olU\il

am

Ret urn

1k,1I11

\ it1 il-nn OW \ ' )

Cll llwn" IJ I

a.
Orb,t J b. J..,~ 1

Ori' II 1. day I
Om,t

Iii

l~ .

W\ ':;

irhll I. d.1y:I

Figu re 7-5

2 ~ 75 kill
a l Clj U<' lol

1__ ...,_-'

Cj

a ] 'Oirnb us-sl)'1c plat fonu used fllf La nd sa ts l. 2. and 3

and as "llCi<u\o..1 se n<;('/" and telecom munication syste ms,
h I In.:lilhll'II1t u f the Landsat orb 't 10 maintain a Sun~> t1<" hwn "u~ orbit. 1." 1 From on e orhi t lu lh~' nex t. the pu..
ciuon directly below Ih", ",ne llil'" moved 2.lol75 krn
tl. 7 ~5 mi) utthc eq uator as Earth rota ted t>cn calh it. The
n",,'l d" y, 1-1 nrhil s later, it was approxirnatcly hack 10 iI,
ori gi na l locution. " ilh orbit 15 di~pluecd Weslv.aru from
orbit 1 hy 15<.l kill ('19 mil . Thrs is huw repeat co verageofthe same gc" grllphic are" was ob tained.

L.- l ~ H 111

c.

resulte d in a sw ath w idrh o f 1:--5 km ( II ~ mi ) to r eac h Clrt>il.

Six paralle l detectors ....: thi\j, It ttl fonr "1'1<0;11<11 bands (cha nnels) in the electromagnetic spectrum \ icwcd the ground
simulta neously : 05 III 0,0 um 19r\'t"n ). n.b 10 0.7 urn t red t.
0.7 10 nx urn uetlecnve near-infrared] , and 0.1' to 1.1 urn

(reflective ncar-infrared). TIIl.'~'

bJ. I1J S

were originally llU tn-

bcrcd 4. 5,6, nnd 7, respectively, bec ause J RClUm..Bees

vidrcon (IHiV) sensor system also onboard the salcll~
rec orded e nergy in three bands labeled I, 2, and 3.

\\ hl'n not vie w ing the Earth. the MSS detectors w.:tt
exposed to interna l lighl and Sun calibration so urce s. TIE

....

Illtispect ral lmagl ng Using Discrete Detectors and Scan ning Mirrors

Landsa t Orn uat

201

rac k v

45
)0

. 15
U

- 15
15-+

)0

4;

so
75
~~

71;,

Ofh iul lr.l~h tlr Landsa t I. 2. or ) .Juring a single oiJ~ of C"H"r.l~"_ Th.: -.aldlil~ .:w~...:<.Il h.. t."lU;'h'l" e\ery \fI.1 minutes. tluri ng
wmch tlITK: the Earth I'OUlIOO a di.... ance o f 2JHS km under Ihr !oaldlih:' at the C\jUilltll'. I'.\'el) 14 "mils. 2.,l. hours elapsed.

~I sensitivity o f the bands is summa rized in Table 7- 1

III show n diagram mat ically in Figure '.l': h. N,)le thn there

! splral overlap bctw ccn the bands .

Prior to the laun ch o f the satellue. the engin ee ring mode l o f
Icstc
viewing the scene behind the
~U3
G~l kl;, . CA. Bands 4 and
~ (green and ncar-in frare d, respe crive ly j of the area aTC
!OCt""" in Figure 79. Note the spatial de rail pre sent "" hen the
srsor is located onl y I III 2 km From the moun tain s. The
~lia l resolution is much tower when the sen sor is placed
9lHm above Ea rth in orbit.

*ERrS
\i SS ....'31'
J by
Barbara Res ear ch Ce nter ill

Ihe !FOV of ea ch detecto r was sq uare and resulted in a

pound resolution clement o f approxi mately 79 x 79 III
1~7,143 11'\ The ana log voltage sig nlll from eac h detec to r
JaS converted 10 a dig ua l value usi ng an on hon rd A- to-I)

Ml \ener. The duta we re quantized In e-bits with a range of

.lues fr om 0 to (13, These dntn we re the n rescaled 10 7- hits
til 121) for three of the four hands in subsequent ground
lIft'(ffiing [i.e., bands 4. 5, and (, were decom pressed to a
t.Il\~'l"(lfOto 127). It is im porta ntto remember that the early
~7(1s Landsat MS"> 1I,1ta we re quanuzed to e -tnrs when
.'Q!tIpari ng MSS data collected in the late 19 70s and 19SOS.
-.trich were collected at x -bn s.

furiJlg each scan. the voltage prod uced b) each de tec tor was
r.&;lkd every 9 ,95 115, For one de tcx:tor. approxim ately

3J( )(J samples we re take n a long a J,~ 5- k lll line. Thus. the
IFO \, of 711 m x j() m became about 5fi m on th e ground
beh\ CL'n eac h ..ample /I igurc 7 10), The 56 x 79 III area is
called a Land sat \ ISS pict ure clement. Thu s, although the
mea snrer uent of land-ca pe hrig hlnt:ss was made fro m a
6. ~4 1 rtl ~ are a, each phd was reformartcd as i I' the measuremcnt were l1I;1dL' Irom a 4.4 24 m l area ( rig u r~' 7- 10 1, ~ote
the tl\ er lap of the areas ffo m \\ hich bri ghtness mea surell1l'llls "ere made for adjace nt pixels .
r ile ,\1 SS scanned each line ncmsc-track from wes tto ca st as
the soulhw<lfll orbit o f tile sp ucccr atl provided the ulongtrack prngrl'ssillll, Ench MSS sce ne represents a 185 x 170
krn parallelogram cxrructcd fro m the l'ol1l il111n lls swath of a n
orhn an d conuins appro\ imalc ly Iu percent overla p, A typicut scene contuins approximately 234 0 scan lines with
about .t!40 pix els per line. or ,Iheollt 7.5 1'1.1'>00 p ixe ls per
channel. A II fo ur han ds rep rese nt ;1da ta set of more tha n 30
mill inn brigh tness values. Landsrn \'I SS images provided an
unprecede nted ability In OhSL'r\C large gl.'ngraphie a rea"
while \ I.:wing a sing I!.' image. For e xamp le. approximat ely
SOO() vertic al aerial phul llg mphs obtained at a scale o f
I: 15J Ml(l are requ ired to equa l the geographic cove rage o f a
sin g le Landsa t ~ IS S ima ge. l'lus ullo ws regio nal te rra in
ana lysis 10 I:".: per formed us ing nne da ta sou rce rather tha n a
multitude Ill' aerial phlllllgrap hs.

202

Mul lJsp ectral Rem ote Sens ing Systems

Use of t he USGS Gtobat J' SIUI/b lt;OIl J iewer to

Locate La ndsat Remot e Se nso r Data

a. Search ((IT images o f Charleston. S( ', usi ng tho: criteria: Path 1(-, and R<IW37,
Landsat .$5 T M. Mil)' ~OO5. 100% maximum clo ud con- r; n'sam plcJ til 1,()()O m pixe ls.

--=-,...._.
... _-..... .

--

b. Sea rch for Charleston. SC using pixels resumplcd

Figure 7-7

III ~ .$O

m.

203

lIlispeclral lm a g in g Us ing Dis crele Detectors and Scanning Mirro rs

Landsat

;\IlIlli~p{"elrlll

Sca n ner

Landsat :\Iultisp('ctral Scanner Kandl\idlhs

100

'0
,

60
'e

~
a

e,

"
20 f - -

o
0.4

0.5

O'

0 ,7
0.11
Wa\l; lcnl!lh. ~1Il

0.'

1.0

1.1

b.
Sll ddlo n;
..r band
j2J Mall

~,

f~L
,: Fidf~~6:ie"

___ ,\

I-.

Frgure 7-8

31 \lajor compooenu of the landsal Multispectral

Scanner system on Landsats Ithmugh 5 (Landsal 3
also had a thermal infrared band ). A blink of 24 detIOf'S (Sil for each ofthe four bands) measured refleered en~"fl!.)' from Earth from an instantaneous
field ()f\ iew 0 (7<) m x 79 m. b) landsat Multispecrral Scanner hamlwidlhs, N\J(ice Ihat lOe bands do
nOI en d ebru prly. as sUl.U!l~ted h) the usual nom en clature. e.g.. band J (U.s- (Ill ~ml.

EIISI

South

landsat Thematic Mapp er (TM ) sensor sys tems wer e

launched 011 July 16. 19!12 (Lan dsat 4). and on March I.
!98-I (Landsat 5 ). The T 1'.1 is an optical-mechanica l w hisk htorn sensor that records ene rgy in the visib le. refl ectiv einfrared. middle- in frared . and thermal Infrared regions of the
eenrornagnetic spec trum. II collec ts mult ispectral imagery
!hal ha~ higher spat ial. spect ral. te mpora l, and radiomet ric
resolu tion than the Land sat i\IS S.
Tbe LatKl~t4 and 5 pla tform is shown in Figure 7- 11. The
Thematic \1a ppcr sen sor sys tem co nfiguraric n is sho wn in
flgu."e 7-12. A tele sco pe directs the inco ming radi ant flux
ltuined along a sca n line thro ugh a scan line co rrector to I )
tbt visible and near -infrared primary 1000al plant" or 2) the:

middle-in frared and thermal infrared cool ed focal plane . T he

detector s fer the visible and nca r-in frare d ba nds ( I - 4) arc
fo ur staggered linear arrays. eac h co ntai ning 16 silicon detectors . T he two middle- infra red detectors are 16 ind ium- antimonide cells in a staggered linear arr uy, and the thermal
infrared detector is a fo ur-c lement array of mercury-cad.
m ium-tel lur idc cel ls.
Landsa t T M data have a ground -projected IFO V of ]O x J n
m for band s I through 5 and 7. The therma l in frared ba nd 6
has a spatia l reso lution o f 120 x 120 m. The T M spectral
bands represe nt important dcpa rtures fro m the ba nds found
on the trad itional MSS . also ca rr ied onboard Landsars 4 and
5. The original MSS ban dwidths w ere selec ted ba sed o n
thei r ut ility to r vegetation inventories and geo log ie stud ies.
Conversely, the: TM ban ds w ere: c hosen a tler years of ana ly-

204

'tc r rcstrtat I ma~('\ uf Colora. CA. uh talned

Ih~' La udxat M ulthlll"Cln l Scanner

Mu ltispec tra l Remote Sens ing Systems

Nm --+i+-

usin ~

7~rn-+

--

Gr<lund' J1rujl>i: tt'd

trov

>Om

9_<j~

<j95

I- ,,~ --.;.- ". -+it-~

t -

fl.'

-.(

'>.lmrling interv al or MSS J;e~

Land.<;;tl MSS b.>nJ .lIO.5 . 0,1i ~ml_

Figure 71 0

995

Rd atil.nshir bt'1...een tho: original 79 x N m

rroJCl.'1t'<.ll fOV .. r the Land -at MSS and the
which il ... as rCSoalllrkd [i,c. t"-ery 9.95 j.ls}.
suhcd In rl'\c1s lhill were 5h x 7~ 111 OIl data'
fromthe EROS Data Center <II Siou:\ Falls, SD

I.a nd.al .. an d :; Thematic \ la ppeT'O

1>, I ,md ...11 \l ... s 1l.1nd I> (0 i .11 M11m I

Figure 7-9

I" " tcrrcsmaluuages acquired by the cngmccnng

mudd ofrh c Landsat \i SS on Ma rch ..\. I ~72. at the
Sallia Barbara Resea rch Center of Hughe s A irc raft.
Inc The top i lllag~'l al was acquired using the MSS
IMld ..\ detec tors (0.5 - (1 ./, 1-111\). a nd the bottom image (I'll \\,1' acquired using hand (, detectors {O.7 O,1l ).11111. Note th c hIgh spaualIldclity of lJlI: images.
which is possil'k "hen th .... terrain is close and not
'11'1 ~ 1 11

l! w a ~

sis j~lI their value in wutc r penetration. d iscrimination of

vegetation I Y r~' and vigor. plam and soil moisture measuremem. di fferenriarion o f clouds . snow. a nd icc. and ldennflcanon of hydrothermal alte ration in ccnuin roc k types (Table
7.2 ). The refined ban dwidt hs and improved spatial rcsolutien ufthe Lantl,.,,,l l l\l VCh U,., the Landsat MSS and sev era l
other sensor sy,.,lerm ( Land,.,at 7 and S PO T,., I - 5) arc shown
gra phically in Figu re 71 J. Examples of indi vidua l hands o f"

Rg Llre 7 11

Lm tlsal ~ ;111<15 platform and associated sensor

rctccomrnumcauon systems.

Land sat Thematic Mappe r image ry of Cha rleston. Sc.

obtained in I'JlJ4 arc sho wn in Figure 7-1 4.
The Landsat T M hands wert' sd<.'<.'lcJ 10 mak e max im um use

of the domi nant fac tors cont rolling leaf reflec tance. such as
leaf pigmcnrauon. leaf and canopy struc ture. and moisture
content. a,., demon-anned in Figure 7-15. vegetation absorbs
much of the iucidcru blue. green. and red radian t Il ux for

photosy nthetic purposes: there fo re, vege tated areas a

dark in T M band I ( I'llue), 2 (greem. and 3 lredl images.
seen in the Ch arl esto n. Sc. Lan dsat T \ f data (sec Figure
11). Vegetat ion refl ec ts cpproxj murcly half of the inci
ncnr-mfrarcd rad ian t fhrx. causing it 10 appear bright In
band -l t ucar-infrared ) image. Ba nds 5 an d 7 both pni
more detail in tlte wet land bec ause they arc sensitive to

"

ectral lmag ing Using Disc rete Detector s and SCanning Mirrors

205

and plant moi sture conditions (Table 7-2 ). The band 6 (the rma l) image pro vides limited information of va lue.
'-2.

Characteristics of the Landsat

~bpper

and 5 The matic

spectral bends.

(I: 0..15 - 0.51,/11I (blll e). This baud provides increased

. of warertcdies, 4S well as supporting analyses o f

. , soil,and vegetation charactensucs. The shorter waveJi, Cllloif is j ust below the pea k trans mi tta nce of clea r
:md the upper-wavelength cutotf is tho: limi t o f blue chlcI absorption fix hea lthy green vegetation. Wav d en b>ths <
um an: substannally influenced by atmosphe ric scatte ring

The eq uatorial crossing ti me was Q:45 a.m . for Landsais -t

and 5 with an orb ital incl ination 0I"Q8 .2. Landsats 4 an d 5
were placed in a 70 5 km orbit. Th e lowe r orb it al so increa sed
the amoun t of relief di splacement introdu ced into the imag1.'1)' ob taine d over mountaino us terrain. The new o rb it also
caused the pe riod between repe titive coverage to cha nge
from 18 to 16 days for both the MSS an d TM data co llected
by Lan dsa rs 4 and 5.

tt'SOrJlI lOfl_

ti l: (J.5! - 0.60 pm (g rr m). This band spans the region

HCTl the blue and red chlorophyll absorption bands and
:IS ic ihc green reflectance of hea lthy vegetation.

tJ J: 0.6J - 0.69 II/PI (, d). nils is the red chlorophyll

ion band of healthy grc<:n vegetation and is use ful for
discrimination. It is also useful for soil-boundary
geological-boundary delineations . This band may ex fubu
lOll

contrast man hands 1 and 2 because of the n..duccd effect

r ,. " ..enc aucnuauon. The O.69tJrn cutoff is significant
use it represents thc beginning of a spec tral region from

to 0.75 um.....here vegetation reflectance crossovers take

that can reduce the accuracy of vegetauon investigation s.
"" 4: 0.76 - 0.\10 lilt' (nt Mr-inf rM,..Jj. For reasons dis -

Med.lhc lc.... er cutoff for this band was placed above 0.75
Thj~ band is " .. ry responsive to the amount of vege tation
and or kaf area present. It is useful for erop ide nnfica and emphasizes soilicrop and land/watercontrasts.
5: 1.55 - / . :'5 II'" (miJ-infnut"d). This band is sensitive
the turgidity or amount of water in plants. Such information
seful in crop drought studies and in plant vigor invcstig aThis is one of the lew bands thatcan be used to discrimiamong clouds, snow.and ice.

10.4 - /1. 511'" (tl,trmal in!r artdJ, This band m<a.

. til,' amount of inl'r3rcu radiant cncrg)' cmiucd from sur;e;.. Tho: apparent rernperaturc is a function ofthe emi....i\'iti,'1i
lile true (kinelic) temperature of lhe surface. II IS useful (or
aung g~ol.hcrmal acnvu y, thermal iner na m,tppillg Illr gooisvesnganons. vegeta tion classifica tion . wg':tati"n slress
1lI)'sis. and soil mois ture studies . Till.' ban d oft..n captu re,
inf\,rm':lIion on differences in topographic aspect in

I4ftd ~:

7.. 1.08 - 1. J 5 11m (mid-;nfrart'd). Thl$ is an important

ror lh.. discrimination of geologic rock formations. It has
.110" n to be effective for identifyi ng zo nes, of hydrothcra1lerJlIon in rocks.

The n: was a substanti al im proveme nt in the level o f quan tization from 6 to Kbits pe r pi xel (Tab le 7-1 ). Th is. in addition
to a greater nu mber of bands and a hig he r spatia l resolution.
increased the data rate from 15 to 85 Mb ls . G ro und rece iving
stations were mod ified to process the inc reased dat a flow.
Based on the imp ro vements in spec tra l. spa tial, and radiomet ric resol ution. Solomonson ( 19M ) suggested that "it
ap pears that the T \ 1 can be descr ibed as being twice as ctfective in provi di ng mformation as the Land sat :\ISS. Th is is
base d on its ab ility to provide tw ice as many se parable
classes ove r a give n are a a s the MSS. nume rically provide
more independent vectors in the da ta or demon stra te
through cla ssical info rma tion theory that twice as muc h
inform ation exists in the T~ I dat a: '

"""0

Efforts to move the Landsat Progra m into the commercial

sector bega n under the Caner Adm in istrat ion in 1979 and
res ulted in legislat ion passed in 1Q8-t that ch arged the
National Oceanic and Atmosp heric Adrrunist raric n to tr ansfer the program 10 the private sector. Th e Ean h Ob serv ing
Sate llue Company (EOS AT) took over operation in 1985
and was given the rights to mar ket Landsa t T\1 data. Thi s
was a very difficu lt time for satellite-based remote sensing in
the United Stales .... ith each Land sat T ~l scene co sting
ap proxi mately S4,500.
It is important to point out the am azing longevity of the
Land sat 5 Thematic Ma pper sys tem lau nched March I.
1984. Even afte r La ndsat (, failed 10 achi eve orbi t on Octoher 5. IQ<,l3. Landsat S TM conun ucd to provide high-quality
remote sensor da ta. Data collection was suspended for a time
on Nove mbe r 26. 2005. d ue to satellite platform backup
sola r array pro blems (USGS Landsat 5. 2(00 ).

Land sa t 7 Enhan ced Th ema tlc :\1a pper Plus

On October 28. IlJl)2, Pres ident Cl into n sign e-d the Land
Re mote Se nsing Policy Act o f 19Q2 (P ublic La..... 102-555 ).
The law authorized the procu rement o f Land sat 7 and ca lled
for its launch with in 5 years of the lau nch of Land sat 6. In

Muilispectral Rem ot e Se ns ing Sy stems

206

Radiatj\ c
coole r

Aperture
sunshade

Earth shield - - - -_

[.>clcct",.
at Cl ~l lctl
1<,,1 pl.m

1>.:'",<'<>,
I t rnma,)'

~~':1.

R<tdi alor lU

dr sp;t<:c

Scan -lmc

Rda)"

corrccnon

"Phes
m' m>n
C; ru u nd r r"j ,'Cl jnn or Sca n r al1rrn

s :

A['Cn un:
sunslude

.
:

L UII,J""t

groundtrack

Fig u re 7- 12

Major com p onents orthe Lnndsnts 4 and 5 The mat ic Mapper ..cnsor system. The senso r is sensitive to th..- sewn hands oftit
dCdfOlllagnctic spectrum sununanzcd in Table 7-1. Si'I. (lfth.: seven bands have a spaual resolution 01"3Ux 30 m: the I
infra red hand has a spatml resolution o f I:!n x 120 rn. The lowe r dia gram depicts the sensor in lis ope rational po,i lillO,

parallel act io ns, Congress fundc-d Land sat 7 procurement

and stipu lated that data fro m publicly funderd rem ote se nsing
satellite syste m, like: La ndsa t must be so ld 1,1 United States
government agencies and their affiliated users al the cos t of
fulfill ing user requests .

Wilh the passage of the Land Remote Sensing Policy Act of

1<N2. O\e:rsight of the Landsa t program began 10 he shined
from the commercial sector back to the federa l government.
NASA wa s responsible for the des ign. development. lau nch
and on-crtnt checko ut o f Landsat 7 ( Figure 7- 16). and the

iusra llario n and op eration of the ground system. The L 5.

Geo logical Survey ( USGS ) was responsible tor data capturt
proce-sing. and di-aribunon of rhe Landsat 7 data . miss
man agemen t. and mai ntaining the Landsat 7 data archive.
Landsat 7 was lau nched on April 15. 1W':'. fro m VandenN!
Air Force Bnse. CA. into a Sun-sy nchronous orbit tFigureII,) . Landsat 7 was designed to work in harmony liS
:'\IA5A\ EOS Tj' rra and ...14/1<1 sa tctlucs. It was designed.
achieve three mai n objectives ( ~ A SA l and s.a t 7. 2006):

....

207

Wlispectral lmaging Usi ng Disc rete Det ectors and Scanning Mirror s

Spa tial and Spectral Reso lution or Landsat :\1ullis pn'lntl Sc an ncr.
l. an ch at T hem ati c vtappe rs. a nd SPOT St>lIsor S"' Sl;O'C"~"C~_.,...~_

.nr

P'~h~"C

S POT

SPOT

20m "
C

",
~

4 11i~h H. ~"l u li(ln ' hibl ~'

Infnl rftl lll RnR I

IIIIIII

IOm L

SI'OT 1. 2. IInd.l High R... ~ol u ,io n Vis ihlE' ( HR\')

20m '
C

i~ ih l('

I I II I I I I

10m

Hilth R('",lntioll \
I nfn rc d ( II RYIR )

l.... nd ' al 7 En han ced T h",m lllic

t

Mapper- Plus (i:T~ I + 1

;e, )Om '

110 m
I.Much al Th... malic Ma ppen n :'o l) 4 lind !Ii

30 m ,

I .lln d u l

"m

. _ _

\I u lti ~p ('("trlll

S r a n nrr ( \ I SS)

.,

I. 2 .1. -I. llnd S

0.4.s

.6

.8

.9 1.

.1 US
1.75 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2,4 10
Wave le ngt h lJrn

11

rqvre 713 Spatial and spectral resolution Orlnt> Landsat Multrspcc tral Scanner (MSS1. t alllh als 4 and 5 l h... mane Mappe r (Tl\t ). Landsat
7 Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus ( ET M ' ), SPOTs 1,2, and 3 High Resolution Visible OliN), and SPOTs4 lind 5 High Reselution Visihle Infrared /II RVIR) sensor systems. The SPOTs 4 and ) ~hf,'I, mon sensor ChaTHe' lcri, tics arc not shown / it eonsists of four I ,I S x l .I S krn bands).

mrintain data co nt inuity by providi ng data that are

consisten t in terms of geometry, spat ial resolution.
calibration. cov erage char;ll; ter i, ties, and spectral
characteristics w ith p rev ious Lands at data:
generate and periodically Tefn:sh a global archive o f
;ubslantially cloud-free. sunlit landm ass imagery ;
conti nue 10 mak e Land sat-type da ta ava ilable to U,S. and
ecmanonal use rs at the cost o f fulfillin g use r req uests
and 10 expan d the use of suc h data for global-cha nge
research and co mmerci a l purpo ses.

Landsat 7 IS a three-a-c is stahi lized plntform ca rry ing 11 si ng le

nad ir-po inting instrument. the I:T\1' (Figure 7- Hi). The
ETM - instrumen t is u derivativ e of'thc Lnndsar a and 5 Themat ic Ma pper sensors. Th ere fore , it is pnssih le to refer to
Figure 7- 12 fN a rev lc.... of its mi rro r and detector design .
T he ET ~I' is based on scanning tech no logy (Figure 7-3b)
despne tho: ta ct that linear ,IITay " pushtlroo m" technology
has been com me rcially available since the launch of the
Fre nch S POT I satellite in 19S6 . Neverthel ess. the El M "
instrument was an excell en t sensor with seve ral notable
imp ro vements o ver its pred ece ssors landsat ~ and 5.
The characteri stic s o f the La ndsat 7 ET :vl' are found III
Tab le 7-3. The ET ~r band s I through 5 and 7 are ident ica l

( 'IL\ PH ;K

208

Mu lti spectral Remote sen si ng Systems

l ,andsal5 tnemauc .\ Ia llpl'r Dat a uf Charleston, SC

d.

&I n.!~ .

c. Band 5.

Rgu re 7-14

f. Hand to (thermal infrarcdt,

Landsat Jbe mauc Mapper data of <:hart':"'l~m, Sc.

ob ramcd ('0 F"hl\l;lry J. 1'''1~ Hand s I through 5
and 7 art' .W x \I) m ~ r;l ll a l resolution. Band (} is
11U x I ~O m.

J.I - I-bnd ?,

to tho sc found (111 Land sat s -t J IlU 5 and haH' the sam<' .~ O x
30 m spat ial resolution. The therma l mtrarcd ba nd 6 has 60
x N I OJ spa tial resohnion [in stcud of 110 x 120 mj . Pc rtmps
most notable is the new 15 x 15 m pan ch romanc O>lI1d (0 .5:!
- 0.90 urm. Landsat 7 EP,,! ' imll!tcs o f San Diego. C A. arc
shown in Figu re 7-17. An ET\f ' color C(lm~SiIC o f San
Diego . CA. is displayed in Co lnr Plate 7-2.
Land sat 7 is in orh it 7U5 kill abo ve the Earth , collects data in
a sw ath I S5 km wi d". a nd can not view off-nadir, It.. revi ..il
interval is Ib days It ha" .. 37l"-giga hit solid -state recorder
rl nu can ho ld 42 minu tes o f sens or dM;1 and 29 ho urs 0 1'
hou se keepin g telemet ry data. T he ETr-.l ' records ISO megahits ofdata each second. Land-at 7 can tran-smit data d irec tly
to groun d rece ivin g st ations at the EROS Data Center in

S ioux Fa lls. 5D . or 10 Fairbanks, A K. La ndsat 7 in!

uonal da ta m;)y hy acqu ired by trans mission using
s,lIellit.:s or tty inte rnat ional rec eiving stauons.

The Land sat 7 ET\-1 - has excel lent radio metric calibra
whic h is acc omplished using pa rtial and full a perture
cahbrauon. Grou nd loo k calibra tion is pe rformed by
illg images o f ce rtain Earth landm :lss cahbranon
Bioph ysica l ;1I1d atmo spheric ch ara cteristics ofthese
a rc well instru mented on the g round.
,\ t one lime appr oximately 250 ETM ' ima ges were I

by the EROS Data Cent er each day. Unfonuna

the El\\ ' Sean Line C(lITCCIM ISI.Cj failed on Ma.
2UII.1 , resulti ng in tmag":r) w ith signilkalll missing lilt

CCSSl 'J

....
MJltispectrallmaging Using ntscrete Detect or s and Scanning Mirror s

P'~"'K'll- .jI<I-_ +-

la'......

lnrernal lear

strucrwe ....I~--I-

'.'.:

.-

209

t~af mol<l\lrc conrcnt

-+----+/

The matic
..- ~l a plH.'r
han d ~

\1 "i ~ lu n.'
( 0 0 1('0 1

IU

~ 7.15

15
W a\t'k n t:1h. ll m

Progressive changes in per cent reflectance for a sycamore leaf at \ arytng oven-dry weight moisture C<>IlIC1l1. The dominant
fa"on. controlling k a f re flecta nce anJ the location of six Oflh" Land sat Th...matk- \tal'f'l."f bands aTl:' ufII.-rimposo.-d.

Land va t 7 E n ha nced Them atic 't appe r Plu s

SLC compensates tor the forward monon Il l' rhc satellite.

Efforts 10 recover the SlC \-I eTC not success ful.

The se me rged inMges resolve some uf'thc missing d ata problc ms (USG S Landsat 7, 200/'1 I.

ALSGS 'NASA l.andsartcum has re fined ETf\I- gap- filling

tthniqucs tha i merge da til from m uh ipk EI'M " acq uisjlIOlI>. They a lso developed modifications [0 the Landsar- ?
Equisilll)n scheme III a":l.Juirc IIHI or more dear scenes a ~
IIl:lIl' in time as po ss ible 10 facilita te th is g' lp.tilling proc ess.

La lHh a l D;II:.1

C ll n l j llu i t~

A me morandum from the I're" idlnts D fficc o fScience a nd

Technology Po licy lOST!' ) signed (10 Dec ember 23. 200 5.
summarizes the future of Landsat (OSTP. 21l(5). The

~'II-\I"I

2 10

t ,N;

I.Hlulsat 7 Enhanced Th em at ic vl app e r

Il lla ~,t

Fig ure 7 17

7 12,flN- 2J~ , 1m)

h. Rand ~

( O .5 ~ .

-7

Multi spectra l Remot e Sens ing Systems

l 'l u ~ I lll a~l'r~

Multi!

Ur S a " Il i l' ~l). CA

noo pm ll'an

Landsat 7 E'lM imagery ufSan Diego. CI\ , uhtailH:d l'n April 14.1001J. B,lIld s I throu gh S and 7 ,lfe) O)( 30 m. Thermal
in frnred hand II

i~

hll)< hll m. Panchromatic hand

~ ;,

15 l( 15 III rcourtcsy III r>-i /\ SA )

De partm ents of' Commcrcc. Defens e, the Interior and NASA

are to rake the fo llow ing ncar-term act ions:

iccrion. archiv ing. prne.:ss ing, and distribmion of the lane

cnrtacc d ata to U.S. rto vcrmn cnt and other users:

Proc eed w ith the NPOESS prog ra m w ithou t inco rpo rating
a Land sat-type instrum ent:

The agenc ies \\ ill seck III impleme nt an approac h for thi;

NASA .... ill acqu ire a single La ndsat da ta contin uity mission in the form (If a tree- flyer vpucccnul 1\\ collect the
required land surface data and deliv er i t ~ da ta 10 the Department o f the Interior U.S. Gl'tl log ical Survey {USGS);
DO l. throug.h the USG S. will he respo ns ible for the operations of the Landsat dat il con un uuy m ission and for th... col-

mlssi"n in a ma nner that l!nes nOI preclude it long- term ,;olt,

non li ' r con tinu ity ,If Landsa t-type da ta.
II remains the glIal o f the U.S. ctovemme nr tc tran sit ion tIE
Lan dsat prog ram limn a series o f inde pen de ntly planned
miss ions to n s usta ined operational prog ram funded ~
mallagcll h~ a tf.S. Gov ...mm em operat iona l age ncy or agend es. international consortium, and/or co mmercia l partnership. Concurrent wit h the actions ci ted above , th e :-':atiOllll

Ta

....
MuIllspecl ral lm ag lng Using mecrete Detect ors and Sca n n in g Mirror s

Table 7-3.

Landsat Enhanced Thcmanc Map per Plus t E T ~l

'.

2 11

compared with ttl," Eart h t jbserver ( Hl. 1) sensors.

EO-' Advanced land Imager (ALI)

Landsat 7 Enhanced Themat ic Mapper Plus (El M' )

Spectra l
Resolu tion

Spa t ial

S patia l
Res olution
(m) at Nadir

Spectral
Resol ution

Resolution

l~ ml

(m) at Nadir

Band

0.4 50 - 0 .5 15

",0 x 30

~ S- I

OA.13

- 0.~ 5J

30>< 30

0 .525 - O.N IS

30)(30

~IS-I

OA50 - 051 0

30 >< JO

0.630 - O.6l)(j

30 x 30

~ S- 2

0.525 - 0.6115

30 ><30

0 .750 - O.'XJO

30 x 30

\ IS-3

0.l, .111 - O.to'KI

so " JO

30x 30

~lS-4

0.775 ~ 0.805

30 x30

10.-l11 _ 1:!5U

\.lS_4 .

(I.1t4~

JU>< 10

l.OK - 2.35

""30x"'"30

\l S-Y

1.20 - 1.30

30 x 30

O.5:~

15 x 15

'-IS-S

I.S S - 1.75

30>< JO

\I S-7

2.01<: - 235

30>< .'0

Panchromatic

OAIIO - O.toW

10><10

Band

1.55

g tp;mchromauc)

1.75

0 .90

( ~m l

- O-lN tl

EO ] Hypc rio n Hypcrspcctral Sensor

220 bands Irom OA 10 2...1 pm aI 30 "30 III

[ 0 1 l [ISA Atrnosphcnc Corrector ( LAC')

25t> bands tro m (l.1I to l.t> pm OIl 2511 " 2511 m

~",.or
T('fh no lo~'

Ad vanced La nd Image r is a pushbrocm radiomet er.

Scanning mirror spectrometer

Hyperion is a pushbroorn spectroradiomcter,

LAC uses area arrays.

S"Klh " ic llh

lX5 lm

[lat a RHte

250 images per day (Ii) 31,450 k m~

AL]

J7 lrn ;l lypt:riun 75 km; LAC - 11l5 km

In days
Orbit and
Iodin at ion

Launch

Equator!..] crossing 10;00 a.m. .:!:.15 min.

70S krn. Sun-synchronous

lnchnation '111.2
Equatorial crossing - l andsat 7 -t

r\pril IS. I<)'I'J

Novemb er 21, 200H

705 km, Sun-synchronous

Inclination '" QX.2

~imI.' and Technology Cou nc il. in coord ination with

SASA. DOL/USGS. and othe r ilgcllC ks and EOI' offices as
!Wmprialc. will lead an ef f ort 10 de velop a long-term plan 10
eheve technica l. fi nancial. and ma nage ria l stability for
tpmlional land imaging in accord .... ith the goa ls and o bjcc ~es of the U.S. Inrcrgratcd Earth O bse rvation System
~TP.2005 1 .

hrth OI...... n ...r I t:()-I )

min

The Earth Observer (E<>- Ij miss ion W li S laun ched o n

November ~ 1,2000 (f\ASA EO- I, 2006 \. It .... as placed in a
70S-km Sun-sy nc hro nous orbit 31 a 9S.7 Q incli nation such
that it .... as Hying in tormauon I minut e behind Landsat 7 in
the same ground track. This c lose sepa rauou enabled EO- I
to observe the same grou nd location (scene) through the
same atmospheric region so rhat sce ne com parisons between
the 11.',0 satel lites could be made.

Cl IW I tJ(

212

N( MA t jeo srmio nory Operat ional Environmental Satelhtc (( i( lI S 1- \1 . Imager M:I1S"r S)SIt'm characteristics.

Table 74.

GOES-B,9
10. 12
Band

Spectral
Resolution
(IJrn)

Spatial
Resolution
(krn)

" .52 - 0.72

1.1

Clouds. pollution. haze detection. and idcnnficauon o f severe SI('ITmS

'"
'"

Fog. derecnon. d i...:ri m inale'l llo:t\Oo Tl water. clouds. snow {'T ice cloeds d
daytime. dc tc....ls fin...,; a nd ..olcanoe e, Olt:httiml.' sc a-surface temperature 15"

* .() .~

3.71< -

".-1 7 - 7.02

10.2 -11.2

'"

11.5-12.5

'"

I'rc"aratur~

Band Utility

Estimation of mid - and upper-lev el water \Oipnr...k l\.'Ch advection. and lTxb
mid-level atmospheric motion

1d<.'1Ilifi ca lion cflow -level water vapor. SS T. ,.lIul dust and volcanic ash

EO-I spccificanun-, are summarized in Table 7-3. It contains

a linear array Ad\'31I<:cd Land Imager (A LI) with 10 bands
from 0.4 to 2.35 um at 30 x 30 m spatia l resolut io n. The
Hype rio n hypervpectral se nsor records da ta in 220 hands
from 0.4 lo ~'" um at 30 x 30 m spa tial resolut ion. The Linear Eralon Imag ing Spectrometer AITII}' (L EISA) Atmo spheric Corrector IS a 25t>-ba nd hyperspect ra l inst rument
sensitive 10 the region fro m 0.9 to 1.6 u r n at ~ 50 x ~ 50 m
spalial resolution. It is designed to correct to r wa ter-vapor
variations in the atmosphere. All three o f the EO - I land
imagi ng instruments view a ll or subscgmen ts of the Landsat
7 swath.

1\I'O[SS

Multispectral Remote Sensing Systems

l' r uject (.'1' 1')

NASA's ( Iodda rd Span' ~ I i gh l Ce nte r selected Bal l Aerospace III build a spacecraft fo r the 1\'I'O E55 Prcpurutory
Projec t (NI ' P). till' precu rsor to the Nl'OES5 mission. NPP is
de sign ed to funct ion as a bridg e be twee n the NASA EO S
pro gram and NPO L:SS lo r the develo pment ofthe follow ing
sens ors: Visiblc/lnfmrcd Imager Rad iom eter Sui te (V IIRS ).
Cr oss-trac k Infrared Sllundl'r, Advanced Technology Microwa ve Sounde r. /\T r-. 1S Photos (NOAA NPO ESS. ~006 ).

Radiometer was de ve loped for me teoro logical

Howe ver. gll,ool clnnatc c hange rese arch has focused
lion on the use of AV\lRR data to ma p vegctalion
surface characteristics.
G e(l\l a tionar~

t\O AA ope ra tes 1"0 se ries o f remote sensing satelli tes: the
Geos tationary
Operational
Environmen tal
Satellites
(G( l ES ) and the Polar-orbiting Ijperanonal Environme nta l
Satellites I PO ES ). Both arc cu rre ntly based on multispectra l
scanner tec hno logy. The U.S_ Nationa l w eerhcr Service uses
dat a from t ht.~e sen..o rs 10 forecast the weathe r. We oft en scc
GOE S image) of No n h and Sout h America weather patterns
on the dai ly nc.... s . The Adv anced Very High Reso lutio n

fo:n\ Irnnmental Sa

GOES is operated hy the ~ O:\ .-\ Nation al Environ

Satellite D,lla and In for mation Service (r-.: ES DISI. \
llIu!>1 recent gcncrutiou n f'gcos unionary satellites bcg.au
( iO ES-X, which w as laun ched in April. 1 l)~4 , GOF.S-Q
launched on I\lay 23,1 <.,1 95. GOES-IO W~t \\ as la
April ~5_ 1<)1)7. and became opera tio nal Ju ly 7,
GOES- 12 !':Ist W :IS launc hed Ju ly 23, 200 !. and
operanonat on April 1, 2003 I ~ OA A G O ES. 211(6 ).
The ( ;OES system c,)nsisls o f several o bscrving sU nsYSl
G O ES

1111 ,lg~' r I ]11"(>\ ides

multis pec tral image datal:

(; () ES So under Ipro vides hourly I'r-channel s' lulldingl

:I

Nationa l AtmospheriC and Ocean ic Administration

Multispectral Scanner Sensors

()pr ratillnal

l(;n!-:S )

d.ua-collccnou sys tem ([) CS ) lh:u relays data from

"11/1 s ites nt or nc.rr the Earth's surface tu othe r locatiors,

T he G( li eS spucccrn tt is a three-a xis (X..l:: ) stabilized d

ca pable of conunuously p, ' illli n ~ tho: optica l line of sitrll
the imaging and sound ing radiometers towa rd the E
(ID ES arc placed in ~etJs l;tli\m;lI! orbus app roxi
35. illl) kill 122.2 ~n ~tlltule miles) abov e the eq uator. The
d l il e~ remain at a sldlinnaT) point abov e the equator
rotate at the same sp......' d and dire-c.uon as Eart h. Th is e
the sensors to stare III a port ion of 111l' Eart h from the gees
chronous orbit and thus Illltre frequently obta in images
clouds. momtor the Earth's surface tem perature and \I

-,
, pectral lma ging Us ing Discrete Det ec to rs and Sca n ni ng Mirr or s

213

v,.

1>1.
M .dl"''' ,ii,",
Ikr"I.,ri=

r1p'e7-1B J ) Geogra phic CO \ Cr3 g c of GO ES East (7S ~ W ) and GOES WC!;\ ( 13 ~ ' W). til Radia nt Ilux from the terrain is rcfjectcd o lTa
~can ning mirror l not shlll" nl 01'110 the pn mary and "ec"ndary mirrors . A dichnuc bcamcpliucr se parates the \ rsible light from
the therma l mtrared energy, Su bseq uen t bo:a lllsplillCrs sepa rate the therm al ,"n.-rgy into spcdtk " "mh (aftcr Lura] Spaec Sys1,'01';. I(N O).

IJIlOf characteristics. a nd so und the Barth's urmosplrc rc for

ceric alrhcrrnal and

W;IIl." r

v:lf'o r struct ures.

f.S I ~ East is normally situated at 75 W jong uu de and

S-IO West is at 135" W long itude. The geographic CO \ of GOES I-:a"t and GOES West is summarized in Fig"ISa.. These se nsors view mos t of the Ea rth from
\ unatel)' 20" W 10 Hi5 E longi tude . Poleward cover!S betwee n approx ima tely 77 ~ ~ and S latitude. GO ES
WI and W~'St \ icw the cu ntiguu u, 41:01 sta tes, So uth Ame rica.
IIll major portions o ft he cent ral and ea stern Pacific Ocean
Dlthe central and wes tern Atlantic Ocean. Pacifi c cov erage
IljJ~'S the Hawaiian IslanJs and G ul f o f Al aska . the latter
eovn to weather forecasters as -uic birthplace of Nort h
IJncrkan weather sy stems " (~ ( M A GOES. 20()(j) .

GOES Imueer: The Imager is a five- cha nnel mu ltispec tral

, The oandwidths an d spat ial resolution an.. su mmamal inTable 7-4. By means of a two -axis gi mballed mirror
~junctinn w ith a J I.I-cm ( I :!.~in. ) d iameter te lescope ,
bnaj!t'r's rnulus pec tral ch annels can sim ulta neously
ttp an x-km (,-stat UII.' mill' J nort h-to-south swath along
etsHo-west wes t-to-ea st path, at a rate o f ~ (JQ (oplical)
~>eOOnd. The tele scope concen trates both the \ isible and
6mna1radiant flu x from the terr ain on to a 5.3-cll1 secondI) mirror I Figure 7-18b). Dic hroic bcarnspliners separate
IIrmcoming scene radian ce 11l1d focus it onto 22 detector s tl'!
lSihk and 14 therm al]. T he visible en ergy passes through
ic mitial hcams plincr and is focus ed onto X silicon visible

detector c lements. Each o f tlw R visible de tec to rs has an

IFO V of ap pm xrr n.ncly I x 1 km at rhc sate llite's s uborbital
poin t t ill the Ea rth.
Th erm a l infrared energy is routed 10 the speciali rc-d deteclOTS in the radiative cool e r. T he thermal in frared e nerg y b.
further se parated into the 3.9. 6.75-. 10.7-. an d 12j.1nl channels. Each o f the to ur in frared channels h.1" a se pa rate ~t'l or
dete ctors: tou r-elem en t ind ium-a nti mo nide (I nSb ) det ecto rs
for ban d "J. two-cleme nt mercury-cadmium-telluride
(Hg:Cd: Te) de tectors to r band .l; a nd four-eleme nt mercury cadmium-tcllurnj e (ilg :rd :Te l detecto rs fo r both band s 4
.md 5.
The (iOES chauucl s have In- bit radiometric prec ision. The
pr ima ry uuhty of'the visible band I ( I x I kill ) is in the daytim", mon itoring ofthunde rsrorm s, fro nta l syste ms. a nd tro pical cy d"ne~. Band 2 (4 x 4 krn ) respondsto both ernutcd
rcrrcsrrial radiation a nd ref lec ted so lar rad iation. It is use ful
for i dent i l~i ng fog and di scrim inating bet ween \\ atcr an d ice
d ouds. and betwe en sno w and clouds. and fo r i d~l1li rying
large or very imc nsc fires. It ca n be: u sed at night to track
low-level clo uds an d monit o r near-s urface wind c irculat ion.
Band J (ll x ~ " m ) respon ds to mid- and up per-le ve l wate r
vapor and douds. II is use fu l tor ide nt ifyin g the jet stream.
up per-le ve l wind tie tds . and thunde rsto rms. Energy recor ded
!:ly band 4 (4 x 4 kill ) is not absor bed III any significant
deg ree by atmospheric gases. It is ide alfor meas uring clou dtop lici ghts . ide nutying clou d.IOp features, assessing the

214

Multi spe ctra l Remote Sensing Systems

Mul

Gt'o..I "l i ollal~" O pera t io na l E n , Ironmcnta ! S ut e tl tte Ima g l'I'y

seventy o f some thunderstorms. and trackin g clouds and

frontal sys tems ut nigh t. Th erma l band 5 ( ~ x -I kill I is similar to ba nd -I exce pt thai this wavelength region ha.. ,I unique
sensitiVIty 10 low -le ve l .... utcr vapor GOES-l\ Ea-r visible.
the rmal infrared. and water vapo r images o f Hurricane Bonnit" on August 25, ]l)qX.arc shown in Figure 7 ]Qa-c.

I he lrnaaer scans the con tinental United States everv I

min; S<.:31;S most of the hemisphere from ncar the Korth'PoI!
ro approximately 20" S lat itude cvcrytn mi n; and scans
COllI): hemisphere {Inn' c\ cry J hr in " routine" schcdulllf
mode . Optionally. specia l imaging schedules an: availah
which allow data couccnon at more rapi d ti me intervals 0\5

....
215

WJlispectral lmagi ng Usi ng Discrete Detect ors an d Scanning Mirr ors

lide 75.

:'\OA.-\ Advunc..-d Very High Rcsclurion Radiom eter (AVHR R) sensor system characrcnsncs.

( ~ ml'

NOAA7,
9 . 11,12, 13, 14
Spec tral
Resolution
(.,m)

NOAA 15 to 18
AVHRRJ3
Spec tra l
Resolution
holm)'

O.5l!O- 0.68

O.5RO - 0.68

0.580 - 0.68

NOA A-6 , 8, 10
Spectral

Reso lu1ion

Daytime cloud. SIIOW, icc. 311d vegetation mapping; used tn com puto:"l1)VI

0 .725 - 1.10

0.725 - 1.10

0 .725 - l.l O

3.55 - ] .93

3.55 -3.93

J:f : 1.58 - 1.6-l

JB : 3.55 - 3.93

10.50 -11.50

10.30 - 11.30

10.30 - 11.30

'cone

11.50 - 12.50

11 .50 - 12.50

Im\ .1 nadir

1.I >( 1.1 kill

''''-Ilb .. idlh

2700 km at nad ir

TlKOS.-~ .... launched un l),;lobcf 13. PHil; '\0,,"-\-6 o n June 27. 1979: ""0..1."7 <HI Jun~ 23. 1911 1; ,\OI\AI\ .", Mar,b 211, lQllJ; "IOAA'l
(IIIlk'..-em1>et 12. 1'11<4; 'lOAA1U <In ~pt""''''''' 11, 1 '1~f>; M lAA- 11 00 So:pleml>er 24. 1'I1I1l; MlAA 12 <1<1 \ I"y 1-1. 1'N 1; !'OAA- lJ on
...u~ 9. 19<13; 1'O<l "':\-14 011 Do: ~~lll hcr i n 1<N4 ; ~OAA (K}-15 ..n ~ay I J. 1'N1l; NOA ... (tl- l f, o n Scl'h:ml>cr 21. 2UIXI; 'OA A C\t1- 17 ""
JUIIC 2-1. 20n2; "IOAA rx 1-1 11 " n "lay 20. 2005.

Wed geogra phic areas . During Rapi d Sca n Ope rations

RSO) and Super Rapid Sc an Ope ratio ns (S RSO ). images
lit collected over increas ingly reduced -area sec tors at i .5min intervals ( RSO) and at cnhcr I -min or Jn-sec intervals
SRSO\. A typic al image acquired at j u-sccon d intervals
rovers a rectangle o f about 10" o f lat itude and 15" o f longitude. The t- rnin SRS O collects 22 images per hour with 2
egments of I- min interva l ima ge s. a llow ing for regu larly
chedulcd 15-m in imcrvulopcrauonal sca ns.
GOES Suu nd er: The GO ES Sounder uses I v lsiblc and Ig
mfl'lll"ed sounding channels to recor d data in a north-to -south
swathacross an cast-to-west path . T he Sou nder and Imager
00th provide full Earth image ry. sec to r image ry. and area
\Cans of local regions . The 19 bands yield the prime so undIllg products of vcrtical atmosp heric te mperatu re proli les.
ratical moisture profi le... atm os phe ric layer mean te mpe ralUre. layer mea n mo isture. total precipitab le water, and the
~J'.ed iedcx (a measure of stability} T hese prod ucts are used
euemem data fro m the Imager to provide in forma tion on
1IIIIOSpheric temperatu re and moisture profiles. s urface and
cloud.top tempe ratures. and the d istribution of atmosphe ric
W\JIlt [Leral Space S) stems. I<No).

The Satellite Services Branc h of the National Climatic Data

Ce nte r. under the auspices o fN ES I>IS. has es tablished a d igital arc hive o f data collected from the NOAA Po lar-orb iting
Ope rationa l Enviromncntn l Satellites (rOE S) (Kidwell.
1t)t)X). This series of smcllhcs com me nced with T I I{ OS-N
(l aunched in October IlJ7!\) a nd cont inued with NOAA-A
(launched in Murch. 19SJ and renam ed NOAA -8). NOAA I!\ \\' ;1<; la unched May 20. 2005. The se Sun- sync hro nous
po lar-o rbiun g satellites carry the Advanced Very H igh Resol utio n Radi ometer (AVIIRR ) [Table i -5) . Sub stantial
progress has been mad e in using 1\VII RR data for land-cove r
ch arac tc rizaucn an d the map ping (If day time a nd n ightt ime
clouds. SI10W. icc, and su rface tempera ture. Unli ke the La ndsal TM and Landsa t 7 El M ' se-nso r system, wit h nadir
revis it cyc les (If 16 da ys. the /\VIIRR se nsors acqu ire
images o f the entire Earth two times each day (N OAA
AVH RR. 200 f) . This high frequency of cove rage enhances
the likel ihood that clou d- free observatio ns (an be obtained
for speci fic tempo ral w indows and ma kes it possible to monitor cha nge in land -cover co ndi tio ns over sho rt periods. such
as a grow ing season. Mor eo ver. the moderate resolu rion ( 1. 1
x 1. 1 km ) of the /\V I IRR d..ta ma kes it feasible 10 co llect,

-7

(nu' , ~:K

216

Multispectral Remote sensing systems

['I;()A.-\ 17 O verpa..l>t. .. on Octobe r 17. lUll]

=== =

==~~

Figu re 7-20 Dvc rpas......,. of the NOAA -17 ~Icl hll: on October 17. 20m. Tho: AVIIRR ih onboard r-.:OAA- 17 (co un esy or I'\OA:\ ).

store . and process continental or globa l data scrs. For these

reasons, NAS A and NOAA initiated the 1\V Il IH~ Pathfinder
Prog ra m to c reat e universally av aila ble glnha l lon g-term
remotely sensed da tase ts lhal ca n be UM:U [0 ..rudy globa l elima le ch ange.
T he AVIIRR sat cllucs orbit at approx imately 83 3 kill above
Earth at an inc lination ofQI(9" and cont inuously record data
in a s w arh 2700 km wide at 1. 1 x 1.1 km spatial reso lution at
nadir. Normally, t.... ol\OAA-s.:riL"'S satellites arc o perationa l
al one lime (one odd . one cvenj. The odd -numbered satclluc
typ ica lly crOSSL'~ the eq uat or at approximately 2:30 p.m. and
2:30 a.m.. and the c\ en-numbered satell ite crosses the eq uator at 7:3(l p.m . and 7:311 a.m. loca l time . Each satellite orbits
Earth 14.1 urncs daily t every 102 mi n) and acquires complctc globa l coverage every 24 hr. O rb ital track s of the
NO AA -17 satel lite on Oc to ber 17. 2003 . nrc shown in Figure 7-20 . Beca use the numbc r uf orbi ts per da y is not an ime gcr, the sub orbital tracks do not repeat o n a d uily basis,
alt hough the loca l solar time of the satellite's passage is
esscnuully unchanged fo r any latitude. Ho w e ver. the sare llite's orb ital drift over time ca uses a sysrc matic change o f
illum ination condition s and local rime o f obscrvanon, w hich
ilio a source of r'K.nunifunnity when analYllOg mulndate
A\'lIRR data.

The AVIiRR is a c ross-t rac k sca nnin g sys tem . T he scan ning
rate o f the AVII R R is 3f>O scans pe r minute. ,\ tota l of2.(H8
sam ples (p ixds ) arc ohtamed per channel PL'r Earth scan,
w hich span~ an an gle o f 5 5.-.1 ~ off- nadir , Tho.' IFe)\ ' ll f each
hand is npproxinuncly 1.-.1 nulliradians leading to a rcsolu-

tio n at the satellite subpoint o f 1.1 x 1.1 kill (Fil! ur~ 7-21
The more recent "V I IRR sys tems have li ve channels IT
75 ; Figure 7-2 1b l.

Fu ll reso lution AVIIRR d.ua obtained at 1, 1 x 1.1 kID

ca lled Im 'a l IIIl 'iI ('oV/'rage ( L4C) data . It may be resam I
tu4 x 4 km glo f,a/ /.)/"I:iI Cf)l't.'ro~t' I GAO dat a . The 0:\(
contai ns on ly one o ut of' thrcc origin al AVIIRR lines a~
data volume and resolution are further reduced hy s
.... ith the thi rd sample a lullg the scan line . a\crdging the
four samples. and skip ping the ne:\.t sa mple. The sequence
a verage four. skip one is conum..-d to the end of the:
line. Some studies use GAC dat a .... hile orhcrs lise the
reso lution LAC da ta.
The AV)IR R pro vides region al info nu utimr on vcgClaOO:

condition and sea-surface tem peratu re, For example. a JXf'

rion of an AVHRR image of the So ut h Ca rolina Cl\ll:
o btained on ~l ay 13, 1993, at 3:(JO p.m. is ..ho ..... n in Figtrr
7-22 . Band 1 is approximately equivalent til Landsat nI
band 3 , Vegetated land ap pea rs in dark ton es due to chlctph) 11 absorption o f red light . Band 2 i s appruximatc ly eq.r..
aleu to TM band 4 . Vegetation reflects much o f the
infrared rad iant I1U\. yid d lng bright tones. .....hile ....
absorbs much of the mcidc nt energy , The land -water I
fa ce is usually quite dis tinct . The three therma l band s
vide informatio n about Earth 's surfa ce and Vi
temperatu re. Th o.' gray sca le is inverted for the therm al infrJ.
red data wit h cold , high clouds in blac k and warm land mI
water in lightt"r lunc s, '1his particular ima ge captu red a large
lobe ofwarm G ul f Stream wa ter.

"

217

llltispectral imaging Using Discrete Detectors and Scanning Mirrors

~ol3r

s;'lcll, IC ' ...

\oo;al Lc'flil h

'(II

I'r,lar

J'l'fluh

.,n~k

Z,,"h
line:

Orhilr r

Il...d

"'\lUII(
B~nd I

~un

angle

211

S,IL'lIilC /

);:II1l11~k

,( 10

~ <;()

1OO

~ ..)

71 ~1

15U

~IIO '1m 10m

\\ 3,c kntlh, ~m

soo

' no

..... a'drnlllh.llm

S~lCll tlC

iioo

\:Ullr<lInl
, nadir)

,.
a,

'"c

"

1~

J.4

lI. nd

H
, JH
WJ.dcnl;1I1, f.lm

l'l

'I ~

10

Itl~

II

12

"" ,, ..dength, lIm

A HIIU{!4
Ban dwidth s

11

b.

1I~

u.s

ll'~

I~

.... a,,,k n~11I. I'm

l ~~

1:'-'

FiJure 7-21 a) ReiatiolL\hi rs amon g the Earth, Sun. and tile MMA Polin Ornner 111c eatellue ;(U" !""lnl hes at nadrr. III Tilt- '() ,~A I -l
AVHRK oomlwidths for bands I th>Ugh 5,

AVHRR data arc also routinely used to inventory sea s urface

nmpc r.uurc (SS T). elliot" Plate 7-3 is a sea-surfacetemperalilre map de rived fro m )\'O t\t\ -16 AV HRR imagery o bta ined
mDell'''': r Io. ~ 003 i (Iasparovic. 200 .H.

Scientisls often com pute a normalized d iffere nce \ egetat ion

ilde.\ (r\ D\' 11 from the AV HRR data us ing the visible
IA\'HRRtl and ncar- infrared (AVIIRR ~) bands to ma p the
cmJition of'vegetarie n o n a regiona l and nationallevel. II is
.\impk transformat ion ba-ed lin the follow mg ratio:

P",, -

p ,~ J

P"" + P,,'01

..

AI'IIRR ~-AIHRRI

(7-1 )

An /H.R~ + AI'HRRI

The ~ l)VI equation produc es values in the rang e nf - I .O to

1.0. where incr casing po ..iuv c valu cs ind icate increasi ng

green vcgetution. and nega tive valu es indicate nonc cgctatcd

surfaces such as wain. harre ll land , ice. and snow or d ouds.
To nhl Hin the mos t precision . the NDV I is der ived from (<11ibrarcd. atmosphe rically co rrect ed AVI IRR channel I and 2
data in l(, -t'lil precisi on , prior 10 geo metr ic regi-arauon and
!'ampllng. The final :-.I DVI result!' from - I to I are normally
scaled fWIIl 0 to ~()O. Vegetation ind ice s are d iscussed in
deta il in Chap ter 10 .
NDVI data obtained from multiple date s c f AVII RR data can
be cnmpositcd to prov ide summary seasonal info rmation.
The II-day ;-.lOV I corn posuc is prod uced by examining each
NOVI value pixel by pixel fur eac h observation J uring the
co mpositiug perio d to dc-tcrrnine the max imum value. The
retention of tho: highest NDVI value reduces the numbe r of
clou d-coruuminu tcd pixels.

21.

C1I.-\ P l t:R

Tabl e 7-6.

<

Muhispectral Remote sens ing Syst ems

Ch aracren sucs o f Inc Sea- viewing Wide Fjcld-of-vrew Sensor ISca\""iFS j.

Band Center
(nm)

Bandwidth

412

0102 - 422

ldentify yellow substances

4JJ - 453

Chlorophyll concentration

4'"

4!lO-SOO

Increased sensitivity to ch lorop hy ll concentranon

' 10

500 - 520

5.55

545 - ;65

Gcfbstoffe [y ctlo w substance ]

c,

(,70

M O- 6S0

Chloro phyll conce ntra tion

'"

745 _ 785

Surfac...vcgctarion, land-water interface. a tmospheric correction

1<65

!loi S - !:ISS

Su rface vegeta tion, land -water inter face, atmospheric correction

(n m)

The :\ DVI and other vegetatio n inde xes (re fer to Chapter
10) haw bee n used ex te nsiv ely .... ith AVHKR data to mo nitor nat ural \cgclalion and c rop condit ion. iden tify dc for esra lion in thc tropics, and monitor areas undergoing
deseni ficauon and drough t. Fo r e xample. the U.S. Gcological Surv ey d....velopcd the Global Lan d Co ....cr C haractcnzalion data set based primari ly on the unsuperv ised
classifl canon of l -km AVIl RR Hl-day NDVI composites.
The AVIIRR so urce imagery dales fro m Ap ril 1992 through
March 19'11 Ancill ary da ta so urces include dig ital ele vation
data, ccorcgions interpretation , a nd country- or regiona lleve l vcgeta uon and land-cowl" maps (USG S G lobal LandcO\ l.'r.2(06).
S O A A G lobal Vegelalion Index products based on AVIIRR
data art' summarized in NOAA (iVI (2 006 ): l st-generauo n
( May 1982 - April. 19S5); 2nd-ge nl.'ration (Apri l 191\5pre sent). and J rd- gcecr.nion new product s (A pr il 1985present l. A colo r-com posite AVHRR image of the conterm inous Uni ted Stute s is shown in Color Plate 7-4a. T he average
Normalized Dufcrc ncc Vegetation lndc x (NOV I) for much
of Ca nada a nd the United States in August derived from
AVIIRR, data from 1981 th rou gh 2000 is displa yed in Co lor
Plate 7....b.

ORB/MAGE. tnc., and NASA Sea-viewing Wide Fie/dofview Sensor

Oce ans cove r mo re than two-th irds of the Earth 's surface
and play an important role in till.' global climate sys tem. The
Sea WiFS is a n adv anced sca nning system de signed speciflca lly for oce an mon itori ng. The ScaSfar sarclluc (O rbview-

2 ). developed by ORB IMAG E. Inc. in co njunction \I

~:\SA. carried the Sea wij- S into orbit usi ng a Pe
rod ..et o n A u~ust I. 1')q7 C":ASA,Orbimage Seawi
::(06 ). Th e PC!~J SU S rocket was fl own a lo ft by a Lockheed
l Ol l and relea sed at an ahitud e o f abou t 3Q,OOO n, . .
upo n the rocket was ignited and the spacecraf t was lifted i
o rbit. The final or bit was 705 km above the Earth. T he eq
tonal crossing time is 12 p.m.
SeaWiFS builds on " hal wa s learned about ocean remce
se nsing using the Nimbu s-7 satellite Coasta t Zone Cob:
Scanne r (CZeSt launc hed in 1978. CZC S ceased ope:ratiol
in 11)116. The Sea\\IFS instrument consists of an Opld
sca nne r WIth a 511.3" toral fleld of view. Inco ming scene- rIliation is collected by a tele sco pe an d reflected onto the ro1Jll.
ing half-angle mirror. Th e radi ation is then relayed l(I
dichroic beam spliners that sepa rate the radiation into ciglf
wavelengt h Intervals (Table 7-6 ). Sea WiFS has a spatial res,
olurion o f 1. 13 x 1.13 km (at nadir) over a swath o f2800 km,
It has a revisit time of I day.
SeaWiFS records energy in e ight spec tra l ba nds w ith v
narro.... wavele ngth ranges (Ta ble 76) tailored I'm the
lion and monitori ng o f very specific ocean phenometll
including oce-an prima ry p roduct ion and phytoplankton "'"
ces ses. ocean influence!' on cli mate proces ses {heat st
and aerosol form alio n). a nd the cycles of carbon, sul fur. aM
nitrogen . In particular. ScaW iFS has spec ially desig.nol
hand s centered at 4 12 nm (10 identify yellow substancs
thro ugh thei r blue wavele ngth absorpt ion). at 4 l) () nm {senurive to chloro phy ll concentration). and in the 765 and 865
nm near-infrared (to assist in the remo val of armosphen
att enuation).

219

lJtispectrallmagin g Using Discrete Detectors and Scan ning Mirrors

h AVl!R R hand 2,

~ ~;'; ~a';"4~
-.,

. ..

'~-

-~

...- - -

"

,
,I ....VllRR

:\0\ .\ -11

hand~

J\\' II H I~ IlIl a~{" 1')

or th c Sou th Ca roli na COil..t

O hfili ned o n ;\I a~ D . 191H

.... \\,IHUt mind ~

Fqure 722

Por non o f a 1';OAA 11 " VII !t1t illlag<: \,1' the So uth Carolina ..'.... "1ubl.,in"d "n ~ b ) I J. 1'iIH. <II 3:(1(1 p.m. ( re fer to Table 7-5
for hand spccificanons] . \ '':~''lalion al' l":afl> dar k in "and I dUt"1O dll(lr"ph)'ll ah"orr'i,>11 nf'rcd ligh l. V<:gdalioll llppears brigh t
in hand :! b<."C JUSC it n:ll,"b much of the incident ncar-infrared r.d iem nu,,_ WaIn absorbs much .. flhe incid ent en...rg)': the refore, the land -ware r imertacc is usua ll} di!<lInCI. Three therm al band-, 1.'1. .. . lind 5, pro\ id.. surfa ce-tem perature information.
1 11<' grayscale is mvcncd '" nh cold. high clouds in 1:>1:1(1.. and warm IJm.! J IlU'" arcr ill ligh....r I"UO:S . A large lob.: u f " arm Gulf
Stream water is easil} identified ( I m'lg,~ COI.mC~} of l'\(l,\A I

SeaWi FS observations help scrcnusrs understand the

~namics of ocean and coasta l currents. the physics of mixmg. and the relauonships between ocean p h) ~i t:li and largescale patterns o f producti v ity, Tho: data fill tho: gaps in ocean

biolog.il'a l observations betwee n 100<;e of the test- bed CZCS

and :'-U)I) IS. Sl'a WiFS also provides la ser water renetrali on
depth il11 a~t:1) for naval operation s.

-7

OI-\t"n;R

220

Multispectral Remo te sensing Syslemt

T'

Airborn e
:\1utt tspectra l
Sca n ner

V is ih l<: an d

near-infrared
detectors. u m

0
.1" ."0
41 12

.45

611

t.I'~
-~ I M

--......1M

0""<,

[ lc("lro nic,

"II" ,,' i~
... ... -'
- I

..1,52

<to

fiQ () -, " "'"

:

7~ ()

"'1''
' -'' 0'-::::::...
" 1.91- I.QS[)------::

10

Scanuinu

c:=;(iJ" 0-

s~ 'h' rn

RaJ i'LI1! fluv from I

the Ea rth's sur face

MultiS

Dichroic

grating

~ 9 ) O " ' P /'

",qU_12.5p
T hermal
detector'S

.~
". -

- - '- 'r

Moni tor. power.

d igitil cr. and
data rec ord er

'I u IIi, pl'ct r a l !>(,11 nnerd a hl coll('cli n ll

a lu ng a flig hl lh u:

Figu re 723

Cha ract,'nslics ofthe [) acd" lus airborne ll111hisP\'ctrJ I scanner (A \,IS ) and a,,,,.;i.llco.l electronics lhJI arc earn ...... onboerd
aircraft duri n~ J.,la ccllc... uon. ('he diallWl~ o f the errcu lar gmun<! area viewed by the .'n'l< .....
is a function of the in,
llC'<'U S field Of\jcv.. /l uf Inc cl!onlJ<:T and th.. altitude a bove ground lev cI or thc aircraft. If. at the lime or da ta collecece,
dianl Ilux from l.anh's surface is passed from the opucal system onto a dichroic grate, which s~'I1<1 the \ ariou~ WaH.'
(If lil,:hl 10 detec tor s that arc ~"'lllljnlJ'lU~l) monitored b) lilt: sensor system electronics.

n.

pi,
u

Aircraft Multispectral Scanners

Orbna! sensors such as the Landsat MSS. T\1 . and 1:.,.\1 collect da ta (In a repet itive cycle and al ~ct spatia l and spectral reso lutio ns. Otten it is n,'cess.af) to acquire remotely
sens ed data at t im..,s that tit' not coincide with the sc hed uled
satellite ove rpass es and m perhaps different spatial a nd spectra l resohnions. Rapid coll ect ion and ana lysis (If high -rcsoluuon re motely sense d data may be req uired for speci fic
studies and loc atio n.... \\'hen suc h cond itions occur or whe n
a sensor co nfiguration different fro m the Landsat or S POT
sensors is needed. age ncies and companies etten usc a multis pccrra l sc anne r placed onboard In aircraft to acquir e
remotel y sense d data. The re arc vcvcm! com me rcial and

puhlicl y available MSS thai ca n hi.' flown onboa rd airc

incl ud ing the Daedalu s Airborne Multispec tra l
(A \ ISI and the :'>j:\S A A irbo rne Terre stria l Applica
Sensor ( ATLAS) .
D ll ''1:I:. lu ~

US-12 6ft. US-12 M. and A irborn e 1\ I UIt i\IIl"CUi

Sca n ne r

Nume rous r<..-morc se nsin g labo ratories and ~llvemlllOll

agencies in ma ny countries purchased Daedal us DS-L
OS-1101'. o r the A irbo rne Multispectral Scanner over
last 40 years t e.g.. Se nS) Tech . 10(4 ), Th ese expe nsive 1(1.
sor syst e ms hav e pro vided much of the use ful high spati1l
and spectra l resohnicn multis pectral sc anner data (including
thermal Infrar ed) Cur munitoring the environment. For eum-

lh'IJSpectral lm aging Using Discr ete Detect ors and Scannin g Mi rrors

~7-7.

Sl'~t.... m charactcrrsncs ofl~

221

I.....cdalusAlrWmc 1\I11Itispc"Ctl'al Scanner (A \ IS) and :"ASA ..\ irbome Terrestrial "rrlkarioos

Sc nsor ( ATLA S I

Air borne Multispectral Scanner (AMS)

Band

,,,
,
6

,
s

10

NASA Airborne Terrestri al Appli cations

Sens or (ATLAS)

Spectral
Resolution

Spatial
Resolution

(IJm)

1m)

U.42 - 0.45
0.-1 5 _ 052
U. 52 - 0.60

dependmg

upon ahitudc

(l.W _ 0,63

abo ve grou nd

0.63 - fl. 6'1

O.MI - 0.75
0.76 -0.'10
o.ql 1.05
3.00 - 5.5lJ
K.50 12.5

k\t:I

Spectral
Reso lu tion
Band

( ~lm)

Spat ial
Res olution
[m ]

2
3

0.l5 - 05 2
0.52 - 0.60
0.60 0.63

2,5 In 25 In
depending
upon altitu d e

0.63 - 0,(,9

above ground

Variahle,

7
8
9
10

U, 76
(1.90
1.75

2.35

14

15

11.2(1 - 12.20

12
13

IHJ\

2.5 m hu.I

2.0 rurud

Qu~nriulio n

1I - 12bilS

S bus

In o:l

Remov....d

K,211 - 11.60
lUl(l- 9.00
", IKi - 'J.40
9.60 - 10.20
10.20 - 11 .20

II

\ arieblc

\ ltitudf'
'utlt "idlb

0.6'1 0.76 1.55 2.0)(-

1I00 pixels

7 14 pil...... ls

pk thi: A\ 1S has detectors that span Ihc r\'gillil fro m the

i/m\ lolctlh w lIgh nenr-m trure d {OA2 - 1.05 u mt, a hot-tar ~ thermal infra red detector ( 3.0 - 5.5 11m I, and a sta ndard
I!u:nnal infrared detector (K.S 12.5 1-!01 I. Table 7-7 summaroes the characteristics o f the :\ \:IS sensor system .

The hasic principles o f ope ration and components o fthe i\ ir~e Multispectra l Scanner (:\\1S ) are show n in Fig ure 713. Rad iant [lux reflected o r emitted from the terrain is colb.1cd by the scanning opucnlsystcm and projected onto a
mit grating. The grating se pa rates the reflec ted radi ant
v from the cmiued radian t nux. Enefl:!Y in the reflective
,., ot thc spectrum is di rected from the grating to a pr ism
lor refraction gra ting I that further separate-s the energy into
IpCClfli: bands. AI the 'am.... time. thl.' cm ured thermal incidtnt energy is se parated fro m the re flective incident energy.
Tk electromagnetic energy is then focused on to a ban k Ill'
secrete detectors s itua ted behind the grat ing andthe prism.
Ihe detectors that record the cmiucd ener gy arc usually
((llll ~d h) a dewar of liquid nitrogen or some other vuh-

stance. T h.. sih'lU ls recorded h~ thc detecto rs art;' ampl i fied

h)' the system e lectronics and recorded ,
The tl ig h t altitudes tor a jrcrutt \1 SS surv eys IIr.: determined
hy cvnluaung the ~ i/e of the desired ground-revolution clemctu (p ixel) lind the size of the study area . The diamete r o f
the cir cular ground area viewed hy 11K' sensor, D, is a fun clion of the ms tanraneoos field of vie w, fl. o f the scanner and
the a huude above grou nd lev el. II, \\ here
f)

j3x ll.

For ex ample. if the IFO V of the sc an ne r is 2.5 mrad, the

ground si/A;' or the pix e l in me ters is a product of the IFO V
({I.!M12S) and the altit ude AGl in meters . Table 7S prese nts
night altitudes and correspo ndin g pixel sizes at nad ir fur an

lI{) V on .5 mmd.
The fn ll<lw ing facto rs sho uld be cons idered w hen collecting
aircmtt M SS data:

222

C1 1 ,\I ~I"E R

Table 7-8.

Airela!) multispec tral sca nner Ilrght altitude

,\ ( II. IIn,1 pl x~l silt" assu ming: an IH)\, of 1.5

nnllirudians ( 01 T;lo.I).
Flighl A lt itude AGL (m )

P ixel S ize (m )

1.000

2.5

2 ,OllU

SO

tOO(J

10.0

16.000

-10.0

50,000

125.0

The IFO " o frhe \ISS optica l sys te m and the altuude AG L
dictate the .... idth o f a ~ ing le flight line o f coverage. AI
lower a ltitudes. the hi gh spati al rc-solu uon may he
O U!\\ eighed by the fact that more l1ight line s are requi red
10 cover the area compared to more efficicm coverage a l
highe r a hnudc-s with larger pixels. The pixel size and the
geog raphic e xtern o f the area 10 he surv ey ed are
considcrcd. objccti vc~ an: .... eig hcd, and a com promise is
reached.
h en single Iligh rlincs of air craft "'SS da ta a TC d iffic ult 10
rectify 10 a standard map series because of aircrall roll,
p uc h. and yaw durin g da ta collection . Not che s in the edge
o f a Ilightluic of data ind icate a ircraft roll. Such d ata
requ ire signifi can t human and machine resource s to make
the (I;lla planimetrically accurate. Severa l agen cies place
GPS unit s Oil the aircraft tu obtain precise Il ightline
coordin ates. which arc usdul when rectifying the aircr aft
MSS data .
Daedalus multi spe ctral sca nning sys tems have been modi fied un many occas ions to s imulate satellite remote sensor
da ta collec tion. For example. the NASA Ames Airborne
Sensor Facility at M,)lre ll Fie ld, CA . Cnntlmll's to ope rate
the follow ing systems: Thematic Mapper Simulator,
~I OD I S Ai rborne Simu lator. Airborne Ocean Color S imulato r. and the Multispectra l Atmospheric Mapping Sensor
(N ASA Airborne. ::!onn ).
A Daed alus nS- 12tlO ncar- infrare d hand 10 ima ge o f the
Four Mile Creek del la on the West ing holJse Sav annah River
S ite in So uth Ca roli na is shown in Co lor Plate 7-5 a. A col or
composite o f hand s In, I'>. and -I [ncar-in frared , red. and
gre en ) is show n in Color Plate 7-5 1'1 . :\ear-infrarrtl band 10
ima gery o f the :>ame reg ion co llected o n April :!3. 199 :!. is
show n in Color Plale 7-5e . Co lt)r-Plal e 7-5d is a color co mpos ite of I>and~ 10, tl . a nd -I. T he nna l dU uent wa.s nm

Multi spe ct ral Remote Sensing Systel'l'!

Multi s ~

allow ed ro enter Four Mill.' Creek ette r I9X5. Examina

the image/) reveals that revege tation has taken pb.l
many o f the wet land sloughs.

:"IAS.\ Airlmrll c -li: r r\'\ l ria l A p p l icli l iu n~

St' n~ur

:-':A SA'~ ATLA S multispectral scanner is operated ~

Ste nnis Space Ce nter. ~1S . ATLAS has 1-1 channels '/I
spectral range from 0..1 5 10 12.2 urn . Th ere are six vi
and ncar-infra red bands, two short-wavelength in
band s (ident ical to Thema tic Mapper bands 5 and 7) mi
therm al infrared b ands . Th e ba ndw idths arc summ arizer
Table 7- 7. The se nsor ha s a total fiejd of vie..... o f n~ ui
IFQ \' o f :!.O m rad. ATLA S is flown on a Learjet 23
from {,ooo to -11 .1100 11. abovc g round level, yielding
wit h a ground resoluuon ofappro ximatdy :!.5 x 2.5 mte
x 25 m, depend ing upon use r spcc jflcatio ns. There art
rna lly !<()(j pixels pe r line plu s thr ee' calibration source pi:
The dat a are quant ized 10 x-bns.

C ahbrario n o f the therm al data is performed using rwc

na t blackbodies. Visible and ncar-infrared ca1i"ratioP.
accomplished on the g round betwee n m ission s using an'
grating sphere. Onhoard (iPS documen ts the loea!iOll
space o f eac h lmc IIf dina coll ected .

The Al L \S se nsor is ideal lor co llec ti ng high spatial rcsdIi

rion data in till' vis ib le. ncar-infrared. m idd le-infrared,
therma l infrared reg ion s su important for man y comm
remote sl.' ns ing app lications. The L.earjcl is an idea l suMbual pial for m bec ause o f its stnhiluy in llight and its abi
tn travcl to the study area quickly. It is particularly useful
obt aining dat a imrncdiurely ancr a d isaster such as Him
cuncs Hugo and Andrew. An exa mple of2 .5 x 2.5 mAlL-\!
hand 6 tncar-mfrarcd] d.l1a obtnincd in 11)1)1' for an area ad.
ce nt In Sullivans Is land . SC. is shown in Figure 7-24_

P'I""~Multl spectrallmaging Using Lin ear Arrar.

Linear arr ay sen~or system .. usc diodes or charge-couples

devices to record the reflected or emitted radia nce Ii-Offill:
terrain. Linear arruy sensors are o ft en cal led pnshhroom sa;.
snn; because. like a sing le line (If bristles in a broom , the btca r array sta res cons ta ntly at the ground while the ac:rtII
p latfo rm moves fo rwa rd (sec Figure 7-3 c) . The result ill
mo re ccurm c mea surement o f the re llt-cted rad iant fiIlI
becau se 1) tl1l.' re is no mO\ i n~ m irror. an d 2 ) the linear am)
dCk'Cturs lire able to dwd llonger on a speci fic port ion oflil
terra in. resu hi ng in a more aec ur<l te mea surement.

,,
"

223

'spectral Imaging Us ing Li near Arrays

of

Airhor n!." Terres trtat '\ IJp lil'3 lions Sensor (.' lI ..' S )

1 1l1 11 ~l'

Iff

S u llhll",~

. ..la nd, SC

a
x

7-24

-";<:,ar-infrnn:.r band n (0.7f, O.'jo(}llnl) ,\'",,->me Terrestria l .\pph<"mi" o< Sensor tATl ,\ " ) ima ge of " ron lon of tile smooth
oJ/k rml1"",l lTI<l rsh beh ind Sulh\aru. b land. " l . t he 2.5 >< 2.5 m data were ob tained OIl Octobe r IS. I99 S.

cllrd~'fa~s tSp<ln u l/l

C h ro no lo~kal
I ~ lib

La unch II i" w Q uf t he SPOT xa teln res

19lH I9SR 1911q 199tJ 19'1] 1')<)2 I<)IJJ 1'I'N 11')'/5 ''1')(> 1'N1 ]WX I'M) '::000 '::001 1002 21M,I]

I.~ lll , ch

Ib IC\

SI'OT 1 - FdJIU'lfy 2 1. 1'l~6

sror 1- January 22. 1'190
SI'O T 3 - S<'P1o:rnbcr 25. 1 ~13

S I'I,lT 4 Mmch 24, 1'1') M

SJ'tlT 5 .

~Ia'

3. 2002

Rgure 7 -2 5

I'h ronol ..gicallau nch h ish'T)-o f the ,, ('OT ",~ lcl ll ll'" ISPOT . 211(6)

SPOT Sensor Systems

The first SPOT sa lellito: was laun ched 01\ r ebru ary ~ I. 1lJR6
Figure 7-25). It "as developed by the f rench Centre
\al iona1 dT.ludes Spalia le-s (e Nt S, III cooperation .... ith
Iklgium and Sweden. It had a spatial reso lution of 10 x 10

m (pan.:hrtlmalic mode ) and ~O X20 m [muhi spcc tral mode )

and f'mvid~'tl S<."\ era! othe r mnovanons in remote sensor systent desig n {Table 7-9). S I>()T satellites 2 and 3 with identica l pJ~ loads .... ere launched on January 22. 1990. and
September 25 . ILN_~ . respectively. SPOT ~ was launched on
:\la n:h ~ ~ . 1991( with a I lX e!<ltioll senso r CI x I km} and a
short-wa ve length infra red band. S POT 5 was. la unched on

(In l'[

224

Table 7-9

SI'( I I's I. :!. ml,l 3 H i~h Resoluuon Visihle \ H RV). S pt H s 4

4 and 5 1 ;:~<I.l/ i"'l sensor ~:VSIClll charac teristics.

;m,I.~

Mullispeciral Remote Sensing Systems

S_

SPOT 4 and 5 Vegetation

Spec tral

Spatial

Spect ral

S pa lial

Re solution

Resolu llon
(m) a l Nadir

Resolu t ion
Wm )

Reso lu tloo
1m) at Nad ir

Ban d

(" m)

Aesoll./tiQ;.
{k m} a1 ~

0.50 -0.5'1

Itl xlU

fl.-! J - 0.47

1.1 5 x 1."

Band

(f.l lll)
o. ~n

- n.s'}

~O

"' ::!()

"""'
I

Multl s

111(!h IIc",h lli",1 \ 'i_~ lhk nnd In fra red (I [RV1 R j. and .

SPOT 5 HRVIR

SPOTs 1, 2, 3 HRV and 4 HRVlR

~7

U~

S lJOCtra l
Resolulion

1I.l,1 - O.6ll

2(1 x 211

(l .b l - I),OS

lU x III

lI,n l - ttf>X

1.15 x I

0.79

O,l\<)

211 J( 20

0 .7<)

ng v

lO x 10

0.78 - 0.89

1.15xl.1

Pan
Pan H I

05 1 -0.13
0.6 1 - O.6K

IO)(](I

Pan

1l.4!'\-O.7 1

25)( 2.5

10)(10

SW IIl\U

l.5 11 - 1.75

20 )( 20

SW IR

I .5S - 1.75

20)( 20

SW IR

J.5K 1.75

1.1 5 x I.!;

I incar array pu"hhronm

~' n ", r

Lm ear alTa~ flUshhroom

Linear arra~ J'U shhrot>m

S.. ath

btl km !. 50.5 0

bO km !:- '!.T'

Ral t

2~

Mh s

50 M bl s

SO ;"lh s

Re\ hil

~ (,

days

20 days

I day

Orb il

S12 kill. SlIlI-sYlleh,llnnl.lS

Inchnano n <l,( 7"
Equaronal ~'rv Ul~ IU:.\U a.m.

812 km. Sun-s ynchrououe

Inclma lltlll = <>X7-

X2:! k rn, Sun-sy nchr onous

[o.ju.lIonal n(Ossi n ~ HUU .I.I1I.

r n~' l m11t i(ln =' <lX. 7

1.'lUOItori.l1.:r<.l:>si nf I (l ;3() a.m.

May J. 201l::!, wi th visible, ncar-in frared , and sho rtw ave

infra red (SW IR) IJJluJs ,II 10 x I(J III and a pauchromanc
hand at 2.:; x 2.5 m.

ch rouons. nca r-polar orh ll {mclmat um of 91:\.7) at an altitude o f 1\22 k ill. The ~a t ellite, p ,l SS o verhead ar the ;a
solar tim e : the lI'o.:al d od, rime var ies \\ uh lat itude .

Since 19156. S PUT Larth ub scrvarion sarcllncs have been a

consistent. dep,.-ndabic so urce of high-resolution Earth
resource in form ation . While mall)' count ries hav e seen the ir
Ea rth resource Il11Hlih.lI'in1,l scnsnr sys tems come an d go
depending primarily upon pol iti,s. one co uld alw ay s count
on SPOT Image. 1I11'., to provide quality imagery. Unfortuoatcly, the imagery h il S always been relatively expensive.
us ually mo re than 52.nOll pe r panchromatic 0 1" multispe ctral
scene. a llhou gh it has hcen reduced 1I1 recen t years. The cost
can ex ceed $U)(}{) if both panchromun c and multispectra l
imagery o f the study are a arc required,

The 11RV scnsors operate ill !" O modes in the visible 8l1li
rc flccrivc-infr urcd portions of the spectr um. The first 15 1
f/ (/Iwl!l"lJl/l olic mode corr esponding 10 ob servat ion over
broad spc.'tral buml ( similar to a typ ical black-and-wee
phllh1graph). The second is n mlilri.l'l'l'Cfm l (co lo r) mod" correspo nd ing tn nbscrvutjnu in three relatively narrow spectnl
balld, ( fahlc 79 ), Thus.uhc spectral reso lution of SPOTI I
throug h 3 i ~ nor us good as that of the Landsat Thematic
:'vlHPI'c r. The g round s patia l resolutio n, however, is (0 )( I
III lor the panchromatic band and 10 x 20 111 lo r the three
muuispcctru! n;1I1Js WIIl'1l the instrumcnts urc vi cwing.
nadir. dir ectly below rhe s.ltc! IJ te .

sror, I , 2. anti J
These satell ites a re all idc nuc ul a nd en llsi"l llf I WO pa ns: I I
the SPOT nus. which i~ a sta nda rd m ultipurpo se platform,
and 2) the se nsor system inctrum cms I Figure 7-20.1.1'1) consist ing of two Identica l h.gh-rcsolcnon visible ( HRV) senso rs an d a pack age cornp risiug two data rcx orders and a
te le metry trans mitte r. Ihc s.ltellilcs npcratc in a Sun-syn -

Re flected ~'ne l"gy [rom thc terrain enters the H RV via a plane
mirror and is then projected on to 1\\ 0 ("C D arrays. EaQ
("CD a rray collsi 'st's o f 6.()(}1) det ectors arrange d linearly..\(
electron mic roscope view of some of the individ ua l deetors in the linear array is shown in Figu re 7-27a.b. This Ii;.

ear .Irray 1'1l.,hllI1.H!1I/ sensor images a co mplete line ofw

grou nd sc e ne in the cross- trac k d ircct ion in one look as the

225

iSpectrallmaging Using LIne ar Arrays

SPOT Satd lih' a nd Sc nsur S)'ll' m..

('ah llmtion
unit ,

ukv I

.sror

1-3)

or il kYI R 1ISI'OT " aoo 51

11RV 2
tSPOl Ih-.....
Of 11RVIR 2
ISl'O T ".tOO 51

,cwc....l ll>n ;,cru.ur

tS I'OT " and 51

HRV or
IIRVIR.........

Cahbr.ll ioo
unl1,

~fl""'"

SPOT
!'CO.....

mnror
_

utnv oe
IlRVIR j

:\ lld ir
\ 'il;"\\in:.:

,i
Ollll<1l1e view

Ob1i'luC' lew
h

F'Qu re 7.26

l'hc M'llT satellites consist urthe SI'OT bus. which is a multipurpose platform . and the SC IlSor syst em payload. Two identical
high-resolution visihle (l 1RVl sen sors a re found 00 SPOTs 1.2. and .1 and two idcnucn l high -resoluuon visible infra red
<IIIWllt ) s,'n'UfS<1 n SI'( )Ts 4 <l11l15, Radiant energy (rOIl1 the terrain enters the IIRV or 1lRVIR via a plane mirror and is then
pruj ,.... ted unto l W<1 C(' I) nrtuy s. Fach ('CD :lrmy co nsists of 6 .(1011 de tectors ;lrrangcd linearly, This results in a spatial rcsolution <If (0)( 10 <If 2U)( 20 Ill, depending Ull the mod e in .... hich the sensor is heillg used, The s wath wi dth at nadir is 60 km.
The SPOT IIRV ,IIH.l IlRV[R ,,' nS<lf,;. ma) also lx' pointe d otl- nndir to eol h:cl da ta. S I'O h 4 and 5 C<lIT} a l ef!<'l<Ili(m sensor
with 1,15 x I, I ~ km 'i'atial fes uillti" n an d 2,250-lm swath Width (;lJapt~d from SI'OT tmag c, [nl,:.).

sensor system prog ressc" dow mrac k [re fer to Fig ure 7 - ~oc ).
This capability brea ks tradition with the La n ds a t M S S_
land"lt T\ l , and Land sat 7 ET\I sensors bec a use no
mechanical sca nning takes place. A linear array sensor is
luperiur because the re is IW mirro r that must scan bac k and
lmh 10collect dna [mirror-scan veloc ity is a se rious issue )
ad this a llows the detector 10 lite rally 'start" OIl the ground
kJr a longer lime. o bta in ing u more accu rate record o f the
lJ!'=C1r.l1 radia nt flux l':-:.iting the terra in. The S POT satellites

pioneered 11m linear army pushbr oom technolog y in com mercia l Ear th resou rce remote scnsing as early as l QX6.

Whe n lool ing directly at the terrain beneath the sensor systern, the two IIRV Instrume nts can be poi nted to cover adj ar.:,"111 fields , each wit h a en- km S" nth wid th I Figure 7-26c).
In th is configuration the tola l sw arh w idth is 117 km and the
two fields llH:r1 ap by 3 kr n. [I is als o poss ible 10 sel ect ively
point the rmrror 10 o ff-nadir viewing angles throu gh eOI11-

226

Figure 727

OIA I'IT R

Mult isp ec tral Remot e Sensing Systeml

M'

~. Scannmg electron microscope imag-~ ortlle surface or a ('C D linear arrJ~ hle that used in Ihe SPOT IIR\' s..:nsor ~
Appro.l.irnaldy j~ l' ( 'J) detectors are visible ..... ith Ttw."of r~>U1 r~IMl"T'o <WI NlIh "idt.-<l. I'll Seven dtle<:lon ora lTD

array are

~h...w n

al high..-r magnification I r

~ES ::!()O..\, Srot

ma n..i s from th... gro und stanon . In this configurat ion it is

pos "il:tk 10 ohser"c any region (If int..-rc-t \\ ithin a Q50-kmwide "tr ip centered on the saldJ i'... ground track {i.c. the
ob servI'd region may not he ce ntered on the gro und track }
(Figure 7-2Xa), The w ioth uf th... swa th act ually observe d
varies betw een 60 kill fer nadir vic .... ing and s o kill lor
ex trem e off- nadir vie .... ing .
lfthc II RV instrume nts wen: (lilly capa ble o fnaJ ir viewing.
the rev isit Ih,'t.j LJ ~'ncy lor any gi ven region oft he world wou ld
he 26 days. T his interval is often un,.u:n ptab lt- for the ohservauon of phc nmucua cvo lving on lime scale s Ta nl;ing from
scvcratda ys to a few wee ks. es pecially wh ere cloud cover
lundcr s the acq uisuion ~l f usable data. During the 26- day
per iod sq lara ting two successi ve SPOT satellite pas ses 0 \ er
a g ive n point on Earth lind la king into II,COW11 the steering
cupabifiry o fthe instrumcuts, thc po int in question could he
ob serv ed o n seve n different pass es if it wcrc on thc equator
and on I I occasions i tm a latitude 01' 45 ( Figure 7-2 Kb ). A
g iven reg ion can he revis ited o n date s scpunucd ahemarivcly
hy t to a (or oc cusionahy 5) day s.

Image Corporali"nl.

S POT l O x 10 m p anchrom atic data arc of such higb ,

metr ic fide lity that thl") can he photoinrc rprered like a .
ca l aer ia l photograp h in many ins tances. For this r
SPOT pa nchromatic dat a arc often registered to tc pog
base maps a nd us...d as o rthophotorna ps. Such image
art.' use fu l in G IS data bas e, because Ihey conta in more a
rutc pla nime tric informauon (e .g.. new roa ds. su bdivisi
than out-of-dar.... 7.5- mi n topogrupluc ma ps. T he ir npros
spuriul reso lution available is demonstrated in Figure 7-~
which prese nts ;1 T M ha nd 3 imag e and a SPOT panchremcuc image' o fC har lcslL)n. sc.
S I'( IT senso rs collcct data ov era rclarivc!v sma ll 60 x 60 kn
(3.N )(J k lll ~ ) ur....;1 compur...d with I.a nd ~ al MSS and TM
imug c areas or 170 x I H5 kill (3 1A 50 krn ~ ) ( Figure 7-] Of. h
tak es N,74 SPOT images 10 cov er the same a rea as a sing k
Lands a t TM or ~l S S scen e. This may be a limiti ng fa ctor [(II
regional studies. J Iow e vcr, S I'OT docs a llow imagery to be
purchased by the km 2 ( c.g . fo r a watershed o r school dislrico or by the linear km Ie.g.. along a hig hwa y ).

S PO Ts -4 an d S
The SPOT sensors can ...lsu ac quire cros s-Irati, s" creo scop ic
pa irs o f nuc gcs for a ge og raphic urea (Figu re 7. 28e). Two
observations ca n be made on successive days suc h that the
1" 0 images are acquired al .mg les on cith ... r side o fth e vertica l. In suc h cases, the ratio between the observauon base
(dis tance between the two catelhtc pos itions ) and the h('ight
(salel lite altilude) is ap proximalely 0.75 al lh... l'l.JualOr and
050 at a l ali1Ud~' of 45 . SPOT data with tht"St.' base-toht.'igh l rat ios may Ilc lJ~d lil r topo graphic ma pp ing .

S POT Ima ge . Inc .. launch ... J SPO T 4 on Marc h 24. [9%

and SPOT 5 o n May 3. ZOO:!. Their c harac teris tics are stllll"
ma nzed in Ta ble 7- ~ . The vic w ing ang fe ca n hi: adj usted
::..27" o ff-nadir, S I'OT5 4 and 5 hav e se veral notable feature
( I f signi licant va lue lo r [:.n h rcso un:.: r.:mote sensillf.
i nd u d lll~ :

.~spectra l

227

Ima g ing Using linear Array s

SPOT on-veu\il'\\in l:

One pass o n days: D -I- 10

D ... .s

D 5

'adir data
collection

O IT-n;.dir Jaw
collection

Om italtrack
al nadir

b.

SI' OT Sl l'rL'mcllpic

\' i l'\\in ~ C a pa b i l i l i e~

Pass on day D

Pas s on Jay D + 1

----,,~

Figure 7 28

a)

'111c SI'O I Ill{\' Ol ild Il RVIR

i n~lrUIl1 CI1\ S

are

poimablc nml can be usedto view areas that arc n" l

directly hd l'''' the s a \c ll i t~ (i.c.. (lt1~ nad ir J . This is
useful fur w lkcti ng info rma tion in the el.,nl of a di-

Stereoscopic

moJd

s:\'tt"r. when 1111.' :;;tkll itt" track is not opnmum lor

collecting stereoscopic imagery. 1;1 ) During the 26day period separating two successive SP( IT satellite
overpasses. a poim on the Earth could be uhscrvcd
on 7 dut crcm pas",,", if it is at the Equator a nd 111l I I
occasions I f at a latn uJ e 1'( -I.s n, A given region can
be rcvisucd on dale, !i<':fI<lrlltcd alternatively oy l. -I.
and occa siunully S days. c ) Tv." ul>scrvatiuns can be
mad,' on successi\t~ days such that the Iwn images
are acquired at angles on either ,iJc of the vertical.
rcsulung in ~t,Te,><e(>rle imag,~,. Such imagery can
be used tll prud uco: topographic and planimetric
maps (,ldapt"d fwm SPOT ImaJ;':. llle.l.

228

C II .W I F R

Mult ispectral Remote Sen sing Sys tems

Com pa r tsou or Landsat '1':\1 (30 '\ .'\0 ru] and SltOI' 1I1t\' (Ill x 10 m )

a. Landsat Tbemanc

\hr~

n allJ J I3 U \ :;O m) un Fcbru.rry .. 1994.

Figure 729

("~mr"ri ""n ",I" the dCI"il in .' 0 x ~O m l...ndsat T~I ":JIlt! J d"IJ and ~ N)T lOx 10 II I 1"lIIdn,'m<.lti<; da ta c fCharlcston, SC
Sjll'l [ m'I ~,l "rp. .ra, i"n . Inc.t.

the addition ofn short- wavck llgth infrare d (swm I band

115 S - 1.75 urm ti'r \"l,:l'lalillll and ,,>11 moisture
applic alil1ns al :!Ox ~o 111;
<til

h. SPOT Il R\' Panchromatic

llallJ II () \ 10 III I I 'll January 10. IlN/),

indepcndcm sensor called

l i 'g ('l il/ iOl /

for small-scale

vegetation. glubal chaugc, and oceanographic stud ies:

S I'O I' 4 IHls nn hnanl rt'giSlnllinll ot tho: spect ral h:lrlds.

achie ved by repla cing the uri1! in:11 11R\ ' panchromatic
sensor lO5 1 (j .7.'l " Ill) w ith band 2 <0 (,] D.6!;: p ill )
n p<:nlting in both 10 Wid 2(\-m rt'501111ill!1 mode;
S PO T 5 panchromatic hands (0,411 0. 7 f1m) 0.::111 coiled
2,5 )( 2.5 m imagc!) , 1\ color cornpositc o f 1.')5 .- \ ngc les,
CA, illn ' q>l.ral inJ,: 2,5 x 2.5 III panchromaric dat a is fou nd
in Cohn Plate 7-6.

0 .61 O.6X um: ncar-infra red = 0.7S - G

urn: SWI R - I.5X 1.75 '1m ). Each s,:nsor is a I, 72~
linear array located in the focal plane of the COITl'Spond'
,,,bj,'d i\c lens. The "1'Cdral resolution of the indiv
bands nrc vunuu nrivcd in Ta ble 7-'>. The kX<'1l1litm s.elM
ha s II ..pa llal rcsohnion (' I" I.l:'i )( 1.15 km. The obje.'11
lenses offer a field-of-view uf ::.SO.5 , which translates imr
2.250 -\.;111 vwnrh width The f ,'g <'f<lIi(}/1 se nsor has scv
importnm d l;lraCll'r i..uc..:
rccuon: red

multida tc radiorncrric c.rlibrution accuracy bette r than 3'1

uud ah..ohuc c;l lihra li,ltl uccnmcy better than 5~

superior II' the "VI tRR, 11l:I" ing it more useful f,:r
repeata ble gfobnl and regiona l \'egc l:llitlll SUI"\CYS:

pixe l ~ i L e is uniform ,lo.:WSs the enure swath width. \I

geome tric precis ion bcucr than 0 .3 pixels and intcrb3li

Beca use the SI'UT -I and 5 II RV sellslIh arc ..... llsililC 10

S W IR energythey arc called I IRV !I{ I and I IR\'IR 2 .

mulrida te rel!istral ;lll1 f-cner Ih:1l1 IU kill because of

pushbn-om technolog y;

The SPOT -I and 5 I <'gl'lll1i"" sensor is independen t 01" the

Im VIR sensors . II is a mulnspcct ra l electronic scanning
radiomer...r operuung ;1( optica l w :! \ el cng lhs w uh :I separatc
objccuvc lens and sensor fllr each til" the lo ur speclra l bands:
t blcc O.4J n.,n juu u.....II primarily 1;',1' atmosphe ric co r-

!ll:,";ll a m. equ.uo rml cross ing lim e \ ersus A\ "fj RR's 2:Jt
p.m. u llssing time;

Mult

To

Illlispectral imaging Using Lin ear Arra ys

Table 7- 10.

Selected lm han National Remote Sensing Agency Il\ RS,\) lndra n Remote Scn~ i ng I IRSl SOItdlilc char aetcristics.

IRS-1C and 10

IR$1A and 1B
US5-l and
L1S5-11
Bands

Spectral
Reso luti on
lI> m)

Spatial
Re s olution
(m) at Nadir

0.45 - 0.52

ll SS-1 i7 l .:; m
uss.n iq:3fl. 25 m

0.52 -

O.5~

llSS- 1 '0:72.5 m
uss.u '<! 3fl,25 m

0.62 - n , ~

llSS-1 (u 725 m
llSS-1I ra 3".25 m

0 .77 _ O.1<n

Ll'\S- I @n 5 m
L1SS-11 {~.30 . 2 5 m

Su lh widt h

L1 SSI -

14 ~

km: I.ISS II

lI>m)

Spati al
Resolution
(m) at Nadir

0.52 - 0.5'J

23.5 x 2J.5

0,62 - O.6X

23.5 x

O.77 - U'ltl

235 x 23.5

1.55 - 1.70

70.5 x 7n,5

Pan

05 tl - 0.75

5.2 x

WiFS 1

f),n:!

O.61l

181l x 1811

Wil S 2

11 77 _ 11,lit>

n Ul x Hill

L1S5-III, Pa n ,
and WiFS
Ba nd s

Spect ral
Re s o lu tio n

zr.s

5.~

Li near array pushbroom

Linear array pusbbroom

146 km

I.ISS-llI

t-t x km

1 4I l mfor h,,,,ds ~. J. alld 4: hand ~

Pan = 70 km; v.w s

Urbit

2 29

(,,,~

km

22 days III equator

L1SS-1Il is 24 days atequator : r an is; dlt y~ :t 26

off-nadir viewing: WiFS is 5 days 31 equat or

WI4 km. Sun -sync hronous

luclinauon .. ')'l.5 "
l'tlUlIlnrial ( ross ing W:2t. a.rn.

SI7lm, ~ u n -S}nd1f"IH 'U'

Inclination - '11l,(,' )O
Fq ua umal crm, lllg 111: .' 0 u.m . .:!: ; min

IRS I A on ~aR:h 17. I<J8S

IRS- I H on Augusl 2<), I ~J I

IRS- K in 199;
IRS-I u in September 1'/'17

- ashort-wnvclcng th infrared bund for im proved vegetatio n

marring;

Th e dependable cons tellnuon "fS POT cuclbres o l1~r, unrivaled ability to acquire im ,lge ry Il l' " Illltlst an)' poin t O il the
glo be da ily.

, it is straightforw ard 10 rel ate rho IIR VI R I n x 10m or ~ () x

~O m data nested within the V/;'X t'tll / lO l l 2. 25 0 x 2. 250 krn
SIIJlh width data;

Ind ian Remote Sensing Systems

individual images can be o bta ined o r data ca n be

sammarizcd over a 24 -hr period [called a da ily sy nthes is).
Ih ily synthes is data can I;Ic com piled into ,,-day sy nthese s,
\jDVI dataset s can he co m puted ba sed on da ily or I O-Ja~
s;ollthesis images. A portio n o f u Ten-day vegct ario n index
i}lIthesis cen tered em Europe. the M idd le Fa st. an d A frica
is>ooy, n in Color Plate 7-7 .

The Ind ian ;-.Jatillllal Remote S~ l1> i ng Age nl') ( ~ RSA ) has
launched several Ind ian Remote Sens ing lI RS) satellites:
IRS- I:... o n " lar ch 17, I Q.~ !I. IRS I B on Aug us t 29. 199 1.
IRS- I t' in 1995. and IRS-I D in Septe mber. 1997 (Table 710). IRS-PJ and IRS-N were launched o n x tarc b 2 1. 1996.
and vt ay 2n. IQQIJ. resp cc uv ety. IRS -1'5 (C \RTO SAT- Il
w as lau nched on May 5. 2005 . IRS-Pb I RESOURCESAT- IJ

....
230

C"l1\rTE R

r
I

Figure 7-30

Multispectra l Remote Sens ing Systems

J,u!i;lll Re m" l"

S"nsi n~

Multi s pe

Sah'lIilr IlIIa!:,' ur Sa n Dic~o,

Landsa t T hem at ic :\ Ia ppc r

a nd :\l ulthpcct ra l Sca nne r
ima~e a rea

60 km

S POT
HRV
image rrrca

60km

185krn

G':O\:lT.aphic co verapc of ee SPOT IlR\" and Land '1.31 'i ll hi ~{I('(' lral Sca nne r and Thematic 'lapl"t'T 1\'mot e !oCn~m g sys tems.

was launched on October 17. 200 3. The sensors onboard the

satellites usc linear array sensor technology (t\ RSA. 20(6).

Figure 131

IRS-I A . IU. - Ie. li nd - I n

The IRS] A and IRS- I B s.uellites acq uired data with Linear
Im ag ing Self-scanning Scnsors (L1SS [ :IlIJ USS-II) at spatial resofuuon s o f 72.5 x 72.5 m and 36.25 x 36.25 m.
respectively (Table 7 10), Th e data w ere collected in four
spectral bands 1[1l1i were ahnosr iden tica l to the Lands at Tt-l
visible an d ncar-infrared hand s. Th e snrellne altitude was
lln4 km. the orbn was Sun -synchro nous. repea t coverage
was every 22 days at the Equator rll-day repe at co verage
with two smcllucs }, and orbua l incl inat io n wa s ()().5 ~ . The
swath width was l-1fl to I-IX km .
The [RS-IC al1ll IRS- 1[) satellites carry three sensors (Tab le
7- 10): the Ll SS- ll l mult ispeelral sensor, a panchromat ic' SC'I1sor, and a Wide Field Sensor l Wi r S). T he L1 SSl1l has four
bands with the g reen . red. an d ncar-infrared bands at 23.5 x
23 .5 m spatial resolution und the short-wave leng th in frared
(S\V[R ) band at 70.5 x 70. 5 III spatial rcsohnion. The swath
widt h is 1-11 km for ha m!, 2, 3, and 4 an d I-IX krn 1111' the
SW IR band . Rcpc:l1 coverage is e very 2-1 J ay " at the equ ator,
T he panchromatic se nsor has a spatial resolution of npproximately 5.2 x 5.2 m and ste reos copic imag ing capability. T he
pa nch romat ic band has a 70 -km swath width with repea t
coverage every 2-1 days at the Equato r an d a revisit t ime ofS
da ys with 16 off-nadir \ il."v. ing . An l.".,. .un ple o f the 5.2 x
5.2 III panch romat ic data o f dOV.llloV. n San Diego, CA (resamp led to 5 x 5 rn], is sho wn in Fig-ure 7-3[ ,

Indian Rcnw te S<msing S<ttcll ilc (I RS-I Dl

malic im.lge or tJow nll'"n San Diego, CA. llt
x ~ .1 m Imal!l." .... a ~ resa rnpled 10.5 x .5 m I
oflndian National Rem"le Sensing Ag..'Ilt'~ ).

The Wide Field Sensor (Wi I'S) ha s IX8 x l xx m spatial

olutiou. The WiFS has IWO band s co mparable to KG.....
AVHRR sate llite (0 .62 U.llX j1111 and 0 .77 - ()J~6 j1rnl~
a swath .... idth of(,'I.! km . Repeat coverage is fi ve days al
Equator.
J R ~ - I','

1I Iltl IR S- I' -I

T he I[{S- P3 Vi iFS is simi lar In the IRS- II> V,'iF S except

the incl usion o f all additiona l ha nd in the middle-intra
region (1.55 - [,70 j1nl ), 1RS-1'3 als o has a Modular Of'\'
e lectron ics Scanner ( ~ I t >S l. whi ch collects data li t three Sfii'
tial resolutions (M OS A, It (' = 1569 x I W5 m: 523 x 511
11l; and 513 x (,-l-l 111, respect ive ly ) in three ba nds (MOS
B. C "" (USS - O.761l urn: 0.40,'\ - 1.01 um: 1.5 - 1.7 unu
Th..' IRS-P-I satclluc is de voted 10 oc eanographic applies
tio ns base d pri marily on its Ocean Color Mo niter (OC~11
sensor, whic h collects data in 11 hands from -102 to Sf:5 nm.
a ~ r .. rial resolution o f 360 x 1311m at t z -bit radiomcuic reelution. T he swath wi dth is 1,420 km. T ile IRS-I' -I alsoce
ries a \ !ul lIfrcqllcncy Scanning Microwave Rad iomee
( ~ I S f\ I R ) (:'>IRSA. 2006).

I R~-I '5 leA R l(}SAT- I )

('ARTOSAT- I wns designed to provide imagery for I~
scale ca rtog raphic applicil l illn~. Th e satellite is in a Su n-s~1l-

chrc

cnn

CA

"m
nn e
100
om

,m

'me
eo
im

""
oc

"

0'

11
t
s
s

23 1

IWispectral lmaging Usi ng linear Arr ay s

:-.I AS:\ Ad~an~~'d S['iIl:chllrTlO: Thcn nal Emiss ion and R".rkcl i" n Ra,Jj"m<'!cr (AS I EKj CharllCfc riS1ic~.

Ta ble 7 11.
\

Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emiss ion and Reflecti o n Rad iometer (ASTER)

VNIR
Spect ra l
Re s olution
Ba nd

-'

(~ m)

Band

SWIR
S pec tral
Resolutio n
(j>m)

I (nadir)

0.52 - 0.60

1.600 -

2 (nadin

0.63 - 0.1,1,1

2.1..15 - 2. 18S

Ltnadir )

O.76 -0,l'I6

3 (backward)

0.76 - 0.1,(1

,
,

u no

TIR
Spectra l
Resolution
Band

(Jlrn )

10

11.1 25 - 11.475

2.1&5 2.215

"

8.475 - 8.825

12

11.925 - 9.175

2.:m - 2.2S:'

13

10.25 - HI.95

2.295 - 2.3M

14

10.95 - 11.6 5

:U6O -1.4JO

Pushbroom

Pusbbroom

WhisLbroom

Si

PtSi:Si

Ii ~ Cd : Tc

Spalial
rr-oluliUlI (m)

IS ;ot IS

; 11 x 30

<10 x <10

S.. a lh wjd th

60l m

60 lm

60km

Quanlit.alioo

x-bns

S -hll~

12-bils

TKh noln;:..\
(dl"ll'<:lur )

boos polar orb it (6 1ij km) that rec ords images of the
llIi~ glohc in I.XlI7 orbits with a repent cycle of 116 days.
{ARTOSAT-l has t .... 0 panc hromatic cameras (0.5 - 0.1\5
p:ml with 2.5 x 2.5 11\ spatial resolution tha l acquire two
mage> simultaneously, one look ing forward 2f, and nne
boking aft 5 in Sll' TCO- IlWue . Each camera UM,;s a linear
maycontaining 12.000 detectors (Krjshnaswamy and Kuly-

w ide while in pa nchrom atic mode they are 70 kms w ide. Th e

spat ial reso lution of hand 5 (1.55 - 1.70 \1m) has been
imp rm cd 10 23 .5 x 23 .5 III. T he da ta are reco rded usin g
1O.00() cle ment linear ar rays with q uantization 10 In-bits.
T he L1 SS IV sensor is p ointnblc a llowing a revisit pe riod of
5 days .

uurarnan, 2(}06). The swa th w idth is 26 km. A ll data are colkcted at lu-bit quanuzauon. The pial form can he

Til", ,\\\ 'if'S senso r ts an improved version oft he WiFS se nsor flown Oil IRS- l Cl i D. A\I.'if'S operates in lo ur spectral
band s ide ntic a l to LISS III, with a spatial resolution o f 56 x
56 m and co vers a swuth of 740 kms.

maneuvered 10 obtuin rwc side-by-side panchromatic

images covering 55 krn . Use rs can sl)ecify standard radionetncally and geometrically corrected data or precis ion
u~.ho-rccl i1i cJ

da ta ( to'RSA . 20(6).

Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and

Reflection Radiome ter

IRS-I'll (IU :SO l JH.C ES,\T I )

RESOURCESATI is in an Kl7 km Sun-synchronous pol ar

oroil ( ~ RSA.

20()6) . It carr ies three sensor systems : Ll S S~

sensor is identic al to
Ibt L1SS-111 se nsor Flow n on IRS - l e ll f) exce pt tor a few
si~ificanl changes. L1 SSIV has exac tly the '>3111e multi~l bands as L1SS III. Ho wever, the multispectral data
m recorded ar 5.l'l x 5.l! m sp,ui al resol ut ion. The user can
ldt 01'1(' o r the hands t e.g .. the red ba nd) a nd obtain pan cMxnJtic data . In muhispccrral mode the images are 23 kms

IlL l1SS-IV, and A\Vir S . TIle L1S S-11I

T he ASTE R: is a coope rative effort be twee n N ASA and

Japan 's Min istry o f lmcmatione l Trade and Industry.
AST ER: ob tains detailed information on su rface te mperature. emiss iv ity. re flec tanc e. and elc va rion ( NASA ASTER.
2()U6 ). It is the only rd ati\ d y h igh-spatia l-reso lution instru me nt on the Terra satellite (Table 7- 11). 11 is used in conjunction w ith \lO ]) IS. M ISR . and C ERES senso rs Ihal
mon itor the Ea rth at modera te 10 coarse spatial rcsohnions.
AS TER serves as a 1(1t.1111 lens for the ot her Term msrru -

232

('I I \" I 'EI-!

AS" EH. :\ t' :l r- i n fra rl'c1 I I1UI~t'

Figure 7-32

Mu lti spectral Rem ot e Se n s ing Systems

Multi

or " ('a r i ll a rhnr. Ihm aii

-';rrr" ,~ .." 1'.1< I ~ )( 15111 n..,..ar-mrrared bend J (0.-" -(l,Xollm) lmag{" ot P.:ar l Harbor. Ha wau. "hla m~"tt o n June 3. 2UOO (
S:\ ;(i SF( 'IITI r RS \ I)(" J,\ ROS and US Japan ASTr R Science 1c,un and thcCali lum ia Institute ufT<x~

tc~) ~ ..'

M
mc nts and is un ponarnfor change dctccnon and ca hhmnon '
validat ion ~l ud icl'o ( K ing.. 2U\lJ I.

AST ER obtain s data in , .. cha nnels tmm the visible throug h

the ther mal infra red regions o f the electromagnetic spectru m. II consisrs of three sc p arutc instr umen t subsystems.
Ind ividua l bandwidths and subvystcm chnr actens ncs arc
sum ma rized in Table 7- 11 .
Th e V NI R detector subsvstem (lpe W!<'" III thre e spe ctral
bauds in rhc v isible and ncar-tnrr..rrcd wavelength reg ion
with a spuual resolution o f 15 x 15 m. II co nsis ts o ftwo toleSCO p e S-{ll1 C nadir-looking wit h a three-spectral-hand ( '( 'I)
detect o r and anothe r [l,ll"k w,ud-I,'oking w ith <l sing le- band
CCO detecto r. T I1l' back ward.look ing t c lesl"()p<: provides a
second vie w of the study nrcn in hand J for ste reoscopic
observatio ns. Acm~ ~- t mck pll in t i n~ ttl 2--l" off-nadrr is
accom plish cd by ro tatin g 111c crnuc telescope assembly, A
15 x 15 m ncar-infrared hand ., (lUt> ~ O,Xt> ).1 m) im age o f
Pear l Ha rbor. Il l, oht<l incd \\11 June 3, 20110. is shown in Fig ure 7-32 , AST ER color eu m p',lsites of the island of'Duhu an d
Pearl Harbo r obta ined on Jun e 3, 20uo. arc found in Col or
Plate 7-ft
Th ... SWI R subsystem uperat..... si, spectral bands In the 1.0
to 2 AJ um region throug h u smgfc nadir-pointing tcl CWllp<:

that provides ,l O x j n III spatial reso lut ion. Cross-track

109 (.:.l,55 j i ~ accompli- bed by a flllill1mg mirror,
The T Il{ subsystem op erates in five band s in the In
inf rared rl'g ion u " i ll~ a single. fi vcd-positlo n. nadir-lox
tele scope '" uh a sputia l rcsolu uon "f 90 x 90 Ill. Unlike
other suhsysle m<;. II 11:1'" a whi skbroom scanning sys
ilh ll'atl of a pushbroom S ~slC tll (F igurl' 7-3 d) , Each
u",cs 10 det ector s In ;1 st;lggered a rray w ith o ptical band
filters ova each dete ctor element. The scan ning mirror f
lions luuh tor sl, at1l1in~ and cross- track pointin g (! H.55
D ur ing se-:II111 ing. the mirror rornrcs (){) O fro m nadir 10 \ i('l
an mtc r nal bla ckbody. Muhiplc-d ntc nighttime ll() x 90
II1<: rm<l 1 infrared hand 14 ( 10 ,9 5 - 11,65 urr nimages nfPu
0 '0 lava 1101'1' ,," ente ring the sea at Kumokuna on The soo
e:lSl side ofthe bl and of Hawaii arc sho wn in Figure 7-JJ

Multiang le Imaging Spectroradiometer

The ~ fuh ia ngl e Imag ing S pcc trorudiomcte r (1\-IISR) 11-15

built by r\AS ," s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and is one- of.
five /;'rI'O :;.ate llil,' insmunen r-, The \.ll S I{ ins trumen t m
sun-s the Earth's nr ig htne!>s in lo ur spec tral ba nds. a t each
ninelo ok ang le.. spre ad out in the forwa rd and aft d irect
along the tlighr li ne, Spanal sam ples are acquired e very~
111. O \ er OJ pt:ri.Jd of7 min. a 3110 km wide s wath ofEri

:\
J.
4
(I
s

II

it
('

233

Uispeciral lmaging Usin g Lin ear Arr ays

.\ Sl t: H Thcrma t-tnrra r cd

~ 7-33

lm a ::i' ~

of a Lava Flnw un Il:Iwaii

A !'CGuencc (If TerM ASTE R nighlllTne ' 1'1)( tX) m therm al infrared band 14 II n.~~ II .o~ u m I inl.lg~ ofPu'u O 'olava tlows
era cnng tho: sea al Kamokuna on the ..lUthc-a",- si<kof the Island of Ilal' all. Ihc ima~~s " ... rc ,JOull,....d un a) \I ay 12, 1000, b)
JUIlC :;0. 2nno. and c) Augusl 1, 2111 10. Th<: brighter the r i\ d . the ~'1\"alc'1' tilt.' la vatempc mrurc (co un."') of J",\ S,\ Ci'l FC/\tlTII
I:RSAIX /J..\ I{OS and U.S.,J" I'I,Ill AS I ER Science Fearn and the Calili.>fTllii Insnunc of 1...chll<>I,I],:) I.

into vie w at all nine ang k s (Kin g, 200J; 1'\ASA

\R,20Cl1ll.

o ffers an op po rtuuu y to comprc ob serv ation s with other

nadir -viewin g sen....1N such as l.a nds'1 tl\1 and ET\r , The
nadir-vic.... Ing camera also facihuuc-, cuhb rauou.

Aa ~luslrati on

o f the nine look angle s is show n in Figure 7The digua! pushhr oom ~c n'ON imag e the- Earth at 2h. 1~ .
'~", 6ff'. and 7 0.5 ~ rl lT\.I;a r,1 and ali t,f the loca l ve rtica l
Illldit 0"). Note tnat the fore and an camera angles arc the
'JllIe---tht' cameras are arranged syrumcmcally ab out nadir.
gereral. large view ing angles provide enhanced sc usiriv 'i 10 atmospheric aerosol effec ts and to cloud reflectance
tf!'erts, whereas more mod est angles nre require d tor landt

.race\ e wing.
Each Mi St{ camera sees instnntancuusly a single TO\I of pix lisa! right angles 10 the grnUtlJ trac k in II pus hbnxuu fonn,u.
records dena in four hands: blue. green. red, ;lilt! near-infraltd, The individual hand wa\ c1engths arc identified in FigIf( 7-34. Each camer a has four independent linear ceo
Jlays [one per filtcr). w ith 1.5(}..l nctiv c pi.\ds per linear
m y.
The nadir-vjcw ing camera (Iahck tt An in Fig ure 7-J-I 1pror:..b imagery that is less di s lnrt e d hy surface topog raphic
~ects than that of .111) othe r \IISR ( WHeTa. II also i" the
t.lllafk;;ted by atmosp heric scattering. II provides 11 useful
rm-rence lor naviganng \.\ ithin allthe ~1ISR imagery, and 2)
lbese image 10 compare \.\ uh image:. ac quired at diffc rcm
MIlks of view. Such co mparisons pTllvid... im['llrtam bidi~l retlectance d istribut inn t"un...'li nn. HRI>F' into nna lJllrod uced in C ha pter I, The llaJ ir-\ ie.... ing eamera a bo

The fore :1I1d ali ::!o _ l ~ vi c\\ angle cameras (A I'and Aa ) provide Useful sl<,;ret's': t> pi-:: informatiou thut ca ll be ofbenefi t
for measuring topographic clcva uon and cloud heights. Th e
tore and ali -I ~ , oo \ icw IIngk l,'a me ms (ii I' and Ha) arc pns iuoncd It' he cspeei<l lly -cn-Invc 10 .Ittllosph..:ric ae rosol
properties. Tht.' litre and aft (>0 0 vie w ang le cameras (C f and
Ca I pm\ ilk nhscrv ntion s looking through the aunos phcrc
with tIl 1.:1.' the ummuu o f :Jir than 11K' vert ical view, This provide s unique infornuuion uboru the hemispherical albedo o f
land slIrI:ll'tS. lhc l'lre and ali 70jOview angle cameras [ Df
and [Ja) pro vide the maximum scns uivity 10 off- nadir
effec ts . Till' ~ri en ti ti ..' community is interested in obtaining
quautuauve lnformauon :tnolll l'I ,nals and the Earth's sur-

race

fWI1l ,l ~ I I1 U I1 ~ an g k ~

as possib le.

Very-High-Resolution Linear Array Remote Sensing

Systems

In 1l)t,l4. the L .S. govc mmcr n a llow ed civ il com mercia l

companies h' market hi gh spnnal resolution remot e senso r
data taprnl\.imatcl~ I >( I In -I X -I m ) This re-sulted in the
c reation of a number of commercial consortia that hOI"'" the
capital nl~ess ry It, <:TCat.... l..unch. ;mJ ma rket high spat ial
re ....lh ul\>n .lignal reml lll sensor data. Th.... most nola"'le companies arc Sp;.I<:C II11:1glllg. 1111.'. ORllI l\l AGE. In..:., Digita l-

cu WHK

234

Multispectral Rem ot e sensing Systems

Multi

Tab l

!\ l ul li :I II ~ h: Im ll ::ill ~ Sp o:dru n t tl iu lll d l'r

e.

,
e,
e
0,

IH

ll f

An

26.1"

'~l

571 11m

. ....

SlHIo . .

45.6"

p"
d",
b

,,-,_ --, 275 , 275 m

I.l

"
T

I I kin

275 m ~ I , lkm

1>1
Figure 7-34

Arnst's rcndmon of the :'.lultjangle Imag ing Spectrora duuneter t \ llS RI on H )S terra. ~ I ISR ll~ linear array lcchnolog)
acq uire imageT) of the terra in in four bands at ninc angles: :111\aulr(O") aud al ~6 . J 0 . 45.6", 60 0 ant! 70.S" fUN ard ard
na..h r (ada pted from ~AS.'\' Jet PWf'u l, jnll I.alxlral' lf) I.

Ea
pa
be

W
Glo be. Inc.. and Imag.eS"l Internat ional. Inc. These
co mpa nies targeted the geographic inf o rmat ion system
(GIS ) and cartog raphic m.rpping mar kers traditiona lly SN viced by the aerial photogrammerric ind ustries. Some csnmale the gro w ing Eart h cbscrvauon ind ustry 10 be 5 !O 15
billion dollars a year, The co m mercial re mote '>Cn~ing firms
hope: to have an impact in mark ets as dn ersc as agri cu lture .
natural resource management. loca l and regi ona l gove rnment. tra nsportatio n. emergency response. mapping. and
e ventually an aTT<lY o f ave rage cons ume r applications as well

Imag ing , 2006 ). War d uring the early 2 1st cen

ha-, created a significant military demand for commc
satclluc-dorivcd hig h-spa tial-reso lutio n imagery.

ta

A ll com merc ia l vendors offer an Intern et on -li ne or

service. All vendors offer a suite o f standard and nons:
ard produ cts th'l l ca n be ta ilo red to user requ ire
ind udrng the creatio n o f d ig ita l ele vano n mod els from
remote sens or da ta. The com mercia l rem ote sensing com
nics typically price the Imagery according (0 the type

ISpac~'

ill

"e

de

,;

til
ru

ao

235

tiltspectral lma gi n g Us in g Linear Arrays

a 712

Sensor chnractcrisncs ofSpace lmagingG.....)l-ye, Inc.,/K( } S( )S S;lll.lhle; { lR B1M,.\( iF, Inc.. (}rf>l )"t'w-.l sa tellite; and DigualGlobe. foe .. Vlli<MJIr<I""tdlite.

Space Imag ingiGeo Eye , Inc .

ORBIMAG E, Inc .

DlgitalGl obe, Inc .

OrbView-3

OuickBi,d

IKONOS

...

Spectral
Resolut ion
"'m)
OA5 0.52
f),52- 0,N!
0.63 - 0 ,69

Spatial
Resolut ion
1m) at Nadir

,. ,

Spe<:tral
Resolution
"'m)

Spall al
Resolu tio n
(m ) 801 Nadir

0.45-052

'"

0.52 - 0 .60

0.625 - 0 .695
0 .76 - 0.90

'"
,,'
,,'

0.45 - 0.90

I , I

e....

,.,
,.,

0.7t>- 0.90

,.,

0.~5

I' I

p~

Linear array

I.arb

I I km

bit

25 \lb ,;

- 0 .90

pu~hbroom

lJiHlch

O.4~

- O.S:!

Spatial
Resol ution
(m) al Nadir
2.44 x 2.44

05:! -0.60

2.+1 x

0.63 - 0 .6Q

2.+1 x 2.44

O.7n _ O, k<)

2.44 >( 2.44

Pan

OAS - 0,90

0.61 x 0.61

Linear army pcshb room

20 1('l4nkm

50

~Ib

SO \lb s

Equatoria l ero~.i ng 10 -I I a.I11.

Equatorial crossing 10:30 a.m.

nun I..m. nOI ,>un-synchronous

1:4UHlori,,1 erus~ i ng \'ariahle

.~ JlriI 2 7, 1<J<19 (failed)

September 24. 1'J<)<,l

June 26. 20U)

( ~..tober

~I

km, Sun-s}"m:hwn(lus

4 7U Lrn. Sun-sync hro nous

,mdtll:\ ordered and the amoun t of geographic coverage

h:red lkm\ The sensors used by these companies lire
1Iedprimarily on linear array CCD technology (fig ure 7
kl The sensor systl'm characteristics arc summarized in

I i!Ne7-12,

!ll~i la lr. ln hl', l nl' ..

2.~4

I
I

linear array pushhroom

< 3 days
M il

e....

Speclral
Resolullon
(lIm)

E"'(r IJird. und fJ/I;cl.llird

111.200 1

Di gita lGl o he pla ns to lau nch a new g.:nl'ratio n of high resolut io n remote s~n~ing. SySll'tI1S called /li Jr/d View / and /I
( Digiw l Globe, 2(05). IJrlr/dl /cII'/ will provide 0.5 x 0.5 m
sp.uial rcsokuion panc hromati r imagery with an average
revisit lime of 1,7 davs and .1 swath wi dth of 1(1 km. It \\ ill
be capable o f<:olle <: li; tg lip to 500.1l00 h.m2 (100.000 sq. mi.j
per (i.I)' of half -met er itl1 <1gl'T)'. lI iJI'IdI'it'\\, I will be able 10
down link imagery \0 custome r loc atio ns.

Urth lValch, Inc. launched Htlr~lmrd i n 1996 with a 3 x 3 III

anch rcmarichand and three visible 10 ncar-infrared (VN I R)

\und,alI5 x 15 m sparia l resolution . Un fortunately, EarthW~ch IOSl contact y, ith the surcllhc. Eart h Walc h l now Digia1Globe. lnc.) launche d Quickllird on Octobe r It<.. 200\.
iIlOaflOO-krn orbit. l meresun gl y. it is in II 00 0 orbit y, hich is
nSullsynchrunuus, Revisit times range fro m I to 5 Jays.
~ding on latitud e. It has n sw ath w idt h of 20 to -10 km.
().lickBlrd has ,I 1161 x 0 .01 III panchromatic ba nd and fou r
twblenear infrared bands at 2A~ x 2.-1-1 III spatial rcsclu.. [Table 7 12). The data arc quantized 10 I I bits (brig ht:rs.;\alucs from 0 to 2047i. The senso r can be pointed fore
md aftand ac ross-t rack 10 obtain stereosc o pic data (Di g ita l-

GJbe.100tlJ,

Wor ldl it' lI' II wi ll collect 0.5 x 0,5 m punchromaric data and
1.1< x 1.1'< t11 muluv pec tral data. It wi ll inc o rpora te rhe industry stan dard four multispectral bands plus fou r ne w bands
[coastal. ) 'CllllW. red edge, and ncn r-infrnred 2 ).

Space Imaging. 1111'., launched IA:avos on A pri l 27. I ~t}_

Unfonunatcly , the s.uclluc never achieved orb it. Space
Imaging successfully launch ed a second I KO ~ () S on September 2.... I'N 'l, The IK O ~ OS sarellue sensor has a I x I m
panchroma tic band and four multispectra l visible and nearinfra red hands at -I x ~ m spatial reschuion (Space lJll;lging .

CH .-\ I"I Ht

236

Multispe ctr al Remote Sensing System!

IK O:\"OS Pan chrom ati c Im..ger)' of Wash ington, DC

3. ''''OM), panchromatic I '( 1 m image of Washington. IX.

FlQur e 735

b. Enlarged \"ic" of the Wa.,hinglon .\!onllnlCBl

a) IKOMlS 1 >< I In panc hromatic image' o f Wa~hinJ;lnn . DC . obtained on Se ptember 30, 1\)9Q. 11\C Wa sh ington .\I
and Wh ile House are \ i ~i hk . h I A n enlargement ottbe Washmgton Monu mem (courtesy Space lmag ing.Uco bye. llll;. ~

2(06). Sensor characrcrisucs an' summarized in Table 7- 12.

IKO !"OS is in a Sun -synchronous ex t-km orbit. with a
(ksl'<ndinl! eq uatorial c rossi ng tim... {If between 10 and 11
a .l11 . lt has both cross-track and along -track viewi ng ins trumen ts. which enab les Ile cible d ara acquisition and frequent
re"i sit capubiluy: < -' days at I x I m s patia l resolution (fo r
look angle s < 2(,n) and 1.5 J ays at 4 x 4 m spatia l reso lution,
The nomin al swath width is [ I km . Data are qu antized 10 I I
hits. The lirsl IKO'\lOS I x I III panchromatic image was
obtained on S~'PWll1hL' l 30. 1<)1)'), of down town Washington.
DC (Figure 73 51. The image contains high spatial resolution detail sufficient Ior many cuy pl:.mning and earth
resource investig'ltions. IKO \,JOS imagery ofColumhia . SC,
is shown in Color Plmc 7-<.).

( ImageSat , 200(, ). The EROS A} was built by Israel A

Industry 's MH T Div ision . It weighs only 250 kg . The
lite is in a 4KQ-km Sun-synchronous orbit with an cqca
crossing time (If 9:45 a.m . EROS A 1 is a single-band
chromatic remote ..en..ing system. The spalial resoluti~
1.8 x 1.8 m (standard) or I x 1 m in "over-sampled" tro:
An EROS A I inmgc o f the Kam chatka Submarine Bae
Rus sia is sh own in Figure 7- .l6. lmagc'Sat plans 10 [3
EROS B and other sate llites to c reate a constcllruion of
mcrcia l high -resolution satellite s.

On January [2 .2006. ORB [MAGE Hold ings lnc. acquired

Space Imaging. Inc. H it'oE re, 20flhj , The combine d compa ny no w duc s busine ss unde r the brand name GcoE~c. lnc.
Gcol.yc oj1,er:lles rhrcc remot e-sensing satel lites incl ud ing
IKO'\l{)S, (lrhView-.! and Orh\" iew-.' - (ieoE ye plans 10
la unch another salell ite in .!tln7 \\ ith a spatia l reso lution of
OA x OA m l(JeoEy e. 20(6 ).

intmrcd multis pec tra l bands at 4 x 4 m spat ial rcsolsi

(Orhimage. 200h ). OrhVie w-} has a 470 km Sun-syn
nuus orbit with a 10:30 u.m. equatorial crossing lime aOO

Im:tj!cSal lnter-n a tiun alc Inc.. E ROS Al

OR(}L\lAGE. Inc. plans to launch Orbvicw-S [O rbi

2(06). II v. ill have the sa me bandw idths as Orbview-L
the panchroma tic band will be OAI x OAI m and the
spectral bands v. ill be: I.M x I.M rn. 11 v. ill be poin

lmagexat lntcmano nal, rnc.. successful[) launc hed the

EROS.-I I satell ite using. a Stan -t rock et from the Russ ian
Cosmodromc in Svobodni. Siberia. on December 5. :2000

()I{ Bl I\IAC E, In c.. Orb lit'w-J

OR HIMA(i1: , Iuc.. lau nched Orh/iew-J tin .IurIL' 26. 2

with 1 x [ III panchromatic da ta and four visible and ~

x-km swnth width . The sensor rcvisus each locatio n on Ea:i

ill less than three day s with an ability to tum from side
side 45. V rbViewJ senso r spe ci Jicalions are summarized
TallIe 7- [2.

~rometry

237

Using Lin ea r & A rea Arrays

":I{OS A I Pan chromatic Image of Kumchatk.. Suh um r lnc Haw.

F9Jre 736

1-

,I
os

H.m;~ill

Panch rcm.uic 1,1' " 1.11 m im.tgc of the Kam.:!",t "" SUOI11;lri n" Ib ,... on the far-cu-aern fW1l1 IL"T o f R u ~s i.l. obtained b) the
",(OS " 1 rcnlUlc "",n~in l! ,,)stcm ,'11 December 25.10(ll1c" IIf1 ...... ~ hlla!!,,";al. 100L"1Tl;'hnnal. lnc.j.

111 a swath width of 15.2 km. O!'h\ 'ic\\ -5 data will hi: U<'<;'rorphotogrannuctric cllg int:t'r ing. ap pllcauous.

Spectrometry Us in g Line a r & Area Arrays

Ltks (~I\)"klll~ A i rh/ ,rl/l' lJi.t:ifl/l .')I'l/lI>r ,\ 1',\ 1" 111-10

This sec tion desc ribes a major adv ance in remote se ns ing,

The Leica G..'osystcms ADS-.4(J dig ital ca mera makc-s USt' o f

1rt.1! array techno logy. It is I'1 ast'.1 011 ih..' lise o f [2, 000 clcment linear :lITay CCD s. The linear arrays function in harrn.m~ to obtain stereoscopic iruugcry for phruograuunetr-ic
lfIIllicati(w.'lhc ASI) U! collect s data accor ding ill the
t~itkali(lll>

sunuuurizcd ill Table 7 1J ,mel the hlgic

100\\1\ in FigH r.., 7-.1 7. Three of'thc linear array s collect pan womal ic data : one lo"ks forward 2i1A"'. nne hhlks ur nadir,
sdone lucks aft - I..!..:!" [there .rrc ac tuall y two l2 .o0n clc:amt linear a rray s :11 ea ch of the se three locations stag ge red
II} half a pixel (3.25 nun]. which are ;Inaly/ l;'u together to
\'JddpanchMllalic dal a ] t x tccronc. 2 110~).
Tk blue. green , and red scnsiuve linear array s collect data
Ie off-nadir. TIle blue, gre en. and red measu rements arc
okJi~lI lI' i lh a trich roid opticnl SYStl'l11 that splits inco ming
h!ht uno n..d . green, and blue com poncms us ing cascaded
IfidJrotic flhcr s. Th is res ults in pe rfectly rc giste,c:J blue.
peen. and red in formation . A nea r-in trurcd ......nsiuv c linear
may 100",", 2' otf- nadrr ..<1lace11l 10 the pa nch romatic lmcar
n1} at nadir.

ul1ag mg .' In,<,fmm'''J ~ '. de fined :IS 11K' simulta neous acqotsi -

linn Ill' linag es in l11any rcl uuv cly naITOW, conugnous and/o r
non-contiguous sp ectral hand s throu ghout the uhruviolc t.
visible. and infr ared po ninns ofthe spec trum.

In the P<l~ l. mosll'.:nwtcl y sensed datu II el l' acquired in ~ to

12 spel'lr,,1 hand " Imaging spectrometry ma ke s possible the
acquisition or datil in hundreds o r spntra l bands slruultanc~,w;ly , Because of the very precise nature of the dat a
acquired hy inMgi ng spectrometry. some Earth resou rce
problems CHn be inv est igated in grl'atl'r detail,
The value nf an ima g ing spect rome ter lies in its ab ility to
prov ide a high-resulution re flec tance spec trum fur eac h picrurc element in ihc image, Th e rc fl cctan,..... spectrum in the
region fro m 0,4 10 2.5 ~1 11l ca n h e used to identify a largeran ge o f sur/ill.. e CIWl'r ma terials Ihat C,lIlnOI he ide nti fied
II ith broadb and, lu " -spcct ml-rcso hnion imaging systems
such as the La ndsa t fliSS , T\1 . and SPOT, ~ lall Y, although
not a ll, surface ma terials hav e d iitgn oslie abvo rpnon fea tures
th,n arc un ly ::!O to ~O 11m \ 1 ide . Therefore. spec tral imaging
s~sk'ms lhal acquire data in contig uouv ln-nm bands may

~ 7

C1J.\I' IE K

238

Mu ltis pec tral Remote sensi ng Systems

crus
. "" ,.. -IIIIlF ':j..' ..- cco

,\ ir horn c Digit al Sensor (A nS-40)

"- --

sped

Tab"

111111..

Triplet

b.

n.c.a

'I'

Il S

Reflectance fro m
\>oi lhin the
pillcll rOy

Figu re 7-37

Ch aracteri sri<.:" olthe Leica G\,(>;;} Sl em~ Airborne Digita l S\'II"nr SyMcm A()S .....II. a] D i~ i I3 1 .:amcra hous ing . b ) Tri.:hrold(f
neal sy,tclIJ. c j Layoutcfforw ard. e n. ;lnJ nadi r-Iock ing 12JIOO..I:!.:mcnl hnc.1l' arrays [adapted from t.elcc G,,'()'jystc ms. 11C.

239

rometry Using Linear & Area Arr ays

1200. - - - - - - - - - ,...-- - - - --,

~7 13.

Lcic a G~....s~SICnlS ,\ irbomc Digita l Sensor 010

f " I)SAO ) ctnvac rcrisncs.

Band

Spectral
Re so lutio n
(n m)

Spatial
Re solution
(e m) at Nadir

p"

-u.5 - MW

variable
15cmru
1 "'~OmAGL

B1~

G"~

Roo
\e:umfrarcd

'"'"
~

J 30 - 4'H:J

variable

'" '"

variable

to lO- MO

\ ariablc

SJ5 - !IllS

\anahle

1111 lmll ~ i n 2

Puna l'"no"
Ro)'ak C(lU,,"

Rood
r.;..-::::. " .

"0
Figure 7-38

12,000 pixels

to.5 urn

DlIt"", per

r"".:IIm mal i(- "

liInIr " rra~'

2 )( I :!,OOO
Ifull,,!wctrol " 12.000

hdiumcu ic

12-hil

iMl~fi"n

foll.(>nl:t h

62,7 mm

1MJ,t\I ,\ pp licll-

I : ~ OO - 1:5,000 (dependin g upon aircraft ahuudc A(iU

Get-I\'f~rcnc i n l:

l r si n ~

~pt'l'l romete r

~nll

Jfl

roo

Wa ' c lcn~ lh,

)(110

' 000

nm

Imaging s~lmmclo:r l'mopsrec'l f3 for Pima OOU(>rl.

R~a 1c couce. anJ ro.>d ~u r fac ~' extracted from :! x
:! m (\.11a .... hmined near Bakersfield. CA

7 linear array CCDs

8lwtur ~ilC'

0IHI~(J1~

Crop ~ pccl ra Oh tllillnl

WOIl

Applani x !' OS IM U
with m-s and INS

~JIlCC data w ith suffi cien t spectral resolut ion tor the direct
*nliticalion of those mate ria ls with d iag nOSl ic spectral
m rption features . For example. Figure 73S depic ts high
~lr.I l resolution crop spectra ove r the interval ~(lO to lOHH
oblained using an imaging spec tromete r for an agricul'lIll ~rca ncar Bake rs field. CA. The absorption spectra for
k Pima and Royale colton diller from one another from
twinS om. \I here th..." red edge" is located, 10 aOllul 90 0
leading to 10c pos sibility that SIX."l,: io:S .... ithin the same
I1tf type might he dist inguishable (S BRC, It,lt,lol). T he
UIIlbJl scanners and Sf'OJ' II RV s...nsors, .... hich ha ... e rete) lall;': ban dw idth s, may IUlt be able to resolve the se
~I duferences.

Simultaneous imaging in many contiguous spec tra l ban ds

requires ant'.... approach to remote sensor system design.
O ne approach is 10 increa se th... reside nce time of a detector
in each IFO V using a linear army or detector clements (F igure 7-.k I. In this con figurauon. there i-, a dedicated detecto r
clcmcnt for each cross-tra ck pixe l. .... hich inc reases the rcsidc ncc t im e III the interval required til mo ve one II'DV along
the n ight direction.

T.... ll more pmcucalapproachcs 10 imaging spectrome try are

shown in Fig:ures 7 J d und Je. The .... his kbroom sca nne r lincur a rray app roach (Figure 73 d ) is "ll aloguus 10 the sca nner
approach used for Land sat " ISS and ETJ\l ', except that radiant flux from within the IFOV is passed to a spectrometer,
whe re it is dispersed und foc used onto ; 1 line ar array o f
detectors. Th us. each pixel is simultancouvly sensed in as
man y spe ctra! band s as there are dctector c temcms in the lincar arr ay, For hig h spat ial resolution illl<1ging. thi s approa ch
is sui ted on ly to an nirho mc sensor that n ics ,s lo wly and
when the readout urnc
the detector array i, a small Fraction o f the integ ration time . Because o f high spacecraft
ve loc ities. orhitn l imag ing spcctnuuctry might require the
usc o f rwo-dimcn-oonal area arrays ( Figu re 7 - 3c ~ . This d iminatcs the need for the optical scanning me chanis m . In this
situation, there i'i a dedicated co lumn o r spectral de tecto r
e lements for eac h linea r array cross-tra ck pixel in the scene.

or

T hus. traditional broadba nd remote sens ing sy ste ms such as

Landsat \ISS and SilO I HR\' 1/1/,,,",,<111/1'1(' the information
availublc from a reflectance spectrum by making on ly a few
measure ments In spectral hand s up to several hundred
nanometers .... ide . Co nverscly. inlilging spe ctrometers sample at dose inte rvals (bands on the o rder o f lo:nsof nanomc-

Multisp ectral Remote Sensing Systeflll spectra

240

Table 7

NASA Airborne Visible Infrared

Ima~ing Spectrometer

AVI RIS

Sens

\\ htskbroom
scan ner

\\ IR
-

400 IlID

1
1
1
1
;1
2
~
'
;
1

C-\.~

1500

handsIII
atl OQlll

uov lJiI

nominal

b,,~ .,,"

.. 1.0 mrad

(10"

hund

hyl*
all c
JPL
corn

Ima
spe

'0

tc

Airl
~

Radiant Ilux (<1'1 wuhin a 1,0 mrad lFOV (IS) is directed

\ ia a scanning mirro r 10 linear arra y dc tctors:
Srhcon ( S i ) for the \ rsrhle han ds;
Indu nn-amuuonidc HoSb) for the infrared band s

.; 2000

..
-oco

Th

.n

in!
sec

1000

I~

M OO

Wavele ngth In m l
Figure 739

('onc'"l"lual rcprcSt'ma ll<Hl of imaging spectroscopy as rmplcmcrucd hy 11ll" :-.JASA .1 PI. " ir!>urn.: visible -Infrared I
SpcctrOlll<: IC I (AVIRIS ). The scanne r mirror focuses radiant Fl ux " 111ll linear ar rays rhut contain 22 4 dete ctor clements ~

spectral sensitivity ranging from -11 K! to 25(}fl om. A spcrtru of radiance 11.) or pcrccm retlcct..mce can he obtained fore
picture clement. The AVIRIS scene was acquired over the KcnTlcdy SI'<ICC Center, FL. Only lI,lIld 30 \(,55.56 tim) isdir.pli)
(adapted from Filippi,

tc rs wi de) and have a sufflcicm num be r of spect ra l hands III

meas ured by laooralllry ins truments. Analysis of imaging
spe ctro me ter data allow s ex tmcuon o f a detailed spectru m
for each pic tu re d e me nt in rhe image ( Figure 7-3') 1. SUL'h
spectra onen alkrw d in..'l.:1 idcutificauon spcciflc mate rials
wit hin the IFOV of the sensor based upon the ir rc tlecmnce
characreri-aics, including minerals. atr nos phcnc gases, vegetut ion, SIIOW and icc, a nd dissolved matter in water bodic'S ,

or

Analysis of h~~T"ipl"CIT31 duta o tten requires the use o f

process ing softw are te.g..

sophisncatcd d ig ila l image

tc

I')<l'l),

allow const ruction of spect ra t hur closely resem ble those

"'
"
a

EN VI). Th is is because it is usua lly necessa ry 10 calibrll

[conv ert } the raw hypcrvpect ra l radiance data to se
reflectance be fore it can be properly interpreted . This m
removing the e ffect s of at mospheric auenuanon.
grap hiL' e ffec ts (s lope, a ~ pc.::tl , and any sensor anomal
Si milarly, to get the mos t out of thc hy pcrspee tral data '
usua lly necessary 10 usc algoruhrnv tha t I ) a nalyze spt\1I1
dcterrnme us consutncm ma terials , an d 2 ) compare the
Ira wi th a library of spec tra obtained usi ng han dheld s
rad iometers suc h as that Pf(1\ ideo hy the U,S, Geol
Sun-C) (1L'nsl;."n.20()5),

,s

241

iEtroroolry Using Li nea r & Area Array s

IillII!7 14, f'haructcrisucs Ill' Ih... NAS:\ Aim-orne Visible/Infrared Imaging Spectrometer ( . W IRIS\an<lth<' I'm I'S Research. Ltd . Compact Specerographtc trnegcr 1511C1 ICAS r 15(0) hyperspcctral rem, lie -en~lIl!:t S~"lcms.

,.""
I \\1RI...,

Tec hnology
" hrskbroom

Quantizati on
(bits )

IFOV
(m rad )

Tol al
fiel d of
v iew (")

224

"

1.0

Jl~

possible 31 2.2 om: the

number or bands anJ the
number 1'1'pi'l c I.. In Ittc
across-track an: programmab le.

"

0 ,-1<)

-105 "

(o m )

Spectral
In terva l
(om )

Num ber 01 Band s

.lO _ 2.5/MI

ItI

-\Ol)_ 105f1

2.2

Spectral
Resolution

lmear array
f" 1

I'"

L inear (I ~:oI() and

area ami)' ceo

114~O)(

2:<1\)

:!}\!'I

cenmcnt agencies and commercial firms have desig n..-d

Ilttds of imaging spectrometers capable of acquirmg
~!r3 1

data. II is beyond tile scope ofthis hook 10 list

Only three systems arc summarized: NAS A
In Airborne Visit>lc ' lnfrarcd Imaging Spectrometer. the
,'"'a'!'Ciall y available CUIIlp<ll'1 Airborne S(l<:'clrogr.lphie
, I ~ them .

I .~ er I~OO. an d ~ASA's Moderate Reso lutio n Imagi ng

~ctcronho':lfd the Tina satettne .
~

Visible/Infrared Imaging Spectrometer

'k first airborne ima ging spectrometer (AIS) was buih to

imaging spectrometer concept with infra red area
liiyqVan.:and Ooc t/ . 11111.1). The spectral coverage or the
iIltIIJmcnt was 1.9 III ::!. I ~111 in the 11\'" mode JmI 1.2 to::!,4
llllinmck mode in co nt iguous bnnds tha t w crcc..' nm wide.

I'll the

luacquirc data with g rcrucr spec tral and spatial cove rage,
W1R IS \\OS devel oped at NASA's Jet Propuls ion LaboraIll)' in Pasadena. C t\ (Tah le 7- 14 ). L Js i n ~ a whiskbroom
fCllln ing mirror and linear arrays o f silicon (Si I and ind ium anmonidc (ln Sh) configu red ns in rlgurc 7-3d, AVIRIS
~uirc\ images in 224 bands . each 10 11m w ide in the 400 to
:500 0 111 region (NAS A AVIRIS, 20( 6 ). The se nsor is typii'JIl)' fl ownonbo urd the NASA/ ARC ER-2 airc raft at 20 km
ixlw!:!rtlund level and has a ] OQtotal field of view and a n
esamancous field of view of \.0 mrnd. \\ hie h yield, 20 x
.!Om pixels. The data arc recorded in 12 h its [ val ues from ()
11.:095 )
\\l RIS characterist ics are summarized in Fig ure 7-J9. The

southern en d cr San Francisco Ba y, Three of the 22-1 spectral

hands of data were US\-d to produce the color composite on
top of the J~\ J",nf'<'I.,trllf tI,' Ii/Olne , The hlaek areas in the
datacubc represent uun os phcnc ah-orprion bands at I .... and
1.9 urn.

Compact Airborne Spectrographic Imager 7500

ITRES Research. Ltd .. of C an; IJa markets the C AS I remote

sensi ng system. The CAS I 1son is a push broom imagi ng
spect rome ter based on the u-,c of a 14XlJ d em ent acrosstrack linear array a nd a I-IXO x 281\ area array CC O ( Figure
7-.": 1.T he instrument operates over a M O-nm spe ct ral range
(4()(llo 1050 nnu and has a 4 0.5 Q lotlll field o f' view ac ross
14RO pi 'l:c1s (IT R[ S. 2n( 6).
A sing le line {,I' terrain I Axn pix els wide perpe nd icu lar to
till' Ilight path is sensed by the spectro meter optics ( Figure 740 ). Th e radia nce from within the IH >V is s pec trally dispersed along tllC uxi. of the urea ,Inay CC D so that a spe ctrum of en ergy [ from blue thro ugh nrur-inf rnrcd) is obtained
fo r each pi ~ e l arro~s the swuth. By repetitively read ing the
conte nts Il l' the area a rray e CD ,IS the a ircra ft moves a long
the llig ht path, ,It \\o-dilm'nsi'' nal image at high s pectra l reselution is acq uired. Si nce the rad iant tl ux tor fill pix els in a
particular sw a lh arc record ed sim uhuncously. spnrtat and
spectra l ( o-reg istration is assured. T he across-track spa tia l
resolut ion is de termined hy the alt itud e o f tile CASI above
ground level and the IFU V, while the along-track resolu tion
de pends upo n the velocity o f the aircrafl and the Tate at
whic h the ('('D is read.

Ilagram depieb a single hand of A\' IRIS image ry l band ) 0;

I i555b nm) {lblained

lhe Ke nnedy Space Lenter. FL.

Dl radiance data extracted Illr a singk pi'l:e l of saw palD:!IO n-geta ti{lIl . Color Plate 7-10 depic ts a portion of an
~\lR1S dataset acquired over ro. l\lflctl Field, CA al Ihe
O \W

CAS 1 1500 may be progra mll1\'d toco llee l 14bit data in scvern l mc..k s (Tahle 7-1 41 (I T KES. 2UOb):

~ 7

n l.\ l'n :1(

242

11 )!H'rSIH'ctraIDat:l Collect io n
lJ s i ll ~ Line ar- and Area Ana) s
" I N.

1050 nm

spectl

from 9 50 to :!45 0 nm at 15 nm intervals \\ ith a swath

o f flOO pixel s (ITRES. 20(6 ).

Moderate Resofution fmaging Spectrometer

The ;\loo l.' ratc: Resolution Imaging Spec tro meter is l1(l\\o
N..\ S..\ s EnS Terra 18. m. eq uatorial cross ing ti me) and.
(p.m. equatoria l eru~~i l1g ti me) sa tel lites. MODIS
long- term obscrvuuons to deriv e an enhanced knew!
glo bal dy nam ics and proc......ses occurri ng o n the surfaa
the Ea rth and in thc lower atmos phe re IK i n~. 2003: 'l.
\10DlS. :!OO6). It yie ld, vimultane..-ous obse rvatio ns of ,
atmosphe nc {clou d cov er and associated propernesj,
an ic (....:a-s urfacl:: tempe rature and ch lorophyll). and
surface [land -cover chang es. land-surfa ce temperature,
vegetation properti es ] features .

'"

hands

Figure 7-40

Mu lt ispec tral Rem ote Sensi ng System>

Hypcrspcctral data collecnon tJ ~in g a linear array

pus hbroom M:n ,..,r that dist ribu tes the cn~'l);Y <JIlIO a
I axn x 22x clement area army M..nsuiv e 10 the
\0, ;) \ ctcug th region from ~()O
1,050 nm.

'0

:-"p lI/illl 11I0<1.'- where the full ac ross-track rcso hnion nj

I.-lKO pixe ls lire obtained fI 'T up 10 IY nonoverlapping
spectral bands w ith programmable center w uvch.. ngth s an d
bandwidth s.

I ( llJ,'n p CCII'<l! mc/,k ' - up to J ,4S0 prog r<lrnmablc adj acent

spatial pixels and lip 10 ::!XK spectral hands over the full
spectral range.
F ilII j iWl1('-I,4I<O spalilll pix els (ac ross- track ) and Z8X
spect ral hand s.

Th e spec ific bandwidths art' selected according to the applicanon (c .g .. bath ymetric mapp ing , inventory ing chloro phyl l
tl co nce ntration]. The result is a programm able area arm y
remote sr-nsing syste m that may he the precu rso r o f future
satel lite hypc rspc ctral sensor systems.
IT R ES also ma rkets the SASI t>OO. This is the first hyperspect ral S WIR syste m 10 coll ect in frared data in 100 bands

~ODl S is in a 70 5-km Sun-sync hronous om it. lt \io'j

entire surface of the Earth e\'e \1 o ne 10 1'10 da ys. It
field o f \ 'ic\\ of 1;550 o ff-nad ir. whi ch y idds a swath 11
o f 2,330 km . \10015 obtains high radio metric resol
images ( 12-hil l o f dayli ght-rcn L'C ll::d solar rad iat ion and
nig fu thermal emission 0 \ cr all region... of the glo be. ~ l
is a \I his kbroom scanning imag.ing radiometer eonsi51~
a cros s-trac k sca n mirror. co llec ting. opt ic s, and a set of
car detector arra ys with ep cc tral imcrfcrcn cc filters I
in four fO" 111 plane s ( Figure 7-3d ), II col!c-cts data ill
coregiste red spectral hands: 20 hands from 0 ... to 3 ~m
16 bands from J til 15 u r n. The bandwidths and rhcir p ,
use s nrc summari zed in (Table 7- 15 ).

MODIS' coarse spat ial rcsoluuo u ran ges from 250 x 2.-'1)
(ba nds I i1mI 2) 1tl 500 x 500 III (bands 3 thro ugh 7)and t
I km (hands X through 36 ). A MO DIS hand 4 (green: O~
- 0.565 ~1I11 ) image o r the N ile Della. the N ile River.
muc h o f the a rea surround ing 11K' Red Sea is sho wn in Pi
7-t L1. 1lenhh y vegetation absorbs muc h o f the imiJ
green radiant fl ux . therefo re, the vegetated area.
recorded ill dark tone s in thi s \10DIS image. MODIS p;r:
vid cs daylight rctle..-uon anti day/night emission spec
imaging ofany poi nt o n Earth at ka sl every 1\\'0 days. \lit!con tinuous duty cycl e, The swath w idth is 2330 km
track. ,\ composhc in1<lgo: o f glnn,ll MODIS co verage
A pr illlJ. 2000, is show n in Figure 7-4 Ib.
\1(1)IS has one o f the most co mpreh ens ive ca libration
systems ever Flown on a re mote sensi ng insrru meru. The
ibration hardware inc lude s a sol ar d iffus er. a solar diffusl
stahrlny mo nitor, a spccrroradiomeiric cahb ration i
mcr u. a blac kbody for the rma l calibration. and a space l it"
pon . The cahb rauc n a llows thc, optical data 10 be rom

Tablt

243

ip!c:lromel ry using linear & Area Arravs

Ith
Cha r.l~lc ri~l ics

"<:Ie 715.

Band

"

of the 7.:"11 satellite Moderate Reso lution Imag ing Spec trometer (:\IODI5 ).

Spe c tra l Res olution (iJm )

Band Utilit y

Spati al Resolution

0.62 0 - 0.6 70

250 x 250 m

Land-cover classifica tion. c hlorophyll absorp-

O.lUl - 0.1\76

250 x 250 m

lion. leaf-area-index mapping

0 .4511 - O.4N

5OOxjOOm

Land. clou d. and aerosol properties

0.51>5

"

'f

0.545

,r

1.2.'0 - 1.250

1,(,21\ - 1.652

500xjOOm
5(0)( 500 m
500)( 500 m

2.105 -2.155

SOo)( 51)0 m

0.405 - 0.410

I x I Ian

0 ,4)1< _ 0 .44 11

0,M2 -0.672
O.673 -0.bN3

I )( 1 km
I )( I km
I x I km
l x l km
I x 1 km
I x I km

is

0.743 - 0.753

l x

I6

0.1\62 - O.!'i77

Lx I km

17

n.sco -.0 .'120

"10

(l ,1I31 - 1I.'I-41

t x t km
I x I km

0.')15 - 0.%5

I xlk m

zo

1 600 -3.1140
3.919 - 3.98'1
3.929 -3.'1'1'1
4.020 - 4.O!W

lxlkm
j x I km
I x 1 km
Ixlkm

Surface-cloud temperature

4.4B 4.4' )1\

4.4 IC - 4.54'1

I x I km

Atrnovphcnc tempe rature

1 x I km

1.360 - 1.3<)0

I x I km

Cirru s d o uds

05 .15 _ h .I\Y5

""

I x I kill
l xtkm
I x I krn

water vapor

7. 175 - 7.475
K.4110 - K.7011

)11

9 ,51\0 - 1).1\1<0

1 y I km

Ozone

Jl
J2

I O.711 0 - 11.::! ~ O

l xlkm

Surface-cloud tcrupcmturc

11.770 -1 2.l7 0

t xtkm

13.185 13.4'15 13.785 14Jl!'lS -

l x lklll
1 x I km
lxlkm
1 x I km

,,
10

OAS) - OAQ)

II

0526 - 0.536
0.54(,- 0.556

12

I3
14

21

22
23
24

zs

"27

J3
J4

"

16

13.485
13.7!'l 5
14.08 5
14.3 !'l 5

dO scalcd retlccmncc. !\IDOlS da ta arc being proc es sed to

JWC numerous global darasers. incl ud mg ( NASA ,.,IODIS ,
~):

Oo.;COIll co lor. phytoplankton. biog ccochcruistry

t km
" lllltl~rhcric water

\ Jpor

Cloud-top a llilu,!c

land ecosystem variables te.g., vegetation ind ices, lea f

area inde x, fractio n ofphotosymheucally activ e radia tion,
vegeta tion ncr primal) produc tion] :

...

l IlA I'rn~

244

~ Iod('ra te

Resolut ion

Ima ~i n g

a. \lODIS band -l image of the ~i lc Delta

obtained on Febru ary 211, 2000.
Figu re 7 41

Multispectral Remote Sensing Systems

Spectrurnvt er (;\IO I>I S)

Ima gl'r ~'

DigitI

Table

h. A composite hand I image of ~lohal Terra ,tOJ)[S

cove rage " 11 Apr il 19.2000.

Term , 1(1(>1 ... band 4 (green: 0.545 _ O.5M I!m) imag... ~,f !he hell'l l} \e~el"l\-d "-lile Delta. the ~ik River. and mucllof
area surrounding the Red Sea. (land -l has a spatia l resolution "r ~oo >( 500 111 , II) A composite: o.md I Ired: 0.(>2 - 0.(.;
i ma~ C' 01 the glollal rerra \ IODIS oovcrdge on April 1'1. 211C~ I , I he MO DIS ew ath w 1,111'1 ,, 2.JJlI krn an~"lracl rc
~AS:\ God dard Space night Center).

atmosphe ric varia bles (c .g.. cloud fraction, cloud optica l

thickness. aerosol optical depth. etc.j:
ocean vuriublcs
chlorophyll}.

(c.g .,

sea-surface

temp erature and

Digital Frame Cameras B ased on A rea

Arrays

T he cha rge- coupled-de vice (e CD ) was inv ented in the late

1 960 ~ by sc ie ntis ts at the n <:11 Lnbs. II wa s nrigi nJ lIy 1.'0 11ccived as a ne w IYr~' of'corn puter me mory circuit. hUI it soon
became ap pare nt rhur it ha d ma ny ot he r a pplication s. including im age data collection. be ca us e of the se nsi tivit y of ~ il i
con to light.
Th e genera l charucrerisrics Ill' sm atl-. rncdi um- , a nd largeforma t d ig ita l cameras we re introduced in C ha pte r a . T his
section su mmarizes the characterist ics an d pro vides examplc s o f imagery ass ociutcd w it h th ree rcprcscntauve ex am ples of modern dig ital ca meras. We be g in w ith the: medium
format Lcica GeoSystems Emerge D ig ital Se nsor System

(OSS ) based on are a arrey techno logy ( Fig ure 7-30 and,
progress II ' mere ,"' phistica l~ large-fo rma t d ig ital camea
based on (/J\'<.I array ( f r;1 l11 c ) techno lo gy (Z, I D \ IC and \"a
cc! L" h raC arn).

Small-format Digi tal Data Collec /ion: Leica

Geosysrems Emerge Digital Sensor System

T he Di gital S..- ns or System (DSS l use s a digi tal c ame ra ala

array lhal acquires imagery containing ..f.ll 92 x 4,079 pixd!
( Table 7-16), Each pixe l in the arcu a rray is 9 x 9 micron>.
US<:N C'l11 ~ rl.'cify 1.:,)101' (blue, gree n. and red , or co lor-infrared I gree n. red, anti near-iufrurcd I mu ltihand imagery in tit
spect ra l reg ion from 0.4 III 0 .9 urn. In nca r-io frurcd mode.
the senso r has a s pec tra l res ponse simi lar 10 tha t o f Kodak
Ae roc hromc 24..fJ color-in frared film. bu t with hig.hl:r
dynamic range . Th e data may 01.' rec orded at 8 o r 16 bits per
pixel. Emerge collects rca t-nmc ditlc-rcnually corre cted GP'i
data atxuu each digital frame Ill' im;lgery. These dat a are u:l(lJ
III mosaic and onhorccrify the imai:\l.'r) usi ng phutogram meric techniques introd uc ed in C hapter b. The p ixel pla ccrnea
accuracy mcco national map acc uracy standards ILigbt.
2nO\; Lcica Emerge. 2006).

245

t::igital Fram e Camera s Based o n Area Arra ys

Ti'Jle 716.

Leica ( kusy~l em s Pmcrgc Digital Sensor System

( USS l characterist jcs.

..,d

Spectral
Re solut io n
Nalural Color
Mod.

Spectrttl
Reso lutio n
Near-+nfrared
Mod.

Spa tial
Resolu tio n

(nm)

(n m)

1m )

400 - 500

Variable.
but usually
0.15 ttl 3 m

5110 - hllI l

510 - tollO

Variat-Ie.
bul usually
0.15 In3 m

600 - (,1:(0

600 - 700

Varia ble.
but usually
0.15 103m

!too _ QfI(J

elu tion compa red to the pa nch roma tic dat a. Ind ividual
fram es (If imagc ry are obtained just like a trad itiona l frame
ca mera w ith use r-s pecified end-lap between fra mes (1lin z d
al.. 20(1 ).

Larg e-form at Dig ital Data Collec tion : Vexc el Unm c em

ba sed on Area Arrays

The vc xccl large-format d igita l camera USl~ eig ht optical

cones [i.e., \ ie" ing pon~ ) wit h 1] area array CC[)~ srretcg ically located behind the <ight purls- Nmc o tthe 40 0 IJ x 2700
CCD arrays arc use d III collect panchromatic da ta. Four o f
the ecn 3tT.lys arc used 10collect hluc. gree n. red , a nd nearinfrared multispectra l data . Each frame of una ge ry is 11.500
)C i500 pixels in dimension. Individ ual frame
s of imagery
arc o btaine d w ith use r-specified en d- lap between frames
( Ve \ cd . 20 0M .

Variahle.
bu1 u"uall)

U.S. Sp ace Shuttle Digifal Pho tography

0.15 103m
"falnr

All.'a arrays (4OQ~

DrlN"IOr ~i l'"

OJI09 mm

Rad illln ~lrk

loI- and It> hit

)C

40 79)

Rrwl utin"

I' ASA astronauts document Earth processes during Space

Sh uttle S pace Trunsportanon System (STS ) missions using:
bo rh ana lo g and digi ta l earners syste m" [L ulla and Dcssinov;
2 0l )(l). Photograph y are cataloged into a database accord ing
10 the specific mission rc.g.. ST S 74 1 or b~ thematic topic
(~ :\SA Shuulc I'hcuogruphy, ~OO(I),
S pat'l.' S h ull l", Analull ("a ll1l' nt\

AIariet)' (If n ying heighls and diffe rent focal-le ng th Niko n

eases can be use d 10 obtain imagery with sp,llial resolutions
nngmg frum 0. 15 10 J 11l. Figure 7--12 dep icts mul us pecr ral
bands of Em erge I x I 111 imngcry obtained over Du nk irk ,
~ y Stich high -res olution darn can be collected on dem and
1Il good weather. A color-i ufrurcd composite o f thc s.uuc
scene is found in Co lor Plate 7- lla. A natura l co lor Emerge
erne of an urea adj acent to a New York Po wer Auth ori ty
~ke is found in Co lo r Pla te 7-1 1h.

Largeforma t Dig ital Data Collec tion: ZI1 Dig ital

Mrxiular Camera

Hassclblad and linhof' analog cameras arc used (In Space

Shcnlc missions . The fo ur w indows ill the a ft pa rt o f the
Space Slunrlc arc used 10 obtain photog raphy o f the Earth.
The windows allo l-\ 0.4 In n.x u m ligh t In pa ss through . Very
low- Sun ang !.: photography ob tained fro m the Space Shuttle
otl ce provides uniqu e topog raphic view s o f remote mounminous an'as othc rwisc poorly mapped Sevcmy-tlve per cem ofjh e ph ulogra phs ill the urchiv e cov er the reg ions
between 21r' \I and 21\ S l.uitudc. pro viding coverage for
man y liulc-known tropical areas. T he Space Shuttle Earth
Observuuons Project (SSEO I') <II NASA Job nson Sp ace
Center contains the rec ords o f more than -100,000 ph otogra phs (hnp :lii mages.js c .nasa.gll \ ).

TheZil Digita l \ 1udu lar C Ull.:f;I n K: l\l) uses fo ur 7()()n x

.;(00

r CD area arrays to o btain one co mplete frame of

IIIlJgery. All (,CDs haw their own oplics and func tion as
sand-alone d i~:ital ca meras that arc sy nc hronized to collect
ib!.J at the exact same instan t. Fou r addition al CC Ds with
3000 )( 2()(1() detectors are need to obtain blue, green. red .
IIId nea r-in fnJrl~d muhi"pt:<:lra l da ta at lhe same inslant.
Tbmforc. the multi:;pt.'\: tral ba nd.. ha\ e rcduc..:d ground rcs-

...

Space Shuttle a nd S pace Sia liun Di::til:11

r h u l O~r:Jp h~'

The lntematiunal Space SlatIon ( ISS) wus launch ed Nov e r nbcr Z.

~ OOO.

Th e Uni ted S tal e!' ISS Laboratory Mod ule has a

(lpliea l wimlll\\ with a clear ape rturc 50.K
e m in d iame ter thilt is pc rp.:ndlcu l:u 10 the- Ea rth's s urface
mo st of the lime. In 20lH, ;l:-tw nauls bega n acq uiring d igita l
spl"Ci all~ design~-d

Multispe ctral Rem ole Sensing Systems

246

Referem

Digital Fram e C a mer a Imagery of Dunkirk.;'IriY

T.
Ta

h. Roo hand.

a. Green hand.
Fig ure 74 2

c. " o:ar-i nfra rcoJ band.

Lcica (;t'tK)skmS lO me'll c Dlgllll ',,'nlf S) 'It"Il1 (DSS, muttrs pcctra l ImageI') " r I )unkl rl. . '<Yo l"hc <lata ...ere wl1edtd
December l~. 1<)')1$. at a spaual r<.-"MJlutillll of 1 x I III(wtll1..:,) Limon Emerge. Inc.).

imag es u ,in~ a KllC.bl.o De S 76 0 ca mera with Nikon lenses.

Both color and monoc hrome d igital imagc:s rna) be

obta ined, The camera uses a

3 0J~

x 20m: eC D. Digua l

imag c' (In: uun suiincd di rec' l) In thc grou nd . A d igita l photogra ph of the Toq ucpala Coppc r \ i ino: in Sou thern Peru
take n from the Intcmanona l Space Statio n I'll Se ptember 22.
200.1. j, shown in Figure 7-0 .

(i.'u">e. 211(1(. lJRlU MA(j L"( mll! ,I.'!n .'''" lI lII., i li ,,,, ofSpJaI
" gmg. ('h"'lg,., Ur,m,1 S,u""lo (;,,<,r:.I''' , Dull...". VA: Goo
Inc. Pre ,,, rod...a , ...Jan uary 12; \1'\1'" .gllc)'....com .
Hin z...\ .. C Doe r- tel. nnd II fook icr, 2(lltl. /H /C

Ti,.. ()ig,"

S"",,,, Tr'-/m"l"gy ' !f II Imagi'll< . I II I> I' nbc h and R. "1'11

I Eds.}. 1''''''''.eIWIIII/,'!Ii< Il " "~ .' /JII I J lculcl berg: Wichman
'>3- 1Il~.

Referen ces
Im'lgc Sal. 20111,. nUJ.'; I A. www.i Il1 3I!l..a uml.com..
I

lJ ig llalO ltll1C. 200\ !Jlg/w /t;/,, !>,' /.;1II'<'I!.\ l 'lan' fo!' WOl'hl r ,c\"
I <111.1 II. Oc r.. 4; ww w.diguulploh c.com

nn :-..

] 11 (1(,. C" f,hmlnl Air/10m .. Sfw"lmgrof' l,ic Imil!;

/5 1111. Canada: IT RES Rc scurch lt d .. \, \, w.urcs. com.

Jensen. J, R.,
[>igi ra1( ; lobe . 2001>,

f) i~ III1 I (jI" />.,, www .dl g ita l !! l uh~ . Cl.l11 .

2 ()O.~.

f'1lmtl"" !III'}' /ligi lilf Imag.. I'm ('<'\'.,i ng..j

K,

N"IUllle S"/IIill~ f '<'I '.'f',,'lin'. l.:p[1 er SaJ J 1c Rive r: PremiclI a ll. 5] '; r .

Fili ppi. A .. 1'/O I'J. II I'{" ' rll't'I '!I'</I I " ",g l' ( 'lo H i!ic,/fI ml U, ill~ A
Ualt'h /)"."'i'II ,Ii/l,1{ Fvzzv f." ,m lillg 1",( I,W (J'''lII li: ,u i<J'I Arlifi ,;,,1 V,'/lral /\,'I " O/.\-: l"gt"l<i!iull \1" !'f' i' l)J u! ,/1t' J uhn F.

A"JlJIt,/\' Sf'an ' C,mer. unp ublished Masre rs thesis. L'olumbra : Uni\crsil) of South L'urohna. 276 p.
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Je nsen. J. R.. Bc tr hw uy. K.. Hrcnua n-Uulviu. L.. Joha nnscn.C

Juni a, C . Mab og unj.... . \ ., \ l ilk r, R.. Price. K.. Re ining. P
'k" lt>. D., x tauciolt, A. au,1 D. R. L Taylor. ~lJU2. f),,~n
Eunlt .' G",,!:r,,!,},,< I"{urmun"" ./;,,. Sl/.IwiJl"I,!t LA'wlupllwlJ
ill l(ri,..,. Wavhington : Nauonal Academy Press. 155 p.

K idwell . K. II.. 1 '!'1.~. ,\(H.~ Pol,,, Orlnter 0./1'1 L".l'<,r; GuiJ!.

TlROS. ,V Ihll>ugh ;\o.~ ". N . Waslnngton: \; 0 :\.-\ U .S. Otpl.

01 Comme rce. 50 p.

247

werences

Ili ~ilal

Frame Ca me r a Im a!:c of the

Toquepula Copper ,' li nt' in SUUlht'r n l' cru
Taken from the Int ernational Space Station

l.ulla . K. an d L. Desvinov. 21lUll. Oy" " m ic f /l,.th Knvtronmen ts:

R"", ,,'" S",/wlg ()!>.,en', lIio,,-,

/1'''111

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:'LY.: Ju hn \Vi h,:y. 2M! p.

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Fie ld. C A: I\AS,\ Alii ...,. Airborn e S c nsor Fac ili ty. hltp:llas ap-

data. arc.nas a.gov /.

l" AS A AS TE R. :!fl(lo6. ,4,1,,,,,,,,,,01 Sl'd,e"'. m~' TIt,',.-m,,1 mi.uilln
,mol R,:f/t ..tion RoJ","', I,'''-, htt p:l'astt:'rw et'o .jp l.na sa .gov/.
;';AS,\ AVI RIS. 2006. .4irb." " , li.,ihl. I"/ ,,,red 1"',lgi " g S".,c/...uneter. hn p:f1a\ irss. jpl.na(,1.(:llvf.
l"A SA r O - I. 2()o(" E."..,1t 0 1>se,....,,.- 1. hltp:f1eo l .gs fe ,nJsa.go\
NASA ~ S l::. :!OOt>. t:"",n $("1"'" e t:III"rpri~ .:. hllp:flscience .hq.nasa.gov /!>t rale ~}".
l"ASA La nds at 7. 2(lU6. I..mJ,,,, 7. h tlp:l/landSllt.gsfc. noiSll.g U\

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~ 743

A ~lfunaut photograph o f the Tuq uepa l.l Copper

" me in southern Peru l ~ken from the lme rnauo nal

Space Slaliufl un September 21, 20113, w itb 01 Koda k

DC'S 7f>O digital camera (ph,,\o # ISSOO7- E-15 222).
Ilw open pH nun c IS t>oS km across and descen ds
more th ~n 3.0 00 m into lhe earth, A dar kline on tho;
wall nf the p il is the ma in a..c-...""rood 10 the bOtlll1l1 .
Spvi l du mp" o f matcri ul mi nc-d from the pit arc urranged 111 lien; along rhe northwest lip o f the p it
(cou rtesy <l f K\SA Enrth Observatory and Dr. Knmlcs h Lulla . l" AS,\ Johnson Space Cen ter ).

( ing, M., 20U~, r o s /lal<l Product 1/<lII<I/>IIok - Va lWllt' I. wa vh-

ingwn : NASA, 25K p.

(ri~hn;\,w a rny.

r>.1 an d S. Kulyanuratnan , 20\lti. "Indian Re mot e

Stllsinl1 Satclfnc L'artosut- L: Technical Featu res und Datu

rrodueb : ' GIS 0 "1'<,1"1'111,'/11' Till' G"" ,,,," li,,1 /'or t" I, http: //
",",w.gisdc\ c lop mcnt ,n" t,'I... d m(l l <lgy !r ~llc ,,hr s U2 J,hi m.

Idea Emerge , 2006. 1.,'i"' l [ 1I1t'log" , hn p:lJSis ,kica-g cos vs1(1111,com/prnd lll:l s/e mc rg..._d ill- Ita l s... ns or remcrgc dss ,a sp ,

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lffil. Photo/-:" am"'l' l n C f "" KII"'l' r lllK (I< /("" /II/ t' S..lIvi" g.
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S~ ste m~_II I> R l lO l.Ol$. Rc visj cn I; :!OU p.

ldcm.n asa.gov,
NASA ~lI S R . :!(I(Ifl. Hlllli<lllg f(' h.,,,gmg Sf'l'C'lmmt'll'r. hll p:fI
www- mis r.jpl.n asa.g uv ind cx.h tml.
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, 'It' ll'

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NA SA Shull le Photo grap hy, 2tlOl" SpllC" Shu tt l.. t:<lrl h Oh,,''''1'<lII"n I '!t <l/<I!lI'<I/,In'. h IlP:!!CllTlh,;sc .uasa.gov Isscup/c fsl .
NO.-\A A\' 11 I{ t{ , 200/\, Advam-ed Val' lIiKIt Newllllioll Rudnnn<,1<'1', Ii UP:!!WW"".cs o.nuaa.gov Ipoc s./.

NO AA D\1 SI'. 20w'. I k / clI \,/' ,\f" I<,omlll}.? im l SIIIt'I/t lt' f 'mg r UIII . htlp:ll", w.... .oso.noa a.gov/dms p/.
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Sa td lik , Im p:l, Yo Il. .... .ncs di , . nw a.go\"f~al ...11 itc s.h unl.
N( M A ('i VI. 21106, GI,,1>,, 1 V".S::O'fII li<l1l tll de r Pmtlll"'-\ . http://
Yo " "

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\I0 .-\.-\/NASA POt'S,
EII\'imm"elIlul S<lldlik.\ (.\'/'OES), h ltp:lfgo...spocs.gsfc.nasa.gov -.

~ 7

C IIt\ PT ER

248

so:\ :\ NI'O ESs. 100(., A" li"'/,ll " " /UI' ()rfllli,,~ 0l'erutiun"t
Em 'iro nm"/II,IJ S" ,d /il<' S:nfL'm, Illlp: /! ............ .ipo.noaa.gov/.

Mult ispectr al Remot e Sens in g Systems

"r

R~'",,,, ,,h s~"., ,,J Data, w. Lafa yette: UlI

the Applic anous of Rc mcec Sen sing. 13 - 18.

"m,.,.\ /II1o!

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l\PP. 20(10. ;\'uli"'l<Il l'o/ur O rh ifUlI{ Op ..r ulioll aJ Environm..m al .'klte/lill! Spl.-m Prt:J",/r<ltv r)' Proj t'f.t. hllp:1f
VI""'"'.ipo.noaa ,gm Projects/npp.html.

S P() T Image. :W On. Sf'O T, www.sporimage.com.bome

eM

!\RSA. 2006 . III<li<l1/ S<lfim l" / Rntw'" 5.",,;1/1: .... g e,,')', http ://
www.nrsa.gov.m 'engnrsa/s.itemap.htrnl.

USGS G lo bal Landcov cr, 200(,. G/,," ,, ( f.uIlJ",n'er

;::<IIi"". h nl':f, edcsns I 7.<:T. usgs_g<l\ I ~1ccJ .

Drbimagc. ::!006. Or" Ii. .. ) und OrM /... - j .

age.com .

USG S Glovis. 200f>, GI,,"'" l i " u<lli::UI;on Ik....-r, bup:

is.usgs.g ov.

............." rbi m

OSTP. 200 5. \lo'"",ru lI,I" ", : L..m, l. ul /Ju tu Contmuitv SI"Uf<'~'

Adj ll," "''''''. Wa ~hm gton : O ffi ce orxcteece. Techno logy, and
Policy. hn p:Jlldcm.g.fc.na sa .gu\/dol;S. OSTP_ La nd~l _
memo _12. 1,\

r -t',I(' ,rd f

SURe. l'NoI. 5,,,....(' .'k:m o n . Goleta: Sa OIa Barbara Resea rch

USGS Land sat 5. 2006. 1.",,,1...t .s Update , Siou.. Falls:

ERO S Data Cen ter, hlt r :l 1and~l. u"l!s.gO\.
Vanc, G and A . L II . Goetz, IQQ J , "Tcrrestrial Imaging '
trom etry: Current Status. f- utu re Trends." RemM e ,wmnr
1II'i",,,,,,.,,,,. 44 : 117- I ::!n.

C enter . 33 p.
ScnS ~ Tech.

100..J. ,. irl..,rn<' .\f/ll m f'n'lr ul .'K'mmer. "ww.s.:n-

systcch.com

Solomon-on, V,. 1')1(4. ' Land -.al 4 amI 5 Slilt us a nd Results Irom
The matic Mapper Data ..\ na l)' s~s .- T'mc,<'''ing~. ,H",lI lII"

vex ccl, 200n. t -llraC" m ,.I"l!f' F nr m<ll lJiX'I<l' Comere.

wW".\ C"Cd. l'"11 .

Thermal Infrared Remote Sensing

bjccts that have a tem perature above absolute zero 10 K) emil electromagnetic energy. Therefo re. all the featu res .... c encounter in the landscape everyday, such as vegeta tion, so il. rock . ....ater. ami people. emit thermal infrared
electromagnetic radiat ion in the 3.0 - 14 u rn poruon of the spectrum .
Huma ns c:.pcri nee Ih is thermalenergy pr ima ri ly th rough ou r sense o f'to uch.
For example o: feci the therm al radiant energy from the Sun or ,h e radian t
energy from a tire on ou r face . Ho....ever, our-eyes ca nnot de tect subtle differences in therma l infrared energy emitted from real- .... o rld objects because our
eyes are primarily scns tuve (0 short -wavelength visible light from 0.4 0.7
11m. Ou r eyes a TO: not sen sitiv e 10 the refl ective infrared 10.7 - 3 .0 J.lffi ) or
thermal infrared l."n.:rgy (3.0 - 14 11m). Fortunately, engineers have developed
detectors that are sensitive to thermal infrared radiation. Thesc thermal infrared sensors allow human s to sense a previously invisible world of infonnauon as they monitor the therma l characteristics of' the landsca pe.
When we are ill. one o r the first things \\ e do is take ou r temperature 10 determine if it is different from the normal 98.6 OF (31 C \. If our temperature is
elevated. it usually mc ans so mething is \\ rc ng, Similarly, the various componcnts of the landsc ape such as vegetation. soil. rock. water. co ncrete. and
aspha lt shingles have predictable the rmal characteris tics based o n how they
select ively absorb so lar sho rt-wavelength energy and radiale therm al infrared
energy. Thermal infrared remote sensi ng syst ems record therm al infr ared
radiation that can be used to dete rmin e I) the type of'material based on its
thermal emissi on characteristics and/ or 2) if significa nt changes have taken
pla ce in the thermal c haracterisn cs of these phe nomena t hrou gh time t Quattroc hi and Lu vall. 2004). In this manner, it is possible 10 identity the sur face
physical manifes ta tio n of certa in diseascs in humans (e.g. perhaps the cxlsrcnce of a tumor), stress in plants. ther ma l pollution in water bodies. or The
lu~s ofheat from buildings due to faulty insulation.
Aeria l therma l infra red imagery has not been widel y availa b le tothe gene ral
public d ue to [) the relativel y high cost of the therma l sensor. 2) the cos t of
mobilizing an aircrnnro acquire the remot ely sensed da ta. a nd 3) the difficuhy of calib mting and correct ly mrerp rering the imagery. The puhlie knows
about Ih ~'nJl;1 1 infrared remote sens ing large ly from close-range uppllcauous
suc h as those shown in Figure S-l , including: residen tia l and commercial
hear-loss insulation studi...' S. the usc of handheld thermal imagi ng units to
locate hot spots in hom es and to find other h uman beings in II fire or at night,
thermal images o f h umans to detect a variety ofmcd ical problems (so melimes re ferred to as thermography). and nondest ructive testing and evalua tion
of electronic components. The public also SC'"S therma l infr ared imagery
being used to alloc ate lire ti ghting resources d uring a forest fire or to target

249

.,"
~

e-n \1'11 -1{

250

The rm al tnfrared Rem ote Se nsing

~nl'llIY

Iaciluics as in the G ulf War in 199] or the Iraq War

in 2006 , T he public in gene ral docs nor rea lize that the nigh ttime ( jO ES images of weather fronts displayed on the
n ightly new s arc thermal infra red imag es.

{In:S h ). and other substances that a re l ery se ns itive til

red radia lio n. We abo have co mputcrs to rap idly process
energ y record ed by the se nsors and to d isplay the I
c haracter'i..lie:> o f the scene.

Thennal in frared remote sens ing w ill bec orn... more importanl in the futu re as ..ddnional or bital SCO W l'"!> obta in therma l
data and costs dec rease. Also . go vernme nt agenc ies (e .g..
po lice. drug e nforce ment. immigration bord er-pa tro l ollieers) no.... rcuunel y ue... hand held thermal infrare d sen sors
and forw ard -lookin g infrared se nso rs I FUR) mounted in aircra ft 10 look for mis sing persons and c riminal activity,

Thus, it took about a century for gove rn me nts to un

that rem ote sc nsing in the the rmal infrared reg ion could
vide valuable tactical recon na issance information.
cia lly sin ce the images cou ld be rec orded bot h In the da~
a nd at n ight. In the 1950s. the government co ntracted
civ ilian firms to impro ve therma l infrared technologyI
Texas lnsu umerns j. In the 1<;l00s,. so me of these cent
rece ived permiss io n from the governme nt to use the ..
lied sensors 10 produce thennal infrared imagt'S for 1
se lect c ivilian clients ( h t....s. llJtlh ). In IlJM . the gov
declassifie d the production of therm a l in frared remote
ing systems rh.n d id not exceed a certain spatial rcso
and tem pe ratu re se nsitivity, Thermal infra red remote
ing s)':>tems devel oped hy Texa s ln stru rncrus. Inc.. Da
Emcrpriscs. Inc.. Rockwel l lmcmational . Inc c'1 C 1I
lirst ce rn ...-d alott hy aircratl. ()i l compa nies conducung g
logica l ex plora tion req ues ted much of the early t.h
infmrt"d d ata and continue to be major consume rs. Th
infrared remote sen ..ing sy ..te rns mount ed onboard ai
cominuc to co llect much of the on-demand thermal in
data fo r public age ncies Ie.g .. Environ me ntal ProtectKI
Agency, Departme nt of Energy. state departments of naliD
resou rce s) and foreign governments.

History of Th erm al Infrared Remo te

Sen sin g

Sir Fred erick Will iam Hersche l t 17J S- I R22: Figure g-2 ).
probably the most famous astrono mer (If the I xth centu ry.
d iscovered the mfmred punion of the electrom ag net ic spectru m and described u in his famous paper - Invest igations o f
the Powers o f the Pri smati c Co lou rs to I kat and Illuminate
O bjec ts: with Remark s ." In I loO(lO. Hers chel crea ted a spectru m o f co lo rs using a prism and mca surc-d diffc-rcnt part s of
the spec tru m with a thermometer to sec i f so me col ors were
wanner than ot hers. As he moved the the rmome ter toward
the red portion o f the spcx irum. the temperature increased . It
seemed rea sona ble to mow the thermometer j ust past the red
end in order (() watch the heat ing e ffec t dis appear. It d id not.
Instea d. the temperatu re continued to increase bey ond the
red end of the spect rum ( Figure X-3) . Herschel ca lled this
reg ion of the elc ctnunagn . .uic spectrum infrared. which
means "below the red" (Omega. 2(05 ). Herschel was also
the first perS011 to co rrectl y descr ibc tltt: form of ou r ga laxy .
The Milky wa y.

In I S7\), S. 1'. Lang ley begun a research progr~lIll to find a

supe rior radialion de tector. II year later he invellled the
holollleler that was ab le to measure tcmperature var iations
of 1110.0(JO QC In World War I. S , O . Hollman was ab le to
detect men at 120111 :ll1d eve ntua lly aircr:,l!l. In the 19_10s.
Gernlan y dcveloped the Kiel syst e m for d isc riminating
betw een Nlmh ers a nd night li ghtcrs. Thc Briti sh and thc
Un ited States a lso dt'\"e!upell in fr arell sUl"\eilla nce techn i..lU'.'s in World War II. In fa..:t. thc singk mo st important
deH' lopmelll in in /r ared tech nology was lhe invention ofthe
l. ktectur d em enl hy "" a rring nations d uring World War 11.

.v

T he first declassified satellite remote sens or dat a were

leered b) the U.S. Tele vis ion IR O pera tiona l Satcllil!'
(TI ROS l launch ed in I ()60, The coarse reso lution thermJI
infra red data "" ere ideal I'm mon itoring regional cloud p.1l'
tern s and frontal mov ement. NASA launched the H-=Capacity \1 apping ~ li s si(\11 ( IICM \1 ) on Apri l 26 . I CJ 78 . ~
obtained (,I)() x hOl) III spat iJ I resolmion thermal infrared
dutu ( 10.5 l2.61.l1ll) both day ( I:J O p.m .) am i night (2:3&
a.rn. ). This was one o f the fi rst scientifically oriented (geology ) the rmal inlra red ~yst e ms . NASA 's Niml)//_~ 7. launched
on Oewber ~J . 1978. had a Co as tal Zone Color Scanncz
(CICS) that induded a therma l infrared sensor lo r monitor
ing sea ,sllrl;we templrall lre . In IlJXO. NASA alld the Jet ProplIlsiun Labo ralor y dcveloped the six ch'llllld ThemW
Infrarcd ~ l ult i sflCctral Scann er (T I.\lS) that ac quired ther
mal infra red ener gy in s ix hands at wav ele ngth inle.... al~ ot
:::: 1.0 J.un t Qu altmeh i and Ridd. 199 -' ). Succ ess ful stulfi(s
using T1i\IS resu l....,d in Ihe d... \do pmc nt o f tht' 15-chann:!
A irh...me Tcrr estr ial Appli ca tion s Sen.....}r (AT LAS ) (L o d

al..
Early in frare d detec to rs co nsisted o f lead S.1 1t pho todd cctors
(Fischer, 191\} ). :'>:nw \\ e hal e very fast detecturs consisti ng
o f mer eury -tloped gemlan iulll tG e: lIg). indi um antimon id....

Hisl o r

19 (7 ).

Th c SO;\.\ G l'l,r.-tal ionilfY O flCrationa l [n v-ironmental Sate llit... ' GOE S ) co llec ts thenn al in fra red data at a spatial rei\}-

'i$lOry of Thermal Infrared Remote Sensing

.-

251

Therm al Iufrured lmaucrv

" .

h,
I

"
.-

f.

F9Jre 81

OI l T hermal infrared ima ge o f lin F- 116 jet in lligh t :-';otc the IWI alkrf'>umeT'>, h I Thermal infrared ima ge of radi an! cn erg)
leav ing a res jdemial house . c=-.plal1) (hruu~h the \\ rnJ,''>'S.!\utc Ih.: ,;,.....L insul;oh:o.1 roof and m,;bl ...:. t...,. do.... n"POOl . cl Thi~
hou-...., llIl bloc ks is lvs ing m,..;h (,f IL" cn,"l1Y lhrl.lu~h the tloor. d ) "Th ermal image of a crime in I"rt~" at night. cl Thermal
infrared rm"p : of an Apa che hd icop l<:r " uh hUIJd cnglllc~. O lhcnnaJ infrared imilgc of a '- 117 jet. g J Therma l image of a
powe r lran, f,.,rmcTreveali ng several leI") h" t wires. h) Xondestrucuvc IhcmlJ.l lcsll ng ofa printe d circuit board. i) Thermal
image M;\ paddlcwhee l hu at and pas..cngcrs tcoune.y 1-' 1 IR S) ste ll". Inc. and others} ,

252

CI I.\ I" t:l{

Therm all n1rared Remot e sensing

Temperaren

Frederick Will iam Ih'f\ch cl

m ea ..u rcd u~
a t h ermomeie

Prism

in~ed

. .... ..

,.
1
yelkll
I
.. . .
1"'"
1

.~

Figu re 8 3

Herschel used a prism and a thermometer

disc o ver that tempera tu re increa sed bey
the red porti on o f the spectrum

charge-cou pled-device (CCD ) sensor system. Rather.

Si r Frede rick William He rsche l ( 173 R-l f(2~l
disco vered th... infrared portion of the electromagnetic spectrum in I KOO I from Herschel
Space Oh"Cn al(>l')'. r-;J\S \ Jet Proplusion Lab ).

Figure 8-2

fuuon lIfS x H km for wea ther prediction . Full-disk images

of the Earth are obtain e d ""cry )0 minutes bot h day and
night by the thermal in frare d sensor, Aho. the ~OAA
Advanced \'('1') High Resolution Radiometer (AVII RR l 001leers therma l in frared 1000al area coverage ( LAC ) data at I , I
x 1.1 km and globa l area coverage l (iAC ) at 4 x 4 krn.
Landsat Thematic Mapp er -.I and 5 sensors were launched o n
July If>. 19K2. and March l . 191'14. res pectively, and ("01leered IlO x 120 III ther mal infrared data (lOA - 12.5 J.l lllJ
alon g wi th 1\\11 ha nds (If middle-i nfrared dat a ( 1.55 - 1.75
and 2.0 S - 2.35 ).1m ). Landsat 7 wns launc hed o n A pri l I S,
19') 1) with a 60 x 60 III well-calib rated the rmal infrared senso r ( 1004
12.5 unu. T he Adv a nced Spacc bome The rma l
Fmi ~s i un and Retlecuon Radiometer ( AS'! ER) onboard
Terra has six cha nnels fro m 1.60 :!.43 u m and five channels from S.125 - 11.05 um. Chapter 7 provid es de taile d
in formation about the spat ial, spn:tra l. te mpora l, and radiomet ric cha racteristics of these and othe r thermal in frared
sensor systems.

Th ennal Infrared Radiat ion Properties

An image analyst should not interpret a the rma l infra red

image a, if it we re an aerial ph llwg raph or a typical image
prod uced by an optical-mechanical muluspcctral scanne r or

'.

,ma lys t must think thermally. l ie or she must understand I

how the short-wavelength energy radiated from the
interacts .... irh the atmo sphe re, 2) how il interacts with
surface mate rials [i.e., so me of the ~n"rgy is transfo
into longer-wa ve length ene rgy I. 3) ho w the energy em'
tty the te rrain interacts wi th the atmosphere o nce again.
tinally. 4) ho .... a remote sensing detec to r reco rds the t'm
therma l infrared electromagnetic radiation. The a .
should also understand how bot h the sensor sys tem itself
the terrain can introduce noise into the thermal inlTiml
image that m ight make the data 1c,~ use ful or lead to in.::01rcct image interpr et at ion.

Kinetic Heaf, Temp erature, Rad iant Energy, and

Radiant Flux

All objects ill the rea l world having a temperature abol't

absolute zer o (0 K; -:!73.1f> -C : ,459 .6'1 0Fj exhibit randoll
motion. T he energy of panicles Ill" mole cular matter in ran
dum monon is culled kinesic fl<,tI/ (also re fe rred to as imrrnal. real. or true heat). When these pa rticles coll ide. they
change the ir energy state a nd emi l electromagnetic radiauQI
as discussed in C hap ter 2. TIle amoun t of heat can be mea.
sured in calories. We can measu re the true kinetic temperature (Tl ", ) or conc cmrauon o f th is bcu using: a thcrmomee.
We pe rform in sim (in-p lace) tempe rature measu reme nt b)
placing the thermo meter in dm..oct physical contact with I
plant. so il, ruck or water body.
Fortunately, an ohj~'~ internal kinet ic heat is a lso COlIvetted 10 "lJ</iullf .'flelXl' (uften ca lled external or apparea
energy). wh ich allows us to ulililC remote senving techno!l)gy. T he electromagncnc radiation e'l iling an object is call~
r/Jdlul/l fho: ($) and is me asured in Watts as discussed ill

Th

253

iIIemlal lnf rared Atm o spher ic Win dow s

y=

bein g ~omc \\ hat k!>,; than the true kin etic te mpera ture o f the
object, especially for land surfaces. '[his is d ue to a therma l
propen y c alled cmisxivity. to be disc ussed shortly
(Schmugge et al., 20()2) .

1.0U!r . 1101 K

R~ =

0,'.1')
'.I = (.7

Methods of Transferring Heat

,
j

flVe 8-4

10

15

20

25

30

(If remer c C1l~ in~ derived water

r...t l \ crsus true l incuc wat..-r temperat ur..' n ~ .. l obta ined t>y III _" , ,, m..- asurcmcra Ilw
fi lUr l>lIl"'<c y year s In th'c UlllCICnl l>IIC<lIIlS ( To rg""fs\'11 ct aI., ~O(ll : rljl n nl\-.J with permission Irom

li near

1'I.'~"reS~ion

1~'111 p"-1'a'UI'l.' I

ElM.'\ I...

Th e heal generated by the random motion of panicles may

be transferred from one locauon (0 another b~ co nduct ion.
convect ion, and radia tion. as discussed in Chapter 2. Thermonuclear fu...io n tak ing pla ce on the Sun prod uces a plasm a
o f radi ant tt ux eonsi<;,ling primari ly ofsbort-wavclen gih \-'isiblc light that travels 93 milhon m iles through the vacuum of
..pace at the spee d o f light (.l )( 10- III ",""C,I). Some o f thi s
short -wavele ngt h eneT];Y pa~o;cs throu gh the atmos phere and
is absorbed by the Earth 's surfac e m.ncrials and rera diated
[emitte d) at longer .... avclcngths. Some of thi.. emit tced
lon ger-wavelength electromagnetic radiation pas ....s through
the atmosphere once ag ai n and can be recor de d using ai rborne ther mal in fra red dctc'CIMs . Hope ful ly. the longerwa veleng th radiation recorded hy the det ectors provides
valuable inforrnauo n about the te mperatu re c haractc-risucs
of the Eart h' s surface .

n.

Ciaf'ler 2. The conccnrranon of rh..' amount of radiant nux

Ming (cmilled frum ) an ob ject b its radiant /t'1II}J<' ''I.lIUIl:
(111I:I1. For most real world nhj..-cts (e vec p' those compose d
mglass and metal] thcr... is !h m.ll y a high posi tive co rre !ation betW \'t:11 till.' true Liucuc tempera ture of lhe object (Tk '~ )
W the amount o f radiant tl ux radiak'd from the obj ect

IT",I)' For example. Figure 1'1-4 corre bues remote sensi ngJcriwd radiant water tcm pe ratu re with ill s i III \' atcr tcm perneemeasurement in streams (Torgersen ct al., 2(1()I). The

remote sens ing-de rived temp eratures were consistently

*llh in ! 0.5 ' C o f the ground re ference rncasurcmcuu, ov er
four survey years in fi ve differe nt st reams . Recent stud ies
m11inn these resu lts I t Ire gun IJI',( ', 2' )().\ ), E x a mJ1k ~ o f
ul~r surface temperature Jer ived from forw a rd-loo k ing
infrared (FLI R) data fo r two streams in Or egon are ..how n in
Color Plate X-I .
Rtlationships such as these suggest lhat .... c ca n ut ili, c rad illIleIers [1la<.:oo s"me d i, tanee from an objel: t to measu re its
radiant tempe rature, .... hid1 hop efully l:urrdates .... e ll with
!he objcr t's troc kine tic tempe rature . Thi.\ is ,hI' funis of

tJienrnll i ll/rored re mOl(' '('" , /ng

,~

Th ennallnfrared Atmospheric Windows

Beyond the l'ifihll' rc gron of the electromagnetic spectrum,

\\ e encounter the 1~'11"("/I n' infi',uvd regi o n from 0 .7 - 3 I.rm
and the Ih<"l"IIJ'1111!r"<I/ ~'d re gio n from 3 - 1-4 u rn (Figure 8+5 ).
T he only reason we can usc remote sensi ng instrum ents 10
detect infrared e nergy in th...,sl.' region s is because the atmosphe re allows a portion of'thc infra red energy' 10 be tra nsm itted fr om the terr ain to th e detectors (Sehmuggc ct al., 200 2 j,
We ca II reg ions that pass energy (1/I/IlJ.Iplw /";c 1'00IIdo\l",\ . C 011vcrscly, the black a rea s ill Figu re 8-5 denote reg ions o f till.'
cle ctromn gnetic spectr um whe re th e atm osphere absorbs
mos t o f the infra red energy present. We ca ll these regions
<lb.wI/PI /UII bands. Water vapor ( 1120) , ca rbon dioxide
( C O~ ). and ozo ne (OJ) are respons ible for most o f th e
ah~ lrpt i nn . The atnurcphere "c loses down ." mak ing it
almos t impo ssib le to perfo rm remote sensing of the env ironment in these regions. For exa mple, atmo sphe ric water
vapllT (Hl) all'omhs mllst o f lhe efll' rgy c.x iting tho: k rra in in
Ihc reg ion from 5 7 1-1111. mal ing it a lmost useless for thl.'rmal infr<l red rcmnlC' sen sing.

Inlll'(,/"ll/ll rl! m ,'(/. l'll rl!lIIl'nl.

Unfortunately. thc rela tion ship is nn l pcrfl't.'I. wilh the

rtml.'te measu re men t o f the rad Iant tcmpl.'raturc al.... " ys

Remol". se nsing instrumcnls \:an be e ng inl.'t'rcd 10 be s.:nsilive 10 thC' infrarC'd l.'ncrgy presl'm within just the atmo ...phC'ric wind,," s. For e:\a mple. film em ul...ions can ht.. made

- 8

254

Thermal Infrared Remote Sensing

CII .\ I" f EH

Atmospheric windows in th e Elect ro r naa neuc Spec t r u m

Visible
A

O -

Re fl ective Infrared

The
bod

O~ !h~:~;:~;L~'" rm "d
0.7 -1.J .

Jon

me,

3- 5

1.3- 3

.,
0.1

02

OJ

15

0.4 05 0.6 0.8

5 6 7 8

10 12 15

20

th-

30

'"
an

Wavele ngth. urn

Fig ur e B-5

'tner

Al!nosphC'fic IIoindo:>\Ios In tbe elcctromagnenc ~pectrum sllo\lon he~ a re of Slpll lk,tni value f ill' remote !O(1lsing r<:/l('l;li...
thermal in frared en' 'g) . Photographic films can be mlltk s.o:nsili,,: 10 re flcc nvc me'!!y from 0 .7 - 1.3 u m . Elccerc- opncal iCI!'
in~ 'SY!'ICTllS ca n record infrared "ne'~ trorn 0. 7 - I ~ urn . Tbe 3 - 5IJ.m r"~ l on is especially usefu l for lTlNlitoong hol taIgC5
such J~ for,~1 Ilrcs .lot.! gccehcrma! ..ctiv ity Vegetation. so il. am'! rod. arc be st mceuoecd us ing the I.i - l -l p m re gion f(nul
orbital da ta 0:01l1Inn, The 10.5 - 12.5 u rn legum is u<ifil when thermal imagery i< acquired fro m orbual SC1ls0r5 abonik

5,

hI

Eanh'swonc la}cr.

scnsinv e to reflec ted infra red energy in the windo w from 0.7
- 1.3 u rn. Eastman Kodak's :!4.f3 co lor-infrared film works
within this phomgraphic in/ran'd regi on and is idea l for
mon itoring vegeta tion and wa ter \ Cha pter ~ ) . Electro-optical
detect ors on Landsat Th em at ic ' ta pper ~ and 5 are sensitive
to the retlecuve middle-infra red wi ndo ws fro m 1.55 - 1.75
I-Im (TM band 5 ) and 2.0!l - 2.35 1-1 111 IT\1 han d 7).

ever, we may think of the Sun as approxi mating a 6.(0)[

blac kbody and the Earth as a 300 K blackbody, If we pointcs
a se nso r at a black bod y; we would be able tu rec ord qlJlIJI~
tat ivc information abou t the total amount o f radiant coer!
in specific wavelen gths exiling the obj ect and the dorn iaaa
wavelengt h ofthe o bject . In order 10 do thi s. we unlize rse
import a nt physical laws: the SIl~(i.l/I- B<lll;;/11I.11/11 I,l'I' 1Il:I.

'j

/1'11 .i

Electronic detectors can als o he malic scusuivc III p hoton s o f

thermal infrared radia nt energy ex iting the terrain in the two
pri mary therm al infrared w indows: 3 - 5 p m and X- 14 pm
Suborbit a l therm al infra red remot e s e n~ i ng systeml' utilize
these spec tral band s. Howe ver. the Earth 's ozone ( 0 ) ) laye r
ubsorb s much o f the therma l e nergy ex iting the terra in in an
abso rption hand from approximately 9.2 - 10.2 urn. There fore . sa tel lite the rmal infra red remote sens ing system s often
only record dnn in the region from In,5 - 12.5 um If' igur e
ll-5l to a vo id this ahsorpuun hand. For example. AST ER
hand 12 is R.925 - 9.275 urn and band 13 is 10.25 - 10.95
11m . The reg-i nn from 'l.27tl - 1O . 2~ urn is not sen sed d ill,' to
atmosphe ric absorption.
Thermal Radiation Law s

A Maddlll.1i is a tbcorcucal construct th.n absorbs a ll the

rad iation thaI fall s on it and rad iates energy al the ma ximum
ros~ i hle rate pe r unit area at each wave length for any g iven
tempe rature . :'\Q objects in nature arc InI<: blackbodies : how -

di'pltll"/'/Iwm

taw.

Stefan-B oltzmann Law

Th e total spectra l radia nt cxirauce ( M~ l mea sured in Wam

m-2 leaving a blackbody (refer to Table 2-4) is pro portional
to the fourth power o f its temperature ( 7). This is known a>
the S/ c {illl-B"I/;;/11</I//1 taw and is e xpressed as :

(8,11
wh ere (Tis th e Stctan- Holtzm nnn con stant equaling 5.6f.Q7 x
10 ~ W nf~ K ~ . a nd T is temperatur e in degrees Kelvin. 1k
to tal rad ia nt cxhunc c is the mtegrauo n o f allthe area UI1dcr
the blackbo dy rad iati on curve (F ig ure K-tl) . Not ice how the
Sun produces more spe ctra l radi ant exita nce ( M~) at 6,000 K
tha n the Ea rth at 300 K. As the te mperature inc reases. the
total amo unt o f radi ant energy measured in Watts pe r m2(t/r
urea under the curvet increase s and the rad i ant energ y peat
sh ifts 10 shorter wavelengths. To dete rmine the dominall
I-'. avele ngt h for a blackbody at a specific te mperature. we (1St

wien's dis placementlaw.

255

I'emlal Rad iation La ws

It<en's Displacement Law

B1:1 ckh(Jd~

'"
( t'
l-i i\
'"

1hI: relationship be twe en Illc true tempe rature of a black!l:dy (n In degree s Kel vin and its peak speclral exua ncc or
minanT wavelength ().......) is de scr ibed by lI ,ell :f displaceWIl/ II1I\:

' 0'

a con stant equaling l lNX 11m K, we can determine

k dominanl .... avelengrh of any object b) substituting its
!lmp(ratllre into Eq uat ion 8-1. Remember from Cha pter 2
a:! FIgure X-6 that the dominant wavelength o f the NIOO K
s. is OAS urn . The dominant w a...dcng.l h for an SOil K roo. obj~ (F igure 8-6) is:
I~ .t is

i...... .

2898,ulll l
xoo K

,
~ 1O

!rhy ;s kllt/wi/lg an "hjl'U .i Jomil/mll wavelength important

,I'I'//.\' i,,/.:? T he dom inant wa ve~ngth provides valu abl e Infor malIon regardi ng the pan of
the thermal infrared spect rum in which WI." might want 10
snsc the object . For e xample. if we lire lo oking fo r ~ ()O K
b est fires tha t hav e a dominant wavelength of upprox imaldy ).62 um. then the mo st npproprmre remot e sensing
'-y,lem might be a ., - 5 um thermal infra red de tec tor. Con\er;dy. if we arc interested In Sllil, wate r. an d rock ambient
empcrarurcs on the Earth's su rface: (JOtl K ) w ith a dominnur
eavelengt h o f 'J.t>7 u rn. then a thermal infrared detector
operating inthe x - 14 um reg ion might be lIlII S! appropriate.
IIJ Ihl'rm(l ! i n trared 11: IIWII'

Emissivity
The\\orld is nOI co mposed o f radin ting bla ckhod i...s. Rathe r.
I i! composed o f selecnvdv ruclla/ il/}/, h,..ties, suc h as rock,
mil. vegetation. and .... atcr, that emit a certain proportion o f
meenergy emitted from a blackbody ar rhe sa me tempera-

"

\
~\

'r

301lO K T ungsrcn filament

\\
.

, HI
,

1\ \
I,
\

:1!: 10

(,001l K Su

L,

';:; \0

:J!

~i

, ---11

tu

A....., - 3 ,6'1plll ,
jesee I shift from longer to shorter wa velengths as t he temperature of the blackbody mcrcascs. We ca n observe wien' s
displKement law in reallife. For example. \\ hen a poker is
placed in the fire the t ip progresses from dark red through
.nnge and the n III yellow. It never shi fts imothc gree n or
portion o f the spectrum beca use it is nor that hot . Conlersely. an acety len e torc h has a hot tl nme and appears blue.

.v

Radiation C ur ves

'"

'0.,

1\

1100 '" Hed-hl>l object

1\'
\

i\\
.. ,\-

311lJ II: bl nO

'95 '" Dry ice

\\ .\

I~ ~ \~

\ '\\\\If '"

.I

Figure 8 -6

4 .7 1

,'"

tn
Wavelength, pm

K Liquid 3 1r

,000

llI ackhult) radiation CU l"o'C~ for sev eral o"j ~CIS. illd ulling the SUI\ and the Earth, which approximate
6,000 K ami 300 K bluc kbodics, res pectively Th e
d"m im1n1 wavelength. Art"". shifts toward the short
wa veleng th portion of the spectrum J~ the tem peraturc of the object increases.

turc. Ennssivitv: ( t' ) is The nnic bet w ccn the actua l radian ce
emitted by a rent world se lective radiatin g body (.1I,) and a
bla ckbody at the same therm odynam ic ( kinet ic ) temperature
( M~ l (Jacob ct al., lOI)4) :

( ~-3 l

A ll selectively mJi at ing bodies have em issivnies ra ng ing

from 0 10::: I Ihut fluctuate de pen ding upon the wave leng ths
of l'ncrgy being conside red . A gr<l) 'ho(n' outpu ts a consta nt
emissivity that is less than one at all wa velen gth s. Fig u re l'I7a depicts the emissiv ity of a blackbody, a gray body, and a

256

blackbody

,~
~

,i<

,,

'---,

selective radiator

graybody "-

10

'"

W3.\.:k nll,b.l.Im

6,000 K

".

t~ " '<;:-.'.
Y

6.000 K selective
radiator _

..
10

Figure 8-7

-,

'"

III Spccrralcnussivsty of a b lad .hod y. a g raybod) .

and

:I

hYf"'t hetical selective radiator. "I

S~lra l

radr uru ( \111111<:1: distrillutj"ll u f tho: black body,

grnybody, nnd hypothc-t ical selectiv e r;ldialm ( af

tcr Slater,

The

find thai the real-w orld spec tra l radian t cxitanc ... v. as
less than the blac kbody rad iant cx uancc at the sarnete
.uure. T hus. the crni..;si\ uy o f the rcal- orld material \l;
lie som ewhere betw een 0 and I bUI wo uld neve r be
I . Some materials like d ist illed wa ter have em issivmes
to one (1l.9'J) ove r the wa ve lengt h inter val from X -l ~
as summarized in Table X-I. Ot her.; such as polished
num {O.OS) an d sl,linkss steel (11. 1(ll h a vc 10\\ emissiv

.o

Thermal lnlrared Remote SenSing

I ~ ~ () J.

hy pothetical selec tive rad iato r ove r the wav elength imcrvul
0 .1 _ 100 um (Sl ater, 191\0). Notice ho w the spectral cm issh iry of the hypothe tica l selective radiator fluctuates amon g
levels 01'0, O. l , 0 .3. a nd l .n. Th ... spectral radiant exitancc of
eac h of'thcsc 6.1)ll() K bodies j~ show n in Figur e X7b. Notic c
how the different ...miss ivit ics g ive rise to d ram at ic c hanges
in the spectral radiant cxitaucc dist ribu tion o f the selecti ve
rad iator. Where the se lective rad iator 's e missiv ity is 1,0. it
outputs the same an1<>UIl1 ofradium energ y a, the blackbody.
Wher e the selective rad iator 's emissivity is O. it em its no
spectra l rad iant c xirancc .
The spectral radiant cxuaucc l;'lr sc\ cra l rea l v. orld radi ating
hod ies is sho wn in Figu re x-x. ;-':otl' that the rad iant ene'1!Y
ex iti ng the suhsta ncc is appmx imatel y Ih.... Sdme as a bla..:kbod y al the sa lllC tempc ralur.... for mu,,;h vfthe- spectral range.
but thallhc curves depan in cc n,lin areal;. If lhe area be neath
each of the cu rves v. as summ....d I integrated) o\.:r th.: SJ'l-"{: ua l ",a\e kn gth intervaillf inte res illn the .l- ax is. we "'lluld

Whr j~ ;1 i mpOrf<.lfll toknow about cmisslvitv ....'},el/ co

illg et thermal inf n ll1:d remote sensing ;nw'_Higmion'
rea-on is that l ....o objecls lying: n~ XI to o ne another la
ground coul d have the sa me true k inetic tempe rature
have d itfercru nppa rer u t c mpcr.ltures when sensed hy'a
ma l radiom...ter ~illlply becac-,e the ir emissi\ ilies are
cnt. The emi:.si\it) of a n obj ect may be influ e nced
num ber o r factors. including [Schmugge et al.. ~OO:!; W
c1 al.. 2IllJ.! ):
color-e-dar ker-colored ohJl.'CIS are better absorbe rs
crmucrs [i.e. rh...y h3\ 1.' a higher emi-e.ivity j than lig
colored objects. v. hic h ten d (0 refl ect more o r the ioci

energy;
chemicalcomposition;
surfac... roughness-c-rhe g reater the sur face ro ughness
an object rela tive 10 the site of t he inc ident wa vcleng
the gre ater the sur face area o fthe obj ect and rot e-nlial
absorpuou and recm i-cion o f ene rgy:
moisture co ntcut-c- the mo re mo istu re an object conee,
1111.' great er its abilit y hI ah~ll rh ene rgy a nd h...come a gd
emitter. w et so il panicles ha n : a high em issiv ity similar'll
wa ter;
compaction c- thc degr ee of so il compaction cnn alTw
cmis vivity;
field of view the emissivity of a si ngle lea f mcasurs
w ith a very-hig h-re solution Ihcm131radi ometer w ill halel
d i ff crcnt .:mis \ i\ ity than an en ure tree c rown v iewed lJ, il~
a mor e coarse spa t ia l rcsolu rion radiome ter :
"'lYe length - lhc e missiv ity o f ,10 object is general.
consi dered ttl be \\ a\cle nglh-depc nde lll. For e X Jmpl~
while the cmi:'>sivity o f an ohject is o llcn c(llIsidcred lobi:
eonstan l lhroughllut lhe i'i - l-l lJl11 r...gion , its emiss i\il)"
the 3 - 5 1J111 regilln rna)' be d ilTe rcnt; anu
\'it"v,109 ang le-the .:missi \tit)' o f an lIbj ~et ca n \'a~ "".
sc nso r Yi~'wi ng angle .


257

al Radiatio n Laws

-.,
"

7"

hlaekh od}

b ."

350

5.0

-t

'.<

" arer

I(

];01(

(J,' ) l'

~ 1I

,.
~ ,O

10

50

-0

itt;

.2.0

o
u

I~

Wav"k"TI~lh,

rj)lre 8-8

~~

um

Radiant eo<:rg} e\itir.g .II.... .ncr. t:>l

~1;I. nl to:,

2,U

1.0

. -,
.

"

"

111

"um

of terres trial marcnals in the 1'1 - 14 um regi on.

u ludi ng Igneo us. metamo rphic . and sedime ntary roc ks.
esert varnish . ~ll i 1. vegetation, wa ter. and icc . Snyd er ct III
199;)provided ad ditiona l infomuuion <In the bidirectional
Jt!kctance measuremen ts o f '<an,1<,. and "t .. I ~ in the.3 14 jnn
~Ion . We mu..1 tal c into ~CCOU Ill an object's l:m is.siv II)
when we ancm pr til lise thermal infrared remote sens ing to
eeasurc an OOJl'Ct'S true kjneuc te mperature (Peres and
OIC amara. 20(},h This is done by applyi ng Kirrho lr s radi-

,.

'.
2~

W'I\ clcng th.

and c) denitc heated 10 .1 ~ (I K com r,m..-d .... ilh a hladbllo.l)

.\1Ii,bur;.- and D'Aria (lIJ92) comp uted the "lll i ~siv i ty for a
I'mct~

,,

'.

~u

3.u

10

350 K

r =o O.7!'i

5.0

'.

Duulte

-.g'
an

-tu

I..

I'>,U

>

as

~Il

7.'

Grani le
350 K
r "" lUlh

,.

~
""g

"

W:l Vekn ~lh . ~1l1

h.

b,lI

1.(1

7.'

"

.1\

the same tempe rat ure .

general eq uation fo r the mrcracnon of spectral

Iluv with the terra in is;

(AJ radian t

Dividing each of the varia bles b) the original incident nidiant tl U'L tt>,,:

".r,

(1\-5 )

ItJOlIla w.
Kirchoff's Radiation Law

InChar Ier 2 \\e learne d tha t the terrain inter cept s inci dent
incoming j radiant flux \ I,). This incide nt I'ncrgy Inte racts
itJI terrain mau-na!v. The amo unt ofradiam tluv reflected
from ihe surface (<1>,1. th... amo unt o f radian t flux absorbed

where r ~ IS s pectral hemis pherical reflectance by the terrain.

a~ is spectral hcuusphcncal ubsorpta ncc, and r;. is spectral
hcmisphcrica lrransmiuance (Sla ter. 191(0).

~y

Itdthrough the surface 1<,1 >, l can be care fully meas ured as " c
aprly the principle o f U'lher. auon of " neP6Y and attem pt 10

The Rusvian physic ist 1\ild wll found that in the in fr ared
portion of till' spectrum the spec tral emissivity of an object
g('nerall) equals its -pectrat ab sorptanc c. i.c .. u ~ - r~ . This is

I.C'I'.P track 01"1 hat happens 10 all the inci de nt energy, T he

often phrascd a s "good ahsorberv a rt good emitters and

the surface ('I',,). :1I1d the

' Ull OUl1\

n fradian t ttux transm it-

258

O IAI" EN

Table 8 1.

Thermal Infra re d Re mo te Se nsing

Then

f m i ~si \ l l) Or ~t'1e<:lro matc nals fr om 11 - 14 IJrn

(fo. k D..,lll1d l Do uglas, 19X2; Sabins. 19')7; Lil ksand

and Kiefer. 2( M )~ ),

Material

.... atcr. distilled

water

\\ ater witJI petroleum film

concrete'

Emiss ivity. e
O.')'}

0.'12 - O.'J!\

0.972
0 ,7 1 - O.QO

asphalt

0.95

IMl s lc"l':

0 .97

foamy soil. dry

0 .92

loam) su il. .... <.1

soil. sandy

0.90

bric k. red and rou gh

0.93

vegetation, c1m.ed canop)

O,'J!!

v~ ..tenon , open cant,!,>

0....

gra...s

0 .97

. . ,,.>d. planed oak

0.90

decid uous fbrest

0.97 - 0.98

coniferous 1'1lr.:S!

O.'H -

tl,'}q

-aainless stee l

0.\ (>

aluminum . ',111

0. 0 5

aluminum. polished

O.OR

aluminum. paun

0.55

polished metals

O. IIl - U.2 1

Th is rela tionship is im portant because il describes

objects ap pea r as they do on therm al infrared i
Because the terrain tllt'orr.'lic"/~\" does nor IOJ(' (Illy i
et!e'Xv I" trunsminance, " II t"/lt''X~' leaving lilt!' object
rn.. acconmedfor h) Ih.. t'l:luti'J/1!ihip b..tween rept'c!u1/Ct
and emluil'ity (fi) ' l f re tlecnvity increases. t hen emis
mu-t decrease. If emissivity increa-es. the n reflectivity
dec rease . Fo r example. water absorbs almost all
energy and reflects very tinte. Therefore, water is a
good em itte r and has a high emisshi!y dose to I. C
vcrscty, a shee t-meta l roof reflec ts most of the i
energy and absorbs very link', yiel ding an em issivity
kss than I. Therefore . metal ubjl"Cb such as cars. ai
and me tal roo fs USUJ lly appear very co ld (da rk) on
i nfra red imagery. For example. the metal hangar and ai
in the nighttime thermal infrared imagery in Figure
appear cold. No te that se\ l'ral a ircraft haw th....ir engines
whi ch arrear bright . and that their jet blas t is w arming .
tarma c.
When measuring lnud or water surface tempe ratu re. the glII
o f Ihermal infrared remote ~cnsi ng. is to be able 10 poiln
radiometer at an object and have the recorded ap parent
ant tempera tu re (T......I equalthe true kinet ic temperature
the o bject ( T i m )' Unfortunately, th... radi a nt nux from a rQ.
world .. bjcct at a given temperature is not the lk1111e as tic
radiant Ilu\ fro m a blackbody at the same temperatlllt.
lurgcly due toth c ctl c cu... o f f'l1II.'.\ ivily. Kno w ing the emisseit)' of an object mak es il po ssible to modify the Src fan-Bok
zmann law orig inally applicable In blackbodies (.\.1, -;
so that it pertains til the tota l spec tral raJian t tl ux of real
worl d materials (.\f, ):

ur

oxidized ste..l

0, 70

gra nite

o.es

dunitc

n.71!

basalt. ro ugh

0.95

'lhe equa tio n takes into accou nt the tem perature of the

(un - 11.1<5

objec t and its e missivity III cre ate a murc uccurute eslima!e
ofthc radiant flux l'xiting an object and recorded by thc ther
mal infrared sensor.

paint
human skin

0.90 _ 0,%

r.:'
jill

(s!

0 ,98

good reflectors , Ill' JJiHIr emitters ", Also, most real-world

materials are usually 0 p;lqUl' til therma l in frare d radia tio n
meaning that lillie radia nt Ilux <:", ils from the other side of
the terrain demen t. Therefore. \\ e may assume transmittance. r.. = O. SUhst itut ing em issivity for absorptanc e and
removing transmitta nce from the equation ~ ietds (Vaughn et

al.. 20031:

"I f / '" t ' (T

T hermal infrare d remote se n"ing syste ms generally rc,~

the appa rent radian t te mpe rature. Trw o f the terrai n rabs
than the true kine tic tempe ratu re. T.i~' If we assu me that 1M
incorporation o f emissivity in Equation 8-1 has improved
o ur measurc me m 10 the poi nt that

.1/.-

r C1 Ti m and we ass um.... that

259

:.mal Rad iation Laws

Ta ble 82 .

[mi ~siv it)', true kinetic. and radiant rcmperaurrcs of

selec ted materials a t .no '" and 27c C.

Ra d ian t

Temperalure
True Kl netlc
'te m peratu re

Material

Emiss iv it y

T*111

blackbod y

1.00

) 00

dil.illcd

0.'"

rough
basalt

Nighllime thenna l infrared imagery of an airpost

with severaldeffcrcmty pes ofjcr aircraft. Tile m<:wl
hangar and the aircraft arrear cool (dar kj becausc llf
m...lars l" w enus-ivity, Th ... concrete tarmac has a
ruhnivcly high cnussiv iry and appears in lighter
shades <.If gray. Seven oftltc aircraft je t eng i lle~ arc
active, as evidenced by the brig ht bloom along their
fuse lages and their j ... r-w ash healing the tarmac. On...
\If

two aircraft engines were rec e ntly turned otT.

T,,, I

, 1/1 rI ,"

eC

300.0

nu

)00

"
"

29Q.1

20.2

O.Q5

) 00

zt

::90.2

2J.2

vegetation

0.98

300

298.5

25.5

dry 11I,lm

n.9:!

Jon

"
"

zvj.x

211.X

water

F9Jre 8-9

T'ltd

"oi l

'c

appa rent rad iant temperature ( 1~,~1) with a ther ma l radiomctcr; we can estimate its em issi vity. e; using the eq uation :

(8-111

(8. 9 )

Ihereforc. the radi ant temperature of an obje ct rec orded by

aremote sensor is related III its true kinetic tcrnpcnnurc and
rmissivity h)' the following relationship (Sab ins. liN?):

T,,,J e r ' " Tl i,, '

( !l .] 0 )

Tho: relationship betw een I nH~ ki net ic and radian t temperatlIrt for s...vera! di fferent type s of material are summarized in
Table 82 . It is clear fro m th is table th at , e xcept fo r water. if
dle effect of emissi vity is not accounted for w he n analyzing
rrmolely sensed ap pare nt radian t tem perat ure (T"",I. thcn the
lI\Il: tempera ture (T. ,,,I o f the object will he undc res umatcd
Ilorge-rsen et al., 20()! ; Peres and DaCamara, 20~) . Wha t if
lI' ewanted to determine the emissivity o f the vario us objects
with inour study area? Th is can he done usi ng a thermo me te r
md a handheld rhcrmat infrared radiometer . II" we measure
1Illl0j CCt's true temperat ure with a ther mometer ( Tk ,,, ) und i l~

ldeally we wou ld collect both the in sitll temperature measure ment and the re mote measurement s imulta neous ly.
Also , to ge t the best e missi vity app roximat ion. it wou ld be
good 10 collect tho: remo te measu rement fro m a helico pt er 10
try J ill! si mula te I ) th... site of the re mote sensor IFOV of
interest (e.g., 21l )( 20 m ), and 2 1 the atmospheric e ffec ts
( Peres and DHCamara, 20( 4) thatmight be enc ou ntered.
Many geologic studies are not int ere sted in the te mperature
information that ca n be e xtrac ted from ther mal infrared
imagery. lnsrcad. the appare nt surface radia nce cx umg the
te rrain is analyzed so that the e ffects o f lempc rature are
remove l! and all tha i i!> left is terrain emissivity information.
The elll i !>si \ it~ info rmatio n is then used to map m inera ls on
the surface " !"the earth based on the ir documented emissiv uy ch aractensucs (e.g.. Kir kla nd cr al.. 2002: Vau~hn et al.,
:!OO3; Jacob ...1 al., 20(4). Peutcolin and vermotc (2002)
describe how MODIS middle-thermal infra red surface
re flect ance and de rived ern!..sivil)' information can be used
in co nj unctio n w ith therma l in frared radiance 10 solve the
emissivuy.tcmpemmre separatio n problem. So brino et al
( 2(}{)4 ) used VISible and ncar in frar ed bands and a Norma llzcd DiOc renee Vegetat ion Index (NDV1) to extract land

260

sur face ermssiv iry values from Landsat 5 Th em atic Mapp er

ha nd 6 therm al imagery

Table 8-3.

Thermal Infrared Remote

Sensi~g

Thermal prope rties of common materials 31

(J3n13,1 " 75).
Therma l
conductivity
K

Therm al Properties of Terrain

Thermal
density

The rmal
capactty

CQI
ri I

'"""
p

:\!lIh:rh.fs

wa ter. rock, soil. vegetation. the atmosphere. and human

tis sue all haw the abi lity to cond uc t heal d irect ly through
them (thermal cond ucnvit y j o nto a nothe r surface and to
store heat (thermal capacity). Some materials respond to
chang...~ in te mperature more rapidly or slowly than ot hers
(thermal inert ia). It is usefulto re view these thermal properlies . as they ha\c an impact on our abil ity to re motely '>I:TISC
therm al information about variou.. types of ma terials.
Heal o r the rmal cap" city ( c) is a measure o f the ability of a
material 10 absorb hea l cno:rgy. II is the q uantity of hea l
required 10 ra ise the tempe rature of one gram of tha t ma teria l by I "C (calif' "e l ). Table K-3 summarizes the the rmal
capacity of several materials at :!(1 "C . water has the largest
heat capacity of an)' common substance ( 1.00). Th e temperature of a lake usua lly vari es very little ~twC(..n night and
day. Con versely, rock s do nut sto re heat we ll and exh ibit
s ig nificantly diffcrcm tempe ratures in the night and day.
Tlrcmml conductivnv (Kl is a mea sure o f tile rate that a substance transfers heat thro ugh it. It is measured as the numhe r of calories thnt wi ll pass thro ugh I ern' of materi al in I
Sl'C .... hen t w (1 opposit e faces a rc mainta ined at I ~C diffe rcncc in tc rnpc ruturc (cal cm' sec" 0('"1 ) , The co nd uctivity
of a mater ia l can be variabl e due 10 the amou nt o f moisture
pres ent. The ther mal conductivity of a variety o f mate rials
is summarized ill Table 1\-3, Not ice that many roc ks and
sot Is arc poor conductors o f' heat.
Thcnnu l inertia (P) is a measurement o f the the rma l
respon se of a materia l W tempe rature changes nod is measu red in ca lories per cm 1 per seco nd squ are root per I"e
( ca! cm ' ~ scc ln el l, T hermal inert ia is co mputed usi ng
the equ atio n

The

~ lass

O.U0 2 1

2.6

0 . 16

OJl)!

wate r

0.0013

1.0

1.0

C.O*

'oN

0 ,00511

05

0 .327

G("olo~k

'l :u l,' rial,

It would be wo nder ful if we could remotely sense each o r

the a foreme ntio ned variables and then simply com pute

th

on'
r

r
(\

te

,.

o.m

0.0:1

0 .18

0.0' 5

00075

2.(,

0.16

0.056

te

gravel. MOO)'

0.lJO(,()

2. 1

0.20

0.0:;&

limes tone

OJ)04:-J

25

0 . 17

O.{Il~

besen

0 .00 50

dolomite

0.0 120

granne

2.R

obsidian

0 .0030

2.4

0.17

O.O~

sandsrcnc

0 .012U

2.5

0, 19

0.0-5

shale

0.0042

2,3

0 .1 7

0.(1.11

slatt:

O.IJ050

2.'

0 . 17

0.(1.19

soil. sandy

0.001 4

I.'

O. N

O.(I:~

" "I, d~ y moi. l

neuu

1.7

0.35

one

therma l inert ia. Unfortu nately, this is not tbe case. becae
con d uctivity, density, and thermal capac ity must a ll be me.
sured in ,~ t1It, Nevert heless. it is p ossible 10 re motely see
and co mpu te an uI'JI,m ',,' /111:1"/11,,1 i nertia rnca surem em p"
pi xel in the follow ing ma nner. A ther mal infrared image s
acquired over the same terrai n in the n ightti me and in 1IJe
early daytime. The tw u inl<iges arc geom etr ically and radiOmetrically regis tered to (JIll' anothe r, and the cha nge in tern,
perature. il'f: to r a specific p ixel is de termined bj
su btracting the nigh ttime app a rent temp erature from th
dayrimo uppa rcntrcrnpc rmur c. The upparcnt ther ma l inertia
(/\1' 11 per pixel is
A 7"1 -

I- A
~t

(l~-lJi

(8 - 12)
" he re K is thermal co nduct ivity. p is den sity Ig c m-3), and c
is thermal capacity. De ns ity is a very importa nt biop hys ical
va riable in th iv eq uation because the rmal ine rtia ge nera lly
Inc reases linearly wuh increas ing material density, Table 11:_
J sum ma rizes the therm al inertia o f a variety of materials .

w ith ..I being the a lbedo (re llec tanee) mea sured in the vis~
ble spect rum d uring the daytime for the pixel o f inrcres
( Kahle ct al.. 11)1I 1; Sabi ns. 11)1)7 ).
The hest w ay to think abouttherm a l inert ia is to asscciare a
w ith an inve rse rehnions hjp with the me asured temperanee
cha nge . J T. Basic ally, a bigh .dTva luc is usua lly associated
with terrain ma terials tha t have a low thermal ine rtia value

\rmal lnrrared Data Collection

ersely. a low .J r i.. u..ually assoc iated w ith l....rram mal cthat hav e a high thcrmul inertia va lue.
and other remote ,,'n~ing sc ientists label arcus in
Imag:... lhal have heter ogeneous or homcg....ncous appar.. eennal ine rtia characteristic s to distingu is h bounda ries
een bedroc k and a llu vial mal.... rial, dise rimi na tc among
units ....ith simi lar spectra l prope rties. and identify
of hydrotherma l alteration ( Kah le et al.. 19X4 ). Price
%5Jca utionoo thaI appar.... n t th e nn al inertia imagL'S shou ld
br used in regions hav ing variabiluy in surface moist ure
IpOl':ltion lli ke agricultu ral areas.

26'

Thermal Infrared Remote Sensing Ba sed on

~uH~pecYaI Scanneffl

I((llo~ i Sls

D!le llfthe flrsr rhcnn a! infrared sat ellite remote se nsi ng systm, (0 collect hoth da y ( I :) 0 p.m.} and nighuimc (1;3 0
ntmcrmal infrared imag es of sig niti e,l!1t value fur upparQltlk'nnal inertia mappin g ....as the short-li "'ctl l l}7fl Hea t
"I*"ity Milpp ing \1i ssio n ( HC M\1) Ihal acqui red "lin x
m data in the region fro m 10.5 - 11." u m. The ASTt R
onboard rnc Terra satellite collec ts five b..111l1s of lia)
.J nighttime the rmal infrared data Yo ith 90 x 90 m spatial
unon and a M km swath w idth Llacob ct al .. 2n(~l. The
e thermal AS TE R ba nds are centered at 8.18. 8.63, 9,m.
.65. and 11,1R urn. T he 1\lODIS sensor onboard Terra and
./qll<l has three middle infrared ha nds ce nte red around ."\.75.
195 und 4_05 urn. and three thermal infra red channels ccnecd around R.55. 11.0 3 and 12.02 umJ acob c t al_(2004)
o:mparro the land sur face emis-avny lind radiome tric ternpcglutt:dt:riwd fro m f\IODl S and AS TER sensors. Day and
lime thermal infrared imagery can also he collected
suborbital aircraft usi ng a \aricl) o f sensors. e.g.,
\SA (TI.\ l S and ATLAS ) and I Il\~s TA B! (Quan r\)("hi and
lidd, 199R; Sc hmugg... et aL 1()(1:!: Itre<; Tr\ BL :!(J(Ih).

Thermal Infr ared Data Collection

Thtrmal infrared remol" se nsor data may he- cnl1t:("t",d hy:

, llC'l'OSs-lrad . therma l scan n.:rs; a nd

pushhmom linear and a rea-arra) eharg.e-couplcd-deno.:e

ICCO) d...tL"Ctors.
k i, us.eful to rc\i e\\ the nalurc of thCnlla l infrared sensor
1)>lCmS and the ir componenls ,tIld ho\\ vario us !>y~le rn
i"'Jmmeters intluclwe the ty pe :111<1 llll:llity of th,,' tl1l'rmal
mfrared dal a cnl k"t.ted,

Cha pter 7 imroduc cd Jw .... multispectra l scanners funct io n.

Thiv sec tio n provides addrtmnnl informat ion about the rmal
infrared scanners.

1l:It'rlahl" Il S- 12fl1l. 1)S-12 f>X. A ir burne .\lulli ~l)l'elr al

Scanne r (.-\\ISI. " AS.\ T1\1S. ailli :'\ASA AT L\S
T hese scan ners h,1\l' provided muc h o f the useful high spaIlal and spectr;J! reso lutio n the rma l infrared da ta fu r monit oring the environment. The [)S - l ~(,() rccords data in In ha nds
mcludm g a therma l infrared channel (8.5 - 13.5 prn) . Th e
DS- 12M! incorporates the Landsat Them at ic Mapper middlc-infrarcd bands fl .5 S 1.75 11m and :!,OK~ 1.35 J.un). Th e
A MS containv a ht'l-tall't"1, thermal infra red detecto r 0.05.5 l.I1n) in addition 1,1 the standard thermal infrared detector
(8.5 1:!.5 jlm).
S,,-ienlisls continue 10 us<: thermal infrared imagery acq uired
b) the NASA Thermal lnfrnrcd Multispectral Scanne r
lT l\ IS) which has vix bands r,tng ing from lU - 12.2 urn
(c.g., Schmuggc ct aJ..l00~; Cull el al., :!OO31. Man y scic ntists also usc the NA SA Airborne Te rres tria l Applications
Sens or (AlL\S I..... hic h has six visible a nd n.... ar-mfrurcd
bands. two Thematic Mapper nuddlc -Iufrarcd bands. and six
thermal infra red hands from x.:! - 112 u m. Specific bandwi dths are sum marized ill Chapter 7. BOlh the TIMS and
ATLA S sensors have a :!.Oor :!.5 milliradia n (mrad l lFO V
(Wallace. IQtXl; Coil et aJ.. :!OO3j.
Tb,,; ba sic prin<.::iplcs of ,'p.:rdtiull and o.:umpo lleJlts o f Iho:
A\1S. T IMS, and ATl.A S arc show n in Figure 1110. T he
d iamelt'r o r lhe ei rC IlI;ll" groun d ar ea \' iewed by lhe sensor, D.
is a rlllKt illll lOr tlK instanl<llleoUS lidd o r view, /l or the
scan n..: r l11..: a~lIn..d in m illi rad ian s and the alti tu de o f the
~,';lllll"'r aho\e ground k vd, H, \\ he re
() =/fxp .

(X1 4)

~\'r e:o.ampk. if the IFQV of Ihe \\:anTlL'r is 1.5 mrlld. the

ground sit.c of the p i\ e1 in meter<l is a product of lhe IFO V
In.HlllS) and Ihl:' alt itud e AGL in llIde l"S. Ta biC' 8-4 pre!iCnts
tlighl a ltit udes and corres ponding pixel Sil "'S at nadir (the
pt1int d i fl'~'l ly hclow lhl' aircra tl ) lor an IFO V of 2.5 m nul.
IH ) V~ typ ica lly range Irolll 0. 5 - 5 mrml.

When p,'rfo nn ing "cm.u-trock ~c anni ng. a n eleclric m(ltnr is

orielllt'd raralld "ilh Ihe al rcrall til .....lage and direct io n of

262

C II \ PTf R

Ther

Th erma l Infra red Rem ote Sensing

H.1Tdd\,k@

Ta'

\1 od u fal ~"tl

Ii eht sou rce

Dc",,,,

Opuona!
li lm

ur

hl.lu"J
nurogen

1J,,;1~""tur

"'::--~~ I:~:nig

r~-.:""lcr

('o ld

: To.>I:ll
,A

i\

/I

ungu lar
tie ld of \i~

Rad.am tlu ~, $ wulunthc

m'l;tnlaTlC<\tJi field of vi"" , IS

Fig ure 8- 10

('har,lf;leri 'llc, of a thermal in fra red airborne llOII

track ,cal1ncr. 1h., d ia1l1cl,'r o f the c ircular
area viewed hy t he se nsor. [) , is a func tion ofth!
,lalll,II1CllUS field "f \ icy,, p, of th.. scan ner and tht:
lilUtk "hI"e gw und level (AGl) of the airr.. raft, /I

th.. 11 111. uf dala ," 11IecI;011. The thermal infrared

ant flux recorded hy the sensor is a fllll.;l;on of thc ll-

di:lI\l

t:n.; rg~

cuuncd 1'[(>111 all t he terrain mal

within the ground resolution clement. In this caSC,ib

lJ - - -.
-I
tlight and drives a 4; sc:mning mirror facer located at the
end of the shan which has a precise instantaneo us tidd Ill'
view Ic,g.. 1.5 mnld ). The mirror S\:UllS the terrain at a right
angle t pcrpcndicular j tu the d irection of !lig ht. The mirror
normally sweeps nut a III/of angular jil'M oj l'it'l-l' of 'Xl 120 0 J uring eac h scan. depe nding o n the sensor S)SI.:: rn. The
mirro r also view s internal hoI and cold calibration .n mt"n's
(targe ts) d uring each scan . The e xact temperature of these
calibration sou rces is kno wu.
Photons ofthermal infrared radiant flux . III , cmined by the
terr ain. arc routed II,) a mirror that focuses the phll[OllS onto

would include elJt:rgy frn m hea lthy june tree" deal

trees. bare ~" il. uud any radiant energy from thcill1ll
W iling :l1 llll" pher.... The detector also loo ks al CIlIJ
;111<1 hoi culihration sources dmin ~ each line scan.

the d,'Il 'Uur. TI1<' detec to r converts the incoming radim:

cn..:rgy LntO:1I1 al1:11(lg ele ctrical sig na l. The greater the nurnbcr III' photons impac uug 11K' de tector. the greater the SL&l*
strength . The infrared de tectors ( Figure Sl I ) arc usuaJl!
comp osed of:
/,,:51> [indium antimonide) w uh a pea k scnsit ivit) nearS
urn:
GI' . I1~ ( me rcury-doped
.....n"ill\ uy ncar rupm:

germanium]

with

pe1i:

263

I Infrared Dat a Collection

Th ermal Infrared Detectors

Aircruh m llhls~clm l scanner I1 lght altitudes and
pixe l silL' based on an inSI:lntan"ou s Ilcld ot vicw
of2.5 mrad .
Flight Alti tud e AGL, m

P ixe l S ize, m

1,000

2.5

2,000

5.0

' ,000

10.0

20,000

so.n

50,nOIl

1.25,0

~CJ' r,' (mcrcury-cadm iurn-tdluritkl which

lilt!' ibe range
'lledct~'(lorr.

;;;. 1010

15.0

i.. scnsmve

from X- 14 ~I m.

arc cooled to 10 w te m perat ures (. IQf,C ; ':!,B

:73 K) using liqui d helium or liquid n itro gen. Cooli ng the

o
>

( ;~' : J1 1:

"

ury -!loped
I- + - f-H c {:'I.-1erl'
(Ierrnanium )

1'1 1III
10' L _ _'-'_
1

itt~lors

ens ures that the radiant energy (photons) recorded

~ the detectors comes fro m the: ter rain and not fro m the
ber aternperat ure (If objects .... ithin the scanner itsd f.

lie Earth doc s not emit

much thermal infrared radin. therefore, the re lanv ely wea k signal is usually amphi:d The signa l is the n reco rded on magnetic tape or other
for future analog-to-digita l (A -to-D) con version and
aaf:,sis.l f desired, the signa l can also be used to modulate a
, source that reflec ts \ isiblc light onto a recorder mirror
~!led ;u the other end o f the m ot ori zed shaft. Here the proess is reversed and vivible ligh t radi ant llux pro port ional til
ik !l11ount o f infrared ene rgy received is used IU exp ose
jiIolograph ie film pixel-by-pixel and line-by-lin e. creating a
Ibmnal infrared image of'thc te rrain . To pro perly expose the
~l;raphic lil m. it must be ad \ anced rorv. ard in re lation 10
fast the sha ft is turn ing . The hard -cop y therma l infra red
JIIC ma~ be precessed as a n<-gati\ e or pos itive pri nt.
VCI)

is important to re member thai the in frared rad iant tlux

m..'Orded by the sensor system is an integration of all the
r2il i3nt nux ernincd fro m the: various materials with in the
IFOVand any radian t n ux that the at mos phere migh t scaucr
inlo the IFOV of the se nsor. For example. radiant nu x emitI:d from the healt hy pine trees. dead trees. hare soil. and the
JlmosphcT<: wou ld be integrated into a single meas ureme nt
lithe terrain show n in Figure X~ IO.

1.5

.2

-'--'--'-'c:..:c:..,--,c..J

J 4 5 67 R 10
Wa vclengt h.jrm

15 20

I
l

Fig ure 8 11

The pe ak spectral sen,i livity o f an indium antimon ide j/wSh) the rmal infrared detec tor i ~ appruxunarcly 5.0 J-I ll1. while the !X'"k sensitivity of a
mercury-dope d germanium ( u-:Hm detector is a pprO\ illlatcf~

10

~m

(afi.:r

~1<"Oonnd l

Dougla~,

lQK~J ,

T he t(llIow ing fac to rs shou ld he considered w hen co llect ing

aircraft MSS the rmal in fra red data :
There is an in verse rel ationsh ip betw een having high
spatial resol ut ion and h igh radio met ric reso lutio n when
collecting thermal in fra red da ta . Th e la rger the radiometer
instanta neo us field l ) f view; P. the longe r the d-.w:// l i m e
tha t an indi \ idual detec tor vie.... s the terra in w ith in the
IFOY duri ng a single sweep of the mirror. A larger IFO Y
pro vides goo d rodiomemc resoheron, wh ich is the abi lity
to discriminate be t w ee n \ cry small d ifference s in rad iant
ene rgy ex iting the terrain cleme nt. In fact, the radian t
en ergy ,\'ignol measured may well he muc h stronger than
,HI)' l /tIi .\'{ ' intrnduccd from the sensor sys tem components.
When thi s takes rI;K~', we say thai we have a good signalto-noise ra tio . O f co urse, the larger the IFOV, the poorer
the al;li lit~ to resol ec line spatial detail. Selecting a smaller
llOv .... ill increase the spatial resolution. but the se nsor

264

("I I

t uver w-xquare

R ~m"IC

,ktc'CtOf'
Icm~

Hlackt.od y Pomr """-nee, S

l'hc Inwn.c -"'luarc 101" Ic ' cals thatthe lnICn ~l l~ o f

lhl-rmal radi al ion cmin ed from a blackbody .....inl
..ou rce. S. vancv as II!<: mverse ><juan: ,,( Ih..- distance. d. !>..'1\\C<.'T1 lit<: source and remot," del':"""
receivers, t ), llmi

Th e rmal Infrare d Remote Sensir\9

The m

Most the rma l infrared remote sensing inv...stigations

main tain g(l{lt\ radiomet ric and spatial resolution .
s<'!':d ing a fa irly larg... II'O V such as 2.5 mrad. :W
ll)ing at a rclalhcl) low altitu de to obt ain smaller
si zes. Untornnnncly . at lower ..ltitudc s. rhc high.
resolution rna) b.: ourwcighed hy the fact thaI
fl ight liucs an: rcqci rcd to cover the area compared 10
efficient cov erage :11 higtJcr a hnudcs with larger
The pi ee l ~I/O: a nd the g."ographic size o f the "L1f\ieJ'
considered. ObJI:l'tIH'S art: "cighcd. and a romp
reached. \ Iulliplc Ilightlmcs of ai rcraft tl. ISS dau
d itfic uh to mosaic.

1 .;1\\

1>.

FIQUfe 8-1 2

\ 1 ' l n~

J).~

\\'111 d.... ell a ..hurt er t ime on each terrain element during a

S \\ CC p uf the mirro r. rcsu h ing in poorer radiometric
resol uuon and pl.'rhaps 3 poo rer sig na l-to-n orse ratio.

Ccomcme Ccreccnon
Infr a r l'd 'ccanner 1)>11>1

of

. \ r ro ",,T r a r k

Tht

Thermal infra red scanning system s (actually all

~)'~lt'ms l introduce num erous t)pes of geometric eTroI'
mu- abe understood because lite) imp act 1) the qualilyol
imagery lo r vi sual o r dig ital imag e procc-s.s ing and a~
and 2 ) the creauon ot plarnmetnc maps trorn the I
infrared data . 111... most important considerations indlll!t
gro und "" ath w rdth;

CUlling in ha lf the di stan ce o f a remote sens ing detec tor

from a point source qlladnlples the mt rarcd energy
rece ived hy thaI detector. The inverse-square law stales
that " the inten sity of radiauo n emit ted from a po int source
var ies as the Inverse square ofthe dist ance betw cc n source
JIll.J receiver," Thus, I l l' can ob tain a more irucnse . ~Irong
therm a l infra red signal i f we C;III gel the remote sensor
detector ns close to the ground :l~ prac tica l. For exa mp le.
con-ader a bl;lc"hud~ point ~t,urn: , S. and two remote
detectors (D I and D 1 ) \.f\'qU'll sensitive area. say, I elll~ .
Det ecto r /), IS a dis tance drm from S, and detector I): is at
a distance 2<1 em from S lFigun: ~ - 1 2 ) . From the Stefa nn ol lzmal1 l1 law ( [ q llali' lii ~ - I j, the Illlal in fra red energy
radia ied by S inw a hl'rnisplwre i~ ,I II. \Vatt , /cm 2 o f the
wdlilling sur lilce. Thus, ,1Ih is Ihe towl infr'ired energy
radi;HL'd inlo a hemisphere llr radius don whic h sens or D,
is localed, Ihal is. into a sllrt:lCC area of tre/""' ("/11-'. But JI~ is
alst' Ihl.' to lal infraro.:J ene rgy r'ld iated inlo a hemisphe re o f
mdiu s ~d on which senSl.r f) -, b l(lc ak'd. spcei lically. into a
sur ta ce ;Irea o f -1m/""' r nr'. Thcrdore.
If,

.
4n:,r
.\/"

\110'

w;
4

(X-I:')

spatia l ground resolution cell size:

ouc -di mcns ional rcl icf disp taccrncut: and
tang.e nlia l scale drsto ruon.

F
Ground S\\lli h Wi d th ( ~\ w ) : The grou nd sw ath width
11K' Icn~ lh of the te rrain ~trip remotely sensed by the sy~tn
d uring one complete across- track swee p of the sca nning mil,
ror. [ t is a func tion of the total angula r field Il l' view of tht
Sl'lhor sys lo:m. fl. lind tho.: ;Illitlldc I, r the sensor sysle m a~
gro unJ 1 ~\ e l . 11 (Fi gur'\' ~-13). It is COlllp lllcd as
g.H1 '

lan ( ~ X ll x 2 .

(8-17

Fllr ",xJmplc. lhe groun d swa lh width o f an ac ross-track

sl'anning sy~lell1 wil h OJ 100" total li cld llfvicw and anahj.
ludl.' aho\'C ground Il."vd (If 6.000 m wou ld he 14,]01 m:

g.H" - tan (
~ .~ W

l~) x 6000 x 2

1.19 1753x6000x2

Oi.-l ('

x,w

1.... J n l m.

265

I Infrare d Data Collec tion

......

--- - - _ . _ ~

a/ sc-.;~ 0) tl

.~">c .

O .. / h

R
I'

a t nad ir

or
-.....:

~I

/1.~.

--...:.~

!l13 Til.: ground r...solution , ell 5iL<: along a single a.... r.. s~- Ira c].. scan is a fun<:ti"ll ,, ( a ) the distance from the aircraft tt> the ,>bscrvauon. i.e.. II is lhe altitu d e o ft he aircraftabove groun d level (.\t i l);11 na,lir ami 11 w,. ~(llr-nadlr: h) the mstanumeous field
Ill" \ leW (If th... "';1lS\)r.I ~, m...a s urc...J in nulhrudians. and c) the scan ang le off-u.nlir. o. "l1lUs, pixels t>tT-n,Il.lir ha\ e semi-major
ami sem i-mino r aM.OS (J i;lmc Lers) that de finc rh... r.-sn llllin n cell Si7,'_ ( )n<:-tlimcn,j "na l relief di -placcmcn t arul nmgc nriul scale
Ji stuni ull a lsl) oc cur in a directionperpendic ular LoJ th.... line u f lliglll and p,u" lld " ,Lh a line , c an,

ihetotel field u f view wc rc 90, the gl"lJUllJ swath Il iJl h

llJld be 12,{l(l(J m:

...:.n,' - tan('120) x 6000 x 2

,11'.' 11' = I

x 6000 x 2

g \ '1- = 12. non

111

scientists utilizing ac ross-track sca nn er dat a o nl y usc

ir ctlltral ""11 percent otthe s w ath w id th t 35 ~'TC('1ll on ca c h

lde of rl.JJir) primarily because ground resoluti o n cleme nts

si, cs the farth er the y arc aW3~ fro m nad ir,

Gruun d R...sohuluu C d l S in ' (0): Thc diamete r of thc circula r g round nrc n vie wed hy the sen"or, /). :It nadir is n lime l in n o f ItK' ins tanrancou-, fiel d o f \' i... w, fJ. o f the scanner
mcasurc d in m i l l i ra d ian ~ r rura dj and th c uhiuej c of the se en ncr a bov e grou nd lew!./I. where /) = II x fl. Inte re s ting ly,
<I, till' ""an lle r'~ in,t.:l11l1111"'OU' field of \ icw 1II0 \'CS aw ay'
fro m nad ir ' HI e uh ... r sid c. th ... circ lc becomes a n ellipsoid.
O n e (If illc major reasons is thai the distance fro m the aircra ft
tothe resohnion ccllrs mcrc axing, a.. shown in Figu re ~ 13.
In fact, thc divtan cc from the a ircraft 10 the r"S<l lul i"n cell o n
the groun d. 110 , is a tuocuon o fthe scan angle Oil -nadir. O. at
the ume of data collection a nd fhe tru ... a ltitude of the a ircraft, /I (Lillc-und ..nd Kiefer. 20(3):

1M larger cell

II,

(R-IH)

- 8

266

C1IAP n :R

Thermal Inf rared Remote Sensing

Acro ~~- Tnll;k ~ lInllt'r

Gt'omt>lrJ

l'I

ilh

Ontf) imt'n ,iuna l Rl'Iid Displa cem ent

anti T an~t'nlilll S<'al ... Hi,wrtinn

rr
pnnripul
point
I

tank
signlficalil
gcomerc
I;omprc;-

at ed!:eof

sigmoid distortion
linca r feature

(If

Figu re 6 -14

t
one-dimensional

scan liDe

relie f displacement

a) The hypot hetica l pe rspective geometry o f a vertica l aerial pho tograph ,' 1>13I11C,J over le ve l terrain. Four 50 1\ tanks ill!
tributcd lhn'ugh,l\ll till' lambc3pe and experience \: Irylllg .lcl!TCI'S of radia! relie f d isplaceme nt thl' further they aTC fro..
pri nci pal pI,inl (1'1'). b ) Across- truck sca nni ng S}SIC IllS introd uc e onc-dimcusinua l relie f displacement pcrpcndiculer e
line or nigh t and tangenunl SC;11e distortion and colll pn'ss ion the farther the object i~ away from nadir, Linear features
ing aallS> the terrain arc often recorded with s-shapcd or sigmoid c urvat ure chaructcnsucs due III l.mgenl iOlI scale JI\
and compression.

Thus. the size (If the ground reso le no n cell increas es as the
angle increase'S away from nadir. The nominal {average)
dia metc... of the elli ptical resolution ce ll. Do. at this angular
locat ion from nadir has the dimension :
(l'i-19j

in the d irection of the line o f flig ht. and

inrhe onhogon altpc r pendicula r) sca nning di rect ion.

Scientists using therma l ncross-rrack scan ner data us ua lly
o nly co ncern the mselves \'. ith the spat ial gro und resolution
o f the cel l at nadir, D. If it is neces sary to pe rform precise
qua nrirarive work on pixels some ang le Q off- nadir. then it
may' be important to remember that the rad iant nux recorded
is a n inte gration ofthe rad iant 11u-1l: fru m all the surface mate ria ls in a ground resol ut ion cel l w ith a constantly changing
dia meter, Using only the ce ntra l 70 pe rcent of the swat h
width reduces the imp ac t o f the large r pixels found at the
extre me edges of the swath,
Oil l'-J) i nll'lI~ io/1l11 Relief nisp lac(' lJ1cllt : Tru ly vert ical
ae rial pho tograp hs ha ve a sing le principal po int directly

beneath the ai rcraft .11 nad ir arr he instan t of exposure.

perspective geometry causes all objects that rise above
local terrain elevation \0 be d isp laced from their
p lanimetric posuion radially ou tward from the prj
point (discussed in Chapter (,). For example, the four
rcrical tanks in Figure K-14a are eac h 50 It high. The
till' d ista nce from the principal po int, the greater the
relief dis placement ofthe top of the tank away from iu
The rma l infra red images acquired usi ng ,111 <l crOS!HI~
scan ning sys tem a lso conta in relief displaccrncu t. Ilowcv
instead of h..-ing radia l from a sin gle principal po in1. lhe dH.
placement takes place in a d irec tion thaI is perpe ndicular
rhe line o f flight for ea ch and every scan lme as showe
Fi g u ~ R-1 4b . In etfect. the ground-resolution dement
nadir func tions like a principal point for each scan line.
nadir, the scanning system loo ks d irectly dow n on the
and It appears as a perfec t circle in Figure 1(-14h. The gmllI
the height of the object above the local terrain and
greater the dista nce of the top of the object from nadir ue,
the line of Ilightl. the gre ater the amount nf nne-dimensi
,.";/ie( J{.I'p/an""I'1i1 prcsem. O ne-dim en siona l relief d&
placement is intro duced in bo th directions aw ay from
[or each sweep o r the across- trac k m irro r.

267

al Inlrared Data Collection

\'crl iul

Acriall> I"' I ,,~rap h

panang

plltrll

, .

~diml.'n siona l

ca mp us obtn I ned (In A pri l 2("

I'JSO. ~ "lc tha t the rel ief u isplacem ent o f III,' science
huil uin p i ~ radia l away from
the pruu-ipal point. bl Predawn I x I m therma l infrared
1111;11:\"1)'.
Note
the

,i

imri,'l\le underground steamline netw ork se rved oy the

earn pla n!. T he scienc e

seam

rel ief dis placement ca n be be ne ficia l or

image-interpretatio n prob lem s. For e xample. cons ider
.aerial photog raph and pred awn the rma l infrared image o f
bel'ni\Crsit), Ill' So uth Ca rolin a camp us shown in Figure 1(! The science huildmg s exhrbu radia l relief dis placement
:he aerial photograp h away from the princi pa l point and
lIN.limcfls ion:ll rel ie f displace ment in the therma l infrared
IIIgC' perpendicular to the line of !light. Noh: h(.w il is easy
li (\l' the side (fal;ad""l of the scicnc e buildings in the thcrinfrared image. T his is valuab le if \\ e want to study the
CIIISI:

FIgureS- IS ,)) Vertical panchromatic

aennl photography of the
Uni\ er~lly Qf South Carolina

hllild i ng~

Sill(1;!1

exhibit une-d ime'n-

relief displacem ent

ca used by the ews>-lrnel.

sc annmg system.

temper ature characteristics (I f til.' side of these build ings.

1I11""'l' w r. if We wanted to e valua te the thermal chamc tcristics of the rood o r obj ects un rncdiu rcly beh ind the build ings,
lhe) are obsc ure d fro m view.
Ae rial photography and predawn the rma l infrared imagery
o f dowmow n f'\ew York C ity provi de an even g reate r app re-

ciuuon 01" unc-dnne nsioual rel ie f displaceme nt [Figure 8Ill). In this case. the rad ial relief d ispl acement in the aerial
photograph makes II di flicul t 10 obta in mfo rmauon abo ut the

( 'Il..\ I'n:R

268

Th ermul Inrrared

Th e rma l Infr ared Remo te Sensing

11I111 ~e

of x ew York

Ci l~

The n

toni c
one

hyp<
Thi~

non!
utili
tort

8-1-

pen

rno

Srn
gel

e.'\l
va

im
tic

pe

"
ct

b.
FIgure 8-16

al l'lr'p.;:'I:!llt' a<'ria ll"h"\(~f"aph ofd"" lUO"' " ;..lc.... York Cil~ !"I'I<: the radial relief ..h splacemcruofthc Empire Slate
awa y from the principal point (not silo.... Ill. h) Predawn therma l infrar..-d im:l g.: nf dow mown ~ ... w York City, Note !he
dimensional rchef d i, plal'.'n h: m lhal is perpendicular fll ihe line (If n ight. Th .., Illda l 011 the '01" of the Emp ire Slale Bui
shuws " I" as I:>o: illl; \'ery cold due 10 lis I,m cmissiv uy. Th .., building on the le R is <cry "'1,101. while the Empire State B .
r adiates a ~ ij;nltka nl amount of energy. The meta l <:1111> hal e II l'IW t'lllisSllll>. as dothe circular metal evaporative coolC!'\
top
th... IlC;U~',l burl<.l ing.

"r

~lreet patte rn is almost completely

obsc ured from \ icw. Conversely, because the t herm al imagery was obt ained along a line o f ni g ht tha t was parallel with
the ~ t rel't orientation. the one-d imensiona l rel ief displacerncut creates an excellent \ icw of the temperature charac terlsrics of the buildings a nd urccts, cspcciully those that lie
porpcndiculur II ' the di rectio n (If Iligh t. Notice the significa nt
amount of therma l detai l nn the side of the Em pire Sla te
Huilding that is vrsihle hCl';IUW orthe onc-dirncnxional re lie f
displacement. Abu note till' radiome tricall y cold metal un
the to p of the Em pire State Bui lding.

stn:e t pattern. In fact. the

Wh ile some uspcc rs o f one-dimensional relief disp lacement

may be ofunluy lor visualtherma l infrared image intcrpretat inn, it scrillus ly disp laces the top .. 01" IlhJecH projecting
above the loc a l terrain fro m their true plan imctric position.
1\. laps produced from such lInag.cry contain serious plan ime tric errors. Thermal infrared imagery nu...t be geometrically
rectified in order to produce maps with some semb lance of

geometric accu racy. I\lcthod s of ge ometric rec tification

summa rized in Jensen (200 5 ).
Tllll!.:l'lltili l Scale Dbt uruon: The mirror Oil a thermal infu.J
red ncross- track sca nni ng system rotat es at a co nstant ~pettp
and typic ally vie ws from 7 () 0 to 120 0 of terrai n during
com plete Iinc scan. Of course, the a mo unt depends on tlt
specific senso r system. h om Figur e X- I] it is clearthat
terrain diree ll)' beneath the aircra ft (al nadir! is c loser lOllt
aircraft thanthe te rra in ill the edges J uring a single sweep"
the mirror. The refo re. because the mirror rotate s at a OOJ.

statu rate. the sensor scans a shorter geogra phic distarce e

nadir than it docs at the edge ofthe image. T his re lations
rends to comp ress tenures a long an axis that is perpcndiaJar til the line Ill' !light. 1 he great er the d istance o fthe grOlllJ
resolution cell from nadir. the greater the image scale cwo
pression , This is called tangential scale distortion . Objccs
nc.rr nadir exhrhurhcir proper shape. Objects near th... ed!t
of the Ilightli ne become compressed and the ir shape diitoned tor example. co nsider the tangential geometric ds-

,
n

I
I

1Infrared Data Collect ion

269

Ii.!n and compression ofthe circular swi mming pools and

hectare of land the farther they are from nad ir in the
rucal d iag ram (Figure tj-14b) .
Wlgenlia l scale dis tortion and compression in the far
also causes linear features such as w ads. railroads.
right of ....-ays, crc., to have an s-shape or sigmoid dis ilwn wh c-n recorded on therm a l infrared imagery ( Figure
I.:bJ. lmeresun gfy, if the linear featu re Is parallel with or
icular to the line of Ilight it doc s not experience vig-

diaorrion.
sophistica ted across-track scanning systems lake tan -

'81 scale dis tortion into considerat ion and swee p the
flJ~ing spot of light at the lilm recorder at a continuously
'ng speed . Idea lly, this is the ty pe of therm al infr ared
availa ble fo r anal ys is. When tangential scale disrorhas not b<..'<:11 removed, it is best 10 1) use the ce ntral 70
latmt of the field of view for analysis to m mimize the
of distortion. and 1) geornc m ca tly rl-..:ti f) the remote
data using ground -comrol po int rectific atio n disIlIl:II:d in Jensen (2005 ).
single Ilightl mes of aircra ft !'.ISS data arc diffic ult to
to standard map proj c-ction becau se of aircrati ro ll.
and/or yaw duri ng data collc.....tio n (Jensen et al.,
.~ Notches in the edge of a tl ighrli nc of data are ind icacofa ircraft. roll . Such data requ ire sign ific a nt human a nd
lIlChinc reso urces to ma ke the data planunctricully acc u(II

'f:.

'!!t , Several

firms have place d Gi'S and inertial naviga tion

ascms ([1';5 ) o nbonrd the aircraft to obtain the e xact toea -

of the plane and its roll, pitch , and yaw al the exact
of data collec tion. This information can be used 10
I,,,,,,""call~. COTn:l;1 eac h line of rem ole sensor data withthe need for the collection of gro und control ponu s.

Rldionlftrk Cnllb mt lnn (If Therma l xcunner nala

matcly [2()" of terrain. ami then a " hot" re ference la rget d uring e:.II,:1I line sca n. as dc monsrra rcd in Figu re 8-10 . The truc
ki neti c temperature of these cold and hot targets is constantl y monitored by the remote sensi ng sysl... m and is
recorded on disk. tape. o r some o the r medium along wit h the
image data fo r eac h line scan. If desired. all of the terra in
brigh tness values collected during a scun can then be calibrated [converted] to "PJI,Ir<!1I1 true temperature values
based on thei r rel ationshi p to the cold and hot target information stored lo r each scan line . Th... radiom e tric resolution
is usually accurate to w ith in
O.2eC. This sho uld be the
ideal method of radiometric ca libration becau se it invo lves
no fie ld wor k. Unfort unately, th is met hod dues mit account
for the intervening atmosphere I ) e mitt ing spurious radian t
energy iruo thc I FO V ofthe sensor system, or 2) absorbing
energy emiu..\! from the ground he fore it reaches the deice tur opti cs ,

=.

Ext ernat Kr fr r en l'i n:.:: To incorporate atmospheric e ffec ts.

it rna) be necessary to perform ex terna l em pirical referencing . Th is invo lves lakin g insitu measurements w ith I ) a
thermomete r that measu res the true kinetic tcmpcruturc ofa
materialor water body, 21 a handhel d /"(uliOlJ/"Il '" tha t measores the rad ia nt te mperat ure exiting the terrain in a specific
mstamaneous fi eld of view . or 3 ) a radiosonde Ia balloon
carrying sensit ive meteorologica l instru men ts} launched to
obta in at mosphe ric profiles o f temperature. barometric pressure. and water vapor,
Therm ometers are stra ight forward i l1 situ measureme nt
dev ices . A radiometer is a handheld remote sensing instru men! that you point at the terrain and an ap pa re nt radiant
temperature read ing is ret urned. Either type of temperatu re
measurement should be o btained at the ex act t ime that the
remote se nsor data. a re collected o verhead. Ideall y. more
than 311 ill .~il/l sa mples are obtained, Unfortun ately, this is
not a lways practica l due 10 the constraint, o f hiring peop le ,
bout s. etc.. and ..rhtaining a su ffi cien t number of high-qualit y
rhcrmomcrcrs and 'o r radiometers . T he exactlocation Ill' eac h
o f the III .' 1 /11 thermometer or radiometer measure men ts arc
o btai ned usi ng GPS. The tocauons of the in .{ i/II data -collec tion I"'II1IS lire then loc ated in the recufleo rem ote senso r
data . a nd th... hright n<:s.~ values at the se locations arc
ex trac ted. The uccuracy of thl' geomet ric cOfT\::ction of Ihe
ther ma l infrared data hceomes very im portant at this poinl.

order to deriv e surface temperatures from thermal infra remote se nsing data. two im portant proMems mu st he
til IColl er 31.. 20(3): (i) com pe nsa tion lor atmospheric
ion and emiss ion in the: radiance arriv ing at the sen.end (ii) correctio n for surface emiseivny effect s. wh ich
ItCQupkd \\'ith tem perature in the rad iance em itted by the
Wfacf. This radiome tr ic calibrat ion l11u)" be pcrfomlCd
IilIlf: I) internal l'-Iackbody <:;o urcc re lerencing, or 2 ) e xtl:'rmpirical refe renci ng based o n in ~ iffl data collection
hi and God. 1995) .

.{ i lll arc then regres sed w ith Ihe comsponding n n:mole

IIltma l Sou rce Keferencin::: Wh en an al'ross -trac k scan

Im~ sptem is use d to collect the rmal inirared data. the
~ei:tor /irst loo ks at a "cnld" refe rl'nce target. app rox !.

scn si ng brighlllcs~ values obtained at Ihl:' same g~'Ographie

locatio ns. Fo r example. cons ider Ihe eight if! situ water-tern peraturc measu rements in Figure ~-17 .111(1 the corresponding
uncalinral ed therma l infra red rem ote ,ensing brightness val-

The: fI the nnomeler or rad iome ter mea surements coll ec ted ill

I
I

II

CII ,\I' I EK

270

Th erm al lnlrared Rem ote Sensing

Them

Table

reo

I ()(J

./

'0

'0

'0
LinC'llr
HI ' _.. (I.65'h '" 5(,.173
Rl .. O.l't63

-,

'0

tho
th"

flr, nnlinl'lIr: 2nd..( ) rd t'r Pol~ n "mia l

HV .. "(IO I~~ - 2.121' ... 2(,.3
ij
RZ .. (),~!t~

20

'ua0.

b. n

a. o
2U

II

'0

RO

IIr sine True Kine tic Temperature \ k a.<;urement. T4l1l" "F

Figu re 8 17

()

20

'"

so

u}Linear regression line nuc ciglu in 'I/U temperature measurements and uncafibratc d rem" tc sensing brighUK";'S \"a1un
tamed f' lf thl.'same grop"phic loc atio n. " I Nonlinear Znd-ordcr polynom ial equahun fit tnthe sam ... obscr':l1 iOlls.

equation explained loll, pcn-cm ut'thc \ anancc while the zndorde r polynomial explained 9Q percent of the variance.

costly an d well-coordinated Field data-c ollec tion progra.

A lso. a ll the thermom eters. radiometers. and G PS inll:t
menrs mu st be ca refu lly cal ibrated. and the in situ read .
shou ld be obta ined at exac tly the same lime, if possible

Either o f these eq uat ions may he used III rel ate the ill .~i'li
tem perature me as urements to the remote sensi ng brightness
valu es . in eff ect. radionwtrica lly cal ibrati ng the rem ote senso r data. Thi s meth od docs not rake into acco unt the intervening a ( nlll~ p her\' prevent at the time of data collection.
Note thatthe linear equat ion is of the form HI:! = a Tt", + h.
If we want to tak e into nccoumthe emissiv ity (t.) of the tcr rain. " e utiliz e the v-Iutcrccpr ( /I ) and slope of the re larloush ip (<I) and the eq uat ion:

But what if it is not pract ical to collec t in situ thcrmomete

radiomete r measur ements in the field over va st or illtraet3l1t
distan ces al the same time as the remote sensing mertliglt:
How can we then take Into accountthe de leteriou s efferu
atmospheric absorption or emission on our therma l infrard
measurements? T he answer is the usc of I J md io sondr ,ilIli
atmospheric rudi.uivc trans fe r mod el ing. or 2) spl i t-w ind~.
atmosphe ric corrcc uun tec hniques.

ucs ( B I~J ) for these same e igh t locations. Linea r and/or nonlinear curves are li t through the obse.... ations. The linear

HV ~, =

" 'f . T. I4U

"' h
'

( k- 2 1)

Rearra ngin g the equ at ion allows the true kinetic te mperature
T.i~ o f e ver)' pixel. 8 J~) ill the uncahbratcd matr ix o f remot e
se nso r data til be de termined :
1

B I 'il - h) '
( u c

(t-:-22 )

Th e radiometrically calibrated remote sensor dat a may then

be used to ma ke tempera ture maps. This method requ ires a

,\s noted. the inte rven ing atmo sphere has a s ignific:ml
imp act on the ene rgy emitte d by the terr ain be fore it is l C!ll
ally recorded by the ther mal infr ared remote sensing system.
In fact . the max imum unnosphcric trans mittance of th.:rmal
infrared radi ation in the spec tra l regi o n fro m ItO - l ~ j.1llI 5
on ly abou t ao percen t. The amo unt of atmos pheric a"solJl'
non is primarily a funct ion o f the atmospheric water l ap
content. although there is an ozone ab sorption ba nd al"Ollllll
f.J.5 u m . To obt ain accu rate thermal sur face radiance vallll:i
radiosonde launches need 10 be made concurre ntly \\iith~
timc and nigh ttime owrllights. A uucsph cric profile s ofteeperat ure. baro met ric pres sure . and hu mid ity obtained UsiDg

Tho
co
inc

am
d ll
pn

no
L\
m

no

;,

"c
it

,,

,
,,

lIilrmal lnfrared Data Collectio n

~ a5.

Sp~ctral scnsuivu y and ope rating tcmpc rauucs fil l'

selected infrared elccrro-cpricalIoc al P!<,J lICarrays.

WaV1!length
(lim)

271

Detector
Mat erial

Operating
Temperature (K)

0.3- 5.S

In:Sb

<so

1.0 - 3.0

r v Ug:C'd :Te

;> l SO

3.0 - 5.0

e v 1i!!:Cd:Te

$1 20

8.0 -1 2.0

e v Ilg:Cd:Tc

12,0 - 2S.0

Si:As

j {l -

so

10

radiosonde arc transmitted to the ground . These data are

incorporated into an atmos pheric tra nsm ission mode!
C!.. LOWT RA S or MODTRA;,\: ) to calcu late atmos pheric
bIMIission characterist ics (Q uattr och i lind Go d . 1( 9 5).
The output from the LOWTRA :--J or J\I0 DTRAN mod el is
IOOlbincd \\ ith calibrated sr l.'clral response curve s for the
Pli\'idua l bands of the therma l in fra red detecto rs being used
internal b lackbody source re ferencing data recorded
aring the flight. All these da ta are t hen modeled a nd used to
a look-up table for co nverting each pix el's brigh t11M lalue into true k inet ic tempe rature measure men ts Ic.g.
(Jr..al!. 1999; Call ct cl., 20(3 ). Th is is the most rigorou s
!IltIhod of calib rating thermal infra red imagery. Unfo rtuDud)',lery I"c w perso ns ha ve ucc css to radiosonde tcchnoli'g}', Sometimes
at mo sphe ric profi le meteo rological
ormation from a nearby Nationa l Wea ther Se rvice station
Icr airpOft) can be used instead or the radios onde dat a as
~ to the atmos pheric tra nsm ission modcl lQ uan rochi and

Cl. (995) .

Scientists attempting to remove atmospheric effects and

e emune surface temperature ( 1.; ) data hav e also found that
JpliHvil1dul1' approach works well in certai n instances
(13)ko\\ ski ct al.. 1997; Ouaidra ri ct el., 20( 2 ). Basicall y,
hbrighmess temperatures o bserved in one therma l c hannel
eg.. AVHRR band TIl arc co rrected for atmospheric clTects
~ tile linear difference bet ween the brightn ess tempe rature s
I other thermal channels ( e. ~ . , I\V HR R band T.,). A n evam\'Ie of a .l.pIiH.. indow equ ation is
J

Figu re 8--18

A (>40 x -4 110 IIt;;Cd :Tc (mcn:ury--cadmium-telluride) lon g-wavelength infrared 1I.\\'I R) area array'
and readout a~'iCmbl)'. Th is detec to r arr ay is cooled
til 50 - lW K. New arrays have > 1000 x 1000 de-

tl'1.: tOTS.

retrie val using split- win dow methods . Tl MS data. and

ground rneasuremcms.

Thermal Infrared Remote Sensin g Based on Area- and

Linear-Arrays of Detectors

Until rece ntly. it was difficult to make commercially a..a ila ble rC Ds that haJ spectral sen sitivity to m id- and lun gwavelength in frared rad iation. Therefore . mos t thermal
in frared remote sensor data " ere collected with a single
dete ctor and a scanning mirror 3.1. previou sly di scu ssed . Th is
has cha nged ( FU R. 2(06 ), It is now pos sible to ma ke bo th
line ar and a rea-arra ys (so metimes refe rred to as "staring"
foc a l-plane armys ) thai arc sens itive to mid- and the rmal
infrared radiation such as those summ arized in Table X5 .
For example. a 040 x 4XCl lI g ;Cd ;Te long -wavelength infrared area arra y w ith its read out assembly attached is sho wn in
Figu re R-I R. Detector arra ys > 1024 x 1024 ele ment s are
00\1. a..-ailable and offer low noise and state-o f-the-a rt sc nsiu vity fur ex treme ly low -bac kg round applications. Star ing
array detec tors made of platinu m silicide (Pt:Si ) are a lso
popular.

(8-23 )
and h arc co nstants that can be e stim ated from
model simulanons ( Bec ke r and Li. 199 5 , 1' 1' co rrel ation wnh
!JOUIld observations. Six split- wind ow equatio ns are slim-ued in Ouaidrari et al. ( ~OO2) and in C7aj ko wski cr al
:00-;). Coli et al. (201).31 describe land-s urface temperature
\' ht.'l'r II

Linear and are a staring arrays allow improved thermal in fmred re mote sensing w ta ke place because t FU R. 20(6 );
the solid-state micro-elec tronic detectors are small er in
sile t e.g. 20 x 20 Jlrn ) and " e ight require less pow er to
operate, hav c fe wer mo vin g pa rts, and arc mo re re liab le;

C H,\ I" t:l{

272

Figure 8-19

Thermal Infrared Re mo te Sensing

r t erm

A helicopter wnh a lorward louklll ll mti"otrnl

tf LIR) scnsce system IOC3IL-d under lhe nose (coer10:"') H J R :-'y,l.-rn'i.. lncl.

Fig ure 820

each detec tor in Ih... a rray can \ k\\ the grou nd resolu tio n
d em ent rU T a longer lim... (i.c. it has a longer dw el l time),
allowing more photons oft'nl'r},!Y fro m \\ ithin the IFOV 10
be recorded by the indi vidual dcicc tor, resulting in
improved radi om etric resolution Ithc ability to rcsolv ...

'1I/.hl1llll.: thermal mfrarl"d image of a

tC'lUrt\.,,~

f UR

~}sl~rns,ln~ .I ,

array technology. An exumpl... of a FU R system h

under the nocc Ill' an ai rcr all is shtw. n in Fig ure }ill).

sm at lcr temperature d i ncrences I:

each detector clement in the linear or are a array is fixed

relative 10 all other dement.., therefore. the geome try of
the thermal infra red image is m uch imp rm ..-J relative 10
an ac ross- truck sca nning sys tem:
that prod uced

"y

HIme lmcar an d urea thermal dd.:clllrs 110\\ USI,.' a

min iature Sterling clos ed-cyc le co oli ng system that doc s
not require the com pres sed gJs-t' ()oling appa ratus (a rgon
or Iiquid nitroge n ) previously discussed .
Forward -l .lIul;in l:, Infrllrt'd (F I ,I R ) SySh' nJS
Du rin g the lW I Gu l f Wur aml till' War in lraq hegi nni ng in
20n4. the public S;l\V day and nig httime .Iiwli'{// yJ-J,m ki llg
i" (m ll'd (FUR) nnagc-, o f the te rrain and various ta rgets. Fo r
decades. mi l itnry nrganilatio ns th ro ughout the world ha ve
funde d the dev elopment o f FU I{-Iy pc sys tems that loo k
obliq uely ahead ufth... air craft and acquire high-q uality thc rmal inf rared image/), I::spl'd all) at nig ht. In fact.thei r goa l is
usuall y ""10 own the nigh t ' So me H II{ systems collectt he
infra red encT!:!) based un thc same prim::ipk s as an aero-istrack sca nner t prc vic usly d isc usscd), except that the mirror
po ints / orwa nl about 45 lind projects te rrain energy during
if single SWl~P \ 11' the mirror on to a linear arT.IY of thermal
infr.:m:d de!l~ltlrs. Some systellls usc staring focal-plane

FUI{ and other thermal infrared sysh:ms arc routinely

h~ l<l.... -cnforccrncru a:;l' lleil'S to sc.... nighuimc eri
ac tivity nnd lind lllst people. For e xa mple. a crimmal is
the pn lcess o f hrea l. ing into a second-s tory building. in F,
urc X-10, The pen-on is upproxunat cly QR~F. w hilc the tCfl'd
is 70 - l\O"F. Th e melist rtlO!i(IP is re lativ el y en ol (darl:. ), lII
trce t run I. and eallll l' Yrclar ivc Iy warm I, bright J. and the IlK'lI
components of the l.uldc r an' COllI (dark ). For esters and fl!:'
tigh lt"rs tis"," FI.I I{ to locate the perimet er o f forest fires 3IId
effectively allocat e li rcti gh ting reso urce". S('curily [ll'fSl'Cloo
1lL'1 ;11 Gatwick I\irport in London use pole-mourned FUR
surve illance sys te ms 101 monim r the perimeter fences and
ma kc sure nu un.nnhorizcd people ga in access to the airplJn
Several ot her rI IR images nrc presented in Figu re X21,

The T hermal "ifhorlll' Hr ua dhan d Imuuer (T.-\ S I)

The Itres, Inc , (If Cn nada has de veloped two n r the lTl(Q
inuov auv c aubomc thermal infw red remote sensing sysit'llli
based Oil linear aTTIlY pu shhr nnffi n-chnology The Tht'nr4
Asr borne Hroc/(I!>tllld IIII<Ig,'r (TA B!) obtam-, data in a SIngle
broad thermal-infrared chan nel fro m X.O - 11.CI Ju n . The Jill.
car arT.IY con tains 3~O picture elements thai arc 50 x 5i
micro meter" in Si7e. 'J he IFOV is 1.1\ mra d v.ith a lotal tielt1
o f \it:v. Ilf -IX" . The lIJl a <I re lJUantiA-d II) 11-hit!>(0 - 4O'l5
Th l' scnwr 0;:;10 functilm Itl :t m:n.imum :thi ludl' (If 10,000 fi.

273

1l'Iennalintrared Data Co llection

FU R (For wa rd-looking Infrar ed ) Imagery

b.

c.

d.

,.

'd
d

,I

n
~

"e

F9Jre 8-21

ha m p l e~ " f air\l" me I UK \ ti,m ,m.l-looking infrared ) imager) . OIl I\ighll irne inhlge uf p.:upk in a bwl being rescued . b)
Mghuimc image " f a p.:rMllI on a metal ru\)f reing pursued toy another P" ,"",lJI 00 Ike groun d. x ct e the warm transfo rm c rs on
the tclc:phOllC pole and the low e missi \ II) or the meta l tele phone lmcs. c1 Uclk vp tel \ iew of policeme n maki ng an armed
arrc sr. d ) Nigbuimc image of a Humme r military vc hiclc w ith rbc engine 011. e) SlUragc lan k wuh a relauvcly coollower layer
uf C\lntents. t) Nighnuuc image o r ,In urba n area .... uh wate r.boar, autcmobitcs. and pcdcstnans (~""Urt~..,.y FU R Syst ems. lnc.).

--

,>

274

Thermallnlra red Re mo te Se nsill!l

Tl

l3 .().l8 m) AS L. Gcomcrric recuficaucn is performed us ing

onboard (i rs and I ~ S data making rhe collection of gro undcontrol points unnecessary. Characteristics of the [Ires
TAB I -3~O arc fmmJ in Table 8-6 [Itres TAB!, 2006 ).
The T herm al ..\irhorm.'

S pt'c l rll~ ra phic Ima ~er

Ta ble 8-6.

hrcs. lnc., Thermal Airborne Broadband I

(T'\BI -320) and Therma l Air borne Spectr

Imager (TASI-hOO l characteristics

(T.-\SI I

TABI320

The: Therma l A sr borne SpeCTrographic 11I1(IKI,,.(1 A 5 1) is one

of tho: li N true hypcrsp ..-cua l thermal-infra red remer... sensing sys tems based lin linear array n-c hnology . It collect s data

Spec lral "" n>ili> i~ {I' m

in 32 therm al ch anne ls in the region from 1\.0 - 11.5jJm . The

pixel sile is 30 x ) 0 urn and the IFOV is 1.15 mRaJ. The lin-

Spatial

rt~>" luli"n

I~ m la t

' ad ir

ear arra y co ntains 600 pixels. TIl": 10131 field of view is 40 ~.

The data are quantized to 14-I:>il'O. Characte ristics of the Irres

:'\umh('r of thermal hand>

TASI-SOO
8 - 11.5 Ill!

\ariabk based on the aircraft aI

above ground level (AGll

TAS I-ftOO an: summarized in Table X-o (Irrcs lASl. 2(06).

linear am) eCD

Thennallntrared Environ mental

Con sideration s

In"

2.l'i mrad

4So

When inlerp r": ling a thermal infrared image , it is usefu l to

unde rstand the diurnal cycl e and how it relates to the temperature of objec ts on the Earth's surfa ce.

n..h( I"~ In

Diurnal Tempe rature Cycle of Typical Materials

RlIdl"llll.'lr k

1.25 mnd

""

320 pixels

t.(l(l plxcl~

SOx50 J.lm

30xJO IlJIl

320

600

12 oil

J4 b it

liuur ll rrll~

f{'~"lu t ion

The diurnal cycle encom passes 24 hours . Heg in ning at sunnse. the Earth Ixgin" intercepting mainl y short-wavelength
energy (0..1 0.7 1J.1lI) fWIlI the Sun (Figure ~ :!2a ) . From
dawn to dusk . the terrain intercepts the incoming short
wavelength energy und refl ect s much of it back into the
atmosphere. where we can usc optical remote sensors to
measure the re flected ene rgy, However. some o f the inc ide nt
short-wave length ene rgy is absorbed by the terrain <I nti then
re-radiated bac k into the atmosphere as thermal infrared
wavelength radiation (] - I ~ tun I. The outgoing long-wave
radiation peak usua lly lags Iwo to four hours utte r the midda y peak of incoming shortwave radia tion , due 10 the time
tak e n til heat the soil. T he contnburion of reflected shortw av elc ngth energ y and cuuued lo ng- wavelength energy

causes an ene rgy surp lus 10 take place d uring the day. as
sho w n in Fig ure X-22a. Hoth incoming and o utgoing shortwave radiat ion become zero after sunset [except for light
fro m the m oon and stars ], but outgo ing long-w ave radiati on
e~i lin g the terra in connnucs all ni gh t.

( ;~ .. rl'fcrl.'ncin~

Appl.mix I'OS software with CPS alii!

Inertial Navigation System (I)\iSrdm
Ground-control points arc nOI reqllU'Ol

Figure X -2~b. lf'ullofthcsc curves lie exactly on top ofl.1l:

another. then remot e sl'nsing in th c the rma l infrared port
of the sp ccrrum woul d be (If no value because all the pJit.
uomcna would han ' the same appa rent radia nt rcmperana
T here wou ld he no contras t in the im agery betwee n the dif
fcrcm phenomena. Fortunately, there arc only two l imc,d ll1
ing the day (uflcr sunrise and ncnr sunset] when >OlIIl
mat e rials like soil, ro...-k, and wate r have exac tly the >ami
radi an t temperature. During th is C11J.\'.I'o ~,(,,. l i me pe riod i1 ~
genera lly not wise to acquitc therm al infra red remOl ~
sensed data .

Fortunately, some materials sto re heat more efficiently th.u

o the rs, i.c . tbey ha ve a higher thermai cupacuv. For cumpic. water has a much higher therma l capacity than soil

The typical diurnal temrc ralure \lariation s for soils a nd rock ,

"ater. \egetation . m(li ~1 soil. 3ml l11et:11(Jbjecls are sho\\n in

rock (Table 1'-31. lIs diurnal temperature range ttuctuaes

wry little wh en cnmpar..-d with the dram atic lemp.:ralUR
llud uation of sHil J nd rock during a 2+hr per iod.

rmallnfrared Environmental Con sideration s

275

M .nll nulll

Minimum

,.

temperatu re:
2 -1 11.111.

h;mp..:r..lul c:
flu .rn

c,u..rgy
<.k lkil

energy
~ul'f'lu~

--J+.. . . . .......

... _-- ----u

-t n m fl am.

"

~ n m.

-1

no""

mi\lnigh l

r-m.

I.nelll'
\ ho n- \\ I \c-I.. ol:l h l

p.m .

m iJ mg ln

lola l O UI!:,,;n!: r. n{'r~

- ona; nl) lu ne-.. :.. .....n!:' h)

I Ol l ll n co m i n ~

C ma i n l~

b.
loc al

local

sorms..:

sunsc'!

I
"" ,

_._._._._._._.-._.-'

t>;lfC ""II

{I>'.,,,,\

__

"

2a m.

-r a.m

~W . . '

"

fla m. 1I0.m

midn igh t

I,
Fq.Jre 822

.-

"-

"- '-- :

: _. _. _ "

ml'r,iI "bl ccl~

"

"

._0_
"

,.

, .. ,

4 p.m .

"

"

"

,,

II p UL

"~"

'I

a) The diurnal cycle of reflected shon-...velcng th and ermned [<.KljH\U\dcngth ,no:l"Jo!)'. :\010: tbe pe al. period o f d.li ly outgo-

ing long-.. avelcngr h radiauon und the gener-..l daily maximum rempcnnurc.fu 'I bc diurnal r-adiant temperature of bare soil
II atcr, moist ha re soil and metal object s

and roc k, conc ret e. ve gct.nion ,

hwe were interes ted in pe rfo nn ing te mperatu re mapping of

erram consisting of ju.'.\ so il. ro ck . an d \.\ute r. we: ceukl prediCI what the image would look lik e if w e acqu ired thermal
iJ.fr;u-ed imagery al about 2 :00 p.m . and at 4 :00 a.m . in the
Iklrning. The so il and rod .. would appea r brighter than w a ll'!"

in the daytime thermal imagery d ue 10 the ir h igher apparent

tem perature . Rock and so il con nn uc to rad iate en erg y into
the atmos phe re during the nig ht. During the curly evening
rod .. and soil {and concrete ] are still wa rme r tha n much of
the surro undi ng terrain . By m idnighl these su rfac es ha ve

276

Thermallnlrared Remote Sensing

radiated most of the hea t energy they absorbed Ju ring the

day and gr:ldu ;Jlly the) reced e in brig htness. Conve rsely,
wa ter w ith ih high thermal cupaci ty, ma intains a relatively
stable surface te mpe rature that may well be high er than the
soil and rock {and concrete) by 300ut ~ :no a.m T his results
in .... ater being brig hter on tht' nighuimc the rm al in frared
imager) tha n tho: soil and roc k. and even the: \ egctarion in
many instances . Because vegctatjon contains water, il is usually coole r (darker) than ..oil and me lon 2:00 p.m . daytime
imagery and wanner (brigh ten than soil and rock on preda w n imagery.

short-wac clcngt h re fl ecte d e ne rg~ from the Sun can

urmoying "hadllws in dayt ime rhcrrnel infra red imagen

VcgcL:ltion lends to be sligh tly .... anner than wa ter throughOuI the day and cooler than water during prcdawn hours.
Vcry moist M,lil rends 10 ha ve a stable diurna l tem perat ure
cycle. as show n ill Figur e 8-Z2b. bec ause the mo re water in
the soil, the higher us thermal ca pacity. Mt'ta l objects such
as can; and alumin um rooftops appea r ';(101 (dark} un both
day a nd nigh ttime thermalinfrared imager)' d ue to thei r low
emissivity [remember, good metal reflectors are poor
absorbers. and the re fore pov r cnuttcrs}, In fact. Ihey arc
often the: darkest objects in the imagery.

Pilot s arc now able to obtain vel')' accu rate tl ightiiM

thermal infra red imagcr)' at nighl using onboard GPS.

Several o f the pre\ iou cly mc mioncd d iurna l tem perat ure
cycle relation ships arc demonstra ted in Figu re 8~23. An
AT I.AS m ission w as 110\\ " over a large sandhar in the Mississippi River at 5:()() a.lll . and 103 0 a.m rI cnscn el al.,
200 ~ ). 111\: dat a have a siu lial rcsohnion of 2.5 x: 2.5 m.
Daytim e thermal hands 10, II , and 12 revea l a dramatic difre reuc e in the tem pe rat ure pro pcnies of sand and gra vel on
the san dbar. The: d iffe rent ma terials absorb the mcidcm
energy fro m the Sun diff eren tly, resu lting in substa ntia l diffcrcnccs in cxitance hom the sand and gravel surfaces in the
three thermal infrared bands. During llll' day, the wate r is
cooler th an mu ch o f the sur round ing co untryside. Th e vcgcration (V ) o n the bank of the ri ver is a lso re knively cool. As
expected. water is much warmer than th e surround ing coun tryside at nighl and the vege tntinn ts cooler thnn the water.
T here is still a notkeablc differ ence between the large gra vel
and sand areas in lhe nightt ime imag e ry. a lthough not to the
degree present in the da yt inll' imagery. Th.: go al of Ihis
prujeet \\ a:. to sec if lhennal in frar ed image ry wa s use fu l for
d iscrimi nati ng h.:lw.:e rl ~and ..nd gravd. II was pract ica lly
impnssihlc til d iscrim inate ht'"twel:n sand an d gravel area s on
I:1(OOfl.seak mltural el, ll.r lIerial pho tography obtai ned at
the same timL' as the 10:30 a.m. ove rnight.
Unle"" scic lltis!s arc ~pccl lic,llIy tryi ng to com pu te Ihl'nnal
incn ia whic h reqllifl'S oOlh day and nighlli mL' imager). Ihe y
o ften pre ler to co llect preda.... n lhenna l infr<i red ima ge ry
~'Causc:

ThenT

hy tOO am.. most of the ma teri a ls in the terrain

relat ively stable equilibrium tc mpcrr uurcs. as shoo
Figu re l\-22b. i.e. the slopes arc nca r zero:
convective wi nd cu rre nt.. us ually senle down by lhe
morn ing. resu lting in more accurate tlightlmes
c rabbin g of the ai rcraft into the wind] and flO .... ind
o r wi nd strea ks on the imager)".

Th ermal Infrared Remote Sensing

Examples

Warer Polfution Monitoring : Identification of Therma

Effluent in the Savannah Rwer

The Savannah River Site in SOUlh Carolina alone

cvrracred Savannah Rive r .... arer a nd used if 10 cool n
reactor operations. The hot cooling water was then ret
to the Savan nah River ~wam p system via Four Mile C
( Figure 1<-2-1-). Somcumcs the thermal effl uent reached e
Savannah Ri\ cr and created a thermal plum e as show n in
llight line o f prednwn therma l infrared imagery in F i gijre ~
25 . A the rma l infrared view of the plum e at full spatial ~
lutio n is sho wn in Fig ure X-26 . A num be r o f state and fcdml
hl\\ s grn cmcdthc c haracteris tics otthe p lume in the Sa\o&
nah River. For ex ample, the South Carolina Depart mcmd
IIcahh and Environmental Co ntro l (DII EC j required thar tb.
plume he less than one -third thl' \I idth of'tbc river al lempL1atu rcs > 2.1<''(' abov e rive r amh ient tempera lu r.:. Th e Sal.tIJnah Rivw a ne r a hea vy rai n i.. d;mg .:rnus, fast mov ing, am
cnn ta in~ ~u bstan tial deh ris. 11 is d itlieu ll to ohta in accur'lll:
lemp.::rature mcus ure rnen l~ by placi ng pcop le w ith ther
mll",elers in hoals tlMI ;lrc :It the m.:rcy o r lhe l'urrl'n l. Fli'
lhe nntlre . it is nlll prael iclll In plaCl' ill fil II lhc mln meter;.
lhe rive r hcca us.: {I f J chr is l1o win!; at h igh rates of,~
Th cr cfllr,,'... rel11tll~' sl.'nsing ,lppW;lCh \\,as used to olliain dlt
req UI red "pal ial lemperature in fonna lin n,
Table 8-7 summari7es the use r requ ire ments lind th e scnSll
..ystem para me ter<;. that we re used 10 ohl.3in the necessarj
tcm pc raluro: uuta. An a.: ro~l rack mu llispt.'Clra l 9.'anni~

'ema ll nfra red Remote sensi ng Examp le s

Preda wn a nd I)a~t inl l'

.\ T1.AS Th erma l
Infra red I m a l:er~ or
a Sand har in the
\ Ii" i\ \ ippi Riwr
! .~

\!

m 'IJ',l1"'] m.<>hnioo

~ 'OO~_m .anJ

<I r' rc'tlown Band ro

F-9Ul'e 823

IO10"m

e, Prffi.lwn ll a",1 12

Thermal infrared imagery .,1' a large sandbar III the- "'li ~si s~ i ppi Ri\ <: r otuamcd al 5.00 a.m. and 10,30 a.rn. on Sepl.:ml:>t:r 10.
19'N . TIle ATI-AS R.Hld I I detector did n"l run.:llnn properly durin~ prl"tlawn data collection (Jensen et al.. :!Ot J4I.

~il<'lT1

equipped with a therma l infrared de tector

was used to record emitted radia nt energy in the
1- 14 pm region of the spec trum. This reg ion was selected
teouse the terrain was relatively eno l, with a maximum
emnance o f't herm alcncrgy pt'ak ing at nbout " .7 p m.
(1l~:Cd :Te t

Thl: width of the Savannah Kivcr was ;lpprn ximiltcly <>0 m

(JOO I'U in the vici n uy (If th.. plume . For sc iennsrs In o bta in

a rmmmum representative .;ample of 30 pixe ls within the

nv er. each pi\ e1 ha d to record the su rface temperature fo r an
ar.:a :: J x 3 m . To ach ie ve Ihis Sill' o f pixe l. a senso r w ith a
25 mrlhradian I FO \ ' was usedro produce a nominal spat ial
resolution at nadir of'upproxuua tcly 3.05 x 3.05 m when the
sensor was 110\\n at 1.220 m (4,000 11) above ground leve l.

OIAVI Dt

278

Thermallnl rar e d Re mot e Sensing

The rmal Inrrarcd D et e ction o f T hc r mal

'rherrr

w ater Pollut ion in th e Sa va nna h River

'.,~"

" .'
.',

Figu re 8 -24

Solllh
("lIr...

i".

The Savannah River Sill.' In Sout h Carolina at O!'IC

lime ext racted water from the Savannah River and
usc-d illl> cool nuc jear-rcactor ope ration s. The therma l efll ucnt returned to the Savannah River swa mp
syste m via Four -'H e Creek, \\ here it was to drssipale. However. lhe thermal c tll ucm 1111 occ asion
reached the Savan nah River, res ulting III a therma l
plume.

Becau se lin ac ros s-track sl:3nnillg syste m was used to record

the radian! temperature ofobjects. tan gentia l sca le dis to rtion
was preselll . If not removed. the quality of the cartog raphic
products wou ld he dinunisbcd . Therefore. the image was
geometrically correc ted hy mode ling L'(H;h pixel as a funclion of scan an gle from nadir. Thi s resulted in each pixel in a
sca n line having an e ffective spatial resolution uf 2.!1 x 2.H
m. Th e data we re then geometricall y correc ted by selecting
ground-control po in ts and recti fy ing rhe data using nearestne ighbor rcsampling. as di scussed in Je nsen (200 5 ).
For investig at o n; to ide ntify a therma l plume and map its
tempe rature and spatial dis e ibunon. the plume, rive r. a nd
surrou ndin g la nd all had 10 be d isting uishable on the
remotely sensed imagery. each day ibe ma xim um thermal
con trast betw een Savanna h River w ater and other land surfaces is reac hed j ust befo re d awn, as pre viou sly di scu ssed
w hen tne riv er is wanne r than t he land surface. 11 w as
assu med rhar the: hut plume: would be d istinguisha ble fro m
the ambien t Savannah Riv e r wa te r an d la nd surface d ay o r

Figu re 8 -25

A predawn thermal infrared image of thermal em

ern erllerillg the Sa\'urmah River swamp ~}S!/I
tro m Four Mile Creek 01\ \1areh .1 1. 1')1\1. :lt4')
3.1lI, rill' water nugrarc-d throu gh the swamp S}'~
and eventually en tered the Sava nnah River. pmdl/;

ing a ther mal plu me. The tempe rature and >pa:1
dislrih ulion o f this plume were govcmcd by a nu:n
ber " f,lall' lInd federal statutes. This is a 2x n:d1JColion im,tgl' ofu portion otthc tl ighllinc and con,;!tl
o f 1,0(,5 rnw ~ and on cnhl11111S. II pwvides a re.
gill1H11 ov erview o f the spatia l dismbuuoa of Iht
ther rnulcfllucnt.

night. An ndduicnal facto r in fav o r el f a predaw n overfligh

was the fact that at nightthere are no tree shadows :Ilnnglbc
hank of the river that can caus e sp uruue, tempe rature measurcmc tus o f lite river or plume. These considcrarice
resulted in the data heing collected on March 3 L It)H L I
4:2g a.m. under IIlL' influence of a hig h-pressure weather
S)'SII'11l w uh all ab sohnc humid ity 0 1'2 7% .

To co mply wit h the ..!. 1l.r C requirement. lite thermal infra.

red sca nner data were calibrated using inte rnal blac kbody
source referencing. Wh ile scanni ng a single line o f data. tbe
detecto r loot,e-d at a cold plate with a know n tem pe rature.tb
terrain. and then a hot pla te w ith a kno wn te mperature. By

,
k

allnfra re d Remote Se n s ing Exa m p le s

Thcrma l l nfrared Detection of T her ma l

water Poll ut ion in the Sa va nna h River

279

Table 8-7.

User Requirements for monitoring thl:' temperature

distrihutlon ofa thermal plume in the Savanna h Rtver .md ~n >Of system parameters.

Use r Requ ire ment

Remote Sensi ng
S yst e m Parameter

Th<: appareratcmpcrature of
each pixel musl he acc urate
to within ~ O.2 ~C of its true
temperature. Temperatu res
in the s.:cnc ?: the ambie nt
river tem per ature are of primmy importance.

Sense in the 11 _ 14 um regio n

using rncrcury-cadmi um-tclluride (llg:Cd:Te) detecto r with
an ,'\ -to-O conversion of l! hilS
(0 - 255), Rad iometrically ealibrare to .to.2"C with pixel values ranging from 3 to 411"C.

,\ 1 least 30 pixels should

fall within the on-rn width
of the river. Therefore. a
spatial rcsolunon element of
~ J x J m is required. g eetify all pixels to be within
~ 10 percent oftherr plani-

Usc a se nsor with an 1Ft IV of

2.5 mrad rl,,\\ n al l:!O{}1ll
(4.000 11) AGL Remm e geometric "'-'Tlsur system "hs turti..,n
and rcs amplc to 2.R x :!.ll m
picture ele mcms.

metric position.
Acquire predawn imagery
in the spring :lnd analyze

FqJre8-26 Preda....n thermal infrared image (1'1.0 - 14 Jlm) of

thcrmnlcfllucm l1o\\'ing into the Savan nah River
acq uired at 4:211 a.m. on \1arch J I. 198 1. using a
Daeda jus DS-I :!(,(l mullispcc1ral scan ning system.

res ults rapidly.

Prod uce isotherm mups and
e vrract qoa mita tiv c temper-

ature illflHTTIoltlOl1 ri"

~lecled c1"'5,~ uucrv als.

Predawn data acquisuion \\ ith

stable atmospheric condinons .
Cahhrate and a nalyze.
Apply image proc ess ing .md
cart ogra phic prin ciples to
obtai n quantuarive information
fro m the isothermal map and
i1~su..:i:tl" d lr.msc'C l~ .

'in}! the relat io nsh ip between the te mperature o f these

the anal ys t could calculate thc apparent temperature
or lbe terra in lo r each pixel. from .J to 4WC. The major
ibllhack o f th is ca librat io n method was that it did no t incorJIr.lIt' the e ffect of the inter-..enin g atmosphere on ~ ign al
~l'Onse , However. it appea red that the calibration "as
fairly successful. When the ca l ibratcd data were compa red
lith two ill situ s urface- tempe rature meacurcmenrs made in
Four ~l ilc Creek plume during the time o f the o ve rflight.
rotb remote sensing me asu rements were with in O. 2"C o f

Two types of data an a lys is " ere perform ed to extract qua nti tauvc te mperature inform at ion, FiN_ the spa tial distr ibution
of selected tem perature class interva ls > 2.8 ~ C above river
ambient tem perature were ma pped . Ntx t. tran sects were
passed thro ugh the isotherm map to document the cross-section su rfa ce area of the plume ..t specific tem pe rature class

lhe in situ mcusu rcmcrn s.

intervals.

the river at !>OllIC depth wi ll inhi hit certain species from

swim ming upstream duri ng the sp:lIvning se ason.

Mapp ing the spa tial dismbuuon of the temperature made il

necessary to id ent ify:
lnl ironmen ta l sci e ntist !'> a nd ichthyolog ists a rc interested in
spatia l di stribut io n of thermal plumes
IDd how they relat e to the am bien t river temperatur e. If a
~ume exists. it is im po rta nt to determine where the plu me is
~atl.'T than a specified numbe r of degrees abo ve river ambimt tempera tu re. Depending on the nm c of year. thermal
plumes may attract ce rtai n species of a... uatic o rgan isms and
mimic othe rs. L'nfo nu nutcly, a hut plume extending across

-.e temperature a nd

the land tsoil a nd vegetano n! to make su re it was

confu scd v ith the thermal plume :

not

the am bient river temperature:

the spatial di stnhut ion of th e p lume temperature > 2.8cC
above rive r nmhicntrcmpc rarurc.

I
I

280

Therrn all ntrared Remote sensing

The

Table 8-8.

Rela tionsh ip of Class to Ambient River Tem pe rature, 12 ' C

f
Clas s 1
Dark blue
a mbient

Trlm'l'cl "

"r

Clas s 4
Yellow

Clan 5
Orange

R. ,

1.2"- 2.B'C

3.0- S.OC

5 .2' - 10'C

10 .2 "- :i!OC

G_"

Li ght b lu e

. 1"C

J\ n rlt ~l'

W id th

Class 3

Class 2

Class 6

Class7
White
,,20'e

Bril:ht nc ' . \'111 111' H.1tnl:t' fo r t: III'h C I:". l nte r vul

Il l -IN

<)0- 1011

101- 125

126--17/>

177-; 5~

I '2.!l

1r.!.8

2/5.6

1':!.11

5/14

38..-

15.6

2/5.6

:J5.6

6116.1I

3/8.01

Ri \lor b

7-1-76

71-4!O

J ll"hcls -

I,[!"

17f47 .0

25/70

1')/53.2

IN ,6 III

3~

3-1 I"I\cl , -

pixels '"
IObA m

9 5.2 m
F.a.:h .. "n...."<.~ ,,~s apl'r<" imaldy ~ ~ s m in 1C1l ~1I1 1M pi,cls a l 2. ~ ml pi. d l. l u n",'l n",,,-,,,rcfTl<"Tl l, in lhe ri' ef ,, ~rc nude l'oly lifter use UN~
"d~ r"L.l I~-.l. "" th l iii" t-.:~ lI1 n ,n~ ~nd ~lld ll1i1I'I,,'b "f lhe \r~n"""'l ld l " fl llt.: ... me ",:an 1mI',
o lndlldt.--s One m" nl 1',,,,'1 o fl.1nd .nd "'a"" "n cM h , ide " fl hc ri,w
"J"l.n;"" r"I',,,.,,'l!' I,iwh atlJ mel,',,; Ii,r nJll\l'lc. 15 l'i~d, rcp,netll .U '"

At 4: 211. u.m, the rive r i~ much warmer than the surround ing
land an d easily distinguisha ble. TWI' methods we re used to
determine ambient river te mperatu re. First. in .illl temperature measurements o f the Savan nah River w ere availa ble
wh ich pla ced the tempe ratu re above the plume 3t I JOC . Sec ond . a sample o f 200 pi'(els jU!>1 above the Four Mile Creek
plume yielded a mean of J2T and a standard ..Icv iauon of
=0.2"C . Th us. the ambient river temperature .... as determ ined
to be 1 2 ~C.
Seven class intervals were then selected . 11m.c of the cl ass
intervals wen: for temperature s < 2.MoC above rive r a mbient
temperature and includ ed the land and the rm ally una ffected
river , Fnur class inte rvals were used In high light spec ial
mnge ~ o ftem perature wi th in the thermal p lume that we re >
2,8"C :JOOVC river ambient temperature. Eac h of the sewn
cl ass interv al.. were as..igncd a un iq ue color with ye llow,
ora nge , red. and \\ hue correspondin g to warmer temperaCo tor Plate 8-2a
tures in the plume (Tab le 88 ). Analy sis
revea ls that the hon est part o f the plume wa.. ju st offshore
from the mouth of Four .\1 ile Creek (3-1.11 "C : QUlI OF). The
tempera ture o f the creek itsel f .... a~ j ust as hot as the warmest
part of the plume: howev...r, the overhanging shru bbery
al(.ng the bank s ofthe cree k dampened the remotely sens ed
appare nt tempera ture o f the c ree k alo ng its ma in channel.
Also. rhc nn rrhern eddy o f Four Mile C reek warmed the
wutcr sligh lly just al1me the plume as il em ...red th... Sa vannah Rive r.

or

A ...olu r-codcd (den sity sl iced) isother m ma p pro vided vah;.

able information abo ut the spatial di stribut ion o fthe tempo
atur.. o f the plum e a.. it e nte red the Sava nnah River w
prol;:re~, c'<..1 dl'.... nst rcam. How ever. more qua ntitative dab
.... ere obtained by pas sing three transc-cts IA . B. and (1
through the plume. as show n in Color Plate x2b. The bri~
nes~ valu ees encountered al(.ng each lran ....
-cl are ,um~
in Table x-x. These values were obtained onl y after the~
ina I image was geometrically rotated 16 cloc kw ise so tbI
the end points o f each transect tel l on Ihe same scan line.
Th is ensured that the number of me ters in cuch te mpcratun
cla ss alo ng each transect wa.. accurately mea sured , If Wt
a na lyst extrac ts tra nsec ts where: the end points do not fall011
the same scan line (or col um n ). the hypotenu se 0 1" stair.
ste pped pixels must he considered instead th e simple heril o nta l pixe l d istanc e. T hese relat ionships are demons trated
in Color Plate 8-2c .
Q

or

:\ h istogra m uftrans...-cr B is shown in Color Plale 1I-2d. The

re lationship between thc original brightne ss va lues and tilt
class intero. a ls ofthe density-shred map is p ro\ idc-d in TaNe
S-ll. By counting the number of p ixels a long a transect ill
spec ific temperature cla ss interva ls wi th in tit.. plume and
couming the tota l number of p ixels o f riv er. it is poss ibleIII
dete rmin e the proport io n o f the therma l plume lid ling v. ithitl
spec ific rcmpc mturc class inte rvals (Je nsen ct al., 1983 and
IQXll). For example. in 19XI in South Cnrulma a thermal
plum e could not be >2 .X"l' above river ambientrem peraiure
for mo rc than one -third of thc widt h 01" the rive r. Transect

28 1

illennal lnfra red Remote S e ns ing Exa mp les

Enhanccnwntv Applit'd 10 T hrrma l l nfrared

Im a ~t'1')

or a Th ermal Plume in th e Saunnah Rill'r

h.

Fgun:t 8-27 a.)Original con trast-stretcbed image o f lhe Four Mile l'~ k lh..rma l plume in !he Savanna h Riverrecorded on March J I. 1911 I.
a14 :211 e.m. bl Lo...-fr<:\l ucncy filler..-d image. c) lI igh-frcq ucllC )' fill..'red irnab..... d) Aw1ie.:u ion of a minimum Ilher. et App lication o fa max imum filter. 0 An embossed fillet" gi"e'S the lmpre-.~ i()n ofshaded r.. het, ~ l Ro....,rt-~ edg....nhanc..em.."11t. bl Sobd
..'tIg.. en hancement. i ) Laplac ian ..-d~e enhancemen t.

mfonnali"m ex tracted from thermal infrared image ry and

summarized in Ta ble l'\.!' were u se d to de termin e if th e
plume was in c om pliance.

T h..' fundamental black -and -wh ite the rmal in fr ared image o f

the plume contained valuable in fo rm atio n l Figurc ~-2 7a l .

IIuwcvcr. it was also poss ible to J i ~ i ta ll y e nhance the origina l thermal infra red ima gc' II) vi sually a ppre cia te the more

282

subtl e charactc nstics of the the rmal plume an d the surround-

ing phenomena. For example , Figure 8-17h is a low-frcquency filtered image (If the or igina l co ntrast-s tretched
image It emphasized the slowly varying components with in
the image. Conversely, the ap plicat ion o f 1I high-frequency
filter enhanced the high-frequency de tail in the image. 1'\01,;how several radiometric errors in the scan lines an: more
pro no un,..-cd in the high frequency filtered image in Figure z17c. A minimum li lter enhanced the core of the plume. white
a maximum tiller enhanced the entire plume ( Fi~'Urc 8~7d.c).

T hermal ln fr nred Detection or l.eaklnu

S t'Jllit' ' a n l..s nea r C ha rleston . SC

......

An embossed filter created 3 shaded-rel ief impres-

sion of Inc plume I Figu re 8271). Three edge-enhancement

algorithms tRobl.-ns. Sobel. and Laplacian) high ligh ted diffcren t pans of the plume and the edges of the plume/land/
.... arcr bounden...s I f igure S-27g.h-i). The logic and mathemanes of'rhcsc algorithms arc summarized in Jensen (200 5 ,.
Thermal infrared sur. ...y!> of the Four \lile Creek plume
were routinely collected al least two limes per year fro m
IIIS\ through II)SIl IO ensure that the plume was in compliancc .... uh state and federal wa ter-quality standards. Cooling
towers were then buil l 10 receive the thermal effl uent.

tidal creek
Waler Pollution Mon itoring : Identification of Leaking
Sept ic Tanks that Contribute to Feca l Cofiform Count

Thermal Infrared Re mo te Sensing

Figu re 828
A hig h feca l coliformcount in fresh and marin e waters may
indicate the presence ofbacteria that can cause typ ho id. dysemery, he patitis A. and cholera . Health dc pamnerns routinely monito r dr inking wate r, rccreuuonal lak es, rivers,
ponds. es tuaries. and ocean wate r for fecal coliform conta mmarion. Shel lfish arc scns uive 10 feca l coliform cc nrammation because f he r-feeding o rgil1lisms such J S oysters . clams,
and mu sseb can acc umul ate bact eria. prot ozoa. and viruses.
The bacteria concentrated ill the shellfi sh by th is met hod of
feeding arc nu t harmfu l to the she llfish, but can be harmful
ro peo p le that co ns ume shellfish. Increa sed feca l coliform
levels ncar shellfish beds lead to shellfis h bed clo sures.

Th e South Carolina Departmen t of Healt h and Control

(U Il EC) has iJ1vcst i~,ll .: d the usc of forward-looking. in frared (F U R) remote sl' nsillg ttl illent ify leaking scpnc tanks
nca r Cha rleston, Sc. Leaking st'pl ic tan ks are a co mmon
source of feca l coliform in bays. tidal creeks, and es tuaries.
For example. two leaki ng septic tank systems arc ide ntifi ed
in the FUR imagery shown in Figure X':?X. The imagery was
obt ained at night in the .... inter II hen the warm ctll uem from
the sept ic tank con trasted with the re latively cool marsh and
uda l creek water, Imagery such as this he lped o fficials kno....
.... here to obtain samples on the ground 10 bring the septic

Preda.... n \I, inter J. U K imagery cftwo failed ~

t,Ulk~ ailIng a tidal creek near Charleston, Sc.

tank into com pliance w ith healt h regu lations (l\"OAA

('oas l;11Services. 2{)(16)

Thermaf Inlrared Residential Insulation Surveys

Homes , office b uildings. and industries arc insulated so thlll

in the w inter. expensive heat docs not easi ly e xit. It is possible 10 use remote sen si ng to mon itor the e ffectiv eness orlll(
insulation. However. the resu lts arc usually subjec tive r.tth~r
than quantitative becaus e ma ny imp ort ant para meters must
be known to qua mitauvely document the e X<1':( insulauoa
charac teristics ofc . . ery home or bu, iness in a nei ghborhood.
Some ofthe most impo rtant purarnctcrs to be take n into ceosidcration when performing a resi den tial thermal imagen
insulation survey are summ arized in Table 8-9. Colcord
IllIll l) SUggl~ts the te mperature [radiometric] reso lutil'll
should he:: O.S:<C for d ifferentiatio n of an R-I O and R-10
house. This res ults in the discriminatio n of approximately
lo ur levels o f apparent meutariun (poor, fair. good. and
c xcc tlenr) based on visual examination. Most houses are

I Infrared gemote sens ing Example s

Emi~~i\'it) of building matcnals from S - Lt u m

(Colcl,rd, 198 1; Wolfc. 19lfS).

Ma te rial

283

Ta ble 8- 10.

L'ser reu uirements fur cond ucting a res idenual thcr-

mal imagery insulation

Emi ssiv ity, e

Ilshinglc (dry)

om

It 5I:tinglo,: (w...1)

1.00
0 .95
09'>

Remote sensing
System Para meier

User Requirement
Temperature (radiometr ic)
resolution ~hou ld be !

O.I\oC for diffc rcnnation of

R- IO and R-20 houses (Col cord. 1981).

SUf\ey.

Sense in the S- 14 11m region

IIsin!,! a mercury-cad mium-tellurid e ( 1I~:Cd: Te) detector . 1'h.:
true kinetic tempe rature of scveral rooftops is requrrcdro canbrate to ::O. 8~C.

O.Y7
0.09

0.78
0,69

(tin-plallxl sheet iron)

0.117

/rl;i ired-common]

O.H

rrm1 (average of 16 colurs ]

0.94

o.QO

Onlain l5x I; em spa tial

rew[ution 10 g ,,1 many sam pIes from each roof; h"",,
evcr. I XlIII sp.u ial
reso lulion may hoe sum.
ci.:TlI. R<:I:l lf) data to be
within :t 1 pis el oftheir
planimetnc position.
Acquire prcd aw n ima gery
in the sprin g an d analyze
results rapidly.

eeod (planed oak)

0.98

~ i malel y

80 F. Th is ap prcxunatcs ;1 300 K blackbody

with a dom inant wavelength o f approxunn tcly 9.7 11m.
Ikrcforc. the sc e ne s ho uld he inven to ried us i n ~ all II ~ 14
eercury-cedmiurn-relfuridc ( 11g.:Cd; Tc ) detector, T he
re rootlop kin e tic tc mpc rniu re of seve ra l ho uses is re qu ired
((tiltdata arc to he calibnucd to ::O.X('.

The sensor sys te m must acq ui re e noug h p ixe ls on a rooftop

lllcharal,'teri"e its therm al e nv ironme nt. One pixel pe r roo flip is not suflici...m . Some ha ve recommended a 15 x 15 e m
.,.llal resolu tion cell, bu t a 1 )( I m spatia l resolut ion
lppCa~ til hi.. sufficient for most ho m es. e xcl uding tra ile r
prls. A se nso r w ith an lI'O\' or 2.5 millirudia ns flown .It
-1<:0 m above g roun d level wo uld ac hiev e a nom ina l g round
~\ia l resolution of I )( I m per pix el at nad ir. Th is ... ill
ftSIIlt in problems in hil ly te rrain as loca l relie f approac he s
m. Tangential scale di siornou s hould be rem o ved and
~ dntn geometrically rect ified. The therm al in fra red survey
!Itould take place unde r ihc follow ing co nd itions. it possi ble
standing wat er. icc . o r s no w s hou ld nor be presen t on the
roof. as rhrs dramatically chang es the e missivity
characteristics ofthe roo f as sum marized in Tahl e X I0 ;

Prod uce i~uth.:nll l1la f'S and

extract qualuauv to' and
'lU<llltitati\ c temperat ure
inlormatil'll Re duc e the
infomranon to tc rnperalure

class lewis thatthe pu blic

can understand te.g. poor.
fair. good . and exce nenn

Usc sensor with an IFO\' of2.5

mrad flown at 40(\ m AGL.
This will res ult in a spatial rcsolution of I x I m at nadir,
Remov e tange ntial sca le distcrlion if possible and rectify 10
large-scale planimetric mars
using groun d-control points arxr
nearest-neighbor resam pling .
Acqu ire imagery when the sky
is clear. w ind is < 7 " nv'hr. there
is low bumidiry and nn rmuslure. snow. or ice on the roof.
I'r~'da w n im aglt)- has no confusing shadows fro m surround mg buildings or trees.
Obtain roo rtop emissivity char-

acrcnsucs fur t he n.:iWtbt.,r.

hood. Norc dil)'e rences in
rooftop rnat crtals, roof pilt'h

and orien tation, and hui ldin~

occupant.'), Us.,,: di!,!ila t imag<'
processing to obtain quanutanve infurmation from the thermal imag...s .

w ind spce d shoul d be < 7 km/hr;

hu mid ity a nd ground fog should be m in im al:
c lo ud co ver s ho u ld be m in im al. a, d o uds rad iate hcat back
o mothe woof.
[ t is im po rta nt 10 o btain prec is e rootl op-cmissivhy cha rac terisnc s lo r the re s ide nt ia l ne ig h borh ood o r bu siness districts
o f interest be cause different roo ftop materi a ls have d ifferent
cmissiviucs. For example. cedar shake s hing les have a n
ennssiv ity Ill' 0 .'19 when we t a nd 0.95 when d ry. .... hile an
alumin um rU<)!1<.1p has an emi ssiv ity of 0. 09 [Table K-IO).

I
I

,.,

284

FIgure 8-29

( 'U ,- \I 'It:R

Th ermal Intra red Rem ote sensing

Pre.......... n Ih~'1'1I13 1 infrared image' of J residential ~tJ boJi\-isj(>n in FOI1 Wort h. TX. The image \\ as acquired at an alt i lud~of_
m above groun d le\ el wi th an across-trac k sca nning system and a I mrad fiel d or \ i,'\\ 31(,:4 5 a.rn on January 10. I"ISO. "
pckk d an eff.....uvc ground spana! r,'s()luti"n at rudn of 0.25 x 0.25 m Jl<.1' piwl.Tbc s l } \\ as dea r.

Ideally, all rooftop_ arc ttll. Unfortunately. roof pitch (how

steep it is) and orientation toward or away from the se nsor
will i m pac t the 3Cl.: UraC) or the appa ren t temperature values
de rived. Finally, peop le tcud to lowe r their house temperatun: in the \\ inter \\ he n they le ave to w n fo r a few days. from
uppr oximutcly 72F to a pproximately 55 - MIT. Therefore,
some rooftops thut nppcur cold in a ther mal infrared illl;!g!.:
n.c., th ey a ppear In have good all ic ins ulat ion ) may in fact be
unoccu pied wi th the thcnn ostar ~el 10\\ , Thermal infrared
imagery ora residentia l :11''::'' in FOr! Worth , T X, is sho w n in
f" i g ur~' X-24 . It was acq ui red nt ;10 al titude
2SIJ m aboveground-level with an across-trac k sc ann ing system with a
1.0 millirudian field of view (I I li AS u.m. on January 10.
rcen This yielded an effective ground spa tial resolu tion a!
na d ir 0 1"0.25 x 0.25 III pe r pixel.

or

T heoretica lly. in Figure X2'1. the most poorly insulated

home in the su bd ivision is all"), .... hijc the house next dour
at (b) appears to be wel l insula ted. The re is a fire in the fireplace at home {c] . The road net work (ell, conc rete side.... alks
[e ], an d back-pe rch concrete pad s tfJ an: all muc h wanner
than the surrounding terrain. Some of the bac kyard terrain is

more mois t (X ) than other area s. .;\ 11 metal ve hicles Ih ) are

dark (cold) because of their low emissivity, Most o f the

homes in this subdi vision probuhl:-' rece ived abou t the salZ
ins ulation; the re fore. it is not surprisi ng that their roolicJ

apparent tempc rarurc appea r similar.

So me utility com panie s subcont ract fo r thermal in frared d!ll
an d then uucmpt I.. convince horneow ners that their insulation migluuot be as good <IS their neighbors '. T he ouly prob
lcm with this lngie is tha t I ) the neighbor's horne mig ht h.m
a d i ffercm roof 111 ntcriaI, 2 ) the I u-ientm ion ,1 r the nc ighbtlr\
rooftoward th e se nsor might be different. and 3) the neij!lr
hor might kee p their home m uc h cooler. l fth csc pararncien
(Ire taken into consrdcrnuou. then the roo fto p temperature
information extracted from the thermal infrared da ta may ~
ofvnluc 10 the homeowner.

Thermal infr.ucd energy surveys arc also performed r0utincly tor public (ll1d industrial facihucs. Figure 8 30 depica
an aeria l photograph and predaw n the rm al infrared imageof
the Solomon Blatt Fie ldhouse on the Un iversity of Sout!I
Ca roli na cam pus. The therm al imagery was acq ui red at 4:36
a.m. 1>11 March Ill . ll,IlO. at 500 m above-grou nd-level using
a :?.5 mrad 1FOV sensor s:-ste m. Th is resu lted in a spatiJI
resolution of approximately 1.2 5 x 1.2 5 m.

TI>

._al lnlrared Rem ote Sensing Examples

28 5

Metal H'tI1

a. Vertical AerialPhotograph

b. Predawn Ther mallnfran...t Image

FqJre 8-30 a) Aerialphotograph of'tbe Solomon Blatt fieldhousc enthe lilliwrslly of South C'a w hna ca mpus. Columhla. Sc. b) Thermal
infra red image obtamcd at 4 :30 a.m. on \lJf.:!l 10. 1<)10(}. wnh a spaual resolution of 1.25 x 1.25 Ill. f'l; ote I I cool metal \ell l>..
the hoI air escaping fr om nine of the vents. and the cool ' lVcrf1.a ngmg caves. The t;I\'('S :l.1? ex posed on Ilolh sid,-.; to the cool
early illUming arr.

rlJefmal lnfrared Commerciafl lndustrial Roof Moisture

S>weys

trof maimcnancc i~ a billion-dollar i l1uu~try. It will ulw ays

x reccssary for a roofing cont ractor 10 wa lk on the roor to
W.ermine exactly what repairs need III be mad e, OUI il has
tecomc mcrc asiug 'ly useful to conduc t thermal infrared
Itmnle ,ensing studies of roottop-. e specially when substan~.I roof surface find/O f subsurface wate r may he present .
This helps the roo f ng contractor locate all o f the roof probCllt~ , The process is culled roof moist ure surveyi ng.
DIl1J1la\ expansion and cuo ling , wind, rain, SIlOW. hail. icc,
dx'm ieals, punc tures, and time cvcmually cause roofs 10 fail.
Roof prlll'o lems manifest themselves in I W O ways: leakage
md entrained water contamination. Leakage is simple,
lIthoug h the leak inside the building rarel y re flects the e xact
bcation on the roof where there i..a hole or lear in the roof~ material. Because most types o f iusulaucn absorb a cerlaiD amount o f wa ter, ir's d ifli ..:ult to lind the entra ined wate r
colllamination beca u-c the roofmay not actuall y sho.... a leak
Ilmil he sub- roof mat erial a nd insula tion have absorbe d all
!be \\31<: r that they ca n hold ( ';Iockton. 21104 al.

Three nondestru ctive methods ca n hi: used 10 loc ate roof

subsurface mois ture : I ) nuclear gauges tha t co unt ne utron s.
2) ca pacitance meter s thai measure resistance . and J ) rherma l infrared remote ~ nsin~ tha t can hi: used ttl map roof
temperat ure panc ms . A tec hnic an cun usc a nuclear gauge
or capacitance meier 10 trike "ample read ings on a I x I m o r
5 x 5 m gr id on Ih,' rno l: ThL'M: pomt samples arc the n used
to extrapolate where the roo f subsurfa ce w ater is loc ated.

Therma l infra red remote sensing is the prefe r re d mel hod for
roof moist ure surveyi ng {Stoc kton, 2(J04h). During tile d ay,
the Sun's incident en,'rgy heats the roonop material. Some
o f tbis ene rgy is trans ferred bc !o w the fO O l' sur face into any
wate r. wood. or ins ulation present. Dur ing the nigh t. the Sun
rad iates this stored ..:nl'rgy bac k into the at mosp he re. T his is
known as radiational cooling. Highe r mass (w et) areas
ubsc rb and dissipate heat at a di lfe rent rate than the lo w cr
lTI:l SS (dry ) areas T he ..... cr orcas radiate heal lo r a longer
period o f time at nigh t bec ause they have greater thermal
ca pac ity as prcv iou sly disc ussed. A irbum c therm al infrared
remote s...m sing can detect th ese sources o f hC~lt a nd idennfy
the higher m il SS 1w .:1 areas ) lluring this nighnimc w ind ow of
uneven heal d issipatio n.
For exam ple. consider the co mmercial bu ild ing shown in
Figuf\.' 8-3 Ia. A large-scale vcn ical serial pho tograph IS

286

Th ermal Infra red Rem o te Se nsing

Therma l Infrared Roof :\1ui.'ilun S u nc~

a. Obliqu e , i..." " of comme rcial building.

d. ('." n drawing of proba ble roof moisture.

Figure 8-31

a ) ( lllh<luc aerial p" ulngraph of a commercial hu i kl in~ in vort h Caro lina. 1>1V...mcallarg c- scale aerial pho tograph. c} Predt.
thermal infra red image obtained on \-b y f>, 2(1()(}. d }CA n dra" ing show ing polygon s o f probable roof moisture (rou,
Sh>el.tnn lnfrared Thermogr aphic Services: Stock ton Infrared: :!/M IOI ,

show n in Figure 1\) 1h. A preda wn th -rrnal infrared image is

show n in Eipun- K-J 1c and a cumjnu -r-aidc d-dcs ign (CAD I
map of the extent (If the subsu rface moist ure is shown in r igure K-31d. Th is information is used to csurnarcthc amount
Ill" roo f lhal must be replac ed or repaired.

Analysis of rhe Urban Heat Island Effec t

remot e sensing sys tems III document the urban heat i.lllllt
ctl ...-cr. In j,\l' nl'r;ll, they foun d that du ring the da yt ime l10lIi
commercial land cover ex hibited the highe st tentperamm
follow ed by services, transpo rtatio n, and ind ustrial lar.t
USl'S. The lowest dayt ime temperatur es were found 01'4
wa ter bodie s. vegetation, and agric ultu ra l la nd usc, in l"order. Rcsldcminl hou sin g being com pose d of a hetcregeneous m ixture of buildings. g rass. and tree co ver e.\hibit<d
;III intermediate temp erature, as ex pected.

It is well know n that an urban hea t island exists ove r 1110S!

urhan areas compared Itl the relat ivel y cooler nonurha n surrou ndin g countryside. Urban hea l islands arc caused by
de fore station and the replaceme nt of till' land surface hy
nonevapo rauvc and non po rous materials such as a"pha lt and
concrete. In a dd ition , a ir-co nd itio ning systems introduce a
sign ific ant amoun t of heat energy into the urban landscape.
The re.;.ul! i.;. reduced evapotransp jrauon and a general
increase in urban landscape temperature.

c ulture. Water has a high the rmal ca pacity; the refore, It

typic ally the wannest land cover d uring the pred awn
as pn:v itlusl) discu..sed . Conversely. ag ric ulture typic
exhibits the lo.... c st temperature at night.

Quattrochi and Rujd ( 1~l)4 1 and Lo et al. t I'N7 1evaluated

scvera! ci ties lIs ing high spa tial rcso hnion thermal infrared

b.ampks of dayum c and nightnme therm al infra red irnJga

of Atlanta, GA. confirm these observation s (Fi gure 8-3~

At night . commercial. sen ' ices, ind ustria l, and transponan

land cover types co ole d relatively rapidly. Nevcnhelea
t heir tempe ratures even in the predawn early morning hom
were still slightly higher than those for vegetation and agrc

, Inlrared Remo te Sens ing Examples

287

A tla n ta, GA

a. Daytime thermal infrared

image of Atlan ta.
~

8-32 31Dayumc ATLAS airborne thermal infrared channel IJ l'l(>()- 111,2 '1111 1 image of Atlanta, (i A Prominent urban fcaurres
arc annota ted for o rientat ion. h f :"i i~hllHTl('. predawn rhcrrnalrnfrarcd image of Atlanla. GA (coe ncsy U Quallrochi and J .
l.uvall. Pm /,'<,I .~ nA Vr,.I; NM~A M ar shall Space Fl ighl Center. ( 11"":11 ll y<1rulugy Climate Center. Huntsville. ALl.

tie,\TlA S channel 13 imagery (9.60 - 10 .2 Ilm ) at 10 x 10

IIspllial rcsofution .... as obtained as p art o f the NA SA F( lS
lmStigalion Project ATLA \.:TA t Ouanroc hi and LU\lI Il.
199'}). Shadows from 1<111 buildings located in the Atl an ta
fBn arc observed 011 rho da ytim e ima gery. The intense rhcrIil exiuncc from buildi ngs . pavement. and other sur faces
~I of lhl' urban lan dscape. as w e11 as the he terogeneous
t~huti(lll of these res ponses, sta nd in signi lica nl contrast
fur relative "flatness" of the Atlan ta thermal landscape at
Also. the dampen ing e ffe...-t thar th... urb an forest has on
4'-d lingtherma l ene rgy respon se is. e\ ide m. pnnicula rly in
~ nl,lth east port ion o fthe day time ima ge where resid ential
mcanopy is e ~l e-nsive. In the nig huimc image there is still
tdmce. eve n in the very early mo rning. of the elev ated
~<:m131 respon ses from buildings and oth er surfa ces in lhe
,\lIu)1.3 CBI>and fro m streets and tree w ays. T hermal energy
_ OM'S for vegetauon acro ss the image are re latively urnfarm at night, rega rd less o f vegetation type (""g.. grass,

"",.

h. t"ighlt ime thermal infrared image.

(i ,... .

Such therm al mforrnancn has been UM:d 10 I) mod elthe rclaIW!1ship between Atl anta urban growth, land -cov er change,
and the dev elo pment of the urban heal island phenom e non
throug h t ime , :!) mod e l the relat ionship ~1\\\'C n Allam ..
urban growth and land- cover change and a ir qu ality thro ugh
rune. an d 3) mudd the ovc rallctfccts ofurban dev e lo pme nt
on su rface-energy budget characrerisucs across the Atla nta
urban land scape . Sud! data can a lso be used 10 recommend
rrcc -planung program s that may he able III substa ntially
decrea.... the urba n hea t island effect (Q ualtrochi and Ridd.
19'1X ),

" 'eng ct al .l:! OO~) analy..ed Landsat 7 ET\--I ' data to ex trac t
la nd surface temperature information for urban heat is land
studies of lndiannpoljs, India na . T hey roun d the incorpo ration of the a mount or green vegetation. d ry soil. a nd shade
wi thin each pixel was w.e ful for eSlima ling the land surface
temperature .vegetatio n abund ance relauonship for urb an
hea t island studies.

( " \'\ I'I TR

288

Thermal mt rar ed Remo te Sensing

Re

S um ma ry

Use of Therm al Infrared Imagery for Forestry

Ap p lications

Quantitative in fo rmat ion about forest ca no py structure. biomass, age. and physiological condition have been extracted
from therm al infra red data . Basically. a chango: in sur face
temperature can be measured by an airborne therma l infra -

red sensor (e.g.. TI\ IS or ATLAS I by n:pc-<lIL'\lly ll)'ing over

the same ar ea a few limes . Usua lly a separation of about 30
min utes results in a measurable change in surface temperalure caused hy the cha nge in inco ming solar radiat ion : howC\ 'CI". a longer period o f time may be req uired . Average
surface 0...1 radiation (H.I is measu red ill ,{ ill' for the study
area and is used 10 imegrate the effects of the ron radiauv e
rluxcs. The change ill surface tempe rature from lim... period
' / to ,: <i.o:. ~) is the value that revea ls how those nonradianvc ll U\ l"'S are reacting 10 radiant energy inputs. The ratio (If
the se 1\\0 0 parameter s is used to compute a surface property
defined by Luval l ( I qq7 ) as a Thermal R('V'OII.w Number
(TR~ l:

Therm al infra red remote sens ing w ill become evee

importa nt in the future. Ternperature a nd cmissivity om

crfu l biophysical variables critical to many invesri
We now ha ve very sensmve linear- and area-array
in frared detectors that ca n function in broad thermal
or in hyperspcctral configuration s. In the future. it ..
com mo nplace to find min iature thermal infrared sensa
unmanncd ae n a l \ chicl es I UAV) used by the mil ilar).l<:
usts a nd lay persons.
Re fe re n c e s

Bcck crc F. and ..\ . L U . IQ9S, " Surface Temperature and

si ~' itY:l I Vario us Scales: Definrtion. Measureme nt and
Proble ms." R""'''/t' S....'.""K, "/ Emir",m'''IIl . 1:!:22S-~ Sl
Colcord. J. l'~ K I. "Thermal Imagery Energy Surveys," P
K. rtJlll",n rl< Engm"t' mlg ,( Rt'ffJ"'" S"ming . 47(2 ):231-:.1'

7RS =

v..

,"

Te rra in containing mos tly s'.lil and ban: rock hal c the 10.... est
TRr-< values. .... hijc fo rests have the highest. The TRr-< is a
site-s peci fic prnperty that may be used to discri min ate
among \ ario us types ofconiferous fores t stands and some o f
the ir biophysica l characteristics [ Lnvall, I Q9]).

Remote Sensin g Plan t S tress Deg ree Days

Moran (2004 ) summarized various relative measures of

plant ecosys tem health 'ho t ca n be mon itored using th erm a l
infra red remote sensing. For example. the st ress de gree day
(SDD j was defined by ldso ct ul. (1977) as:

"

S{)lJ ~ L ( T~ - T,, ) ,

,. ,

Co il. C .. CaM:lIcs.
Valor . E. and E. Rubio . 2003. ~Vali
nf le mperaturc-Lnussivuy Separation and Split-W
MclhuJ s from TIMS and Ground Meas urements," R
S..n<i,,~ "j Hmlm u""'" f. 1l5 :232-242.
Czajko wski. K. P.. GIlli ard. S. K . Mulhern. T., Guell., S.
Wa l ~ . A . Sh u ey, D,. St;"tkr. S . Pri nce. S . a nd R. O . DUN)
2011 4. ub 1ltllalin!! Envuonmcnral Variables Using. Th<11lIIl
Remote Sens ing." 1I1 D. A. Quaurochi and J. C. Luv al l. (Elk,l
7h"rm,11 R.'m,,'" S"'HUlg i'l I.and .';11':/'1('(' Processes. HOC!
Raton: CRe Press. 11--'1.
K. I'.. Goward. S. N. Mulhern, T.. Goetz. S J
',l, al/ . A. Shir",y. ll . Stadler, S.. Prince. S. and R. O . Du\>aJab.
I'N7 . "R ecov ery of Erl\ irvnlllenlJl Variables from Thcrnll.
I~em" l ", S..'nsmg." in I). A. Quattrochi and 1\1 . F. Goodchill
~ Eds.}, S,.,llc ill R,,"wll! Sell., illg <J1lI1 GIS. Chelsea: L<:IIis

CI,aJ ~ow~ kl .

(8-25 )

whe re T~ is pla nt canopy temperatu re (a thermal infra red

re mote se ns ing measurement ] [ to 1.5 hours after solar
noon. 1~ is the a ir tem perature 1.5 IIIaboc c the so il (an ill situ
mca surcmcnu. and (T~ - Tal is summed over n days beginning at day i . Th e SDD index is related to plant water consumption and has been used to sc hedu le crop irr igatio n.
mon itor grassland stress. and improv e y ield es tima tes.

I':st<:s. J. F. .. I' IM. -Some Apphcauons of Aerial Infrared ImaF"

cry: ' Annal. of the Assudatitlll o f America n Geographen
Sf,( .J) :(, 73 6 K2.

FI",h..r. W. A.. I ~K 3 . "History of Remote Sensi ng: ' M<Jnual

R"""", S"", ,,,g. R. Rce ves (Ed .). Bethesda: ..\ SP&R S. 27-SQ.

FLIR S ~' llms. 21l(l(. hl lrun"llmuglRJ( S.I., /"m,'. Po rt land: FUR

Systems. Inc. www.FUR.eo m.

289

'"
S_ B. Jac kson, R. D. ;U],j R. J. Reginalo. IQ77 . - Rcmote
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f1i,h Resolution Day-nighl Temper-nun: Difference Map a nd
!>Igll il~d Ae ria l Photography," Ct".."" o Inttm,m"",,'.

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Douglas . I ~.' p,
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C. l.uvall. lbh. ). 1J"-rm,,,1 Nt'm..,I.' .wn' lII:': III L",nJ Sfil/ <1".
Protc.u ,.". lI"ea Ra hln: CRC Press . ::! S7 2~2 .

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Km"rrIllX ,{ R..I/WI,- S..mil/~ . 52( 1)H7 - 100 .

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Tempc ranerc ~lapring ; Ihe Thermal Plume Exam9lc,~ Th.. .-tm...,;';-"" Ctlrl0K"lph",. 10: 111- 127 .

M IA ,!\ ("o,<sl ill Services. 2(1l)h. ltIt'"II/iwx SIJ//I1t~ I!( F..-," I

Cotitonn iI,I"!<'ritl ill CII,"'It."olI. S.C.. http://w ww.esc.noaa.
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s.:n~ing

rscn. J. R.. Ramse y. E. Mac ke y. II. E. and M. E. Hodg son.

Iq ~~. "Ther mal !'Iode ling of Heat Diss ipa tioll in Ih..:- Pe n
Bl'lInch Deua Us ing.Therm a l Infrared Ima gery," C"ocurl<l In1t'''''''lQnuf ..;; 17-28.

lh le. A B.. Schieldgc. J. I'.. Abr ams . M. J.. All c)'. R, E. und C.
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ofThennal Inertia Calc utanons III Vartations IrI Environme n1.11 Factors,~ R t 'II"''''' S"' I!.I UI,~ ,!/ I:I!\' irun",n l/. 1(,:2 I 1- 2:>2.

li:i.land.l.. Herr. K., Kei rn. E. Ada m. P.. Salisbury. J. lI a(k~

-ell. 1. and A . Lr....iman. 200~. -t" ir~t L'5e o r An Airborne

Orneg.!. ::!OO~ . TrmL>'l< IU!/l.1 in .H"...,H/ ,..",. ' nf em"",'.\.. ,1. I. 2nd
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O rego n DEQ. 2003. A. ..' liul SI,n,'y.> in fll<' {..''''I''/'w Ni" ,' r Nih;/!:
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ur.u )/wtl /\lllJb lJl1l pt.l l1a b;,.s ltl nir umpqu;,.lir.pd f.

Ouuidra ri. H .. (; llw ar,l. S, N.. Cvajkow ski. K. I'.. Sobrino. J, A .

and E. Vcnuotc. 2002, " Land Surfa"c Tem pe rature Estimation
from AVIlRR Thermal Infrared Mea surem e nts - An ,\ >sessm..nt for tht' AVIIRR, Land f'al h lindo:r II lJata Sel. - R,,mul.
S,'''' IIIX Hf E" "" lm m..'III, loll : I I" - 12l!.

Pctitcohn. F ant! E. \" 'f1I HlI C. 2002. "land Surface Rdk ,lanc c.
Emls. h ily .. nd Ternrcr..luTl.' fro m ' lO OIS \1 ,d dll' and The rmJ l Infrared." Reml>l,''k-n<;'lx n( f." 'lrnn ",,,'nl. lol 3: 112-1 3";.

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Peres. L. f . a nd C. C. Da('a mara. 200 -4. " Land Su rface Te mp...rat ure and Emiss ivity ESlimaliun Based on the Two -Te mpera lure Method s: Se nsitivity Analysis Us ing Simulated /I.\SG{
SE VIRI Cald.. H",molr .'k,,-~mx of!:.'m"vllm"m. 9\ :J77-31N.
M

Price, J. C, I'l S5. "O n the Anal ysi s ofThe rma l Infra red Imagery: Th... Limited Unlit).' of A ppa rem Th erma l Ine rtia." R('_
mote St:m'I/1: of Em-In",,,,,,,,,. 1&:59 -73 .

Th ermal Infrared Remote S ens ing

Slater. P. '.l . 19K(l. R..", ,, , e :'....".;IIK Opt ,,,\,WIJ 0 1'" .,,15.1':1

r-; y : Ad d iso nWe:oh:y. 575 p.
Sny der, W. L",; Ihengm mg. W.. l han. Y. and Y. Fcng, 19r.
"Thermal Infrared 13 - 14 u n n Bi-direction al ReO
Mcns urcm ents uf Sa nds a nd Soils,"
Sell.,inl( II! EJl
fflllmr n'. />(1 : 101- I U9.

R.,,,,,,,..

Sobrino, J. :\ .. Jimenez-Munoz, J_ C. an d L. Paolini, ! &)l

tjuunrochi, I), A. lind N. S. (j oe l. I'NS. "S pat ial a nd TCIlI(Wral

Scanning of Thcnnal lnfrarcd Re mote Sensi ng Data." lIem,,'.'
St'millg R<,\i....~ . 12:225-2 xll_
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tio n .of j,.horrw J f"f ,i.'lJ('c tral Ther" 1II1hifr"rt:d D",,, /lJ S"ppurt
Ana ly,I(' am i M" d"'i" X Tasks 1/1111<' EOS IDS ['ny,'cI ..trIA .\"7:4. http: // ww wg hc<: .ms fc.nusa.gov/arla nta/.

"La nd Sur face Tem perat ure Retr ieval from Lan . b al TM j'
R"",ol., St',u;nK of "'wi"",m'/II, 90 :434 --1-1 0 .

Stockton, (i R., 2 11 (l~a, "Aeria l Infrare d Thermogra phy," C@

kif. Septe mber (::O(l..j ):47 53.
Stoc kton. ( i. IL 2tl(l4b, "Eindmg Pollution \I ith :\e rial lnfwx
Ther mography," /1I'/""r;<lI I'II_II' lei". IIIay i lUU-l1 : 2 ~ - 2 7,
Sto ckton Infrared . l OU". Sw t"klo n lnfrarvd T!/{'rll/lJg rul ,hic .'ito
I'in " . \\'\\ w.sto c ktoniufrarcd.com .

J..

Q uauroc hi. u A. a nd ~ . K. Rilld. 1'19-1. " Mea sureme nt an d

AniJlysb uf T hcTlll al En<:rs y Respon ses frmn Disc re te Urban
Surfaces Using Remote Sensmg Data." I",.'m " ' i" n,,l Jvumu/
"f R('mOle Sem",x, 151 10); I'-191 -1021.

To rgerse n. C. E. Eaux. R. K . Mci ntosh . B. A.. Poa ge. :\ ,

D, J. Nonon. ::(1)]. "Airborne Thermal Re mot e Sensillg fl:r
Wale I' Tem pera lure As'\('ssmen l in River s a nd Streams." Itmot.. Sell ,'IIIK .~r f."lIl'lnmm<m, 76:J 86 ~39!'1 .

Q uat troc h i, D. A, and Me rri ll K. Rid d. I'-I'-I~ , " Anal ys is uf \ '<:!!e lat ion within I Se mi-arid L rben Ell \' iro nme nt Using H i~ h
Spa tial Rcsol unon Air borne T hermal Infrar ed Remote Sen "
ing Oat a," A lmo,lph,'ri(' Io'lI n rmlllll'III, .l2( I J: llJ ~3 3 .

Vau g hn . R.
Ca lvin, W. ~1 . an d J. v. T"ran ik, 10H3. "SE BASS
Hyperspectral Th erma l In frared Dare : Surface Emis~ilil)

Sc hmugge. T.. Fre nch. A , Ritch ie. J. C. Ra nge . A. and H. Pe lgrunt. ;!OOl , "Temperature and Emissivity Scpuraticn frum
\-lu ltispe c tra l Th erm a l In fr.ar..-d Ope rations." B.'mOI. S"II.Iing
vJE/",inm m"m , 79: lIN-I 98 .

\\alla ce. K ., 19 <)<). A TL AS - Airl...r n.. Terrestria l ApplicailOlr!

Sc /I.\Or SI'.,,,ljk,,' ioll.f, S"(': t\A S:\ Sle nnis Spa,' e O r.. 10 p.

Sa bins, 1'. F.. Jr.. [N7. Rellw l., S''I.I'illg Principles andlnterpreI,,/wn, ;-.l Y: free man. 49 -1 pS Hlishury. J. W. a nd U . M. D'Aria . 19 92. "Emissivity t Tcrrcstrial Matcreals in the II - 14 u m Atm os pheric Window." Remol" S..,ulIIg 0/ t:"..,m"", ..",. -1 1:113- 106 .

a.

Me". uren len t and \.f iner ,,1 Ma r r ing ,- R,'n",', SCII,'inK of 1ll'if""",.'III. l< 5:4 !'1 _li 3.

Weng.I.J.. Dcngshcn g. L. and J. Sc hu br ing. ~ tll )..\ . fstimatioI'Ili

Land Surface Tc mpcrmure , vegetation Abund ance Relarices hip for Urban Ileal b land Studies." H"/llUle S" II,l illg <If Eml
1S'-I:-I67-..\83 .

"''''''('n!.

Wolk. W. I.., llJ!'I 5. tnfrurcd !/um/buo k , A nn A rbor: Envircemelllill Research Insti lll1C n f\1 lehi gan.

Active and Passive Microwave Remote

Sensing

(}..I'.\'/ I'(' remote se nsing syst ems record electromagnetic energy that is reflecte d
(c.g., b lue. green. red, and ne ar-infrared Iightt (If emitted {c.g.. thermal infrared radiation) from the surfac e of the Earth. T her e are also uctiv e remote
se nsing systems thai nrc not depend...ruon the Sun's clectromagnenc energy
or the thermal properties o f'the Eart h. Act ive re mote se nsors crea te their ow n
electromagneuc energy Ihal J ) is transmi tted from the sensor to .... ard the ter rain (a nd is largely una ffected by the atmosp here ). 2) interac ts with the terrain
producing a backscatt er of energy. and 3) is record ed by the remote sensor's
receiver. The most \\ idely used active remote sensing sys tems include:

active microwave ( RADAR). which is bas ed on the transmis sion of lon g .

wa velength microwaves (c.g .. J :!5 em) through the atmosphere and then
recording th e amount of'cncrgy back scaucred fr om the terra in;

I.IDA R wh ich is based o n the uansm ission o f re latively short-wavelength

laser ligh t (e.g. 1040 nm ) and the n recor d ing the amount of lig.ht
bac kscanered from the terrain;

So.VAN whic h is based on the transmission ofsound waves through a wat er

column and then recordi ng the amount of energy backscenercd from the
halt om o r ho rn objects within the water co lumn .
O f th c three . RA DA R re mote "...nsing is the most widely used fer Eart hresource observations. L1DAR and SONAR arc especially useful for topographic and bathymetric map ping . respectively, II is also possible to record
passi ve m ic rowave ene rgy that is naturally enurted from the surface of the
Earth using a passive microwaveradiometer. This chap ter pro vides an overview of active and passive mic rowave remote sensing. L1DAR remer... sensing is discusse d in C hapter 10 and SONAR in C hapter 12.

History of Active Microwave (RADAR) Remote Sensing

Ja mes C lerk Ma xw ell ( I SJ 1- I X79j provide d the ma them atica l dc scr ipnons
or tb c magnetic and electric fields associated with electromagnetic radiatio n.
Then, Heinric h R. Hertz ( 1857 - 189-1) increased ou r kno w ledge about the
creat ion and propaga tion of elec tromagnetic energy in the m icrowave and
radio port ions of the spec trum. Hertz also studied the interact ion o f rad io
waves with me tallic surfa ces and initiated so me o f the early thin king that
even tually led to thc inve nuon of rads and radars. Building on the fundame nial physics pr inciples discovered b) Ma xwell and Hertz. Guglielmo ~t.

29 1

292

x tarconi (I R74 - 1937 ) constructed an ante nna thar uu csm uled und rece ived rad io signals. In I<)411 . he sent radio waves
aCfll:>S thl.' Atlan tic and in 19119 shared tho: S o be l Pril l.' in
ph}sics for his work.

RADAR as " '0: knew it was invc....ugated by A. II. Taylor a nd

L C. Young in 1 92~ . Th l'SC scientists posuioncd a high .frcq ucncy radio rransrmner on one side of the Anacosua River
ncar Washington. DC and a receiv e r on the opposite side .
Sh ips pass ing up or d own the river inte rrupte d the 10111;'
wave len gth radio signal (I - I() nu sent between the tran smille-r and receiver. Such sys tems prov ided the tl rsr d ues
that radio s ignals might be useful for tk tccling the distance
to shi ps ( i.e ., the rnll gc) :11 sea. Thi s had implicat ions for ship
11a\ igat iun because the ucn ... c radio uuusrnisslon an d recepcion co uld tak e place both ,II n ight and even in bad weather.
Th e mi litary ro ok an ea rly interest in radar because during a
wa r it is impo rtant to know the loc auon o f all shi ps and
plan es iJiie ndly an d enemy), A phrase describing the pro cess "as "[l!dln ,detection ;lnd r ang ing" or RA DAR.
Ahhou gh radar systems no w usc micro wa ve wavelength
energy a lmost exc lusively instead ofradiowavcs. the anon) m was ne ve r changed.

;;

By 1935 Yo ung and Taylor (a nd indq...: ndentl y Si r Robert

\\at'\l.ln-Wan in Gr eat Brita in] combined the antenna transmuter and receiver in the same instrument. Evemually, highpo\\ er transmissions in \'~'I)' speci fic ban ds of the EM sp.:c
trum were possible These and ot her e lectro nic adva ncemen ts laid the ground w ork for the d e\ elo prnc ru of RADAR
du ring Wo rld War II for naviga uon and target location. By
late JlB ll experimen tal rada rs were wor king in the United
States. G rea t Brita in. Ge rm any. and the So viet Unio n , O f
these nation s. nun c " as more vu lne rab le to a ir attack than
Brita in. Lou don lay \\ ithin <;10 m iles of foreign territ ory and
within 275 mile s o f Germany, Under the direction of Air
Chid Marshal llugh Dowd ing, the British construc ted 1 1
rad ars alon g th..: ~()u lh and east co ast ~ of England and the
CJ)t co aSI ofScu tb nd. Th.: elIde Ilame " (' Imin lI o llle - ( '1\"
amse fwm a phm tn huild a " home cha in" of radars in Britain
tn he fo llowed by a n (lversea~ chain to dcl ....nd Ihre3lent"d
puniu ns u f the llritish empire. The e l l radars were the p rima ry British ll>ng-rangc ca rl)' \.lami ng rada rs well into
World W,lT II. Th e rada rs 3110\\ ed incom ing planl."~ to be
detec ted out t\) a ma.\im urn mn ge vf 50 m ites, Witho ut th~'
radar. Rritai n wou ld no t ha n : be ...n aMe to effecti \'cly
C(luntl."r the Gennan Lul\wal li: bo mbers an d lig htef esconli
during the Baltic o f BriL'li n. v. hieh began in Ju ly 1940 ( Price .
I\}<)O J, Th e c ircu larly scanning o..lppler rad ar thai we watch
~'\I."ry da) du ring lde\ ision wC'Jthl."r u pd al ~ to identify the
j!~"'lg.ra rh ic locatiun of l>tomll> aro und citi<.-s is baSt.--d on the
..am I.' circu larl) scanning rad.n coneepl (p lan' pnsiti l' n indl-

Active and Pas sive Microwave Remote Sensing

cater rada r. PPI) fo und in the ori gi na l World War II

PI' I radars are a lso used for air-traffic cornrol al a irport>.

RA DAR in13g.c:> obtain ..-d from aircraft or spacecraft a;

know them tod ay were nOI available during World W.
The continuous-st rip mapping capa bility o f s ick -/ooki/lg
bomc nular (SL A R I was nor deve loped unulrhe 1951h.
importa nt adva nt age o fSLA R is u s ability ro obtain
nais-ancc image, ov er vast regions to the left or right of
airc raf (Sabi ns. 19971. Thi s is called IOllx-nmge ua
da ta co llec tion becaus e th e p ilot can l1y along the edge
friend ly a ir space while o btaining de ta iled I{ AllAR imag
far into unfriendly a ir sp ace. It also became possible to
fo rm
radargrannnctric mea surem ent -the science
exnucting quan t itative gcome tr ic nbjcrt info rmation Ir
radar images {Lebert. 19')0; llcud crson and Lewis. 19981,
The m ilitary began usi ng S LAR s in the 1950 s. By the m'
1()(,Os so me systems were decla ssified . Ther e arc two I1l'
mal)' rypes o f S L\R : n"<I1 <lpt-nure r uder (a lso known
bn nc-force radar! and svmhetic <I/""rt ll /l;' rodar (SARI. I'
the w ord "aperture" mean s um" I/IItl. Rea l apert ure radars
a n an tenna offixed lengt h. e.g., 1- 2 m. Synthetic aperne
rada rs als.l use a 1 - 2 m antenn a, bu t they are able to syr,thtsi ll" a m uch larg er ant enna tc. g.. perhaps 600 m in length
w hic h has improved resolving po wer. SA Rs achieve ,
fine resolution fro m grea t distances. Fo r e xa mple. an II
SAR antenna on an orbi tal platformca n be sy mhesized eleIron ica lly to have a synthetic length of 15 km. Later it will be
demonstrated ho w impo rta nt this cap ahi lit) is to SAR azlmuth reso lution . M ilital)' a nd civilia n com merci al RAD.-\RS
arc sy nthetic ape rture rada rs.
In the I()(,Os and 1970s. rea l a nd synthetic apert ure SLAlU
were used extensively fo r Earth resource reconnaissance nf
vast. previously unm apped reg ions of the Earth. Early ~t ud
ics fo cused Oil continent s pel'ennially shro uded in c1QuJ
lIl\Cr. The first large-scale S LA R project wa s the provino:
Il l' Darien, which co nnects Panama and South Am erica, In
11)68. Westin ghouse Electri c, Inc . in co operation with Ral'
theo n, Inc ., em ployed a rea l apert urc S LA R tha t \Vc~1 ing
ho use de velu ped for the U.S. A (1)' a nd suec.::>sfull) madeI
20.000 km z mo sa ic of th is area. Up to this tim e. the area had
n~'\ er tleen sel."n o r mapped in i t ~ en lire lY hecau ~e of almost
fl\.rpe tual cloud CO\ er.
Goodyear Aerospace . Inc.. and Ihe Ae ro Scn iee Di\'isionof
Western G<.'Ophysical. Inc.. adap ted a s:l'n1hetic apo;"nurt'
radar built b)' Good year and insta lled it in an Aero SCl'\'j,,:t
jet lo r civilian surW)'5 . In lin 1 the y in itiated projecl
RADA\1 1Rada r of the Am aNn ) II ' map Iht: Ama7l111 BasllI
in Vellezud a and Brazil. A pp ro.\imatcl y ~ m illion L.m 2of

~is:ory

rrs.

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Ch;lra~ lo:risl i..:s

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uff
of

flt>pr",.i on
an\:k . 1
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(SAR)

USA

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L m.SI

11- 12-11 1

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AJ i""Uh
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293

of selected Earth-orbiting Synthetic AI"'-'rtun: Rada rs (SARsl.

~thelic

II.
i,.-

of Acti ve Mic rowave (RADAR) Remo te Sensing

'm

Con'r_
al:"

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d

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Iroi area (abou t half the siz e (If the Uni ted Slates) were
rc;orded and assem bled into rada r mosa ics . Goodyear and
l,:roSere ice eventua lly surveyed the Amazon rainfo rest in
Bmil, Venezuela, eas tern Colomhia. Peru. and Bolivi a.
s.&:sequenl radar in,esligalions mapped Guatemala. Nige/I. Togo. portions of Indonesia. the Ph ilippines, Peru. an d

"'regions (lebcrl ,I'NO),

t
t

1 - H MI

60" ]

"n
I-

3"
.,0

liASA has launched several successful SARs such as SEA)AT and the Space Shun le Imag ing Radar experiments.
srASAT( for "s ea satellite"] .... as launched in 197ti 10 obtain
l-lrand (23.5 em) 25 x 25 m spatial reso lution oceano-

'IV.HB.
YVNH
HV,111i
\WV V

"'d

.Too

,,"Iat
orbit
6 .S yr.

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RAOARSAT2

id

[3'1"J

x_('1.6 1

1l2-II-Oj)

20 - -15

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[10" ~ 60" ]

.T'

57" 1\
57' S

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grap hic info rmation (Table 9- 1), Th is was the first orbital
SAR that provi ded public-domain da ta ( Evans et 31 .. 2005 l
It also provided valuable land informa tion, bUI fu nctioned
for only Ill) days. T he Snunte tmugtng Radar experiment A
(S IR- A) w nh ib L'band (2 3.5 em) 40 x -10 m SAR wa s
launched in 1910 . S II~ -B wa s launched in 19 R4 with 17 x 25
m rcsolunon. SIR-C was launched in 19<,1 4 with multifre quency and muhipolurizauon capability. S IR-A, SIR- B. and
SIR-C miss ions lasted only 2.5, 8, and 10 days, respectively.
The Shutt le Topography \1is.sion (SRT\1) was launched on
February II , 200(J. and lasted II days ( NASA SRTM. 2006)
(Table 1)1).

294

nUI'TEN:

Ta ble 9-2.

9~

Act ive and Passive Microwav e Remote Sensillg

Table 9'3.

Adv:mI3b "S of RA [):\ R remote se nsing.

RA DA R wa veleng ths and rr~'qucnd~-:; usc'd inilt.'tio:

microwave remote

~ ns mg

mvesngauons.

Advantages
RAD AR

Cmalll

m,cn'''.~~ fr"'lu~"";,,,, ..

ill l"' n'"1J'aIC .,~ .."I 11."" 111.;'all-

.. eathcr remo:..c oo:n"ng.

SynoJ'l'" ,-",w, cf~ = .1>1 f,.... mappinll at 1:10.000 to 1:400.000.
Satellite ...wcngt: of d ....d. hrouoJ,,:d """nm"" is ross ih!...
("o,,:r~~ c.........>hu., ~ al

u..." _~ i f,,,d

limn, ,,",'en . ' n ighl .

PmllllS imaging at w llow IoN< an g~ moulting in diffrn:nt 1"'l'SJ"Xli\ C;\ WI c.nnot al.. . Y' be obu.,~ ,"Lllg ...,rial pb<>lOl!;raphy_
Scnsc~ III "'I\dcn~lhs uul>.l.k tho: \,.,ble """ ,nf.... e" rcgivlb u f thc
c k:,;tr"""llIlI:l'" >P'o"-1nlln, pn.wl<!,nll- infonnauon on ~rac.: rough""""
dICkel"" prupnt;<~ uJd m<>i""urc<x "'ICllI.

Band Des ignatio n s

(commonwave"ngll'la
In pa.-nt,,"")

Waveleng lh P,)
In cm

ffeq uency (~

K. IO.R6em)

0.75 - 1.11<

40.0 -~ "' j

1.19 - 1.67

:!65 - IU

K"

1.67- 2A

rs.o -1 2J

Xn OJnd .l . ~ tml

2-4 - JJI

12.5 - 8.0

Ct 7.5,6.0cm)

3.9 - 7.5

8.0 - 4.0

Stl\.O.9.fI,1 2.6 ,m l

7.5 - IS.O

4,0 - 2.0

L (:!3.5, 24 0, 25.0 em ]

I S,O- 30.0

2.0 -1.0

P res.n <;m l

JO.O-loo

1.0 -0.3

in GHz

'1>nd .,

C~,n mq"".....e. ..rm..:,..." .,,, rn<'l'}l:)' p.'flC1ntc '~et.ilIKln . ",nd.

and surface: 11 }tt'o n r _.
IJascd on ItS e-Il ;II" ",,,YI ;OII, and 1M- ang le o f illum ina tion ,,:anl-c
"., trolled.

[ nabln Jnl)luno" to l'C ioo.:pn><km o f <I,,,,,,,,,C I<) the ooj\'CL .. ilb

the . i",
rno.>ll<11<JIl cell b....ng as ......U;as J " I Ill.

"r.

I~

can be prodUd from di lTer<,nl

ty~of p"I'll'Ucl ~

advanta ges of RADAR rem ote se nsing arc summarized II

Tahle "-2.

11m .

H \'. \' V. " HI.

A cti ve Microwave Sy st em Components

M" y ~nllc .. mu lu ncnl_l) on"" "n:al " . ' e k ngth _ (f'~'lucnc",_l and
lh... ha_ mu)!tfreq" "",ey 1".1I""'Ua l

Can mcas~ neean "al'e I'w""n",,,, C"cn (rom .....;131alutudes.

("an rrod......," " ,.l al' l' ing ,ma ~el' ~u;ln"lc for ,1e~nrit; He" ing
and rada'Erammctry ,
Sup!,,, n . imerfe romet ric "l"' rallon " , ing ' '''0 amenna, for Jn mapo-

r ing, and analy~;~ of ind dcnlanJl lc . i~alure~ of ot>J~'Cts.

The former Soviet Union launched the r\ LMAZ ] Scband

('J.6 em ) radar in 199 \, The European Space Age ncy ( ESA )

launched tho: Enroprun Remote 5('/l.I'i l/l: Satcltite ERS! with

us Ccbnnd (5.6 em) imag ing rad ar in 1')9 ] lind ERS-] in
1995. The [SA launched Env isar on Murch I , 2U{)2 with its
Ccband (5,3 cmt A"WII/Ct' J SyllthCfiC Aperture Radar
(AS A R ) to prov ide contin uity with the I:"RS-/.2 radars.
Japan la unched the Lcbund (23.5 Col) Japall!',\"(' 10"(//"111
R ',I'VIIIH 'S .'la rd/if<' JERS-/ in 1992. T he Cunadian go vernment placed the ('-hand 15 ,(, cm j RALJARSAT,! in orbit in
19<)5, RAlJARSA7~] is sched uled for launch in 2000. T he
system cha racteristics crthcsc orbita l SA R systems arc summanzed in Tahlc q . I and discussed later in this chapter.
Active and pass ive mic rowave remote sensing will co ntinue
grow in importance. Such se nsors provide the only viable
inforrnanon for the tropica l portions of the: world where
e xtensi ve. frag ile ecosystems a rc at risk and under perennial
cloud cover, For a detailed history (If radar developm ent, ~e
Henderson and Lewis (I9<no. The primary and secondary

Active microwave imagt"T)' is ob tain ed using insuu mess

a nd princip les that are diffe rent from those used whnl
acquiring data in the vis ible. nca r-, mid -, and thermal infrared po rtions of the EM spct'trurn using passive remote sensing techniq ues . Therefo re. it is n,..-':':Ssary to unde rstand thf
ac tive microw ave system com po nents and how clcctromagneue energy is Sl' 11l, rece ived. and recorded hy the sensor
system before .m analy st can accu rately interpret a radar
image . T he d iscussion is bas ed initiall y on the system com.
ponems and turn-nons of it 1" '111 ,,!)('r1lI11' side-looking oir,
borne radar (SLAR l. Tile discussion the n expa nds 10
includ e synthetic: "1'{' /'IIII'(' ro"<11',~ ( SA R) that have improved
capahjlitics.

Sending and Recei ving a Pulse of Microwave

Elec tromagnetic Energy - Sysrem Comp onents

A typica l active micro wave S LAR is sho.... n mo unted on an

a ircraft in Figure c -!a. II consis ts of a pulse -ge nerating
device. a transmitter. a du plc xer that care fully coordinates
w hen the active microwa ve energy is transmitted and
received. an an tenna, a receiver. a record ing device such aH
high -density d ig ital tape reco rder or hard dis k, and typically
a C RT monitor so that the technician in the plane can make
sure radar imagery is actual ly being collect ed I Figu re 9- lb ~

Ac'

295

Microwave System Components

,
<-

ante nna

3.

Transuuner

lntcrmap Lcarfer Jo Sta r .k

Duplcx cr
send s and
receives

....

---:- ------

:::~~~~Z::;:.::-

CRT display or

b. Typica l active mic rowave

figure 9-1

\>;Kb ,,',1I1cn: o.I

antenna

d igital recorder

transemuc d pulse

S)Slc m

com ponents.

a l :\ side -looking airborne radar (5 I-AR l calkd ' he Star ,~i IFSA I~ ( mterfer omctric symhcuc ape rture radar) is mounted undem eath <I 1.l.'a rkt JIl aircraft (eou rtl"'~ lntcrtnap Technologic... lne.). ll) r he active microwave ..)~l....r u c(lmron"' ntliand flow
of cncrg~ lhrOllgh a 1~-'ri,",aJ SL\ R. It consi..s ofa pulse-gcncratmg de\ ice. rransnuner, duplexer. antenna. receiv er. and a digual recorder Some systems have- a quid .-k'ol CRT di .pla~ 10 Ill..l...: sure data is being ooll..-crcd, The J-m S)lllhclk aperture
antenna shown can symhcsi/c an antenna hundreds " f m... I Cf$ long,

iie radar can a lso be.' mounted onbou rd a satellite. The

P) arc a n art ifact ofthe secre t .... or k o n rad ar re mote sen sing

genc:raling de vicc sends a p ulse o f electromagnet ic

lIlel'g~ at a speci fic .... avelengrh I fre que ncy ) to the tnunsmutr, When in sending mode. the duplcxe r then sends the
l!,lari/cu pulse of ene rgy throug h the antenna toward the

in \\orl d War II when 11 wa s cu- aomary to usc an alphabet ic

de-sc-npror in:-tead o f the actua l .... avclcngt h or frequ e ncy.
T hese ~h..sc riprors are still used tod ay in m uch o f the radar
sc ientifi c lirernturc.

E.u!h's surface.

Ihc pulse of ele ctroma gn...tic rad iation se nt ou t by the transIli tk:l lhrough the antenna is Ill' a spec ific wuvclcngth and
blion (i.c.. it has a pulw length measured in mic r o-eo- . !!SlXI. The wavelengths o f ene rgy m\l~t co m mon ly
sed In imag ing radars arc summarized in Table 9 3. T he
u lekngths arc milch longer than visible. ncar- in frared ,
midinfrared, l'r the rmal infra red e nergy u..cd in other
ftlllOh: sensing systems ( f igu re 1) 2 ). T herefo re. mic row ave
merg;.. is usua lly measured m cenumcters rather than
iIiaometers (Ca rver, I'IXII). The unusua l na mes associated
'-Im tho: rada r \\a"' c1engths tc. g.. K. K. , Ku X. C'. S. L. and

The ~lwnc~ t rada r wawknglhs arc des ignated K-band. Kha nd wa velengths ..hould thcorencally pmv ide the be st rad ar
resolunon . Unfort unately, Kcband wav ele ngt h encq;} is partia lly absorbscd by wat er vapor and cloud penetration can he
limited . T his is the- reason that mos t ground-b used wcurh ...r
rada r.. uscd to track cloud co ver and precipitat ion are Kband. X-band is often the short...st \\ avelength ran ge used for
orb ital and <;uoorb ita ll magi ng rada rs ( Mikhail .:t aL 200 1I.
Some KA DA K sysle l1ll> function us ing. more than on e fro qu cncy and arc ref..-rrcd to a s fIlll fflp le-j iwl"{'lIc)' radars
( e.g.. Sr K-{' lind SRTM I (Tahle '1- I I.
Tab le 93 and Figu re 9_2 also provide the rada r band des ig nat ion 10 urntv o f frequency me asu red m bill ions o f cycles

296

OI .\PT ER

Acti ve and Passi ve Micro wav e Rem o te Sensing

M fcr ewavc Ha nd s

III CiH"

I GII7.
I

u.z um
---,

1.0 um
I

1 Vis.ible

UV
Figure 9- 2

I'

10

um
I

Midd lc-I R

T he rmal infra red

,.
u-

' 1TTIl
h:.., K
/ I .\

CS
~

1m

I I
I.

lk wavelength and frequency of common ly used KADAR t ends. R.-\U-\R antennas transrmr and recti, e very long.length o;ll<,''fl;)' mea sured in c...n umctcrs, unlike th c relatively ~horl ",a,ekngth \ i~iblo:.llcar-i nfr.m:t1. middle-infrared.and
mal infrared region~ measured in rmcromerers.

( 9 ~ 1)

'u
3 x lO ~m

Sl'C

-,
(1)-2 1

.
u

Lx

tn cm

Ncar-infrared

per second ( Gi ~ahen 7 or G H/. 10'1 cycles SOC- l). Ea rthresource image analys ts seem 10 gras p the co ncept of \It :1\.'''' lengt h more read ily than frequency. so the co nventio n is to
de scribe a rada r in term " of ih wavele ngth. Conversely.
eng ineers generally pre fe r 10 work in units o f freq uen cy
bec ause as radi alion passes thro ug h materia ls o f differ ent
densit ies . freq uency rema ins co nstant w hile veloci ty an d
wavc leug ih c hange. Since \\ avclcngth tA) and freq uen cy (u )
are inversely related to the speed of light (cl. it really doc s
not mauer w hich unit o f measurement is used as long as one
remem be rs the follow ing relationships :

l cm

tum scc -,

(9~3 l

T he fo llo win g simp le equation ca n he used to rapidl y convert frequencies into uni ts of r'lthlr wilH' k ngth:

A in centime ters ..

JO
u{in G l lz )

(9-4 )

Alim ut h a nd Ra n!:l' Dlrccrlon , Dep re ss ion Angle, l .on k

A nKll', l lIdde u t ,\ nl):ll'. a nd " lIla r i/ a t in n
T here are add itiona l param eters tha t must be know n abou t
the na ture o f the pu lse o f mic ro....ave ene rgy that is sent hy
the radar antenna to the terrain . incl uding aircra ft azimuth
direcnon, radar range or look dirrctinn. depression angle,
look ul/KIe. mc idell/ clt/Xle, and polarization. T h~ lfo llow ing
d iscussion is base d on tho: us.: of an airborne rad;tr sys!<.:lll,
a lthough the princ ip les are eq ua lly app lica hle to 'Ute llite
rada r syrot~ms.

A/ imu th B in 'crion : In a typ ical S LA t{ co nttgu rauee

a ntenn a is lIluu nlo:d beneath a nd par allel to the aircraft
lagc (Fig ure 9.) I. The aircraft tra vels in a straig hllinem.
ca lled the azimuth jll!;},1 dsrecnon. Pulses of ac tive m'
wa ve cnerg~ illu minate stnps of the te rra in at rig ht anp!
(llT1hogunal) to the aircra ft's d irection of tra vel , which
called the ral/~r> or /CJ"~' direction. Figu re 9-3 depicts an.
Cfa ft equipped with a SLAR system that is illuminating.
terrai n o n one side of the aircraft but not beneath iL lk
pu lses o f C"n~rgy sem out in the range direction only illl1linate a certain pan of the terrain. The terrain illumirw.i
nea rest the aircr ctl in the line o f sig ht is called the _
"mIXc' ( Fig ure <.)' ) ). The I:m hl,,,t poi nt o f terrai n illuminald
by' the pulse o f cnergy is called the.far-nlllge,
Ran !:l' Direc t iun: T IK' range or look direc tion for any ruM
image is the direction o f the radar illum inat ion that is at righ:
an gles In the direction the aircraft or spacec raft is lraveli",
Loo k dirc ct iou usuall y has a sfgnlflcnnt impact (In fe-alW'l
imcr prctation. The extent to wh ich line ar features art
enhance d or suppressed on the imagery depe nds sigrut~
camly onrhcir oncruntion relative III a given loo k direcuee
uf radar ilium illation . Gene rally , obj ects that tre nd (or strike l
in a d irect ion that is orth ogonal (pe rpendic ula r) to the range
or look direction are enhanced muc h more than those Objl'cb
in the terrain th.u lie pa rallel to the lo ok d irec tion . CO~
qucmly, linear featu res thai app ea r dar k or arc impcrccprio k
in a rada r image using one loo k d irect ion may appear brigbi
ill ano ther radar image w ith a diffe ren t loo k direction A
good example o f thi s is de monstrated in Fig ure 9 -4 , ",bi.'i
shows radar i mag~ry {If a rt area in Nigeria , w est Africa. tha
wer e obta ined using two d itl'cr.:ntlo(lk directio ns , NOI.: IlOI
ce rtain terrain features are emphas ized a nd /or dc-cmpta,
s i ,~ in l h~ two ima gl'l>.
I)('p rt" \ io n '\n;:.I(': Th e d"f',\.uion angle (1) is the angk
he twe:.:n a ho ri/ on ta l plane: e.\l.:nd ing nUl from the air.:ra!:

tIiIe Microwave System Componen ts

297

RAIJ ..\R

G l:lJ lllcl r~'

C ha r ac ter tsncs

IH"

aer-

the
ISt -

.t is
ro, es
is

tir<he

no
ni'd

,
~,

g.
re

-e
;.
n

,)

e
s

e
I
\
I

,
I

tqJre 93

Geomemc charactcr eucs "I' radar illldgcrlo' acquired by a ,iJc!uok in!! a irb...me rada r (S LAH) through cloud cover. Allthe nomencl ature assumes thai the terrain is fiat.

lage a nd the e lectromagnetic pulse of energy from the

na alo ng the radar Ii",:,-o/~,'i.,<hl 10 a specific poinl on
kground Figure 9-31. The de pre ssion angle \\ ithin a strip
illuminated terrain varies from the ncar-range depression
It 10 the [ar-range dl'p ll'.H iml ong le. The l1I'ltl"llge
'Pressiun Imgle o f a radar image is computed by select ing
pornt mi dway betwe en the nenr nnd tar-r ange in the i mage
trijl, Summaries of'rudur systerns unenmcs only report the
l!tra)!C depression a ngle.

Look ,\ " :::1",: The 1001. angle (OJ is the angle between the
lCrllCal from the antenna 10 th... ground and thc radar line of

sight (h gu rc '1-3). The 100" ang le va ries from the near- 10

the f.H-range and is the com ple ment of the de pres sion an g le

\fi"hail ct aI..1(0 1).

tu ctd cnt .\ II ~ll : The incident angle (e) is the an g le between
the rada r pulse of energy and a line perpe ndicular 10 the
Ennh's surface where it mak es contact . When the terrain is
tlut. the incident ilng k (0) is the compleme nt (0 "" 90 - y) o f
the de pression unglc (yl. Ho wever, if the terra in is sloped.
thcre is no relanonvhip between ,k p re ss ion ang fc and inciden t angle. TIlt" inc ide nt angle be st describes the rel at io nsh ip
between the radar beam a nd surface slope. A diagram o f the

( 'IL\P I ER

298

Act ive and Passive Mic rowave Rem ote sensing

Figure 9-5

h. Xcband, 1III pnlunz.rrion

Figure 9-4

+ lout.. direction

al X-hand image unite KadUIJ3 510111: in Nigeria ere~\cu h~

llyi nl; cast-west and h'I\I011 the RA DAR

look Ilonh 0) This image "'a~ obtained by tl)il111

th.. arrcralt ca~l-\'e~l "ith the 1t-'IM.k looking
south. Generally, It ISgood pr,I,'lk" It>alv,' I)S orient
a radar image so that the ]0"1.. direction is toward lhe
vie wer. This causes the shadm..s til fall toward the
ana l)>>t and keeps him or bcr from experiencing
!",,",ud,,scopic illusion ti.c " lol'l"l!r.tplm: ilJ\ crsion l.

!,o/uri:!'d a s shown in Fig ure Q-t>. The tran smuted pul-e

e lectromagnetic energy inte rac ts with the terr ain and >OOl.
of it is bac kscancred at the speed o f light towa rd the eire
or spacecraft. \\ here it OIKe again must pass throug h a fill:
If the antenna accepts the backscauered ene'). it
recorded V:Ui.1US Iype s of bac ksca ue rcd p...lari zcd <-"fk'ftI
may he rec o rd ed by the rada r. f or exa mple. it is Jllh,ihlelil
send ve rtically polari .....d energy and receive ooh
vert ically polarized energy (designated VV);
send hori rental and rcc civ e horizontally polarized efle!!l
(111/);

send horizontal and receive vcnicully polarized ~

(111):"r
~ c nd

relation ship is sho wn in Figure 9-5 . Many mathematical

radar studies assum... the terrain surface is flat (ho ri,oolall.

there fore, rhc incident nngk is a- surncd to he the complcmen! ot'r he depresvion angle.

r olar izlliion: Unpolarized energy \ ibratcs in all possible

d irectio ns perpendicula r to the d irectio n of travel. Rad ar
ante nnas ~enJ an d receive /HIJari="d energy, Thl" mean s tha t
the pu lse of e nergy is filtered so Ihal its electric al wan:
vibratio n.. a rc (>I11y in a single planc that is perpe ndic ula r 10
the direction of tra vd. The pulse of clectromagneuc energy
sent o ut by the antenna may he vvrurattv or Iwri=/II/I<lJfr

r he r<-'I,lllunshi" between radar inciden t iIllgkl

true \ cnical. and loca! slope angle ( t.l) fill' nOllterrain tancr Ilendefl'<lO lind Lewis. j QlIKI.

vertical an d rece ive horizontally po lari zed eflelj;)

(l "111_

III/ and VV conflguruuons produce co- or hke-polan:

radar imagery. Ifl' a nd 1"11 con figuranons prod uce fnll.lpu/"ri:n/ image!"). The lloi lit) 10 record differen t t)PC~
po lari"l."d ene rgy fro m a rcsoturion d eme nt in the l
re..ults in va luable Earth resource in form ation in renail
inslances. For exa mple. Fig ure 9 -7 docurn crns how il is
sible to ~ekCli\dy record only vertically or hori zontal
polarized \ isiblc lighl (0. 4 0 .7 J.l rn) 10 our ad vantage.
scene consists o f wutcr, vegcrauo n. a nd a Iloaung block
wood, A ve rtically polarized filter placed in fro nt of a cam-j

Acti v

Microwave System Components

vv

Polari/atinn

radar ante nna

transmits
vert ically

l't'nical

polanvcd energy

w nd

- >

vertica l
filter

l'f"nil',,1
rl'I '<'i\ '"

299

<-

<-

h.
back sca ncred vertically
polarized energy from Earth
is rec e ived ~)' the amcrma

radar ante nna

transrmts

HH

"'.

,e!

e.

((~

horizontally
polarized ellt."Jl,,)'

->

-.

<-

<-

h"rj;onlul
. 'ntl

}1IIr/;:.omu!

of

rt'('(';n'

'"

Jl

backscattcred horizontally
polarized energy from Earth
b received by the antenna

rr.

is

;y

I,

,
y

f
n

,
f

rlQlJre 9-6

al VV - Polurizariou. The radar atuc nnntransmits vertically polari zed e nergy towa rd the terrain. hI Some of the vertically poIanzed energy is "0/ depolar ized b) lhe terrain, ,\ vcrticalfihcr in the antenna allows only vertica lly polarized energy backseattcrcd from theterrain 10 be recorded . cllUl - Polarilalion. The radar antenna transmits horizontally polaril..cd elll:!);y towa rd
the terra in. dl ~'lf1l<' of the hori/ontall) polan/"''<.1 energy is IH" depolarized by' the terrain . A horiroenal filtcr in the antenna al.
1o"," s only horizontally polari zed enlW becksc aucred from the l<'IT3l11 10 he recorded

nlens allo ws o nly vertical ly p olarized light 10 pass lhmugh

othc fllm. A horizontally pola riz ed filler placed in front o f
fle lcn ~ allows only the horizontally pola rized energy to p a~ s
trough to the film. In this c:xarnple. the horiz ontally polari.m light providcs more detai led information abo ut the presftICt and distribu tion (If underw ater rock!>. Similarly. surface
lids and other materia ls often have unique polarization
dlaracleristies in the microwav c reg io n te .g., K~ ba nd . Cl.K6
c u For exam ple. Figure 9-K de mo nstrates how a no rthe rn
Arizona basalt la va flow is mu ch eas ier ttl dcline ate in the
lI H polurizauon rea l aperture K~-ba nd radar imagc rhan in
tile HV polarization image acquired a t the sa me nm c using
d1esame look d irecuon . More will be said about how the tcr!lin interacts with a pulse of polarized electromagnetic
magy in the section on radar environmental co nsiderations.

Slant-Range versus Ground-Rang e RADAR Image

Geometry

Rada r imagery has a different geometry tha n that produced

by most convcononal remote sen sor systems. such as cameras. multispectral sca nners or area -array de tectors. The refore. one mus t he care ful whe n ane rnpring 10 make
radargranunctric measurcrn cr ns. First, uncorrec ted radar
imagcl) is displayed in w hat is called slant-range j?I'fJ/nl'try.
i.c.. it is 1'0;1';10'.1 o n the actu al distance frnm lhe radar 10 each
otrhe respec tive features in the scene. For exa mple, in Figure 9-9 we see t\HI fields. A and B. that are the same si ze in
the rea l world . O ne field is in the near-range close III the air(ran and one is ill the far-rang e. Field A in the ncar-runge is
compressed much more than field H in the far-range in a

C H A PT ER

300

Usc (If \ 'l' rt ica) and IInrLwntal

P(J l ar i:l in ~

Acti ve and Pass ive Mic rowave Remote Sensing

Filtl'ni

a. Ve rtica l filleTall,,,,,, only vertically poleri zedhgluto pa~,.

FH;l u re 9 -8

b. Horizontal filter allow !>Illy huriw lltally Iwlar izcd

R gu re 9-7

l i ~ hl

lu pas,.

a) A vertically polarized filter placed in front 01" a

cam...ra le ns a llow, unly vertically polarized light 10
pass through. bl A h"ri UlII la lly polarized filler allows
only horiz ontally f'<l IOl ri h ,<j light to pa,;s In this e...
amp le based on visible light. hor izo nta lly polar ized
li ght provides much more in formatio n about the underwa tcr rocks than the vertically polarized light. Active mic rowav e sensors ca n be configu red 10send an d

ro:<:chc horizontally and vertically polarized microwaVl' cnl'rsy.

slant- range di.splay (Fo rd ct al.. I ~ SO ) . It is possible to conve rt the .J/1l/1I-rWI}:!! JI~\pllll" (S.../) information into the true
gro und-range JiJplc~I' (G", ) on the .r -axis so thai features in
the scene are in their proper planimetric (x ,v ) posit ion relanv e to one anothe r in the fina l radar image. The following
equation. based on the' Pythago rean th..'orcm applied to a

a ) "' ,-banJ . IIII polari zation rea l a pertu re ra&r .

age of a cin de r con e and basalt lava Ilow in nooJ.
central Arizona. hi Simultaneo usly obtained H'!
pn!arillllinn image wilh the same look di
The stru ng rf,'~ ll(lI "e ufthc lava I1IIW in the d irw ~
tu m image (111 1) and the weak return on the ~
II(-larizcd i mage (11V) indicatcs that the hl(lCk) t10J
is hig hly l'ul,uiJ:ed. This is due tothe Ji r~-cln:'lkt
rion of blocks that an.' large rela tive to the \\'l\~
length (court eay NASA ; Carve r. 19HR).

right trian gle . trans forms the- s lant- ra nge d istanc e. 5'11' at tU
very beginn ing (If fiel d A to a corrected ground-range dsrane e, G.,r based 011 the rrigonometric relat ionship ~t\\OlI
the altitude o f the sensor abo ve-g round dnu m (If) and
ot her two sides o f the righ t tr iang le. S..., and G",. shown a
Figun.: 99:

301

're Microwave System Components

S lant.RanJ,:l'
l l,'r SU S

These equations assume that the terrain is flat. It dol'S not

co rrec t for dis to rtion du... to radar layove r [ fore sho rte r ungr
caused hy ltlpogm phie rel ief (to be dis cusse d ). Radar image
analysts sho uld alwa ys inq uire as to whet her they are \ icwing rada r imager)" thaI has been enll\ c ned from s lant- range
to gnumd-mnge geometry, :\lnst radar system~ and dat a providcrs no..... provide the J ala in ground-range gco m.... t!).

Ui~ phl)

Ground-Ranac D ispla)'

C u m p u li n~

Ground-ra nge [dis tance] o n correc ted radar image

Uncorrected radar imagl."'; h3\ e slam-range geome-

99

If), '" here obJcct!> III Ih.: lle<lf-!'lmgc arc co ruprc......:d

more than obj1~ ill thetar-range. III thrs eli.3mple,

field A and U arc the same SiLo: and h,He no local relie f. The sla m- range image display is a plane connccung thc antenna OIl aunude 11, wnh the fanla:~1
point in the far-range. Wh.h Ihl' corner of field A is
illuminated '" nh a pube <If cnc'l!Y al a depression
angle nfl., it is prujl'C'IOO on to the slam-range display as shown. 111<: same thmg (lCCUn> 1I1 1he end of
field ,\ and for bUlh sides of field 11 This causes
lield A 10 he cnnlrr.., ,,c'd much more thau licit! H in
the slant-range lI11;lge J isplay.

n-

hV
~

,-

also pnss ihk 10 tran sform lhc vlant- range d ispl ay hi a

. ~nd -ra n ge d isplay usi ng the rcl auons hip betwe en the

l,~lll

n-

of the antenna above the local ground leve l. H, and

deprc..sinn angk ( }1 arthc p oint of inll.'rl.'st u..ing Ibe 1".11I'ling eljual iun I rord et ai" 19l10):

I - I,
sin'y

GrJ

"

\Hlnted to ml'llsun: the trill.' l',nlund. rang.c dis tllm:e

l'Cn IWO po inls in ,I rada r image sueh as he lwe en p;.l i11ls
lid 2 in Ik ld ,\. we may u... the lo llow ing relationsb ip
dcr~n and le wi~, IY9X ):

:>

/I

h,

.-

(9-7 )

\\'t

( t,l-lS )

.'h l:lkc$ inll) aeCO Ull t Ih.: a ltilUd.: of the $ensor, II. an d
drpre$~ion angle ( }1 to p()i nt~ I and 2 in the ima ge .

6,

To determine the sp..ltial reso lutio n at ;lny point in 3 radar

image. it is necevsary In compute the revo lution in I WO
dimensions: the r ,lII}!l.' ;lIIJ azmnnh resolutions. Radar is in
effect a rangi ng de' ice th:lt measures the dis tance 10 objects
in the 1t'TT3in hy means of ...cndrng (lui and receiving pu l..o:s
o f act i\ I,' rnicrowav e energy (figur\" 9-10). TIt..: ranee resolutian in the acrose-track direction is pro portional 10 the
length ,)f the miCTl)W3'C pulse. The shorter the pulse le ngth.
the finer the range resolu tion. Pul.\<' I<:lIxth is a function o f
the speed oflight (e) muhiphcd hy the duration (If the transm ission (t). The length " f time that the mic rowave l.'ncrgy
re.g .. Lband . 23.5 em ) ISact uall y trausmiucd is mea..urcd in
m icroseconds (I O~ sec I and Iypiea lly ra nges fro m OA - 1.0
mi cro second . Th i.. tmnslilll'S Imo it pulse len gt h rang ing
nom S - 2 10 m. The pulse length must trav d ro the targ et
and hack 1<.' the sensor. Therefore , it is nec essary to d ivid e by
1 to mea sure the slan t-range resolu t ion . To scale it to
gro und -range. it b mu ltipli ed by the cos ine of the depression
angle C(l . Thus. the equ atio n for co mpu ting tho: I'llllgl ' resolu/iolt I'l l'COIn<." S
(9-9)

n.

<-

n-

Kan!::!' Kt',ululiun

O ne migh t a..k, Why no r sele ct an ex tremely shorl pu lse

lengt h tll ' 'hwi n ;llll' X l rt: nlL'l~ 11 11e nmgl' r,:so!ulilllf! Tbl' rl'aSUIl is thai a.s lh<.: puls..., length is sh urtc n.:J, Ml h, Ih.: IOla l
amo unt o f crK'rgy Ihal illllln inatl's tb...' Hlrgl' l "f inK' resl, Soon
we wo uld haw such a wellk h'lc ksl'attl.'rl.'d rl.'lllrn sign al that
it wou ld b.: o f no l-ailic. T he rd i lre. lh<.:re is a Ir:lJe-ofT
hetween s!lnrt.:nin g thc pu lse I..:ngl h to imprtl \e ran ge reso
lut ioll and ha ving eno ugh energy in the transrni lll'd pll l ~<." to
ree e i\.: a siru ng sign al from lhe ter ra in, wh ich is the heart of
m icrow ave rcml,to: sl'nsing,
Th e gen.:ral ru le is Ihal signals re n.:cled from two d is tinct
ohj ects in the te rrain (e.g., tw o ho uses) ea n he resolv ed if
Ih<."ir res f'Cl' It\< rangl.' dlsl anel.'S arc ..cpa rated by at !cast ha lf
Ihe pub .: length. F<.lr l.' Xallip lc. co ns ider Figure <) 10 in wh ich
Ihe terra in IS hei ng illum inated w ith a single pu lse of m icrowallo' <."nt'!]:)' that lasts 10.1 .. ec<lmls. This tran slates 10a pulse

CII .-WTER

302

.;illl,l le pulse cf
m ICTOW;\\l." el><'l },')'

""'lh a pul"" lcnllih

" I IO "sc:collJ.,.

....

/1m,' n

2
. -

3 -I

30m

01

10m

Active a nd Passive Microwave Remote sensing

im pacted any homes yet. A t time 1/ + I a port ion of the

has been re fl ected back toward the antenna whik
remai ning pan Ill" the pulse con tinues across- trac k.. B)
IIi ! homes 2. 3, and a have reflected a pan of the i
m icrowave energy back 10 the antenna. Because holl>G
and 2 were g reater than 15 m apa rt. they will appear Il<
tinct features in the radar imagery. However, ho uses 3
were k s s tha n 15 m apart: there fore. the ir IWO returns
ove rlap an d they w ill be perceived h)' the antenna as
broad object. The y w ill probably be d ifficult 10 resole
individual houses in th e radar image.
While the pul se lenglh remains constant through u.,t
and far-ra nge. she range resolution vari es linearly from
near- to the far-ra nge . For exam ple. co nsider Figurt
wh ich depicts towers I and 21hat arc 30 m apart in 1M
range and IOW~ 3 and 4 Ihal are JO m apart in the farIf we use Equat ion 9-9 1\) compute the range resolution a
far -range with a de pre ss ion angle of .fO" and a pulse I .
du ration of tran smi ssion o f tJ. I u see , the ran ge reso lutioo

(O,lx lO~ sl'C) (3x J 0' mSlX -' 1

::! cos-lO"

R, -

R, -

R,

0 .1 x

1 sec ) x 300. 000. 000 m

I, 000. 000
sec
2 x 0 .766

0.1 So.-C x 300. 000. 000 m

I, 000, 000
Sl'C
2 x 0.766

I/lH "" l J

R,
Figu re 9- 10

'l he di~(ancc o f:1I1 object ( i t~ range j fhuuthc aircraft

is determined by the leng th oftime required
for the pillsc of microwave energy traveling at the

untcnnn

speed o r light l\l reach the ohjecl and ~ reflected

hack to lhe antenna. Signals from houses I and 2.
I'> III umve soo ner It\;ln the signals returned fr om the
tW0 hmls"s fan her away (3 lind 4 ), In th is example .
the IU 7 secon d pulse length equate s to 30 m. The
resolution across-track is equal 10 hal f the pulst'
length. in thix 0;'1"': IS rn, Houses 1 and 2. will he rcsolve d as distinct ""Jl'l' ls nn the radar ima ge. Two
o bj ects (lu' uscs 3 and 4 ) separated by k ss than ha lf
thl' radar pul'I.C length Yo ill he perceived hy the ,mlenna as UllO;" broad ohjcd .

length o f 30 m and the refore has a range reso lution o f 15 m

Th e fate o f the sing lc pulse of microwav e energy is mo nitorcd for four brief t ime period s. At nmcn the pulse has no t

H, ..

JO rn

I.:iJ2
IIj ,5 ~

m.

Th er efore, tower s ] a nd -l in the ta r-range m ust be separat

hy more than I <) ,5~ m 10 resolv e rhc ind ividual to wers onthe.
rada r image . Because rowco 3 an d .f arc separated by 30
it is pos sible 10 ide ntify the ind ividu al lowers. Convers<:~
towe rs I and 2. locate d ill a depression angle o f 65" in tbe
near-range . wou ld not be reso lved because the range resol..
lio n 111 this are a wou ld be 35.5 m. The two towers 1\
probnbly a ppear as a single bright ret urn.
( 'lllllp utinJ:. A/imulh R\'..nlutinn

Thu s far we have on ly identified the length in me ters oi

active microw ave resol ution element at a specific depressi
ang le anJ pul~ le ngth in the range- (across-track) direcu
To know both the length and w id th o ft he resolut ion elemeli

uicrewave System Co mponents

303

Antenna
depression an g les
of 40'"and 6 5 ~

to

pulse length ( t)
=

0.1 x 10,6 sec

Frgure 9-11

dist anc e be tween

towers I &. 2, a11l1
be tween lowers 3 & -I

,
{

lWO

rada r w ith a pulse lengt h of I l l x

10 ~. The tOWl'TS can be 0:'
solved in the far-range bUI nN in
the ncar-range (afte r Sabins.
1')') 7 ).

to we rs 3 and -I
arc resolve d

I and :!
nrc net

differen t depre ssion angle s

(40 0 and (.5) for a rca1 aperture

= 30 m
towers

Computing the range resolution at

resolved

-I

R,.= 35.5 m

e must also compute the width of rue resolution clement in

k direetion the erun is llying - the azimuth d irection. Ad h n;'Jo/1I1;fJII (R) is determined by co mputin g the widt h
tlbetemli n strip that is illu minated by the radar be am. Real
lpefIure activc microwave rada rs prod uce u lobe -shape d
bc-Jm simila r to the one sho wn in Figure Q- 12, wh ich is nat:('\\'er ill the nea r-rang e and spreads ou t in the fur-range.
Btiically_ the angular beam width is directly proportional to
~ .....avelcng th of the transmitted puls e o f energy, i.e .. the
~ the wave lengt h. the w ider the beam width. and the
~r the w avclcng th, the naITOW cr the beam w idth . T herefore. ill real aperture (hnnc force) radars a shorter waveImgth pulse w ill result in impro ved azimuth reso lution .
ufon unately. the sho rter the wa velen gth, thc poorer the
lII!lO!>'herie and vege tatio n pen etration capa bilit y,
hnunatcly.thc bea m width is also inversely prop ortional to
ererma length ( L) . Th is means tha t the lon ger the radar
eienna.the narro we r the beam width and the higher the az iIIIth resolution. Th e relationsh ip be tween wa ve length (A)
lid antenna length (1.1 is summarized in Equa tion lJ-IO,
.hich can be used lo com pute the 1.1:;11111111 resolution (Hcndeson and Lew is, I'J9!O:

"

SXA.
L

whe re S is the slant-range distance to the point o f interest.

The eq uatio n can he used 10 co mpute the azimuth reso lut ion
an y locat ion between the ncar- a nd far-ru nge. For example, consider ihe conditions sh own in Figure "'- 12 wh ere the
near slant-range i~ 20 km and the fa r slant-runge is 40 krn .
Tanks ra nd :: a nd ranks 3 and 4 arc separated by :!OO m. If
an Xcband radar (3 em) is used with a JOO em antenna. then
Equ at io n <)1 0 ca n he used III co mpute the nca r-ra nge uzi lit

muth resohunm:

R = :!O !..111

"

3 ern

son em

20 . 000 rn x 0. 03 m

;m
60 0 m

5m
R" = I:!Om .
The far-ran ge azimu th reso lut ion at the -10 km dis tance is:
40 km x J em
j Ol) em

....
Active and Passive Microwave Rem ote Sensing

C11.. \l"IER

304

Antcnna
depressic>n
angles ly)

Figure 9-12

distan ce between
tanks I and 2, and
between tan h J and 4
'" : OO m

R at 40 km

C",npulin~

the azimuth
diff~1 sl:l111
Jisl.lnC~'S (~O and .w lmf ief
rt'lll aperture rada r With
band wavelength of 3
5n(l-.:m antenna. The tanhca
resolved in the ncar-range bs
m the tar-range.

lion at hH)

crD"

2-l0

III

"

R at211km = 120m

/
/

/
/

near-

"

far-

tanks I and:! are resolved

ranks J and ~ are nol re'ooh cd

~ O,

00 0

real aperture
rada r beam width

III )(

0.03 m

"

5 ,"
N" ::

1200 III
:'i m

Th ere is a trigo nometric rcl :\Iio nsh ip between the sla m- range
distance (S ) an d the depre ssion angle ( y) and the heig ht of
the aircra ft or spacccrutl pla tfo rm above the local datum, lI:
/I
siny

(9-1 1)

for comput ing

the

(IJ.I.

Idl' ally. lIlle could buil d an e xtremely long an tenna and plaa

ranks I and 2 111 the near-range would mos t likely be

resolved because the a;.imuth reso lutio n at this slant-range
distanc e tl2 0 m ) is less than the distance between tank s I
and 2 (21111 m}, CplHl'r sdy, tank s 3 and 4 in the fa r-range
wo uld probably not be resol ved. bec ause at a stunt- rang e di stance o f 40 km the azimut h resolution is 24() m. much
gre ater than the 200 OJ scpara ung the tanh .

The equauon
be comes:

(.!!.-).
~
si n)' 1_ '

it on nn mrcran to ac hieve ve ry high azimuth

N" - 240 m .

azimuth

resolution

resoll1~~

Un fo rtunate ly. the re is a prac tical limit (about 2 m) to the

siz e o L 1I11e nn:J that ca n be mounted on an aircraft (althou;li
the size is virtually un limited in ou ter sp ncc l j. Fortu nate!J,
the re are ways til elect ronically synthesize a longer ;l nt~nlll
which is the hcurt ofthe syllthl.'l ic apertu re radar concepts
he discussed short ly.

While we have not yet defined how a synthetic apt't1tlll:

radur (S A RI works. it is instructiveto poin t nut at this till\tl
signilicilllt diffe renc e betwe en the com puta tio n o f the 3Dmuth rcsohnion for a real ape rture rada r versus a synthetIC
aperture radar, T he equat ion tor tho: azim uth or along-U1d
resolu tion for a po int target in a syn thetic apert ure r.libr
(S..IRu ) is
SA N"

,
I.

(9-13

where I. i~ the an tenna length. As Hende rso n and l~1!

( 199:Sl lXlint out.

LlictOwave System Co mponents

305

is one of tho: mo re incredible equations in the dis-

ine of radar remote sens ing. Th e om ission of the

ilv!l'nlngl' distance I S) fro m the eq uation menus that
~alil1lUlh

resolution of a SAR sys tem ls independent

distance or sensor altitude. Th co rcucalt y. the
ial reso tuuon in the uviuunh d irect ion from a S:\ R
lIllgi n~ system .... ill be the sa me from an aircra ft pl atas il is from a spacecraft. There i" no other remote
n~ system wuh this ca pability!
I fJ ~ge

<;l-13. ho.... ever. is nor the (ln l~ param eter thai ha,.
t in S:\ R data. The coherent nature o f the S :\R :.iglJOduces speckle in the image. To remov e the speckle.
image is usual ly pr ocessed using sl' vernl/oo h. i c., au
~ing takes place . Fur e xample. four loo ks ( ,V) m ight be
ged. This drama tically improve s the imcrp rctabilny of
SAR image data . Howev er. the a vmuuh res olut ion mu st
IdjuSl.:d b) the equation:
(9-I ~J

see nc. rchcf displacc mcm in the radar imago: occurs . In radar
re hcfdis placemc m. rhe horivornal displa ceme ru ofan objcc t
inth... image c aused by thc obj cct's ele vation is in a dire ction
towardthe radar antenna (Figure 9_I.h ). Beca use the radar
image i" formed in thc rallg \' (ero-s-track ! direction. the
highcr the objec t, the close r it is to the rada r antenna. a nd
theref or c Ihe soone r (i n time ) it is detected on the rada r
image. lhi,. cont ra... t-, sharply wuh relie f d isplaceme nt in
op! i~il l aeria l phutllgmph) where the re lie f dis placement is
radially outward from the principal po im [center) o f a phot ograph. The etevauon-mdc ced lli"loni"ns in rada r imagery
an- re ferred til as lim:,,}lOrlL'nillj! and lavovcr.

Hnvirally, all terrain that has a ~ Iope inc lined toward the
ra dar w il[ appear comprc-ocd or fores horte ned rchuivc to
s topc-, inclined al<:I) frnm the rada r. The cff cct is illustrated
in Fig ure v.t ja. I hc foreshorten ing factor, f j. is ap prox im atd~
, . .,

=0

...

in ( H-

('l _IS)

~ IR C

SA R had a 11 m ant enna, which .... ould produce

malong-track reso lution if Eq uation 9- [3 .... ere use d.
ever. the speckle in the S[R -C SA l{ data wen: proce ssed
= ~ looks to improve the interprerabi lity
the data.
s.the adj usll'd azimuth resotcnon i ~ 2-1 m.

g.v

,,1'

discussion first summa rized how the range lind azmnuh

'on an: competed for specific loc ation s ,\ ulun the real
radar beam 1>.... ath. Note that the rcsoluuon clement
!lave d ift<:rent dnne n"ion". i.e.. Ih.: ra ngo: rcsllIUlilln
b<: III m and the <tLimu th resu lution 10 m. Therefore.
. scale is eon"lanlly cha ng ing throu gho ul a rl'<tl :tjl<.'rradar ima gc. il is importan t ItI lx' care-ttl[ when mak ing
raOlm dri!: measurements O V CT large regiolls . .....:hell
' luch data . it is hes ! to compute the rangt' and a"imlllh
iIIUl i,' n fo r the maj" f rcgi' lIl y.-.u arc ink' rested in ,lIld thell
rme;ISUre lTIe nls. If a new area il> sclcekd fo r stu,I~. Ih.:n
resolution measur~'mcnts shou ld bc l'ompuled bcfi.rl
measuremmts a re nhta ined.

R Relief Disp lacement. Image Foreshortening,

er. Shadows. and Spe ckle

lIm~ tric " i "t on i o n ~ e '( i ~ t

in ;llmost all radar tmagl'r).

fores hortening. layo ver. and shlldowi llg. Whcntlle
"0 is l1al, it is a straig ht lc.rwa rd mall er to IN:' Fqu ali nn 9.
conn' n a sla nt- ra nge radar image into a ground-range
image Ihal j", p l<t mm':lf icaJly (l'm:..1 in .\ ,.1'. 1I,lv, e' er.
1I\:"'S, lall llui ldings. nr moun l<t ins are pres~'nt in thl'

udi ll ~

cs

'0
~s

\\ hen: the incident </lIgl. 8 is the <tuglc be tween the vcruca l

plane at nad ir an d a hue rhatlin ks the imaging radar uurc nua
10 a tenure on the ground. and Ill" the stope an gle of'thc surl:.....~ . Ylpha is pos itive f a l where the slope is inclined
to ward the radar i fi,n.' slopt' l. and ncgauve ((1' ) where the
...lope I... mclmed away from it tha~ks l~ 'llC ).
h'r o:xample. c(lnsid~'r the reJati \t'ly low rclic f mounta in in
Figure 1,J-133. It is pcrli.'("t[~ s) mmelrica [ .... ilh the dist3m:e
fm m ..\U a nd B T be ing ~"(j u<t l 1\ ho:n plulled in Ihe groundrnnge I i.e .. on a p lani mctri~' map l, A ~i ngle pu lse o f m icrowa\.: L'ncrgy illumi nati ng Ih.... leITilin w ill fif'>1 e n~'ou n t e r the
base o r Ihl moun ta in i . /) and rcc ord it in t h~' slilllt- r:111ge
imag L' lIt 1/. Ikcrmse l h~' h' p " f tl1l' Il1nunt:lin (11) e xtends
ilh<'\l" thl' k rw ill and is rl' lativd y do sl" to the an \cn1Hl. it is
rC~'vl'd ... J ill h. Th.... bilSl" of the mt' unt<t in ;11 Cis r......o n.kd:lI ('
in the slam -range dl<.pla) , The highL'r the ohjeci aho\c the
k'rrain. the more f" reshorteni ng th;!t " ill tak c pla..e. [n this
l' aS\,". th L' rndar lina ge will ha\~' a \CI)' br igh l shnrt fllrl...lopt:'
"nd a da rker ha~-kslo~. It wnu ld he d illkult to make a map
1'1' mnuntainllus fL'.t\ures USlllg this ril.l;lr im<tg.e Ix..a u~ e the
top of llle moun l;lin, l:\ en lhough it \\ <ts m.t v~'I) high. is d ispIoKl'(\ from its Int e grou nd-range pl:m imelric ll',si Cilll\ in the
r ~t d ar Imag<:, i.<:" </1> " lle ~ no l <:' Ilial Ill". Fo reshorte ning IS
i lJ tlu..: n ,,:~'d b:- th..' Ill)],,\'. ing fa..ltlrs:

"hi.TI ht'igJu: I he l!rl"uler the 11l"il!ht o f the object ahln c

1\'Cal J:ltum.th~ gre.ller the lim:shnn":lling.

....
306

C II .-W T EH

FOfr s ho rrr ning

". \

gr adu al
darker slope

Inci<lcn. J./ltllc.u,

I'

groun d-range

(distance)

Note u and bare

causing
the top of the

I\."YCTSl.--d.

mounram (h)

to layover a

b.nad
~--j;=~
ir
A

ground-range
(distance)

S ha do \\

e
radar
__ shadow

in,',denl
anglt', l:I.

,,"

c.
nadir

I'
A

gr ound-range

(di sta nce)

Figure 9 13 a} Radar foreshortening in the slam-range display.

Slupo.: AB in the ground -range display and lib in the
slam-range display are supposed to he equ a l as are

Acti ve and Passiv e Microwave Remote Sensing

,k prn :fioll l/l/ h' (or incident '.lIJx.fd: Th... greater 1ll
dep ression ang le ( yl or smaller the incident ang le (a). Ii:
greate r the fore short enin g . A good example is found It
Figu re c - t -ta.h where the ERS I sensor w ith its largdi"
dep re ssion ang le and its 230 inc ide nt angle intrOlh1i
more foresho rte ning than the J ERS- I radar with its 51
dep ression ang le an d 39 0 inc ide nt ang le. Also considentforeshortened cinder co ne in Arizo na when recorded ilII
rada r image \ersus a co nvent ional vertical 3ICfI
photograph (Figure 91k,dl.

local/ on ofohjl!l:Is IlI lht' acnns-track range; Features

the ncar- range peruou of the s.... at h arc g.:nmL
foreshortened mo re than identical featu res in the far-l1lIIIf
For c"Shorten ing causes features 10 appear to 1\;1\'e S!~
slopes tha n they actually have in natu re in the near~
of the radar ima ge and to haw shallo.....er slopes than~
ac tua lly have in th c far-rangc ofthe image .
Image tavnver is an extrcm... case of image foreshortt'J1i~
occurs when the inc ident angle (8 ) is smaller than til< rcelope (a'. i.e .. 8 < c ". Th is concept is illustrat...d in FiUl't1ll Jb. In this case, th... moun ta in has so much relief thaldlt
summit (8 ) bac ksca uc rs euergy to.... a rd the ante nna beflft
rhe pulse of en crgy eve n reac hes th c hase of the moUllta!ll
(AI. Remember that in te rms of pla nimetric distance fmr.
the nadir poin t direct ly beneat h the airc raft. the base of~
mo untain (II) is muc h closer than the summit (8), as doc.
mentcd by the ground- range distance d isplay. HO..... e'o'd
beceu-,e the mountain summit ( IJ) rcflc-cts the incidm
m icrowave energy sooner tha n the base of the mountain(.fL
the su mm it (hi in the slant-ra nge radar image actually 1(I]l
orl'/" (hc nee the tcrmiuology j the hase of the mouraaa
recorded on the radar image at , 1 , On ce ag ain, the surnmitoi
the moun ta in (0 ) is significantly disp laced from ifS W
p lan imetric poshion. Th is dis to rtion cuunot hc, CllrTl'l:l<:d
even when the sur rae c, top ograph y is k nown . Groat care mill:
he exercised when interpreting radar imag es of mountaince
area s whe re the thresholds fur image layove r exist. Brig!!!
white ridg...s in Figur e 1) 15 represent severc S IR-C L-har>:!
(I III) rada r layove r in the San Gabriel Mountains jus t east of
Los An ge les. C A,

He ami be. Inskad. slope ab

is shorter and steeper

while slope ".. is more gradual and longc r than it
should be. bl Image layover of foresfope AIJ in the
slam-range di spl a~' (b.J) caused by the incident angk fJ bein g s maller than the toreslopc angle a' ,
Slant-range " and h 31\" reversed, cau sing layover.
c t A substa nual ~hIlO<.'''' i~ PfOOllCed aiM because

the llachl<~ angle (a l is greater than the deprcson angle Iyl laller Ford et al.. I <lSO)_

Sh:1JowS in radar imag es can en ha nce the ge(' morphol~

and texture o f the te rram . Shadows can als o obscure J!rlt
most important featu res in a rada r image. such 3-S the informarion behi nd ta ll huildmgs or land usc in deep vallcys.f
ce rta in con d itions are met . any feat ure protru d ing abcve ee
loca l da tum ca n ca u-,... the incident pulse of microwae
energy to reflect all o f its energy o n the forc slopc of~

307

\Clive Micr owave Sys te m Compon ents

h~

1<:
m

)0

cs
I'

l l:

a
,[

i"
Iy

:e.

er
;c

~y

C-hllnd

[I~S..t

Jepre~,i(ln iln~1c

fl T'
incit1cnl angle 23"

l.-handJt:RS-t
ocpre,."IOflallgle51

k'Ol.dmxliOfl

1Il<: idc nt angle J<r'

,.h

O.

-ie
re

;"

-re
u

-r.

nl
.)

.-s

X_h an d

of

"

,d

"rs
hI
,J

,r

'"
~

If

"

~Igu re

9-14

~j ,...

d) The C..han,J LRS-l imag e of the While \1o\ln la in ~ e \ hibil, substuuua l Iurcshcrt cning d ue W the satellite SA Ws sm all incident nngle (ellurtl'sy Alaska SAR Fac ility ; ~ ) 1'192, E lIr"rc~m Sp" ec Agl'l1 eyl , h ) The I,_hand JI'KS - I image with a larger incident angle hus sigmficuntly less image rorcshortcmng (<:uurlc,) A laska SAl{ Fucility: ':.' l\ASOA I. c) X vbaml aircraft
synthetic aperture radar (SAR ) image of a cinder (.' ''1'1 <' in Ari/ Oll" 'I he shal'c or'th c ba,k;ln)' cylindrical cinder cone is distorted
in lhe sla nl-Tillll!<' look d rrcctmn. appe aring more ellipr leal in shape than it dues i 11 the ucri'II I'h"tugn,ph . Porcshortcnmg (rclief
displacementtow ard the nnlar antl'rHia l oc cu rs in the ncar -rang e. lhcrc i, nlso a da rk sh:\d" w under the- rim ofthe crater at the
tl'P o fth ... Cl1!1l'. III v e rtic al panc hrommic aeria l photograph " r S I' Mou ntam. AI. ( <:"Ilne ,~ Eric KilsiM.'hl.e, ERI'vi lntcmarinnul.
Iuc. ).

lljtc1 and produce a black shudo.... tor the backslope. ~\

ladslllpc is in radar s hadow w h en us angl e ( a -) is steepe r
the depression angle ()'), i.c. 11- > y l ri gurc q..l3 c). If
ttbad;;;)opc e quals the dCrrl'~ sion angle ( (l = "f), then the
kslope is j ust harel y illuminated b) the mc idc m energy.
is called gl1lLin g illuminarion beca use the ra da r pulse
grazes the bac k...lope . T he hackslolX' is fu lly ill um inated
,Ilm il is le...s tha n the de pression angle (({ < Yl.

Figu re 9- I.k de monstrates how a large shado .... from a rcla..

tiv ely steep ba..:kslop<.' m igh t be prod uced. I n this case. we

have ;1 backslopc of approximately 85 (a- " S5") a nd a

dcpTl'",s i(1n an g ll' o f .J:'i" (y '" ..15" ). Beca use the back slope is
gre ater than rhc deprcssillll angle. I'.C expect this area to be
in s ha d ow. In fact , this is the c ase .....ith the te rrain SU rt:1CC
He /) in the grou nd-ra nge being in com plete shado w in the
sl a nt-ra nge rada r im a ge di sp la) (lit/). In the g ro und -range
dis play the dis iancc from IhC' su m mit al B 10 the back base o f

308

I. -bli nd S I It -C (1 111 )
J ul y 20, 1'0195

Acti ve a nd Pas sive Mi c row av e Rem ote Senslnq

Shadows in radar imagery arc valuable when e\al~

geomorphic c haracterist ics. Rada r shadows etten runM
like 111W Sun-angie ph otography. enhanc ing lincamcntsD
other geol ogic conditions. Terra in information such as
graphic he ight , s lope. etc.. ca n be used to configure rd.
overnights or. purchase radar da ta that ha ve the mostJwrt'
pri atc depression a ng les and ncar- and far-range charactftll,.
tic s to emphasize terrain shadow s.

Sp eckle
II grainy sa lt-and-pepper p... ncm in radar in.tFjg urc 9- 16) that is present due 10 the coherent nature
rada r wave, which causes random co nstruc tive and dC'illll:
live interference. aud hence random br ight and dark :lrtllS I
a radar image. T he sp..-cklc ca n be reduced by proc~
sepa rate po rtions o f an ape rture and recomhimng rbesepi"
tions s(\ that imertcrencc doc s not occur (Kasiscbke ~ll
198 4) . As previou sly mentioned. th is process. called mu
pic looks or noncohcrem integration . produces a II1me p\ol.
ing ap pearan ce , and in some cases may ... id in intcrprtlEill
of the image but at a co st o f de gr aded reso lution. For exmpie . consider the rada r imagery in Figure 9-16. whkh \111
processed using l-look. -s-looks. and I (i-looks. Most im(l
prc tcrs would prefer working w ith the 4- or lo-Iook inlagel).

.\'peckl" is

of*

Figure 9-15

Lcband SJR.c (1II1l image of the San Gabriel

Moumams and a portion 'I t' the city of Pa- adcna.
Exten sive layov er i~ found in the' mountniuous tcrfain. causi ng the ridge lmee to be dis placed toward

the antenna I coon~y K "SA Jet Propulsion Lab].

Synthetic Aperture Radar Systems

the moun ta in a t C is re lativ ely shon . But in the slant-range
radar image. bd is \ "'1')' long. This particula r radar image
w ould a lso experi en ce imllg... fo resho rtcnin g t but norlayover
because A is recorded by the an tenna befo re 8l and have a
\c l) br igh t return (film the forcs lop e.
Below a rc some impo rtant cha racteri stic s of radar shadows.
Unlike aerial photography, when: lig ht muy be scattered
into the shadow area and then recorded 011 film. there is no
inforrna uon with in the radar sh ado w area . It is bla ck .
Two te rrain features (e.g.. mountains] with identical
he ights and fore - and hack s lopes may he recor ded with
ent irel y diff er ent shado w". depending upon where they arc
in the across-track. A feature thar casts an ex tensive
shadow in the far-range migh t have its backslope
completely illu minated in the near-range.

Rada r sha do ws occ u r only in the cross-t rac k d imension

Therefore. the orientation of shadows in a radar image
provides infonmuion abo ut the look direction and the
loc ation o f thc ncar- an d far-range.

..\ maj or adv ance in radar remote sensing has been 1k

improvement in azi muth res ol ution thro ug h the dc\ dopmen! o f synthetic apermre radar (SAR) sysicrns. Remesher . in a rea l aperture radar sys tem rhat the size of
antenna ( L I is inversel y proportiona l ro the vize of the angs.
la r t",..am w idth (Equa tion 9-10) , Therefore. great imprtll(mem in azimuth reso lutio n cou ld be rea lized if :I 10Ilgt!
antenna wac used. Engineers ha ve de ve loped proceduresm
.~Y/ll"('.{i::e a very long an tenna electronically, like a i:ln*
force or real ape rture radar. a syn thetic apert ure radar
uses a relativel y sma ll antenn a (c.g., I m: refer 10 F lgurt'~
1) tha t sends OUI a relatively broad beam perpendicular tow.
aircraft. Thc major diffe rence is that a greater number Ii
add itional beam s are sc mtoward the o bject. Doppler prinnpies are then used 10 mon itor the returns from allth..-se aMr
nona l microwave pulses to syn thesize the azimuth resoluOO1

ee

to become one very narro w beam.

Th e Doppler principle slates that the frequency (pitch) ofl

sound cha nges ift he listener and/o r source a re in motion
ativc to one another, For ex ample. an approa ching trail
whivtle w ill have an inc reasi ngly higher frequency pitchasa

m.

lctlve Microwave Sys tem Com po nents

309

decrease in frequency in proport ion to the distance it is from

the listener [receiver} This princi ple is applicable to all harmon ic wave motion , ind uding the micro w aves used in rada r
systems.

mg
00

od

so-

far
Figure 9-17 dep icts the Doppler freque ncy shill due to the
relativ e motion of a terrain object at times n. 1/+ J. 1/+ 1. ,,+3.
and n + 4 through the radar beams due to the forward motion
of lhe aircraft. The Dopple r frequen cy diagram reveals that
the frequency of the energy pulse return ing from the target
increases from a minimum at nm e e to a ma ximum at point
1/+3. nonnal (at a right angle) to the airc raft. Then. as the target recedes from ,, +3 to // +4. the freque ncy d..ecrcascs.

m-

'is-

~ I)'

he

,,-

3. [ look r.odar ima ge .

io

0"

or-

.1..

tits-

00

n
as

er-

)0'.

b. 4 lu.., ~ radar image.

e-

n-

ic

0-

e
er

'0
tc

,.
e
e

,.'f

,,n

e. I('_ [I.I"~ radar image.

~9Ure

9-16

Ha..b r speckle reduction USllIg muhiple-look techniqucs t courtcsy Eric Kasiwhkc. ER[\ l lntcrnali,'o;II.loc.)

e
In
i.

wroachcs . This pitch .... ill be highest .... he n it is directly perpdicular tn the listener (rece iver). This is called the poin t
zero Doppler. As the train pas'>e'S by. its pitch w ill

Ho.... is a synthetic aperture: image actually produced'? A

long antenna can be synthesized us ing a short antenna by
taking advantage of the aircraft 's motion and the Doppler
principle. 11 is assume d that the terrain is stable a nd flO ( moving. It is also assumed that the object of interest remains a
fixed distance a w ay from the aircraft's tlighthne. As the aircraft flies along a straig ht line. a sho rt antenna sends out a
series o f micro....ave pulses at regular intervals. As an object
(black dot) enters the antenna 's beam IH gure Q-l7 al. it
backscauers a portion of the pulse it receives ro.... ard the
antenna . At some point in the aircra ft's path the objec t w ill
he an integral number of micr owave w avelengths a w ay:
between those points it "ill not be. Fo r e xamp le. in (a ) we
see thai the object is first Q ....avelengths a w ay, then 8 [b],
then 7 (c ). then tJ.S [dl, at which point the o bject is at a rig ht
angle to the a ntenna. i.e., the Sh\lt'test distan ce and area of
zero Do ppler shift. From then on the: distance betw ccn the
aircraft and the objec t ....'ill he increasing. i.e.. perhap s 7
wavele ngths away at location (e) . The antenna receives the
se ries of reflected W3\C S (gm y lines in illustrations a ~ e ) and
electronically co mbines them with a train of reference wavelengths (nut shown). causing the two series of oscilhnions to
interfe re. The interference signal eme rges as a voltage thai
cont rols the brightn ess of a spot scan ning across the scree n
of a cathode-ray lube . When the returned pulse: coincides
with a rcfi..renee pulse, the interfe re nce is constructive: the
voltage will he high and the moving spot will he bright.
When the phase uf the returned wavelen gth docs no t co incide with the phase o f tho.' reference frequenc y, the interference is dest ructive: the voltage wi ll be low and the mov ing
spot will be dim or dark. The movin g spot thus tracks out a
scricrs of light and dark dashe s of unequal length that are
recorded on a slrip of data tilm moving at a velocity proporrionalto the velocity of the airc raft . The series of opaque and
transpa rent dashes on the film are actu ally a o ne-dimensional interference puuem: the lil m on w hich they are
reco rded is a rada r hologram.

<,

310

C IIA PTER

fP"

Active and Passive Microwave Remote sensing

Pulses of

mtcro an :

l ' lIl'fl!)'

"~~ ~-

~~ ~
:

Interference signal

DRadar ho logra m

lime " + /

~--------

rs:zI
~
,

time n +l

>1-

f\Z\2l
1- , - I
7

7 ~

......--..... time

......--..... nmc " +3

,---.,

~ - - - - -- - - -- - - >1-

~-- ->1-

_t

~
~6.5

~ 4 -....... object is a
~
3 <, constant distance .........-----.
urnc "
/' 2.....
from the fhghtlm e
..........--...
.1
I
rr>:

1>7-

c.

b.

rr>;

/I

+4

1- - -- - - - - - - - - - - - -- - >1-

f\Z\T4 rs:zv---------1
I
1- - 1 1- 'I

Figure 9 17

(1.5

II

I> _ ~

c.

;\ long antenna (;,111 tc synthesized l1y a ~h "rt all(CI1 11;1(c.g. I In long) by taking advanl ;1 l;Wof lhe <I j rc mfl '~ motion and Clop.
plcr principles . As the CfClli Ilk s ulong a straigh t lin... a mounted short rea l an tenna ,c nds Oul a series ofpulses at regulli"
intervals F:h:h pulse c" os j, ls Ilf a train of coheren t microwaves . Although the len gt h of' thc flUIs..., dete rmine s the' rcsohnke
across the trac k, it is tho: wav elength u rl he lllicruwa\'e radiationth at det eml i l1 .~ the re M,lut i" n :lIUllg Ihe track. As an object
Ihla l'k ' ]" 11 .nt.'r~ th... anten na's h..'am (' II, ir reflects a portion of the pulses it receives back toward the untcuna . ,\t Sl'lllt
pUlll t in the airc rutt's p.uh the object IS un integra l number uf mic rowave waveleng ths a way; betwe...n I heSl~ po ints rt 'IIiD
nul he. Fur ex am ple, in Ihc illu stration th"' llhj.'C1 is ti rsl ') wa veleng ths <t wa)' at u, the n !l at b, (hen 7 at c, then 65 at d, wberl:
the llhJcc 1 is at right anllks h' (he antenna . h om then 011. the cresl is inercIls ll1g tts distan ce from the ubjccr, e.g .. point t
1'11., a nte nna receives the series o f rcfjcctc d W;I\ eS ;u,,1 electronically rombin...s rhc 111 with a train of re fcrenee wa\c1engtm
In''l ~t\l l ""n l, caus ing the IWo series or O>(;j llalions In interfere. The ime rterence si gna l e merges as II volta ge tha i conrroa
Ihe hrigh ln.'Ss uf a spot scanning ac ross II cuthodc ray IUIx. Al Ih. times tha t J ret urne d plll...: eOlndJes wilh a rcfcrece
putse. the interference is construcuv e: the voltage '" ill he high and t h.. muvll1g SpUI "' III be bright. At the l imes thal !h:
r h.l,.... o f lhe returned '" J \ e len gth J OI.5 nOI coincid...>I.-illl 111...phase o f th... rcfc rence freq uency th... intcr fer..ence is J..."Sl1U~'tiH".
Ih.. voltag... '" ill be 1" ... and rhe moving srol will he dIm. The moving Spol tbus trac es out a series "flighl and dark da..tlo
o f unequal length that ar... recorded on a ~lTip of data film m"villg;ll a velocity prop oruco alto thc v...locny crue airaat
tat ter Kas;<chk ....1 al., lll lol-!)

Microwa ve System Co m po n e nts

3 11

Radar data film

with intcrfcrencc

Radar hologram
o f [luim source

p.n tcmhC_~~_,.,.:..

Radar
~ra m

o.

a.
~gure

9-18

a ) When the develop ed holo gram is illuminate d by laser coherentlight, cad i transpa rent dash acts as a scp;,ratc source of coherent light. Below the hologram there is a s i n~le point whcre the resulting Ii ~hl walcs 1111constructively interfere. IIcre the
~h wa vele ngt h o f light from the trans paren t dash created by the 9th microwavc w illmeet ti ll: 8th wavelength o f light from the
transparent dash crea ted by the Xth microwa ve. and both will meet w llh Iht 7th w3\ d e nglh (I( light from the transpa rent dash
crea ted by the 71h microwave. AI tha1 (10\.' pomt hgfu from the ent ire len gth of the interference peucm is focu....-d 10 form a
miniature image oflhe origina l object. b ) As the data film is advanced through the ream of laser light. the reconstructed tmage
is recorded on another mcvmg slrip or rum Because the data ti lm is hologr-olphic on ly in the along-track coo rdinate . the images
in the across-track coordinate must be focused whh a c ylindricallens.

'Ioben the de veloped holog ram is illumina ted by a so urce o f

mrent light (F igure 9- 1Ka). each trans parent dash funcas a separa te source o f coheren t light. Below the holopm there w ill be a single point w here the resulting lighl
mes all co nstruc tively inte rfere . In this. example, the 9th
enelength oflight (th ick cu rved lines) from the transparent
Ash m ated by the 9th mic rowave ..... ilI meet the Kth w avernglh of light (reg ular lines J from the tra nspare nt dash eret~d by the gth mic rowave, a nd bot h w ill meet the 7th
eavelcngih of light (t hin curves ] from the transparent da sh
reared by the 7th mic rowave and so on (o nly the vth . Sth.
aI 7th patterns are shown in this example for cl ar ity ). AI
ill one point, light from Ihe enti re len gth of the interference
JIIllffi1 is focused 10 fonn a min iatu re image of the original
tbjcc,- Figur e 9- lgb demon strates how the hologra phic
eage is reconstructed and reco rded on film . A Ik r process~g the negative film to beco me a positive print, the radar
im a~c is read y for a nalysis.

1bt record (,f Dop pler freq uenc y enables the target to be
esolccd o n the ima ge lilm as tho ugh it "as ob served with an
IItCRna of length L, as show n in Figure 9- 19 (Sabins, 19117 ).
This synthet ically lengthened anten na produces the effect o f
I \CI')' narro w beam w ith const ant w idth in the az imuth

direction. show n hy the shad...d are a in Figure 9 _1Y. For both

real and syn thetic aperture systems, range resol ution is
deter mined by pu lse lengt h and dep ression angle. Ge nera lly.
synthet ic aperture image s an: higher in azumnh resolution
than rea l aperture rada rs.
T he a fore me ntioned method is often called sy nthe tic apcrturc radar op/h.-al correlat ion beca use of all the prec ision
optics utilized, II is also possihle 10 usc SA R digita l correlotion tech niques to reco rd and process til,' amplitude and
phase histo ry of the rada r ret urns. Dig ita l correlation does
not produce an intermediate radar film. The d igita l process is
com putat ion intensive. ~l ajor ad vantages of digital co rrcla tion incl ude the abil ity 10 1) perform both radiometric and
geom eme correct ions rap idly duri ng n nboard processing
(good (or emergencies such as oi l sp ills, floods. fires, cw.).
2 ) t...tcmctcr the processed rada r data dir cct ly to thc groun d
to support rea l-time deci sion makin g , and/o r 3 ) sto re the d igita lly proc essed SAR data o n hard dis ks for subseq uen t d igital processing on the ground. Man y of the co mmerci al (c.g..
Intcnnap Star 3; ) and govern ment SA Rs (e.g. Canadian
RAIJAR SAT. ESA ASA R ) use dig ital SAR corre lation techniq ucs .

\II \PTFR

312

9-

Activ e and Passive Microwave Rem ote sensing

1l<"pr""iOll

angle . ..,

?1I 1s~

I<''' gth. t

I{aflgl"
resolution I '1 pulse

k nglJ1

rc>ulUliun
cell

....

:"

AlJmulh
resolution S~lllhctk:

!>earn" idth

Figure 9 19

,\ syn tbetic ant ..'nlla ntlength t. is produced by llp1ica ll~ llr ,jig itally pr'h;cs~ i n g the phase tnstortcs ot'microwa vc l1loJatfdtni
se nt aml rccci \ c<l by a rea l antenna of length D s,:nt atumcs 'I . Th,' synthetic ape rtu re r adar hJS 3 rang.: rc~)l ulillll thatilap.
prox rmatcly <'tl ua l til half the pu l,.: length. :"J ute how the a/; nuuh resolu tion remains ':t>nslnrtl from the nca r-runge to the f,I'
lange (alkr Sabins. I ' )' li) ,

tcrc r. The refore, the streng th of the backscatte r lowanllk

Thc following discussio n provides additional quanut anve

mrormauon about the radar signal. A radar image is a twodimensional representation of the power (or vollagel
returned to the radar from a spec ific area on the grou nd p rescrued as a picture element t pi",:I). This return..-d powe r i,
usually quan ti/.:d to a radiomet ric sca le of 11 hi ts fo r prcscnunion on mmge proc essing sys tems t Lehc-rl. Ill'l l)).
RADi\RSAf i!o quantized tu I I hi ls. To understand how 10
inte rpret radar images, w,' s ho u ld und c-rstand the nature of
the power scattered hac k rownrd the ra da r antenna. In the
Inthl simple case. rhi-, can be stat ed verbally as suggested by

recei ver is a prod uct o f th..' power pe r unit area illuminalillf

the target . limes the effective scanering a rea of the ~

and then the retransm ission o f this W 3 \ 'e had. toward til:
recciv ing an tenna. Th e actual si..e of the rec eivm g anee.
aIM} makes a difference.

The fundmncn ml radar equation is de rived by eombmitl!

the se wurd quamitie-, 10 creat e the rnathema uca l cxpressia
(Moore. 19S3; Kasisch ke ct ul., 19~ -1) :

( ~ I'[ ( .

~ 1"ure (19RJ) ;
Pt""'ct
. <>:c.

..-.I

I""""'
..,.

,.." . 1[ffc..~ n c ...~ ..., ,,,,\

r<1
,",,,,,...c'b:"''''' I

Sp~.JI "tI k>t.. .. I~

"""",no)

" ( ""-AJ.~I..-.I ..~".r ! " "" ",,,"w .rCA

LJI6: lI H

wher e th e powe r per unit area at the rece iver is th e energy

scatt ered bac k from the terrain - backscatter. lhe spreading loss occurs becaus e the signal , lans Fnun the bac ksea ttcring poin t source Oil the ground t c .g.. a large rock] and
spread s ou t in all d irect ions . so thatthe power pe r unit a rea
i ~ 1<...., al a g reat..-r distance than it woul d be ucar the scat-

1', G, o A r

P,

(9161

where I' , IS power r..- ceived. 1', is Ih c power tr'dnsmJlIcl!

toward the ta rget. G, is the ga in of th.... antenna in the dirt>:
tion ofthe target. R is the range distance from the tram.miner
ttl the target. IT is (he e tfccti\ e buc kscauer area of lhe targrt
(often called the rada r cro..~-~ ....ction), and .-1, is the area ofrh:
receiving ante nna, Thi s cquauon can he broken down inw
seven part" tor even [lim.. . claruy :
{' I

1'I (;I

--1r.:R'-- 0 -'- ,
~

~ r.R -

(9l!

313

A.R Environmental Co nsid e rat ion s

power received [ I I by the radar sY1>h.m./>,. is a funcuo n

pulse o f clc-ctnuuag ucuc cncr~y. J', (21. that has bee n
sed down to an angular bea m width hy the antcnun so
the IlU\ becomes high er hy a fac tor 1.11 of G, over a
ically ..:xpanJing wa\o: [4]. The: focused energy illumian <I,..'a on the ground that has a cross-section or a [5].
rod.". a rJH.wcriof/ Is defined as the equivalent of a pe rreflecting area that TCl1l:CIS isouopically Csphcrica llYI.
energy backscancrcd from the grou nd once agai n sphcry ecpands from Ihe sourc... 1~1 . Finally. the recei ving
na area Vi,) uucrceprs a portion of the re flec ted wa ve
records it 17].

radars usc the same <1111<: 1111<11> for u ansrnuting U ,) and

\ing: (,.I,). Consequently, the gain factors o fthe amenmay he comhmed using thc re lationship !x'h..een gain
receiv ing aperture a~ t Moo re. 1983):

(9-18)

".-

-e

'-

11Im i. is the wa ..dength for frequency! o f the radar sys tm.. Suh~tit uting Ihis value in Equ ation 9- 16 or 9 17 results
I modified rad ar equanon ,Carver et al.. \9R5 ):

P,' (;2
(-I n)

Thus.

. (T.

tcrs (\\a\C!cng lh, depression ang le, polurizat jun; Le be-l.

\990/. (f ' is a dimension less qua nut y characteristic of the
scattering beha vior of allthe elemem-, contained in a given
ground ce ll. Because 0" ca n ...Iry over several orders of
magn itude. it IS e\presse-J us a Ing;lrithm with units of decibets (dB I that USIM lly range tn.m 5 10 "'" -Ill d H.
The uuul radar cross.sccuon o r an area (A ) on the ground
therefore becomes (('I" A I. and the linal fo rm of the rada r
equ ation fur an arca-cvtc nsi..-c target becomes [ Henderson
and Le wis , \9'IK: \ l ikhai l CI at. 2UIII):

(9-21)

A dig ital S:\R image is created that consists of a rwo-dimendona l array lmatrh) of picture element, ( pi~dsl with the
illlcnsit),(cal led the hr i~ltllC':'SI o f each pi-eel propo nionalto
the power of the microwave pu lse reflec ted back from the
W ITc.'sptllllhng ground cell ( Waring et al., IIN S). The
reflec ted radar vignal is proportional to the backscancring
coerficic m ( cr') nf a gil con ground cell.

RADAR Environmental Consideration s

}. 2

, ,
R

lind that the radar eq uat io n can be viewed as a

o f system parameters an,'! other cnvironrncnta l terain parame ters that prod uce the back scatte r er o- s-section.
G. Because the system paramete rs urc we ll \"I\OWll, their
&oct~ arc typical ly removed from the rada r image s, i.c.. the
'!stem para mete rs may he set til unity ( 1),
\\ 1."

,oou~t

histhe effects o frcrrnin Oil the radar sign;ll t h at we arc most

meresrcd in. i.c.. the amoun t of radar cross -section. cr.
rttlcctcd bao,:k tn tlu: n: L" l'i\er, pe r unit area (A ) o n the
:;rotilld. Th is is ealk-d the rml<ll' hl/chl'lIlfl'l" I"IJ<'JJiril'lll (cr O)
Illd is comp uted as

(9-20)
~here CJ is the radar cross-slelin n. T hc mdar bac kscaTter
roellicknt d': l.:nnines the percc.'nlilg.: or .:Ieelro magnc.'llc
Cllerg)' reneeted bac k tu the rad.lr rro m .... ithi n a re-so lution
edL e.g., 10 x 10 m. The ,Ietllal CJO fo r a surface dt':pends on
I numh<r of termi n parametC',"" likt': g<.'om<.'try, surfa\'t'
rou~ltne:.lO. mUllOl urc conh:nl. and the raJ<.lr s~sl em param e-

I la\ ing defined the rad ar back w auc r coerucicm. <5", as II

quant itativ c measure o f the intensity of energy ret urned to
the radar antenna from a spec ific area on the surfa ce o f the
Earth. It is imp ort ant to ident ify the enviro nme ntal paratneters withi n the re solution cell on th<: ground that arc rcspo nsiblc for ba ckscaucnng the inc ide nt energy.

Surface Roughn ess Characteristics

Sur face roughn ess is the tcr nun property that strongl y inllu-

e llces the strl' ngth of the radar hneksealler, Whc n intcrp reting aerial photography, ..... t n lk n usc t h~ lC'nn ino logy
"rough" lel' arse }. "inlcnllediate," or "slll l>uth" {li nd to
descri be thc surfae<.: le:\ture c!l;lTOh:l<: ristics (r e li:r to Ch arll' r
5). It is pl'ssil'lk- tn c:\tcml lhis ana l!)gy 10 t h ~ inlerprt': lation
Hfrdd;tr il1lag<: ry If .... I." \.. eep in m ind that thc lm/'ICf' rIJugh",',U \Ie ,Ire talking about nM)' be- cnl ilOioned at th..: //Iief'!!.Icalt', l1l('wJsnl/l', Olnd/or "UI(IYJ.~I 'I//I'.
,\ fio W , ',II.' .U l/filtT fnfl,;JII/('.u is usua lly measured in cent i-

mo.'to.'rs (ie. the hl'ight Ilf Sltllll"S, si/C' of kales, or kngth of

hranc h<:l< in a Irc.'cl and nllt in hunJredlO or thuusands of
nlC'te-n> a ~ .... ith Iopogr-Jphi.: rd id" ur moun tains. The amou nt

"

("H,\ PIE R

3 14

9~

Active and Passive Microwave Remote Sensing

Tal

An lcn na

Depression angle
t '"' 45"

hU.17 to

, "

"

"

.I! "

" " "'If

a. Rela tively smo ot h surface

\\ il ll lin le lla('k scalt~'T - a
spccuw retlcct ce
F'9ure 9--20

0,9 6('m

h < 0.17cm

c, Ruugh surface with

b. Inlcm lcd ialc surface

roughness ....1111 modera te
back sca tter

d iffuse backscatter

Expec ted sur face rough nes s backscaucr from terrain illuminated w ith 3 em w3wknglh microwave energy, a) Wilh a ~
sinn angle of 450 and a local relief of < 0.17 em. the terrain represen ts a relatively smoo th surface and sho uld prodoce,~

o.r

hule backscatter toward the sensor. 1111s sp.:cuhu reflector will appcur dark on the radar image. b) Local relief from
0 .% e rn represents interm ediate surface roug hness and should prod uce a medium gray res ponse on the radar image. c) v,l:iell
the loca l surfa cc roughness relie f is > ll.96 em. a rough surfucc e xi~l s that will pw<J ucc very diffuse backscunc r. This diffu;.:
refl ector will produce a brig ht rerum on 1111: radar image due 10 the large amount or microw ave e nergy renectco back 10\\311
l hl'

antenna.

o f microwave energy beckscauercd towa rd the sensor based

on rnicroscalc components is a function of the re lations h ip
between the wavelength of the inc ident n ucrow av e energy
(A), the depression ang le (y). and the loc al height o f objects
III in ern) foun d with in the resolution cel l be ing illu minat ed.
We may lI SC the modified Rayl!'igh criteria to predict wh at
the Earth's surface willlook li ke in a radar image if we know
the m icrosc alc surfa ce roug hne ss ch aracterist ics and the
rad ar sys tem parame te rs (A.,y.ll) me ntioned ( Peak e and
Oliver, I<n l ). For example, one wo uld ....xpe ct thar an area
with smooth surfoce roughness would send back very lilt le
back scatter towa rd the antenna. i.e.. it lICIS like a spec ular
reflecting surface. Yo here most o f the en....ro).. bounces o fT the
terra in away from the antenna (Figure 9,20a). The small
amount of back scauered en ergy returned 10 the anten na is
reco rded and shows up as a d:lrk area on the radar ima ge .
TIle quantitative expression of this smooth crucria is:
).
I -- 25 siny '

RA'

(lJ-22J

To illustrate , we will compute what the local height (h ) of

obj ec ts Ie .g., grass and rocks in thi s exam ple ) must be in

order to produce a smooth (dark) rada r return when an X

hand O. - 3.0 em) rada r is used w ith a depression angle(11
of .45 ( Figu re q 2(3 ). Substituting these valu es into EqIDnon 9 -2::?: y ie lds:

1
3c m
1< 25 sin 45

3c m

t< 25 x 0.707 1I

h <O.l7cm .
This means that a resolution cell un iformly filled with dry
grass that has a su rface height o f < 0 . 17 em should produce
relat ivel y little rada r bac kscatte r and w ill therefore be
recorded on the radar ima ge in a da rk ton e.
A brigh t return is expec ted if the follow ing modifi ed Ray,
leigh nmxh cri teria are used :

315

R Environment a l Con siderations

~9-4.

Modified R.I) leigh scr fac c roughness c n ten a for

three diller('1l! radar systems at t... (I different dcprcssion angles .

Surla ce
Roughness
Categ ory
Secorh, em

htemrediatc. em

Rough, em

Aircraft
K. -ban d

Aircraft
X b a nd

s ea sat

),. : O.86cm

i.. : 3 c m

A: 23.5 cm

1 '" 4 5'

1: 45'

1 '" 70

h <0.17

h < 1.00l

h O,17

h "'

OJ}.I!(

L-ba nd

h = tHl4 K
to 0.276

to 0.9(,

h = LOn
to 5.fiR

h > 0 .27(;

h>O.%

h >5,"','(

h-.- .

{tI-2JI

4,4sm y

itutmg the same wavelengt h and depression angle into

equation yields:

"

."
se
,d

3cm
~.4 x O. 70 7 11

(.

yl

II > 0.96 em .

,-

ca se the only para meter changed was the wavelength . If we

c hanged both the wavelength a nd the dep ressitln angle (0 be
lhat o f the Scasat SAR [Table Q.4J. we see that the snrne 0 .5
em local re liefw ould produce a smooth (da r"') ret urn inthis
l-band imagery. T he slgniflcancc o f this rel at io nship is that
rh.. same terra in w ill appea r diffe rcruly in rada r image ry as a
fu nctio n (\1' the sensor's depr css jon angle a nd wuvcjcngth
(H enderson and Xia. 1998 ). Therefo re, it is diffic ult to create
"radar imago: interpretat ion keys" o f selected phenomena.
An analyst mu st co nstantly keep Ih i ~ in m ind" hen interpreting rada r imagery. Late r we will !>e-e tha t air cra ft. or spacecra ft look dire ction ab o impacts the bac ksca uc rcd energy.
\il ikhai l CI al. 120011 suggest that the follow ing criteria can
a lso he used 10 predic t whether a surface will yield a weak ,
intermediate. or strong radar rerum:
A surface wi ll produce a relatively wea k return if its local
relie f is less than one- eight the incident radar waveleng th.
In this case much of the incident microwave energy is
scattered or spcc ula rly reflect..-d a ll ay from the antenna
resulting in a we ak return .

An inte rme dia te return i\ produced w hen thc' loc al rel ief
ranges from on e-eight to one-hal f the inci dent radar
w it \ cfength. These d iffuse reflectors disperse energy at <I ll
angles and a mode rate port ion is backscau crcd to ward the
radar anten na .
A \ Irong radar return is prodncc-d when the loca l terrain
rchcf is greater than nn e-h alf the inciden t radar
wavele ngth,

~fore .

if the uniformly d istri buted roc ks in the rcsolucell had a local relief o f> 0.96 em ( Figure q1OcI . then
llJOng retu rn from the terra in wou ld he expected and
oold lie recorded as a bright lone in the radar imag e.

<the terrain w c re composed o f rock s w ith loca l re-lief

l\or.r.'een 0.17 and 0 .lJ6 em . it would be considered to haw an

ed/,ll!! surface nJUKJlI1t'_'i.\ for thi s com bination o f

n velength and depression ang le and wo uld produce an

mermed iate to ne o f gray on the- radar image.

,
,

i is important 10 re mem ber that the radar back scatter I~

~denl on the wavelengt h and tho: depression ang lo:. Fer
=umpit:. consider Table 9-4 where the modi lied Ra)k igh
mria arc computed for three d ifferent radar wavelengths
i. .=o O.Xfl. 3,lJ, ant.! 13.5 e m) at tWtl diffen: nl de prcss.ion
lI'lgb (y . -l5 :.llld 70"). Tt'rrain with a loca l rclicfof O,5 em
.'00111 al'pe-ar very nright Oil thc K. -hand imagery and as ,m
ilIlffiTIediale sha\lc (If gray o n the X-ba nd imag ery. In thi!>

The inc ident radar e!l<.'Tg) may he scat tered according 10

both m...wsscale and macroscale surtace roughness criteria
/1Icndcrson and lewis. 19C)Rj. A s mcnrioocd. the mic roscale
roughn ess is a function of the size n f1ea\es.t w igs. and perhaps bra nches wit hin an indiv idua l reso lution cell. Con\ ~r:>c l). mesoscale sur face rough ness would be a function of
the characteristic s with in numerous reso lution ce lls. perhaps
covering the entire fo res t canopy. Based 011 this log ic. we
would e-.\pe-el forest canopies 10 generally sh,)w up with a
more coars e texture tha n g rassla nd s when recor ded in the
same image at the sa me depression angle lind waveleng th.
Finall y. III <1CI1!.\T/I!t, roughness would he influ enced greatly
toy how the cmire forest canopy is situated on the hillsi de .
Mac ro-cafe roughnes-.. is !>ignificallily in lluenced by Ihe
lopograph ic sltlrc and aspc-et of the terrain w ith Iho: existen ce ()f ahse net' o fs hmiows play ing a \-ery importa nl ro le in
cr t',tting imag e surface ruugh lle-ss.

'3 16

C11t\PT t:R

9~

Act ive and Pa ssive Microwave Rem ote Sensing

Electrica l Chara c teristics (Comp lex Dielectric

Constant) and the RelationShip with Moisture Content

N'

A radar sends our a pulse o f micro.... a ve energ y that interacts

with the Earth's terrain. Different types o f terrain cond uct
this elec tric ity better than others. One measu re o f a mate rial's clectncal characteristics is the complex dielectric COli'
.HO n!. de fined as a measure o f the ability o f a material
[vegetation. soil. rock. water, icc) 10 cond uct elec trical
e nergy. Dry surface materials such as soil, rock. and even
vegetation have d ielecrnc co nstants from 3 to x in the micro....ave portion of the spectrum. Conversely, wate r has a
d ielectric co nstant of approx unmely RO. The mos t significan t parameter influe ncing a material's dielectric co nstant is
its moisture conte nt, Th erefore. the amount of moisture in a
soil , on a rock surface. o r w ith in vegetative t issue ma y hav e
a significa nt impact on the amou nt of backsce ucred radar
energy 1M ikha il er al., 200 I I.

e:'ll

""~

I"
,.

S,
"~

c
n

f
r

b. SI R-C Ccband II \'.

Mo ist soils reflect mo re radar energy than dry soils. .....hich

abso rb more of Ihc rada r wav e. depending on the d ielectric
constant o f the soil material. Rad ar images may be used 10
es umate ha re ground SOli mo isture co ntent whe n the terrain
is de void o f mo st ot her material suc h as plants and rocks 3nJ
has a uni form surface roughness. Th e amount of so il rno isture influences ho.... dee p the inc ident elec tromag netic
e nergy penetrates into the material. If the so il ha s a high surface soi l moi stu re c ontent. then the inc ident energy w ill only
penetrate a few cerntmc tcrs ir nc the soil co lumn and be seattcred mo re at the surface produc ing a stro nger. brighte r
return .

The gene ral rule o f thu mb for how far m icro wa ve energy
wi lt penetrate into a dry substance is that the penetrat ion
should he equa l to the wavele ngth o f the radar system. Ho weve r. uctiv c mic ro w a ve energy may penetrate extremely dry
so il several mete rs. Fo r examp le. Figure Q-21 depicts four
views ofa part of'the Nile Rive r. near the Fourth Cataract in
thc Sudan. T he: top image is a photog raph taken by the crew
of the Space Shutt le CoII/I1IM'1in Novem ber 1995. T he three
rada r ima ge s were acqu ired by the Shuttle Imag ing Rada r C?
X-band Synthetic Ape rture Rada r (SIR-CIX-S A Rl on board
Space Shu ttle Endeavor in April 1994; Ccbau d H V. L-ha nd
H V. an d Lband HH. Each rada r image prov ides some
un ique informat ion abo ut the: geo mo rpho log y o f the area .
Th e thic k white hand in the top right oft he radar image is an
anc ient c han ne l ofthe Nile that is now buried under lay ers o f
sand. Th is chann el ca nno t be seen in the photograph. and its
ex istence was not kno wn be fo re the radar image ry was proccseed . The area to the let l in bot h images shows ho w the

d. S IK-C L-ha nd 111 1.

Fig u re 9-21

Example o f radar penetra tion o f J ry soil along the

Nil... Rivet. Sudan. at Hlack-and-whhe version ofa
color-infrared phot ogr aph acq uire d by Space Shilltle Cn/tl mhllJ crew in ~I}\ ... moer I'N5; b-d ] SIR-C
X-S,\ R i lTlage~ acquired by the Spac... Shunlc 'I.
d. 'tI m r in A pril 1<N4. Sulltle . d ifferen t infO/1llJ.l1(lIl
is recorded in ca.:h of the three radar images. Ea:h

re\ eets an ancient, pre\'iously un\,; nown d l:lnD<'1 at

the Nile. Radar brightncss values arc inverted m
these examp les ( courtesy Jet Propulsion Lab).

R Environmental Considerations

is forced

10

now through a set or fractures that ca uses

riv er 10 break up into sma ller cha nnels. sugges ting that

Xile has o nly recently established

I h i ~ cou rse. The radar

have a llowed scien t ists to deve lop ne w theories to
bin the orig in of the "G reat Bend" of the Nile in the
n. Colo r Plate 1) 1 is a color co mposite ofthe three rada r
gc,. It provides more revea lin g visual information about
regional geomorpho logy.
_e"S

surfaces have a vel')' h igh dielec tric consta nt with

of th..: radar energy being re flected at the water's su r, The diel ectric co nstan t of snow depe nds upon ho ....
It liquid water is in the snow. Thus. mic rowave rem ote
<nsing can be used to determin e snow water conten t. S im ikrl~, there are differences in the dielectric con stants of icc,
~J i ng upon age. degree of com pacuou. and type of ice.
wave remote sensing has been useful lo r the extra ction
eese biophysical variables. Finall y. healt hy ag ric ultura l
and forest canop~ leaves o ften have re latively large
. e areas and high moi sture co nte nt (high re lative tu rty), Therefore. it is not su rpris ing that dense canopies of
esr vegetation refle ct rada r energy wel t. In e ffect , a fully
~id vegetated fo re st ca nopy nets lik e a cloud of water
lets hovering above the surface: o f the Earth. A lso. the
eeper the depression ang le. the greater the scnsitiv ity of the
to soi l and vegetation moisture con tent.
~etation

Response to Mic rowave Energy

hasis is being pla ced

0 11

qu antitatively monit or ing the

3 17

Any plant canop y [fore st. ngricuhure, grass land. et c.) ma y

he thou ght o f as a seaso nally dynamic rhrec-dimcusional
wa ter-bearing structure con sisting of fol iage components
(lea\l'S) and woody components (Siems, trun k, stalks. and
bra nches I. Rem ot e sensing sys tem, such as the Lan dsat Thematic Map pe r, SPOT, or ae ria l photography se nse re flected
optical wavelength ene rgy measured in mic rome te rs that is
reflect ed. scan crcd, transmiucd. and/o r absorbed by the first
few lay ers of lea ves and stems of a hea lthy vegc ranon ca nopy. Wc typically get lin le mrcrrnaticn about the interna l
c barac tcnsrics of the canopy. muc h less information about
the surface roi l charact eristics lying below the canopy. Convcrsety, active micro w ave energy can pe netra te the can opy
to varying de pths dependin g upo n the freq ue ncy. polarizetion. and incide nt angle of the rada r sys tem. Mic rowa ve
energy respo nds 10 objects in the plan t's struc ture that are
measu red in centimeters and even decimete rs. It is useful to
identify the relat ionsh ip bet.... ec n the canopy components
and how they influence the radar bac ksca ner mg.
If a radar sends a pulse o f'vc rticully or horiz ontally polarized
microwave energy to ..... ard a stand oftrees, it inter acts wit h
rhe co mpone nts pres ent and scuucrs S('IlU: ofthe energy back
toward the senso r, TIle amo unt of ene rgy receiv ed is propo rtiona l to the natu re o f the energy sent I its frequency and
po lari l atil>n l and is depe ndent upon \\ hethcr or no t the canop~ components depolarize the sig nal. how far the signal
penetrates into the ca nopy. and whether it eventually interacts wit h the grou nd soi l su rface.
Pen ctr utl on l>i'pth and Potar ilati nn

jal distribut ion, biomass. gross and net primal)" produc-

-;, and condition of global vegetation communi ties. cs peJ) fOfl:sll; (approximately JJ percent o f the Earth's land
mface), sc m i-ari d ecosystems of grassla nd steppe/desert,
. cultural land 110 pe rce nt), and wetlands. Scie ntists ar c
nerestcd ill how cnerg y and mailer move within these veg!l.llcd ecosy stems. Many of these vegetated areas are
uded in pe renn ial clo ud cover. Sy nthetic a pertur e radar
cry ma y provide som e of the foll ow ing vegetation h ioysical parameters tCa r...er, 19t1K):
he

, cano py water co nte nt:

r"
",-

CI
:ir
0"

,h

or
m

, vegetation type:
- bicmass by compcncm ( foliage-, hig her -order stems and
lI\3in stem I:
'cano py structure ( incl uding green leaf are a index). lea f
orientation. mai n stem (lnmk) geo metry and ~Jl a li al
distributio n. stem. branch Si lC, a nd angk di slribLll ion s.

Like -po larization backscatter to.....ard the se nso r results from

smg lc retlecnon s from canopy co mpone nts such as the
lea ves. ste ms. bra nches, and trunk, Th ese retu rns arc ge nera lly vel') strong and are recor ded as brighl signa ls in likepolarized rada r imagery (HH o r VV ). Th is is often ca lled
canopy surtace .1'c't/flerlIlK. Conversely, if the cnagy is scattcrcd mult iple times wuhin a diffuse volu me suc h as a sta nd
ofpine trees [i.e.. from a need le, to a stem. to the tru nk. to a
needle ], the energy may become depolarized . Th is is oft en
called volume scattering. A radar can measu re the amoun t o f
depolarized vo lume scattering that ta kes place f or exam ple.
it is possible to co nfigure a rada r 10 send u vertically polarizcd pulse of ene rgy. Some o f this energy becomes dcpolarizcd in the cano py and e xits towa rd the sensor in the
horizo ntal do main. The depo larized energy may then be
reco rded by the sensor in VII mode - vertica l send and horizorna l recei ve.
Kasi schkc and ll11urglauChllw Z (\99 7) provide ins igh tlls
t(l how the radar hackseauering coe llici ent. a ". fro m ooth

3 18

Act ive and Pa s si ve Microwave Remote Sensing

wood y ( forested ) and non -woody (e.g.. brush. scrub. cro ps!
e nv ironme nts is produced whe n the terr ain is impacted by
microwa ve energy ,

To understand radar scatte ring from com plex vege tation

cov e rs. it is neces sary tothink in term s ofthe d iffere m canI'P)' laye rs ani:clin~ the radar sig nature. For wet lands containing shrubs and Inrc s, then: arc three d istinct layers to
consider. as shov..n in Figure ~-22a: I ) a canopy layer thai
consists of small branc hes and foliage HC;Jn'sl. 2 ) a trunk
layer that consi..ts o f large branc hes and trunk s or boles. an d
3 1a surfac e laye r tha t may ur rna) not t-e co ..crcd by w all..r If
.... ctland is present. For wetlan ds that do not c"Onta in woody
plants. a sim ple two-la yer model can be used ( Figure Q-:~lb):
II a cantlpy layer clmsisling of herbaceous vegeta tion. and
.:n a surface layer that may be covered by' wa ter or soil. 111e:
backscattc nng coefficient exit ing :J woody vegeta tion canopy' to\\ ard the radar sys tem is o -... and can be exp ressed a-,
IWa ng ct al.. 1995; Dobson ct al.. 1995; Kasiscbkc and
Bou rgcau-C hav C/; 1(97 ):

W....ody (fon.... tcdt h'gClall{ln

n" ,
".

\ n"m )

\..7

(9-2 4 1

Figu re 9-22
\\ here

o '; is the backscancr coe fficie nt of the can opy laye r (If
smaller woody branc hes and foliage u.e.. surfa ce

scaucnng ):

G ~..

is the multip le. path sca uering be tween the: gruu ml LInd
ca nopy layer:
G O, is

d irect sealter ing from the tree trunks:

ll <l~ i s the do uble-bounce scancnng between the trun ks and

the g round.

Hy e lim inating all tl'nns associated with the trunk layer, it i"
possible to determ ine the total rada r-scatte ring coe tficie nr
from terrain with non-w oody, herbaceou s vegetation, G '~:
(9-25)
The term s in Equations ~ - 24 and 9-25 arc de penden t on I }
Ihc ty pe: o f \ cgetal io n presenl (which has an impact on sur-

\ la)or sources of sceuenng from a} "'oN~ and

bcrtracc...US \q,letalion canopies ,\ here 0 ' , is *':
hack-caner cudlieknt (Iflh<" crown layer or ~IIIIIE
woody bra nches and foliage u.e.. surface scaf!C'
ing l. 0 .. is the multipk-path scaneri ng befYleellk
t;n>un,t and emwp)' layer. 0 0 , is direct ><:alt~
from the tree trunks. G O, is direc t surface back>eallcl
fromthe ground. and (I Jis the dou ble-bounce ~
(cring berweeu th", tree trunks dud ground(ad.JJ'4ed
from Ka , i, .:hle aud B(lu rgcuu -C1HI\'CJ~ 1997)

face Toug lllles,). 2 ) the wa ve length and poluri zanon of fir

inc ident mic rowav e e nel)!Y. J ) the diel ectr ic co nstant of \hl:
vcgc tnnou. and 4) the dielectric co nsta nt o f t he ground sur
face. The , c a lt e rin g and a tte n ua tio n in the eq ua tions an::111
dir ectly propor tional to the die lec tric constant. L ive VCj;l1!'
tion . w ith a highe r wate r content ( tu rg id ity ) has a higher
dielectric constant Ihan drie r or d ead vege tation . The presence of dew or moistu re acts 10 increase the d ie lectric constunt o f vegetated surfaces I Kcs isch kc an d Hou ~'I.'au
Chav ez. 1997), O n eil, the prima ry q uantity governing the
uncuumion coe fficient o f a vegetation cuno py is the wne
content pl'r un it vo lume. not necessarily the act ua l scuctee
and gel'lIletry (If the leaves. sie ms. and trunk o r the planIs.
The co nduion of the grou nd laye r is also ve ry important il
microwave scattering fro m vegetation surfaces. There art
IWI) properties of'rhis layer that arc important. includin g: II
the micro- and mesoscale surface ro ughn es s [relative 10 the
radar .... avelcngth pre\ iotlsly d i-..:usS('J ), 311\1 2) th.: reneelio n cod liciellt. In ge nera l. a grcalcr surfact: roughn~s I)

319

leAR Environmental Co ns iderat io n s

' 'I' y

py

h)

"er

'r -

"s

,.

er

ses the amo unt of micro .... uvc energy backsc ancrcd
asing 0 ,). and 2) decrea se.. the amo unt of energy scatin the forwa rd d irection (dec reasing 0 .. and o "J). T he
ion coef ficie nt is dependent on the die lectric co nsta nt
conductivity] o fthe gro und layer, A d ry gro un d layer has
~"" dielec tric co nstant and there fore has 3 low reflec t ion
ffic icnt. A ~ soi l moist ure inc rea ses. SoU doc s the diel ec tric
t and . hence . the rc tlccnon coefficient. Given a co nsurface roughness. as the soil dielectric cons tant
s. so dUL~ bot h tho: amou nt of backscaucrc d and forscattered micro.... ave energy (resulting in increases in
..0',. and o OJ)
eerc is a laye r of wa ter over the grou nd su rface of a vcglandscape ... uch a.. in wetl and environments, t.... o
s happen: I) it c1 iminaIL~ any sur face roughness, and :!)
signilit"antly increases the reflectio n coetfcieru. In terms
microwave sca tteri ng, the elimination of a ny surface
~n~~ means tllut all the energy is forward scattered,
if\31ing the surface backscnttering term (0 ',) in the eq ua: and. the increased forwa rd sca ue nng an d higher
ion coctficicm lead to sign ilicunt increases in the
!lUUnd-lrunk and grou nd-ca nopy interaction tenus 0 ,J and
~J'l'<>rect i\"C ly IKasischke and Bourgeau-Chavcc; 1997 J.
Proetra t inn Depth a nd h Nlu rn Q '
The: longe r tho: micro .... a ve wav ele ngt h. the greater the pc ncnlion into the planl ca nopy ( ESA A SA R. 201Io ). For examFigure 1)-23 \kpicts the respnnse or a hy pothetical pine
~t to m icro wave energy, Surface scattering takes place at
lbe lOp of the canopy as the ene rgy interacts with the leave s
or needles ! and sterns . Volume scuttenug by the lea ves.
serus. branches. and tru nk takes place thmughoutIhc stand.
Il1d surface scattering can occur aga in at the soi l surface. A
e mpans on (If the respo nse o f X-. C-. and Lban d microsave energy incid ent to the same ca no py is presented in fi glIIe 9-24a - c. Th e sho rter wave length X-band (3 em ) energy
s anenuuted most hy su rface scatter ing at the top ofthe cancpy by foliage anti sou l! branc hes. T he Ccband (5,1\ em]
energy experiences surface scatte ring at t he top (If the ca ncpy as we ll as some volu me scattering in the heart o f the
5UJld, Liule energy reac hes the ground. Lcband (23 .5 cm)
ecrowavc energy pcnctrates farther into rh... ca nopy. where
\tIlume sca neriug among the leaves. sterns. branc hes. and
eank cause thc bea m to becom e depolarized. A lso. nu mcrCllS pulses may be transm ute d to the groun d. where surface
sancring fro m the soil-vegetation boundary layer may ta ke
place. Lon ger P-bund radar lllo t shown) wo uld alTord the
greatest pcn~...ration thro ugh the vegetation and ma in ly

*.

\
surface scancrmg
from lhe lop
of lheeallOJ'y

surface and
volume scattering
from the ground

Figore 9-23 The types of ..(l ive microwave surface and volume
scauenng thai might loIle place in a hypothetical
pine fores t stand (after Carver. I QIl !l ).

re flect off large ste ms and the soi l surface (Waring cr al..

19951.

Radar bac kscatt er incre ases ap proximately linearly w ith

increasing biomass unti l it saturates at a bio mass leve l that
dep ends on the radar freq uency, Fo r exam ple. Do bson et al.
( 1992 ) found that the biomass satura tion le\ cl wns about 200
tons/ha ofl.ohlnlly pine usin g Pvband and 100 tons /ha for Lban d. anti tha t tho: Ccba ud backscuue ring coefficie nt showed
mu ch less sens itivity to to ta l abov eground biomass. Wa ng et
al. (141)41 evaluated Loblolly pine usi ng EH. S- l SAl{ backscatt er data. They a lso fou nd tha t tho: Ccbund func tioned
poo rly d ue to its high sensitivity to so il mo isture and the
steep local incide nt ;mgle o r the sensor (23 ). Gene rally.
backscatter 31 lowe r frequen cies (P - and Lba nds) is do minated by scatto:ring processes involving the maj or woody
l'Iiomass co mponents t tn mks and branches], while scat tering
at high freq uencie s (C- a nd X-band s) is dominated by scarIcring procc'fos~"S in the top crown lay ("rof I1ran ches and toliage . Radar canopy meas ure men ts have also b<:en fo und to ~
eorrdated wilh lea farea-indo:x (L A!) measurements ( Fran klin ct al .. 1<)94 1.

( ' l l ,~ "' l n~

320

"

"

I.-ha nd

(" -h and

B5

~.jol

n il

cm

'\

'\

9~

Act ive and Pass ive Microwave Remote Sensing

o.

"

' -han d
.l ern

'\

f ,

c
H
n

,
t

Figure 924

or

I he... ecucal rO:''I'''I/1_," a pme fore st ~1.!lIJ 10 X-. C -, and L-b.IlIJ uncrowa v0: cll<rg) . J he short e r thl' waveleng th, the ~
the conm butio nlrom "'rj,,,'," -" "III,-ring. Tho: longer tho: wa, ..length. the bre~ l('r Ihe pencmuion inl\> the materia l and lhe~
...r the \Y,It",,,, "<-III, u n)::.

Some other gc n<.'ml observations abo ut SA l{ vegetation

in terpret at ion include

Vertically polarized c ncn,;) is highly attcn uut cd hy the

n>nicall y oriented C;lII" PY com pouem, (lc<:l\l~. stems.
bra nche s, and trun k I while huriw1llally pola ri zed ellcrg)
is

11 0 1,

TIll' brighte r the return onlikc-polurizcd rad ar images ( I [I I

o r VV). th e greater the con tributio n Irorn sur face
srallcr ing.

T he brigh ter the retur n Oil LTllss.pnl3ri ze d images ( 1-1 \ ' nr

VI I ). the gre ater the comriburiou fnnu volume (intana l
canopy: scnncring.
When the radar wav elength i~ upproximatcly the S:UI1C size
thc C.II111P}' components (c.g .. C- or Xc bund 1. subs ta ntial
sur face and vo lume sca ttering \\ ill take place an d li ttle
energy may reac h the ground. Consequently, sho rter
wavelength radars (2
(, em ) Illay be preferred whe n
m onitoring crop canople.. and tree leaves. Lenger
wavelength radars (9 J(J cnu exhibit su bstan tia l volu me
sC:Illering as incident cnergy interacts .... nh larger trunk
and bran ch components. Surface <cnncr mg fro m the
und c rfymg SOil m a~ also IIt:CU f ..... hich can cause
confusion .

( ros ~- po l:l ri h'l.l l ma g('s t H\' or \' 1-1) a rc less senslti\c

vlopc vuriauons. llus su~gests vcgctauou monitoring ill
mountainous ar eas rna) best he performed us ing Clll>S-

p olanzanon tcchmq ucs . A IM). the same row Cl"(IP plallkd

in d ilTt:lenl drrcc uon s can produce like-polarized ir.lagtl
that an: difficult hI interpret. Th is am biguity' may h(
reduc ed when cross-polarized images are avai labk In
addnion til hkc-polanzcd unagc s.
O ne n l' the key vuriablcs necessary to mode l the
hydrulogicul cvclc is how much wate r is be ing stored ln
vege tation canopies uml the' rate 1) 1' cvn po rran spiratica
tak ing.pl ac e . ticrn-rnlly. the more moisture in the structure,
the' gr eater the die lec tri c cons ta nt a nd the hig her the radllr
back scau cr return. Active microwav e re mot e sensi ng il
capable o f se nsi ng ca nopy IO f l.:a1") water con tent ill
ccruun iustunccs.

:IS

R ada r Imager) C;1Il PW\ ide' some informauo n 011

land sca pe -ecology pa tch Slle and can op y gaps that are or

value when mon itoring ecosystem frag me ntation and

health (~ un andRanson. 11)<); I.
Shunt ... Im'lging Radar C - a nd X-Ihnd S A R (S IR -C1X-S.-\R I
imagc-, " I' the ..\ m u on rain fore-a obt ained on Apnl IQ
1'19_1-. art: displayed H1 Mild . and white in Figure 9-:!5 anJl't
.1 co lor composite in Color Plate q.:!. Thes e images ma~ be

321

R Env ironmental Considerations

to demons tra te seve ral 1)1' the con cepts menrioncd.

mthc muhitrcqucncy rad ar data reveals rap idly changing
-usc patterns. and it als o demon strates the capability of
dilicre m radar freque nci es (0 detect and pe netrat e heavy
onn s. The to p Xcbnnd Ima ge has VV pola riva uon. the
(-hand image IS IlV. and the bottom Lband image is
,A hea\y do w npour in the lo we r ccr ucr o f the image
rs as a iliad. "cloud" in the x-band im age. more faim ly
!he C-hand im age. and is im isiblc in the Lba nd image.
hen combine d in the color cor nposnc. the rai n cell ap pears
oN and ye llow. Although radar can usuall y penetrat e
trough c1 0Ul!S, short ra dar wav el ength ( hig h freq ucncy ),
has X- and C -band . can be chang cd hy un usuall y heavy
cells. Lband. at ~".5 em (9 in.) .... avelcngth, is re lat ively
rTectt'd b~ suc h rain cell s. Such information ha s been
Oc:d 10 estimate rain fall rate , (N AS..\ 1PL, 19961 . O f'co urse .
tere is very lilli e backscancr fro m the river in allt hre e ra dar
go. causing it ru a ppe ar black.
The area shown is in the state o f Rondo nia. in west ern B raThe pin k areas in the color composite arc pristine tro pi~ rain forest s. and the blac and green pat ches arc areas
m..-re the fo rest has been cleared tor agri cultu re. Rad ar
, mg can be u'>l;'d 10 monitor lIul on ly the rai n fores t mooion bur also the rat e\> (If rcccv cry of aban doned field s.
kspoxtilln of the black and w hite images rev eals that as the
savelength o f lhe rad ar prog resse s fW IlI X- to C - to L vband.
to becomes easier 10 discriminate cl ea red land from rain for:10(, In the L-h:md bla ck -nn d- w hue imnge, the cleared land
~~a~ relativ ely dark while the rain fo rest appears very
kighl. E\ idcnuy.thc cleared land comains sufficient scatterss lO cause il to a ppt'a r bngfn at X- and ('-band freq uenci e s.
btl.: at L-Nmd frcqucncjes the incident energy 10 the
tbrcd fiel d:> is re flected away from the radar rec e iver. The
Qln forest appears rel an ve ty br ig ht in all images bec ause o f
1) t!lt" tremendous num be r of leaves. branches, ste rns, and
junks that <';,111 contrib ute ro ca nol') sur face sca ttering and
rolume scattering v. irhin the ca nop y ( Lvband penet rates the
~alcsl d istance into tho: cano py and is bri ght.:r ), and 2)
ttere is a high mo ist ure co nte nt in Ihe rai n fo rest cano py, furier increasing the amount of bac kscaner present in a ll three

lan<h ('J AS:\ 11'1.. 19% ).

Warer Response

ro M ic rowave Energy

Flooding oc curs in ma ny area s. and cloud cover obs cure s the

tl'lIec liu n of dLlIll using olltica l and Ihl'nua l Sl'nSl,J~ . Fonu"h:ly, the s moo th sur tace o f st a nd ing wa ler rt'llects al most
1I11he inci de nt mic-m .... a\t' radia lillO a.... ay fn.m lhe l>Cnsor
unleSl> th~r e is a slrou g \IJI1 d .... ith 101.1> ofeh(Jp. which can

Figu re 9 -25

SJR-C/ X-S AR lina ges of a portion o f Rundunia,

Hraztl, obtain ed on April W , 1'I1j4. al Xvband image ,,'illl VV polarization. b) C-baml image is B V.
cl L-band image is H\', A hC'a \ y rain in lhl:' I" ....er
cent er o f tho: ima ~e appears as a blac k "c1oud- in
the- X-band image. more faintly in the C-band imugc. and IS invisible in the Lbend image. L-band,
at ~ -\ em III in ) wavele ngth. is rc latively unaffected
h)' such rain cells, A lso. the L'band image diffcrcnnates the pristine rain forest (hrighll tror nthe darker clear-c ur a reas beca use it pt:nClmtc's farther into
Ih.: canopy. ('xpcrieneing grt"Jtt"r \ olume lOC8 n en ng.
\Valer is <lark in al1 throx banJs . A color wrnpositc
('f th<:- three images is found in C<>lor Plale 9-2
k.lI1f1e-;} 1\AS . \ Jet PruPIJ I~lon La b).

322

UI.-\PT Ut

9'"

Acti ve and Pas sive Microwave Rem ote Sensing

ca use co nfus ion ), res ulting in lo.... c r backscatter than a UI)

<urface. w hen stand ing water is present und...r vegetation, a
uniq ue corncr-rctl cctiou back sca tter interac t ion betw ee n
surfac e water an d tree ste ms resu lts in an extremely high
bac ksc atter and allo ws inundation to be clearly mapped
I Waring: .:1 al., 199 5). Fo rd et al. ( 198 6) demonstrated he ....
wet lands a long the Sa vanna h Rive r appeared ~..s pccially
bright compared 10 standing water an d other upla nd land
COveTsuch as Lobloll y p ine. due to th is co rne r-reflector co nd ition oct.. . LOCII IhL' water and cy press- tupelo III:.: tru nks.

L-hand rada r penetrates into hare. damp. smoot h soil 10 a

maxima l depth of approximately 10 em. Shorter W3\'elengths pe net rate 10 only I - 3 em. In agricu ltural fields that
have smoo th so il surfaces and biomass o fless than I mg ha.
moisture co nte nt of su rfac e lay ers can be determined fair!)
accurately' ( Wang et el.. 1994). O nce vegetation biom a ss
exceeds a cenam limn, the abi lity o f rad ar 10 sense surface
so il-wat er condi tions decreas es rapidly (Waring: et al., 1995).
Under a den se forest canopy. the amount o f mo isture held in
the leav es is so large that it imc rferes w ith any direc t assessm enl o f soil-wate r status (Jac kson and Sc hmugge. 199 1).
Thus. the presence of vege tation over the so il surface ca n
add consi derable compl e xity to measur ing ~i1 moisture
using mic ro wa ve remote sensi ng tec hniques. Beca use the
vegetat io n's Iransmi ss ivity decreases w ith increasing microwa ve frequency, it is be st to usc the lo nge st wa vel ength
available for soi l mo isture mapp ing ( Dobso n a nd l.llahy,
I lJ9i\ ). Th is wou ld he r -hand O. '" Il X em ) for aircraft SA Rs
and Lsbund (A. .. 23 l:111 ) for satellite SA Rs. If the vegctariou
b iomass is < 0.5 k g!m ~ , the cuccr o f the vegctntiou backs catte r may be igno red for like-polarized L band data. i.e., n ' n . .
and a "HH. Unfcn unutely, when the biom ass is > U.5 kg/m ~. it
is not cu rre nt ly po ssib le 10 dise ntangle the separ ate soil
moiv tur... and vegetat ion buckscuuer comnbuuons.

Urban Structure Response to Microwave Energy

Urban bu ildi ngs. cars. fence s, bridges, erc., aC I as COffi n

refl ector s that send m uch o f the incid.... nt energy hack to ward
the antenna. Thi s gene rally results in bright s ig nat ures Cor
urban phenom ena en the rada r image. Unfo rtunatel y. this
ple tho ra o t'bnght returns is onen con fu sing in radar images
o f urban areas es pecially .... hen Il the cardin a l effect ta kes
place , and /or 21 the un agcry is o f relati vely low spatial rcso-

luuon.

FIQu re 9-26

Ill... cardina l ...O..-C1 i~ re$JlOOsinle for the brigld

nalure of poruons. ofSalllOl Monica and San ftl1llJdo in this S ll~>t IXSA R imap e of the I.O$A~
basin uhlain..-..J on Octo ber 3. I 'N~. The 1000k dirlt
non is fmm thcztop to the bottom of lhe image-Icc.
l..~) I\ AS..\ Jcr Propulsion La boraro ryj.

A S IRC/X-SA R ima ge of'Lo s Angclcs, CA , is found i n r~.

lire 11-2(, It ha, ap prox imately J(J x 30 m resolution. TIr
rad ar look d ire..' lio n is from the w p t<l the bottom of the
imag e. O nly the major terr ain feature s can be rcsolvel
including the free ways . major urban de velopment. the
Pacific Ocean, and the mountainous terr ain. In general. his
not possible to di stingu ish between commercia l and rcsiden.
t ial connnuniues. I n ''''rl' ~ ti n gl y, there are some very hright
p<l lygot1al ar eas ill the image . T hese are prod uced by Ih~
rada r con lill" t lili'ct. Early in radar remote sensing ~5~mb
it wa s nrsed tbar refl ections from urb an a rea s. often laid OIl
a<:e<,rd lrt g to the cardina l po ints o f the com pass. caused sig.
nificantly larg..-r returns w hen the linear fe atu res were illu.
minat ed by the r adar en ergy at an ang le orthogonal
(pe rpend ic ular } to the ir or ient at io n (Raney. 1998), Fa
exa mple. 11K' re sid~'nl ia l comm unities (\ 1' San Fernandoand
Sa nta Monica are for all practical purpo ses sim ilar in naum
to othe r rcsidcuua l communiuc... in their vic inity (Figill\': 91 6) . How ever. d ue to the car dinal e ffect caused by tbOl
uniq ue oricntanon relative to the SI R-C sen so r syste m al the
time o f data eo llo:etion . Ihe~ appear in tho: radar image to
contain land co..w th:lt is dram atica lly d itTerent from the

SA

RRemote Se ns ing from Space

323

a. Oblique photognuph of the Penta go n.

~ ure

9-27

b. Radar image of the Pentagon.

a t l.cw-oblicuc aerial phUIO[:TiLpb of thc l'cruagon in Washingl,'n.

tcsy Federation o f American Sdentislsl.

nc t> , SYTIlhl.'lic aperture radar Imag e uf' thc I' .rua gon tcou rSAR Remo te Sen sing from Space

residential communities found thro ughou t the Los

I.n~cb bas in.

,-

,-

es
<u-

,rc

"

1.
"

is
r-

ha. been demonstnaled repeatedl y tha t two identical tracts

urban land tc.g., two s ing le- family hou sing tracts] built at
lit same time. with the same lot sb e. and using the same
enerials w ill appear dra matically differen t from ,\I1e
d er on radar image ry Hone is laid nu t in II d itfer cm onsanon than the othe r, e.g. one is laid ou t wuh stree ts tre ndIII northeast and on,' is laid ou t w ith stree ts trending due
llJIth, Simi larly. the regu lar spac ing o f agri cultural row
(l\Ip~ can prod uce a similar effect. Abo , the same parce l of
shan land may appear quite different on rada r image ry
~u i r,-d o n h..o diffcre m da les if pract ically any of the sysen paramet ers are changed. es pecially loo k direction. Th is
~~s havoc when attempt ing to perform dig ita l change
&.:(~cl i on using rad ar image ry.

e
h

,"-

.,

,d
,

,
,

!\D:\RSAT. JE RS- l. ERS-I.2, and Envisar ASAR wit h

iJrJr rclati..ely coarse spalial reso lutions Hable q 11may he
11'haltli: tor ob tain ing general L"'H:l I land c'over and land~\. inl'.mna llllll. When aucm puug tu extract Lc vcl H and III
aban land cover and land -usc inforrnauon. optical remote
ensor da ta is usual ly superio r. ll owevc r, if high spatial TeS(l/ution rad ar is available tc.g. from RAD:\RSAT-:~). thcn
ku ilcd urban in fo rma tio n may ber extmc ted. For exa mple.n
phl"llogmph anda high-resolution rad ar image ofthe Penta;0.111 are found in Figure <:J -27. Henderson and Xia ( 19l:J8)
Jro\-ide examples of how set tle men t p.luems and socioecoiIOITIic infc rma uo n suc h as populat ion esumarcs rna) be
extracted from radar dat a.

The followi ng sec tion; summarize the cha racteristics o f the

major satellite S.\R sen so r syste ms.

Seasat

Sca sat was laun ched b~ ~A SA on June ~ b. 1<:J7/i. an d function ...d lor 105 day s. 11 carried an L-band (::!J.5 crru act ive
mic ro wave SAR at an altit ude Il l' XOO km. The- antenna was
10.7 x 2. 16 III in dimension. It collected Hll -pola rizcd da ta
at an lncntcm angle of 2 3 ~, It had a range resolution of25 m
and an azim uth resolution o f 25 m. The swat h \\ idth \\ as 100
km. The datn we re processed \\ ith "4 looks." Seasat had an
or bital re peat cyc le of 17 days. Th c data were processed
ori ginally optically and then dig itally ( b ens ct nl., 2lHlj ).

Shuttle Imaging Radar SIR-A, SIR-B. SIR-C. and

Shuttle Radar Top og rap hy Mission

Severa l im porta nt scientific rada r msuumcms have been ca rried aboard 1\AS,,"s Space Shuttle and ope rated for a num ber of'days before return ing to Earth. SI R-A and SIRn we re
la unche d 011 Nov ember 12. 19X1. and October 5. 14Xt
respect ivel y, and we re in o rbit fo r 2.5 and Xday s. Both paylo,:uls con s i~t<:d o f an l -hand (2 3.5 ern) SA R.
S IR-A had a 9.4 x 2.10 m antenna w ith II H polarization , T he
incident angle was 50". Tit" sensor had a range and azimu th

-,
( .'IIA I'I' ': I{

324

res olut ion of40 m with 6 10(11.;1>. The swath w idth was 50 km .
Th e Sh uttle wa s in omit ,112('() km abo ve the Eart h. The data
"CfC proc esse d op tically.
S IR-B had a 10.7 x 2.11'1 m antenna with HH polariza tion . It
had an incident angle of 15 - 64 0 lis azmnnh resolution was
17 - 58 In an d its range resolution wa s :!5 m with 4 looks.
The swath widt h was 10 - flO km . II operate d at 225 and 350
km above the Earth. The data wen: proces sed both opt ica lly
and digit ally .
S IR.c " as a sign ific ant brea kthro ugh in radar remote scnsing . It wa s a joint proj ect between the Un ited Stales (N ASA
JPL) and a consortium of European groups. SIR-C carried
aloft a three frequency SAR : X-bamf (3 em). C-band (5.8
em), and Lcband (23 .5 em). The three ante nnas we re pl aced

on a common platform in the Shuttle bay. The L, and Cbands had quad polarizaucn [i.e . HIt BV. VV. and VlI )
while the X -band ha d \'V polarizat ion. The incide nt angle
wa s from 15 - 55 ~ . Th e range reso lution was 10- 30 rn. and
the azimu th resolution was 30 m with ap pro ximately 4
loo ks. The swath widt h was 15 - 90 km . It was flown at 22 5
km above the ...:arth . The data were proces sed digi ta lly. This
M"OJ

the first lruc nndtifrequency: muhlpotarization space-

borne SAR. Data from all three ba nds are exc ellent and
widely available thro ugh JPL and ot her locat ions. Several
e xam ple s ofSIR-C d ata arc found in this ch apter and in the
color platc section .

The Space Shuttle Rad ar Topogra phy M ission (SRTM) was

launche d on Febru ary 11, 2000. and lasted I I days . It used
C-band and Xcbaud interfe romet ric synthetic apert ure
rada rs . S RT M cha rac teris tics arc discussed in the sec tion on
rada r imc rfcromctry.

RADARSAT and RADAR$ AT-2

RAD AR $ AT wa s laun che d by [he Ca nadia n governme nt un

No vem ber 4 , 1l)<)S. into a nca r-po lar, Sun-sy nchronous orb it
79S km above the Earth. It has a dawn -to -du sk o rhit, meaning it c rosses the equ ator a t d awn anJ du sk (approxi mately
ti:oo a .m . and p,m, loca l t ime) and is rarely in eclipse or
dark ness. The or bita l incli nat ion is 9X.oG with a pe riod o f
100.7 minutes and 14 orbits per day. It has a sing le C-band
(5.6 em) active m icrowa ve sensor that transmits at 5..3 G Hz
freq uency at a pu lse lengt h of-12.0 u s . The anten na size is 15
x 1.5 m. Its polarization is ho rizon tal-send and horizonta lrccci ve (1111).
Un like ma ny o f the o ther rada rs. RADARSAT pro vides a
range o f spat ial reso lutions and geog raph ic coverages There

9~

Acti ve and Passive Microwave Rem o te sensing

are sc ven image sizes, termed beam modes. summariza!

Figu re ~-2!': and Table 9-5. Eac h bea m mode is defied
the geographic area it covers and the spatia l reschnioa TIt
bourn modes range from Fine. w hich co vers a 50 x ~
area and has a I f) x 10 m spatial reso lution . to ScarrS.
wide, wh ich co vers a 500 x 500 km area at [00 x loom.rial resolution.
RAD A RSAT obtains da ta using. a range o f incident
from less than 20 ( SIlOCp angle) 10 almost 60" (.
angle). within each beam mode. a number o f incident
pos itions arc a vailab lc ( Figure 9-28 and Table 9-5).1b
are ca lled beam {H~filimu . For example, Standard bl3
mode. whi ch COH~rs a lOti x 100 km area. has sc\enbem
positions . By !>p'"(:if~ ing a beam position. one of scwlllOO
100 km images wi th in a 500 km accessible swath 'oI-iD Ire
co llec ted. Factors influencing the choice of beam
incl ude the sensitivity of the application to incident ang.'t.
type o f terrain , stereo req uirements. spat ial resoluti.:J
desired. and how often co ve rage of the area is required.
RADA RSAT's (lm it ha s a 2-1. day cycle. meaning it Tel'Jr:III
to the same loca tion every 2-1 d ays . Ilo.... ever. it caD
poin ted to provide a mo re freq uent revis u cycle. The ~
also has the op tion o f collecting imagery based on two dlitcrent look directions . As RA DA RSAT descends from IX
Nenh Po le (a descending or bita l pass ). it views the Eanha
a westerly direction . As it asce nds from the South Pole I.
ascen d 109 orbital pass ) it views the Earth in an easlelt!
direction , This ca n be .... cry useful when wor king in ara;
w ith high relief, when we arc interested in high lighting: fer
tures with a parti cula r orien tatio n. and/or when the stud)req uires imagery acq uired in the early mo rnin g or earlj
evening .
RAD ,\RSAT-2 ls to he bunched in 2006 or 2007 (MD,-\,
200(,n). It is has ma ny speci fications that are identical t~
]{,\[)ARSAT. how ev er. the re <Ire SO Il1C' very significant
impro vem ents th;.)( make RA DARSAT-2 the prem ier canh
ob serv atio n active microwa ve rem ote sensi ng sys tem. Firs~
It is very import nm [(l mainta in con ti nuity in a scrics uf dedicutcd satellite rem ote sensing sys tems. T his allows manse
applications to use the data prod uced hy the new sy~let1l
Major coucidcrat lon s design ed to ma inta in co ntinuity WIth
RADARSAT- l include the use of tile same altitude (i98 kml
and o rbital path . an d all o f the Ccband imagi ng modes.
Imp roved RADA RS.-\T-2 specifications incl ude a.IDA.
2fHlfIah) :
-c I s delay 10 switch be twee n imagi ng modes.

325

Remote sensing from Space

ed in
a by
The
km
:SAl<
pa-

RAD:\RSAT

1~ l c s

110....
ngle

hese
earn
am

x
lbe

c
le.
tion
S~aoSI\R

~alT"'"

""
be
rscr
:fifhe
I in

.,)
an
s

eal<l}

fqJre 9-28 The beam 1'TlOlk"!io and incident angJ.:uptioos fur acquiring RAD"RSAT dna.

The size of the footprints provide information

on the spaua t resolution. Reier 10Tahle '1.; for specifications (a fter ;\1D". 2nOnab ).

ly

- Fullpolari znrion imag ing mod es {HH, VV. vu.tIV ).

10

'Ill, h
sr.

'.~

sensor that ca n look beth kt1 and right of nad ir, which is
importa nt when lry ing to obtain da ta in an

l'tI)'

tme~ency.

d-

.re
n.

Ih
oj

\.

L/,rafim.' beam mode (3.0 x 2A - J .4 m: azimuth a nd

lIIlgt'. respectively]. which provides the hig hes t spatial
rnolution of any commercial satellite SAR (Table 9-5 ).
Ground swath coverage is limned [0 20 x :W km to keep
die data rate .... ithin the reco rder limits. The set o f ultrafine beams cover any area ..... uhin the inc idence angle
range of J O 10 .tOo. Images an: ge nerate d in a selec table,
lingle pol arizat ion. Imp ro ved o bjec t de tec tio n and
recognuio n enables a varie ty of new upplicmions
incl uding de fense surv eillance and urb an ma pp ing at

scales of I:20.00n \ Valltier Sanden anti Thoma s. 2004).

M/Ii/i-Iook f ill j' beam mode, .... hich ob tain s data in the same
s wath locat ions us the U ltra-line beam mod e w ith a spatial
reso lution of 0 .9 x 7.4 - 9 .1 m: azi mu th and range .
re spectiv ely ). Ho we ver. the se data have improved
rad iom etr ic resolution becau se of multiple loo ks . The
swath widt h is 50 x 50 km (Table 9-5 ). Data are collected
in the incidence angle: range from 30 to 50. Multi-look
fine-beam mode lmagl"S are gene rated in a single
polanzauon.

O nboa rd GPS receivers that mo nitor spacecraft position .

\\ hrch yie lds more accura te geometric recrificauon o f the
rada r image ry .... ithou t the need lor gro und -con tro l po ints
(OCr ),
First com merci al spaccb ornc SA R to o ffer quadraturepolarimetry (vq uad -pol ") capability whe re (lIIIJll i /mll' an d

9~

326

Table 9-5.

R..\ f)ARS:\T and R,\ nA RS:\T-2 beam posinon

Operational
Beam Modes

Beam
Position

.:har~lI:h:rhli.:~( \ 1U.-\

Inc ident
Angle
Pos itions
(Degrees)
JO--W

Lhrafln e heam and

,\ 1u llip le-I........ fin e beam
(only on RAn A Rs ..\T2 )

30 - SO

fin.,
(5 J'<~i li ..ns l

37 --4 0
39 - 42

""
"

"

S'
S3

S4
55

Tabl

. 2(1(lf",l1 l.

Nom inal Spatial

Number 01

Reso lu tion (m)

[azimut h )( range)

Nominal
area (krn)

Processing
l ooks

3.0)( 2.-1 - 3.4

7.9)( 7.-1 'u

20)( 20
SOx SO

Ixl

IU

50)(50

.10

100 x \00

:0 - 27
30 -37
34 - -10
36 - 42

.,

20 - 31

W2

J I - 39

ISOx ISO

WJ

.W- 45

1.'0>< U O

Sl' 1

:W - .w

positions)

S~2

3 1 -46

S ("llnSt\R Wi lk

SW!

::(1 - 4<,1

E\lcndcd Ilil.:h

II I
11 2

4~ - 5~

113

52 - 55

"'

"

11 5
H6

E\ll'lltkd I,m\

II

50 - 53

3/1

]f>:" x]foS

lx'

;0

JI MI x JI WI

2x2

Hili

~ ( MI

2 x4

"

\( 51)(1

75 )( 75

Ix4

57

56 - 5!'l
57 - 5')

1U-2 3

or

inform.uion arc retained. T here are a number

uniq ue polarimetri c parameters thut ca n be derived from
these dat a am l use d to dev elop an unders ta nd ing o f the
features present in the radar inwgcry ll.'.g., co- polanved
and cross- pola rize d rat io images: co -polarized corrcl arion
coefficient im;lgl's) . Table IJ-Il summ arizes some ofth ese
parameters and the expec ted rcsplJns~ for a spec ific type (,1'
sur face I ~ 1DA, 2006h).
flh l/.\!'

1 x4

24 -3 1

\\ id l'

(6 positions)

45 - .IX

(3 poloillllflSl

!\urru ...

xl

.B _ ..t.

57

~lI n ~A R

"

.11- +l-

4 1 _.u.
45 --N

Sh

(2

SAR

fJ
f4

SUnd"rd
(7 pOMlIonsj

Active and Passive Microwave Remote Sensing

'.'

I ~O x

17n

Ix4

antenna and VV polarjzurion. It fu nctions wit h an ineider,1

III and the azimuth
reso lutio n i, .'w 111 with f> looks. II has a sw ath width of 100
kill. It is in orb u appnl\ im' llcly 7X5 km above the Earth. The
data arc processed digi tally . An identi ca l ERS-2 II:!>
laun c hed in 199 5. FRS - I and r RS-2 have on occasion bee
operated in tande m to prov jde image pairs for SAR interfercmctry research.

angle of 23' . The range resolu tion is 26

Europ ean Space Age ncy ERS-1 and ERS-2

European Space Ag ency Envisat ASAR

Th e Euro pea n Space Agency launched the ERS-I on Ju ly

16. 199 1. It has a Ccband (5.6 crru SA R with a 10 x I m

Launched in March I . 20m . Em isal i ~ the largest Earth

Observation spacec ra ft eve r built. It carries 10 sophisticated

327

Remote Sensing from Space

9-6.

Several

RA DA R S AT-~

polarimetric pamtncrcrs and mtcrp n..t anon guid chncs , ~ lI)A, ~OObbl.

Co- or like-polarized

Cross-p olarized
ratio

rat io

Param et er

Co-polarized co rrelation
co e fficie nt

'Itrlfine

it rbcr scalier

low fors moOlh surfaceslending

10 I as roughnes s incre ases

Volumc sca tte r

9-7.

Discn mmauon betw c.....n surface

Detection o f depolarization and double

and volume ....altcring

"",,",,0

Vcry 10'" fur smooth surfaces,

increases with surface roughness

High-arnpluude (10'" depolari zation],

small phase differe nce

Rclarively high

Luw-amplitudc (h igh depolarization).

poorly defined phase diffe rence

app roximately I

EN\'ISAT Ad \arJC,-d 5} nlhc1ic Apertu re Radar (ASAR)

~p...cificali(lfls (ESA

AS.,\ R , 2()()f,h)

ASAR Mode

Characteristics

1IlI1II:C "Odl' (1:\1)

30 x 30 III spatial resolution for the precision prod uct. VV or 111 1 p olarizatio n images from any
of? selectable swaths. Swath width is between 056 " Ill (swath 7) and 100km (sv. ath 11 across-

track.
\lle rn a l i n~ rn h. rl ~ al ioo

\ l ol'\(- (AI' )

.l {J x

jn

m spatial resolution for the precision prod uct. Two co- regisu..red images per acquisiV. JlII,1IV. or VVNII.

non. from any of7 sele ctable s";llh~. Polarization pairs possible: 11IW
Wide 5"' luh :\Iooe (W 51
Global !\Ionil"rin!: \1ode (C; \1 1

Wa H' Moof' , \ , \')

150 x 150 m spatial resohnion . Swath width is 400 krn. Po larization: VV or HH.
Spatial rnolulion of 1(I()O )l 100ll m (vimu1h and range. respecti\elYJ for nominal prodcct,
Up 10a full orb il or cover age . 11I1 or VV polarizatioo .
Small imagcne tdimensions range between 10x 5 krn 105 x 5 lmJ is acquired 31 regular intervals of 100 km alon g-track. lr uagcue can be positioned anyw here in an Image Mod e swath.
Pola rizatio n: VV or HH. hnagc uc s are converted 10 wave spectra for ocea n monitoring.

u
h

o
e

,s

optical and radar instruments that provide co nt inuou s obscrIlion and monito ring of the Ea rth 's land. atmosphere.
IteaI1S and icc caps (Tab le 9- 7). The Advanced Synthetic
Apertu re Radar (A SA R) instru ment on board EN VISAT
tltmds the mis sion of the Active Microwave Instru me nt
:\.\l[) Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) instruments flown
the c RS- 1 and ERS-2 sarenues.

I.SAR uses a n ac tive phased-arr ay antenna, wit h incide nce

egles betw ee n 15 and 45. Applicat ions for th is se nso r
uclude the s tudy of ocean waves , sea-ic e ex tent and ruction,
e d land-sur face stud ies, suc h as de fcrcst urion and dcsc niflation. In cont rast to the ERS- I an d -2 SARs, wh ich had a
faed swa th po sit ion (23 mid-swath incidence angler,
ASAR Image Mod e provides data acq uisi tion ill se ven dif-

tcrcm swath posiuons (i.e. IS I co IS 7). giving incide nce

ang les ran ging from 15 ~ to 4 5 ~ (Table 9- 1). One sign ificant
ad vanta ge of h igh er incid ence angles is that terrain disto rtion is redu ced .

JERS-1

The Na tio na l Space Developmen t Age ncy (N AS D ,\ ) of

Japan launched the Japanese Earth Resour ce Satellit e
(JERS- I) on Febru a ry I I, I')92 . It wa s very s im ilar to the
orig inal Scaset. It had an Lcband (23 .5 em) SA R with an
Il.q x 2.4 m antenna and HH polarization. The incident
angle "as 3':.l, Range and azimuth reso lution we re bo th 18
m w ith 3 look s. The swath wid th was 75 k m. The SA R


-,
328

Active and Passive Microw ave Remote 5ensin;

C1L\t"It:R

orb ited at app roximat ely 561\ km above Inc Earth. Th e data
were processed dig itally. J ERS ] operation was rerrmnnted
on Oc to ber 12. I'NK

Aimaz'
This SA R was place d in orbit by the former 50\1CI Union on
Marc h 3 1. l INt. and funct ion ed for 1.5 years. II co nsisted o f
an Scband 19.6 em) $A R with a 1.5 x 15 III antenna and 111 1
potan vauo n. T he incid ent angle ranged from .10 - 00' .
Range resolution w as 15 - 30 m, and azurnnh resolution was
15 m wi th greater than 4 loo ks. Th e s w arh .... id th was !O - ~ 5
krn. [I was placed in a Jon km Ofnit abo ve tho: Earth . Th e
da ta \\ ere processed d igitall y.

Radar Interferometry

The previo u... d iscussion of s~ mheric ap ertu re radar systems

was primarily concerne d .... ith collecting a sing le image of
the terrain. II is possi ble 10 acq uire mu hip le SA R images o f
me te rrain fro m aircraft o r spacecraft I(l extract valu able
three-d ime ns ional and velocity in fonnauon. Imaging ra dar
imerferomc trv is the proce ss w he-re by rada r images of the
same- location tin the grou nd are recorded by anten nas at I )
differen tlocutions or 2 ) different times (Madse n a nd Zcbker,
1998; Ran us el al., 2003 : Hodgso n et al., 20(3 ). An a lysis of
the result ing t.... (1 imcr fcrog rams a llow ve ry prec ise mea suremc nts ofthe range 10 any speci fic XcV"; point fo und in each
ima ge of the inte rfe ro metr ic pa ir, Th e precis ion may be at
the sub- wa velength scale.

OIllCIl) ' and is ca lled 1I//llri,II.' -l'm .1 or repeat-pass intcrfm.

ctry.
In many ins tances, iutcrfcromcmc SA R data can pM
topog raphic info rm.nion (.'9'':) that is j ust as aCCUrJIC a;~
ital elevation mo d els derived usi ng tradiuona l optical p.
grammcmc tech niq uel>. Howe ver. imc r fcrumetry C!t
op erate thro ugh do uds, day or n ight . Th is is importaJl1
cloud- ..hroud cd tro pica l or arct ic e nvironments or VI
disasters st rike and one 1:00nl11lt wait for an utmosphcric a
dow 10 obtain optical [photographic ] dna. Digital elc\
mto rmanon derived from S IR-(' interferometric data are
played in Co lor Plat es 9-3 and t)~ . The I:anogmphic ~
munity is especially i nteres ted in interferometric SAR.
Inte r ferom etric S.\ R ob tains digual elcv auon informat!oi
the followi ng manner tJ PL. 1999hl. First. the t....o r*
images mus t he pre<::ist:ly r...gisrc red . Then thei r geometr)
such that the two radars and uny objec t on the ground I'm
tria ng le [Figure 9-2%), If we Lnow the distance t~
from each rada r to the IIhJl'Ct lin the ground (r 1 and r:~"
d istance betw een the tv.u radars uhc baseline Rl and dIt
ang le (If that base1inc . 0: (II ith respect 10 the horizontal). ~
ca n U!'C trigono metry uh c cosine ruler to ..ralculare W
h... ight. h, of one url he rada rs ubov c the position l\f thc objeC
on the grou nd . Fro m Figure 929b we know that

and

toy the co sine rule,

.... hic h is the sumc as

Interferometric Topographic Mapp ing

'lopog raphic map ping based on S A R interfe ro metry rel ics

Oil acq uiring data (rum IWI! rhtfcrcnt look a ng les and
assumes tha t the scene imag ed did not mo ve betwee n data
acquisit ion s. Th e ev e measurements ca n be fro m two rada rs
placed o n the sa me platfor mseparated by a few meters. T his
is calle d single-pass i ll/aft'I1J III "" ) ', The first s ingle-pass
inte rfe rometr ic SA R wa.~ lh... Sh utt le Radar Topo gra phy
Mission (S RT "-I) launc hed nn h : brual')' I I, 2000. It had a ('.
I'l a nd an d an X-ban d antenna in the ca rgo bay and a C-b and
a nd an X-band anh:nn a att hc end o f a flO m mast ( Figure 929a ). Intcrf.:rome lry ma y illso ht" co nduc t...d usi ng a single
radar that ol'lta ins two mcasur ...mcnts 011 d ilTerem o rbita l
tracks that are c1O!iely sp aced hUI a day or so ara n. T his is
the rncthoo\l logy used fur th... S IR-C a nd ERS- I.l inte rfer-

We solve lor 0 , then for II (us ing II '" rl CO.~ 0 ,. This cnlculalion is repealed Il' r lvcry po int 011 the grou nd within t~
image. If we determine the prec ise he ight o f one of ~
rad ars a bove sea leve l. we can produce a ma p
the surface
hcig lns. It turns our that we can on ly preci sel y measure lhe
relative d istance ( 1"2 1"1) Irom the phase diffe rence between
clll'h pilir of fildar m.:asure ml-nts. Th i;; relative d istance can
PI.' rt'lal.: d 10 thc hc i ~ht . h. aller SlIm.: addilional algebrJ
(S IR-CE O hOl1le pa ge : J PL 1(1)%).

or

The Sp;.ll;'"Sh uttle Rilda r Tnp' lgraphy M i s ~ i on (S RT.\ l) used

('- band an d X,oolld interfcrume tric sylll hclic apc n ure radan
I II'S ARs) 10 acq uire topog r:tphic d;lla o\"Cr RO pe rcent ofw
Ean h \ landmilss Ixt .... l....n 00" :'II and 511" S during its 11 -~

329

rInterfero met ry

'rum-

In Ie rrc ro met r~S,\ R . 1

t<

ide
, dig -

1\

1010-

can
t for

- ben

'I

in-

Ilion

d is-

om-

nm

rdar

::- is

m,

gel
the
the
we

,.
9-29

b.

a l Location " r the Cl>.and all<! X-toand anten na pain. on th.. space shuttle ",kd\'(Jr used '0 cone..:t imcr f....-olllctric data for the
Shunl.. RaJ"r Topography \ 1ission (S RD,11. b) The geometric rela tion ship bctwccn ,,, ,, S..\ R S)stcms used for interferometry
It! ('..tract l,~rarhic information (after :'>i..\ SA JPL I'N<.Ib).

t he

ec t

!6)

ton \l'ASA S RT \-!. 20(6). NASA J PL proc essed the C

Inrcrfcronw tric data w hile the Germ an Aerospace Ccnprocessed the Xcband ime rte r ometnc data. Th e 101"0'"
ic surfaces produ ced meet lmc rfcromcrric Terra in
~111 Data ( lT HD-l1 cpecifications. SRT\1 mapped
Q7% of the l a ~eh:d land ill [cast once {11 1J.(lIlO.!J()(}km":

OOOJ)(HJ mi: ). Thus. the li rst worldwi de collection or dig-

!7)

Sl

a-

"
"

:e
te

"n

ekvati\lll data was acquired lIsing mterfcrom ctry, not

ogrammctry, The ir nerteromctcr pa irs can also he of sig fi(a1\l value lo r man y Earth resou rc e applicat ions. R\ll!I ~l al. (:200 6 ) assesse d thc accur acy o f SRT Mvcd ele vat ion produc ts .
!ll example Ill' a S RT M-u l' ri\'\'d d igi tal elevatio n mode l o f
If wasatch front in Utuh is ,110WI1 in Figure 9-30a. It is

/IIIl cd in perspe ct ive ~lIIJ is drupc d with a s ingle band of

sal TM dat a. Color Plate 1)-5 depicts the SRTM-derived
aof the Wasa tch from ;tS an anaglyp h and as a st erecpair.

to the lnunch Il l' the S RTt-.l,l.y,: data were compiled

a variety o f in sil/l a nd remere sen sing sources III proglobal DE~ s wuh a spatial resolution o f 30 arc sec ( 1
I km) (e.g., GLO BE an d Gror o3 0). D F. ~ l S o f I arc sec
ml (If 3 arc sec \ 110 111 ) were sti lllad.:ing for many part s
lhe\\orlJ (Reb us cr aI., 10())), S RTM- deri\ed D E ~ls arc
available fo r mu c h of the planet at a sp:ui al reso lution
'3ere-sec f!X ) m j. However. a con-adorable amount of data

have been proc essed 10 30 m . The data can he orde red

through t he l'\ASA Jet Pro pulsion Laboratory,

GTOI'OJ O1.1;11.1 arc maintained hy the USGS. A com parison

o fa (;TO P{HO DEM and a S RT\1 -de riw'd DE,\1 o r Mou nt
Kilim <1 l1ja w in Tanzania a nd Kenya is shu.... n in Col or Plate
9-6 . Note hew much more deta il is available in the S RT Mde rive d d ataset for more e levatio n, slope, and aspect analy~i~ <1' well as dra inag e and geomorphic investiga tion s

(Jensen ct al.. 20( 2).

Private commercial companies a lso collec t lrucr fcrom ctric
synthe tic apert ure radar (l FSAR) da ta , On e o f the most
wide ly used is the lntcrmap Xcband Sta r 3i sys tem. which
ge nerales hig h-qu alit y J x J III Xcbund mic row ave imagery
plus a det ailed d igita l elevation mode l o f the terrain . A good
exa mp le is shown in Figure 1)-3 1 with the X-hand image o f
Bachelor Mountain. CA , onthe left a nd the di gita l elevation
model on the right. O fcou rse, thc radar image and the O EM
arc regislered. Such da ta a re very valuable lor lan d-use and
land-co vcr an ,llysis as we ll as waters hed hydro logy stud ies,

Interferome rric Velocity Mapp ing

If the look angles o f multi p le da ta acquisitions are he ld constant. there is IlO sensitiv ity 10 topography. a nd the uucrfe rom ctry ca n be used to extract informat ion about things thai

C1LWT ER

330

t:leu ri" n :\-Indd or lhe w ""alch hon t in na h Deri ved

fro m S hLII II", Radar TOjH,gnphy .\ l i" j,," (SRT\ I) (Jata
()flIl"'tl .. llh t lu uh ll l Th ..matlr ;'Ilappl'r illl al(... r~

Ili~i t al

Active and Passive Microwave Remote sensing

A s discu ssed in C hap ter 2. the Earth approx imates a 3(j

blackbody .... ith a dom inant wa velength o f appro,'
1J.7 urn. Wh ile the do m inant wa velen gth may be 9.7\1111
co nt inuu m of energy is enuucd fro m the Eart h and tlle
sp he re. In fac t. the Earth pass ively emus J. steady
microwave energy, The o nly difference is tha i I) the Ed
materials do not e mit a tremendo us am o unt of
micro w ave ene rgy, and 2 ) w hat energy it does emit is.
nve ly weak in intensity d ue to its lo ng .... avelen gth. '
theless. a suite of radiometers ha ve been developed that
record subt le, passive m icro w av-e energy, The in~
measure the bnghm('u temperamrr of the terram IJ(
atmosphere an d its co nstit uen ts,

Passive Microwave Radiometers

Pas..sive m icrowave re mote se nsing devices may he I)

ing radiomet ers or 2) scanning radiometers. A profilingr
om crcr simply stares at the tCIT:Iin d irectly beneath the

Figure 9-30

Pen.p.."Cti\ e vi... w of an SRTM-.derhl-U OE\I of the

W~ sal ch Frnnl in Utah draped with Landsat n1
baud 3 data. The C-oond SRT\{ data were ob tained
Februa ry 1~ , 2000 (images cou rtesy NAS A Jet Propulsion Lab).

hav e c hanged in the scene. Quant itat ive info rma tion about
th e velocit y ufobjc crs lhal mo ved bet ween the two ob serv ation s ma y be ma de. Interfe rometry ha s been successfully
ap plied to mea surin g mov em ent alo ng lim it lines, measu ring
seis mic di splaceme nt due 10 eart hquak es. mapring glacier
velo city. mo n itorin g ocean curr ents, and r ncaxuri ng wave
spectra. In addition, inte rferometry can be used 10 determine
ifmau-madc objects in the scene have moved. Thi s is very
powerful for chan ge det ec tion purposes .

Passive Mic rowave Rem ote Sens ing

There is a great inte rest in the measu rement of passi ve

m icrowave energ y to mo nitor some o f the more imp ort ant
g lobal hydrologi c var iab les such as soi l mo istur e. prcc ipita rion . icc water content. and sea-s urface tem pera ture. In Iact,
se vera l se nsors onboard l' ASt\'s Aqlld satellite lau nched on
May -l . 200 2. inc lude specialized pass ive m icrowa ve radiom eters ~ASA A\'ISRE, 2(06).

al na dir t or ot t- nadir if desired } and record... the rid'

from .... ithin the instantaneous field o f vic.... of the
Th e out put is 3 pro file of the micro wav e bri ghtnes s trmpclarurc n..co rded as the aircraft or spacecraft mo ves forw ard
scanning m icrowav e radiometer is muc h like the ~
thermal infrared rad iome ter d iscusse d in Chapter R. h at
leers data across-trac k as the craft move, forward. The
is a ma trix of brigh tness tem peratu re valu es that can be u'ld
to con struct a passive m icr o.....av e image.
Passi ve mic ro wave radiomete rs generally reco rd encrg;.
the region betw een 0.15 and 30 em (between I and 2
(; ~V:). well be yond the thermal infra red region (3 - 14 ~L
The mic ro..... ave frequenc ies most commonly used arc cetercdm 1, 4.6, ]O, l X. 2 1. 37, 50, R5, 157, and 183 Gflz.
T his means tha t it is theoretically possible to acquire multi
spe ctra l passive micro wa ve imagery. The actual bandwidlhs
(rung e o f frequencies ) recorded nrc usua lly fairly broads:
tha t enoug h pass ive mi crowave energy is available 10 ~
reco rded by the antenna , Similarly, the spa tia l resolutioaoi
passiv e micro wave radiom ete rs is usually large so that sufficie nt energ y is collected wuhin the If'OV to he recordedb
the antenna. Ain:ra ll sensors tlyln g closer to the ground1Ill)
hav e spatia l resol ul illn s measur ed in meters whi le most S3lelhte passive microwav e scanning radiome ters have a spalla!
reso lution measu red in kilo meters. The se nsor is actual~ I
large antenna sc nsuivc tu pa ss ive mic ro .... ave energy.
Spt'c ia l S4.' II..ur

.\ l ic r() " a \ c/ hll a ~er

(SS.\III)

Une .If the first passive m icrowa ve sensors was the Special
Sensor Mic rowavc lma gc r ISS M/1) onboard the Def~

33 1

slve Microwave Rem ote Sensing

)0 K

ucly
m, a

.mon of
nh's

sh e

-etaver-

''''

ems
th'

)li lJd i-

, InlNTrldp SlaT 31

nO

nre
sor.

serI. A

ing
:01sult
'>Cd

:00
nl.

m-

-l z.
Iti-

-hs

so
b,
of
foby
,y
nial

.,01.

9-31

X-h~rtJ

lJll4!e.

h. lr uerrnap digital terrain model &:rheJ from IFSAR data ,

'i

Illmcrmap Xh.1nd 'itJr ortborectrfied image of Hacbelor \ ""mllain, C.\ . h lllignal c!evali,m mndd 01 Ih<;< carne area derih'd u~in~ interfcromrtnc ~~lllhdJ': apertu re r,!lIar ( lI; S:\ R l le~ hn l <l u~", tcnhorcctificd i rnag ~T) ami GI"I."d Terrain Digi131
Elevation " Iodel prt" ided h) lntcrmap Technolog !es. Inc I.

l1roTolog k al Satellit e Progra m (D\.1 S Pj sutellucs since

7. The De pa rtm en t o f De fense also rd\.'lht"s the data !O
scientific comnumirv (Fig un: 9-3 2). T he 55 "" 1 is a fouruency, linearly polarized p:!ssi\ c m icrowave rad iom etric
that mcasurcv <tlrlltl,pher io.:. oce an and terrain mien).
Ie brightness tempe ratu res at 19.3, 22.3. 36.5. and 855
I (Tablc <)-X), The SS \ 1/1 rota tes cominuoucly abo ut an
pesaue !to the 10(':I! spal'l"c m li ve rtical and mea su res the
clling scene bri gfuncss tcrnpc r.nu rcs . II is culibnucd
g cold sky radintion and a hot refe rence ab sorber. Th e
,jlh is approximately 140(J kin. T he data an' conver ted
sensor counts and trans mitte d to the Nauona l Environmal Satel lite. Data . and lnformution Servi ce (N ESDIS) .
SSM/ I is a n excelle nt sen so r tor meas uring the hrigh ttemperature of VCl)' large regions. For example. a SSM..'
lpassivc mi cro wav e image o f almost the e ntire Ama zon
in is shown in Figure <}- j ::!.
AA has de velo ped a 5S :-'1 I ra infal l algor ithm tha t utithe 1<5.5 Gill chann el III de tec t tilt" scattering of
dling radia tion by precipitation-size icc part ic les w ithin
rain laye r. The scattering tec hnique is applicable m er the
anti the ocean . Rain rates ca n he derived ind irectly,
on the rel at ions hip bet.... ccn the am o unt of icc in the
layer an d ihc actual rainfall on the surface. In addition,
!Ciltering-based global land rainfall lgoruhm has bee n
loped. ~ Iunt hly ra infall at IOO x 100 km and ~ 50 x 250

kr n grids ha ve been produced tor the period trom July, !lJX7

to the preS<:111( Li c t 81.. IW X: I\SI IJC SS \V I. ::!{l()oj.

T RJ\I" .' I i all\ \ :1\ e I m a~l' r (T :\I I I

TIle Tropica l RalnfallMcasuring 'Yl issilln (TRMM) is Sptlllso red by NASA and the l'atilmal Space Developm ent
A!!l'ney \ NA Sl JA ) of Ja pan til stu dy the tropical rainfa ll and
the associated release of ene rgy that help s to power glob al
annnsp hcric circ ula tio n (N /\S I\ T R M ~l 20(0 ). It carries
li ve IIlStnltl len lS ant! was lnunched on Nove mber 2 7, 1<)<) 7.
T he TR M \ 1 M icrowav e Imag e r (T Ml) is a pa ssive m icro wave sensor desig ned to provide quantitative rainfall informa tion over (I -11'\7 m ile (7 1'\0 k ill ) swath. I [ is based o n the
design o f the SS l\l/l. lt measures the inte nsity o f radiat ion at
five freque ncie s: 10 ,7 j45 kill spatia l rcso huionl, 19.4, 2 1.3.
37. and K5.5 (I ll/IS km sp<l [ial resolution). Dua l polarizetion J [ fou r frcqucucics provides n ine channels. Th e 10 .7
GII 7 frequency provide s a more linear response II)r the high
ra infall rates common in tropical ramfall.
Calcu lati ng the ra infall rates fro m both t he SS \ I/l and T\1 1
Sen~()h requires comphc.ucd culculanous bec au se water
bodies suc h as oceans and lakes emuonly abou t o ne.halfthe
energy specified 11) Planc k's radiat ion law at microw ave Ire quenc ies. The refore. they appear III have only abou t hal f
thei r act ua l tcmperat ure al Ih\," surf:l\.'e and appear WI)'

Active and Passi ve Microw ave Remote Sensing

332

Table 98.

Comparative operating charac teristics of SS MfI, .-\\1 SR E on Aqua, and AMS R on ADEOS-2 ( \lSmc, 2()116).

Param et er

SSMII
(OMSP Fa. F10. su . F13)

Tim e port ed

7-()l,l-R7 to present

r~ u l.'nc ie<>

19.3, 22.3. 36.5. 85.5

AM $R E on Aqua
jQ4-.()2 10

presen t

6.925. 10,65. UP.

HI'!. .\6.5.

f ootprint , i7.... t" m j

31)( Z!4 (37 G Hz)

15 >( 13 (115.5 GIIz )

74 )( 4 3 (6. '1 GHl )

14 )( II (36.5 Gill)
6)( 4

"cold" to a passive microwave radiometer. Fortunat ely, rain dro ps appear 10 have a temperature that eq ua ls the ir real ternperature and appear "w arm" or bright to a passive
microwave rad iometer. Th e mo re ra indrops. the wa nner the
wh ole scen e appears . Research over the last three decades
has made it possible to obtain relatively accurate ra infa ll
rates based on the temperatu re o f the passive mic rowave
scene .
Land is very d ifferent from oceans in that it emits about 90
pe rce nt o f its real temperat ure al microwave freq uencies .
Thi s red uces the con tra st Ixtv. ee n the rain droplets and the
land. Fort unat ely. high - frequ ency microwaves (R5.5 Gllz)
are stro ng ly scaucrc d by ice pres ent in many m ining clouds.
Th is redu ces the m icro wave signal of the min at the satellite
and provides a con trast with the wann land bac kgrou nd.
allow ing accu rate rain fall rates 10 be co mputed over land as
wel l. A n example o f ra infall measu reme nt using the TR ~1 \1
Mic rowa ve Imager is presented in Chapter 12 : Remote
Sens ing of Water.

The Adv anced M icrowave Scanning Radiomete r (A M5 R-E)

is one o f s ix sensors onhoard AqulI (NASA AMS R-E, 2006),
A MS R-E is a coopenuive e ffo rt betw een NASA and the
Nationa l Space De velo pment Ag ency o f Japan. A MSR-E
was mod ified fo r II 'II/(j based Oil the design o f A MSR nn the
Jap anese A/) f:( ),)-] sarellue.
AM S R-E is fl own in a pol ar. Sun-sy nchrono us orbi t. II is a
six freq uency pass iv.: microwa ve radiometer that me asure s
frequencies at 6.925 . 10.65. 18.7. 23 .8.36.5. a nd 89 ( IIV
po larizatio n ). II has a mean spat ia l reso lution ufSA km at X9
G Hz and 5<1 km at 6 .9 G Hz [Table 9-H) with a 1-145 km
swath wi dth. T he Eart h-em itted microwave rad iat ion is col-

~~,O

rsvn GHz)

AM SR on ADEOS2
121 4 021o pr~1

6.925.10.65. 18.7. n.s.

36.5. SO.3. 52.1!. 89.0
74x 4]lb.9 GHzl
14 x 8 (36.5 GH7.1
6 x 4 (S9.0 Gll z l

SS \IIJ l' as"h e\l k rcm llH' Im a ge of the Am alon BJIiI

Figure 932 SSMIl 1'3ssive nucrowavc radiome ter imageofl!lr

Amazon Basin obtained at a frequency of~ ~ GHl
with, crtical potarizanon ~ CtlUrlesy D\1Sill.

lcctcd by a pnrnholic refl ector 1.0 m in dia meter that SCll1S

the Earth maintaining a constant Earth inci dence a ng l~ iii
55 ". Si x data collec tion Ic cdhoms fo cus (he passive micro
wave rad iat ion onto the six radio meters. Calibration H
acco mplished by o bserving cosmic bac kground radiJliOl
lind an onlmard wunn targ et.
A MS K E measu res total wa ter-vilpnr con te nt. total liquidwater content. prec ip itati on. sno w-w ate r equi valent. loOi
mois ture (using the 6.n 5 and Hl,M G Ill' frequ encies), setsur face temperature (S ST j, sea-surface w ind spee d, and saicc ext en t IN SIDe. 2006). Exa mple s (If AMSR-E dcrivtd
sea-sur face tem peratu re (SST ) informatio n are provided R
Co lo r Plate 9-7. T he SST surroundi ng Hurricane Katrirl
A ug ust 25- 27, 200 5. is shown in Color Plate 9-7 b.

333

renees

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-l~ ~ ~-l 7-l ,

S ASA ,\ \t RS. E. l [)( lh. ,AI/WIIICN/ ,\ /iCI"(IW(/ l"f' Sconmng Ra -

dmmeter; 'vlarshal S pace F Ii ~ht Ce nter. http. z/www.ghcc.msfc.nasa.govr/\ M S RI.

~ ASA

J PL. 1~'I('. " Bra/il R,II11 forest: ' at Im"g"',1!. Radar Humo'

!'uK" ( Im p: ' " "

" .j p l , go~ ) .

:'>lASA SR I \t, ~ H1 I('. SI"'/l l.' R"d" r TOl'oXr<Jpl'-' .\!i.-l im l. Pas a-

den a: Jet Pro p ulsjon Lab .

h ll p : II\\'\\'\\' 2 .jp l.n "~1I. goy/sn lll/i n .

dex.luml.

NASA JRMM . ~ H()6 , T/1Jl'i"' ,{ Ru i,!/illl ,.\{cu.' l/ l"ill g Mi.H i ml.

Il<'!ls\'ille : Goddard Sp an - Hip ht Cen te r. hnp:/ 'lmml.gsl i: ,
nasa. j,w v.'.

..1",.,,,,,','<1

NS IDC . ~ llI l ft,

,1(i('n> \I'I/\ '" SC(/II/Iing Radiomctrr
/14 M.W; f:'). Boulde r: Nal iu na l Srlt'w and lee Dalll Ce nte r. http:
I/ns id e.mg/Jal.. 'docsdaac ams re_ In' lrumenLg d ,html.
~ SlJ) C

SS,\ lI l. !UOh. /) \{\'f' SS W I f" JlIi(illda Dmh' E".-IS/A.ind

Il I'iKhm,'. -';'11I1',,." 1"1', ,., Boulder- t\ al i'llla l Snow and tee

I)ala ( "en ter, hll p:llnsr dc.nrg 'dai a/ns i,k -llll.l! .him I

S un, G an d K J. Ran",". I' N5. - A Tbr ce -dirn cnsionel RD

Heck sca tter \todd I'm f ur<;,s1 Ca no p ie s: ' !Eff Traor'adl
,," G" ..!",i<-I/n' //I I J R,'1II0h' S,II.,mK. 33:3 7 :! ~ 3 8 ~ .
Vall ,tt:'f va nd en. J. J. and S , J. Th om as ( Ed s.I, 2f1(l-l. AppllC
"oltntwl ofRA DA RSA T~ - S fll'p h m." , On t'oOua ...va: r
( " 'nl re for Remote Se nsi ng. 115 p\\':1I11l. Y. E. S . Kasischl..e. J. \t o Md ..ek. r; W. [)a ~ isandli,
C hri ~l ~'",e n ,

1"')4. " Th e Elf.'c ls o f Ch ange s in L,)hloll) fa

Hiornnss and Sllil Moisture on ERS I SA R Ba,be atler:Ri
molt' S<,II.W I,C " f hll\ ';I1}}", ,,I1 /. 49:25 - J 1.
Wang. Y.. E. S . K l.~i'c h~ e. F. W. navis. J. 1<1, Mela ck and;.J, L
(')l ri ~l ell 'ell , 1'1') 5, "T he Effects of (" ha n ge~ in r otc n i~n1J:ll
<111 Radar 1I.Ir ksc.utc r f W IlI Tre e Cnn opics." /1II..nw/;wu
.hJllr1Ii!l 0/ R.'lIlo'" S" II\1tI.~ . I ft : ;\ OJ -5 1~.

Wa ri ng. R. I1.. J. Way, F.IL Hum . L Morriss ey. K. J. Ransonl

F, Wcivha mp el. H, Or C-11 and S. 1:.. Frank lin. 1'/<) 5, - Jmagll!f
Rada r fo r Eco sy stem Suuhc s." 8/u.'it'!ell:. -l5( IOI:715- m .

LlDAR Remote Sensing

10

'J

-rne

igilJI

';PRS

:,":"

le\ alioll, ~nl~~a~i~n i~ a cri~ical ~on.lp\mC~1 of ~ cogl"3Jlhicdalah~scs ".scJ by

many agencies (c.g., DOD. _000 , r EM.,\. ..004. USGS , 2(06). It IS so smportent that a Nauonat Digita l Elevat ion Program (~OE r) wa.. established to
enhance data sharing among fed eral . stale. and local agencies. the co mmercia l sector, and academia 10 minimize redundant elevation data produ ction
I~DEP. 2(06). These data are used in numerous practical appli cations suc h
as 1100d LOrn: mapping. regional plann ing. and util ity s iting.
:\\<.'1:>1 ele vatio n data arc stored in a d igital e te varion mood thai can be anaJYl CJ in co nj unction wuh ot her ~piJ(ial data in a G IS. A ,Iixitu! elevation
"'mid (DEfo. l ) is de fined as a file o r da tabase co nta ining ele vation points over
a co ntigu ous a rea (\ !ilk-r. 2()O.J: Ma, 2 (KI ~ I. DEMs may he slIndl\ ided into:

a dar
/<111'<

J. dig ital S III!llCt> models (OS \ ') that contain ele vation info rmat ion about
all featu res In the landscape . such ;I S n- gelali<>n_ nllildi ng... and other
struc tures: and

2.

di.~lflll

terrain nlf l(/t'/I (Dl \ ll that co nta in eleva tion information about
the bare-Earth surface withou t the influence of \ cgctarion or man-made
structures.

Four major technologies are used to obtain elev ation information. includi ng
(Bossler ct 31 . 2(02 ):

I. l.
:>ino:
R.I.'-

. 1..

ill ,~1fI 1 survey ing:

plHltngrllmml't ry (Chapter (,):

lnrcrfcromctric Sy nthetic Aperture Radar (I FS:\ R l, (Cha pter l) J: and
Light Detection and Ranging ( L1 DA R).

J.

m,
9,

III sstu survey ing using co nventional surveying (e.g. tolal stallon) or UP S
instrumen ts ca n yield ,KCU rJte X,V,.: intonuurion. However. field surveys arc
time-consuming and cxpc nsivc on ;1 per-po int basis. Even \\. ith (iPS msuu mcms. it is often difficult tor surveyors 10 nhtaiu po ints in thick undergrow th.
Due to these obst acles. the densi ty O h .l': observations obt ained in an urcu is
sometimes low. It then beco mes necessary to imcrpokue between dista nt
points 10 produ ce a digital terrain mod el ( IHf\ 1) oft he area.
Photogmmmctnc tec hn ique s an: routinely used to co llect ,l , I'': topographic
info rmano n. Photogramm crric su rveys ca n mar large areas dur ing the lea f-

335

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"""

n UI' I EI~

338

10

LlDAR Remote Sensi"'l

LI[

u.
Table 10- 1.

("haradcrisllcs of L1DAR.Ja1a collected on the Sa vannah River Site on Octobe r 10. 200t

Vend or

Date

pe r sec

Sanborn. Inc.

Optcch Al TM

10-10-04

50,000
tSOk Hl)

20~

Nominal

Pul ses

UDAR
sensor

Wave length
1046

om

Scan angle

post spacing

;t1O

C:Vl."ry J() em in r and}

"i n

a:
((

th
C
te

r,

craft (h) AGL. th e instantaneous angular scanning speed

(a...., ) in radians per second. and the instanran..-ous scan
angle 10_> [ Baltsavias. 191)()b ):

the scan angle orthe U DAR atj he lime of' the l ascr ~

a
o

the effect o f atmos pheric refraction on the speed of light:

I
I

(1O-5)

Actual sampling dcns itic-s for an I1rt'<I also depend on the forward speed of the aircratl . Typical sampling densities on the
2
ground range between I po int ~r::!O m ~ to 20 po ints pe r m
for a Ilying height o f 1000 rn ( Bo land .:1 al . 2()()4). These
hig he r densities are typically ac hieved usi ng multiple overlapping Ilighthnes to cover the study area. The observed
grou nd returns arc almost always less than the num ber of
em iued pulses.

the laser pulse travel t ime from the UDAR instruI:le!l

the larget (ground) and lu ck.
It is useful til delv e more deeply into several ofthese patm"
eters. For the purposes o f discuss ion, we w ill use UD..IJ
data of the Savannah Rive r Sue nea r A iken, SC collected
October 10. 2004. The data " ere acq uired using a U DAl
that transmitted ;O.()(M"} rll l ~s of near- infra red (\().16 iii
11I"",r light pe r second, The UDAR data acqu isition ~ii
cations arc surmu arizcd in Table 10-\ (Sa nborn. 2005)

LlDAR Laser Location

T he ma ximum u lT-l1<Jdir scan angle ca n be adjusted to meet
the needs of a data-collection m ission. Th e grea ter the sca n
angle off -nad ir. the more \egetatinn lha t will have to be penetrated to recei ve a pulse from the gro und assum ing a unifo rm canopy (Figure Irj-!c). U DA l{ data may be used 10
prepa re dig ital terrain or surface models such as the one
shown in Figure 10-1d which was used tu ldemify the op timum locanon for a ne w railroad line ncar Aiken, S (' (Cowen
e t al., l OOO).
LID.'\ R remote sensing avoid s the proble ms o f aeria l tn nngela tion and onhorccrificauon discussed in Chapter 6
because eac h UD Al{ pu ~t i llg is indiv id ually georcfcrcuccd
(Floo d and Gutclius. 1(jl}7 ). However. it takes subs tantia l
processing 10 tum the lase r ra nge inform ation into gcorefercnced masspoims. Some of the most im po rtant vari ables
used in the processing incl ude:
the .t,I''': location o f the laser in three-d imensiona l spac e <It
the time ofthe lnser pulse:
the att itude (ro ll. pitch. and head ing] o f the laser OIl the
time ofthe laser pu lse:

lt i ~ import ant to know the exact loc at ion o r the U DAR jse
at all rime s during data co llect ion. This is accomplisbcrl
using Differcnuat Global Posit ioni ng Sys tem (D GI'Sj led\llo logy. lXi l'S is based on the use of tv.0 G PS rcc civ crs ue
simulruucously record pos itiona l information. A tcrrcstria,
(i I'S ba se station is located ;1\ a n accurat ely surveyed lea.
tiou with well -docum ente d .r, y. and a-cocrdiuatcs. Thee rrcstr iu! ba se s t.uion record s its G I'S position for the duration
of t he UDAR da ta co llectio n mis sion . The second GPS
receiv er is located . HI the airc raft and record s the LlDAR
antenna position at all times du ring data col lection.

A tier the U DAR d ata an: co llected. the data from both GPi
units (one on the grou nd an d one in the ai rcra ft) arc post-processed alo ng with the !.: nm\ n loca tion o f the base 5taliOG.
ante nna. T his process de termines the exact location ofthc
airc raft 's ante nna for the ent ire fligh t. The accuracy oftbt
aircraft position is typica lly < 5- 10 cm, and is OU[PUI in units
of latit ude, longitude. and ellips" idal height in a WGS S.l
coordinate system.

339

RPrinc iples

R Antenna A ttitud e (Orientation)

lII."(:c:>~af)'

be :

1.1 1M, I~ Returns

to have accu rate L1 DAR ante nna orientation

(?-ii ,~

auu n (roll . pitc h. a nd hc"Jing ) ar all times duri ng data

ion. This is mea sured h)' an inertia l measuremen t un it
I). The I\'I V uses ro ll. pitch, and yaw g )fOSCOp.:S and
. accele romet ers 10 measu re the orientation o f the
:\ R antenna at tho: exact moment ev ery pulse is transmitJlId received. Aftcr the L1DAR da ta are collected. data
the I\1 U is pos t-processed along wuh the GPS-dcri\ed
na position data to (llIlrUI a file ind icating the trajectory

-""F

' .'1

pulse A

pu lse B

ic aircraft and the laser antenna at all limes during the

It;
11

to

am-

AR mission . The outpul ti le docume nts the pos ition of

nrcraft {latitude. 1\1f1gitude. and e llipsoidal hei ght) and
orio:nfalion (rol l. pu ch . and heading]. indexed by G PS

R PostProcess;ng of Multip le Returns

IA R

Jon
':\ R

-tm)
~i1i

.ser
l ed
chhut
ia l

far we have col lec ted GI'S data. I\tl U data. and se nt
received laser pulse s. 1I0w arc these data turne d into
I elevation values at specific .r ,I" a nd locations on the
:c of the ta n h'! Th is is accomplished thro ugh lI DA R
-proccssmg wh ich tak es place after the aircraft has
Postpru~cssing software is used to associ ate I )
AR antenna X ,I'.:" pos ition. 2) antenn a roll. pitch. and
"orientatio n, a nd 3) LID AR range (d istance ) in form at io n
a set o f latitude . lo ng itud e. and altitude (x,v.=) coordtfor each L1 DAR retu rn . The outpu t is typica lly in a
pact binary format o f W CiS S4 coordinates. with options
convening the out pu t to ASCII fonn at s and/or UTM
rdinatcs. Nul,', let us co nside r the chaructcris ucs of the
iDAR dat a.

e r-

""

llD.\ R Returns

P5

,"
'5
0-

m
ic

rc
ts
i4

mentioned, a pulse o f laser energy c:;; iting the trans m itter

directed toward the terrain at a ce rtain ang le by the rutat ~ mirror. Depend ing upo n the altitud e of the UD AR
rumem AGL and the a ng le :11 which the pul se is sent,
n pulse' illuminates a ncar-circula r area on thc grou nd
led the inxtantunrons laserJontprin t. e.g. 30 em in diarn[Fig ure 101 a ). Th is single pulse ca n gener ate one return
multip le returns. Figure 10-2 depicts ho w multiple returns
ght be produced from a single pu lse . A ll of the energy
-itni n laser pulse A interact s w ith the gro und . One wou ld
ssumc tha t th is wou ld ge ne rate' on ly a single return. How:'off. if there are any materials wha tsoever with loca l re lief
-shin the instantaneo us laser footprin t te. g.. gr ass, small

msrauranccu,
laser

footprint
Figure 10-2

I low muhiplc relums are generated from a single

ofla ser light.

pul~e

roc ks. t>,>,'igsJ, then there will he mult iple returns. The hI
will come from these mate rials that have local relief
(even on the o rde r 01'3 to 5 em) and the 2n d and perhap s lus t
retllrll wi ll co me fW111 the bare- Earth. A ltho ugh not idenrical, the ran ge [dis tanc e ] associated with the first and last
return s will he very similar.
n.'/1I1"/1

Laser pu lse !J encounters two part s o f a tree ut different clc \"at icms and then the hare Earth. In the ex amp le. pan o f pu lse
8 encounters a branc h at 3 m A(i L causing so me ofthe mcident laser p ulse to be bac kscauc rcd toward the UDA R
receiv er. T his is recorded :Is till' tsr ft' lllrll ( Figure 10--2 ). The
rem ainde r o f the pulse continues until at2 m AG L it e nco unten; another branch that scatters l'nergy hack toward the
UD AR rece iver. T his is recorded as the l nd tt'rtlm. In this
ex ample. appro ximate ly one -hal f o f the pu lse finall y rea ches
the ground. and some o f it is backscancrcd tow ard the

34 0

L1 DAR rece iver. Th is is the I..w ref il m. If we wanted infe rrnation about the heig ht o f t he tree and its struct ural characteristics then we oul d 1'10: interes ted in the 151 and 2nd
returns assoc iated nh pulse B. lf we arc only interested in
creati ng a ba re-Earth d jgunltcrrain mode l then we woul d be
especi ally interested in the las l return assoc iated w ith pulses
.-I and B.
Th us. each laser pulse tra nsmuted from the airc raft ca n y ield
mu ltipk return s. Th is is re ferred 10 as multiple-return
HOAR data . Pos t-p roce ssing the original da ta res ults in sev-

era l LJDAR tiles co mmonly referred to as:

1st return;
possible intermed iate returns;
last retu rn: and

inte ns ity.

TIle masspoims assoc iated with each return file (e.g.. lsi
return) arc d istribu ted throu ghout the land scape ar various
densities depending upon the scan angle. the number of
pulses per second transmiucd (e.g., 50.000 pps). aircraft
speed. an d the materials that the lase r pu lses encountered.
Areas on the ground that do not yield any Ll DAR-relUm
data arc referred to as data vo ids.
Data co llect ion ve ndo rs del iver U DAR data acco rding to
user specifl cuuons. For example, the Savan nah Rive r Sue
UD AR retu rn dOl la we re delivered in ASC II form at as :

CII.\I'n:H;

10

L1DAR Remote Sensing

Extraction of Firs/' Intermediate, and/or Last Retum

Digital Surfac e Models (DSMs)

Massmnms assoc iated .....ith the las l returns from the UDAl
m ission Ilown ov er the Savanna h Rive r Sue on October
~004 arc shown in Figure 1O-3a. Note the distribcnce
density o f these po ints. Each masspoint has a uniqut'
1\'1(,: <l tl(IO. Care ful e xaminauon re veals tha t the last
dataset con tai ns points de rived from mu ltiple. evert
flighthnes oflast-rerum U DA l{ data. In an interactive
purer en vironment. .... e co uld cl ick on the individual poUt<
Figu re Io.3a and ob tain the elevatio n . This is usefu l but
not revea l any elevation patterns in the dataset. Therefce.
is common to usc sev eral d ig ital image proces~ing m
mq ucs to e nhance our unde rsta nd ing o f the mas
dat aset. For examp le. the individ ua l masspoirn s were
cessed u~ing in\ crsc distance ..... eight ing ( lO W) interpo!3lii
log ic to c reate a raster (grid) of eleva tion values C\'cr:- 0':=
x 0.~5 m (Figure I0-3b) (refe r to Je nsen (2005 J for a diiCiF
siun of II>W). The intl.'rpolation process creates a dig/lei
fa\(' moJ.-I I DS ~ l) which contains the ele
characteristics of al l the tr C'CS. shrubs. and man- made SlIlI:.
tu res. The brig hter the pixel in the DSM . the greater tbe~
vation . Fo r e xample. the bu ildi ngs in Figu re !o.3b ~
higher than the surround ing gro und th ere fore the build~
a rc brighter tha n the gro und . The or ig ina l masspomu IIDl
been o vcrlaid o nto the IDW dig ual surface model for i1l!lnative purp oses in Figure Ht-Jb. Many sc ientists emil
DS:\1s using a tr iang ular irregular net" ork (T I!\J)data SIm:
tu rc (to he sl1\1" n later).
The U DAI{-JerivcJ [DW USM can be made even casit'l"to

time o f day. .r-cunrdinntc, j-coo rdin atc. a-coordin ate. and

intens ity.
The si mple ASC lI format makes it stra ightfun.... urd to input
the UDA R data into a G IS for ex aminat ion and ana lysis.
The UJ)..\ R ret urns were processed by the vendor into scparate files u f:

1st returns;
last returns ; and
bare-Ea rth re turns .

Bare- Earth return s .... ere derived from tile li rst and last
returns using a pos t-processing proc ed ure (to be: disc ussed ),

interp ret by appl ying J shaded-relief algor ithm that high

Ii ght ~ the terrain as if it were illuminated by the Sun froma
specrflc direction ( c.g .. from the northw est ). An examples
presented in Figure IO.k . The or ig ina l masspoinrs hare
bee n overlai d o n the shaded-relief display fo r illustratia
purposes. [)ra p ing masspuims onto onhophotog raphy is al' l\
very usc ful t Figu re 10-3..1).
Most LI[)A R p rojects generate som uc h data that it is necesary to subd ivide the d.ua sct intu t iles. w e ha ve been u amining a sma ll portion o f one t ile. T he first- and lasr-renss
d igita l surface mod e ls fo r a n entire tile arc sho wn ill Figure
10-4ab. Th is graphic dep icts both the first- and fust-re en
dat a as Inverse d istance weighted l ID \\' ) d igital su~
mod els I DS M). First- and last-retu rn ID\\" DS~h are thcI
portraye d in shaded- relie f fo rmat.
T he multiple ret urn DS\1 Illes arc of sign ifican t value fa
mall>' upp hcanons such as the: cxuucuon of wgcta:Ka

341

RPrinciples

"

Varillll~ () i'ip la~ ' s

of Las t-Rerum UI>.-\H. l\Iasspoi nts

DAR
10,

and

f~1

xum

ping
-orn-

Its 10

does
reo 11
ecb-

'Oint

rrolion

US

cus-

\ur-

lion

,,<.

;:11,'

""

Ilgs

ave

"0
ate

lIC-

" I
~h.

:gJre 10-3

-r a
is

'"

"
'"

om

a) r-. l a '~f'I.,; nls can he viewed individually This proced ure is useful for identifying any data voids . On e can also set' that the
data in th is 1,1SI return J"tas<;l carne from mu ltiple Ilightlinc s. Digital surface mu<k!s I[)SM j can he created usiu g inve rse dis lanc e wdglll ing (lD v..') as in (b ) or us ing triangular irrcg uh u netw ork s (T IN) data structures tn"l shown), c) The ID W d igital
sur fnc-e model is p"nraycd in shaded-relief. The tcrram is modeled a, ifrhe sun were in the northwest casting shadows that fall
toward the viewer, Canogmphic theory suggests that this is nne of the best "'~ ~s h' communicate three-dimensional informalion, d ) Last-return rmr ssr<.l i nt~ ov erlaid on dig ital orthophotcgr aphy can also be useful.

kight and biomass and building heig ht informarion (e.g..

ef-ky ct II I. 2005 ; 1\ ta. 2( 05 ). 111)1.\ ever hal i f .... I' desire a
are-Earth d igitalte rrain model I DTM ) itho ut thc presence
trees and or ma n- made structures? How is it created'!

re
m

Extraction of Bare-Earth Digital Terrain Models (DTMs)

'"

the purpose o f a LIDA R overfl igtu is to collect J OlIOl to ereIe

a digital terra in mod el. the presen ce of vegetatio n (and

Ilbcr surface obstmcnons j ca n be a nuisance . In areas 1;0 \ mJ by dense \ egcunion. the major ity o f the LlDAR returns

will he from the ca nopy. with only a few pul ses reach ing the
ground . Hendrix l ll)l)9 ) found thai up III 9 ) '};' o f Ll DAR
pu lse s neve r reached the ground in mixed bonomlund hardwo ods ncar Aike n. Sc. Separating gro und returns from vegetatio n ca nop y return s call be problematic. Nev crth etc ss. it
ca n be don e.
A ba re- Earth d igual terrain model I DT~I ) may be created by
systemati ca lly rem ov ing masspoint s in the first , mtcrmcdiate. and/or last return UDA l{ data that co me fro m trees.
shrubs. and ('\ en g rass that extend abo ve the bare grou nd.
Th is procedure is typ ica lly performed in ' w 0 steps: I ) semi-

C11 \ I'TFR

342

10

L1DAR Remote sensing

1I

I.ID,\ I{ Dat a of th e Sa va n na h River Sill' O brat ncd o n Odn hl' r Ill, 21104

S<

"

"
a
d
I'

Fig ure 104

:H Inverse distance \\ clghung (1I)W) <lrplied 10 first-return lll H R data to create a digual surface modd IDS \1 I, b) lOW lip'
pH<'\! \0 last-Mum UD:\I{ ,Ltla. c ) IDW app lied 10 edited massporrns 10 cr..... rc a bare-Earth d igil:.l l terr ain model (D IM). d-f)
Shaded-relief \ crsk>n~ of a c

343

A Princ iples

marie m a~sro inl filte ring. and b lru auualmasspoint edit_(Raber CI ul., :!002; Leonard, 200 5),

tautuma uc \ 'eJ,:\'Ia liUII a lld/or \I a n-m ad e Structure

point Fillt'rillJ,:
~

landscapes contain dense vegetation. It is imperati ve

a techn ique that remov Cl> ()() - <)8% of the abovevegetation masspoints . This is don e us ing a filtering
thm that systematically P;hSI.~ through the lI D:\ R
exam ining each masspoiru and the elevation characics associated w ith its II nearest-neighbors. The filter
identifies those points thai arc a l bare ground. b) scrub. cttrccs. andor d) man-made structures. For example,
ct a l. (2002 ) deve loped an adapt ive vegeta tio n
val filter thai took into account the lIDAR- predic ted
vcr type. Suholc and Vos.sclman (2004) rev iew eight
erenr filters applied 10 twelve UDAR datasets. Progres s
been made in the development of se mia unnnatic \ cgetaand/or man-made'ohjl't: l remo val algorit hms . New algo1111m will ho pdu lly he more efficient and accurate.
!la\C

Ilanoal \ 'li~cl a l i llll a nd /or \lall-mad l' ~r u (' l u r(' \ la ss~nl t~d it i n l:.

lefonunatcly, scmlautoruu uc Ilhe ring rarely ide ntifies all

u-"spoints acsoc tat ed w ith shrubs. trees, aud'or man- made
~s (Leonard. 2005 ). n is usua lly nec essary for a wellnincd analyst to visua lly e xam ine the re su lts of app lying
Qcst'miau toma tic filte r and then selectivel y ide ntify and Sl:'t
side an)' abov e-grou nd masspnints that wer e not detected
emimuomancally. Th is approach may involve vie wing the
im clouds in 3-d ime nsio ns o r o verlaying the ma sspnims
00 rectified ae rial photog rap hy, The manually edi ted mas sloint' can 1I1I.'n be used to create' a hare-Earth digital terrain
wodrl (DT M J. Figures 10-40: an d l u-a fdc pic t a bare-Earth
DD,1in which allofrhc vcgctarion und huilJ ings ha ve bee n
eeovcd. Figu re 10-5" presents an e n l ;\r~ l:d view o f a sllla ll
pan of thl"lire;! show n in fi gu T<.' ] O-h; a nd I 0--4 f v, itll the lilkred bare- b rth m a s~ po i n ts uverla id on thc last rct urn ID\V
OS\t NOle the {lata vo ids on the bui l,ling rtHl rto ps I I here Ihe
rlmr oints v.'Crl"del eted hy aUlomated and/ llr man ua l Ii her{I~ The hare-Earth masspo illts can then be pn K:esscd to
)ield a DTM that contains no huild ings <IS show n in Figurl,'
1).5d, Note also that almost all (lfthe- vege-t;Hjon pres ent in
it fi~t- and last-return U DAR d ,lla I Figures IO-~a . b and
I)...Id.e) is go ne in Ihe oo.re-Elln h DT~ 1 shown in Fi ~u rc 10lo: and I(l...4 f.

be' used h. mod e l the now o f wa ter on the ground. then we

wou ld not want 10 usc the n TM show n in Fi gure IO-4 f(and
Figure 1O..5d) bec ause the buil dings have bee-n removed.
Instead . we wo uld want tu re move all above-grou nd veget atio n and the n create the D'Tj..l . The DT ~I wo uld con ta in
bare-Ea rth and build ing elevation information. A hyd rologic
mudd using th is DT \-t wouhl I1 m\ water co rrectly around
bu ildings. not thro ugh them.

xtost U D.-\ R ~)".tC'ms provrdc an mll.'flsity ti le in add ition 10

the multiple reru m da ta For example.the intensity data produccd by the Lc ica A LS4 l1 50 L1 1)A R sy..tern rep resents the
peak voltage o r the return ~ignal as recorded b) the system
co ntroller (LI..mard, ::!OO5). The recorded imcnsity is in mos t
cases not the integration of the' returned echo from all the
pulse returns, but just ih maximum I Ba ltsa\ ia... 1 ~ ) . Th e-re
a rc several factors which influence the inten s ity valu e.
Fn-a. it is rmponaru III remember tha t laser light is mono-

chromatic and has a n esucmcly smal l bandwid th (c .g .. ~ - 5

nnu usua lly centered on a ncar-infrared wave lengt h (e .g..
I n4t. nm). Conversely, mu ltispectra l remote sensing bandwidths an... o ften 50
100 11m w ide al tho ugh hypcrspcctral
senso rs might have bandwid ths as sma ll a s 10 nm ( Ba ltsavias. 144<) ,. Other signilica nt factors include the- ra nge to the
target, an gle of incidence a nd atmosph eric dis persion. In
add ition. the system controller also reco rds the state of the
AGe (automa tic gai n co ntrol). Till: AGe ci rcui t (IdJush the
retu rn signal gain in response 10 cha nges in ta~e't reneeranee. T he gain and irucnxity vafucs may vary ove r a sce ne
ami from day 10 da y. This vnriahility in ga in conr rol can
cause' problems v.hell inlt'lll rct ing intens ify da ta ( Leon ard,

2no:,).
I'heor elil'a lly, one would th ink tha t because the la ser uses
nl'a r- infr;tn: d lighl that lhe intensi ty val lie lit eac h (lf the masspoi nt l(leations would 111 et l e'et ht' si milllr to the- relle-etane c
fuun a w hen cu nduet ing Ilptiea l relllole se nsi ng in the n('arinfrar cd port ion o l" t he spc(l rum. Unlo l1unatcly. this is not
the- case. !'or e xam p le. Figu re j(J(,a prese nls a D S ~ 1 pro duced usin g [DW a pplied to lasHet uru U DA R data . Figure
1O-6 h i" an irncnsity DS\ 1 prod llCed using lO W. Th e iotensit~ image- contains 11 we alth 111" dcl ailltlld in many re-,;P'Xh
1110 ks like 1I panchro matic aerial phutograph o f the' study
area. 11 0w<\ er. Ihere ;Ire snm.: intt'resting annmlllies when
we ellmpare the i n h:n s i t~ image tn v. hat WI.' wou ld ex pl.'t:t to
lind in a t~ piea l b laek-andwh ite nl'a r-infrared ima ge.

lis importantlo no te thal the linal har e-Earth DT fll mayor

m;.. nOI include- man-made struClures such as bu ildlllgs. For

fumple. if we' arc cu neertled w ith creating a DT\-1lhat will

First. consitlcr the lal)!e forested area show n atlJ in Figure

10-6b . Thi s is a malOre 1~) r~'St that has suh-Iant ial loca l re lie f

nI Af'TEIt

344

10

lI DAR Remot e Sensing

---

Distribution of ;\I asspoint s After Digita l and vl anual Ed iti ng

'.

~ ,.

--.. );

:./'''-

.' " ' , ;-

c. Edit...! I,u"'l",inh uvcrlafd on 1 x 1 III ll rlh opholo ,

Rgure 10-5

3) Edited rnlls~r "illl ~ ovcrkud nn the onginnllast-rctum Inw digital sur ra(~' mudd. h) Sbudcd-rclicf version "f (a). c) Edi[~
tl\llss po irlls overlaid I'll an on hophotc. d j Har e-Earth digitalterrain mudd in a trian g ular irreg ular netw or k (T l f'; ) data slruC1Ur:

as ev ide nced by the bngju ret urn i ll till' adjac ent last retu rn
data set (Figu re 10-(,;1 ). We would normally e xpect this area
ICl appear bright in a black-and- white nca r-infrared image.
Conve rse ly, it ap pea rs qui tc dar k in the inte ns ity image.
Simil arly. consul...r several ind i\ idua l decid uous trees at
location h in Figure 10-6 11 and show n in Figu re 10-7. These
IfC<:S a lso ex hib u less mrcn suy than ex pec ted . The natural
grass surround ing these tree s has a higher intensity range
than the trees I Fig ure H)-7..: l_
Fina lly. convidcr the hrighl areas at location c in the mrencrty
image I Figu re IO(,bl . The nort hern half o f three of the rest-

pad mound s were cleared lind sodded with centipede grJli

do not have as much biomass as rhe trees III a Of b.
Nevertheless. they ex hibit II w ry hrigh l return in the mIl.'[)suy imag e ( Figure lO-6hl.

T hC'~'

In these ex amp les , it appears that when the Ll lJAR pulse

encounter trees. vo lume sc.utcring wi thi n th..: tree canOl'!'
red uces the amount o f ene rgy bnckscau crcd toward dt
L1D..\ !t recei ver. Th is causes the lrees to appear dark in dt
imcnsuy image ry, Conversely. L.IIH .R pulses that hit l!'t
natura l gra ss at locauon h and new ly sodded cen npcde grail
at locauon (' are not absorbed or scattered away, Ratho:r. l

LIOA F

34 5

IJA R Princ iples

LlIHR Last Return and lutcnsfty. nata

a, UOAR lIl'''~~ distance wtl ghled

last-return elevation.

Figure 10 -6

on

b. L1D.\R intensity,

Inverse distance \\ clghtmg applktl III L1 0AR last-return data. til IDW al'ph~.,j \0 L1IHR illlcnslt) data . Three ..rcas are highlighted for d iscus sion .

;1 )

won g ret urn exit s these mixed grass a nd bare-Earth surfaces

C3 using them to appear bright.

Many of the buildings are " righ t in th... intensity image suggesting (hM most of the inc ide nt laser pulse is buckscauc red
resulting in ~tf(lllg voltage read ings . The intens ity or thc
return is a function of the rooft op material.
leonard (2005) states thai ra nge and angle o f incidcnc.., al so
hal e an effect on intensity readi ngs ov cr the cou rse o fa si ngle l1ightli nc . As the UD AR scanni ng mi rror moves fr om
nadir III t he lodge or the fiel d of view mo re c nt:~y is
rerlccrcd away from the receiver optics . A s a resu lt. ime nsity

readi ngs arc higher closer III n,ld ir than at the edge. Range to
larget is anot he r signif ica nt factor in intens ity normaliza tio n,
Sho rter ra nges ha ve high er intensity readings due ttl less
atmospheric signa l lo st.
Cu rren tly, there are no rigorou s guideli nes about ho w ( 0
inte rpret LIDA R intens ity images . Neve rtheless. it is clear
th;II they contain a wealth o f inforrnano n. For exam p le. co nsider Color Plate 10..1 whic h de picts the intensity data
dra ped o ver the last return elevation data for the dec iduo us
trces shown at loc at ion h in Figure 10-6 b. When these data
arc co lor-ended i Co lor Plate 10-1 ti} and e valua ted ubliq uc ly
(Colnr Plate [Il-Le], it is cle ar t hat the intensity o f the return s

346

ClIAI'I HI

UDAl{ L l..c(-t{eturn Eleva tio n C Ollipa red n it h

a. In\l' J"',C distance "cighlcd last-return e1c\at ion.

10
1.11),\1{

L1DAR Remote Sensin g

Intt'Il'iily

b. Shaded-rehef versjon of(a l.

Figu re 10-7

aj Inverse drstence ~cig h llnl:! applied

to tasr.rerum data. h) Shaded-reliefver~ion of ta). c ) UDAl( inlcnsily data.

c. LlDAI{ intensi ty.

in The trees is a func tion Ilfhll\\ far the pu lses penet rated into
the tree canopy, Such iufornuuion could 1\0: related to tree
b iophysical cha ract eristic s (c.g .. LAI. perc ent canopy closure, biomass. basal area l.

Contours

or

Sometimes it i., valuable [0 extract contours {lines

equa l
CIC \3I il' n ) from DS\1s or DT\1s to hig hlight subtle
drtfcrc nces in the te rrain and 10 ide ntify lk rrcss inns. Fo r
exa mple. co nsider tho: test pad mounds located at c- in Figu re
10-6h. These rcstp..J s were engineered "'lCt.: ifica lly to tcst
the effcc nvcncsv of venous clay-cap materials used 10
protect subsurface hazar dous materials . var ious Iy ~ s of
impe rmea hlc po lyure thane barriers .......rc plac...-d on the
testpads. covered with clay. and planted wit h centipede
grass . The surface.. ~ ere thc-n leli to the ravages of nature .
L1DA R first-return data of'thc tesrpad .. processed using lOW

a re presen ted in Figu re 10-1'01. A shaded -reliefv ersio n onhe

I[)W OS I,,,j is sho wn in Fig ure ]{)Xb . Note that one-halfot
the trees were re mo ved in the northern hnlf'o fthrcc ofih e
test pads and not on th..., custcm -mo control testpad The
clear ed arc us on the three ll:slpads were sodde d with nell
cc ntip....dc grass at the time ufd.ua co llect io n.

T he las t-return U [)AR da ta w ere filtered using automated

und manua l proced ures to de rive thc har e- Eart h DT ~l shown
in Fig ure IO-l,l,1. A s ...xpccted. almost all of the trees present
in the first-return lima (fig ure W- X,,) hav e been removed
De~ r itc its usefulness. it is not possiblc 10 visually extract
quanti tative intorma non about the nat ure of the Icstpads
from the bar e- Eanh DT\1 shown in Figu re 1O-9a . [I is onl~
when wc der ive con tours ur other sy nthetic ]D
rep resentat ions from the bare-Earth DTI\I thai we can
appreciate the thrce-duncusional nature of the restpu ds aDd

~A R

347

Pr incipl es

UUAR nata or t heTesl pa ds on th e Sanlll na h Rin- r Sill'

3. t n\c~ distance weighted firsl- relUm elevati on.

'.

-ie

ur

-se
rc
w

-d
n

u
l.

"s

b. Shaded-rctief' version of (a).

y
)

"j

Figure 10-a 31 Inverse di~ilnco: wcighting applied 10 first- return dna, NulO: tho: 1'1\.""<.'1k:0: " f l....,... ~ on rhc 1.-stIMt!S and in the fores t to
the east. bl Shaded -relief version ,If(a l

10

348

UDAR Remot e Sensing

AccU I

Contours Ext rac ted Ircm thc Bare-Earth Digital Terrain :\Iodd of ti ll' Testpads
T, bI

me

IcS

.,
L

-------

a. Inverse distance weighted bare-Earth elc....a uon,

--......,_..-...,.,.,,.....,~-~

h.
v

;,
2
t
I

b. Contours (0.25 m interval) derived from (a ) OVC'Tl3ld on a shaded-relief model of (a).

Figure 10- 9

al ln\ erse distance "cighh:d b are-Earth elevation. ;";010: rharihe uee, hale been ~11I" \o:<J .... ben com pared 10 Figure
10-8. b) Con tours y, uh II contour interval or O.~5 m arc ove rlaid on the shaded-relief version of (a) above.

349

lceu racy 01 L1DAR Me a surements

Vcrucal accuracy of L1 IlAR-i.k ri\ed elevation data collected for the Savannah River Site on Oc t...bcr 10, 2004. using the
G""'f'<,r/tll I'm/rion .k l'lI'C1C1SI,moardv Pan 3: ,\ m /on<l/ .')J" nd. m l/ i,r Sf'<Jti<11 /)(I/<I ~ f('lIr<l<Y ( NS SIlA 1( F{j IlC, l'l"l l'>l.

'able 10-2.

Vendo r
:l.1IlOOm.lnc.

LIDAR
sensor
Uptech
AI.TM

2050

Dat e
10-1()..1)4

Ho rizontal
datum
un t
NAD 83
l one 17

Unit s

Verti cal
d atum

Number
of c heck
points

;';AVOIl8

vs

NSSDA
RMSE

NSSOA Vertical
ac curacy at 95%
confide nce Interval
(1.96 x RMSEI

6.6 em

12.9 cm

subtle depressions. espot'ciall~ on the most eastern

tIlpa<I. The con tour iOlel'\a l was 0.25 m.

Sensing (AS PRS I ASPRS ..feeurun Sial/Janis fw WIXt.'&/111' .\f<.qIJ published in 1990.

-......

Th e Gt'o.\f/i.J/i /J / An,lr<l(y Standard fo r horizo rnal and venica l accuracy of spati al produ cts pu t forth by the FGDC IS
based o n the co mputatio n o f RM "E where ( Miller. :!(04)

.~

Accurac y of UDAR Measuremenrs

LlD:\R is a rclauvely new technology . As such. there is

Vllth)' skc pt icis m abou t its ability to provide x,v, and r -e te\'IlIon mformat um as accu ratel y as rraduional ill situ su rvey mg and pho togram mctry t e.g.. Bahsavia s, 1999; ~1cGlone.
!(04). Fortun ately, there arc acc uracy assessment standa rds
dial can hi: used to provide an unbia sed assessme nt of the
accuracy o f LIDAR---de rived prod ucts.

IISSDA Horizontal and

venice; Ac cu racy Assessme nt

Iodetcrminc the at'CU HKY o ta L1 IlAI{ ---dl' rived dig ital surfAce model (DS M I or bare-Earth J igital terrain model
IDTM), it is customary to ide nti fy in si lll x,v.;: checkpoin ts
lhmughnu tthe study urea us ing a higher accuracy technique.
such as to tal station sun ... ytng o r diffe rential GP S. E~Kh ill
l i/ll checkpo int is thc n loca ted in the 1.IDAR -dc rived DS r..t
or DTM. The nearest L1 DA R-<Jerived in fo rma t ion is then
compared w ith the loc at ion and elev at ion informat ion ass oriarcd with each in situ checkpoint. T his is performe d lor a
eumber of check points. T he results are II1<.'ll used to co mpu te
tilt horizoruu l a nd vertical acc urac y o f the Ll DAR -d.:rivcd
data expressed as the root mea n squa red erro r ( RMS E).
In 1998. the Federal Geographic D.lla Co mm ittee (FG DC)
?Ublished the G(..U//(l/itll Pnsinon Acc/lm q Standards Pan
J: 'varianaf Ssandardfor Spalla/Dala AenmJty (NSS DA I
fGOC. 1998), Th is standard rcplac cd both the Un;l.:d
!lole.~ ;\"al;onal .Hal' Accl/m cy Sll1/ldan:J~ ( N\.t ASl put>.
ls hed by the Offi ce ofManagemem and Bud get in 1 9~7 and
l!lc American Society for Pho tog rarnmetry and Remot e

R sts E

~"

L a'

(1 0-6 )

t.=.l.-

and ,\ is rhe difference between an in suu check po int measure me nt and a remote scns mg-dcnv ed measu rem ent at the
same locati on. The standard rec ommends tha t a m inimu m o f
::!O ch eck po ints toe used . i.e.. 11 > 20. The check poi nts sho uld
he o f substant ially h igh er acc uracy than the rem ote sensi ng.
de rived product und er invcstig ation.

u.e., circ ula r sta ndard error) assessment at the 95% confi denc e level is co mputed us ing

t tonz ontot (/("('/lro(1'

( 10 7)

Vertlca! (1('C/I/'(/ ( \ ' assessm ent at the 95% confi de nce level is
compu ted usi ng
I ." /I<<I! "

1.9hx RM$E

( IOS)

Equauons 10-7 and 10-8 assu me the e rro r distribu tion for .r,

y, and z arc norm al ly dis mbuted. FEMA built upon these criteria and pro vides detailed accuracy assess rncru proced ures
fo r its flood-hazard ma pp ing partners ( FE MA. 2004).
The vert ical accu racy of the L1DA R-derived elevations o n
the Savanna h River Site " as evalua ted using 95 c heckpoints
(Table \0..21. T he spatia l dismbunon o f the checkpoints on
the Mixed Waste Mana ge ment A rea and the tes tpa ds is
show n in Figure 1()"lOa.b. The vertica l acc uracy of the


OIAI'I EK

350

,\ ~ s c ss lll c n i

Chec kpoin t Locations for UDAR Accuracy

a. Checkpoints on tho:

~l ix.:J

10

LlDAR Remote sensing

011 the Sa vun uah River Site

a. Checkpoi nts on the to

wa ste Management Facility.

pads.

c. Relationship Between In S itu Ground Sun ('~: Eleva tio n a nd

IJUARdcrind Etevanen for 95 C hec kpoi nts fin th e Sa vannah River Site
" .00

9':UI I

1/

y = I.OO27.f 0.253

eo

"
E

R2= O.'l'N2
9!.OO

.1f

/"

~,,,

~.,

.,w

c.~

,J!:

""
If'''

".
rr~

. ft

f"

HIUIO

~,

LJ~
1I7.UO

X7.00

XlU)(}

10:\1.00

'X1.OO

<11.011

<,l2.01l

'HollO

ll-l ,l)()

LIDA R-J eri \'oo Elevation (meters )

Fig ure 10-10 a ) Lo canon o r c hcd ,p'.linb on 11t.:- "'!Xed Wa~IC \1 anagc mcnI Faci lity. r hls area IS clay-cap ped and covered with Ccntipetk
~rass, h) Loc utions or c h~"Ckpoi nts on the teapad s. c) Stat ist ical rela tionship bet wee n <iI'S III <il" pound sun.l1' ell' \-alionII
':15 ch.xll'uin h an d L1UAK-tlerw etl ele vat ion at tfk, sa m... locatron extracted fh lll1 a bare- Earth TI ~ d igita l terrai n model
( DT \ 11. The ;\'lfifm<lf .'iI<lm l..zrJJor Sp",;"f /J<Jr" AC<"Ilrlh:Y ( t\ SSll A) vertic al ac..: urac)' ass.."S5ml"l1t statistics arc su mmarized

;11 Table 10-2.

:DAR-d eri ved Veget ation In forma t io n

UoAR da ta according to the :"SSDA specificanens was

Qem. As e xpected . the U DA R- dc rived ele vation values
ere highly correlated with the GP S insuu eleva tion meaems (Figure 1O-1Oc).
iJJer(2004) stilted t hat LIDAR- derived vertica l accu racies
r: usually in the 5 to 30 em range. Hut does this level of
It\lracy hold up when the terrain is steep? Does it ho ld up
IIr all land-cover types (e.g . bare soil , grassland . shrubJ
mb. fores t, desert, water, shallow wa ter, icc. snow , urban
EJaslructurerl Unlike photogrammctric surveys, can
UOAR be used success fully dur ing leaf-on co nd itio ns? II is
ecfulro consider some of thes e questions .

)r;"uence of Land Cover, Slop e, and Leaf-on/off

Condition on UDAR-derived Elevation Accuracy

~lany

scientists are invesl igating the e ffect s of la nd cover;

1l1pe. and lea f-on/o ff cond ition on L1DAR-d('ri\'('d elevaIloo accuracy.

;..~

......

<...

U DAR-derived VegetatiOn Information

'

The ability of LlDAR technology to obtain returns fro m

hot h vegetation and the ground surface has useful appl icatio ns in measuring vegetation attribu tes. Weltz et al. ( 1994 1
used a profil ing L1 DAR system to map vegetation height
and canopy cover at the Wa lnut Gulch experimental watershed in Arizona. This study demo nstrated the ahi li t~ of
L1DAR to distingui sh between different \ egctauon comm unities and ground-cover type s. 1'\il s~on ( 19<)6) exam ined the
usefulness of 1. IDAR fo r csrimaung timber volume as a pan
ofS.... eden's Nationa l f o rest Inve ntory.

Zimble et al. (2003) were ab le III ex tract vertical forest s tructure information from small footprint L1DAR data. They
obtained tree hcigfu information by subtracting the bareEarth DT M from the Ist-rcturn DSM. i.e. tree height DS~I
ht return DSM - bare Earth DT~1.

Hod gson et al. (200 5) invest igated thc effects

ri land cover and surface slope using leaf-off L1DARiI:ri\'ed clevanon data for a watershed in the piedmont of
~orth

351

Carol ina. Survey-grade elevation checkpo ints ( 1,225)

ferseven differen t land cove r classes were obtained. Lil lA R

elevatton error fur points associ a ted with the seven landrover classes ranged from 14.5 em ill low grass to .~ 6 . 1 em
or dense shrub/scrub. Eleva tions found in pine and deciduforest e xhibucd mean errors of 27.6 em and 27.3 em,
respectivel y. On average, the Ll DAR-derived elevatio n
. 'I"- pred ieted true elevation regard less o f land-cover rype.
The under-pred iction was signific ant. and ranged up to 23.6
ClII under dense pine land cove r.
QIIS

!II another study, less-dense pine exhibited elevation errors

pavCI11':lU and low gras s ( Hodgson and Bresn ahan.
10(4). The finding that scrub-shrub and deciduous landcover exhibited the highest error appe ars 10 be consistent
regardless oficaf-o n/leaf-o lTcondition (e.g., Hodgson et af.
2OO3ah; Hodgson and Bresnahan. 20041. Basically, it
appears that the more dense scrub/shrub and deciduous landrever keep s laser pulses from reach ing the ground, ca using
tIJt interpo lated elevation surface to he derived from the few
points that do reach the groun d. The res uhing DSM or DTM
may contain error.
I> low as

Carbo n sto rage in moderate to high biomass forest:> is d ifficu lt to estim ate with conventional opt ical or radar sen so rs.
Lcfsky et al. (2H05) compared the re lationships between
LlDA R-lIIeilsured canopy structure and co incident field
measurements of forest stand structure at five locations in
the Pacific Nort hwest. T hey obtained Coefficient of Determination values (R ~ l for LAI and ab oveground biomass of
Kl % and 9.:! ~"'. respectively.
"orris et a l. (2005 ) used L1DAR data 10 chara cterize the etcvaticn habitat of two salt marsh spec ies in North Inlet, Sc.
Approximately IU)"/. of the Sf'/lrtmll alterniflora exi sted
within the narrow elevation range from 0.22 - 0..181 m ASL
whi le 80% of the } III/<'US roamerionns existed within the elevation range 01' 0.296 - n .9S 1 m ASL.

LlDAA-derived Urban Information

LJO,\ R--<k ri \ ed information are e tten used in urban applications such as:
identifYing

the

locarion and

elevation of milily

transmissionJines (Maune. 200 J ):

Hodgson ct al. (201l5) foun d that over the small slope range
In their study area (0" to I tn . there was no t a struisucu lly
ligni ficam increase in L1 DAR -d crivcd elevation error as rhc
dopes increased . However. Ihey did find that slope errors
from L1DAR-dcrived produ cts increased with increasi ng
saface slope, typically undc r-prcdic un g true slope by 2 c.

obtai ning accu rate building elevation (c.g ., Mn, 20(5 );

meavuring the elevation c haracterisuc s of transportation
infrastructure such as highw ays. bridges and overpasses
(~CRST. 2( 04):

10

352

L1DAR Rem ote Sensing

L1IH I~-d l'rivt'd Ele vation uf :Xl'W Yurk C ity. r\Y. afte r Septem ber II , 21111 1

Fig ure 10 -11

Perspective \ icw of ]\"cw Vorl Cit}'. l\'Y. aficr September I I. ::00 1. 1111: pik uf rubble i~ associated with lhc Twin To... ~
!h.! \W'rld Trade Center IIJ IMR data courtesy of Eanhltata lntcmanonal; Jen sen and Ilod gwn. :'!ClOI; 10llof>j.

identifying optimum routes that require the least cu t and

till (e.g.. Cow en ct al.1UOOJ; and
urba n cnviroruncru visualization [Q ucija ct 31..1(105).
Be fore and after L1 DA I{ -dcrivcd elevation data a TC t'SPCcially useful for calculating the J llW UnI of ma ter ia l cxcuvated (scoured }or deposited m a regio n (e.g . Shresth a et al..
200 51. hIT e xample, LIIJ AJ{- ..lcrivcd elevation in fo rmat ion
were used to compute the volume ofrubble assoc iated wi th

the Twin To wers of the World TmM Center in New York

City (Figure 10- 11) (Jen sen and Hodgson. :!OO(l).

The Future of LlDAR Remote Sensing

future (e.g.. LA I. biomass ). II wi ll also be use-d e xtensi~r!!

to oh l;lin three-dimensional urban infrastructure informaia
(e.g.. huilding foot pnm s and hcigh t). U l)AR in"trulOOl1l
will eventually he flow n on unmanned aerial vehicles.

z:~

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( IlA l' n :w.

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10

LIDAR Rem ote Sensing

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Tra n" p"r /<lt i",, '

" DU ', 2U1)6 . V" ' I<,m<l1 DI/(I/<I' 1":1<01;0" I''''Kru m. Was hingto n:
~O Er. www. ndcp . gov.

Nilsson. M.. 1996. " Esum a nou of Tree Heights and Stand Volume using an Airbc mc L1DAR system." R."mm e S':lu i"g of
Environment, St>( I): 1- 7.
Quc ij a. V. R.. Sto ker. J. \1 . and J.J . Kowv ich. 2005. " Rec en t
U_SGS . Ap plicati on s of L1 () A I{ . ~ I'h(lfo!?ram m..,ric En!?,.

" <'erin/{ &

Re"llJle .~".""I/'.

Sanborn. 2UtlS. LlD.4R Tf!.: llRu!uK"II. Colorado Spri ngs:

Map C"mp.;lny. w~w.san born .com .

Shn:'lha. R, L.. Caner. W.. Sarto ri, \t.. Luzum. B. 1. and ~

Stillion. ~OO ~ . " Airhom.. La, ..r Swath Mapping : Quanti~
Changes in Sandy Rea ches (WeT Time Scales of Weetl
Y..ars . ~ !SPRS ;"'''RU! vj I'Jrul''Kru",motlry ,( R~lrlOle Steing . 59 :222-2.32.

'10.

U.S u S.. 200t>, SJV'lJ.trd_ fur DIK' ful He"vllOl/ MoJ..J).

ing ton : USGS ~ at i onal \l app ing Div ision. hnp:!
ping .usg ~. I!0\"S1 andard ~ index . btml.

71( 1);1-5 .

Ra be r. U . Hodgvon. \1. 1:::. and J. R. Je nse n. 211(1(,. "I m pact o f L1O:\ R Nominul Postmg Dcus uy till Il \1 Accu racy. Hyd ra ulic
M odeling, a nd Floo d Zo ne Delineation ." f'/"'/(Igr <lmmClr ic

Wel t!'. \t o r\ . J. C . Ritchi ... an d II . D , Fox . 11)9 t " Compm.

o f Las.., and H e ld \t..a suee rnc ms o f Vegctarien Height .Ca no py Co' e r: 11 m.., Ruvu,.. ..j Rej'"u",h. 30151:1311D 11).

t,'n gm" ('ri"K .{ R" nlf"" S.'R<lnK.72 : in p ress.

Raber, G. T. Jc nce n. J. R,. S.h ill . S. R. and Ie Sc huc k man. 2002.

"Creation of Digita l Ter rain

" I odd ~

USIng A n Adapnv e Lidar

Llmblc.D. A.. Evan s, D. L.. Carlso n. G C . Pa rker. R. L Ot!doh . S C. a nd P. D. Gerard . 2003. "Characterizin g Vo:nial
Fore se SlI1.1 ltU": U ~ i n g Small- footprint Airborn.. U DAR,"
H,'mo/. ' S" Il.\/IIX '~I 1I\'i rullm " II/. 117 ; 17 l - l l'i 2 .

Remote Sensing of Vegetation

11

son

m,

ern

c.

"''0,.

PprO),imatel Y 10 percent of the Earth 's land surface is covered w ith vegctation. Fun rmcre. vegetation is one of the most Important components of
ecosj stem s. K no.... ledge about variations ill ...egetaticn species and community distributio n patterns. alterations in "q;elll.lioll phenological (growth,
cycles. and rnodificauons in the plant physic Ob'Y and morphology pro' ide
valuable lO~ight into the cl ima tic . edaphic. ge\)logic. and physiographic characterisucs or au area (WCiCTS ~ al.. 2004 ; Jack - and Jensen. 2(05). Scienlists. hav c d,;"HliOO significant effort 10 develop sensors and ... isual 3nJ dillilal
image processing algorithms to extract important '"-tlctatiIJIl bicphyslcal
information from remotely sensed data te.g.. Town shend and Justice, 200 2) .
Many o f the remote sensing tec hniq ues are generic in nature and may be
applied 10 a variety of vegetatedlandscapes. including :
agriculture

forests
rangeland
v. et land

man icured urban' cg etation,

lo is ch apte r lnrr odaccs the fundamen tal conce l::i associated wi th vegeta tion
biophysica l c hara<.' tcristlcs and how rem otely scns<.' u data cun he proc essed to
prov ide un ique info rmat ion about these parn melers. It t hen sum mari zes some
of the vege ta tion indi ces deve lope d to ex trac t h iophysil-al vegetalion informa tion from digital rem ote sen sor c ta. Seve ral o f the memes used by land scapc ecologists to extrac t meanin ul param eters ahour vegeta t ion patch
sha pe. s ize, etc.. us ing remote sen su data arc then sunun ari/cd. C ase studies
arc pro vided throughout the chapter n remote sensing ofngriculturc. inland
wetland , coastal wetland. and biodiv ersity,
Photosynthesis Fundamentals

Oil and coal today prov ide mor e I n 90 percent of the energy needed 10
po wer automobiles. trains. trucks. Sl lpS. airplanes. facto ries, and a myria d o f
elec trically energized ap pliance s. comeuters, and co mmunication systems _
The energy .... uhi n oil and coa l wa"...,riginally " ca ptured" from the Su n by

355

356

plants grow ing millions o f years ago that were transfo rmed
into fossil fucls by geological ti;l TCCS. Therefore. photosyn thes is. at least mdir ec tly, is n OI only tho: princi pa l me ans of
enabl ing a civilized soc iety to func tion normally but al so the
sole mean... of sustaining lite - ('<eept for a few bacteria that
derive thei r energy from sulfur salts and other ino rganic
compounds. Th is unique photosy nthe tic manu fact uring proces s of green plants furni shes raw mate rial, energy. and o xygen . In photosynthesis. energ y from the Sun is harnes sed and
packed into sim ple sugar molecules made from water and
carbon dioxide ((O!) w ith the a id of chlorophyll. O xygen
to! ) is give n off as a by-prod uct of the process.
The natu ra list Joseph Priestly discovered in 177::! thai whe n
he placed a ca odtc in an Inverted jar il wou ld bum out
quickly, lo ng be fore il ran out of "3'\. I le also found that a
mouse wou ld die if placed under the same j ar. He believed
that the air was injured by the candle and the mouse- bUI that
it cou ld be resto red by placi ng a plant under the jar. Jan
tngen -Hou sa hui ll on Priesuy's e xpe rimen ts and d isco vered
in 1788 tha t the in fluence of sunlight on the p lant could
cause it to resc ue the mo use in a few ho urs. In 1796 the
French pastor Jean Scne bic r d isco vered that it wa s the ca rDon d iox ide. CO~ . in the jar that was the inj ured a ir and that
it was act ua lly tak en up by the p lants . Finally. Theodore de
Saussure dem on strated that the increase in the mass of the
pla nt as it gro ws wa s due not only to the uptake of CO 2 b ut
also to the uptake ofwlLIer. 1l20. In the early twe ntieth cen tury. sc ientists found tha t the oxygen for phot osynt hesis was
deri . . 'cd Irom the wa ter. In effect. light energ y en tering the
plant sp lits the wate r into oxygen a nd hydrogen. The photosynthetic process is described by the eq uation

(" H A I' (Hol

11

Re mo te Sensing of Vegetation

leaves and canopies appe ar sp ec trally .... hen recorded

remote sensi ng instruments.

Spec tral Charact eri stic s of Vegetation

A healthy green leaf interce pts inci dent rad iant flux ( ~
directly from the Sun or from d iffuse sky light scattered
the lea f Th is inc ident elcctromagncnc ene rgy interact;
the pigrn ems. water . and interce llu lar air spaces WIthin
plant leaf. TI1.: amount of rad iant nUI\ reflected from the101
( $p I. thc amount of radi ant nux abso rbed by the l~f ( ltl.
and the amount o f rad iant flux transmitted through tilt IelI
( ~ T ) can be carefully mea su red as we apply the ene~ b!!ance eqoanon and atte mpt to keep track o f what haf'PCD$
all the inci dent e nergy. Th e ge ne ral equation for the m\tn:
tion of.\]k(lml (i. ) rad iant nU_\ on and \\ uhin the leafis

""

Divid ing eac h o f the variables hy the origina l inc ident ram.
ant IlU\, 41,

(ll-j
yiel ds
( 1 1 ~1

where P l.. is spectral hemisp herica l reflectance ufthc leal

is spec tral hemispherica l ubsorptancc. and "ti. is Spcl1ral
he mis pherica l trans mittance by the lea f Most remote ~cn)
ing systems funct ion in the 0.35 - 3.0 urn reg ion mcasunng
pri marily re fl ected energy, Th erefore . it is useful to thinkor
this relationship a s
Q ).

Phomsymhesis is an energy-storing prec ess that lakes p lace

in lea ves and other green part s o f plants in the presence o r
ligh t. T he Iighl energy is stored in a simp le sugar mol ecu le
(g lucose ) that is produc ed from car bo n diox ide (C0 2)
present in the a ir and water l 1120) absorbed hy the plant p rimarily throug h the mo l sys te m. When the ca rbo n d ioxid e
an d the water arc com bine d and fo rm a sugar molec ule
(e(>B 1: ( in a ch loro plast, oxygen ga s tOll is re leased as a
by-product. T he oxygen d iffuses out imo the at mosphe re.
The ph otosy nthet ic proc ess begins " he n sunlig ht str ikes
ch!o /TJplm ts. small bodies in thc lea f tha t co ntain a gree n
substance ca lled chlorophyll.

I I 1-5)

.... he re the en ergy reflected from the plant leaf surface is

eq ual to the incld em energy mi nu... the energy absorbed
d irect ly h) the plant fo r photosynthetic or other pulpOSt'I
and the amount of energy tran ...mined d irectl y through tk
leaf onto other leaves or the ground beneath the ca nopy.

Dominant Factors Controlling Leaf Reflectance

Plants have adapted their internal and ex te rna l structure to
perform pho tosynt hes is. Th is structure and its intera ction
w ith electromagnetic energy has a direct impact on ho w

Pioneering work b)' Gates et at. ( 19M ), G au ...mann er at.

( 1969 ). M) C~ (I nO) and ot hers demonstrated the impor

Spo

357

ral Characterist ics 01 Vegetati on

lS illg

Spectr al C har acrer tstlcs (If

Ih' lllth~- ( ; n '('11

n 'l.:elalion

Lei\f p1b'TTlc nlS

in the palisa de

Dum ina nt Fliclo n [

mCMlphyl!:

Contro lli ng Leaf

Reflec ta nce

ch lorophy ll u, b

Sca tte ring in the

!l-c;uulcne. CIC.

J;po0g)' nlc'IophylJ

LCJf water content

1:': : : ;: : =:::: : : : : ==:::: : ::

. [

'0"

(J)i )

;\'ith

'00
90

'>(,"

)1110

I-

'0

I' rim ary-

r hl" rop h>' 1

the

leaf

71'

' I,

h a nd ~

50

'0

4"

4"

"

Jll

30

2(1

20

"e,

i 10

ac-

-;

f;

III

0.4

.5

"

"

"

10

.~" -a

"

3)

a
",3
,

3'

-2)

eo a0

" I-

3
~
~

MI

-"

leaf

70

a h~ orp1ion

,.

.7

,
.Q

1.0

1.2

I.,

1.4

2.U

2.2

2."

2.6

Wavclcng th. jrm

I

"

I
,I

F9Jre 11-1

r-

"f

"

Spect ra l rcuectancc characrc rbucs ofhcahhy green vegetation fur the \\ ilvc!l:nglh inlcn al 0 ,4 2.(' 11m, Th e dominant fact ors
comrolhng k at" reflectance a n: the various leaf pigments in the pnlisadc mes" phy ll te.g.. chloro phyll (/ ami h. and li-ClI rolle" c).
the .call.:ring o f nca r-mfrared ener gy in t he spongy mcsophyll. and th..: al11 (1unt "f" atcr in the plant. Tho: primary ..:hlowphyll
al>~\lrp(illlll>alld ~ IIccur:1I n,O _ 0.4 5 J.Hn and 0.1i5 _ o.o li).Jm in the ,i slhl... region. rh c primar y wate r .d',orpt inn bauds llccu r
,ll {)<)7, U I/, 1.45, 1.')4. and 2.1 1Jrn,

ance o f unders tamling ho w le a f pigllle'llIS , inter na l scatterIl@.. and leaf water content affect the' reflectance and
ansminance propert ies of leave s (Peterson and Runnin g,
9~Q }. Dominant factors co ntro lling lea f re flectance in th e
egion from 0,35 - 2.6 11111 arc summarized in F ig ure II - I,
laihle l.il);hl huera ctton wi th li ~ml.'lIh i n t he Pal i..a tlc
'll'W p h ~ 1I

Mrddle-iutra rcd

Nc ar- infrared

Cctb

carbon diox ide (CO:)

T he carbon dioxide fro m the a ir a nd the wate r p rovided by

the root a nd ste m syste m repres ent the fu nd a m e ntal raw
ma te ria ls of photo..ynrhcsis . Sunlig h t provid es the irradianc c

The process of feod -mak ing via phottl s} nth..:sis determines

IE~ 1

Joy.' a leaf and the associated plan t ca nop y ac tually ap pear

21iomc trically on remotely sensed images. A hea lth y leaf
eeds three th ings III mak e food :

sccuon of a Iypical green leaf if> sho wn in Figur e 11-2. The

that powe rs photos ynthes is.

The kat' j s the p ri mal}

ph llIOS) llt he~ili ng

organ. A c ross-

cell struct ure o f lea ve." is high ly va riable .tc J'lC'nd ing upo n

358

( ' II\ I"IE R

Phloem
tissue

11

Rem ote Sensing of Vegetation

Xylem
lis..sue

Chloroplast

Lower
cpi&.:nllis

SI"rnal.1

Srong v

parenchyma
m~"">ph) II cell

Actu al Lea r C re ss-sec tion

Interce llu la r

air space
Figure 112

Spongy pnrcncbymu
mesophyll cell

a) Hypothetica l cross -sccucn o f a typical hea lthy green leaf, showing b oth the lUI' a mi unders ide uf th... leaf. The chl(lfoph~ll
pigments III th... roalis;HIc parenchyma cells have a signitkam impact on rhe ahsClrpliu n and reflec tance o f vis ible light (bl~,
gr..-cu, <Hut red }, '" hi Ie the spong)' parenchyma mcsophyll cells ha v... a sign ilic3111 impact on the ahsorption and fC nccun-.:~of
near-mtrared incident ene rgy. bj Elect ron microscope Image of a green lea t:

species and e nvironmental condinons Ju ring gro wth. Carbon dioxide enters the lcaf'from the atmosphere through tiny
pores called stomata or stnmu, located primarily on the
underside: of the leaf on the /0" '(''' epidermis . Each stomata is
surrounded by gmJr(1cells thai swell or cont ract. Wh e n they

swel l. the stomata pun: opens and allows carbon dioxideIC

enter the leaf. A typica l sun llo w cr leaf migfu have 2 millioD
stomata. bur they make up nnly about I percent of the leafs
sur face area, Usually, there are more stom ata on the: bottom

Spectral Char acteristics 01 Veget ation

aleaf; howeve r. on so me lea ves the stomata arc c\ en l)

brributcd o n both the upper a nd lower epidermis
top layer of lea f IIPP"" epidermis cells has a cuticnlor
ace thai diffuses hut re fle cts very lillie light (Philpott.
971). It is variable in thic knes s hili is oflcn on ly 3 - 5 tnu
~ i d, with cel l dimension s o f approximately 18 x 15 x 20
~. It is usefulto think ,ll" it M a waxy. mmsluccnt material
smila r rorhe c ut icle 31 the lop ofyour fingern ai l. Leaves o f
1Wl)' plants that gruw in br ight sunlight ha ve a thic k cutic le
till can fi lter out so me lig ht a nd guard ag ainst e xces sive
.wn .... ater loss . Conversely, so me pla nts suc h a\ terns and
bll~' shrubs on the f(lrt.~1 Iloor must sun ivc in shaded conMions. The leav es of many of these p lants have a thin cu ntle"'O thai the p lant can couec t as muc h of the dim sun light
"possible for pho tosy nthesis.
Yany Iea\t."" in direct sunllg.h t have hairs gro\lling out ofthe
IlppCT (and 10\-lcT) e pidermis. cau s ing them 10 fed fU/.z) .
l1Ie~e hairs ca n be hendid:a l, ;ls they reduce the i nt c n ~i l Y o f
Ik Incident sun light h' the plan t. Nevertheless . much o f the
li,ihle and near-infrared wavelength ene rgy is transmitted
d1 rough rhc cuticle and lIppl'r epidermis to the pulisude
Nlrench) rna mcsoph y II cells a nd spongy parenchyma mesopbyll cells below.
PhoIosynlhesis occ urs inside the typical green lea f in tw o
uoo:> of food-making cells - l'alisIlJ~' p<1Il'lIchyma and
lP"'ngy parenchyma mcsop hyl! cells. \100;,1 leaves haw a disIIFICI layer o f lon g pa lisad e parenchyma cells in the upper
put of the mcsophyll and more irregu larly shaped, loosely
eranged spon gy paren chyma ce lls in the 10 \-1 cr part of the
eesophy ll, The pal is,l(!l' cel ls ten d totorm in the portion o f
the mesophyll tow ard the side from which the light enters
:he leat: In most horizontal t pla nophile j l e ;l \'C~ the: palisade
ceils will be toward the upper sur face. but in leaves that
grnw nearly vertical [crcctophilc ]. lhl' pal isadl' 1'e1 ls may
fonn from hntll side s. In S(1m~' Icilves the clongat~'d palis,lde
:lls arc entirely abs ent anu only spo ngy pllrl'llehyma cell s
.,ill ex isl within the mesop hy l!.
Ibl' ed lular slruc lure of the lea f is la'l!e co mpared to the
of ligh t tha i inte ract wit h it. Pali ~uc cel ls arc
typically 15 x 15 x no !Jm. whi te spongy me"llphyll parench)'ma ce lls are sma ller. T he- pa lisade paTl'nehy ma me:<o~)' II p lant ce lls co nta in r.: h1oroplasts w ith ch lorophyll
pigmcnls.
uH'le ngt h~

The ch loro pbsts arc gcnera lly 5 - 8 11m in d iamet er and

1bout I !Jm in w idth , As m..m y as 50 chloroplasls may be
in caeh paren ch)'lI1a cel l. \\'ithill the chloro plasts arc
long slender grlll/(/ slrands (n"l sh".... n l wi lh in whkh th..:

prtSl'nt

359

chlorophy ll i.. actuall y located (approximately' 0.5 urn in

lengt h and (l.OS urn III diameter) . The chloroplasts are generally more abundant tU" ;lrd urc upper side o f the leaf in the
pa lisade cells and hence accou nt for the darker green appearnnce o f the uppe r lea f surface co mpa red with the bottom
Ii~ht.:r surface.
1\ molecule, wh en struck fly a wave or phot on of light ,

rencct s some ofthe energy or it ca ll absorb the ener gy and

thu s enter into a higher energy or exc ited state (refer to
Ch ap ter 2 ), Eac h molec ule absorbs or re flect s its ow n characterb uc \\ a\ elengths o f light. Molecules in a typical green
plant have evol ved to abso rb wa velengths of light in the visihlc region o f the spectrum (O.J5 - 0 .70 !Jm ) very well and
arc called pigments. An absorption spec trum for a part icular
pigmcru describes the wavelengths at whi ch it can absorb
light and enter into a n exc ited stare. Figure II-Ja presents
the absorp tion spec trum of pure chlo rophy ll p ig ments in
so lut io n. C hlorophy ll " and b a n: the mo st impo rta nt p lant
prgm ems ab sorbing blue a nd red ligh t: chlorophyll II at
wavelengths of 0.43 und 0.(6)Jm a nd chlorophyll b at wavelengths 01'0.45 and 0.65 um (F arabee, 19( 7). A re lative lack
of nbsorpnon in the wavelengths bet ween the two c hlorophy ll absorp tion bauds produces a trou gh in the absorption
e fficiency at approx imately O.5-l !Jm in the green portion of
the ele ctromagne tic spectrum (F igure 11-3a). Thu s. it is the
r..: lat h el ) lower absorpt ion of green wavelength light (ccornpared to b lue and red light ) by the le af that causes healthy
green folia ge to appear green to ou r eyes.
There are othe r pigm ents pre sen t in the palisade mesophyll
cel ts that are us uall y rna- ked by the abundance of chlorophyll pigments. For examp le. then: are yellow " ",n lt'" e.' and
pule yellow xlImhopJry/l p igments, wuh strong absorption
primarily in the blue wavelength region. T he [l-carotene
absorption spec tra is shown ill f igu re 11-3b wi th its strong
ah~orptinn band cc nt('rt'd (It abo ul 0.4 5 !Jm. Phy coerythrin
p ignwllts Illay a ls,) bl: prescnt in the k af wh ich ah~o rb predUlllinaruly in the gree n regio n cent ered at about 0.55 !Jill.
allow ing b lue an d red light to he reflected, P h.l'C (lQ l/Ili/l pigIll.:ntl> ab sorb pri ma rily III the gre",n and red reg ion .. cen lered
al abl,lut 0.(>2 )Jill. al1u.... illg mueh ufthe b lue and som ... of the
grt.'C1l liht ( i.e., the com hination prod uces eyan ) to he
rel1 t~ (Fi gure 11 -3b ). Baus.: c hlo rophyll a and b chloroplast s a~ atso pr,,">Cnt and ha\e a si mi lar absorption band
in I hi ~ h lue reg ion. the y tend 10 dom inate and mask the effecl
of the other pigments present. \Vhcn a plant underg0C5
St.l h:sce ncc in the fa ll or eneuunlcrs SITOS. the chlo rophy ll
pigrnl'llI may disa ppear. allow ing the carolenes and other
pigmen ts to hecome domi nant . For e xamplt: . in the fal l.
chloTIJ phyll pruduction ceases. causi ng the ye llu w t'o lom tion
<)1' the c,lrotcncs and ot her l>p.:c iti e pigm ents in the trce tol i

ru \PT U I.

360

11

Remote sensing 01VegetatiOll

Phycocyanin

Ch lorophyll h "

,\ h\ Orj llin n Sp ectra

lIfC h l" r.. ph)lI " an d b

Chlorophy ll "

I
.'.'i/ :.
:

.:'
0.3

O_ J~

04

0.-1 5

rh'~lh~ f\

0.5

0.55

0.(>

{ oj

IIUti PhFuc)' lIni ll

.....

..
o.zs

A!J.. .rpuou
Spec tra
of !M:a m l l"lIe.
I' vcocrythrtn.

/ <
0.65

0.7

vio let blue

gre..n ycllo.... red
Wavelength. u rn

0.15

0.3

035

0,-1

0.-15

vi" k l hlue

05

0.55

....
0.6

065

0.7

green ydlow red

wavelength. urn

h.
=igu re 113

.;I) Absorpnon spectra of chlorophyll (l :md h I'igm<:ms. ( 'hl" w phyll "and " pigment' in a tea f'absorf much ofthe incident ~
.IIlJ red wavelength cncq:y. b! Ab sorpncn spec tra uf~-cawlcllc, which absorbs pruuarlly in the blue. Dthcr I'i gmcnls that mi@ll
he foun d in a lea f inclu de Phyc oe rythrin which <l h,,,r(,~ pri nHirily grl>en lig ht, and Phycocyanin which ,11'o,,,rl'o, primanly gr~

~I IU

red light Iutlcr Farabee. 1,-)<)7).

age 10 bec ome mo re visible to our eyes. In add it io n. some

tree.. produ ce grea t quanti ties of <ll1lh/J'Yll/l i" in the fa ll.
cau sing the lca vcs to appear br ight red .

The gree n leaf (a). ye llow leaf to). and red k a f (e ) were qi
o n the Swee tgum tree at tJ1\: time o f data collec tio n. The dai
brown leaf (d l was collected on the ground beneath tile lift.

Fhe t w o optimum spec tral regions for sensing the chloroph:-11 absorption characteristics of a leaf arc believed to be
0.45 - 0.52 urn and n.M - 0.69 11m ( Figure 11-3a ). The

A GE R 1500 (Geophy sical & Env ironmental Resea rch be

handheld spcctroradio mctc r wa s used to obtain speanI
reflecta nce measuremen ts trem each otrhe leaves . The speenuradiomcrer obtained spectral re flectance mcusu rcmesas a
5 12 bands in the ult raviolet , blue . green . red , and near-infrared spectral regions fro m J 50 - 1050 nm . Percent rclkctallre
meas ure me nts were ob tain ed in the lab by measuring l~
umounr o f energy reflected from the surface of the leaf (lhe
target) di vided hy the amou nt or ener gy reflected from i
Sp.:dralonE re flecta nce re ference (percent reflectance = argctJrefe re n,,;1.':X 1( 0) The re fl ectance measurements for eadl
o fthe lea ves fro m " OU - W5U nm were ploued in a pl'1l.'CIl
reflectance graph (Co lor Plate ll -Icj.

fo rmer region is characte rized by strong absorption b)' caroteno ids and chlorop hylls. whereas the latter is characterized
hy strong chlorophyll abso rption . Remote sensi ng of c hloroph yll absorption within a canopy represe nts a fundamenta l
biophysical variable useful for many biogeographica l investigations. The absorption c haracterist ics o f plant canopies
may be cou pled wuh other remotely sensed data to identity
vegetation stress. y ield. and other hyb rid vnriahlcs. Thus.
many remote sens ing studies are concerned wi th monitori ng
wha t happens to the p J",ro.wnth.-/it"ulll <It'ti n- radiation
( PA R) as it interacts with mdividuallcavcs and ur the plant
ca nopy. The uSC' of high spectral reso lution imaging spectrometers are particularly use ful fo r measu rin g the absorption and reflectance characteristic s o f'rhe photosymhcucally
a CII\C radiation.
To demonstrate these princ iples . consider the spectral rc flcc ranee cha racteristics of lo ur diff erent lean'S obtained from a
single health y S.... cc tgum tree (Uquidwll!ml" .,lvrocif!ll(1 L. )
on Nov embe r I I. 1905, in Colu mbia. SC (Color Plate 11. 1).

The green 1ea f (C{llor Plate 1I la) wa s still photos yrubeseing and yielded a typica l heal thy green re fl ec tance sptn
With stro ng chlorophyll absorption bands in the blue and red
reg ions (a pprox imat ely II percent reflectance al 450 nmand
5 percent at (150 1111\_ respec tiv ely). and a peak in rc flectarce
in the green reg ion ofthe vis ible spectrum ( I I percent al550
nm) . Ap proximately 76 percent o f the inc ident near-infrared
rad iant nux was refl ected from the leaf at 000 nm.

I Characteristics o f Vege tation

~ellow

leaf [Co lo r Plate I I- I b ) was und ergoing sencsAs the in fl uence o f the ch lorophyll pig ments dimin relatively greate r amoun ts of gree n (2..J pe rcen t 31 550
landred (3:! pe rce nt at b50 nun lig ht "ere re fl ected from
kaf"result ing in a ye llow appearance. At 750 nm the yetleaf refl ected less ncar-in frared radi ant tlux than the
Ith} greenleaf ]lIlW",, \ er. ncar-infrared reflectance <i t 90(j
was abou t 76 percent. very similar \(l the healthy gre en

leaf (Co lor Platt: I I - Ie ) re flected 7 percent o f the

at ..J50 nm, b percent ofrhc green energy at 550 nm, and
jere cnt o fthe inc ide nt red en ergy at 050 nm . Ncar-i n frareflectanc e at 900 nm dropped 10 70 pe rcent .
1'1'.11

dID. brown lea f (Color Pla t... 11-1d) produ ced a spect ral

,
'"
e

.1

,,

"

b
t

tanc... cu rve with low blue ( 7 percent at ..J 50 nm ), gr een

pmtlll at 550 nm I. and red reflectance (I ll percent at tl50
). lhis co mbinatio n produ ced a da rk brown ap pcurunccear-in frared reflecta nce d ropped ttl..J..J percent at (JOOnm.
j, important to und erstand the physi ulugy of the plum s

r iI1\ estiga tio n and cspeci;llly thei r pig mentation ch armsrics sothat we ca n ap preciat e how a typ ica l plan t will
ar w hcu chlorophyll absorption starts to dec ree sc. euher
10 seasonal senes cen ce or environm ental stress. As dcmted. when a plant is under stress an d 'or c h ltlroph~ II
ion dec rea ses. \hI: lac k o f ch lo roph yll pigmentat ion
I} causes the p la nt to absorb les s in the c hlorophyll
ion bands. Such p lants will ha ve a muc h hight:'r
huncc:. pa rtic ularly in the green and red port ion of the
.,mrum. and therefore may appea r yello wish o r chlorotic,
fact. Carter ( ! 9<n) suggests that in....n:ased rd k c t" nce in
\i~l hle Spl"etru m is the mo st consis tent lea f rdkc lan ...c
tIpOnse to plant stress. Inlbr....d relleet:mee r,:sfX' nd s eonT~nt l y nnly w hen strcss h:IS deve loped su!li('kn tly 1\1
,:w;e severe lea f deh ydration (to
uelllonstrnll'd sllorlly).

be

Leaf spectral retkctan . . e is mllSI likd y til ind icat e p lant

.;; Ii ~t in the sensitive 535 - MO and 6~ 5 - 700 11m \isi light wavelength ra nge s. Increa sed re lk'ctance ncar 700
~e nts the o tien reponed " b lue shi n of the r~ ~dge :'
,the shi ll IOward short~r wa \e lengt hs o f the red-in frared
ition l;une that occurs in stres~d plan ts when retlccis p lo (led w rsus wa ve lengt h l C ibu la a nd Can~r.
~f. The shi ft toward short er "3\'ekn gth s in the region
650 - 700 nm is part icular ly eviden t for the yell ow and
III ren~cta nee eurws shnw n in Co lor Plat..: II-Ie. I{ernt'le
rIlSing wilh in thes.: spect ra lly narrow ra nges may prov ide
IIplO \ ed ca pability 10 detect pla nt stress nol ollly in imliv id.1I ~a\"es hU I for whole plan ts ,tllll p<."rhap s for dl' nsl' ly \'t'gf.lloo eanopics (Carter. 19'13; Ca rt.:r et a1.. 191}6 ).

36 1

Normal color film is scnsiuv c 10 b lue. green. a nd red wuvc len gth energy. Color-infrared lilm is sc ns mvc to gree n. red .
and nea r-infra red energy a ttcr m inus-blue (yellow 1filtrat ion
(re fe r to Chapter -I} T here fore, even the mOSI si mple cume ra
with color or co lor-infrared fi lm and approp riate ha nd -pass
filtrat ion ti.e.. o nly certai n wavelength, of light IIr~ allllw.:-(1
to pass) can be used to remot ely sense d iffe rences in s pectr a l
rcft cctnnc c caused by the pigmen ts p resent in thl' pa lisade
parenchyma layer of cells in a typica l lea f However . to
dctc-ct very subtle spectra l re flectance diffe rence s in the rclarivcly narrow ha nds suggested hy Cibula and Carte r ( 1<,1 <,1 2)
and Ca rter et at. ( 1<,1 4(,). it may be neces sa ry 10 use a h igh
spectral reso lution imagi ng spcc troru d iomcter that has very
narrow hand" idths

Near-tnrrared En erJt' In t...ract iun with in th e SponJt'

" lc\f1llh~' 1 1

Cl'lI \

In a typ ical health y green lea f, the ncar-in frared re flectanc e

12U() nm.
inc reases d ramatically in the reg io n from 700
For e xample. the health y gr een lea f in the pr..-\ iolls example
reflected approximately 7(l pe rcent of the incident nearinfra red e nergy at 900 nm . llcnhh y greenleaves abs orb rad iau t ene rgy very etficicnrly ill the blue and roo po rtiolls ( I I' the
spec trum wh ere incidc nt light is req u ired for photosy nthes is.
BUl im med iatel y to the lon g w avclc ngth side of the red chloroph y ll absorption hand , " hy does the reflectance and tra nsr niuancc o f plant lcave s inc rease so dra mat ica lly. causin g the
absorpianc e 10 fall to low values ( Figure I I - I f! Thi s co nditio n oc-curs throu ghout the ncar- infra red wa velengt h ra nge
" here the dir ect sunlight incide nt o n p la nts has the hul k o f
its energy. If plants a bso rbe d this energy with the sa me ertie ierl"-) as Ihey do in the \ isit>l e region. they could becom e
mu d l 100 w an n and til\." prot e ins w(lulu be irr,,: vcl'5ibly' de natured. ..\ s a resu ll. plam s h;l\ e adapt ed so thcy do not use th is
massive ;tI1ltl llnl ur n ea r-i n fra r~ d ene rgy an d s imply re!lect it
or trans m it it throug h 10 underlyi ng leaves or til\." gWlInd .
'l"h.: spo ngy lll~sliph y l l lay..-r in II gree n k ill' "-\lntro b the
amount of nea r-in fr<l reu l"nergy Ihat is re llect..-d . Th.: spo ngy
lncs<:' ph ylllayer typ ica lly lil's hel ow the pa lisade me snph y ll
layer and is e(lmpo.)!o>Cd of many cells and int...rcel lula r ai r
spaCl~as shown in Figure I I-:!. II is h.:-r..- that the o xyge n and
carbon d ioxi de excha nge take s p lace for ph(llosYnl h~i s and
r.:sp lr<lliu n. In the ncar-infrarl"ll reg ion. hea llhy gn....n \egelal iu n is gt:nerall)' cha.raetL'ri.lL"lI by high relke lane\." (40 - 60
pt:'rt"ent) , high tr.lnsm itta nee (40 - bO pe rce nt) through the
k a f nnlo unde rlyi ng lea \ es. and relat ive l) low abso rp tane..:
(5 - 10 pt:r"-l"nt ). No ti..-e lhat a hea lthy gr..-el1 ka r s rd l cetan cc and transrnitl<l nee spect ra thro ugho ut lhe \ 'isi t> le and
near-infrar....d port io n Ill" the spectrum art: almost m irror

e ll \ I"T[R

362

=-

Hi ~

IOH

11

Remote sensing of Vegetation

Btucst em Grass Absor ptton, Rcn ccran ce, and Tra nsmitta nce

-,- 0

'0

I r a n \ mitl a nct'

60
e;

40

,,
E

u
0

'.

,"~
z

40

'"

20

+__~--~""'"'.w~~--~--~--_~--_+

04

0 .5

0.('

0.7

08

Wavelengt h, jun

Fig ure 11-4

0,9

'0

'00

"

Hemisphe rica l refle ctance. transuuttancc, a nd absorpuon characteris tics of Big l3luc stCI1l jp"a, s ada xiallea f su rfaces obtalIKl!
using a labvrat"I)' Spl'(:ITor-adio Jllctcf. The reflectance and tra nsmittance curv es are almost mirror imagl'S of one anOOie'
throu ghout the _lsi" lc and nea r-infrar ed portions o f the clcctrornegncuc spectrum. The blu e and red chlorophyll ill planb
sum much o f t he incid...'llll'llcrg)' in till:' visible poruon o ft he spo:clrum (0 .4 - 0 .7 um r tatter Wa lter-Shea and Hrehl, I
Imaging Spe'CIWIl1t:tCA such a" AVI RIS arc capable of Idl'll\lf~ i n~ small changes in IIJ<.o abwrpt ion an d relk.:t i..,n.:h.trxtmf.
tics of plants because lh.: sensors Ofl~'Tl have channels Ih.u J.I\' onl} 10 nm lipan. i.c., WI: could have 10 channelv in !hefePi"
from 0.6 - O. 7 urn (f>(ltl lo 700 nml .

images of (JOe anot her. as show n in Figure 114 (Wal terShea

and Bie hl. 19l)() .

The hig h diffu se reflectance of the nca r-infrared (0.7 - 1.2

11m) e nergy from plant leaves is due to the intern al scattering
at Ihe cell wa ll-a ir interfaces w ithin the leaf (Ga usmann el
al.. 1969; Peterson and Running . 1989 ). A w mer vapor
absorption band exists at 0.92 - O.9g um : consequently, the
opumum spect ral reg ion for sens ing in the near-infrared
region is believed to be 0.74 - 0.90 11m (Tu cke r. 1978).
The main reasons that hea lthy plant canopies re flect so muc h
ncar-in frared energy arc :
the lea f already refl ects 40 - 00 perc ent o f the incid ent
ncar-in frared energy from the spongy mcsophyl l ( Fig ure
l f -r j. and

the rem ai ning -IS - 50 percent (If the ene rgy pcTldrar.:s
ti.e.. is tra nsmitted ) th rough the lear and can he relll:\1d
once again by leave s below it,
This is called k l/( addtnve If / /eUllnCe. For e xample. amsider the re flectance and transmissio n characte ristics ofl!lt
hypo thetical two-layer plant canopy sho w n in Figure Il,~
Assume tha i leaf I re flects 50 percent o f the incident I'd
infrared energy back into the atmosphere and that lit
remaining 511 pt:reent o f the ncar-infrared e nergy is tr.m"lli
1I..d thro ugh leaf I (Into lea f 2 , The trans mitted energy tIlCII
falls 0 11 lea f.:! where 50 pcrecut aga in is unnsmiucd ( ~ 5 p.~.
cent (11' the original) nnd 50 perce nt ts rcnccted Tht
re flec ted ene rgy then r a" cs hac k through leaf I which
<1110 \\ s ha lf (If tha t ene rgy l or 12.5 percen t of the originallll'
he transmitted and haltrctlcctcd . The resu lting total energy
ex iting lea f I m this two-la yer exam ple is 02 .5 percenlo ftbt
inc ide llt energ y. Therefore. the greater the num ber of

5,

ral Characteristics o f Vegetation

363

.a ddu tve Reflec ta nce from Leaf I a nd l.('af 2

Jot l ..

T,

Retlcctcd

flux. <,I'T
112 4>, -50"0

raJ idHl
RJ ~

5 l\ 4>, - (,2,5%
Transmirtcd
radkun 111,1 ,\ . <I' ,
T) - 1'2 H Z
(or I/fo; <1>, ~ 125 %1

Incid ent
radtan tIlux.

T ~~ 1/2 1{4

(of \132 <1>i J

"',

I
Le af I

Trunsmincd
flu ' . <.l' r

ra(1i ~nl

TI- 1'2 4>;

Ltar 1

T4~
(OT

Rgure 11-5

112 R.

I l fl 4>;)

A hypothetica l exam ple of uddinv c refl ec tance from a canopy with lwo leaf laycrx. Fitly percent of the incident radiant flux.
<1>,. 10 leaf I is Tetleck<.l (K, l. and the other 5(1 percent is transmuted,lI1to ka fl (Til. rifly pcrccm ofthe radiant Ilux incident
10 leaf2 is tra ns mitted through k af2 (T!); the other 50 percent ISreflected toward the base of leaf I ( R~). Fifty percent ofthe
energy incident errh.. ha...e ofleaf I is ua nsnuued through il (T ,) "hik III<: remaining 50 percent (R,) is relk cl<,..,J to.....m J leaf
2 once aga in. AI Ihis point. all additional 12.5 percent (1 iiI reflec ta nce has been coetribeted hy leaf 2. bringing Ihe 100al reflee ted radra nt 111,1 '" ttl 02 .5 percent . H OWC'\ C'f. to be e ven more accurate. on..: " <lulll hav.. to also ta ke inlo accoururhc amount
of energ) reflected from the base of leaf I (RJ ) onto leaf 2. the amount rd1,XI<.'<l from k a f :2 IR, I. and eventually transmitted
IhrOl,lgh leaf I once again fr~ ). This proc....., would contmue.

hyers in a hea lthy. mature canopy, theoret ica lly the greater

me infrare d reflectance. Conversely, if the canopy is only

mposcd of II single. sparse leaf layer then the ncar-inf rared
etlecranc e w ill not be as great because the erwrg.:- thai is
nns miu ed throug h the leaf layer may be absorbed by the
!!OOnd cover beneath .
t"Gmges in the ncar-infrared spec tral properties o f h<"a llh)
~'11 vcgetanon may provide informat ion abo ut plan t scncseece and/o r stress. For exam ple . co nside r the Ii-l UI' leaves
lid their spectral reflectance ch arac teristics shown in Color
ri.llc I I- I. The photo sym hesizing g reen Icaf (:!) c xhihired
I(fIlng chloro phy ll abs orption in the blue anti red wavelength
~giol1s. an und erstandable increase in green reneelance . and
lWroximatdy 76 percent refl ectance in rhe nenr-in trared
~on , Afte r a certain point. nca r-in fra red refl ec tance
i:ma~ as the leav es scncsccd [b - ti l. 1I0 w ever, if the

leav es were 10 dry out significamly du ring senescence.....c

would expect 10 ~ L'(' milch higher reflect ance in the ncarinfrared reg ion (Ill be discussed short ly ).
Sc icruists han' known since the 19(.,(ls tha t a direct re lationship exi~ls betw ee n res ponse in the near- in frared reg ion and
various biomass mea surements . Converse ly. it ha s been
shew n that an ifll't'He re lations hip exists between the
res pon se in the vis ible reg ion . particularly the red . and plant
biomass. The best way to apprecia te this is 10 p lot all of the
pixels in a ty pical remote se ns ing scene in red and ncarinfrared reflectan ce space. For e xample. Fig ure 11-6 a
depic ts where app roxima tely IO.GOl) pixels in a typ ical agr icu ltural seCIK' ar e located in red and nca r-in frared mu his pcctral featu re space t i.e.. w ith in the gray area ). Dry bare soi l
fields and wet bare so il fields in the scene ....ould be loca ted
J t opposite ends of the soi l line . This means that a wet bare

11

364

High can"p>
closure "r
biomass

Di vtr-lbuti u n of Piu1s in

Red a nd xea r-Inrrarcc

S jwclral Span'

Rem ot e Sen si ng of Vegetation

H igh (;In,,I"'>'
closure or

M i;::ralioll of a Pix el

in Red a nd x ear-tnrrared

biomass I" PC)

S pe cara l S pace During

:, G ro wi ng Sea..on

A1 Jl\"~1

ripe

lnterrned iatc
canopy closure
or b i.>m.\M

lI a rH'l>!C'd ;

"' " 'egcWlloo

rrt''lrnl ,m dry 'It.il

Pla nted:
Wei
ba re "Oi l

1\0 \~('\.;Il"""

pr esen t on mOist so il
It.-J kctk...tance
b.

k ed Re flecta nce

a,
Figure 11-6

a) l ht: ul"lnbl.lli,Hl of a ll the pitch in a scene ill red and n.:.II-in fr.ar. J muluspcc trul space is foun d in the gruy s.hado:ln.
Wet and moist bare soil fields arc loc ated along the soil line. The greate r the toj" m,lSs and.o r crop c3m'py closure. tile ~
Ill<: ncar-uurarcd rer fec iance and the I".....r the red refl ectance . Th is cUll<li li"n n w\.~ the pi , o,:l ' s ' flCctr,d loc ation a pcrptadI:
o

ular dlrec nou away from the soil line. 11 )The nugranon of n single wgel;l1l'd agricultur al pixel in red and near-infraredmull.
~pt.'l:trnl space during a grtlWlIl1! season is sho wn. After Ihe cr"p elllergn. II de pan ~ fw m the ....,il line. eventually readlill:
complete canopy closure. After h;lr\est ing. the pixel will he f" und on the ulImc.b m perhaps in a drier soil condition.

soi l would hav e very low red an d ncar-infrared reflec tance.

C onversely. a dry hare soil urea would probably have high
red and high nca r-infrared re flectance. As a vcgcuuion ca nopy matures. it rc rlccts more nca r-infrare d e nerg y \\ hilc at
the same nmc ahsn rhing more red radia nt tlux for phetosynthc ric pu rposes. T his lllS!.'S th e spectral reflec tance o f the
pixel 10 m ove in a pcr pc udiculn r directio n awa y from the soil
lin,' . As biomas s increas es an d as the plant cn nop y cover
inc reases. th e field's loca tion in the re d and nca r- Infrare d
s pect ral Sp,lCC mov e s farther aw ay Iro m tbc soil line .
Figu re 11-6 b demonst ra tes how j ust on e ug ricull ural pixel

mightmove abo ut in the red and nc ar-infrare d s pec tra l spac e

during a typical growing seaso n. If the field was prepared
properly, it 1.\I1u 1J proba bly be loca ted in the mois t ban: so il
region o f the su il hue with 10 \\ red and low ncar-infra red
reflecta nce a t the oc g in ning o ft he growi ng se aso n. A fter the
crop emerges, it would de pa rt fro m the soi l line. eventual ly
re ac hing com plete ca nopy cl os ure . A t th is poi mt he refl ected

near-infrared radiant tlux .... ould IX' high and the red ren eelance .... ould be ksw. Aller ha rvcsuug, the pixel .... ould prob-

ably he found once ag ain on the soi l li ne hut perhaps ill

drier con du inn.

The rl"l al ill nship between red and ncar-i n frared eanllp)'
reflectan ce has resulted in the developm ent of numer~
remote s,-ns ing vegcunion indices a nd biomnss-cstimauq
techniques that utjliz c m ultip le measure me nts in the \'isib~

aud nea r-in frared reg io n (e ,g.. Kichurdson a nd Eve riu, 1992.
Lyon ct ul.. I')l)H ). The result is a linear com bination lh3r
may hi: more highl y corr elated with biom ass than cithentd
o r nea r-infrar ed mea-oucm en t alon e. Several of these algcrithms arc summarized in the sec t ion on Vcg.:ta tiun Indira
in th is c ha pte r.

Mlddle-Infr ured EII,' rI:J huera ctj ou with W at H in tk

S IIU II~)"

_' Ie ~ op h) 1I

Plants require water to grow. A lea f ob tains wa te r th~

the plant 's ro ots. T ho: wa ter tra vel s from the roo ts. up til
SI,'I11. and enters the lea f thro ugh the />I'/;O/t' _ Veins ~
.... a tcr 10 the cells in the le af. If a plant is wa te red so tIw:.

I Chara cteristics or Vege ta t ion

lIS as much wa te r as it call poss ibly ho ld at II given

.ir is said \0 he fu lly nogtd. Much o f th e water is found
IJIe spongy meceph yll port ion of the plane If we lilrgct III
the plant or ra in fall decreases. the p lum w ill comain a n
t of wa tcr thai is less than il can pote ntia lly ho ld. Th is
led its relative tW1F,Mity . II would be usefu l to have a
M.:nsing instrument that wa!!. sensilL \c to ho .... muc h

lias actua lly in

it

plant leaf. Remote: sens ing in the

le-mfrare d. therm al infrared (C hap ter X), and pa ssive

wave (Cha pter 9) po rtio n o f [he elect romag netic sp ec'lIIl can provide such informa tion to a limited exte nt.

id water in the atmosphere creates 11\ c major abso rption

in the ncar-in frared through m iddle-in frar ed portions
I!I( electromagnetic spt."i:lrum at O.Q7. I.IQ. 1.45. 1.94 .
2.7 um ( Figure I I-I ). The fundamental vibrational
-absorpuon band at 2.71101 is the stron gest in th is pa n
lhe spectrum (t here i ~ ilbo one in the thermal infra red
on at 6.27 J.Im ). Hu wcvcr.thcre is also a strung rel at ionbetween thc reflectan ce in the midd le-in fr ared reg ion
1.3 - 2.5 J.I I1l and the amount of water present in the
es of a plant canopy. Water ill plants absorb mc idcnr
between the absorption ba nds with increas ing
at longer wavelengths. In these middle-infra red
elengths. vegetation reflectance peaks occur at about I. b
2.2 11m. between t he maj or atmosp hcric water absorpbandsl l-'igun:: 11- 11.

'.

365

Leaf re flectance in the middle-infrared region is inve rse ly

related 10 the ubsorptancc of a lay er of water appruximurely
I mm in de pth (Carter. 19( 1). The d egree 10 which incident
so lar energy in the midd le- infrared region is a bso rbed by
vegetation is a functi on of the tota l amount of water present
in the lea f and the lea f thickness. Ifproper choices o f sensors
and spe ctral ban ds are made. It is possible to monuor the re lative turg id ity in plants.
\1 os1 optica l re mote sen sin g sy stem s (ex ce pt radar) are ge n-

orally cons traine d 10 func t ion in the ..... uvclcngth inte rvals
from 0.3 - 1.3. 1.5 - 1.11 . and 2.0 - 2.6 u m due to the stro ng
atmospheric wate r absorpt ion bands at l AS. 1.9-1. and 2.7
J.I m. Fortunate ly, as de monst rated in Figure 11-7. there is a
strong "carryover" sensitivity 10 wat er co ntent in the 1.5 1.8 and 2.0 - 2.6 urn regions adjacent to the major water
abso rpt ion ba nds. Th is is the reason that the La ndsat Themat ic Mapper (4 and 5) and Landsat 7 Enhanced Th ematic
Mapper Plus ( Ell\-l ') were made sensuive to two hands in
this reg ion: band 5 ( 1.55 - 1,75 ).l m ) an d ban d 7 (2. 0X- 2.3 5
pm ). The 1.55 - 1.75 urn middle -infrurcd band has consiste ntly de mon strated a sensitivity to ca nopy moistu re content.
For exam ple. Pierce et al. ( 1990 ) found that this band and
vegetat ion indices produced usin g it were corre lated with
canopy wa ter stress in coni ferous forests.
Much ofthe water in a plant is 10 51 via transpiration . Tranoccurs as the Sun warms the water insidc the leaf
ca usi ng some ufthc water to cha nge its stare to water vapo r
that escapes through the stomata. Th e follow ing arc seve ral
importam funcuons that tra nspi rat ion performs:

,lp ,,.lIf;OI/

aer is a good abso rbe r o f middle-in frare d e nergy. so the

tel' the turg idit y of the leav es. the lowe r t he mid dleiIated refle ctance . Co nve rse ly. as the mo isture co ntent o f
es decreases. reflecta nce in the middle-infrare d region
mascs substanually. As the amoun t n fp lant .... ater 10 the
ellular air spaces decreases. this causes the incident
delle-infrared energy 10 be more ink-nse ly sca tte red at the
-=rface of the iruerccllulur walls resulung in greater m id-infrarcd reflectance from the leaf. FlO I' exa mple. consider
spectral reflectan ce o f Magnolia leaf samples at Iivc difMOl moisture co ndiuon.. displayed over the wav elength
31from 004 :!.5 um (fig ure 11-7 ). The m iddle- infrawavelength interv al, from abou t 1.5 - L k pm and from
- 2.3 urn appear to be mo re sen~it i\ e to cha nges in the
. ture comcr uof the pla ms than the visible o r neur-infra ltd portions of thc spcctnlrn (i.c. the )'-;I.\is distance
lmI'('Cn Ihe spec tml reflel:lancl' I: ll T\ t'S is grealer a ~ Ihe
DOislurc r.:u lllenl de c re a ~ e s ) , Also no le lhi.ll su b;,ti.lllti\c
JIilIg.::s in the visi b le relleelance Cllr\-'es (0 04 - 0.7 J.I m ) did
l:H:gin to appear until thl' pla nt moist ure in tht" I.:a ve s
kttased 10 aboul 50 pt::rr.:r.:nt. When the rdati,c wa ter co nof the p lan t deereases 10 50 percent. a lmost an}' ptlrtion
\h(- visibk. nea r- and m iddle- inlrnred reg ions might prowme \ a lua111e spectral re nl'Cta nr.:e infonn alioll .

II cool s the inside o f the leaf because the escaping water

\ apor coutams heal .

11 keeps water !lowing up from the root s, throug h the stem.
tothe leav es.
II ensures a steady supply of d issolved m inera ls from the
MliI.
As molec ules of wa ter vapor at the top of the lea f in the tree
arc lost to trans pirat ion. thc l'm ire colu mn of wat er is pulled
upwa rd. Planls lose a r.:o nsidr.: rable amou nl o f waleI' thro ugh
transp irat ion ear.: h day. For ex ample. a sing le com p lant ca n
I\lse aboul ..j. quarts (3. X lilers) o f wate r on a very hot day. If
the roots o f Ihe plant ea unot replar.: e this water. the l ea \ ~s
w ilt. photosynt hesis stops . and the plant d ies. T hu,>. mo nitoring the m,. islure con ten t of plant canopies. which is co rrelated with r.tll'S of transp iratio n. r.:an pro vide \ alu ab le
in lonnalion on the health of a crop or sta nd of vcgl'tatio n.
Therma l infnt rcd and passi \e m icmwa\ c remote S(' nsing

11

366

Rem ot e Sen sing 01 Vegetation

Spectral Effects or Progressive Lear Or) illg

1._+..... . .._.1

Relativ e wate r content

or \faw w li'l 1<!m ndlflora

t
0
0

25%

40

50''''
75%

"

'"

J()(l"~

20 H~

I ..

. r,'-,

'"

o-I=,.-='~~~~-'l
0.4 .5 f'> .7

.s

,OJ 1.0

1.1

1.4

I II

1.11

2,0

2.2

Wavelength. um
Figu re 1t -7

Reflectance l\.- :;pOI1\... of H ~ingJ.: magnohalcaf ( Mugnofi<J gnm.liflom ' to <I..-crcascd relative wat..... contem. A~ moisrure_
terndecreased. reflectance increased lhmu ghou l lh<.- (J.4 - 25 IJ.nJ rcgeo n, 1I1,,,,<,\ <,r. the peale,", mcrease occurred in
d je-infrar..-d region from 1.3 - 1.5 pm (afte r Can..rr, 19l1 1).

have pmvidc-d va luable plan t ca nopy eva potranxp jrat jon

infonna tion.
The IUt'S! practical applica tion o f plant mois ture mforrnation
is the regional asscssm..' llt o f cro p water co nditions for irri gat ion sch e-duling . stress assessmen t. a nd y ield mod e ling for
ag ric ult ure. rangeland, and fore:st!) manage ment.

Adv anced , '('I:t't:llion Sp('clra l Rcncctanee

C ha rac le r islics: t he It ldlrcct jon a l Hdleclanl't'
Dlstrtbuucn Functlun ( Il RHF)
It would he wonderful i f a vcg vtatcd canopy suc h as a
mature com crop or Loblolly pine plan tat io n reflected the
sam e amount of radiant flux to wani the senso r irrespect ive
Ill' I ) the solar incide nce and uznnu th ang les, Dr 2 ) thc sensor
viewing geo metry , Th is wou ld ntcan tha t the vege tated can 0ry was a true Larnbcnian surface. i.e.. it reflec ts incide nt
energy eq ually well in a ll directions. Un fortuna tely, considcrublc rcscurch has demonstrated that this is not the case
(e.g., Kimes . 1')1\) ). tn fact, the: spectral radiantn ux leav ing
a veg etation can op y is si~mi ficamly imp act ed by a nu mbe r of
factors. man y of wh ich are listed in Table 11-1. We briefl y
d iscuss the primary vegetation pa rll met c~ and then delve
more de ep ly imu Sun illumina tion and sensor syste m geometric chaructcnsncs.

The: amoun t and spectral distribution o f mdianr Ilux leaving

a veg etated ca nopy is influ ence d by the t)'f'C o f ve getation

tIle_

presen t. Fur example , grasses ho pefully re flect ~ Iifcrcmly th an a matu re stan d of trees. Some vegetated ~
pies heve 100 percent C{/ llllp.l clasurr meaning thal lll:
understory and soil be neat h arc n OI visible through. !hee.
t' PY. l"ol1\cn;cly. some canopies have < HIO percent camr.
closure. allow ing portions o f the un dervtory and or soilI
re flect ene rgy into the ins tantaneous field of view (IFO\i)li/
the senso r, cre ating a hybrid o r mi xed pixel. It is po,si~I:'lI
d isenlang le the -pcctrat con mhu uon fro m the indiv'idllll
land covers. but it requ ires co nsi derable image proces>ing
e xpertise.
Some vegctnuon is oriented randomly. while ot her wgeution is o ften syste matic all y arr anged in row s in a c ~rdin!l
dir ection ( O - 36 0"). Indi v idua l tree cro wns o ften halt
unique shape s (c.g .. a conic alPonderosa pine crown or citeuler Blackja ck oak cro w n) with unique tree crown diameters that ma y be mcacured. Tree: trun ks or plant stems ha\~1
cert a in de ns ity (c. g.. numbe r I l l' trunk s per uni t area! lIift
uniq ue diumeter-at-b tvust-ltvight (D BH ) values.

Lca(-m n limk'.\ (L A I) is th... total o nc-sid cd (or one balfd

the tota l all- sid ed } green tea r area per un u gro und-surfxe
area. It is a n important hio logical para meter beca use )) f
defines the area that interacts w ith so lar radia tion and prt'"
\ ide s m uch of the re mote se nsi ng signa l. an d .2 ) it is the >Itfa ce that is res ponsible fur ca rbo n absorpt ion and e, cllanrw ithin the atmosphere (Chen and Black. 199.2). Some ceepi cs hav e subs ta ntially higher lent-area-indic es than Olhm.

I Charact eri stics

at Vege ta tio n

367

Sensor

o
..j , ,-

O S~

it'

'ii'
if

Iii

..

".
+75&

I-'e11-8

+01 5"

backward scattering view

The bidsrecuona l reflec tance dli:c t 00 field of I).:gfas", (Lt..Jium pell'nJw L. 1.~~'<1 umk..r dim..rlnt \'icwing an g l~'S in the
solar principal plane from a n GO S mounted camera. Solar zenith angl ... was at 35" as indicated by tho: dashed arrows. The
sensor \ n:\t ing angl~ are ~hown as black lines at nad ir (0') and at =~5' and ::!} 5 otTlll'Idlr(atk'rSandffil"icr and luen, IQW ).

:k<Jj-angle-dislribmiul/ (LA D) may ch ange thro ughou t

diy as the leaves orient the mselves toward or away from
scident rad iation. So me leaves lie predom inantl y in fhe

irontal plane (c.g., plan oph ilc leaves in many broadlcaf

s]. while others arc oriented vertically k .g .. ercct ophile

of coastal cordgrass marsh 1,

of these vegetation factors can have a significant impa ct

k reflection o f incid ent lig ht toward th e sensor sys tem.

reforc. it is bes t to ho ld as many of them a . constant as

>INc when atte mpting to extract bioph ysical information

ras primary produ ctivity Of biomass usi ng multiple d ates

( mute sensor dura. Even if we held these variables as
sam 3~ pos sible, the zenith and azimuth angles o f the
dem solar radiat ion and the azimuth and Ilk-wing lingle
l( sensor sys tem can introduce sud! dramatic effects that
Day not be nblc to compa re our spec tral reflectance menmcnrs obtained at on e tim e with those o f a nother, FonuIy. if we know n gr eat deal abou t the veget ation
actcrisrics of the ca no py (ju st d iscu ssed) and obtain
einformation abo ut the bidi rect io na l reflectanc e chaructics ofth c solar angle-of-Incidence a nd the se nsor viewgeometry. it is poss ible to calib rate the remote senso r
to extract useful biophysical info rma tion.

rectlonal
Reflectance
ni~trihll l illn
Fun cuon
OF): Earl)' measurements u f hid irecuona l refle cta nce
bed over vario us vegetation and soil s urfaces ..le moned that mo st terres trial surfaces ex hibit non-Larnbenian
IOlropic) re fl ec tan ce cbar acrcris ucs (K imcs, 1983), In
Ill.'il. bidirect ional reflectance effects of the land sur face

did not pia) a maj or role in global chang e and ecologic al

ana lysis, although they are ass u med to be crucial for mu ltitemporal studies with varying Sun incid ence ang les. Thi s
was mai nly due to a lac k of bidirccnonal data avail able from
remote se nso rs or acquired in fie ld campaigns . The impact
o f the bidirectiona l re flectance d istribu tion funct io n is st ill
not well und erstood desp ite the fact thai we know it e xists in
mu ch o fthe remotely sense d data co mmon ly used for Earth
obs erv atio n. especially for SC INI~ w ith large fiel ds ofview
such a s the ?\OAA AVII RR t.l x 1.1 km da ta , A gre at
amou nt of data fro m Sl'n son with off-n adi r vie w ing capa bi lity is becoming a vaila ble. especially From comme rc ial Slltellite s such as Space Imag ing 's IKO?\OS, and NASA's u:1'1Yl
MO D IS and ~l l Sf{ (C hapter 7 ). To prop erly app ly these dat a
in lund-usc change and ecolog ically relevant studies, the
BRDF sho uld be wel l understood to ca librate the data
t w elte r-Shea and Hichl. [I)l)n; Ahuelgnsim er al.. ll)lJl').
Mos t terrain surfaces (soi l. veg etation. a nd even wate r}
revea l a relat ionship between the am ount of re fle cted radiance . and I ) the geometric characteristics ofthe Sun's irradianee, and 2 ) the sens or viewing geomet ry, Hence the term
bidirrcttonal. Dep end ing upon the speci fic irm dian cc and
sensor viewing ang les. mos t sur faces ap pear brighter or
da rker. We ha ve all witncsse d this e ffect. lf'wc wa lk around
a patch of b-'1'3SS or a poo l of deep wa ter, it may appear
brighte r or darker de pending upo n our vie w in~ ang le- in relation to the co nst ant iucidcm ang le of the Sun, For exam p le,
Figure I I-X depicts a portion o f a rye gra ss lawn (LAIi" ",
perenne L ) illumin ated by sunlig ht w ith a co nstant so lar
ze nith ang le of J 5 ~ , Ind iv idual photographs of the same

CII \PH'N

368

Tabl e 111.

11

Spo

Rem ot e sensin g o f Vegetatioll

\1 J.j ur varia bles al1i:, ting the bidirectional Telk e lance distribution func tion ( I-I RDF) of J. Hgctmc"tl

canupy.

Variab les Aff ecting Bidi recti onal Refl ectan ce

f rom a Vegetated Canopy
lIlumi nal i" n

Geometry

Sun angle cfmcidencc ior RADAR)

- azimuth
Spec tral characteristic ( ), j
G <X>lllCIT)'

_angkof \'iew [e.g .. 0 nadir]

azim uth loo k direc tion (0 _ 3(>0)
Spectra l SeTlsilh-ity O. l
' IFO V (m ilhr.l<.hans l

.'

Ca nopy
- ()ire

(pl:mt or tree nominal ' lass)

clos ure (%)

orientation
- systematic (c.g . rows 0 _ J(i O"j
unsystematic (rando m )
Crown
shape te.g.. circular. con ica l)
d ia met er {ro l
Tron L or Sian

- density ( uni b per 011)

diamctcr.ur-breasr-hcight (DAHl
Lear

R gure 119

A hot , p,,1 ncar the k li 1i,lud ,1! mark 011 a 1(llQ

aerial I'hu(ograph of Ih.. . Savan nah River ~W illl\P
South Carolina, The t'vprcvs- Fupelo f"r,"led ~
kutd ha' rdati\ dy uniform p<: rc.'rll cllIlI'JIl c
in thi-, area Ill' tone and texture should I ppeliIlllI
tivcly hon~eIK"lU~. but th~~ do not. A Ike I\lll
produ.ed when the anglc of illurmnatton and
\ ,..:wing angle arc nearly itilmtical andm W
plane

1r

-fcaf-arca -indc x ( LAI )

- leat-angh..-disuibu uon (LAO) [pla nophilc, erectop htlc )

same- as veg etat ion

s"u

T':\ I"",

Color
Moisture con tent

grass canopy arc obta ined at nadi r ( O ~ ) a nd at '::'4 5 and ~75 ~

o ff- nadir (Sa nd mc ier and ln cn , ]IN '1), The terrain is genetall y brighter wh en the sensor records bac k-sca n cred ene rgy
as opposed to Iorward-scancrc-d energy as the d iagra m
rev eals u.e.. the image o n the le li prod uced b)' the -75
back-scattered energy appears 10 he: the: br igh tes t!. No te.
howev.. . r. tha t the +75" an d _75 images are ho th much
brighter than the image acqui red at nadi r. n.
The bid irect ional effect in remote sens ing data is most obv io us wh en the ang le o f illum inatio n and sensor vie wing ang le
are nearly idenuca t and III the sa me plane. Thi s can prod uce
a hul spos ( Lc., a shado w is nol visible]. The solar principal
plane is formed when the sou rce. target . and the sensor a re in
the same plane (in the sola r az imuth a ngle). Th is is where the

BRDF e ffects arc I1W, t pronounced. A n example of a bvl

SpOI in ae ria l photograph y is shown in Fig ur.... [ [.11.

Fort unatel y, scientists have dC\e111p...d instru me nts to IIlQsu re the bidirect ional rctlectance d il'trihutinn runctiocl
van ous surfaces . O ne or the most u.....ful insuumcms
}!fJ/lio" u f.'r . Here we brie fly rev iew the tiel d goniornclll
sys tem (FU iOS) dcsign....d by S . Sa ndrn eier. FI( iOS cons
o fa compmcr-comrollc d GER 3700 specrrora diomcrer ~
sittvc tothe wa velength imcrvn! from 300 - 2 ,4~ O nm in 71~
band s with a spectral resolut ion l\f 1.5 nm [or the inlervl!
30n - 1.0 5f1 nm and K.4 IUn for the interva l 1.050 2A:;l
nm . It consists of three major parts: a zenith arc rail. an ill'
muth rail. and a motorized sled \\ here the radinmdef
mounted (F ig.urc 11- IOa. h ). The a lum inu m goniOOlCUl
we ighs a pproxim ate ly 230 kg and may be transported
fie ld si tes as show n. Mount ed o n the goniometer. the '<liS
viewvan area in th... ve ry center o r the circle ap pf(l.\ i m~tc~
10 .5 em in d iam ete r at nadir and ubour 41 cru {majo r axislin
the most e xtreme view zenith angle position 0 1'75.

is.

Thus. it i\ possible in a very short period orrime while lit

Sun is a ppr oximaret y in the S3ITH.' zenit h are ( 0,1and virmlll
,~ ), 10 vary the posiuon of' the rad io mete r 10 determine ifik
amount o f rad ian t flux in \..:t') sp... citie wavelength regioos

.
( ' 11 \ }' I

370

te.g.. blue. gree n. red. ncar-infrared. middle -infrared ) lcaving the target is intluc nccd by the senso r angle-of-view ( B, )

t:I{

11

-I V/F(OO
,'I
, .
" '9" ... qI~,A

and azimu th (9', ). I r it is nol o thc n we do II nl have 10 worry

abou t UROF effects. If the reflectance results arc not unifonn as wi ll he demonstrated, then we may need 10 conce rn
ourselves with allj u~ling for BRDF effec ts i f we want to
compare rO:II1II10: sensor data obtained on multiple dates (\00 ith
varyi ng Sun azmuuh and zenit h angle ) or by se nsors with
multiple 1( 0 ),; ang les te.g. S POT da ta acq uired at 0" nad ir on

day 1 and

20 ~

olT-nad ir on day 2).

T he tndirectional reflectancr dl~fnhlllif}n Jimaio'l I"R DFl.

f,. IS(I ). is formally defined as the ratio uf the radiance dl.,
(\\.' m'! S( I nm"] reflected in one direction C8,~,1 to the
Sun 's inc ident irradiance .1/:,', (\\' m '~ nm-I ) from direction
(O,.rp,J [Sandmcicr. 1999 ; Sandmcicr and Inen. 1999):
.
.).. . JL~( O,. '9,;0... '9,:)..)
f~(O " '9,.0.. 1+1,. I
dE ;( 0,. '9,
.) )
.

(11-6)

Note tha t clL, and ,If; an: directional q uant ities measured in
solid angle st..-raJ ians (sf I ) as sho w n in Figu rc 11-101.'.
Normally. a bidirecnonal reflectance factor (HRF. a bo
referred to as R) is computed . whic h is the radiance dL,
reflected fro m a surface in a specific direction div ided by the
radiance dl....,. re flec ted from a loslo- k~s La mbertian reference panel measured under ide ntical illumination geometry
tSa ndrnc icr and tue n. lIJ1N ):
(11-7)

where R,,/ is OJ ca libration coe fficient determ ined ror the

spect ral refle ctanc e pane l. Hidircctionul reflectance Factors
(BR F) are d imen sion less. Both HRF and BRIJF take on va l,
lies Irom zero lO inlin ily, Va llies > I fo r 13RF and > l in for
BRDr arc ob la ined in pcak rc llel'l:111ce directions. such as
the hot spnt. where th... rcl1ect ed flux from a ta rge t surface is
h igher thallt he I1l1_' fwm il La mberti an sur face.

11 is als o possihle to de n ' lop an (/IIj\'o/ll lflrfacror, v.hkh is

used to analy/ e Ihe spc o.:t ra l vari abi lity ;n BRD F uata.
An iMltmpy f;lo.:tors (A:-.l IF) all" ....' s... par,u illn of speclml
RRD F effects trGrn the .~ pectra l ..ignat ure o f a targl'\. The)'
are calcul:lted hy 1l110l1alil.ing bidirectional rd l cc ta nce data
R to nad ir re ncc tance. R.. (Sandmei.::r ct al.. 1991!a: Sand meier an d Itt.:n. I'}(}l)j:

Remote Sen sing 01 VegetatlOll

R(O tt . -e ,n A.I
" ....,. ,. ....,.
R (0
'AI

(I

" " '9"

So what do thcs e mea..urcmcms tell us about the BRDF

typica l ..urface? To answer this question. consider the
normali rc-d ORDF data (i.e . the AN IF data ) of pertUl
f)cgrass (l.olillnl perrnnc L) shown in Fig-ure 111Od.
ing goniometer data collection the Sun zenith angle \\a:;'
Spectra l results from ju"t four of th c 704 spectrcrad.
bands arc presented using just the viewing zenith a.1p
the solar princ ipa l plane . It reveals that BRDF etfects
very pronounce d in the blue (4!'lO nm) and red (6-5
chlo rophyll absorption ban ds previously discussed. w
in the green and particularly in the- low absorb ing Ilea!"
feu range, relauvcly low ORD!' effects were observed
persons using remote sensor da ta might consider rad
cally adjusting: th~' brighrnevv valu es assoc iated ",ith the
and red bands, hut not necessarily the nea r-infrared
under invcsriganon. Typical for vegetated surfaces. 111 iw
hands exhibit a how l shape. hot spt)t, and forward-

component.

It is even more in ter~ting to view the ry... grass ani,

facum, for the Iour w avclcngths of interes t according to
only the viewi ng zenith angle of 00 but in a range from:.',
( Figun' I I-II ). Ideally. the enure three-dimensional ,urin
sho uld be relatively n at ;I" '" ith the 750

nm near-infl1l!r.

example. meaning th..t meas ure ments in this specific ball

arc relatively free of HRIJ F effec ts. Conversely, the ~80 .
and 675 nrn ban ds exhibit significaru anis otropy factors. II
the h i g h . ;I h ~ (lr h ing tl.c.. low-reflecting! wavelength ra~
mu ltiple scancnng enects arc reduced due to the relativell10 \\ uuunnn o f rad iation in the canopy. TIIUS, the (ontl'l!lt
between shndow cd and illuminated canopy co mponenu se
en hance d. which then en hances the BRDf effects. BRDf
effects arc rather sma ll in rbc low-absorbing (i.c., highre fle cting] gree n and ncnr-iu trarcd wa ve length rang es whm
multiple scattering effects are strong and d iminish the ca.
tra ~t in lhe o.:<lt lllPY (S ~lrt dl11cier ct al.. 1998 b),

Iulure fie ld re ~e<lTc h using goniome-ter~ cou pled v.ith off

rhluir pllinti ng :lirer :.l !\ and satdlil... re mote scnsi ng syst.:rn;
such as Ta m MISR (Ch: lpter 7 ) w ill eve ntua lly docull1l'!l
", hcn \\ ... should he o.:n ncem...d with HRI) F cllccts. Such
in fllrnMtior\ may help us I) ident ify anu sdect th... bandstha
arc imp;lc ll'd th..: k u"t oy BRIJF dl"ects. 2) recognilt'tha
there arc l'ertain Sun andlm ~ ... n~1lT ;mgk-of-\ iew relationsh ips that shou ld be avoided when colleo.:ting remo!t~
~n'ioCd d:lla. an u/o r 3) provide us wi th methods to radiOllld'
rica lty aujus t the remote sc ns"r uata to mini mi:."e 8RDf
dT\.'c~ .

371

Speclral Chara ct eri stics of Ve getation

')

a
r-

"'.

rr
n

- ...

"

,,

;:.

:-' ~

,
. '

;. ' .'
-.;

,"

. '

.--......

~, ..

._ ~ ~

b.

,.
- .,

"

, .
.
,..
-. '

; ,"
; ,

;: ,

,, ,,
-

;.

.; ,

;.

. f'

-.
e.
Figure 11 -11 Anisotropy factors (nadir-normalized flRDF dala ) of ryegrass (/.uli"", ("'N'fIIU'I.. ) fur f"UTspectral band, acquired with the
l'I( iOS instrume nt wnf a Sun , ...nuh angle of 350 (atk r Sandmei er and Inen. I'I'N).

One should he care ful not to infe r that Bf{[)F eff ects a rc all
hod, Qi et a]. ( 19tj 5 j point our that mult idirectional remote
easing me asu re ments ofthe terrain (e.g.. al view illg ang les
off.nadir) ca n provide comp lementary info rmation to that
;'l'O\'ided by the nad ir measurem en t. In fact, a sing le nad ir
\1(11 remote sensing measurement obtains in formatio n
eout the surface 3 S if the surface had no ve rtica l struc tures,
ehich is usua lly nor the case in practice , w hile off -nadir
\icw measurements reveal diffe rent aspec ts of the ve rtica l
eucrurcs such as vegetation he ight. Consequently: /(J objecIMly charocteri: e vegetanon hlOphysteat parameters. axinte \'iewi tl~ ~t'(} ltwt,.y te.g., at " ", Jir} mav be ifl.m[ficient.

:\l mlcling Canop y Refl ectance

Scientists hav e attempted 10 predic t e xactly how much radian I energy in speci fic ..... nvclcng ths should he e xiting a given
leaf or vege tated ca nopy based on a numher of factors .
inclu d ing (Danson. 11191\ ): the le af -urea-ind ex (L A !), soi l
re flect ance prope rties be low the canopy, amount of d irect
and/or d iffuse skylight onto the canopy, th e lcaf-an gle-dis tribu uon (ranging from erer tophile ca nop ies w ith vert ica l
leav es at 90 0 inc lination to plano phile ca no pies do minated
by horizonta l leaves ....ith 0" incl ination), and the RRDF
intlu cnced by the- S un an gle and sen sor vie w ing angle geomell)' just discu ssed . For e xam ple. the S A IL model {Scattering. by Artntran ly Inclined Lea ves ! has been w idely used in
re mote sensi ng rese arch for investigating the spectral and
d irectiona l re flec tance properties o f vege tauon canopies. II

11

372

uses radia tive trans fer equa tions 10 mood en ergy interac ting
wit h a veg etation canopy in three d ist inct streams. includ ing
a downward Il ux o f dir...ct rad iati on and a dow nwa rd and
upward nu x of d i!fuse radia tion. [I ass umes thai the canopy
may be rep resen ted hy sma ll abso rbing a nd scattering etcme nte (e.g . leaves } w ith known op tical prope rties . d istrib utcd randomly in ho riLonw l 1a)crs and w ith kno wn angu lar
dis tribution. The model has been used 10 simulate the effec ts
of otT-nadir viewing. to simulate spectral shills orthe red edge. and 10 estimate canopy properties directly from
re motely sensed data.

Similarly. the Li-Strahlcr model (1985. 199~) yie lds cstimates of the size and de nsity of rrecs from remotely se nse d
images. The signal received by the sensor is modeled as consbting of reflected light from tree cro w ns, the ir shadows.
and the backgroun d .... ithin the fie ld o f vie w of the sensor.
Tho: reflec ted si~nal i.. modeled <I" a linear combination of
four compon cnt.. and thei r ar cal proportions ( Woodcock c1
al.. 1997):
( 11-9)
where S is the brightne.... value ofa pixel, K~ A.'l'" A~ and A:
stan d for the ureal pmportions of sunl it back ground...unlit
cro w n, shado wed ern w n. and shadow ed bac kgro und. rc..peenvely, an d G C, T. and A are th... spec tral sig natur es o f th...
rcspccuvc co mpo nen ts. This is called a mix ture mod el . o r a
sce ne component model.
The SA IL and Li-Srrahlcr mod els represent impo rtan t
aucmpts to e xplici lly rn(>de l the e n~'rgy-m aller interactions
t;lki ng pla l:c anoV<:'. in. am [ l'lelo.... lhe vcgclal i\ C I:allllpy. Scicn li..ts slr i\c to il1ver1 lh.: model s and usc I h ~ rel1ect anl:c
char acteristi cs rt'Cordc d by the fI.'mOll' Sl' nsnr syst em to pro:dicl tlK' c harllclcris lics of spl'ci lk lypes of stru durc .... ilhin
lhe 1::lllo PY. such lIS lr~c h.:ighl . de nsity. 1caf-ar.:a- inck x. ~t ~ .
Unfo rtun atel y, il is oll en ditticul! TO cal ihrah: such 1110dels
hcc aus.: Ml mu ch infnrnllllioll must h.: known about Ih.: kllf
and canop y ehu ra~' teris lics. allllosp lK'ric condil ions. Sun
angle and \ iew ing geome ll). and le rrain slope and aspe ct ,
Thi s I!> a n illlpl.ln<tnl ar.:a o f rell1o!l' sensing researc h.
Im a l:in l:: Spt'l' lrumd r) u f V('J!,ellilinn
,\ s d iscusscd in C haplcr 7, an imag ing speetwmele r co[!.:CIS
a co ntin uous re l1cctancl' spcctmm o f lhe Eanh 's s u rt~ ce . But
instea d of ha \'ing just four Ie.g.. S POT I or ei ~h l (e.g.. Land
sat 7 Enhanct-d T hc matic ~I app,,; r Plus ) spec tral c h:1nnels to
char3cte ri7e the veg.:tation spo:~tral cha racterislics. an imaging spt."Clwmo:ter ro:conJs in fonnation in hun dreds of spt.'Ctra l
eh annds.

Rem ot e Sensing of Vegetation

lrnuging spe ct rometry 11<1-' gr<:a l potential for moniliXll!

veget al ion lypt.' and b iop hysica l c haract eristics (Goi:tt
199;). Vegcnuion re fle ctanc e spectra are ofte n qune inrl!
mauv e. cont aining information on the vegetation chkno
phy ll absorption bands in the \ isihle reg ion. the SUstalM
h igh reflectance in the ncar-infrared reg ion. and the df~
orplaru wa ter abso rption in the middle-infrared region.
Geolog ists have been using hypcrs pcc uul ima pcry for:-m
to d iscr imi nate between different rock I>pes based ontbci
spectral renec tance and absorptio n characteristics. Tlr!'
have prepared all c....hausuc e spec tra l library of 1M
important minerals, soils, an d rock t) pes t e.g.. Clan l.'lIl
.21)(13), When calibrated aubome hypcrspec rral imagt'f);It
acquired. the) oft en compare lh..: spec tra obta in..-d from it
airt-om..: data ttl the spec tra stored in Ihe database to deler
mint' mine ral type and ot her c harartcrisrics. Several l.''<
ple, arc PUl\ ideJ in Cha prcr I ~ I Remote Se nsing of Stit
Mine rals and Geomorphology].
Ideally. there would be a veget ation spectral databa nk 31m.
able thai con tains in formation on : I I the spectral relk'CWl.'t
and em itta nce c haracterisncs (>1'every tYf'< o f \egcl3tiooill
tho: regum from 0.35 1.4 u rn. 1 ) how these data appearlK
differe nt dal es throughout lh.: pcn inen t gro wing seasce,
and .' 1 what these spec tra should look like in the cI'ent of
sires.. or insect infestation. Un fortunately. suc h a daLll:m::
docs nOI yet e\ist, Inste ad , it is Mill usua lly necessary to colICCI ;" ., ;1/1 ' pt.'clro rad itlml't.: r J al a of rhe \eg<,talion of inter,
est ut the time of the ove rflig ht and the n usc this Wt3lO
cuhbnnc the spect ra l re fl ectanc e information derived frOl'll
t h~' airhome sr el-troradio lO\te r. "" hcn this is performed
ca rd'ull}. il is pl.lssiblc 10 ..:x tra~'l \'cgeial illll typ..: and condi
lion in ltlrnmlioll fro m Ih\' hypcr~l'erlr~l l d;lla.
F Ill C\lll11pk. cIJllsidcr lhe A\"IRIS dal;r co l1c.:tcd o\ er thl
S;il1 Luis Va[k y of Color;rdo on Sl'rlL'il1h~'r 3. I (jI) J , shol\n
in l 'nlnr Plat~' I [-2a (Cl ark t:' t at., 111(5). Th .: 224 ,~etral
ch unnds o f 20 x 20 III " VIR IS data wcr e r;"ji nlllelrkally
Ctl lTecl~ d 10 fl'1110V': th.: d"ee l~ n f atm osp heric wal er vap
and gco l11~tr ic al ly n:cli!;el[ III a sl;lndard map projcrlion.
lJ. nd em 'er Ilf snm c oflhe Helds al l h~ ti me oflhc m erl1lgl1
arr annlllaTcd in col or tlll to p Of lh~ single r\ VIRIS channel ill
r o lor Phne 11-2a, i\ V1RIS re l1el:lance "I~ctra for stlmeof
Ihcsc fi dJ ~_ ind uJ ing ptlta lo. a ll~ lfa _ ba rley. O<lt huy. canob.
and pastu re afC ptlnraycd in Figure I J- Ila.b.

The a lfalfa , can'lla. oa t h3) . and S uggel potato sJ)ectra ~

the plallls 10 b<.' gree n and h..:a lthy t Figufl' 1112a). Barle:'
had Inst all of ih c hl\lrnrh~ 11 re';pI.'nse al the time of the
o\'l: rl1ight (Figurc ll- 11bl. ~tlrkot.1h potatocs were not
b<.'ing irrig all-d as they \wrl' aholll to Ix' har.o:sled. and COl-

373

I Cha racteristics 01 Ve geta t io n

bare field

r....... ./'\" / _,\,,",,-0,,",

>

....-"'
I . . . . . ....
barll'y.J

'0

50

30

;'"
,

,
a

....-"\

; .' 0

carlOla/'

i \/ \

20
'.,.' '.

'"

2U
j_

00.1 hay

---

~te

10

.. ......~

,~/

0.5 0.7

/
.

1.0
1.5
Wavelength. urn

...

.................~
2.0

2.5

r ., \

.-' \ .
/',

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!
_._.. " v

i -

i" FI.
i ,r:, 'J(..,
(<- h,en)

11.
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.\

'./,'-'.

pa.~t~rc

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0_ 0_ ",.. 0-:"",0_

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-;

..

.. .

//

o +,-."..,...,..~~~~~~~~~~...,... b
2.0
2.5
0.5 0.7
10
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Wavelength . um

1112 al Spectra of healthy g l"(1..'11 vegetation in th<." SJ n Luis Valle) of Colo rado obtain..-d on Scplelllo..-r J. I')'13. using AVI RIS;
~~ -l channels at ~ O )( 10 m ph,ds. b) \-lost of IJ1<:l.c' "Ih~..,. vegetation t)~ c xhit-ilcd r.."dIK<."<.1 chlorophyll allwrpt i"n effects.
Note lboll lhe spectra are 011'-':1 h..-c1an t) (alter Clark ct al.. 1')<J51. Differ~'Tl~ "'" in th..: rcflcctaocc anu "r ab..orption eharactcrisncs of lhc vegelali"n make il possible in cena m msranc...s IIIdistingUl!l.h one vegetation type from another Of to ilkntify
ifthe vegctanon is undergoing slres:; by "(lme ag..'1)1.

ruly the), show w eak Chlorophyll and cel lulose ahsorpwith soil (clay) absorpnon from e xpo sed s.;1I1. Field
rgano n revealed that the puL1IOCS \\ L'I""- also being
JlQiOO with a de folia nt. Thus. the)' e xhibit decre ased chlo)'11 abso rptio n along w ith a shift of thc red-ellgl til
Mer wavelengths as we wou ld expect. The Chic o and pa st spectra exhibit combinations o f chlorophyll and ccltu(dry veget ati on ) absorpt ion . The spectra from the
n fields w as USL'tI in a special com putcr program called
h urd,r. dc, eloped at the U.S. Geologi cal Survey . to iden~ other pixels in the study area with simi lar spectral
'flilllnsr (Clark ct al., 1( 95). Th e result was a clussificurion
"lap that was approximately 96 per cent accurate ((' oIM
11-2b).
..' I al. ( 199 5 ) poi nt out tha t the long -wavelen gth side o f
chloroph yll absorption [approxima tely (I,oX - 0.73 ~m )
RlIms on... of rhc most extreme slopes fou nd in spectra til'
~lUfally occurring co mmon mal ... n'l ls , The ahsnrpTion is
II)' very intense. ranging from a lo w relllX'tance o f < 5
~nt (near O.6R ~m) to a ncar infrared re flec lan..e m3xi
~ of ::: 50 percent (at approx ima tely 0.73 ~ml . Wh~ the
rophyll absorption in the p lllm dec reases. th... ove rall
.'iJrh of til.... absorplion ban d d"creases. Tll...s... facturs eause
Ilhift to shorter wlIvcle ngl hs as Ih.. "'hlorophyl l ahsnrptinn
meases. This is known as the " red --cllge sh iti'" or the "b lue
'ft of the I'l"d edge" pr~"\ iou sly discusS<,.-d and can Ix: caused

by natura l ....... nescence. water d c privation. or tox ic materials.

Clar k et al. 11(95 ) fou nd that thc ,\ VIRIS data could dercct
red -edge shirts o f < 0 . 1 nm . The red -ed ge shi ft information
was analyzed llsinl: the I ricorder program and used (0 id....ntify \ cgctaucn und c tg oi n~ an y ty pe of stres s in the study
urea (('olor PialI.' 11 2e ).

Temporal Characteri stics of Vege tation

Tim ing is very important \\ hen aucmpting to idenlify d iffer em veg....tanon types clr 10 cxtract use ful vegeta tio n biophysical informa tion te.g .. biomass. ch lorop hyll characrenstics j
from rem..'tely sensed data . S....lccnng the mosl appropriate
datL'iS) for dna ccllccrion requ ires an inti mate know ledge of
lhl' plants' tem po ral I'IWllofogicflf (gmwlhl cycle. Plants
\.\ hose leave .. drop seasonally Uri.' deciduous. Plants whose
k a\"....s rema in from sea son to sca~\Jll are ('I Ylglt't'lI .
A ntllt"d remot.... st"nsin g ......il;"llIist. [)a\ S imonett. o ft.... n sa id
" Green is gn.:e n is ~recll. " B)' thi s he m an tthat iftwo different L' rops /L'.g. com and collon) were plant J m the slim ....
time and had complele callilpy eklsur IJll lh sallW date as
the rellllllcl y sc nsed dula were co lkcl d . t he spe"'1ral rctlectan..-c eham.. trrist ics o f Ihe IWO crop'" woul d mosl likely

374

appea r to be very simi lar throug hout the visible and ncarinfrared port ion of the spectru m. His commen t was based on
tho: U~ of the rel ati vely broadba nd sensors ava ilable in the
1970 5 and I ()gOs. We no w have hypc rspcctral sensors that
allo w us to samp le in re latively n a IT OW portions of the spectrum. hopefully ident ifying unique abso rption featu res tha t
will allow us to discri minate betwee n one vege tation type
and another or 10 extract biophys ical inform at ion.

C H A PT ER

t 100

11

Remote Sensi ng of

Cl' lIlnJ Va lle)'

Californ ia

~ 75

Vegetalio~

xcreb Central

1',";~
''"'''
50 ~

] 50
:... 25

25

J F MA \ IJ

J FMA MJ IASOND

Nevcrthclc-ss, Si moncu 's observation is still correct in man y

instances. Often our on ly hope of disc riminat ing between
1.....0 crops using relat ively co arse spec tra l resolut ion rem ote

J A S O~

[ :n ltrn

lE1 ;~

sensor tina (e.g.. Landsat Thematic Mapper, SPOT.

l KOl\;QSI is ifthc cro ps were :

25

planted at slightly different times in the growing season

Ie.g. 10 days apa rt), .....hic h caused o ne canopy tn l'IC tes s
develo ped (lo we r pe rce nt ca nop y cl osure ) than the othe r;
on e cro p rec eived sig ni ficantly different irrigation than the
other. ca using it to prod uce more or less biom ass ;
one crop mat ured mo re rap idly than the othe r (e .g.
throu gh fcniliza uon o r care ful weeding ]:
the row spacing or field o rientatio n w as dramatically
diff erem fo r the t w o crops; or
on e crop has a d ifferent canopy struc ture.
The differen ce in crop pe rcent ca nopy clo sure . so il moi stur e,
biomass. or the differen ce in row spacing or orientation
might cause on e crop 10 ha ve d ramat ically di fferent re flecranee properties due to the influence of the background soil
or understory materials present. Therefore. it is often the
proportion of hac kg ruund material present within the instantancous field ofview ofthe sensor system (c.g.. perh aps I x
I It for high reso lution co lor- in fra red aer ial ph otography: 30
x 30 IT\ for Landsat Thema tic Ma ppe r imagery ) that allow s
us 10 di scr imin ate betwe en the two vegetatio n types. The
amount of und erstory backgroun d material present is largely
a function of the stllge o f rhc plant in its phe no logica l cycle.
Therefore , if a scie ntist is try ing to differentiate (classify )
betw ee n several crops. wetland. or fo rest types usin g remote
sen sor da ta. it is essc nua l to kno w the phenolog ical cycle
characteristics o f all o f them . This in fc rma uc n is then use d
to dete rmin e the opti mum time of yea r to co llect the
re motely sense d data to dis criminate o ne lan d co ver or ve getatio n l)-PC fro m another.
Anot her important te mporal factor ca nnot be o verlooked.
Plant s req uire ....arcr to gro w, Th ere fore . the ir most prod uc-

J FM AM J J .... SOl'O

JFM A \l J J A , O~

Figu re 1113 Predicted percent cloud cover in four arnsiD.

Unne-d Sta tes. TIle greatest amount of cloud ct'I1:I
is flflen a~..octated with the: heigbr of the plIf
season. except for California. This can signi~
wmplic:ale: the: collection of remote sensill~ data ir
ve:ge:llIliun analysis.

tive growth pe riod is oft en ass oci ated wuh the most inte!llt
periods of prec ipitation and ass oci ated cloud cove. Fa
example, Figu re 11- 13 ide nti ti es the annual percent clNl
cover statistics for seve ral areas in the United States. E~~
for Cal ifornia, w ith its low humid ity and low cloud coce
most o f the areas have thei r greatest cloud cover at eu,,'1ljthe time when sci ent ists may want to collect the maxune
amoun t o f remote se nsor data during the growing Sl'a500.
Consequently. scientists mu st jug gle the identi fication ofthf
optimum date of remote sensor d ata using the phenologicl
calendar with the likely spec tre of co nsiderable cloud COle!
be ing present This is wh y w e need h ighe r temporal rescu
rion sensors.
T he dev e lopment o f'tore sts, gra ss land . and wetland canopies
folio,," relatively pred icta ble cycles each year except .... he;
they are und er stres s from a pa thogen or w hen un seasooab~
high or low temperatures occ ur. S imilarly. all managed agricu ltura l crops ha n ' rel at ively well-kno wn phenologies
cyc les w ithi n a gi ven region , bu r these ma y be modified b
indiv idua l farm ers . Th e refore. it is usefu l 10 re view the phfnologica l cy cles (If bo th natural vege talion systems ani
ma naged agri cu ltural sys tems to gain insight into 1m
impo rtant the cycl es are when using remote sensing III
ex tra ct ve gerarion biophysical info rmatio n. Several casc
studies are pro vided .

375

poral Cha rac te ris t ics of Vege tatio n

~raJ

Phenological Cyc les

Smoot h C " r cl l-:rlIs s (Sportina altvmiflorav

ISOO

. plan! species found in Iorcsrs , \\ etland, ran gela nd.

.jave relatively e mquc phenological growth cycles.
leaf-out. grow to maturity, and senesce at approxil~ the same time each year. Howe ver, unsea son ab ly
er wcrrn tempe ratu res in the spring or 1'311 can shi ft thei r
I phenological cycle'S by as much as thirty days, Therethe analyst must be aware of whether the remotely
data were col lected in 3 typ ical or atypical year. If a
is! is attempting 10 classify \ l1!l'lation using remote
data. it is often wise 10 collect the data early in the
ing season "hen the vegctanon are developing at di f;
t rates. which yield different percent canopy closures.
fully creating diffe rences in thei r spcctna 1 signatures.
tumple, if one is attem pting to discriminate among varinland wetland species (e.g.. cattail. "illo", burton.l in the southeastern United Stares. it is bes t to collect
from February IS through May I. After May l ,
of the wetland vegetauon has achieved com plete can.-closure.and the spectral sigJlat urC'J. of the various canobecome similar, i.c., "Green is green is green:'

,IlIlmc1y. if the goal is 10 moni tor the biom ass of the veg'on. it is useful to co llect remote sensor dat a at the he ight
lhe growing season when the maxim um biomass ex ists.
wring biomass through ti me ca n provid e important
ormation abo ut the stability of the nat ural ecosystem and
\ether ~ ignifiea nt cha nge is taking place. The fo llowi ng
eucn demo nstrate s this logic appl ied to mo nito ring coasta l
'moolh Cordgrnss wet land ( Figure 11 1..1).

Pbenolugica l Cy cle Il l'

SJuth Ca rolin a

('c Hl ~ ta l

S moo th C o r d gr ll\s in

lbe annual phe nologi ca l cy cle o f evergreen Smoot h

Iordgrass (5iJl/l"lin<l alll'l"l1If/om ), whi ch grows extensively
Jl\!Ig the eastern coast o f the Unit ed States is sho wn in Fig.
Jte II-I,t TIle decom posed S{JllI"fil/'lorgan ic mat ter {dctri115) is carried out to sea and represents the fo und at ion o f the
oro chain thai supports the Eastern Se aboard ma rine fishery
ildu.try, The tunc o f gre Jt e~t Sparnnu growt h a nd dry
_~ghl

biomass occurs from Ju ly throug h Oct ober. Thi s is

k optimum time for remote sl'nsing data collect ion. It
laws liulc purpose (0 obtain imagery of the Spartina in Ja nIIIYlhro ugh Marc h. whe n it is in a scncsccd [dorman t ] state.
Stlli,one often encou nters pe rso ns who aucm prto U'C winter
m1ger)" collected for some ot her purpose to monitor the
Sfarril/Il wet land .

-0-- Live biom ass

1250

~~

- 0 - Dea.1 bi'lma'l.~

'd

1000

:::: 750

~
;.

54JO

250

1.1

\t

S 0

'\l

Figu re 11-14 rh,:nolot;kal,;y,;le of Smooth Cordgrass (Spurt/nu

dll"rlI!flnml hirnnass In Sou!h Carolina. The greatest ameura of live biomass is presen t from Jul}
through October. Tbe greatest amounl of dead biomas~ is present from Janu.uy through ~' arc h. The
marsh conta ins 31'f'roximalely equal proportions of
li\ e and dead biomass ill December and June rencr
Jcn"-l'TI ct al., 19'-11'1,

Fig ure 1115 disp lays nine bands o f) x 3 m NASA Ca libratcd Airborne Muhis pcctral Scanner (C AMS) data of
Murr ells Inlet, Sf. obtained o n August 2, 11J97 , during the
high biomass nmc of year. In situ S moo th Cordgrass tota l
dry bioma ss ( g/ m ~ ) measuremen ts were ob tain ed at 271 0e a
uons on A ug.u~t 2 and 3,1997. T he ill situ data we re then
corre lated with indi vid ual band brig hruess valuc s and veg etation rranstorrus of the orig inal CA MS data (J ensen er al.,
[ 991\), Om' of the mus t imp ressive relat ionsh ips was
between (he fundamental ncar-infrared band 6 CA MS data
and the in situ measurements, wh ich yie lded a correlat ion
coe fficie nt of (UIS and an ,-'-valuc o f 0 ,774 meaning thai
ap proximatel y 77 percent ofthe vari ance \ HI S ucc uuutcd for
( Figure 11 10).

Colo r Plate 11-3 is a ma p of the spa tial distributi on oftotal

dry biom ass for a small portjon o f Murrel ls Inle t on August
2, 11J1J7. It WIlS produced llsinl!! the reg ression equation;
I' =

3.4X9 1.t -23 .9

(11-1 0)

whe n: y is tota l biom ass (glm!) an d .1' is the C' A ~ IS blind 6

" rightness value. Stud ies such as this pro vide impo rtan t
baseline biophysical informa tion that can be co mpared
against future studies ttl dctem line if dele terious ch anges in

11

376

Cali b rated Air bo r ne Multispectra l Sca n ne r (C AMS) Data

Rem ote Sens in g of Vegetation

or ~Iurr cll s Inl et, SC

Band J (red: 0.60 . O.6ll1m)

Band 4 (rro 0.63 O,Mll m)

Rand 7 (mld_onfrared:

l.~~

_ 1,75 1J ml

B~n.J

5 (ncarin fr-~tcd 069 . O.76 ll'n )

Band ~ Imid-infrdred' 2 n~ - 2.l5 I,m)

Band (, Inear-infrarcd: 0.76 OQO l-Im)

Banrl Q Irhermnl-infrared: 104 - 12.5 ).1m )

Figure 1115 Nine hands of J x J m Cahbrared Airborne Multispectral Scannc e ( CA~1S 1 tlala of \-lurrd ls lnlet. SC obtained on A~UlI ;'
1997. TIle dalil .... ere .. !>tained at 4,000 1\ abo ve ground level.

biomass arc occurri ng in the inlet. Comparative bio mass

studies would req uire that most of the system and environmen ial variables remain con stant (c.g.. approxim ately the
same sensor system con flgurauon and viewing geo metry.
altitude above gro und level. atm ospheric conditions, unni-

versary dale. time of day. a nd tidal cycle j. The limitalioo of

using a regression approach w he n predicting biophysici
variables using remotely sensed data are summarized in Qi
et at (IW5).

~ra l

Characteris tics 01Veget ati on

377

110

= JA~Nlx

160

R2

,
j
,

0.77

.; lJ1}

120

, 100
~

,, so
~

t
'a

60

.,

- - -I

"

0 .......

10

- .

.,.

rh eo ll l(l~ iC3 1 Cycle of li a r d Red wlnter Whea l in t he

'Iid \\ esl l'nitl'd St a lcs

--'

20

30

40

CAr-IS Ban d 0 Ncar-infrared (0.7 0 _ 1I.'1l)

~ ure

County agric ult ural extensio n agents and la nd-grant univc rsi ly scicnnsts know the loca l and regional cro p phenolog ica l
cycles very well . T hey oncn represent the most impo rtant
sources for valua ble ( W I' phe nology and so ils informatio n
a nd any id ios yncrasies ass oc iated w ith loca l fanning practi("cs. lt is instructive 10 provide exam ples ofsevera l agric ultura l phenological cy cles that spa n the geog raphy o f the
conte rmi nous Un ited States to de monstrate the importance
of \ cgetatiotl phe nolog ica l mtormation. Th is w ill includ e
case studies conc cm ing ha rd red w inte r wheat in the Midwest Unite d Slates. several major crops in South C aro lina.
and remot e se nsing of su gar bee ts, cotton. an d al fa lfa in the
Impe ria l Valley, CA. Each exam ple includes de tailed phenolog ical mto rmauon displayed in diffe rent forma ts .

- 23 .9

50
~un )

11-16 Relaricnsbip 1Ic1"-1:1:11 Calib ruted Airborne Multispectral Scanner (CAMS) band 6 brightness values

and in ,~II" measur ement of Sparli"" ulkrni/loru toral Ur)- biomass (J;.im 1) at twen ty-seven locauons in
Murrells Inlet. SC obtained on August 2 and J. IIN7
{Jensen ct al., 19')I().

Iianaged Phen ological Cyc les

Crops associated with mechanized forestry ami agri culture

Irecstahlished, gro wn. and har ve sted accord ing to rela tively
pedictablc phenologica l cycles. It wo uld be wonderful if a lJ
t.mers. planted the sa me crop o n exactly the same dat e in a
pven growing season . This w ould make the ana lysis (If
tlITloldy sensed data straight fo rward. Fortunately for us.
,110 eat the bread o f the ir la bors. they do not do this. but
adltr plam the crop base d on c urrent meteorologic al condi. the availability o f equipment, and heurist ic rules of
m h. Therefore, nOI all cro ps of the same spec ies are
pbnl~d during the same month o r ha rvested during the same
eonth. If two identical com crops are plan ted twen ty days
lpan, the ir spec tra l signatures will likel y be very d ifferent
b'OUghllut the ir respective phenolog ical cycle s . T his co nd i00n may ca use prob lems when attemp ting 10 pe rform c rop
~enlifica lion using remote sen sor data ,

The detailed ph... nolcgical cycle of hard TI:d winter wheal

(trific<l/d grow n o n the prairie so ils in rhe Midwe st United
States is shown in Figure 11 17. T he cro p is es ta blished in
October and Novem ber. It lies dor mant under sno w cove r (i f
present) until March, whe n growth resumes , Hard red wi nter
wheal gree ns up in A pril and produces head s of grai n in
May. It matu res by mid-June . It is usually ripe and harvested
hy early Ju ly. Remote ly sen sed data acqui red in Oc tober and
November pro vide information on the a mou nt of land prepared d uring the crop establish me nt period . Imagery
acq uired during the green-up phase in April and May can be
used tu extract informanon on standi ng-crop biomass and
pe map:> pred ict the harves ted \I heat yield.
Dera iled crop ca lendar information such as th is is used by
governments. ind ividuals. ami private companies 10 acq uire
re mot e sensing data (II n ptim um da tes in the phenologic al
cycle in o rde r to mode l and pred ict the production of spe c ific
food for sale on the wo rld marker. Such mon itoring may in
ce rtain insta nces a lso 1'0" used to prcdict future agricultural
disaste rs du e to sev ere d rough t. hopefully alleviating suffering duc' to famine.
l'hl' nf)l,,~ica l

Cy c le of

.-\~ricu lt u ra l

C ro ps in Stlu th

C a r olina
The pheno log ical cycle... o f natural and cu hivated veg etation
varie s gre atly by region. Fo r exam ple. ira scie ntist wan ted (0
mo nitor the cond itio n oft he w heat crop in So uth Carolina, it
is I/O/ possible to usc the Mrdwe"!>t w heat phenologica l info rmat ion presented in Figure 11-17. Th e phe nolog ical cycles
lo r wheat and South Caroli na 's ot her major cas h crops are
presented in Fig ures 11 - [S and 11-19.

C H ,\I'T E R

378

11

Remote Sens ing of Vegetation

Ph eno log) or
Winl er Wheat

- - - - -

SlO P

DK

Ot:1

linow cover

]A'l'

~.op,..al>I .. hed

'"-11>- 1-- to 14
5o,," t Ttllcnng

---+-

I O ~ d~)' s

14

Dorm ancy

Emc rl1ence

h.ad i"l ......,.

l~

14

Grcv h Jo ;m ;nl1
resume s

,., "

21<

479~

IIca<.h n l/
ROOI
Soft

",,--,..._";:"L~--,

Uead

n,.

Ha rd do ugh

dUligh

Figure 11-17 The phcnoillgical c ycle of ha rd red winter wheal in the Grcat Plums of the Unit..-d States. l' he crop is established in Oc~
and November.

n ucs dormant

under snow

,,0\''' ' until ~hrch. when g row th resumes . Th e plerus green Ilr

in April. produu'

head... of grain in May. and mature by mid-JuncoThe wheat is usually dead npc and harvested by early July. Re motely ~
data acquired In Oc tober and Novem ber provide information on the a mount o f la nd prepared during the nor c51ablilohmcrr.
period. Irn ~~eT) acquired during the green-up phase in April and 1\1 ~y can 1:>0: used to e~ lfitd infonnauon un standing-crop IlK>mass and perhaps predictthe harvested wheat yield,

Whea t beads in late May and early Ju ne in the Midwest.

Wheal heads ill early May in So uth Carolina . ap proximately
15 days ahead ofthe Mid we st phenol ogic al cycle for wheat ,
pr ima rily du e 10 an ea rl ier and long er Fros t- free gro wing season. Imagery acquired in the Mid west in June mighl be va luable for invento rying whe at produc tio n, wh ereas imagery
ob tained in Jun e in South Ca ro lina m ighl well revea l that the
whea t crop has a lready been har vested.
T he crop cale ndars also rev eal that it should he straightfo rward to ide nt ify whe al production in So uth Ca rolina by
acq uiring a sing le image in March or ea rly Ap ril whe n \\ heat
is th... only cro p in existe nce with a compler... can opy clo sure.
Conversely. il may be difficult to diffe rentiate between
tobacco and corn un tcss we ob ta in a m id-J une image and
hope thai th... tobacco is jea fed out more than com. resu lting:
in a d ifference in spc ctral res ponse. Similarly. it may be po ssible to discrimi nate be twee n soybeans and cotton if a late
July Of early August date is selected and soybeans have a
greater ca nopy closure tha n cot ton . If all the pheno logical

cycles o r the major C fllP~ we re ex act ly the same for Souu

Caro lina. wuh complete canopy clos ure ut rhc same time of
ye ar, 11 wou ld he diffl culrro usc remotely sensed d ata t(ldir.
crimi nate between the vegetal ion I ) pes. How ever. because
thei r phen o logical cycles arc sl;lggc rcd throug ho utthe growing seaso n In som e degree, it is possible In dis criminate
between them ifthe imagery is col leered at nptimum times in
the growing season (Sa vitsky, 1986).
Phl' /luIUl!iclil C )cll' o r Acrieultura l C roj, in t he Imp erial
VlIl1e), C A

The I mpe ria l Valley o f Cahfomia i.. one of the most ptoductivc agr icult ura l ecosystems in the world, produ cing greer
qua ntities of' sugnrbccts. co lton, and a lfatta . The phenolopca l cycles of se veral of its major crops ere summarized ill
Color r latl' I I.... (G RSU, 1( 99 ), Each cale ndar dep icts a single field monitored throughout a twelve -mo nt h period using
7<J x 7<J m Land-at Muluspecual Scanner (~ ISS) dala t RGB
- ban ds 4,2.1). The brighter red {magenta] the signature. the'

To

'llIlporal Characteristics o f Vegetation

379

Phenological Cycle or Soybeans and Co r n in South Ca r olina

,>- '00'"

~"

50

115

em height

JA'\'

a.

So~ hn n~

f+U

I :'dAR I ,\ 1'1{ I

Dormant or multi-c roppe d

\1 A Y

1000/.
ground
co ver

5~.

I JU,\ I

I Initial grow th

- jOO

I .\ l lt ; I Sf'.J'

WI

l OC I

mc

MlV

Harvest

Mat urity

[) nd "l'n1cnl

Cern

hi

- 250

1--100

I
I

100"/.

I-

150

f- ,oo

/50%

I-

75

l-

50

25 e m heig ht

JA'

I'F D

MAR

I ,\ r R

Dormant or multi-c ro pped

.:
\ 1AY

x-le af

JUN

JUl.

--

\
,\l)(j

10 12\ 4 Tao, le lJI"tcr

leaf

~E r

Dcntfl lar ..es t

OCT

l\C1\ '

I P IT

Dorm ant or multi-cropped

i'lgure 11-18 Phenological cycles of soybeans (al and com (b) in South Carolina (Savitsky. 19&6),

jreater the amou nt of biomass and crop cano py' closu re,
Sugarbects are established in early Se ptember. emerge in
Xovember, and are harvested in April and early May, B~'
!allo', cotto n must be planted in March and harvested and
plo.... ed under in .o vember of eac h year to control Bole
l\'cn il. In 1982. the plow-down date \\o as January I, Alfalfa

is planted year-round and may be harvested fi..'e or six times

per year as dep icted in the crop calendar.

It is poss ible to identify the type ofcrop in each field if imagery is obtained at rimes of the year that maximize the spectral con trast bet w een crops. Fo r example. Figure 11-20

11

3BO

Rem o te Sen sing o f VegelatlO!1

Pbcnolouical C ycle of W heat. Cotton. and Tobacco in Sou t h Ca rolina

----

I~I

~I

W inlt'r Wheal

"

'0
r-

~S

lOO"~

grou nd
cover

em
~l l",..

Boolmg

Tillering

Ij~

I\()\

HI

J"

J"

Dormant or m ulu-cro poed

H :l IY e<;I

ISO

b.
Catto n

_ l .! ~

l Oll

"

ll)(l""

gm unJ

so

COH'T

2S em height
\1,\'1

J\

O[C

"'

Sc<:J i n ~

[)" nnanl or m ulliuoppo.:d

MJ hm l)"harve st

12<
-

1\

l Oll

TOblu.eu /

75

H~ J'.

'"
2~

em height

J,"

lU I

\1.\R

Dormant or multi-cropped

\1'R

\,lW

~ II",

I JLr-.
I
,

l'fJllsp)anlinJ;l lk ,<clupmcnl

.Il! L

1,,1'

1
c.

-J

\
,\ l {i

Mil lu rily/h;lf\ C~1

SU'

- ,

0 (1

\JlJ\ "

I DEC

Dcumur uut muln-cropped

Fig u re 11 -19 Phcn<l lllgic al c) c1..... of win te r wheat t al, COU011 [ h], and tobacco lei in So mh Cn rolm .. I he information was obtamed fl'\llll
cuullly agric uhuru l ex tension agc rlls. Clemson l.md-grum univ en.'l) C\lC lhi\ll] personnel. and li d d I'.url (Sa vitsky. 191'.6).

depicts SCH'n bands of Landsat Thematic Mapper image ry

obtai ned on Decembe r 10. II)K2. Six ofthe ha nds are at 30 x
30 m. while thc therm el infrared hand ( h ) is at 120 x 120 m

spatia l resolu tion, " grou nd re ference crop map provided b:the Imperial valley Irrigation Hoard is a lso included (Haarl
and Jarnpoler, 1<)'15 1.

parol Cha racte ristics of Ve g e ta tio n

38 1

La nd sat Thematic vlapper Im agery or Imperial "aile)'. c.\. on December 10. 1982

a [land I (tllue: !lAS - 0.51 j.lm)

tI. Band 2 (gr<:en: 0 ,52 - O.M ) J-l m)

d. Band 4 (ncar-in frared : 0.76 0.9(1 j.l m ) t Band 5 Imid-infrared: 1.55- 1.75 j.lml

e . Hand J (red: 0.63 - 0 ,69 ).1 m )

f. H3nd 7 (mid -infrar ed : l.Ot! - 1.35 J-lm )

1.(,J:..n d :

SU!!arbcet~

D
g na nd (, (mid-i nfrared : 10 ,.\ - 11.S ~lm \

Alfa lfa

I:{:I
0

Colt""

Fall""

Ground re ference information

Fqure 11-20 lndividual bands of Landsat 'Jhematic ~ ' appw imagery of a po rtion of lilt Imperial Valley, CA, ob tain ed oil December JO,
J' S2. Hand, J - .5 a nd 7 haw <l sl't:ll ia l re solu tion of 30 x 3tt m . Band n has a spanal rcsoluuon o f 12n x 120 m. Sugar beets
MC bng br m the ncar-Infrared hand .j data and da rk 111 both the uuddlc-mfrarcd bands (5 anti 7). Fallo w fiel ds an: gray in all
bands e xcept ban d 4

( m:ar- iJ1 fl;l r~'dI .

"hich is dark ( images courtesy Space Imaging, tnc.j.

four color co mposites show n in COIM Plate 11-5 dcmte the import a nce of the mid dle-mfrurcd bands whe n
piing tu d iscriminate am o ng crop I ~ pes . The fundallr:II131 \ isiblc ( RG B = ha nd;; 3.2.1 ) and nea r-infrared co lor
itt's ( RG B = ba nd s 4.3.2 , arc not nearly as e ffect ive
\ isual determination of the crop types as the \ is iblc an d
je-m frarcd cumpllsit,;-s (RG H = ha nds 5.3.2 and RGH =
Unds 7.3.21. :\OIC that all the suga rbcct fields show up as

blac k in th... m iddle -in frared ector co mposite (Co lor Pla te
ban ds 5.3.:! ) and in the ind ivid ua l hand 5
1I 5e: RG B
image ( Figu re 11-20).
Bec ause o f the significa nt spectral co ntra st among the cro ps
in t h i~ December 10, 19X2, Landsat Ttl.! image. il is possible
10 per form a vis ua l cla ssification of the H OpS based on an
exam inatio n of the individ ual bands in Figure 11-20. FOI

11

382

'raeiett -a.

Tona l charac terisucs of ind ividua l crop typo:s in

Nac k-and-whue L andsat T M images of Impena l
Valley. C A, (Figure 1110 ) obta ined on Dec ember
10, 1<l~2 ID " dark; G .. mid-gray; HI'= brighter)

Crop Type

TMI

T"' T"' T"'

Sug~

II

II

Alfalfa

II

Conon

fallow land

TM'

TM7

B,

B,

B,

B'

ex ample. aft er care ful e sa mi nauon we see that the heuri stic
rules summarized in Table 11-2 co uld be used 10 cla ssify the

scene.
It is also pos sible to program a co mputer to take into account
the se sa me spectra l che ractcrisrics and perform a cl assifi ca tion . Color Plate 11-5e displays a remote sensing-derived
d igita l cla ssification ma p of the study area . When compared
with the grou nd re feren ce map in Figure 11 20 . il is abo ut 85
percent accura te . It was produ ced us ing TM ba nds I - 5 and
7 and a supervised maxim um likelihood class ification a lgorithm [please re fer t(l Jense n (2 005 ) for informatio n abo ut
d igita l image classificatio n ]. Haack and Ja mpoler ( 1994 ,
199 5 ) evaluate d this same Lan dsa t T M sce ne and achieved
an overall accu racy of 90 pe rce nt us ing different bands.

The accu racy o f a remote sen sing der ived cro p cla ssifica tion
map is a lways depend ent upon there being a significa nt differen ce in the spect ra l respons e between the various crop
types. T he on ly way to identify w hen th is max imum contrast
amo ng spec tral response sho uld ta ke place is to eva luate the
pheno log ica l c rop cale ndars lind se lectthe approp riate date s
o f imagery fo r analys is. TIlCn classification ma ps, such a s
the one shown in Color PI::l1e 11-5. ca n be used to pred ict the
amoun t ofacreage in spec ific cro ps at a given instant in time .
Such information co upled with ugncultural-rnctcorologi cal
models can be used to predict crop yie ld .

Rem ote Sens Ing or Vegetation

relat ive abund anc e an d ac tivity o f gree n veg etation. i~

ing leaf-area-index (LA I). po: rcc ntage gree n cover. cbJoco.
phyll conte nt. gree n biomass. and absorbed phOl0SY~ ~
a lly active radia tion (A P,\ R). A vegetatio n index .~
( Run ning et a t. 1994; Hucte and Justice . 1')99):

maximize sensitivity 10 p lan! biophysica l paramc!rn..

pre ferably w ith a linear response in o rder that scnsitilll:
be availa ble for a wide ran ge o f vegeieuon co nditioRS. atll:
to faci litate vahdaric n an d calibratio n ofthe index:
norma lize or mod el external e ffects suc h as Sun .
view ing ang le, and the atmosphere for co nsistent spaIiI!
and tem pora l comparisons;
norma lize inte rna l e ffects suc h as ca no py back~
variations incl ud ing topography (slope and aspect), soi
vanauons, an d d ilTe-ren ces in senesccd or \Iiooc!:'
vegetatio n ( non pholos yn thet ic ca nopy co mpo nents);
be co upled 10 sllme specific measura ble biophy;d
para meter such as bio mass. LA!. or APAR as pan of the
val idation effort and qua lity co ntrol.

T he re ar e many vegetation indices. A few o f th e most \\' ide~

ado pted arc summa rized in Table 11-3. ~ a n y are funcrieea lly eq uivale nt (re du ndant) in inforrna rion con tent IPtn:
and Laute nschla ger, 19S41. and some pro vide unique billph ys ica l info rmation (Q i c1 31.. 1(95 ). It is use ful 10 rCliri'
the historica l dev elopment o f the m ain ind ices and PTOli
in forma uo n about rece nt adva nces in index devclopmea
De ta iled summaries are fou nd in Runn ing et at. ( 1 99~)and
l yo n dil l. (I 'N X). \.1;I11Y indices ma ke usc of the inverse
relat ionship between red and nca r- infra red reflectance associnted with healthy gree n vegetation ( ri gu re I [-2 Ia ),
Simple Rat!o -

Sit

Co he n ( 199 1) suggests that the ti rst true vegetation indet

was the Simple Ratio (S R), which is the rat io o f red retlcctel
radi ant Ilux (p,...) to nca r-infrare d radiant flux (P.,,) as
described in Birt h and Mc'vcy ( 19M!):

Vegetation Indices
{lI-11J

S ince the 19OOs, sci enlists have extracted a nd mod ele d various vegetation biophys ica l variables usi ng remotely sensed
data, Much o f this e ffort has invo lved the use ot vegetation
in<lJn'.~--di me nsionl es.s, radiome tric mea sures ma r indicate

The s impl e rat io p rovides valuable inform atio n about veg~

tenon biom ass o r LAI (Schlerf et al., 2005 ). It is especially
se nsitive to b iomass and /o r l r\ l vari atio ns in high-biomass
veg etation such 3~ fo rest s IHue te et al., 2002b),

v,

383

tali on Indices

, I
I

.~

C aru tenuid anti

r " lillr

ch lfl nl p h~ J1

re rtec ta nce

a bsorption

"'1:-- - - -

,-

.i .-' - - ,
Eo

.......

S(\\\

.......

2<J

Li4 uid .. a tcr

aw.orJllion

..........
....
.

(r

;v
:: ..:'

".

~ .:

V .\

a,
2~ 300 )504UO <1,0 :<f1ll ~~t.IJO

so 71M)

7~O XlM . ~ ~u ~J(J <J5U

Wa\'cl...'Tl~l.h.

IIU I 12!>U

1500

1750

2000

22SO

2500

run

Rdationship Bcfn t.'('n Sim p)" R:lI in an d :""1)\'1

'0

/P~CO

c>

z 0.8

'.

"
.~

"

Cl

0.0

~
..;.I
~

"u

~ 0'

""-e

,"
~

"

Wdh:r

Arid

Se mi-arid

( ira"s

Con ikHMJ.~ IOrc~1

Deciduous fore st

(1.1

z
h.

15
10
Sim ple Ratio. Red/Nea r-infrared

'"

rh~s iolq:ical hasis toe developing \~cla: ion ind,,:~ Typ.....a l spec tral reflectance characrensucs for hea lthy green grass
and bare ..II) Sl'lil f,'II" the Il a\ etength rmerval from 250 to 1.000 om. bl Th e ND, ' I i~ a ncrmalizc... ratio o f lhc ncar-in frared
and red bands. The I'D'I is functi ona lly C\juhalcnt to and i~ 3 no nlinear tran sform (If the simple rati., [adapted from Hucre
et al.. 2OCI2b).

F'9ure 1121 a l

384

C II -\I' I

Table 11-3 .

S~I.'(:k--d

11

t: ~

Remote Sensi ng of Vegetation

remo te sensing vcgcra uon indices.

Ref erences

Equ atio n

Veg etatio n Indn

Binh andMcvey.

Si m ple Rat io (S R I

SR

I~

Colombo et al.. 2003

Sch lcrf~"l al., 2005

Normalized Dittercnce Ve-gelation Index

~ ()U-;(" et al., 1974

Dee ring et al.. 1975
Hoete et al., 2oo2a
Schk'Tf rl al. ::005

Pni, - P..J
P"" + p'~J

rrcovn

.VD V/

Kauth-Tho mas Transformation

Bnghmess
Greenness

La ndsat Multispectra l Scan ner V.1SS)

B = O.332 .\fSSI"- 0.603 'ISS! '" O.675u~'ij

'"

0.262 1Ci.,'i4

Kauth and Thomes. 1'17(>

Kauth e\ al .. 1979

G = - O.283.llSSf - 0.660 \IS.\'l-+- 0.577 .4o.-U" 0.J!'i8.1.1SS4

Ydluw stuff
Son.'-.",ch

r .. - 0.!'i9<).\'&1 '" Oo4::!lhoS..'';' 0.07l:> \.&J .v '"' - 0.0 16.ussl -+- 0.13 I -'lSs..' -

0.04 1MSS-#

GA5::! ltSSJ ';' 0.81<2~Sl

Landsat Thematic Mappe r (T M)

B '" O.2Q09 T.lfl - 0.24'l3 T \12 -+- Oo4IIOt:' TM3 .;.

Brig htness
Greenness

055MI T.H4 .;. 0.4HlIDf5 ... 0.17'* Dn

Wetness

= -

O.::!7:?l1T...fl - 0.2174 T.\l2 - 05 50llTM3 .;.

0.722 1TM4.;. 0.0733T.lf5 - O.IMll nn

II' .. O.I44(>T \-I1 .;. 0.1761 TM2

-+-

Crist and Kauih. 19%

Lune tta et al.. 2002
Price ct al., 200::!
Rogan et al.. 2002
Jin and Sade r, 2005
Schlerf et al., 2005

0..H22nn ...

0.3396 T,\ l4 - 0.62 10T 115 - 0041116 T An

Normalized OilTercl\Cl: Moi~lu rc or Water
lndcx (1'\0 \11 or "nWlj

NIJ .\fI or NOW/

.\'fRTl H - \l itJl R r M5

,VIR l1 H.;. ,\ fil/f R r m

lIardi ~ky ct

011..

19113;

Gal.'. 19%;
Jackson cl 011.. 2004
Gal\'30 ct al.. 2005
Jin and Sade r, 2005

Richardson and Wiegand.

Perpendic ular Vegetat iun Inde x (P YI)

19 77

Lea f Rela tive w ater Content lndcx ( LWel l

-log[ I ~ U.,'I RTm - "'fi d l H. T.If~) J

I. WCI

Soi l Adj usted Veget ation Inde x (S ,>\V I) ami

Modified

SA VI =

SAY l l ~l SAV Il

- Iog1I - N I R TM4 - Al idlN. I'II ~I' I

( I + L)(P"ir - Pm I1
P"ir + PrcJ + L

Atm ospherically Resistant Vl." g.'ta ti, 'n Inde x

(A RYl)

Soi l and Atmos pher ically Resistant

lion Index (SARYI)

P* "" ~ P* r~~

( p*",r '" p*r'J

AR V/

Veg~a

S AR Vl =

Enhanced Vegelation lndex (EVil

fVI

Hunt ct ill., 1987

p*,,)r - p*rb
P*",, +P*rb + L

P 'I"

p. "" -p",,.J
, l foL
.... C 1p. r~" - C ~ p. I>I,,~ ... L
)

Hucrc. 19R8; Huere and

Liu. 1'194 ; Runnin g 0:1 al.,
1994 ; Q i et al., 1995

Kaufman and Tanrc,19'l~;

l l ucte and Liu. I YOM

II1Ictc and Liu. I'.N4: Running et 31.. ICN4

I lllckctal., I9Q7
fluctc and Justice. 1m
Hucte l-t a1., 2oo2a
l'BftS. 2U03

385

'legetalion Indi c e s

table 11-3 .

Selec ted rem ote scnsmg veg etation indices .

Eq uatio n

Vege ta tion In de.

Sf;'\\-' Vegetat ion Indc.. (NVI)

Reference s
(jupta et a l., 2001

.VVI .. P 7n - P 747
Plm

Aerosol Fret' Vegetation Indc x (AFRII

(P"i' - O.o<>p I~ "m)

(P"" - o.eeo 1 ~I, m )

Kamid i lot .II., ~OOl

(P"" - 0.5P 21 pm)

(P.."

0.5P2 1I' m)
Brogc .and Leblanc, 2000

Triangular Vegetation lnde.. In' ll

Reduced Simpk Ratio \ RSR)

RSR ""

P"i' ( 1
P...J

R1Iuo TCARI ,'()SAV\

P..." - P.....,"',,, )
p...,, "" u + r..."..,,,

3[(P700- P670)- O.2(P700- P~~)(~::)]

TeAR/ "

Chen et .II.. 2002

OSA VI ~ (I + 0. 16)( p!lOO -Plo7u)

(PlIOO + P670 + 0. 16)

Kim cl al., 1lJ94

Rondca ux et al., 1996

Daughtry el er, 2000

Habcedane et al.. 2002

TeA R/

OSA VI
Gitclson

Visible Atmospherically Rcsistam lndc..

(YARIl
vormalizcd Difference Huilt-uplndcc
I\'OBl)

ND B / =

,\/iJ/R",~ - N/R " "

. .
Mid/R T,\ f~ + N/ RT.\I4

hui tt- up",.,,,

Red-edge Position

krence

11(';,:,-",lIiO/l /11,),'.1 (N OV I ):

NOV I .. P"i' - p,,,J

p""

(\1 - 12)

+ P,~J

TIt..: r.;OVI is funct ionally eq uivalent 10 the simple rnio: tha i

u. there is no sca tter in an SR vs. SOVI plot, and each SR

.II., 2002

Zha et .II., 2003

,VDB/- ND V/

REP " 7 0() + 40 [P ( r~-4 cJ~c l -P I 7t11) ~"\l]

P P 41lnml - P 17I\lnm)
where

Rouse 1.'1 a1. t 1")74 1 developed the generic NOnJ/llkl',1 Dif

~'1

Ckvn . , 1'194

Dawson and Curran, I'N S

Baranos ki. 2005

value has a fixed :'>J DVI value. When we plot the mean
NOVI and SI{ values tor var ious biomes, v.~ li nd that the
NO V I a pproximates a nonlinear tra ns form or the simple
rol lin {Figure 11 -21 hI ( Huctc 1.'1 al., 20()2h J. The :'>J OYI is an
important vegeta tion index because:

Seasonal and inter-an nual ch anges in vcgctauon growt h

and act iviry call be mo nito rc-d,

("I IAPTE~

386

The rauoing reduces man) forms of l/Iultiplin lfi H! noise

di"ilJva nla~cs

Remot e Sensi ng of Vegetation

:\ UVI Im llt.:t' r C hllr l."tun. SC.

l. a n d ~1I 1 Th.'IIHllic :\ l lIp pl' r Data

(Sun illumination d irfcr cnccs. clou d shadows. som e

atmospheric attenuation. "1'01 <: \op ngl1lphk variat ions)
prese nt in mu ltiple bands ofm uhiplc-datc image ry.

Following an: the

11

[)l. r iH'd rmm

of rhe ;,\OVI tHuete cl al.,

10023; Wa ng ct al., 2005):

The rauo..b'N: J index is nonlinear and can be influenced

by u""itin' noise effects such as atmospheric path
radiance (C hap ler Il).
~D V I is uSU311y highlyco",:LJIL-d with \ cgctatlon leaf area
index ( LAII . However. the relat ions hip may not !)C as
strong Ju ring per iods of ma xim um LA I. apparently due to
the sa tura non {lf ~ DV I when LAI is WI'} high (Wang <:131..
20051. For exam ple. Figure 112 1h revea ls that the NDV I
dyna mic range is stre tch..-d in favor of low-bio mass
conditions and co mp ress,.-d in hi gh-biomass. forested
regions. The opposite is tru e for the Simple Ratio. in w hich
mosl of the dynamic range encompasses the hig h-biomass
fores ts wit h lillie variation reserv ed for the lowe r-biomass
regions (grassland , semi -arid, an d ari d biomes ].

II is ' 1.'1)' sensitive to canopy back ground vari at ions (c.g..

SOli vis ibk thro ugh the canopy). 1\1)\ '1 \'3111CS are
particularly high \\ ith dar kl'r-Callup y back grou nd s.
The N DVI indcx was w idel y adopted and appl ied 10 the
o rigina l Land sat \l SS d igital remote sensor da ta. De-cring d
al. ( IQ75) add.... d 0.5 to the !\' I)Vlln avoid negative values
and too k the square roo t of the resu lt to stabilize the var iuncc. This index is I'd c n ed to as the Tr,IIl.I! il/'llll''' Vt'j!t'f<lliol/
III"n' (T V I), These three ind ice s (SR, NDV I, a nd TVI)
respond to c hanges in the amo unt o f gr een biomass.

Many sc ientists continue 10 USl" the N DVI (c.g .. Miura ct al.,

2(}f )1: Tr ishcenko et :11. , 21102: Galv ao ct al.. 2( 1)S). In fact.
two of the standard \ IO OIS land produ c ts urc s ixteen-day
co mposi te NOV! d.nas c(s of'thc wo rld at a spatial reso lutio n
o f SOO m and 1 km (Huc tc c t nl., 2002 a ). An N[) VI image
derived Iroru Charleston Landsat The ma tic Mappe r dataset
is shown in Fig ure 11 -22.

Ftgu re 11-22 Xorm ali .....-d olill,:rcncc vegetat ion inde.\ {~D\l
imagc o r ChilrlC-;lon , ,-C derived using UnlU
Thematic "'appcr l'...nds 3 and 4.

index rG I. ).:110\\ stu ll" ind c,\ OJ , and no ne-such ( \-1 Tk

names attached III the nc " axes indicate t he c haracter isio
the indices were intend c J In mea sure . The coe ffic ients art
(Ka uth ct at.. 19 71)):
0 .33:! IlI.H < 0 ,(,(13,11.....1'. t Of,iS ,lf ssJ

lJ

O. :! 8 3 lf~"' 1 - O.(,(>IlM,\',~ _' +

o.sn

+ O.:!6:!MTI4

\I.~\J

( 11.13)

+ O.311 fi ,I!5S4 111gl

- O.fi<)' )II.\S I i

0.4 2N11.1',\_"+ IJ. Oi (, l/.\SJ - 0,1)4] ,1r;S4 1111;1

/I'

0,tll(, ,\(,\.1' I

II. 131 M,\\_' - 0 .4 52 .\I.\S.I + O.l(x:! IN 4 ,(11.16)

Cr ist lin d Kauth t 19 X6 ) derived the visible. ncar-infrared

and midd le-infrar ed coc tfici....nrs tor transformin g Landsat
Thematic \1<1 Pl'c r imagery into hrig hlness , greenness. ilnd
wet ness variables :
II

n ,4 ~()(, TAIJ

O.:!'lO,) TJIl

0 .24'13 7 All

O.55Ml n /~

0,44Jll 1 .\( 5 + O.170f.lT,\n

Ci ~ - O.:!72XT.\ /1 -

o.~

174 1 M2 - 0.5508 TM3 +

Ill ISi

11.72:!1 1'\14 + 11.07.'.\ T\15 - H.I 04>1 n n

Kauth a nd Thomas 111)7" I prod uced an orthogona l transfermutton o f the orig inal Landsa t \i SS data space to a new
four-d ime nsiona l featu re space . 11 wa s ca lled th.... fa.H elnl
cap or A:m.th ThlJma.\ fmml",.,nmion . lt created four new
3 :\CS : thc soil br ighmc'!>S index (B), gr........ nncss vegetation

II' _ O,1 44/'> 1.H I + 11.1701 f At), + n..H :!21',HJ-

(11 -191

O.-'JW,Ht4 - 0 .fl21117"'5 - (l.-1 l x6 n n .

[t is called the tasseled ~'3P transforma uon bec ause of its C3p
shape (F igu rl'S 11-23a c) , C rist and C tconc ( 1QR41 identified

!!gelatio n Ind ices

Table 11-4,

Index

""'-

Gn:mnM~

,-

....,
''''

Su.

387

Tasseled t ar coeffi cients for usc with I.andsat 7

Enhanced Thematic \o1<lpp<:r Plus da!<l (Huang er
al., :WO.:! ,.

TM.

TM2

TM3

,,.,

wn

J~

..J ~

.3'>-1

. ,ol'>t-

1()~ 1>

,21 ol1

U>lt~

_.Mel

...

-.020

.1!~

" ~

IT

TM'

TM'
. t ~%

.01ol

- :t.J

CW2/>

~~ll6

M,.

..~I>l

d l9

,..,.

_. I,1l

~n:

_,m

-,

M"

. U 9

_, n ~7

J 'J~

TM'
~.

"""

_. HW

. _

:'II or lll llli l~'d

[) ifr~'n'lI c c

Mots turc or W:t1cr Index -

:'11 1)\ 11 or \1)) \\ I

Info rmation abou t vegetation water conte nt has wide-spread
utility in agri cu lture , forestry. and hydro logy (Galvao cr al.,
20(5), Hardi-k y et 81. ( 1~K 3) a nd Gall (1996) found tha t the
Normulized D!ffi:1l!//I.' .\foimlll: or 11<11e,. IIIJ.x (N D.\l1 or
:'>IDW!) based on La ndsat T ro. l near- a nd middle-infrared
bands.

,VlHII or S H WI

/1'1H. r.IN - MidI R nt.

:\' I H. n f4 + MI "' R n/~ '

(11-20)

I1tHrd component that is related to soil fe-ature-s. including

ecisure status (Figure 1I.:!3d). Thus. an important source
i soil information is avai lable through the inclusion of the
liddle-infrared bands of the- Th e-matic Mapper (Price et al.,
lXl~).

The' Charlcsron Landsat T.\' scene I ~ tra nsformed 11lIO

lIrightnt.oss. greenness. and wet ness (moisture] content
.ages in Figu re 11-24 based on the use of the T M tasseled
tzP coeffic ients I Eq uations 11-17 through 11-19). Urbanikd areas arc particularly evident in the brightness image .
The greater the bio mass. the brighter the pixel value in the
!'tt"ncess image. Tbe wetn ess illlagl: provides subtle in formation concerni ng the moisture stat us of the we tland cnv iratmenr. As expected. the gre ate r the- moisture co nte nt, the
lri~ter the rl:sIX11N::. As ex pected. wa ter bodies arc brig ht.
Inst and Kauth (1IJH6) identified the fourth tassele d cap
iWameter as " e ing have.

was high ly correlated with ca nop y water content and more

closely uacked ch anges in plaru biomass and wa ter stress
than did the ND\T Jackson cr al. (:!~) found tha t the:
"ID VI saturated whi le the 1\1>\\11 conun ued to document
chan ge s in com and soy bea n \egclation water content. Jin
and Sader 12(05 ) compared the ~D\,tt and the tasseled cap
wetness rransforrn auon lo r detec t ing forest disturbance.

Pe r pen d ic ula r

Y("~e l :uiun

Inde:\ -

Richardson a nd Wiq :a nd (1977) used the perpendicular distance to the -soilliuc" as an indicato r of p lant dev elopment .
The "soil line : ' w hich is a t.... o-dimensional analog o f the
Kauth-Thomas soi l bright ness index. .... as csurnatcd by linear reg ress ion. The r .'rl" 'I/, /i clI lar Vi..g<'/alioll 111IIe_,[ ( PVI'l
based o n !\lSS hand 4 data was

PV I oJ (",)~' Ir~SI

I ' I~~

'

m s.') - t o \'~ ,\ 'SS) _ 1I , ~ S1 AtS'\:J

Lcut w nrer Cnnt cut ludc The tasseled cap trans formatio n is a glo bal vegetatio n index.
Themetica lly, it can h~' used any .... here III the w orld to disaggrugall: the amoun t of so il luiglnncss. vcgc tutinn, a nd mcis1~!\' content in ind ividu a l pixels in a Landsat \i SS or
Ilematic M appe r image. Pract icall y. however. it is bette r to
ro mpute the coc fflcicms based on local cond itions. Jackson
(1983 ) prov ide" a computer program to r this purposc.
The Kauth-Tho mas tasse led cap transfo rmation continues to
be widely used (e .g . Lunetta et al .. 2002; Price cr al.. 2002 ;
Rogan et al., 2002) . Huan g ct at (:!00 2) developed tasseled
QP coefficien ts for use with Landsat' Enha nced Thematic
'tJppc r Plus at-satell ite re flectance data. These coe tflcie ms
are most a ppro priate for regional applicauons wher ... atmospheric co rrection is not feasible . T he cocfflcicrus arc SUl1l earizcd in Table II - t

I'n

r, (11 2 1)

I.\ \' C I

Hunt ct al. ( I\lX') dev elo ped the L('lI( lI'tJle!" Content i ndex
( l Wei ) 10 asse ss WOller stress in leaves:

t wc t

- Mi,J1Rn ls )J
( 11.22 )
- log [ 1 (NIR r M 4" .Hi,J1R r ,lf5"lJ'

- l,)g [ I -

(NIRt ,\f~

where ft represents refl ectanc e in the- specified bands when

lcaves arc urthcir maxi mum relative wate r content (fully tu rgid: I{ \\T) defi ned as :
I{ \ \ 'C =

'ield we ight - o\'en dry wt.ight x 100 jl l-23)

turg id .... eigh t oven dl) .... eig ht

The utility ofthe nonna tize-d difference \ egetaucn index and

related ind ices for sa tellite and airborne asscssrucru o f the

.......

nI API E~

388

11

Remote Sens in g o f Vegetation

Cnaractcrts ncs of t he Ka uth-T ho ma s Ta \ sdrd Cap Tr an vror manon

,,
"
~ (br

Bn~htnc.'S~

II Cror de...~k'!"ffi"ll in ee !a'l...... II cal"

bri gh mess-greenness 1r.1Il~ formation .

Hrigh tn.",

II t.ocauoe of land "'''\<''1" "hen r lolled

in lho: hrighll\C'<, .gtecnr\C!<.' ' J"'.'("ll':Il sr ace.

Bri!!hITll;s.o;

c..Actual r lOiof brig htness and b'Tecnncss

value'< Ior an agricultural area . The shape
",f IlIC ,ji~tnbu IJun I""ks like a ca p.

d . .\rrm, imaIC dH\'('1;on M moisture

variation in the pla ne " f , ,, ils. The: arrow
rOlnls in the <,li l.:<;llUn o f k"" m" isture.

Figure 11-23 C har acteri stics o ft hc Kauth-Thomas tasseled Clip transformation 13,13J'lt'd fmm ( "risl , I 'll<:"; C rist and Kaut h. 1'I!(6). ThcliSselcd cap transformation is applied eUITL"1:lly if the tasseled cap's ba..: is parallel " ith Iho:: brightness, axis.

Earth's veg etation cover has been demonstrated for alm os t

three decades. The time scri ...s analysis of seasonal NOV I
d ata have pro vided a metho d of esti mating net primary pmduc uon ever varyi ng biomc types , o f monitoring Ilhenol ogi ca l paucms ofthe Earth's vegetated surface, and o f asse ss ing
the lengt h of till.' gro wing season an d dry -down periods
( Huete and Liu, 1<,1 <,14; Rumsey ,'I al.. [(95). Fo r example.
global vegetation una lysis W:l S initially based on linearly
regressi ng: NDY I valu es (derived fro m AVHRR . Landsat
\-l SS. Lands<ll "1 M. and S POT IlRV da ta l w ith ill ,~illI measurcrucnts of LA !. A PAR. pe rcen t cov er. and /or biomass.
Th is empirica l appr oach revol ution ized global science land cover biophysic al analysis in just 011e decad e (R unn ing: et
al., 199-1). Unfornnuuely, stud ies hav e fo und that the empirically derive d N DYI prod ucts ca n he unstable, varying wit h
soi! col or and mois ture conditions. bid irecti ona l reflectanc e
dis trib ution function (BRDFl effects (re fer 10 Cha pter I).
at mosph eric cc nduions. a nd the pre se nce o f dead materi al in
the canopy itsL'i f (Q i el al., 199 5) , Fo r exa mple, Go ward 1.'1
al. ( 199 I ) found e rrors of !. 50% in ;'\0\'1 Images used fur
glob al vegetatio n studies derived fro m the NO AA G loba l
veeerauon Index product. w hat is nee ded arc globally accurate l'\ D\'I-relal,'d products that do nut need to be calibrated

by ill snu measu rement w ithin each glXlgra phic area yetwi
rema in constant und er ch ang ing atmos pher ic and soil bedground conditions [Huctc and Justice . 19'N ).
l'bcrcfc rc. emphasis h;l~ bee n giv en to the dcvelopmcmcr
impro ved vegetation indices thut lak e advan tage of ralibrated se nsor syste ms such as the Moderate Rt"Slllutioo
Imag ing Spectromete r (MO DIS ) {Running ct al.. 1 994~
A lthou gh the NDYI has be en sho wn to he use ful in esrimain!;! vegeuuion prop ertie s, many important ex ternal and
internal influences restric t its g loba l uti liry, The improved
indic es typically incorponu c u soi l background and/or armosph eric adj ust ment factor.
The Soil Al(ill.l1<'d l 'cgl '!lIlion Index (SAYI) is
S:W I =

( I + I. HP"" - P,,.,j l

rIO ,,'" P,,,,t + /.

where L is a ca n,lpy backgrou nd adjustment factor tl:w

account s lor ditfcrcnual red and near-infrared exuncnce
thro ugh the canopy tH uete. 19K"; Huete

C(

al., 1992; Kam:-

clioet al., 2(0 1), An L va lue of 0.5 in reflectance space \lo a:;

369

tatton Indices

a. Brightness.

Kauth-Thomas [Ta vselcd Cap)

G reen ne..... a nd wetness
Transformation of Landsat Thematic
lj ata ror Charleston, SC
Bri~hln l"\s.

c. \\'cmcss.
Figure 11-24 Brig htness. greenness, and wetness imag es de rived hy applying Kauth -Thomas la'Sl-kd cap
Charleslnll, SC, Thematic Mapper data \6l>.1ndsl.

foond to minimize soil hrighll1l.'SS variations and e liminate

~ need for additional calib ration for ditf crcnt so ils (l luete
ed Liu, 19( 4). The utility of SAVI for mini milillg the so il
"aoise" inherent in the N[)VI has been corroborated in many
iIIldies. Qi ct al. ( 1l)l)SI develope d a modi fied SAVI, called
\lSAVI.l hat uses au iterative. continuous L function to opti1111.1: soil adjustmen t and increase the dynamic range of
iWI.

SAVI ....as made less sensi tive tl) atmosphe ric effects by nor.Iiling the radiance in the blue. red. and nea r- infrared
jeds. This became the A/II/lu pht'rio /Ill' Resistant l e~L'/u
1M Index (A RVI):

uansrormaoon coefficients to the

(1 1-25)

( I J 26 )

TIle technique requires prior correc tion for mo lecular scarIcr ing and ozone al'l snrptjon of the blue. red. and near-infrared remot e sensor data. hence the ter m [1. ARVI uses the
differe nce in the radiance betwee n the blue chan nel and the
red channel to COITcct the radiance in the red channel and
thus reduce at mospher ic effects . Unle..s the aerosol model is
kno wn a prior i. gamma Iyl is nor mally equal to 1.0 to minirnizc atmospheric effects. Ka ufma n and Tanre (1\)1)2 ) provid... guideline" w here d ifferent gammas might be used over

390

11

O 'A I" I t:H:

continental, mariti me. desert (c. g. the Sa he l). or heav ily

vegetated areas.

\l UI)tS t :nh a" ,.-d "'oK.'Jalj "n " "t n " 'r'''\
t",t01 ,,"r r II"" ", \"o~rl.l'"

~" r",ali l<'d Il jffn~"ct \ ,~.'t " t j""

10 .0

Soil a nd

Atmosflh rriellll~

Resistant ' "e!:d al ion Ind t''l.. -

S.\ R \ ' )

-e

-.,
.

Ji

Huett' a nd Liu ( 19Q-l) integra ted the L funct ion from SAVI
and the blue-band norma lization in A RVI [0 derive a Soil
(111.1 "'tll/ 'l.lpherica!(I' Rrsistont I' X t'/utio!l lades (SA RVI)
that corrects for both soil and atmos pher ic noise . as would II
mod ified Si\ RV I (MS I\ RV I):

SA RV I :

p. It;. - p h

( 11 27 )

p "" +p*,,,+L

Remo te Sensing of Vege tation

oS

~ e.e

1 I I I I I 1 I .-+, I I
M>Vl ,lmoN

"''I' > ""'I"lIId' '' j/

~';'F t"'''''-ti

, -+-

r-

..

J ,. \ ..'\

01

. --.

,"'-

..- -

I-+-f.'...,' .:'"'"
" ,t,.t;-..; ~ '-+''' 1-1
,;,' : .-i~ r: I I

1iO

'.

....,.
~'."

..
-.~~~lI ,-+-1-+":
' ....I...
r
~

J!

:5 2.0 -r-t-r- _. 1l

~ a,
, ::-'--"-1
' - '. EVt" ol"t~
-.#>! "+~r:"
r-'1

. ,' ,!

""'_ ~' - "'--.-

'_+--+_+-1

)., .... .i-:- "~ _ . -f-I--I-H

,
::''11'"
-r-i--+--+--j-I-I-H
,

...:... ';- +--+- +--+- +-+-1

1 --I-,..~
" ' -'I' +++++++-1
r .,..,:'-t-+-+-t-H-+-+-+--I
+
~

en

-2.110

0 00

H UCh.' [l!IU Liu ( 191)4 ) perf ormed a sensitivit y analysis 011 the

orig mal .\IDV I and improved vege tation ind ices (SAV!.
ARVI. SARVL MSARVI I and drew these concl usions :

(p",y - O.66P I6I,m)

AF RI I.6"m -

If there we re a partial atmospheric correctio n 10 rem ove

the Rayleigh and MOlle component s, then the ~I
vegetation ind ices wo uld be the SAR\ 'I and ~I S A R V I.
wnh the r-; OVI and ARVI being rhc \\ OThI.

become slightl y wo rse hut sti ll wou ld have the least

ove rall no ise . T he NDV I and A RVI woul d have the mtl~ l
nois e and e rror.

Acreeol Free \ 'Cl;:Clal ion Inde ' -

An U

Kamiel i er al. C::!{)(JI ) fou nd that unde r clea r sky con ditions
the spec tra l ba nds ce ntered on 1.6 and z.t u m arc high ly corre lated w ith visible spectral bands centered on blue (0.469
11m ). gree n (0.555 11m ), and red (O.M5 11m ). F. m pirica l lincar
re lat ion sh ips such as PIJ4~~ m - () . 2 5p~ 111m' PO ~~~ m :
O.33P2 111 m and POb4 ~lI m - O.66P I I\jl m were found to be statistically significant. Therefore. based on these and e ther retationships,l\\ oAerm ol Free lege/,ll/On InJICt',~ (AFR I) were
developed:

am

600

Figure 1125 A ccmpanscn of the sensitivity of the MOl)I').de.

rived Norm alized Difference VC~"lali()fl Illlb
(NDVI) values ami MODIS Enhanced V~
IOOe' ( EVil val ues for dense vegetation (Did-.
:::002).

If there we re a total atmospheric correcuon. then then:

wou ld main ly be " soil noise.' and the SA\ ' I and MSA RVI
would be the best equ ations tu usc. and the N OV I an d
A\{ Vl would be the worst.

If there we re lill atmospheric correction at all {i.e.. 1\(1

Rayleigh. ozone, or aerosol correc tion], the SA RVI \.I ou ld

2.00

!,,,ba nco,):VC~''," i<'n !oklo, 10J

(11. 2XI

MSAR\I

0=

(P II "

+ O.66 p I "Ilm)

and

( PilI' - O.5 P ~ .ljl m )

(1 1-)0

ro.." + O .5P ~.llt m)

Under

cle ar

sky

cond itions,

the

(11-191

A J'Rls

(especief

A FR I~.I I,m ) resu lt in values vel)' si mi lar to NDV!. HO\\"CleI, I

if the at mosphe ric colum n co nta ins smoke or sulfates then
the A t.'Rls are su perior to NOV ls. T h is is heca use the electro magncuc energy cen tered al 1.6 and 2. 1 jllll is able to penetrate the atmospher ic co lum n better than rL'<I wa'ielcnglb
energ y used In the N DV I. Therefore. the AF Ris hne'
major appl ication in a sses sing vegetation in the preserce et
smoke. anth ropogenic pollution, and volc anic plumes. Lim- I
lied SUl'cess is ex pected in the case o f d ust due to presenceel
large r part icles that are sim ilar in size til the wavele ngth. and
ther e fore notrranspercnt ut 2. 1 1J 111 (K au fma n c r al., 20(0). I
Thc A t' Rls can he imp lemen ted usi ng any se nsor that irccrpcrates bands cent ere d on 1.6 and/or 2.1 um such as the
Landsat T M, and ETM ' , MO DIS. AST ER_an d the Japanese
Earth Resource Sa tellite-Opnca! System (1E RS---OPS~
SPOT 4-\'egctalion . and IRS-I u D.

392

C Il -\ 1'1 ~:R

11

Remote Sens ing of Vegetation

Lane

used the SenSOT10 nMp the leaf-area-index o r Canada. The

760

Nt'dut't''' Si lllf'/r HI/f io ( I{SJ{, is:

IheS'

bane

RSR '"
w here

Pm r (

I _ P " - P ""',,. )
Pr,.J
P ,,"'... . . p 'TI'''n

( 11-33)

P,.._,,, a nd P...,,-... arc the m inimum and max imum

SWI R reflectan ce fo und in ea ch image and deli ned as the I

pe rce nt min imum and maximum cuto ff points in the h istograms o fS W IR reflectance in a scene . Tho:major advantag es
o f RSR ov er 5R are a) the differenc e be tween land -cover
typ...~ is much red uc.ed so that tho: acc uracy for leaf area
index retriev al for mixed CO\ C T I)-J'('s ca n be improv ed o r a
sing le LAI alg or ith m call he dev eloped ....ithour resortin g 10
coregjsterc-d la nd-cov er ma p" as jhe first apprcxunarion, and
bJ the: backgrou nd (UndeI'MO!)', litter, and so il) in fl uence is
suppressed using RSR because th... SWIR band is mo st sensitive to the amount o r vegc tauon co ntaini ng liqu id wa ter in
the bac kgrou nd (C hen ct al., 20(12).
Chloroll h~ 1I A bsl .rpt iun ill Kcncetlillcel nd c\ - C A KI;
.\ Iod ifk d C h lo rllllh) II A" s.. r pt iun in Ke Ilcct an ce Indc \
- Urc..\KI ; 0pli mi/cd SlIiI.Adj u,t\'d V{"J.:I'l aliun I nd el
- O SA\"I ; Iblio -I CA Kl iO S.-\\" 1

Ma rty scientists are interested in the amoun t o f chloro phyll

in vege tation [e.g.. Daughtry C! a l.. ::!OOO). Kim CI a l. ( 199-JI
de ve lope d the Ch/olTlJ'hy/l Ah.lOrl'tioll ill Refh- clilllce Index
leARI). It was modified to becom e the Transformed
Absurp tioll ill Relh'("f<lllce II/dn (TCARI ):

It uses bands corresp onding to the min imum absorption of

the photosynthetic pigments, cente red at 550 and 700 nm . in
conj unc tion with the ch lo rophy ll (I ma ximum absorp tion
h:111d. around 67 0 nrn . The choice of 700 nm is dill' to its
location at the boundary be tween the region where vcgctalion reflectance is dominated by p igmellt absorption and the
beginning of the red ed ge po rtion where veg etatio n stru cturu! cha rac terist ics {i.c., the SPOllll ) mcsophyll] have more
infl uence (In reflec tance (Ki m cr al., 1994),
Un fortunately, TeARI is still sc n~ il i \ c III the underly ing so il
refl ectan ce properties. purticularly fo r vegetat ion with a low
leaf area inde x. There fo re , Daugh try et nl. (2 UOO) proposed
that TeA RI be combined with a soi l line vegeta tion index
like the 0 l'lim i:<'" S"/l.Adjml.clligl'f<l/ioll / ,,dlX (O SI\V I)
(Rondeaux er a l., I ~\)n ) :

bilit
wau

T hc ratio bec ame

Te A RI
OSAV I

W ill

and is hig hly correlated w ith vcgeta uon

(llaboudanc er al . 1002 ),

chloroph~1I

wI>

7
WII

Many reso urce mana gers would like vegeta tion fracbI
in fonn ation te.g ., 60"10) (R undq uist. 2002 )_ Building
the Atm osph erically Rl'sist.ll1t \ 'egl'talion Index, ~
developed the Vi_tiMe Afm(lJI'}/I;riCll /~l' Reslstar u
(VARI) comput..-d as (Gitclson cl .111 . 2(02):

inc!

R.

n
'p
<h
lh
m

The index was mi nima lly se nsitive to atmospheric dedi.

allo wing est ima tilln o r vege tation fraction with an error Ii
< I 0" ;' in a wide range of annosphc nc optica l thickncr.s.

b<
Co

"
S

:\url1l ali/l..J Ditferen ce Built-up Inde\ -

,\ IUII

Many professionals " 'Or"in!:: on ur ban/subu rban problellll

art.' interes ted in monitoring the spatial distribution aDd
gr ow th or urban built-up areas. These da ta can be used f(ll:
watershed runoff prediction and ot her p lanning applicatica
Zha ct al. (20 03 ) calculated a Nonnolized Difference B~i/l'
Ill' tudes (,,"'O BI ):

(l 13S\
wh ere

"if".'"

'1"";"-'""'"-,,,.';0":,";,'
fi" = ,.-.';;

.V1R r \l4 + .\fitIlR rM~

(1l,39)

Th is resulted in un ou tpu t in1>lge that contain ed only built'lJ!l

an d barr en pixe ls haloing ptlsiti\C values whi le all other land
cover hada va lue ot'u or - 254 , Th e technique was reponed
to be 92 pe rcent acc urate.

The ncar-in frared hands found on Landsat Til.l- J\OA.~

AVIIRR. and the Imlian Remote Sens ing Linear Imaging
Se lf Scan ning ( LlSS) sc nsor al e in the region 770 to 860.

b
r
I

135 )

3 6)

393

scape Ecology Metri cs

10 9(10. and 725 to 1100 om. respectively. Unfortunately,

rear-infrared region s include wa ter v3por ab sorp tion
Therefore . 10 improve the biomass mon itorin g capn. of the 1\OV I. G upta cr at (200 1) c hose (0 exclude
u por abso rption hands in the creat ion o f a ,VI'\\" leg.

as their biophysical (e.g.. LA I, biomass. APAR) a nd

struc tura l (c .g.. pe rcent eanu py closure ) properties.
\llln itllrin g these churactcnsucs thro ugh space and time will
prov ide valuable information for unde rstanding the Earth as
a system (Townshend and Just ice. :.!OO2).

fndt'x(f\V I) :

Land scape Ecology Metrics

WI :; P7T/ - P 14 ~

uent

lion

PO"

tists

1I 1.....(J)

P to73

Pm . P 7~7' an d Pto' ) an: the rertccra nc-cs cen tered at

,7-17. and n73 om. respectively, in J- 10 IO-om bandhypcrsp<."Ctral data . Outer narrow -band veg eta tion
are found in Jensen (2005).
2e Podtlnn Det ermination -

Rt:I'

-dex

3 7)

rts,

of

TIS

od

abrupt cha nge in the fixO-liOH om region of retlecrance

of lea" ..." !; l:3 UM.-d by tho: combined effec ts of strung.
hyll abso rption and leaf internal scattering is called
ltd edge. The red i'tlKI' position ( REP) is the m int o f
urn slo pe on a vegetation refle cta nce spec tru m
een the red and ncar-lg wav ele ngt hs. The red edge was
descn bed by Collm s ( l IJ7K). a nd is perha ps the mo st
ied feature on the vegetation spectral cu rvc accordi ng 10
erfand AlZbcrg... r (2001). T he REP is usefu l because it
5lr('lflgly correlated w ith fo liar chlorophy11 co nte nt and can
rsenslnvc indic ator o f vegetatio n stress . Determining the
edge position using remote se nsi ng data usua lly requires
collection of'hvpe rspcctrnl dat a.

vegetati on indices are useful fo r rnomroring the co ndition

and bcalt b o f vegetated pi\ e b . Ho wever, such pe r-pixel
an alysi s doc s not provide any informatio n abou t the nature
o f surroundi ng pixe ls, inc[udlll g thei r site and association
charactcnstic.s, Landsc ape ecology principles haw been
dev eloped that mcr casin gj y incorporate remote se nsor data
to JS'>t"S.~ the health am i di, ers ity of veg eta tio n and ot her
variables withi n entir e l,.'\:osy!>te11ls. Th is has res ulted in the
dcvclopmcrn o f numerou s 1'lIId~Coll"Jt' ecology maries or
imJicalO~ Ihat arc o f .;.jgmficanl value when anal yzing
rangeland. gr ass land. forests, and wetlan d (F roh n. 1998:
\IcGariga l et al., 2(06 ). Numerous govern ment agen cies.
suc h as the Environmental Protect io n Agency. base much of
their en vironme ntal modeli ng and landscape character izat ion on these mctrics and indicators (ErA Landsc ape Eco logy. :.!UOlil. There fore. it is use ful to pro vide a brief review
o f their or igin and summa rize se vera l of the more important
landscape ecology metr ic varia bles thai can be extracted
from rem otely sensed d ata .

'Or

".
,,-

.,
'J

lmcar method proposed by Clcvcrs ( 1994 ) ca n be impletoo that make s use o f four narrow bands and is co rn-

ed as follow s:
REI> '" 700 + 4 0 [P (led ~Irc) - P (7IKlnm1] .
1-l 17Jlln,n ) P I 71 ~ ) n m i

p ( l>7U,onl )

+ Pn~u"r,, )

(1 1-.\1)

(1 1--12)

wson and Cu rran I I99!l ) and Haranos k i and Rokn ... (2005 )
rizc add uio nal met hods used to determine the rcd
_ position.
.enusts throug hout the world are studyi ng till: ro le of
ial vegetatio n in large-scale g lob al proce sses. Thi s is
sary in orde r to unders tand how the Earth funct ion s as
s ystem. Veget ati on indices are bein g used to accu rately
mlory the global d istri bution o f vcgcrauon type s as wd l

The t... 011 llIlli!" '<lfI(' ("-f/logy w as first introd uced by the Ocrma n geog ra pher Carl Troll (19 .NI who mad e widesp read usc
o f the II1<:n 11<:1V technique o f aer ia l photography. Tro ll
intended for the term lnrulscupc ecology 10 d ist inguish his
approach to r u ~ i ng such irnllgl'r y to interp ret the interaction
of water. land surfaces. soil. veget ation, and land USl' from
th.u or conventiona l photographic intcrprctnrion and cartogmph)'. Landscape ecology has been intensively pract iced in
Euro pe fur man y decades lind became gene rally rec ogn ized
in the United State s in about 191<0 . S ince then. landsc ape
ecology ha-, rapid ly evo lved as a discipline, spurred by the
s~ n<:rg istie nucracuons between remot e sensi ng and GIS
techniques nnd adv ances in ecological theory.
J.ill/JR'I,I!' " n,llJ~Y i~ the study o f the struct ure. function.
and c hanges in he te rogen eo us land arcus com posed o f interacrin g organi sm s (Bou rgeron and Jense n, 19931. It is the
study of the interac tio n betw een land scape pa uc ms a nd L'Cologica l processes. espec ially the influe nce of landscape pat tern on the flow s of'water. energ...\ , nutrient s. a nd biota . What
J ist ing ui::.he:. landscapo:eeul ogy from the ma ny separate d is-

394

ciplincs that it embraces Ie.g.. geog raphy. bio logy. eco logy.
hydrology ) is that it provides a hierarchica l fram ewo rk for
interp reting ecologica l struc ture. funct ion. cha nge. and resiliency at multiple sca les ofinquiry.

Tmditio na! measu res 10 protect the enviro nment. such a ~

preventin g water po llution Of prorccring biodiversity, often
focused on specific e ffluent d ischarges or fine-scale hab itat
requi reme ms. Th is method has been described as the tinefilter app roach. In con trast. tho: coarse-filter approach to
resource conservation states that -b)' managing aggregates
(e.g.. communities. ecosystems. landscapes I. the ccmponer us of' these aggregates .... ill he managed as wdl", f1llurgcro n and Jensen. 1993). In other words. the most costeffective stra tegy to mai ntain the resiliency and productivity
ofecological sysn..ms is II,) conserve (or reston..) the dih,:~il~
of species. ec osystem processes. and landscape pa tterns that
crea te the systems (Jensen and Everett. IlJlJ31. Applying: this
coarse- filte r manage me nt met hod requires that landscape
pa tte rns be eva luated at mu ltiple spatial and temporal scales
rather than sim ply at the trnduional scales of crrcam reach or
fOR'St stand.

C11 ,\ PTU~

11

Remot e Sens ing of Vegetation

pattern III/il is a collection of measurement units

patch units that haw the property of being the minimum
descripto r of a large r spa tial area. The scales otee
qucsnous and indic ators suggest two types of landsi:IJ
units: watersheds an d lundscapc patlc m types (lPTl('"
ham and "'Ilr!on. IQlJ-I). watersheds and l PTs caphR
bound four important Iluw processes operating "ithin
among landscapes: tlo .... s o f enl'Tg). water, nutnents,
biota . Scales '11" wutershedv and l PTs range from apjIll
110
mat cl~ 10
10" umt s in cxtcnt, and fro m Ito lOOba.

Landscape Indicators and Patch MetriCs

Jones et a!. (liN!'!) ~U~l"l-I that tancscepe integril) ca

moni tored by carefull~ wa tching the status of the folIo.
indicators:
land-cover com pO"itioll and patt ern
riparian exrem and distribulion
ground .... mer

Hierarc hy theory allows landscape ecologists 10 integrate

mu ltiple scales of information to determine w hcth cr landscape pauerns arc sufflcicm W 3110 w ecolog ical processes 10
ope rate at the necessary scales. The objective is 10 investigate changes in the distribu tion. domi nance. and connectivity of ecosystem co mpon ents and the effect of these changes
on eco log ica l and biological reso urces. For ex am ple. eCl1SYStern fragme ntat ion has been implic ate d in the dec line of biological diversity and eco system suctainabihty at a number (If
spat ia l scales (Forman . 1995: Jones ...\ al., [\jl)S). Derermin ing stat us an d trends in the pattern nflundscapc s is cmiculto
understanding the overal l con dition 1'1' ecological resources.
Landscap e patt ern s thus prov ide 11 set \) 1' indic ators, (e.g .. patte rn shape . dominance . connectivit y, config uration ) that can
be used to usse ss eco logical status and trends nt a vur icty o f
sca les.
A hie rarchic al framew ork also permits two important type s
o f co rnpnrisons: 1) to co mpa re co nd itions within and acm s-,
lan dscapes. an d 2) to co mpare conditions across diff eren t
type s of ecologica l risks . Suc h eco logical risks include the
risk of eros ion_ loss of sni l prod ucti\ it)!. loss of hydrologic
function. and lo ss o f hiod i\'C~i t)!.
Sca lolble units are nCl-ded 10 add ress landscape t'eo logy
issues at multiple sca!..:s within a hierarchical fra mework.
Exam ples of scalahle units inclu de palcht's. patterns. and
land s.capes. A patch IInil is a s.:1 of co ntigU\lUS measurement
units (e.g.. pixels ) that ha\e the sa m..- numerical \alue. A

grccnn....ss paucm
degree (l ftllorh~ sica ! constraints

erosion porcnual.
Monitoring these landscape Ind icators req uires PI"lXi>/.
repeatable measurements of terrai n {'tllclles such as indi\'i~
ual forest vtandx. rang eland. wetland. and/or agricultu!1l
fields (Table 11-5). It is also importantto ident ify palchl'S1l!
pure urban structure such as rc~ i dent ial and cornmerciallars
lise. Thes c Illl'asure llU:llls of I.. . rruin patches arc roulinely
refe rred ttl as /wI<I''"<lI'" 1-'<1111"1"11 and .l'11"I/("/11l"r mm icr
( ~ lc(i3r ig :l1 ct ul., 2(1(11,).
Nu merous landscape structure mc trics have been developed
(e.g. Rurcrs cr nl., 11195: Schutt c t 31.. 1999: w cicrs e el
2(05)..\1 <111)' of these land-cup.... ecology memes are alai
ublc in FR.IGST.17'S - A Sp<lll,,1 Pattern A IIUlysi.I PmgtO/f
for C"lt'gOriCII! Mi/I 'J f\kOa rig lll and Marks, 19'f,l,
\1 eC arigal et a l.. 211(6). ~ lailY ...cle mists use this prugramlD
extract putdl. d uss. a nd landscape indic es (e.g., \1i llj n~
ct al.. 20u3 : Jad."llll ;md JC'n~en, 2UIlS).
O'l\eill et al. ( 199 71suggesl that the hea llh of an L'COS}stewI
cou ld he mon itored if the "...lIow ing three 13ndscape C'OOior.
m,;-tries were flloniturc d Lhrougb lim,;-: dominance. ClJIIlt.
gion. and fracta l dimension.

Ta t

395

.JIldsc a pe Ecology Metric s

~ 11 5 .

Societal values. ellample indicators, ami candidate landscape olog) mcuics.

Indicator

Socie ta l Value

3iOOin ' H it ) '

\\Itrn. hed

l n l~ ri l ~

Llnd, u pe resilk-nc e

~illul/ce.

Candidate Metric s

wildlife habitat suitability

patch statistics (number. total area. average size. largest size. distance
betv..cen, ratio penmeser to area. shape . fractal dimension . square pixel
model, etc.] , Iragmcmation. cOllwgi"n . zone fragmer uanon index, patch
per-unit-area index. domina nce. adjacency of laml-cover IYJlCS. Shannon
diversity, biophysical attribute peuerns

stream biological cr,odltion

di\l:'f'S1l}. square pue! mod el. dom inance. fragmcmarion. zone tragmcntation index. p.uch per-una-area index. adjacency of land-cover types.
sl0J'C. elevanon . diffusion rates, percolation threshold. erosion mdex.
texture. bi..,ph}SJcai aUrioole patterns. geochemical attributes

forest plant species richness

diversity, dominance. fragmentationzone tragmcnuuion index. patch

per-unit-area index. slope, erosion index. texture. patch srarisncs, square
pixel model. biophysical attrib ute patterns

landscape ~uslai nab i llt)

patch sM islics. contagion, zone fragmentation index, p"t<:h per-uniturea index. fragmenta tion. texture. domman ce. fractal dimension.
"""uare pnel model. biophysical attribute patterns

water quality

patch statistics. erosion index. hydrologic modiflcarion . adja cency of

land-cover IYJle~. domina nce, contagion. IUllC fragmentation index.
patch per unit area index. fractal dimensi on. square pixel model. elevation, slope. biophysica l attribute patterns. geochemical aunbures

vulncrnbibty 10 lloooiul;:

patch Sl<ltlst ie~. adjacency of land-cover lyp-cs. erosion indcx. dominancc. contagion. ,W IlC fragmenta tion index. patch per-unit-area index.
fractal dimen sion. square I'h:.el model. hydrolog ic modification. 1'1.:\'11tion. slope . texture. biop hysic a l attri bute patterns

land scape sustainabiluy

patch statistics, dominance , contagion. lone fragmentat ion index, patch

per-unit-area index, tragmemarion, fractal dimension, square pixel
model. biophysical attribute peucms

D. is the information theoretic inde x thai idc nu-

~ the extent to which the landscape is d omina ted by a si nland-co ver type- The metric. 0 < D < I, is com puted as

D-

1- [2:<-p, ,np,)]

( I I- H )

In (II )

~ O < p~ < I is the proportion o f land-co, er type k , and"

the total number o r lan d-cover types presen t in the land-

pe.

"'I

where
is the probabili ty that a pixel (Ifco ver type j is adjaccm to type j .
T hc f ;-(/<"10 1 dimens ion, F. of parches indicates the exten t o f
human re-s ha p ing: o f land sc ape struct ure (ON ... ill ct al..
19971. Hu ma ns cr...ate sim ple landscape patterns: nat ure ere;;I t.:S complex patte rns . The fractal dunc usion index is calculated by regressin g the I\)g o fthe patch perimeter aga inst the
log o f the pa tch area fo r each pat ch on the landsc ape. The
index eq uals tw ice the slope of the regression line. Patch es
of four (If fe we r pix els arc excluded because reso lution probte rns distort the ir true sha pe .

lPnlagil:m. C. expresses the probab ility that land cove r is

re "cl um ped" than the ran dom ex pec tation . HII' index . 0
C < I. is

" Inp"l]
c = 1_[2:2:<-P
2In (/I)
,,

(11--441

O ' Neill cr at. ( 1(97 ) suggesr th.u th is se l o f three indices

may ca ptu re fund ame nta l aspects of landscape pattern that
infl uence ecological processes. Sign ificant changes in these
indi ces for an eco~y~lcrn might indicate that pe rhaps deleterious processes arc at work in th e envi ronment. For example,

(U \ "l ~.H.

39

. , -,,-_ b

an> l.md
cover I ~T"''''

~""""""''!''''''''i''
mndllicd
C" nra;:i" n, C
moee

clumped

nOIclumped

FIgure 11-27 A hYJ'Olh~'1;cal dq nc lu.lfl o f a thrcc-dimcnsso nal

landscape metric feature space . Point <1 represents
where a stable, unmodi fied ecosystem might reside
in ucnunance. contagion. and fractal dimension te a ture space. Wlk"Tllhe landscape is modified b> man
or natu ral forces. il may mo ve 10 point h with mall)'
land-cover Iyrc~ being introd uced tdontiucncc
chllIlgc l. be less clumped (con tagio n). and ex hil:>it a

more modified fractal dimension. This could be

good or bad. Remote sen sing of vegetation is cnucat In tho.' extraction of landscape Pilh:h memes.

cons ider 3 small ecos)slem that exhibits a less mollified

frac ta l d ime nsion. is highly du mped. and has relativ ely few
land -cov er types wit hin n. [t might appear in a thrce- dunensional landscape metric space allocat ion a in Figure I I-.:n.
If t his small ecosystem we re subd ivided with se veral new
roads and fragmented. its loc ation migh t mo ve in th reespace to b with many land -co ver types be:ing introd uced
(dominance change], be: tess cfurnpc d [contagion], with a
me re modi lied fractal di men sion , Thi s co uld be: good or had .
In face the relati on ships between the metric values and how
they ac tuall y re late to eco logical principles are still being
determined. Remote sensing oj vegrtanon K-ifhm these
patches is I 'el)' importunr <llId constitutes 01/1' uf the major
factors responsiblefor whether 01" not t/1I' mrtric:s (11"(' rahnst
and usefid for ec ologica l modeling
Riu ers et al. ( 199 5) rev iewe d 55 patc h me trics and co neluded that the following memes accounted for most o f me
\ arian ce , including: the number of annbute cover types in a
region (11 ); contagion [previou sly discussed); ave rage pcrirnctcr-arca rat io; perimeter-area scaling: average large-patch
den sity-area sca ling; standardized patch shape; and patch
perimeter-area scaling. The algorithms for all 55 memes are
prov ided in the pap er,

Re m ote Sensing of VegelatiOll

Applying tho: principles o f landscape ecology requirt$

understanding ofthe natura l variability oflandscape
and proc<."l<oscs across bo th space and time. Estimaleo;of
variubiluy arc css cn ual to dete rmini ng whether the cum:I
condition o f landsca pe is sus tain able. given its hi!>toric~
terns and proce sses (Jensen and Everett. 11)1)3). MOIeC''Ct
the estimates arc extremely useful in both broaJ-kIll
ass essment o f ri~k 10 reso urces , as w ell as to finer
as sessments.

less

lnoJi lk d

11

T he goal is usually til

estimate, on

J reg iona l basis and with kno.... n confidcnx.

the curre nt vtatus , trends. and changes III se
indicators u fthe importantlandsca pe s:

csnmate w nh know n co nfidence the geo graphic CO\C!J!t

and extent ofrhe land sc ape s" pattern s and types :
seek a ssoci ation s hl:t.... cen ~e lo:':: l<:d indicators of
and anthropo geni c s trcss o rs and indic ators of la~
condi tion : and
pro vide statist ical summ aries and periodic
the condition of the landsca pes .

asscssm~

Moni toring the vcgcnnion in land scape parches us

rcrnotcly se nsed data an d deriv ing acc urate mentes
these data is becom ing a very important component of~
ecosystem monitori ng pw gram s. For exa mple. AlTO)
Moya cr al. (2005) usc-d remote ..ens ing-tkrived lan~
ecology memes to anal) lO: forest fragmentation"
regrow th characteristics ill Costa Rica fro m 1%1) - 2001
Jac kson and Jensen l 2()(15 ) used remote scnsing-lkri\d
land scape ecOI'I~Y memes 10 perform reservoir short.
envuonmcmulmonitoring in So uth Carolina .
II is also imponam to mon itor the hea lth of CCOS}M{'1lI~atlb:
reg iona l an d nat ion al kwh to iden tify sign ificant ~
areas rhar may he experiencing u loss of'biodivereuy Oee Ii
the most use fu l me thods o f mnintainjug biodiversity that ~
based on the use of remote se nsing derived vegetation dalJ6
Gap Analysis .

Biodi versi ty and Gap An alysi s

t he rap id lo ss o f biol \lg ieal div ersity {biod iversit y] remaiI

one Ill" ma nki nd's greatest threats. T he convemiOMi
approach to mai nta llling biodivers ity generillly has bn ttl

Ron

pN
\I ,

'b \

'"
o
r

r
I,

c:

"
\

397

mote Sen sin g o f Ve getati on Ch ang e

'"

rms

this

<0'

)at-

ccd species b)' en dange red speci es and threat by threat.

illiin the Unit ed Stores. the primary mean s o f stemm ing
loss is the Endang e red Spec ies Act (E SAI. Some have
, izcd the ESA for ...cvcrat reasons, incl ud ing a bac klog
unaddressed pennons, fail ure to develop and implement
ery plans in a timely fashion. and lack ofedequa te
eg to meet objectives. A prim ary ca use o f these probis that the Ac t focuses on individual species. Effort
dcd on this. ... pccics-by-spccies approach is inefficient.
sivc. and b iased toward charismatic mt'gdfwflllI hallbroad public a ppeal
a cute an imal is more likely to
prol~ too than a not-so-cute ani ma l I. Last -min ute protecefforts also contribut e to economic conflict becau se
fail to pro vide a reasonable planning fram ew ork for
ic inte rests (e.~.. be tween bi~l log: is1s and logg ing
ies). Wh ile necessary. these effons need to be comnted with mo re proact ive met hods that attempt 10
in speciers and eeu syste ms while the) are sti ll com(Edwardsct al.. 1995; Millington cr al., :!O(3).

u.e.

co.
"d

.ge

approach lo r ass<:ssing the current status of biodi ve rsity

scntcd in exist ing mana gement are as. It functions as a pre limin ary step 10 the more deta iled st ud ies need ed to establish
ac tua l boundaries for po tential biodiversity management
areas. Gap Analysi s, by focusin g on higher levels o f'biol og ical organizations. is likely to he less ex pens ive and mo re
hkely III succee d than conservation pro gram s focus ed o n
single species or po pulations {Sco n ct a l.. 19(3).
On e of the lirst G ap Analy ses focused on enda nge red forest
birds in Hawa ii (Sn 'U cr al.. 19 87). When compared w ith a
ma p o fthe exist ing rese rves. -c 10 percent of the geographic
ranges of endangered fore-st bi rds \\ eft' protected . i.e.. there
were signific.a nt gaps in the exist ing biodi vers ily prut ect iun
sc heme. Several areas wi th highl y endangered bird species
richness have since bee n protected by the Nat ure Co nse rvancy a nd stale and federa l ag enc ies. Succ essful G ap Anal ysis has tak en place in man) locat ions. inclu di ng Haw aii,
Ltah. Pue rto Rsco. and California. G ap A na ly.- sis is under
way in many ot her states and cou ntries [Sa vitsk y, 1998 ).

Rem ote Sen sing o f Veg et at ion Change

elllevels, not just en dangered s pc-cics. is called Gal' ."'111/of

'.
m

'y

e-

. As an evaluano n pr oc ess, it prov ides a systematic

ch for dete rmin ing the protection a fford c-d bio logical
,mity in g iven are as . lis fund amentals arc prese nted here
use- it is heavily based on the use of remote sensing and
graphic infor mat ion ~)st..ms (G IS) to idcnnfy gaps in
iu'rsity prote ction that IllJ) he filled h) the est ablishI (If new preserves or c hang es in land-use practice-s
netal..19l}J; b lward s ct al. .1 99 51.

)e

,d

o.

!)'!lical Oap An alys ts inclu des the crea uon and anal ys is of
primary G IS layers:

,d
the distribution o f act ua l vegeta tion-cov er types
deli neated from sa te llite and a ircr;l!\ remotely se nsed datu
mdancillary in Ionmnion:

"n

Ana lyzing a n ind ividua l date o f remote sensor da ta to e xtract

me an ingf ul vegetation bioph ys ica l information is o ften or
value. 1I,1We\ Cr. to apprecia te the dy namics of the ecosystem. it is necessary to mo nitor the vege ta tion through time
and det er m ine what changes in succ c -oion are tak ing: place .
Rela tively h igh tempo ral res olution satellite data is o ften of
value when conducting suc h successiona l studies. Th e follu wing case stud y docu ments the usl'!oll1l:s, o f S POT
remote sens or d.ua and the methods used to monitor wetland
c hange in ;I freshwa ter reservoi r.

Remote Sensing Inland Wetland Successional

Changes

' land 01'. ncrship :

.r
s

and-manag ement status;

distribution o f terrestr ial verteb rates a s predicted fro m the
distrihution ctvegemnon a nd if! situ ob servatio ns.
Analys is provi des an o vervie w o f the d istri bution and
of seve ra l co mpone nts of biodiv ers uy, II use-s
distribut ion oractual \ egctation type s an d terrestrial vcrte and. whe n av aila ble , invertebrate taxa as indic ators
ates j for biodivers uy, Digital ma p po lygon overlay's
.G IS an: used 10 ide ntiry indiv idu al speci es. speciers-rich
. and cover tylXs that arc unre presented o r under-rep resetv arion

Inland wetland s assi mil ate pollutaurs, cont rol floods, and
ser ve as breedin g, nu rsery , an d feedi ng g round s lo r fi sh and
w ild life . Unfo rtuna te ly. the conterminous Un ited States lost
53 per cent of its we tlands tu agr icu ltura l. resident ia l. and.o r
co mme rcial land usc from the 17Xlh to 19ROs. Accu rate and
timely in formunon un .... ctla nd dist r ibutio n is essen tial for
effect ive protectio n and ma nagement. T his case study docu ment s the use of m ulup le-season a nd mult iple-yea r SPOT
sate llite multispectra l data for mon itor ing inla nd wetl and
successional changes in Par Pond on the Sava nna h River
Site. Sc. ca u.se-d by the d raw-do .... n o f the reservoir 's water
leve l from J une 19'11 thro ugh Oc tob er 199-1 (Je nse n ct al.,

398

J'1'1 7) . The ~ lll Lly brings to hear man y ofrhc considerations

d iscu ssed ill this ch apter.

C H.\ V I t :K

11
('~ l' l ~

1'1I" uul"t:: i,'al

,,( Ca ll1li l ~ and WlI lcrlilk, in I'ar Pllnd.~'

Ca ttails arc green with fullcanopy

Par Pund Rht'r\t1ir .stud~' Area

Par Po nd is a 10 12-ha reservoir orig ina lly crea ted in 195 t! to
rece ive reacto r cool ing wate r. but now rece ives no w.
through wurcr from 1111: Savannah River. Par Pond has a stable. pred ictabl e cattai l and wmerlily ma rrophyte co mmunity
when wate r le vels tl uctua te < I m per yea r.
App roximately 30 macrophyte plant spec ies an: found in Par
Pond . bUI o nly a lc" dom inate :
Cnnmls ( Typha spp. ) aTC persistent emergent mac rophytes
thai exist year-rou nd in Par Pond. They begin to " gree n
up" in ca rly to mid -April and oft en form a de nse. green
canopy by late \by. as doc ume nted in the phen ological
calendar sho wn in Figure 1I'::!8. Ca tta ils scn cscc in late
Sep tember or early October, remain ing brown thro ughou t
the w inter mo nths . Canails are normally found in shallow
\.\, mer < I m in J':IHh adjaccrn to the rese rvoir shoreli ne.
watcrhhes l .\)'ml >h<ll?fl od" "olo l are dominant tloaring
macrop hytes Ihal do not pe rsist thro ugh the w imer ( Figure
11-2 8) . They appear at the o uter ed ge o f the ca nails fly late
A pril or early May and reac h full grow th cix 10 eigfu
wc:cks later. Waterl ily be ds expand into the ope n-water
areas of the re servoir through September and typ ica lly
extend 10 dep th s of 2 - 5 m. T he hc:d" pers ist until mid October 10 mid -November and then disappear.
Before June. lIN I, the wa ter level o f Par Po nd \\ as rcl at i\ e1 ~
stable at 200 ft above mean sea leve l (ms l). tluctuaun g <
0 .15 m in most ~ cars . Extensive bed s of cattails and wa rerlilics from 20 - 15U rn in wid th ex ten ded out into the lake .
Fro m June 23. 109 1. throug h September 15, 1991 , the wate r
level Ill' Par Pond wa s low ered to IXI II above msl fo r reservoir repair. Th e 19 It ta ppro xima tely b mj d ro p in .... ater level
turn ed a submerged zone a long th e sho reline abo ut 50 - 25 f1
ill in w id th into upland. This exposed the em ergent and non em erge nt aquatic rnacrophvrc bed s (,I' the Par Pond shoreli ne
to drying. co nditions lor abo ut four years, until the wa ter
level was wised 10 100 tt once ag a in in 19',15.

R.

Re mo te Sensing of VegetatlOll

r-l"~ Calt,ulsa:\:

!
C' alt a i l~

arc

brown

'

Waterfihcs arc

green with full canopy \

bl\l\' n

\, ,

"

Figu re 11-28 Annual phenological cycle of inland "'~lland ~

Llih and wah:rlilks in Par rund 0 11 lh~ Sanlla
River Site in South Carolina. Cattails m ~
emergent marsh \ egetalion that green up CIfk
than warcrhlies in late :\larch and ...ady Apnl T'i/I
begm scncecing in late October and hr dormD
over the "inter, Wat... rlU ics disappcar cuml'letcl) bl
November each year and reappear in late Apr.L
n ulh cattail and waterlily have a full, ,knse ~
througboen the summer months.

SI'Ol HltV images used to doc umentthe . cgo:lao

tion succcs..ion ofPar Pond.

Table t 1-6.

Date

S POT
Oal a Type

Refenlnce Cotot
Inlrared Aerial
Photog raphy

HRV- XS

January J I. 19'12

May 5.1 ')')2

HRV XS

~l <l Y

October 13, 19<)2

lI RV XS

August 10. 19'12

:\13) 1O.loNJ

HRV- XS

April 23. 1<J'I3

October 28, IIN3

I:IRV,XS

January 22. 1m

April 2, 1Q'14

HIW-XS

April

October 25, 1<1',1"-

HRV- XS

M arch 14,

19'J ~

2. 1<)')2

t ~,

1'1'14

Remnte Se n\u r- Oata

Sun ang le and seas ona l soi l mo isture (Je nse n et at.,
Seven S POT multispec tra l (XS ) images acqu ired in the
spring and fall o f 1992, 1993, a nd 199 4 were analyzed
(Tabl e 11-6 ). Nc ar-ann iversary dales were selecte d when ever p ossible to minimize c hanges in reflect ance caused by

I99S ~

Co lor-infrared aeria l phot ography was also available fOf~

expe riment. SPO T image-to- map recuflcauon was based ee
the lise o f approximately 50 ground-con trol po ints per d:ltc
and nearest-ne ighbor rcs ampling III 11 Un iversal Transverse
Mercator projection. Tota l geometric roru-rucan-squae-

,n

te Sensing of veqe tetrcn Change

~d .SC

399

'0 , - - - - - - - ---------c

Irtetal iun x ucce....iun

on Par Pond

,,

,,
,
,,
,

. ." _

- - Old f ielel
1'" ,,,
_. ..... Ib. hlwood

Wal ~ r

IHZ'f/?'~ Ikad \ 'q

Old Fid d

Sr ,kcnI,h

Pinc
Hanlv.o.>d

11>1 < SoI l

,,
I cal-

,
,,'
-., ,

"

:t m ah

en t
jrhe r

1l1Cy
t m nl

b,
Til.
.~,

" I"cd

;;pe 11-29

"e

~
"e

II

~b5

3 11

~ 1~

Days since

a.

f, ~ 7

(,/~ 3 '<) I

~ ~~

Hll4

1120

Dr:lw-dul'o II

b.

3 ' Pcrspcx-tivc \ ic.... o fthe percentage oflarul cover in Par Pond from March 14. 1l)<J2. through Octobe r 25, ['N.j. derived Irum
"na l y ~ i ~ o f se ven .laic's n f S I>( IT H RV XS data . Exte nsive a rca~ o f d.:;,o<,\ \ C~':(;Jt il" 1 \\ .:r" pr( S<'O! in ",arly 11,1'1 2. 'pile-rush do minated in late 199 2 and ear ly IIN) . Ol d ti... ld natural S\)l'Ce-sj, ,,, dominated in lOll ... 1Q93 and thwu ghoul 1994. Pme and hard.... ood seed hngs were colo nizmg ex tensiv ely by October 25. 1'1'14. h I The percen t land cover of ~rikcnl ~h , 01,1 field , and pine '
hardw ood vcgctauon e n draw -dow n areas of Par Pond from Ju ne 23. 1'NI , lhrl'l lgh Ocsobcr ~5 , 1'1'14, <Ire presented as raw
data and mode led ... ith the usc o ffi fth-orde r polynomial cquauons {Je nsen L"I al.. 1'1'171.

(R\ ISE ) was !. 0.5 pixel (:t. 20 m) for each date of

gcry. All terrain > l OU ft abov e mst was masked OUI of
study area.
::e C lassifica lion a nd C h a n~e Derectlu n

'ift: spec trally unique clusters were extrac ted from each
of imager)' usi ng an lmcracuv e Self O'1!ani7ing Data
lysis Techniq ue - ISOD:\TA (re fer 10 Jensen. 2lKJ5).
clusters were labe led to produce sew n land-cove r maps
cvcrull accu racy lor two of the classiflcanon maps
reer 2S. llNJ . and A pril 2. 1994 ) was 75,6 percen t and
- .9 perce nt. respectively. This level of ,tCCUr:lC)' i.'i abou t
I ls expected from simple three-baud 2n x 20 m SPOT
I_reclra l data [Je nsen l'l al., 199 5).
goal of this study ..... as to document the ecological
ge in vegetat ion co ver in the draw-down area, using.
Iple J aIl' S of remote se nsor data. This required the usc of
rnangc,(kleClion algorithm that provided "from-to" map
non, i.e.. a 20 x 20 m pixel of Dead Vegetation in
2changed into a pixel ofSp ikcruch by IQ9:\. Twen ty-one
ge detection map s were produced and may be seen in
>tn at ai, (1 l)lJ7).

Rou lh

The percentage of lend-cove r in each category on each date

fro m .\1arch 14, IW2,Ihwugh October 25, I()l)4, for the Par
Pond srudy area arc grap hed in Figure 11 293. Th is mfo rmanon documen ts the lo ur year \ cgctation succe ssion trend s on
the Par Pond e xposed sho reline, On .\l arch 14. 1991. Dead
Vcgctano n occ upied ap pro ximately 35 .4S percent of the
study area. The catta il and warcrfily aquatic macrophytes d id
net survive the draw-dow n. Atso prese nt were 7.46 percent
Rare So il and 8.74 percent ea rly invas ion by Spikerush. As
nme p,b'>l'O, the Dead \ 'cgcla ti,)n areas were co lonized by
other specie s. By October 25, 19(,14 , no Dead Vegetat ion was
prese nt ,

Two maJ' lr types of' succevsional de velopmenttook place on

the Dead Vcgel;ltion and Hare Suil d raw-down arcus. FiNI,
there .... as a sig nificant inc rease in Spikc rush in 1'192. H)'
\lay 5, 1992, Spi k em ~h occupied 20,2X percen t of the slUd~
area. As the so il dried out ill su bseq uent years. Spikerush
cov erage declined In about 10.75 po.'rcent by October 25,
199 4 .

Spikeru...h a nd Bare Soil were succeeded primarily by O ld

Fid d spl"l.:ics as t'.\p.."lIt'J. and at a Vl' I')' rap id r:ltc". Thl' most

11

400

dramat ic increase was fro m May 10, 1993 to Octobe r 2l(

1993, which sa"" O ld Field land cove r im::rC3SC from almost
nothing 10 25.62 perce nt of the study area. Pine/Hardwood
seedling cove rage also increased steadi ly from almost no
cover in 1992 to 10.25 perce nt by Oct ober 25. IQQ4 . Irthe
draw- down areas were unmoles ted to r approx imately 75
years. oollh id.ory climax vegetatio n w ould be prese nt in a ll
the draw-do.... n a reas.
Using the laud-co ve r statis tics de rived from multiple-date
remote sensor data. it was possib le to develop predict ive
successiona l moods tor eac h of the land-cov er vegetation
types in the dra w-down a rea. For exam ple. Figure 11-29b
..jepic ts the act ual and pred icted pc.-rt"cnt of the scene occupied by Spi ke-rush at different dates since the initiation o f
draw-dow n on June: 23. 199 1. The Spikerush success ion was
mod eled us ing a fift h-orde r polyno mial \\ here
%Spikc rush '" -0.0 12\)x ~

-t

0.-\0 I Hx 4 H19H9x1 + 1 5 .3 H3x ~ .

14.-125x.
w ith R ~ = 0.992 . U ~ i n g this equ at ion it was possible to pred ict the pe rcent of Spikc rus h thai wou ld be presen t at U'K'rspecified dates after a se rious reservoir draw- dow n. Similarly, O ld Field and Pine/Hard wood land-c over succ ess ion
were modeled using the equa tions

%0 ](1 Ficld -0.1>4 1hX ~

-t

0.6421 x4 - 3.060-1.\1

5. 1495x2

2.32 75.\, and

% Pine ,Hard wlXl(j .. O.OO76 2x s - O. 15 4 3 x~ ~ 1.097h J
2 .9 5 39 x ~ -+ 2.4909,. .

The: pol ynom ial mood for O ld Field ( R2 = 0.89 ) d id not

e xpla in the successi on as well as the Pine,'Hardwood predictive model (I~ 2 = 0.1)4). The fi rst de rivat ive ofrhese mode ls
ca n be used til predic t the rate-of-change {gradient) in perce tu o f land co ver on .. speci fic day since draw -down.
The ana lysis of the land-c ov er a nd change-detection map s
derived from satellit e remot e sensor data q uamu auvely doc u men ted 1) the spatia l dis trib utio n of the ..ucccssiona l
cha nges in land co ve r, a nd 1 ) the rare o f successional change
in Par Pond ca used by the dr aw-down .
Numerous stare an d govemmcm agencies recognize the
importance of ulihz ing remote se nsor data for mo nitor ing
thei r sensi uve vegetation resources. For ex ample. the first
comprehcn s ive inventory of the vegetation at the plant community le\'el of Ihe Everg ladl'S in Florida was co mpleted
using a co mbination of ~t ellile i ma ger~y, aeri al phol<,grap hy,
G PS. and G IS ll'Chnoltlg ies I Doren et al.. 1999 ).

Remote Sensing of VegetatiOn

Remote Sensing South African Agriculture

Many coun tries usc remote sensing to obtain cnucal

physica l information to help protect its citizens from
du ring ... ustai ned drough t. For exam ple . the Republ",
Suu th A fri ca Department of Water Aff airs & F~
mandated by the Somn African Nouonat woter ..k l (1m
ob tain inform ation on the sp atial d istribut ion oral! agr:~'"
turc tha t uses water each year. All agricultural water ~
must become "re gistered water lIS I:I1' '' in order tn kgall)1J!i
liz c the nauon's ...carce water resources. The DWAf
respo nsible for conducti ng the water usc accounting lIld!
the w ater Auth orizat io n and Resource Mana gement 5)!tCI
( WAR.\1S) spatial dec isio n support syste m. Remote semiIt
is on e of the primary method .. used 10obtain the agri
wa te r u...e into rmauo n. A f' AS A. ... ponso rcd snrdy ass~
the DWAF to de cclop remote sensing-assist ed t~'Chniqll.~
obtain the nece ssar y agricultu ral water use intomuri
[ Jensen \' 1 al.. 200n ).
Si udy :\na
Th e siudy was con d ucted in Water Ma na gemem Area ~
Usuru and Mh lathu zc River cat chments (F igure ll JCl
The area co ntai ns natu ra l vegetation co nsisting uf forest .
sc rub-s hrub (bushvehh, non- irr igated dry land fanning. aDd
irrigated agr iculture c'lllsi sling primari ly o f sugarcane lid
citrus . SI'( jl" remote sensor data a nd ill .\' ;111 ground rcferm:e
mformarion wen.. used to train a nd e 1a~s ify the imagL'l)'mw
agricuhu ral land-c o vct classes.

Many o f the agricu ltura l fields in the U.n l i ll and Hhl<lllna

River water 'vla nagc ruent Area arc < 100 ha . Therefore.a
was necessary to use remote sensing imagery with a Sp.ltial
resolution o f < 30 x JIl m to idl'11l ily the c rop type lI'ithii
such small fields. Sensors like MODIS (NAS Al. MERIS
(Europe....n Space Agency] and ,W IIRR ('l'OAA) \\ ere of.
value d ue to the ir coa rse spatia l reso lutions t e.g.. 250 m. 301
m. and 1100 m. res pectively). After analy zing cro p calnJdlr
info rmat ion. DWA I' obt a ined the lo llowing remote ie!OO"
data :
SPOT 5 1Iigh Resolution Visihle Infrared (HRVIR)
imagery ob ta ined on January \). 2(H14 1multispectral ha~
1-4 ar l Ox 10 Ill : panc hrom at ic band 5 at 5 x 5 m].
A S~ H image o f the "tud)' area is ~how n in Fig ure 11 3lll
.-\ S POT C\llo r ..:ompos ile is sho\\ n in Co lor Plate 11-6a.

Re

Ta

nces

11-7.

.f

Citru s

Forest

Bushveld

I :!(.I

161

744

F~...

13

Bushveld

"

..

)ugatCanc
0

Ubjcct-oncr ncd inmg:.: !>\:~lnent;<tion c1 a~sj li' ati\ln o f $POT

o f an nrca in the Rep ublic ofSou th Atnca

Sugar
ca ne

Class
I

401

,
87

13

Rood

g
.1

lI'ater

Fallol"

1J411

.'1 " 2

10 1

93.55

M. 31

1I1'>.14

II lndbreak

.....

'_0
1&1

"

Producer's
AccufaC)"

d
d

{hl'rllil

( OlflT,fi('nt

Wat er

44

133 5

'14. 4(,

<,1).8':

140

h:! .14

'"

55.11.1

57

7R.<,1j

",

<)5.M

4"

7'1.5<,1

30

44

XIX~

sh.'l7

,
,
,

,
0

User's
Ac cu..
racy

Fall ow

,"

4S

Ba na n a

Row
Tota l

Wind..
bre ak

10

00

ev

103

'0

5(1

"

so

....

26l':2

7'l h l

-o

"

72.22

'1.'.750

IN .-l%

83. 7 ~.

I.S itu (;rnund Reference n a ta

muh ispo.:dral ttn x 10 m ) and panchromati c (5 x 5 ml daw

,trrurIlC ~'

li.appll

S2

"

25

Ro a d

~(l()..j

D\\AF obt a ined in .Ii/ll grou nd reference info rmation 011 the
l!'fI': of agricu lture present in 261Q fields in the stud y area .
~ centroids (I t" many of the fields arc ove rlaid Oil I: I 0,000
irgcscak ort hop hotography in Fig ure 11-30 b,

The SPOT data were su bjected to an object-oriented image

Color Plate I IMt . The overall accuracy was ~N .4 perce nt

w ith a Kap pa cccfficicm of agrccn wru of ~3 . 7 (Table 11..7).
Th e use r's ,l<;curnc) tin sugarc ane and citrus \\Il'f\'l)4.4 b percern and 'l J.i'Q percent. rc~ rccl i\ cl )i whi le the producer's
uccuracics were 93,55 percent and 86.3 I percent. respective ly. This lyp..' of ag ricu ltural land co ver infumuuion is
uscd hy the Republic of Su uth .Africa Department of Water
A ITairs & Forestry a !> input to the Watcr A urhor izruion an d
Reso urce \-la na g,,'mcnt System (Wt\ R\1SI spatia l decis io n
support s)sl<:m tcourte, Jensen cr a l.. 20061 .

~tat ion

classification that takes into accoun t both the

and spatial information inherent in the SPOT da ta
refe r 10 Jen sen. 20115. for information about obj ec rltTlh.:d image ~eg m e n l 'l lio n).
~lrJI

Referen ces

t.

A. t\ .. tlopul. s . anJ A .II . Slrah k r. 1')L}Il, rnrwanl

and Rever-ie Modeling ofCanopy I )lrccli" n31 Reflectance Us..
Ing a J\ ...ural f\ ..\" urli. .. H",.",I.: <;,-11\/"1{ or /:.'", ',n""',,,nf_
S'IAS; CT

A hudgJ~jm .

!he objcct-o ricruc d !>egmentat ion classi fica uon us ing both
SfQT 2004 m ultisp ec tra l radia nce 110 x 10 m l and pench ro..
ic (5 )( 5 III1data) ield cd the clasvificarion ma p show 11 ill

402

{I! .... PH.H

11

Rem ote Sen sing of Vegetalion

R.

SPOT Data of the Mh lathuze River in So ut h Afr-ica

a. Part o f Water Management Area #0: Usu tu and Mhlath uvc River catc hmen ts
recorded on SPOT 5 red band imagery collected on January 9. 2004.

b. Ground reference points overlaid on onho photography

Figure 11-30 al ~ I'O I tlRVIR image l,f an area along the Mhldlhu/ l: River in the Republic .. t ~'lll i h Africa. 0) A portion or the :?b~1 fiddI
used IV assess the agr jcuhu ralland CO\ cr classi fication accuracy em: overlaid t il l I :IO.OOl)..scak orthopb otographv IJ~
al.. 200fll.

I
403

eierenees

eyo-Moy u, J. 1'. Sa uchcz-Avofcifa. (j. A.. Rivard . B.. Calve,

J. C. and O. I J, Jan ze n. ~OOS. "Dyna mic s in Landsca pe Struc1m': and Compovirion tor Ch omlega RCgHln. Costa Rica from
1%0 to ::!1I0U:" Agr,..,/lwr<!'. fn,.,ult'm, 'IIIJ Em"It",,,,,,'''I,

106D -J9.
:li. G. V. ami J. u Rok ne. 2UllS. - A l'rac uca ! Approach
{or Estimating tho; Red Edge Posiuon of Pla ut Leaf Rcflcctina. - ",,1. J"lIrn,,! nl Hl'molt' 'ii,'mi"g. ~N ,\1:503-521.

Clar k. R. '\I . King. r . V....\ gc r.l'. and (l A. Scuvzc. 1")'}5. " Iniria l Vegetation Spec ies and Scne~cc ncciS lr.ss Indic ator Mappm g m the Sa n Luis Valley. CO . Us m~ Imaging Sp cctr omcter
Da ta." /,,,,,.,dill!!..,. Sununitvitle Foru m; II. 1'0 ' 9 . J. Pcudc tton. a nd D. Van Iyl, II .d,.), Colorado C.eo logk:ll SlJr\'C~ PuhIiCIIlio n I'l l<. n4-1>'.I; hup :/, ~1'<'C 'a b.er. usgs.Bu' .
Clark. R. :\.. S wa F~'. (i A .. wise. R.. Livo. K. E.. Hcc fc n. T.
\ 1.. Kok aly . R .. and S. J. SUlky, 2Ull.1. USGS VI~il<l' Spt'clmll.ihrary ,' pl ihlJ5<1, U~ (jS Open fi le I{c lJ'Vrt 03-J'I5.

i. G.. S and (i \k"cy. I'lM( M\1.:a<u ri ng: the Col .... o r GrowTurf .. iIh a Re fle cta nc e xpcctmphotometer." Al,:'rr",,,",\"
Joflma/. f>O:o.:o-b-l3.
lllg

Wj?e>n. P. S. a nd \ l . E. Jen':'n. ] tN .\ . -,\n Overview o f 1:1.'0-

0<:\1.'1'1. J. ( i. I ~, -Imaglllg ~ll<"lmm('11') in Agricufrure: Plant

\"iu lit)' and Yield Indicators." IIIHill. J. and J. \ k gi..-r 11:<6. 1./",aging ,V"-c-m",..-!ry I Ti.,,! 1''' t:""i"",,,,nu'l/ Oh"T\"<I/i,,,,-,.
Doedrecht. Sct herlands: "'I ll" " A\at!<'rmc. 1'(\-11 <I

k:>giC1lI Principles for ECOS)SII:m \ 1.ma!!.:mcnt.- in Jensen. \1 .

r,.......,'

:md P. Bourgcron tEds.). ,,'''u/.'

E"'HY""m /I...lth
h<t':'.m,,'nl. \ '0 1. II. E, ..".nIUff M""<lX..m c'nt: Principle. am/

,4ppllC'alicJ/l,'. \ lIM.oul .. : U:,l> \

I'orc~l Sef\l ~e.N -M).

. '" H. and E. Leblanc. 2UIMI. "Comr;lrinll Pr t'di cti,m Power

IIlds.tabl lit) ur Broadban d and Ilypo: rspcc tral \ .... geLlti\lll Indin."
rc. Estimation of Green L ear Area Ind." .md C31l('f'~' Chl"n..
pbyll Ik n, i, y.- Remo'e .'W.-""",!! of t'-m'I'''''''''''''' 7ft: I ;1>-172.
Iller. Ci ,\ .. l'lq I, " rrimar~ and Sc:~\,udal) Err.... cts of the Wate r
(omcm on lhc Spect rat 1{000110:0elanee o f Leav es." .~",e"i'll"
}"urt/<1l ot Bolall l'. 7XI 7 J:'/16 - '/ 24.

(a ner. G. A .. I'N .1. " I{l",p" nso:olo of L.. af S pectral Reflecta nce III
Plant SIre"." ' '''' '''it '<l11J mmwl ,,1 11"/<111 1'. 1101J ):~J 10-243.

un.. . r. <i

A., (' ihul a. W. (i an d I{ , I.. Milk r, 1<1'11" "Na rrowband Rcflcctun cc huegcry Cu mpa rc:d wuh Thermal Illla!!ery
for Ea rlv Detec tion "I' 1' l,lIlt Str t's, ," .10111"11'11 0/ 1'1",,, "".ni"l .
ul{l'.1 4 1l :SI :'i - ; 22 ,

Cohen. \\'. B . l'Wl, "RCSp<ffiSC nf Vq!,'lJ li"n Indices tn Cha ng_

es In Three vtcasures of teal' Wa t ~'r

EII}!III<:~r/ll!!. J: R,'m,,'~' S",,-,UI/!.

:-'lrC"".~ "h(lI(J~m",m,'f,.i("

5712 I: 1" 5 21l2.

Collin... W.. 1<1 7 10:. "R e mote ".'us ing nfCrnp Type and \ la turiI~ . - PhtJl<J~r<1IU"',-/,-" E".-.:.m,<"r"'''- .{ R. '1Jl"',' S~'I/.,i,,~. 4 J -55.
COI" mN'_ R.. Bellm ge n. D.. Fasoluu. n and l". \1. Manoo. 2HtlJ,
" Relne,oI] of Leaf Area lndc x in UilTo:rent \ c l!O:lalion T~ pcs L'sing I' ig h R ~'""hll i"n Satelluc [l ata: ' RC'mo/<- ....mlllg "IE/win",-

II"''''.!'in: 12u- 1.11 .

Crist. F. 1'.. I " ,"I~_ MA Tbcm.nic \h pp cr Tas seled C ap Eq uiv ale nt

for Retlecran ce F;tClnr Oa l;' : ' R.-lImt~' SCII'HIj! ,,' 1;IIl"/mll m"ll/ , 17:J( Jf - J O/>.
ln s!. E, P. and R, (". Cirone. I'I H4, " Alll' lir<Hi,' n ofth... Ta..sel...d
Cal' ("" lllo:!,t tll Shuul.ncd Tucnunic Mappe r Dala: ','I",t"!!.r",,,
111<'/1";" Fug m ,'ailr/!. ,I,' R.',., ot" Scm'mg . ~ U:J4J- J52.
Crist. E, P. aru l It J. Kuutb. I'JHI>. "The Tasseled

~1 .

and T. A , Black. 1'1'12 , " Den ning Le af ..\ rea lnd.... x

for Non-fhu t.eaves." 1'1<1111. ('<,! f ,m" "'-""irnnmellf, 1;:42 1-

(Mn, T.

Ikd ,"

Pho togr'IIl/llh '!ri<' F llglII" "I"mJ; .(-

('ill' ])e-l11y~li

H,'mol.'

5;" II.'i llg.

52 t l ):Xl-l<t> .

U~ ,

~'l.J.

M.. Pavhc . Ii. Hm ..... n. L.. L'thlar. L I chl ane.:-' . U . Whil....

II. P. lI all. R. J. l'cddk D, R.. Kiug. U. L rro rylllo" . J. A .
S" ift. E.. Van d.'r Sandc n. J.. and r. K. '.... Ilil ka. ':W02. " [krivation and Vali dathm nf( an ada-wid.' ( 'o ursc-rl'S'Jl ull.lrl Lca f A r...a
loon \, ,,p:. U~ing Illgll-rc,olutiul1Salclli le Imagery anti (jrvu nd
' lea.;uremcnls: Ro",,!. S"'",i,,~ "/I.";n",,,,,,'II. ~O: I ft ~ 1R4.

Dan, on . F. \1 , 1' 1'll<. " Tcaclnng the Phyvica l Pnn cipics of Vegl"latu m Cannpy I{dl cela n.c Us inl! th. SAIL ,\1n l1 e l: ' }'/W!Og m mm..tri,' t: lIg lll" " r i ll/! J: H,'11ml<' S"II,' III/!, 6 4( ~ ) : 110 I CJ III 2.

lh ugh lry. ( . s, r.. Wa llhilii. C. L . Kirn. \.1. S.. Hro" " dl" ( 'u1>roo n.
E. 'ill<.l J. E. \ k \ l unr cy Ill . :!IlOll, "E~lillla ling Corn LcafCh lorophy ll r nnccnt.... li"n fn>m I c,tf and Ca n" p) Rcllo:<:lall\-,\,: ' R~'_
' I/I.tt! Semi,,/!. Of t:",inmmt'lt/. 74:12~2J<I.

~u!a.

\Ii. <.i a nd ( i A. ("J rL er. 19')2. " Idcntifica lion o f a Fa r-

Red Rdlcdann' Rc spunsc 1<> t.."c-Iom.'....'rr},i:.l(' in Slash P inc-. ~

{1r/emal"",,,1 J"ur",,1 .. rR"",ol" S,,".dIlK. ' .11; l:<l2~-<I J 2.

[)a" S('ln. T. P. and P. J Curran. l'1'I X. -.J\ !\ c w Tec hniqu e' f'lr Inler[llliali ng Ihe Re t]cela J1e. Rcd Itigc P.....\lnn: /1IIt'nlafmn,,1J, ,,,r1/<1/ vi R,'/tICJI.' S.-"WI/!, I ~ I ' I: ~ I B

:! lJ').

C1I W Tt-:H

404

Deering, D. W.. I{<lu sc. J. W. Haa s. R.I I. and J. A. Schell. 1975.

"Meas urmg Pot age Prod uction of Cira li ng Un its from Landsal
MSS Data." Pmn!'l'JInK.~. 10th lntl. Sympos ium on Re mer ...
Se nsmg of En vironme nt, Ann Arbor: ER IM. 2: 1169 - 111K.

11

Rem o te Se n s ing of Vegetation

Gausmann, II, W.. Allen. W. A . und J{, Ca rd enas , 1969, "R(~

lance o f ('oll,m Leaves and the ir Str uct ure." R.'ml>/r
'!/ fmmm ml'nI. I :110-22.
Gi ldson. A. A., Ka ufm an. Y, J ~ Stark , R. .md D. Rundquist.

Didan. K., 2n02 .\fOOIS ~ "JW"'/I"n Ind. ,x Prod"c tion ..flgorllhm.

\ 10UlS \'~ctal lon Workshup. Missoula. MO. l uly 15-1 8: Tcrre-tria l Biop hysics and Re mote Sensin g .'.IO OIS Team. Tucson :
Univ, of Ari Tool!. _-v..n l~g.uml.<'tlw' MOI) I SConfindc\.tllmJ.
~lrcn .

R. F., Rutch...)'. R. ami R. Wckh. I'm , "The h ... rgjades:

" ~o\'e l

Aigmi lhm" for Remot e Esumation of VcgeuEioll flI

non," R.w w l .' s..'I ISIIIK tJ{ IlII1V"m,'tII. !!0:76 S7.

( ioe l/, A f . H. l tN~. ~ I mag m !t Spcclrom.:lry for RcmOI

ing : Vision to Rea lity in IS Years." Frocvedingi, SPI
na tio na l Societ y f{lf Op lic al Engine... rs. 24 ~0: 12 pp.

t\ PCI"\pliH' on [he Re qu ire ments and Application s for veg-

e tanon 'lap and Da tab ase Products." ph ()fog r" mmcu "ie Eng l",('ring ,,11</ R.'m,," S.:n.mg. 65 (2): I55- 161 .

t>u. Y. 1 cillcL

P. .\1. and J. Cihlar. ~OO~. " Radiom etric Xcrmalization or \ lullitl' mporal ll igh' TewolUl ion Satellite Images with
Qua lity Control for Land Cover Ch ange Detec non," ReR/me
S,n.""K vi Em irw1tl 1<."t. H2;123-134.

Edw ards, T. c.. ll omer. (' fL Ba ssett . S. C.. Falcon e r. ..\ .. Ramst y. R. U. and U. W Wight. 19"5. Utah Gap Analys i. : ,41/ Enr i n m m.' m ,,/ hlj"rm"'i,,n .\ n l.,,,,. Log an: L:lah Cooperative
F i ~ h & Wildlife Research Urur. Mot pp.

EPA Landscape r COI'Il;Y. 2(10(,. l.amlscape Er%K). Wash ingIon: En viro nrne neal Proiec rion Agcnc ). hup-Z'w w w.epa.g ov /
ncrlcsd 1rland- sc i.dcfau It, hun.

Goward. S. N.. Markham. n . Dye. D. n , Dulaney. \\. ..

Yalll!, I'N I, " ~ omla li ud Difference Vegetation Indel
sure mc nts from lhe Adva nced Ve ry High ReS<.' lulion
el.:r. ~ Rc''''ol t!' Se't'i" l: ul E",'irwI",..,I/. 35:257 -:!77.

G RSIJ. I tN~ , Phem ./t>J:ical C.,ftndan ul Se /t'cNJ C...'.

Barbera: Geograp hy Remote Sern.illg Unit.
G upta. R, K., ViJ3ylln. I) , and T. S . Prasad . 20u l . ~:-';ew H~~
tral Ycg etanon Char acteriza tion Parameters ." . ~Jt',mc:t'S U! ~
R" .'I<" I>1h. :!I\(I 1:2 0 1-:!06.
Haack . B. and S . Jum pol cr. l <)<J~ . - A gric ul tu ra l CbSlifialllll
Compansons Us ing Landsat Thcmanc \ la ppt."f Data." f1(
J mmla l, 1 'W~(2):] 13-1 11'.

Fara bee. M , J. 1'1'l7. Pho l" .fynl hf!',l i,l , hllp:lfge ncd .t mc.ma ricopa.ed urbio/b ic 1!!I!U IO IJKi ll iolJou l.. PS .hUll I

lI alll:I.., B. and S , Jam pole r. 1INS. "C010u r Composite C~

",'I ns for A gr icu ltura l A sses sm.. nrs." lntl. Journ al of ReIJII'
S,m IllK. t(,( 9 ) : I ~IHO-1 5 9 ~ .

Fo rm an . R. I .. l'N~ . -S om e Ge ner a l Pr inciples o f Land sca pe

Hardick y, M . A " Klc mas. V, and \1 . Smart. 1 9 ~ 3 . "Tile Infiue1lCf

and Regiunal Ecology," Landscape Ecv!"XI', 10 (31: lJ 3-1 ~2 .

Fro hn . R. C . I 'I<)I( H<'I11"' <' Sell-l' ing j i,r [.<l/ld' C<lI '" t:co(ogy.

Boc a Ra rou: Lew is.

l) <)

of S" il Salinity, Grow th Form .t ll d Leaf Mo isture on theSf'

tral Radian ce (,f Spartina Altcmif'lo ra Ca no pies," fh a'fIg_a"..
melric !\nKI IW"I"I IiX ,\, Hemo'.' S"m'III!!. ~1J: 7 7-~ 3 .

p.

r rate s, D. M.. .I, J. Keegan. J, C . Schleter and Y. R. We id ne r,

1'J()5, "S pccrrul Properties " I' Plants." Applied Opl in ,
~(l l : I1 - 2 0 .

Hahoudan c. D.. Miller, .I, R" Trem bla y, N.. zarco- Tej ada.P j, .l:"~
L Dextrave, 1002. "hncgratcd Narrow- ha nd Vegetation Indim

for Predic tion o f Cr llp Clilowph yll Contcru for Applicatire ~

R,'''''''CS,'n "-,,!! '!l f:nrinmm "m. xI:J I6-

Pre ci sion Agricultu re."

~ 1 ('1 .

Ga tvao . L. S.. Forrna gpic, A . R. and U. A. Tisol , 20 05. " Dbcr im ina t io n of Surface Variel ies in Southeaste rn Bra zil with
EO- I H) penon Data." Ht'm ol e Sen'ln/( of [ n vi r</IJmt'lII.
'J~ : 5 2 3 -S 3 4 .

Ga o. R C. I' N n. -N U WI-A Normalized Differe nce Water Index for Re mote S"'ll~ing o f vc gctanon L i,!ui d WOller from
Sp ace. R"""".' s. 'm;ng 01 f) ll'i n ",,,,.,'II. 51\:257 - 261''1 .

Huang. C . Wylie , B.. Ynng, L., Horn e r, C . and (i l~ lSlra. :I;'

"'n e rivalioll of a Tass eled Ca p T ransform ation bas.:d on LandlI

7 at-satellite Refl ectance," 1."'- )mll"n<ll

2.' 11< ); 17~ 1 174 :<

'if R,'"'''''' St-1If14

Huctc. A. R. l'l l<!l. - A Suil-adJlisI<...t Vegcta tio n lnde, {SA\1).- hmOl" ,"'-m i"R nl f m'm mm",u , 25 :2'l5 -31l'l .

405

~rences

,A. R. and C Justice. I'I<N, \f() {JlS ' '''}:<,I ,J/It ''' I/ldt'x ,M OD
131 A /~orilhm Tht't>rl.'liml 8uH~ D(>,,-,,",,'III. Gn.',:nhcll: :-.l ASA

Goddard Space Flight Center. htlp:rm()d:lIl:h.~~ ti:, n3s3.gov/

MOL>I S 'Li\ ~D lIn: gclatio n. ind k .:.., 12'1 p.

A. R ~ Did an. K.. Miura. T.. Rndrigul'l . E. 1'" ( ;30. X. and (,

Ferreira. ~OO1a. "UWr\lew of the Radi ometric and B i{'Ph y~ k al
h!form:ull:e orue \ IOOlS Veg"l" ti"n lndices." R" m" lt' Srm ;" 1-:

t/'fI";rnllm('7lf. 113 : 11,15-2 13.

Je nsen. J. R. Coom bs. C . Po rte r, O. Jones. B.. Sc hill, S. a nJ D.

While. I'NJoI. " Extraction o f Smo oth Fo rdg rass. I S,,<ln/no <11I('rn!f{nml B ioma ss and Leaf Ar e a Inde x Para mete rs from
High R" w lu ti "u Im..gc ry," Ococarto 11I/4'n/uli"""/, 13(4 J: ~5 -

".

Jensen . J . R.. Hua ng, X. and II . 1::.\l ack e) , 19'J7, - Rc moic Se nsing ot S ucccssiona l Cllang{'s in WeIland Vegeta tion as Mon itored ()urlllg a Four-Yea r Dra .... ,Ju.... n of a Former Coohng
Lakc.- Appllo:J Gt'O~'<lI'JlI< SI"JIO:.' . 1111:31-44.

. A_ R.. Didan. K, and Y. Yin. 2oo2h, .\fOOlS 1'-g_'It/fi,m

I'tri.,"",",p. \1i~sou la. \-1 oTJfa na , Jill)' 15- lll ; Terres tria l Hil'(' hyso.md Rem" le Sensmg nURSI MODIS Team, L'ruvcrerty of
Wooa. hu p:lfuL1m.gcophy's.ulah .cd ll!d,(lt,L,.lgg5~7 modi .. '",.I.
IiIlmI.

Jen sen. J. R. Ga rcia-Quijan u. M .. Had l... ~ . II. tm. J. Wa ng, L..

Nel. A . L. . Tcrx erra. E. ;m d n A. Da<j",. :!006 , - Rc mole Sen..ing Agric ultu ral C rop Type for Sustainable Developmen t in
South Arnca." (;"'>("'1"" 1m",.."",,,,,,,, .~ .l r,,(luli....iplillu0

Juurnul 0/ Relllul"
A. R. ll ua. Ci, Q i, .t.Cbehboeni J\. and W. l . Van Lccu .... ern.
1'l92, "Normahza li..n of \ t ult idlT<'Cl ioo al Red and jvea r-intrared
ldecum:es .... ilh the: SAVI.- R"fJ/<Jf': !Wlt>/I",! of Dll"IllIn",enl.
.ltJ:1-20.

. A. It. and 11.1). Liu. 1'1':/4. "An Errv r ant! S.:n~l tivlly Ana lof the Atnl(lspkri,' ami s..il(\lrrccl; n~ vanams "f lhe
\0" [ fo r the MO DIS-H >S.' IFf.' " rrwI.>'I<" if>('~ ml ( ;",-,," '1.'11("<'
.m Rem,,,., ,s.-" " "j!. 3~141:!I'n-9(J5 ,

s.."UUlK

"mJ GIS, 111 press.

Je nsen. J. R. Rutc he y, K. , Koc h. ~ I , S , and S. Narumala ni, 1'N5.

" Inland We tla nd Cha nge De tectio n in the Evc rg ]..d es Water
Conservation Ar ... a 2A L:s;ng a Time Scric.. of Xo rm alized Remorely Sensed Dala : ' 1'lm/oK'amlll,,'r/, f:" J("'<'I!r illJ( 4<. Remote S.:m 1fIj!. (,II ~ l : I <r1..:!Q4J ,

.m

e.,"'. R., Liu. H Q.. Balchl[Y. K and \V. J. van Leeuwen. 1'1'17,

Jensen, M . L a nd 1', S. Bourg...ron (I-.ds. l. 11,11,1 3. la'h ide F o rt'.'f

E. VB}I ..." ""<llth . h ~,'-'-' ''' '''', \;'.1. ll. (,(>),.1"'" \f""t-l}:t-'m<,l1/: l 'rmd l' ln amI .'p" '''' al;,,'''. M i s~ul a , M T: L' S[)A
Fore st Serv ice , P :,\\V-(ilI{3Ix.

".-4. Comparison o f Vcgcrauon Indices ( h er a Globa l Se r o f T \ t

lmagc~ for

[ OS MO OlS.- N" """,' SC" .'''};

"I

Environment,

19440----451.
l. E. R. Roc k, B, :-I. a nd P. S, l\ohcl. 1'111 7, " \lcasur<'mc nt
of leaf Relativ e Wa ter L'outcnt hy lntrarcd Refl ecta nce." H...,11101,'

kn sen, M. E. and R. Fvercn. 1'NJ , "An Over view {If Ecosystem

Man agement Prurciplcs,' in Jcn~el1, :\1. E., and I', S. Bourg" ro n (G.Is.I. Emhi,k nl1"(~1 1-'."0.'.1'.11" 111 (I<o<1{l h A.I,..'.unr,/II.
Vol. I I . J-.''''',>.I".,lclII ..\ (""ag"" ,,,m.' ""'-n.ip"',I' <1'1,1 Apl'licu l;om ,
Missoula : lJS IM h'r..-sl Ser vin'. 7- l h.

S,11.\ i lljl uf Environment, 22:421 0---435.

kson. R, n., 1'/'< .\ "Sp,-,ct ra l Indices in n. Spact'. " H." II/" Io'
S,' " ,illl-! "1l:.'nl'ir(lllJn<'IlI. 1J :40'! 421.
son, M. \'v'. and J. R. Jensen, 20ll5, "A n Evalu ation o f n eacre Sensing-de rive d Laml scnpc Ecu luj() Metric s for Reser I'Olr Shere! inc En v ir"n m enta I Monito ring." PI",t"!:"", ,,,,, '/ri,'
En~j",'e"!l,~ ,{ H...",<>I.' .\<,11.\ I!l,~. 71C 12 1: I ~ x 7 ~ 1.\'1 7.

n. T. .t. Chell. n,. Cos h. M. I.i . 1'. An derson . M . Wa h hIII.C.. Donaswamy. 1'. an d E. I{. Hunt 2()(j4. "Vegetation water Ce me m Map ping usin g l.ands al Dat" de riv ed No rm.ihzcd
Difference Water Ind e:>. for Corn and S(lyheans,~ Nt'''WI,'
Smsin.l! nj EIIl';nmm"nI, 1,12 :4 75---4111 .

, J. R..

~OO5 ,

Rtonoft' S~n.<ing
H~1. 325 p.

In/rodrt" "ry Digll..1 Inl<J.~" I'rocc'" ing: A

1','r,pe,'I""', L:ppcr Sa,ldle: Rl\\.'r: Prenl ice:-

Jin. S. ;In(1 S , A S;uk r, 2005. "( 'um p;,ris"n otFirue Serie s 'Insscled Ca r \\ l' lness a nd the ,",ornlltli/ .:d t une r.... ne e \-l" isture
InJ,,\ in D" l" ctin g F" resl Dis turbances ." N,'mol" S" /I,I'I1I1-: ,,/
E/l\' /n ll/It/' ' IJ/, '1.1 :.1 (,4 - 372.
Ju ne s. K . B.. Riu c rs. K. I I.. wickjuuu, 1. D , Tanker s ley. R. D.,
( ), :-.J eil l. R. V.. Ch; II\'"d. [) .I. S mirh. E, R, and 1\. C. Neale,
I OJ'} !!. feuf,,),! waf " l ".,,'.~., ''''''If '11 /I,.. Lni,.," SI,l/e,l: .HidA I /lllI fit RI 'jl ;UII , Washin g lon: [1' ''\ . 1IJ.' p.

Kamieli. A.. Keu tuurn, Y. J. Remer, L. <Ind A . Wald. 211C)]. "A FR]:
Acrusol Free Vcgctauon InJn .- R,"'M. S"Il,ing
II,,'m. 77:10 -21.

,if Em '/ron -

Kau fman, Y. l . and D. Tanr c. l'ltJ2. "Aunosphcncally Rcs isl ant

Vegetalinl1 [nd..., (A RV!) tor EOS_MO DIS:' IfEE TrUIl." " I/<Im

UII

Cie" ."I"" c" "",1 R"mole S"mi"jl. 30(2): 261-270.

11

406

Kaufman. Y. J. Karmc h. A. ;nu l l L'I an rc. ~ I M IiJ. "Detection " f UlISI

Over Deserts Us inlC S:1\0.:1I110: Oat;, in the S olar ....;H <: I<'I1gth, :
f f f.}: Tran.., u-/;'", < (;"O"l'lf" I<"t' ,\, R,'",o", S"m mg, 3li:525- 53 1.

Rem ot e Sensing of Vegetaticn

M il/fa, l., Huc tc. ,\ . F. Yuslm'b. H. and H_N. Holben, ~OOI.

Error and s... n~l t i \il y An,L1 ysis of Atm ospheri c R~",isW.l\ .
tron Indice s Dcn ved no m Dar k Target-based '\ lmospbenc
rccuon.. H..:" " ,I..: .k "' \ltlK ot E,wmmm, til. 71\:18 4- : 98.

Ka uth. R. J a nd" S . Th.Hllas. 1<) 76. - ne Tasse led Ca p

:\
G raphi c ncscnpuon uf th e Spect ral-Temporal Develo pmen t
of ' \ !lric liliura l ( ' w p s as Seen b} Landsat." PnK ..di" -.:_ "'a ch ine Proc c"'inl; "f Rem "lel) SCll>.eJ [l ata. WeM Lafay cuc:
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Kau th. R. J.. Lambcck, r I Ric ha rdson . W.. Thomas. G. S.md
A. P. Pentl and . I ~7~. "Feature 1-:"11"3,:1 1011 App lied 10 :\ gn c ultural C rups as See n b> La nd sat." / 'nJ<-':<'dillJ!', L \CI E Sym(JOSlum. IIl.usb ''': :"lASA, 7115 7:! I.

\k( i'1T1gal. K a n~l H J ' ta rh . 1'1'1-1. I-RAGSTtf 'fS: SI" JlIdi

A/h,Il ..., I'ttn:' <lm,Ii" (I"''''I,~i -m,t: LJ Ild."<JIl<! Sln/('/UII',

1. \\'lshi ngtoll l :Sll .\ rote,1 S...n-ice. 141 p.
\ldian g..t1. K ... ' '-uslun an . S. A xcct. \ 1. C. and E.. Eoe. _
r R.IGST Jr.-;. S/~l/i,,1 Pall,", A/I"~l.,;, Prugwm fo r C;

If"" e,

V<'!"'IOO I .

uma"".cdu landcc,' rcscarchJfra~ulS. faq.'f r a;!Sl.1 l>_ f3q.}D.

\l~ers.

\ . I.. 1'170 . " "<>1 1.. WOl ler an d Plant Relation s." R

Dau~h try. L ~ .. C happel l<-. L W. \ kMunrcy Ill. J. E.

and C . l. Wahha11, )9<J..t "The Usc of Ilit:h Spectral R~"iOIU1ion
Rands fOl' h llm alin!:t :\ h,;,lrt'o:d Pht){tl'i~ J1l hel lea ll~' Activ e Radr-

$"'~" ":I:

anon lA I':\IU: ,'f1Jf......,l i" j!., . 6 th S~ mfl<-'!>l Ul1l ..n Ph ), i.:O) \11:.1"
..urcmerus, and S ignOllun.~ in Remote Sensing, J anua~ 17-1 1.
\ 'a l ln '-tTC'. Fra nce, 2'N _~ nf>.

(" ~ c i ll . R.

Kim. \1 .

Kimes , n S .. 1 Q ll ~ . ~D~'na mICs olDirccnonal Re flec tance Fee..

tor D,stn hullt>n s fo r Vege tauon ("an op ICs.- 4r p/i,(IOr ' in .

12('1/:13M - 1j 71..

Am h"'r<l: l 01 \ o f \1 :t.~<at'hu.....u ", bnp:

' 1'1 111 S,"""ldl R,I.n"~~ lu .l >:rI~'"IIUn: and f,

" catk-Ill) of Sc i..ne e-s. 15 3-~"7

\V3sh in ~l{ln . ~ al i.'n'll

Y.. lI un" Ol cr. C. T.. k'n c".. K. B.. Riuo:rs. l\.

Wick ha m. J. O. S,h\\ ar/. p . Good man . I , A.. JJd.son. B
\II S, Iia illar!:t<."{>n, 1<.1'17. M"nll"nng l- nvironmemal
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I..rr~ . I,'. R. an d L ~ Lauten schlager.. 1"'''4. - I' llnclumal

a fcnc c ...[S pect ra l \ cpcta uon Ind ice s,- /( ,'m o l <"S""'-""ll'~ l
..in ","''''''. 14 1f>{J 11\2 .

Li. X . a nd A . H Strah ler. 1'11\:' . ... ( eomcmc-opnca l \l ode l i n~ of

a C"ni rcr I, mc,t ("<I n''I1Y: ' IJ::LE l i',III.' ,(d /'-,,/," G C:OH ;Ol<."t Rc:"'''1(' S.., / I/IIS:, 1-'(5 ):7lJ.'i 71 1.

l'c lcr, ,, Il.. D. l. and S, \\ . K llllnJll~. I 'Il':<). "A pplicanonsinf

c'sl Sd..nee am t Man ugcmcm." in Th,',,'".l' w /(f Al'l' liruliNiI
11,,11("(/ 1 l/...,mJl(' S l'I1\ /IIK. ~ Y:

Jo hn .... iley. -I21O--4 2 ~~ .

Lt. X , and A . It Sua hlc r. 199 2. "Gcomctnc -op ucul bid irection a l

Reflectance nl, ,,Jeling <If l hc Duc rcre-Crow n Vcgctauon Can op y: f':n h "l o f ( 'w " n 'i h,lpe and "l ll1ual .... hUlt"'\ ing." It:fI.'
1""'11/"'1< '1"''','

(j,'o.\ ,.;,'tI ... I/. C"'1<I/< S"''-'Ulj! ..

30 :1;6-291..

Pierce. 1 , L , Runnin g, S , W. and Ci. A, Itiggs. 1(!QO. "Rcrn<t:

Dcrccuon III ('~n "py W" l ~' r Str..-" in L'oniferous Foreas I
iu!! NSOIl I Thematic \-lill'l'cr Shuulutor an d the Thcrm.l m.
Irarcd M\l l l i ~ pcdr:t1 Scanne r.... 1'11I"" !! I',II>m",I /",(' fngillcl"tl'

Lunetta. It. x.. Fl1iri\\ Ickrcrua. J.. Johnson. D, /1-1.. I.Y'lIl, J. (1, ;lIld

,\' I/.em o ll' S "/I " /I/.~ , .'i h(

-" ): -" 7 II)--.~ X I,

A. .\1 cKcrw w. 1001. "I mp acts of \'q;cluti"ll l)ynami ,''; un lhc'

Id" nli fic ati"n "I' Lund-cover Change in :l Biu lllgic.t11 ) C"m plex
C" 111 m ul11 ly in No rth L'arolma. u s,\: I/..-mole Sell, ill.'! l.nvi-

or

' lJIlIIl< /i I .

H2 :25H-1 70 .

Price. K. 1'. (;\10. X. :lnd 1- M. Snl cs, 2002. " Opti mal Llodiloll nt
Hand ( '''l1lh i n a l i ''T I ~ ;\Illt Vc!!c1at ion tndiccs fur Di,;(rimi nalloo

S ix lj ra~, I'lllo.! T) P<-'. ill Easte rn Kansas." Iml. ;"",""1,,,- R<II

S" II.\I"L!.1J :50.' I 5{ln.

Lynn . .I. (1 . Yua n. l r.. Lunetta. K. .... nn d C . 1>.
C h an ~e l)c1ee t i~,n

F.1\' i d ~e .

b .perimcnl U..ing Vcgelatio ll

1'l" S. "A
l n d ke~: '

l'I", /oK"w/I III ,./,.;,. E ll gilll ,,'r ;1I1; ,{- R,'",o /t ' SN,smg. 0-112 ): (.p-

150 .

\1 il1 ing1<>n.. A , C..

\ ~" k/ ..l.icntlu.

.X. \ 1 ;mo.! A. \' Rr'l d k y. 100 l .

- Se a l,' 1>cpcnd c ncc in \1 11 lti lc m pn ra l ~I a p p i n g " I' t'flfCSl Fra!!m":l1\al i ~l n in Hu h \ ia: 1I1lI1 Ik at i...n~ fur E.\ plai ni ng. Te mpora l

Tre nds in

I. a nd~c'l pl"

l~ C on ~cT\ al l (ln .

Fc"I" IIY an d :\ p p l i ca l i on ~ 10 R iod i ~c rsi .

fSI'HS J""m<ll ntl'lmlogramnlt'/n' & H.--

IIIO/<' S,,mi/l)<. 57: ;S"

1'1').

("Ii. J . Cab.. !..!'...\ I,'rall . M. S . ,mJ G. Dcd icu. I\JlJ5, "Bioph)

( :11 l'aramCI"r I-' ~ l i rn 'l t i o n ~ L! s lllg \ tu ltiJ ircctiona) Speo.:mI.
ro.1<"lsu rerne nh. " N,''''0 1,' .'I,'''' m>: o{ f:" vim"",,,,,,. 5-1 :1 1 ~ j
R,' nl w y.. R D .. A . LI Ie-,'na and J . R. Jensen. 19'15. - Till: R~
l i l 'n , h l l1 l\c t ~ ecn '\ O .-\ o\_AVII KK O\I>VI an d EcoregiOll.l Il
C lah. R"""",t<. S."., mll

"r Em 'in ",,,,,"," . 53: I Sl':- 19S..

407

ee rences

hardson , A. J, and C. L. V.' it!.tanJ, 1~ 77 , "Distin gurshing

regetauo n from Soi l Backgro unJ ln fornunion." R,'m" '" Sr:m ing of t'nw'nmmenl , ~ : 3() 7 -3 1 2 .

Sa ndm cicr. S_. Mull er. c., llosgoo d. II. a nc.!

(i

A ndre oli. 1<J'.lSb.

"Sensitivity Analysi:; and Qua lit y ,\S SCS' llle nt Ill' Labo ratory
BRDf Data." Hr",,, I,, S,' II.U" I! III f .",;m nml'nI. f>4 (2 ):11f>1'i r.

chardsc n. A. J. and J. 11. Eve ritt . I'N2. " Us ing Spec tra l Veg cutiOll Indices 10 Estimate Rangeland Producnv uy." Gl:(I{'GrlO
hI/I.. 1:63- 77.
. ers. K . H., R. V, O ' ~ e i11 . C. T. Hunsak er. J. n. Wickh am . n.
H. Yankee . S. I', Timnl1n~ , K. II Jun.... ~ anJ B. L Jackson ,
1995."" Fac tor A nalysis c f Landwape Patt ern and Structure
\ trnes:' /.(Im/oc" ,..' Ecol" g.!', 1 0l11 :2 3 -J ~ .

UII, G . Steven. \-to and f . BaH'!, IQ% . -Opnm ization of

Soil-adjusted \'e-geJaIlOll Indices." RI'm<'! " S"n ' ;nK (~f Em'In!_

Sa\ ils ky. fl . ( i, 1<,1 >\1,. A/trU'/(l lfC r,11 H"llIflf'" S,,"mr:;: ill S Oll/ h
Cun,J",u : A 51/(.11' uf Cm p 1J,,"t t}iwliUlI CUfl<lhih li".\ Cli/~
i n!: L,md.a/ .\!III I ;.'f't-'.-tr ,,1Snu",..r [}al". unpubli-shed maslers
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78 pp.
Savitsky. H. ( i.. I <,I"'. "(hervle~ o f (j ap Anal y.i s" (;/S Me/had U/Ul<!ll'~ fur Dt:l'CloptnX C" >t.vrvvno n Str<lI. 'g iC$, Il G Sa\ ilsly and T. E. I aeher, Jr, ( " us.). )\'Y: Colu mbia U mv. Press.
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t. 55: Q5- 107.

hsan- 1.. Franklin, J . and U. A . Rohen s. 21102. "A C(lmpariwn of

~lethods

for \-ton itorin,g \1u ltitem poral V~lioo Ch an ge Us-

~ Tbcmatjc ~l appo.." lmagery... R"mol" s..'m i,,1' of Emi,.,,,,-

Schill . S.. Jense n. 1. R.. Ralx'r a nd D. E. Porter,10().l, "Te mpo ra l

~t ooe li n g of tt ld lrt.'eli o nal Ref'lecncn I)isuihuti"n Function
( URO!') in CUi\stal Vegeta tion." GIS,: i<'lIn ' .i R..m,,!c 5.mi ng, 4 1(2 ): I Is - u s

.,,1. 1\0: 143 ISf>.

1oo!oe_ 1. W., Haas. R. II., SchelL 1. r\. and D. W. rk~ri n g. 19; 4.

"\lonito ring Vegetation Sy stems in the G reat Pl a ins with
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FraCliun 011 Spectral \1casurem,'nt s o.... r )\',1I i\'e Tallgrass Praine." Rl'm,,/(' S('1I.HIlJ: '!! f" n m nml'lII. I'( I : 12'J--1J5 .
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I" Kaufmann , Y, J., Strahler. A. II., llue tc, A. R. .. \-tllikr. J. P..

vande rbilt . V.. Wan. l. I\L Tci lkt. l'. and D. t'arn~ g gie . I'N4 ,
-Tcrrcsmal Remote SCI1:;inl:\ Scie nce and Algorithms Plann ed
for EOS/~1( IDls," In/I, ,/"'/1'1101 ol H"fIlmt> S.ming ,
15(17 }:35 l\7 - J I,:!(> ,
Sandmeicr, S. R.. 1'l'N , ( ;lI id<'llm ',I' "ml H,'COIIIIII('IIt!lIIitJIl' Ji ll'
Iht' Use I!( III.. S,,,,dm<,ia f 'i<-'t! (lul/iulU,"a /i ". Ill.: A'ASA

St",,"i,\ SI',I"" C,'fII' '/'. Washmgt on: ~ j\ SA , 4 7 1".

Sandmeier, S. R. and K. l. tuc n. 1'.l'N. " l'icit.! (juI li"mde r Sysrem (F IGOS) lo r Acquiviuon of Hypcrspcctral BRD F Data."

lEt T

Tr"n"'lCl i""..

"If (il'fJ,. ci" Il" t' ,"

Ht'''''' f' '

.'>''/1.';111:,

Sc h lc rf. \.1. and A tzbcrgct. C .. 2(1llI. " Ima g illg Spe ct rometry and
Veg<'lal ion Sere ne.... - in 1"",g ilJg Sp<'('/mnWl rr Ba. il' PrmcipIe.' <J//(I/'"" I'('('II1'1: Al'p li<'Uli flll ' . I'. van del' Meer and S. de

Jo ng. EUs. Dordrccht: Klu wcr. 111- 15 5.

Sc hlerf, \1 .. A17hel'j,'er. C. and J . Hill. 2UllS. -Remoie Sensin g of
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Sc hu ft cM . J. \1 '.1 ~CI . T. J .. Wil;:i nt o l1 ,1'. J.. Ste vens. D. l.. ~lcA I
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ment of La nd sca pe Met rics for C h'lraclc ri, illg Ripar ia nStream ~ctw " lk s. "I 'I!<JI(/~ I'<IfIII/l,,,h l:.'ll~ il! ,',"il!l!'~ H,/I", I..
S..millg . Ii:' ! 10 ): 1157- 11(,7,

SC"II, J. 1\-1.. Jaco birJ. 1. ami J, E. b te~ , 1987. "S pecies Richness: ,\ Geographic Appmae h I" l'wln' ling Fut ure Biolog ic al
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R._Llllimau. J . and R. G. Wrigh!. I'N'>. "G all Analysis: A Geographic Approach to prorc cnon o f Biological Diversity,"
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371 11 : 'n K-~1l (,.

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and Walerert:ss: ' R,m"I. S" ".\I"I: of E",in",,,,.',,I. 61;:222

m.

T BRS, 20tH , Enh''''<'ed Ji'g,'Mli"" /mk r. Terrestrial Biophycics

and g emorc Sen., ing La b. l ;'ll\ . of Arizona, httpv/t brs.ariz ona .
edu. pru1~'C\l MOIllS e \ i.php.
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{ 'IL\PTER

40B

non Rem ote '..-nsing." /let/WI.,

S"It.~illl!

/' l /-;",;rm m,elll.

l'l3 :35 1- 3S'I.

Trull. C . I ~ _W . Luf'tbildpl.m and okologische Bcd entors chung.

I I. G... [r,li.llnd.' , Be rl in : 141 - :'911.

11

Remote Sensing of Vegetation

WCIO:rs. S. Boc k, \,.1 ,. Wi ' WII. ~l _ and (i \{o ss llt"f. 100-l. "Mappillg and lndic. uor Approac hes fur the ,\ ~ ......ssmcm oflb bit:e
at Different Sca l e~ usi ng Rcm ore Sen~ing: a nd (l IS :\leth<wll.:
/."'"/".,,,'" ..",t! lJ'r/J, ,,,

"/,"'''''',<, h7>B ~65.

Wickh am, J. D. and D . J. "Ionon. 1l,ll,l4, " Mapping and

Tuck er. C. 1~ 7 1( ",\ COlllparhun of Satelfue S.:-nsur Bands for
Yegetanon \ lo nil<,)ring. " !'h lltugra mmd ri", Engin" erillg &. R,-
",,,,,, S,mm~ . 44 : I J(, 1O- I .lll(J.

lllg L a mbcllpc Panc ms.-

A~

I.dll'''''''''''' f.,.. f,,~y. 'J( 11:7-:3.

u.

Walter -Shea. E. A. and L l. Biehl . 19<Xl. " ~ lcasu ring Ycgctalion Spectral Propcntc~. " R.'", Mo'Sl'''' ;ng R... in n . 5( II :17'1205.

Woodcock , C. 1-"., I 'oums. J. B Jaka hhazy. V. 1>.,

X., \IIC<lrnb.:r.:-i . A . and Y, wu. 1'N7, " In\ crsi" n o f me U-Stml8
C'am'PY Reflectance \ ludel fur Ma pping Forest Slroo
,t:EF-: 1""'''''1<"/ ,,,/1.< Gt<t'-" cicllct' ,mol H,'mort' .wn <i" ll,
3512 ):~05-4 1 4 ,

Wang. fJ. Ad lku . " . Tcn bencn . J a nd ,\ ( iranit'T. l f)(15. -Cm tbe
R...lano nstup of ~(}\'I with Leaf Area lndc \ in a Deciduous
Fore st Sil c." H,"",m,"
E nv tronment, ')4 :: 4" :'55.

Iha.. Y , Gao . J. ~nd" Ni. 200.~ , "Lse o f ~ onna li:rro D1ffc:rs.1

Built-up Inlk'\ in AU\lluullo;ally \-l appi n ~ Urban ..\ rca, fll)lll IV
Imagery." //111 J,mnl<'/ ,,/ R.,,,,,,,e S... n illg, 2-'lJJ:583-59.:

s..."""g.,

12

Remote Sensing of Water

3h:r cov ers ap proximately 74 pe rce nt o f t he Eart h's surface. xo.... here els e in
the kno .... n unive rse is suc h an abundance of liqu id .....ntcr fo und . Almolot <)7

percent of the Earth's volume of "

31fT

is in the great saline oceans. Only

abou t 0.02 pe rce nt of the Earth's water is found in fres hwater streams. Til ers.
la kes. and rcscrv oirs. TIle remaining \\ arcr is contained in underground aquifcrs (O.fl percent]. the Earth 's atmosp here in the forrn of wa ter vapor IIUMl!
percen t ], and me in -cap (approxima tely 2.2 percent].

Wate r exi sts in various states o n Earth. inc luding fre sh.... ater, saltwater, '" mer
vapo r. rai n. snow. and icce. Meteorologists. oceanographers. hydrolo~iSl:>.
some geo graphers, and others devote their lives to mca"uring. mon itoring,
and pred icting the spatial distribution. volume. and movement Ilf water as it
prog resses through the hydrol ogic cycle.
It is poss ible to obt ain ill snu mea surements Il l" va n o uv hydTll logic (" aler)
para meten. suc h as precipitation. wate r depth. temperatu re, sa linity. \ clccity.
volume, etc .. at \\:'1)-- spe cific loc ations. Fo r e xam ple. the U.S. G...-olog jcal
Survey ma intains a de nse net.... o rk o f in W/l river- flow gauges on major
strea ms an d rive rs that provides cont inuous r...x o rds of ri\ er stagc (hci gh ll
a nd vcloc uy. Major cities and airports collect insitu precipita tion (m in an d
sno w I info rrnarion. Depar tmen ts of hea lth and environmenta l control are
ut kn mand ated It ) collect water-qualit y samples fro m rive rs. lakes, reser vo irs. a nd estuaries. Thes e poi nt mcasurc m...-ms arc ve ry impo rtant. If enough
of the poi nt obse rvations are collected throu ghout a region. il is possi h le 10
interpolate between the point observ ation s an d infer regional ge og raphic patterns. Ijnforumatclythcrc arc usually 1101en ough pointobse rvation s to crea te
a st,ltiSlically s jgnificant d istribution ma p (K r oger and La w, :!tH ).'i ). In fact. it
is etten diffi cult to obtain reg ional spatial inform ation using ill .\ i lll point
o bse rvations fo r a number of the most import ant hydro logic va riab les.
includ ing :

water-su rface area (st rea ms, rive rs. po nd". lakes. reservoirs, an d seas).
water constituents (o rgan ic <nul Incr ganic t.
water depth Ihath ymet rv l,

~ nll\' -surface

area.

sntm -w eter equiv alent.

12

4 10

icc-s urfa ce area.

Rem o te Sensing of Water

'I Ol al

lk>wnwell in~

Sun and sky

irnadianc e

icc-wa ter equi valent.

Lf

"

rld i~ n ,

Lf' + L,r + LI , + Lb

cloud cover,
prccipua uon . and
water vapor.

Therefore. a sigrnficarn amount of research has ta ken p lace

10 develop remote ~nsing methods that can o btai n q uan titative, spatia l mcasurem cms of these important hydrologic

variables [e.g., Gregg and Casey,

~()()~:

Karaska et al..

20f1.4). Th is chapter introduces the fundamental principles

associated w ith remote sensing surface water and its constituen ts : clouds. water vapor, prec ipitation, and snow. II cond udes w ilh a nonpoin t source po llut ion .... ater -qu aluy study,

Remote Sensing Surface Water

Biophysical Characteristics
Figure 12 1

This sect ion rcvic.... s how remote sc nJO ing ca ll be used 10

invent ory and monitor the spa tial ext er n. o rganic . inorganic
co nstituen t", de pth. and tempe rature 11f wa ter in rivers, la kes.
reserv oirs. seas. and oc eans. It is import ant to first ob rain an
ap prcci auo n for the e nergy-ma no r inte ractions that may
impact our abi lity til perform an acc ura te aq uatic remote
se ns;ni; im e stigat io n.

Water Surface. Subsu rface Volumetric, and Bottom

Radiance

The tota l radia nce. (/ .,) recorded hy the sensor (Inboard the
aircra ft o r satellite is a funct ion nf the clc ctromagncuc
ene rgy from the fou r s(Jurccs identified ill Figure 12-1
{Hukutu Cl al., 1995 : Lcglcitcr und Rubens. 20(5):

( 1::! -I )
w here

Lp is the pornon of the rad ian ce recorded by a remote

sensing mstmrnem resu lting from the do .... nwetlmg sol ar
(I:'o;",,) and sky (t:<hl radiat ion that neve r actuall y reaches
the water surface. T his is atmospheric noise and may be
considered to he the un....an ted pmh radiance discussed in
Chapter 2.

Water bodies receive madiance from the Sun\f,.

and atmosphere If.'.. , ). The totalradiance upvoellq
(e\lli ngl from 011 water bod)' 10...ard the n.'1lIOteSCll\llr i~ a funcnon of the radiance from at~
s'all<;rillll tL,.I.... atcr-surfacc radiance (L,\.
face volumctnc radrancel!"I. and radiancefrOIlldli:
bouom (/.~) uf the water holly tallcr Bukata
lIN; ),

sum

et'"

L, is the radiance fnuu the dow nwel ling so lar and sl)
radiation that reach es the air-wa ter interface (somelimr;
culled I IK.II~'e- \ III:filn' lave r I'T houndary layer), but only
penetrates il a millime ter or so and is the n cssl.'lttialll'
reflected from the water sur face. T his re flected energy
contains valuable spectral information abo ut the n.:ar
sur face charucrcristlcs of t ill: Willer body (F igur e 12 ~ at
Unfortunately, if the sola r ze nit h angl e and senso r viewing
angle an: almost ide ntic al. then we may gel a pure1r
spe cula r re flection from the surface o f the water hody.
which provides wry liule useful spectral information
(Fig ur... 12-2 11 ). Sud' .mnglim is to be avoided ...hcneve
pos s ible . This is why we rare ly collect rem otely sensed
data at nadir within one or two hours o floc al no on .

L" is the radiance fhau rhc down welling solar and s~-y
radia tion that act ually penetrates the air-water interface,
inte racts with the water and organic/inorga nic co nsrituere
and then exits the wate r column without encou ntering the
honom [call ed wlhfllr!n("(' volumetric radiance). Thl'i
radiance prov ides valuable infonnauon abou t the intc:mal
bul k c haracteristics o f tho: .... atcr co lumn.

,
Remote Sens ing Su rface Water Biop h ysi cal Cha ract eris tic s

a, mad-and.." hue mfr.lI'l:..J pholograph

of wmcr

f'9ure 12-2

"".h.. . in FI"n Ja-

b. B1"d.-aoo..wh;le infrared J'l!<"op:tf'h with :runtltmt

or

01 ):\ blac k-arut-w hill.' in frared photograph

an area in ['It,rida ." Iltili lli ll~ nat ural veg etation. a !Coif course. and fair ly deep
nonturbrd "liter bodies. b) In this example. epccularly reflected ~lIn~hrn II< pre-sent tha i seriously impcd ..... ou r ahi!ily III..xrrac t
usdul information, The onl) d'"la of value are the '" md-strca k paucrus \,n th......etc r surfac ... llul pro,itlc ,;<lfll<: infonnaliOll
on wind d irccuon atthe time of dat ... collection.

. L~ is that portion o f the reco rded mdianc... resulting from

!bedown.... d ling solar and sky radiann that penetrate..... the
arr-w ate r interface. reaches the bo ttom of tile wat er bod)'.
is propagate d bac k thro ugh till' wate r column. and then
ni ts the wa ter co lumn. l fw c want ttl ob tain infor mation
abo;lut the bottom. such 35 when performing bathymet ric
tdeprh l ma pping or co ral reef mappi ng, then this radia nce
trom the bottom may be of sign iii cant value [ Mumby ct
al., J lJlJ7: Pnsquafini c t ul.. 19 1J7 1. Howe ver. rad iance fro m
ihe bottom ma kes II \ cl) difficult to proper ly ch arac terize
the water column above u. Basic<l U}, it is di fficuh 10
disen tangle or disagg rcg.lte L" an d 1. ~ [Je nsen ct al.. 19X9:
1,13111 ct a l., 20n~).

The goal of 1II0si aquauc remote "cnsing is 10 extract till.'

edbncc of interest fro m all the other radiance com ponents
being reco rded by the sensor sys te lll l l) t1 \a ran cr al., 2001 1.
for example. the scientist inte res ted in iden li fying the
and inorganic concrituems in the water column te .g.,
sspcndcd sediment or chlorophyll II) is mos t conc erned
';lh isolating till: subs urface vo lumet ric radia nce (I., I CI1I11putcd as:
Ol"~nic

L,

411

( 11-2)

This usually involves ca reful radio metric currccrion Ill' the

remote sensor data to remo ve atmospher ic atten uation (Lf.l,

surface sun-gli nt and other surface reflection IL,). and 0..11tum re flecta nce (1. 10 ) Ie .g., \t ust.u d <:1 al.. 2001 J.
Scien tists interested III mOllitorin!,: wa ter dep th (bathym ctl}' )
or bottom cha racrcrisrlc s such as ree f structure arc mos t
interested in prec ise measur eme nts of bouom radia nce ILIoI,
so they must attemp t to remove atmosphe ric. surface. an d
subs urface volume radiance.

Spec /ral Resp onse of Water as a Function of

Waveleng th

When conducting a remot e sensing invesngnrion un water

bodies. it is first usc fulro understand how /,un' water sclccliH:ty absurb, an d or sca ucrs the Inc ident. dtl\\ nc c tlmg sunligln in the wa ter column , Late r we w ill consider bow the
incident light is affected w hen the w,111'r co lum n is IlO! pure.
hUI con taut - organic and inorg anic ma terials .
Pure water is fre e from orga nic lind inorga nic mauc r, Bukata
al. ( l lJ'l5 j sum ma rized t IH.: absorption coe fflcic nr f~ A) , the
scancnng cocffic jcm 11(;' ). and the total atten ua tion coc tficrcm ('(AI of pu re water molecules at wavclengjhs from 250
- }l(1I1 nm from a numb er ofstudies (Table 11-1 ). Several
irnpurtant relationships arc o bserved when the nbvnrpno n
and sca tte ring da ta are gra phed, as s hown in Figure 12-3.
t.'t

12

412

Rem ote Sen sing of Water

Rerr

C).I

0.'"

Abscr-ptlon and Sca tt er ing

Atten u ation in Pure water

o.oe

0.07

0,06

."= 0.05

""

Absorption

z
]

fJJ~

.
E

.\

=
E-

,E
~

0, 112

-e
0,0 I

Scattering

ull nl\ jolt'!

hl"1I

\'Iolet

dark
hlue

-~

~\' I hl\'

Ii~ht

""

'.

.,

urun l:1.'

grc cu

"' ~ - - -

' C, '

l__

near -

ITOI

infrared

~ ,

...

2 4 (12'112~ 1) 1 1~ )12014nl~1"n.lOO420 ~n4M 4W~OO~2()~411~h ns" nl ~n'2n'.ln'h06~1)~~ 172 () 7 4' )7MI7 ~O ~ (II)

w avelen gth ( n m)
Figure 12-3

Absorption ~n(1 scatteri ng of light in pure wat er, Mole cular wate r absorption dominates in the ultraviole t 41 K) 11m) and in
the ycllo w through the nca r-inlrurcd portion urthe spectru m (> SilO 11m). A lrnu,t 0111 uf the incidcmnear- an d middle-infral\'d
(740 - 2~1 1(f nm) radiant flux cnll'Ti ng:1 pure .... mer body is abso rbed wilh ncgligihlc scaue nng taking place. This is whyiiiail'!
is so dark on black-and-white infrared or color-infrared film. Seallcnn.: in the water column IS especially important in thev,.
nlet. dark ollie. and light hillt' p ortions Ilf lh~ spectrum (41)(1 -.:"00 nm ]. This i> tilt"reu...m water appears hluc 10 our eyes. These
data .... ere derived trom a \ arkt) " r sourccs by Buk,lta el al. (I IN.:"). I he graph IrUl ll'uk-:- the ah"" rrlion attenuation infomalioa
In Ihe ultraviolet and m the yt'II11\\ Ihfllugh ncar-infrared regi{)n~ because the .1l!enu.Llion is "'-' gn::lI. Refer to Table 121fOl
absorpt io n attenua tion infofm 311tlll inthe,c reg ions.

The most not icea ble characteristic is that the /t'/1,H amo u nt of
absorpt ion /I11.J scanen ng of incident Iighl in the wate r column (the refore the best transm ission] lal.cl' pla ce in the: b lue:
wavelength region fro m appro ximatel y 400 - SOO nm, with

the mi nimum located al a ppro xim atel y 460 - -IROnm. These:

wa \ c lcn ~'1h s of violet 10 lig hl blue light penet rate funae
than any ot her type of light into Ihe water col umn (C larket
31. 1991).

413

Rem ote Sensing Surface Water Biophysical Characteristics

Palancar Red nn Cozume l Istan d . Quin la na Roo , .\ It'\ il'n

COJUmel
lsIan<J

4. sroT Band 1 (0.50 - 0.59 Jim ).

Figure 12-4

b. SroT Band :! t0 6 1 - 0.68 JIm).

e. SPOT Udn<J .1 iO 791 - O.IlQ Jim),

Individual band s of SPOT XS d;lla of Co zumel. Mexico. lncrdent green and red radian! nux (ban ds I and 2) penetrate through
the water column and are reflected by the sand. bard-bottom, and Palanca r k eef C(l(l\crsdy. much of the green and red ene rgy
is absorbed by' terrestrial \ .gdalioll. causing it 10 appear dark. lt is d,ffieull III identify the land-water interface (boundary!
u~mg thC!< vivible bands, Waler ah".)rb~ 81n1ll"t all of the incide nt ncar-mtrared radia m nux, while the te rrestri al vege tation
reflects mcs t of Ihe mcidcm ncar-infrared ,..ner~'Y, The res ult is that waler appears alm ost black on the nca r-infrared (band J)
data. \\ hilc the upland vt'gt'latilln appears " rigJlI. rhis makes it easy It> i,k nlify the land-water boundary i " SI' UT Image. lnc.].

Incident gree n and yello w light from 520 - 51<:0 nm is

ah&'rb.:d w ry well by the water col umn with relatively little
scattering taking place, Si m ilarly. sl"ltHe ring o f orange and
red wa velen gt h ene rgy (5 fiO 740 run } by Willer molecules
beco mes insig nifi cant when co mpared 10 nbso rprion by
wate r molec ule s . A l n lD ~t all of the incident ncar- and mi ddle-infru rcd (7 40 - :;000 runl radian t fl ux en ter ing a deep.
pure water body is absorbed w ith ncg lig ihle scaneri ng tak mg place ( Figure 12-.\ I.

m iddle-infrared regions. water bodie s appear very dark.

even black. because they abso rb almos t all o f the inc ident
rad iant flux, espec ially whe n the water is deep and pure with
no suspende d sedime nt or organic matter in it (c.g.. Figure
12-2a) , Conversely, land surfaces an: typ ical ly c ompo sed o f
vegetation and bare so il lhat refl ect significant amo unts of
ncar- and middle-infra red energy. as summarized in prev iou s
c hapters. Th is caus es the land surfaces to appear relatively
brig ht in nea r- and mid dle-infra red bands uf imagery.

Thus, molecu lar scatte ring Ill' vinlcr an d blue lighl t-c 520
nm) in 3 WOller column and signifl...mt absorption o f g reen.
yellow, or ange. and red wa cclc ugt h light (520 - 700 nm ) in
lhe same water co lumn . cause purl' wa ter to appea r blue to
oor eyes. T he blue color is es pecia lly evide nt in pu re m idocean WOlle r and dee p nomurbid inland .... atcr bod ies.

For examp le. consid er the green (ba nd I ). red (band 2 ). and
near- infra red (ba nd J) SPO T It RV XS images o f'a portion of
rhc Palancar Rcct'j ust o ffshore rho island o f'C ozumcl. Q uintana R{\(}. Mexico ( Figure 12-4 ). Unde rwater visib ility in
this po rtion o f the Ca ribbea n Sea is usua lly 80 - 120 It. Incident green and red wa ve length energy fr om the Sun peneirate throug h the water co lumn and are re flected by bouorn
sand, hard-bottom. and COrd i red . No te how the details o f
the reef arc more clearly seen in the green (band I ) and red
(band 2 ) images than in the nea r-in frare d hand J image ( Figure 12--H.

\ l lJn it o r i n ~

th e Surfa ce t: \ len l or Wal('r Bodi e'

The best wavelength region for d iscnm maring lan d fro m

pure .... ater is the ncar-in frare d and rmdd je- in fra red reg ions
11 \\ a\ckngths be t.... cc n 740 2 500 nm . In the near- and

12

414

Re mote Sens ing of Walet

Reo

.\ li ssissip l)i River Delta

Table 121.

Op tical properties of pure wmcr (de rived from var-

ious sourc es

Or

Hukata ct al.. 1',1'151.

Tota l
Absorpllon
a l i,)
(m")

Scattering

bl'1

0(' 1

(m " )

{m"l

P"

2SU - Ultnl'i.l ld

(I,I~ I

(I,4)3~

U.!2tMI

va
illl

J.'

"ltra'ID let

O.(j..jO

0.n 15

0.0550

l:u-utm."i<>lCl:

(!.len

oou

n,o,l:!u

(e

350 - ultr'3' k>l"'-

11.0\ 2

O.U082

0.0201

sl i

,-iok!

1l0l 1t1

(u ..~ s

(),OIO ~

~ 10

_ \1"1....

O,IMIS

0 1. 140

O,((1'lO

~u

- "olf1

U l Ml-\

{lOCH!

n oon

0 .002

0 002 7

uooo

hi ",..

(lI Mn

{I

n0 22

O.fl(IS:'

500 - ligh t bll.lC

0.Oll6

0 .0019

IUlU;9

~1n

IUII-I

f UM I ] "

OO I~ h

5-10 - I't!:'<'n

11.01'1

0 .00 14

0. 030-1

Shl l -

I.t:""""

iI,n.w

IUMI12

O.ll-l!l1

580 -

~'dl""

IUl7 4

(LOO II

0.07 5 l

nc. l _

"rd !l~l'

11.20

I HS ~l'I,\

0 11M~1

610 - " rallt'"

41.14

U OOX!

(I.24m:

1'>-1(1 - n' d

/1.27

0.\1(. 172

0.27(17

M O - ", d

0,J l 0

o.I)("IM

O. 31!1(>

I,SII _ rc d

H.,;S

I I .l K H~ h

IU S/ N,

701l - rcd

(l ,f>O

1 ),(~IO S

O.IiIXIS

7-111 - near-Inlran:d

2.2~

U.l " ~J.l

1.1504

76 0 -

ncar.infrared

2. ~ (,

(I.(xms

156W

~( H I

ncn. lI\lran:,J

2,111

(I.(XHlN

2.l ~:2ll.\

Wave len gth

(n m)

.;l MI -

Attenuat ion

Th

un

m-

2(
\\
w

-Wl _
~ ~u

darl blue

- darl

on"

Wh ile the subsurfa ce info rmation availa ble in th... gree n and
red SPOT images (ha lld~ 1 a nd ~ ) is use ful for ma ny reaso ns.
it is not of m uch value whcn trying to identify the land-warc r
mtc rface. i.c .. the actua l edge orthe 1.. land of Cozumel. h 1rtunatcly. the water abso rbs almost all the incident ncar-infra-

Figure 12-5

PtK\lI>gl<tr h of the \ ll ..~i ~~i rrl River delta jlN NIl'" New OrlciUl). LA, I.Ibtain"d b~ Sp.ol'C SIud:
dMronaut< dunng \ ll s~lon S'fS 51. 111l'"slISf'l'"IIOtd
scdrmcnt in Ihe "ater is rl:lk"t iug m uch of th: iI,:>.
dent radia nt tlu x bad ; into the atmos phere. ( oe.
vcrscly, rhc

Il1 llIT

pure water. farther offshore.

nt>sorhinF m0S1of the incident rad iant nux. caU>1~!

il 1(, l1pp.:ar da rk. The bou nd ary I Irouu ret"IIthc
sc...hmcnl-In,!l-n " a1<,' r and the nonturhrd ....-alel"
quuc e, idl.,] t (courtes y K . l u lla. !'\A:SA Joomoo
Spal'l"Cl'ru" r).

red radianl nux (as shown in lig urc 12-+0:1. cau sing lht
SPOT lI RV hand 3 Sl'n,or to record oc ea n water as blacl
while the uplaml vcgc tuuon re flects much ofrh... ncar-In trared radium Jlu-c. ca using il to uppcur bnght. The refo re. it isJ
,tra ighl furw a rd rusk 10 delin eate the tend -water imcrface
usin g the S POT ncnr-infrured band J image.
Care 11 H1 ~ 1 he exe rc ised. however. wh en lhe re arc olJ.!-anic
and inorganic co nstituents in the "mer column ( c'p<." ial ~
thl'~l' IlC>Lf the ~ u rf,ll' el beca use these m.ncnuts will cause
ncar-infrared surfac e rc tlccnou an d subs ur fa ce volumetric
scaueri ng III take p lace, drama tically inc rcaving the amoolll
o f ncar-in frared radiaru Ilu\ lcuving thc surface nf the " ;llrr
bod y. FI'r e xample. consider thc Spac e Shuttle phl1lOgraph
o fthe \ll~SI~s i pp i I{i\ t'r delta in Figure 11 -5. Fhe sU 'Jl""~ded
sedim ent in the water co lum n o.:iIUM:) significa nt scanenng
and re flect ion of radiu m nux h ick toward the se nsor S}stem,
ca ll~ i n g the water III appear almost as hrig ht as the few land
fcatun , III thi) bud's- foot delta.

a
L

,
a
I

='!mote Sensing Surface Water Bi ophysical Characteristics

Spectraf Resp onse of Water as a Function of Organic

rid Inorganic Cons tituents - Monitoring Suspended
llinerals (Turbid ity), Chlorophyll, and Dissolved
()ganic Matter

Thw. far we ha\ c main l} con sidered the spec tra l response of
xtosr natu ral water bodies , ho wev er. con ta in 3
of organic (e.g. phytopla nkto n chlorophyll (1) and
eorgamc l c.g . suspended minerals) const ituen ts. Wh en natml waters co ntain n mi xture of these materials. one III' the
10>1 difficult remote sensing problems Is til disentangle
it\tr~ 1"1) quantitative infon narion abou t these spec ific con!lituenls from the remotely sensed data (Doxaran et al.,
. 2; Karaska ct 31.. 200H,
water.

1Intt~

''hen conducting wa ter-quality studies or ll)ing

10 predi ct
Iller productivity using remotely ..cnsc d data , we arc usudl) most interested in the ,' /lh.' II// tin.' l'rJ!lmwlr;c rat/iII/let"
L, (Figure 1:2- 1). .... hich is the radianc c [rom the down"elling solar and s"y rad iation that act ua lly penetrates till'
e-watcr interface , interacts \\ uh the wa ter and organic.ino rfII1 lC constitue nts. and then e xus th e wa ter co lumn toward
(1l -.l.l!" withoul enco unte ring the bouom The subsurface
!Q/uml.>trie rad ianc e exiting the .... arcr column tow ard the
ensor (I. ,) is a function of the concentration of pu re water
~'). inorgan ic sus pended mi ne rals (5 !'f ) , organic chlorophy II
~ IChI), dissolved organic mater ial (I)(}\f). and the Im,11
snount of absorption and scnncring attenuation thai rakes
place in the water column due to each ofthese constitucms.

415

than I u rn in diameter. Thus. sus pended mineral concentralion is usuall y o f no sig nific ance In deep ocean re mote scns lug surdfcs. Th is is important since the contributions from
suspen ded rnme rals can onen be ru led out w hen conducting
a deep ocean re mot e sensing inves tigatio n. Co nve rse ly.
inland and nearshore water bod ies may carry a significan t
load o fsuspe nded scd imcru that can dramatically impecttbc
spectral rell..x tance cha racteristics o f the wat er bodi es
(l\.l iller and l\. k Kee. 10(4).
.\1o nilnrillg the type . amoun t. and spatia l dis tribu t ion of sus pcndcd minerals in in land and nearshore water bodies is
ve ry important. For exa mple. so il erosion in a watersh ed
co nmbmes sediment loads to surface waters, wh ich resu lts
in faster filling o f major rivers . reservo irs, farm ponds.
tlood-cenrrol impoundmenls. a nd estuaries. Th is can shorten
the usctul Iifc o f rese rvoi rs. po nd s. and flood-contro l devices
and req uire dredg ing o f rivers and es tua ries . For exa mple .
the reduction in storage capaci ty in rese rvoi rs in the United
SI:IlI.'S caused by the in fus ion uf suspended sediment res ults
in a loss \,f >$ I OO mil lio n annua lly. Sedi me nt also affects
wate r quality and i l~ suitabilu y for drinking, recrea tion. a nd
industrtal purposes. II serves as a carrier and storage age nt o f
pesticides. ab sorbed phosphorus, nitrogen, and organic compounds and ca n he an indicator of pollution. Suspended sedimenr-, can impede the transmission of solar radi ation and
red uce pho tosynthesis in submerged aq uatic vegetation a nd
rt ear-bottnm phyto plan kton. T he nquar ic vegetation and phytnplan ktuu play a vita l ro le in the food cha in o f the aq uatic
ecosystem .

i.1. Lc.,
(12-3)

krs mstructivc ro look atthe effect that each of these concurDel11~ has on the spectral rcfl cctuncc ch aracteristics o f a

water column.

\Iiner:l ls such as si lico n, 3Juminum, and iron oxidt""S an'

Fonunarely, remot e sensing ca n be used 10 monitor the suspend ..oJ m ineral concentrations in water bod ies . Thi s usually
requires obtainm g in situ measurements of suspend..-d min era! concenrrauons and rela ting it 10 the re mot e sensor data
to deriv e a quant itati ve relat ionship. It is good pract ice to
collect bot h the remote sen sor data a nd the in ,\';111 suspen ded
s<:di metl! mea"ure rnents on d"ys that have littlc wind, WindTOughe ned sur l:lce waler cre, lIes specu lar rel k elion s. w hich
C:1O he dl.'1t"l.:-rioUS to lX'mOle se ns ing o f suspended sed imenl
wnccnlml ion s l i la n and Rundquist. 1995 I.

bJnd in suspe ns ion in most nalural wa ler bodi ..-s. The panid~

r:lnge from lint' cla y pani....1cs (3 - -I!Jm in diameler) . to

lilt \5 - 41) ~Im) , til Hne-gra in sand (-II - 130 pm ), and coarse
1f'lln ~and ( 13 1- 250 !Jill), Thl.' sed imen t wl1\es from a \ari
rty of sources including upland ag ric ultural cro pland t'Ttl~on. wellthering o f mountainou s Ic rrain . sh('reli ne eTtls ioll
ClIU~ed hy nat ura l "aves or bolll tra nk. and volca nic erup101I (ash ). .\lo SI o flhe suspe nded m ineral M'd iment i... co nmltr31t'd in the inland and nearshore Willer nod i"'" ( Bukala
eul.. Il)IJ5). ('kar, d.:ep ocean (relcrrl.'li 10 as Case I water )
f.u- from shore rarel) conla ins suspendtXI miner als gre :uer

The spcc lral retl eetance of su"pcndtXI sed Iment in surface

.... aten. is a fum:tio n of both the qua ll1ily an d ch ar:J.e teristi cs
(pan ic le ~izl.', abso rplion) of The ma leria l in the waTer. Sus
pcm h.'d s\,d inw llt co nce ntral ill n is lllea sured ill sifll us ing
eilher a secehi tJj.,k l'r a nt'phcl t'll\ etrie turb idit)" un it (N TU)
detedor. Th c seCt-hi d isk ( Figure 12-0 ) is a c ircu lar plale that
i ~ lo.....ered in\ll the ..... ater unt il it eannot he ""'en. T his secch i
deplh is ill\C'rscl ) eorrel at~d with the amount ofsuspendC'd
m;uerial in Ihe w" ler. l1lc greater the amounl of suspended

( 'II,\I' IE K

4 16

12

Rem ote Sensing of Water

Spt'cl r nr a d iOIll\"1 1'1'"

16S cm

Figure 12-6

A sccchi disk is used ro measure suspende-d sedirncnt In "";Iter bodies b) l l"' ..:rmg II uuo rhc water
co lumn and dctemu mng tho;' dCf'lh al which II disappo:M!>. Tbc .I.:c ur:to:y of the measurement is it Iunclion "f the v"ual acuny " I' th..." ,,1> serve"1". '" hicb can
' dry d rama tica lly.

Figure 12 -7

A "!'L-':lruradi"rncIL"( may be used 10 mcasuremllll

<['l"("lrdl reflectance characteri stics of pure \\1ICI'
dOJ water \lo llh l an('us sus pen ded ><Jimrnl alii
ch l"T<lph~ II <I conccerruuons {after !.odhi et at

1'1'-171.

material. the less the sccch i de pth. i.c.. it II ill d isappear [ W ill
view rr-lntivcly quickly. lhis met hod relics on human visual
perception . which is no l con-aam among scic ruisrs. The
more rigo rous nephelometer detect or pa"scs light through it
sam ple ofwater oh tamcd at vuriouv depths to . . lctc rr ninc its
transmission characteristics that are refuted III suspended
m ateri al ill the water,
Research has documented (he gene ral impac t of increased
suspe nd ed mine ral COIK' ClI (H1till ll in wate r bod ies in the visi ble and ncar-infra red portion of the spe ctrum. For cxnmplc.
co ns ider the expe riment conducted by l.odhi et a l. (l l)\)7).
which dete rmined th... spect ra l reflectance characteristics of
lWO Nebraska so il type s (d ay ey and si lly) ut \,aTlOUS suspended sediment concentrariouv III water.
Figu re 12-7 depicts till' e xpc rim cnta l d es ign .... here a spectro radiomerer was used 10 collect spec tral re fl ectanc e data
fro m a he ighl of 165 ..:tIl dir ...ctly above a cont rolle d wate r
sur face . T he spectral rn ca surcm cms were made in 15 2 dis c rete spectra l ha nds between Jill, and 1.11~ nm. T ill' spectreradiometer \HIS calibrated with a gray card ( 18 percen t
rencctc ncct that lIas cross -refe renced to u BaSO~ calibrauon panel. Rc tlcctan ce. I'll" \13'. calc ula ted as a simple ral i"
us ing the c...uaucn I Markham and Barker. 1986 1:

/. ,
-xl..
I.,

(1 2-11

wlt{r..-[., is rho rad iance measured from the ....-arcr surface.I,

is the radiance fro m the Ib S()~ panel, and k is a calibratice
factor for tile lJaSO.1 pane l (refer ro Ch apter 15),

Fip lrcs 12-l\a. 1I depic t the spectral refle ctance o f cleat 113\('(
and wa ter \\ ith varying suspended sedi ment couccmrarioa
o f clayey nnd si lty so il. Sp ect ra l refl ectance o f the clear
water drops continuous ly a fter about :'i !\(J nm due to ahsorption in the water COI UlIlll. as previously desc ribed (refer ttl
Figure 12-."\ ). As the suspen ded sed iment conc entr ation is
increased. re flectanc e increases at a ll wavele ngths for both
clayey and s illy solls. T he c layey soi l (Figure 12-lla) h.1J
mo re organic nuncr and w as darker in co lo r. ....hich resulted
in app rox imately 10 percent lo w er vo lume re flectance at all
wave leng lhs than tho: liglu-culored s illy soi l (F igure 1 2- gb~
Reflecta nce inc reased in the 5S0 6 1}(1nm region and in the
near-infra red regi on as more m inera ls .... e re suspended III the
\.I ater buJies. T11/1,~. fill' [Jl'llli. retlectonce .I[urn toward longtY
wavctongths ill the visible ft'gi"" as more suspended .wdi
m(''''~ lIrt' U,/(/I'd. " lo re green. red. and ncar-infra red l1KIiJ1l
l1 u.\ is reflec ted from the water body and recorded by tbc
remote sensi ng ~ystl' m ... \ wate r body with suspended st\fi.

Re<

417

emote Sensing Surface Water Biophysical Characteristics

,
"

clear water

1., T------~

u
...

41)0

~VI

500

5:;(}

IiOO 650
100
.... ,, ,,,length IJlm l

i~

~10

ll~

<Hlll

I.OOOmlPl

""

me m in it will generally appear brigh te r in ima g.cry than a

nea rby wat erbod y without any suspended sediment.
Correlation cocfficicms lr) were co mpu ted ttl descr ibe the
relationship between suspt:ndcd sedimcm concent ration a nd
!be re flecta nce at eac h o f the :!5:! spccuul sam p ling po ints.
For the cl ayey so il. the values ranged fro m n.2X- tJ.97. and

for the silly soil. the runge was n.7x - ().II X. For borh soils the
\ alu~~ of r .> I).'XI oc c urred in the ncur-inf'rurcd region
betw een 7J.l and XXO om, .Is expected (I Ian and Rundqu ist,
l'N 4).
Th ese resu lts

su gg~'st t hal :

418

(' lI A I' 1tR

12

Remot e Sensing of Water

Re n

c;lrl

Diat um

ther

as
chlo n ' p lasl
ma te ria l

wh
hm

set
,0<

_ - - cell wall

de.

inl

eh

,rr
re
ca

Figure 12-9

Oil A micrograph " rhlu~' rCn L'CI"d lig ht fwm,) phnIOS)lI\n.:sizi nl! d ia\tlm r ) A micwgrarh .. r hluc n: n ec'l...- dIight froma ~
algae .:<.'1 1( Jflr ""'f"r/,l\ .p_l_ 1~ chloropla-" l mat crra tm tho,> rente ShO.'"S up in da rk II e,; beca u.... the chlorop hyll a pigmell
.jh",.,.h much (,f ' l1<: mci..k ll1 blue light d uring phorosyn tbesis,

"
ic

d.
T

a
the \ isible wa\ c-lcngth ran ge of ; :\11 - (,911 nm may provide

infon nat ion on the

sur face \\ .ucrs: and

~11Jt

ofsuspclldcJ sedi ments (will in

the ncar- infrar ed wa velength range o f ? 1" - IlM) nm ma y

hi: a use ful \\. ;lld,nglh ran ge for determining the lIIIIO/III'
orsu..pendcd minerals in surface warers where suspended
minerals arc the prcdomiuam consmucm.

These rd atilln,I'up' milY nnt be universally applic able. Scienusrs attempting tu remotely sens e susp ...-ndcd sediment
concent rations should im estigatc the spectral absorption
and '\c;lt1l'ring cha racte ristics o f the water and soils in thei r
geographic area of Intere st.

the visible reg ion (e.g.. (,flS nm). They sugges ted thaI ...
stutl) attem pting to mouuor suspended sediment usifl!
remote se nsing sho uld he ba ..cd on a thor ough kllOwlcdgcaf
the panicle grai n si/ e and composiuon hc ing examined
Miller and \k Kee (~OIl4l found a robu st linear rclation.-mp
( R~ = 1I .!\~1 between MO DIS b and I (o2() - ('7(J nm)l5()x

250 m data and ill n u tota l suspended sediment measunmcnt s in the (j u ll' of ," lex ico.
C h lll ru p h~ 1I

Plankton is the generic term used to describe all the Ij\ing

and :Illirn;t)) present in a water body lhat
ca nno t resis t the current (unlike fish). Plankton may be subt)rgal1islll .~ I plant

For example. Dux aran ct <II. (201l2) USl'J SPOT satellite data
to measure suspended sediment in the Girondc es tuary in
southwest France. The hL'St cnrrclations between SPO T data
and slJspl'l1(kJ sedil11CIll were oluaincd lIsi ng a ) rhe atmospherically-corrected N IR hand XS] (790 - 1) 0 nm) w hen
suspended sediment con centration was hig h, :111d b ) the
ratios [XS.l 1 XS I I or [XS.' / XS21 when the suspended sediment conc ent ration was low. The sus pended sediment concemrauons within the sur fac e wntcts in the est uary were
est imated up to 2(ltll) mg I.

divi ded further into algal p lant organisms (phyt/lflll1llklOn~

animal \lrg all i.llls (;;/lopl.lllkllllll. bac teria (/}(/c1Cri(Jp!lInl.
/m l), nnd 1o"" cr r I:1111 fo rms such as a lgal fungi , I 'h.r!op!anl.
/011 are sing k-ecllc d plums smaller than the size of a
pinhead. Micrograph-, uf the blue rad iant energy rellet:tcJ
from a dknom and a single cell or gree n algae arc shown in
Figun: 12-l)a.h, In both inst anl'es, the chlorophyll a pigmen b ill the plants absorb most of the incident blue light
cnuving IhL' photosynthetic portion of cuch to appear dark

Similarly, Binding et al. ,20IlS) foun d thaI the successfu l USl'

(If Nl R wavdt:ngths for meas uring ,uspl'nJed sedime nt was
d<:p<:ndcm un tho: filet that in highly turbid v.ah:rs then.- is
su fticicnl scattering to m l'rcome the strtl ng ahsorpt ion by
v.;Iter at these wa \dength:. . In less turbid w<ttef!>. SlKh as the
Irish Sea, the wavdengths sui table fo r mi n<:ral sus pcn dl'd
sed imem algori lhm dc \(' I{lpmenl may he n.. ~t rie t cd 10 on ly

stances that contain carbon. Phytoplankton sink to the OCcall

Ph) toplan knm , like plants on 1;IllJ. arc composed of subor wate r-bod y tloor when they d ie. Zooplan kton migr:lte K\
th.: ~ urfaee al nigh t tu Icell lln 1ivo: phytoplan kto n and tkn
sinl to great er dept hs du ring the da y. When :zooplankton die.
the~ a lso silll to the hottom. carT)' ing Ihe ir ca rbon \\ ith lhem.
Tho: carbon in the dead phy topl anktoll alld zoo planlton is
S()(ln C(lvcred ll) othl'r sclliments. Also . phytop lankton usc

IT

4 19

emote Sensi ng S u rface Water Bioph ys ic a l Cha racteristics

n dioxi de and produce ".\)gcn during the photosvnic process. In th iv way. rhc water bodies a nd OCI:',tO S act
a fjlrh""l i"I.. 1I place that dil-il"l-c~ of g toba l carbon,
kh orhcrw isc '::111 accumulate in lhe unuosphcrc :I~ cardioxide. Other gtoba l sinks include land \cgel,ll ion and
I. However. the carbon III Ihel-l.' sinks frellllcntl) IS
cd III the atmosphe re a~ carbon dioxi de hy burning or
mposuion. teo o ne knows cxactly how muc h carbon the
and water bodies and ocean accumulate. Alo suc h. the
actcrisucs of phy ropla uk ton and Illuplankion an: \ cry
IIlJ'OfUnl 10 o ur knowledge of the glohal ",11*,,)0 cyclc a-, 11
esems a s i~ni l1cant carbon 101IIk tor inereJ.M:d levels of
D dioxide in the atmosphere (Bu kal a o:t al.. 191);).

Ih ,nl'r la nl. " r C1t'ar and

,\ Iga.'-I;u lt'n " ah'r

,
-'
>

">

25

" ,

>

'"=0

:E'"

( "lear
\\:ller

05
AI phylllplankhJn

III .... urcr btllhe!>

cem.nn the photnsyntho:t-

Il~ active p igment o:h1,'rof'h~ II a 110\\ ever. chlorophyl l r ,

m even c ma~ also he rT'l."S<.'1l1 and at \ arious depths.

are 1.... 1' othe r ph)'tup lanklUlI pllt'II",~nthcloi/ ing
~b: nIlVlt//oi.l.l' and I'lryn>hilim . Bukara ,'1 al. (l iN;)
~ I:'\l. however, that chlororh~ II " ma) he considered a
!J:a. mable ..urruglll, fur rhc organic C\lmpOIICJlI of op tically
mmp1c:l. natura l \\o atcn. Fortunately, because diffe rent IHloI:S
ph~ lop la nkton have differen t concemranon.. of chtoro~11. thl:'~ appear a!o di fferent

colors III scnsi uv C remere senThus. recording the color o f a ll urea of the ocean or
(lhcr water body allows u-, It> esumatcthe a moun t and genealtypc ufphytoplan ktun in umr urea and Id b u.. abou t the
leaIth and chemistry of the water body. Co mpari ng images
uken ut different times Iells us nbour changes rhar occur .' \ ..r
arne and thc pr'lCt.'~s":l- <II wor k.
lIll'S.

'DtIOWl'hyll <I mrroduccd to pure wa ter changes il.. spectral

eflectancc character istics. i.c.. il~ color. Fur example. Fig1!\' 12-1 0;1 depict s the spectral reflectance chamctcrisuc s of
dear ""31~'r and thc same water laden with algae l')lll-ist ing
jrimarily of culorophy II II tf lan. IIJ<J7). Clear water reflected
pproximatcly ~ percent between ~ I)O and ; O(] 11 m and
proppo.::d grad ua lly 10 less than I p~' rct.'111 at \\; I\I;'ktl !,: th~
~)'"1(1 710 11 m. as exp C.:lo:d. l'lll1 V<: I',,'ly. llJU I' PWlloull.:cd
;SCJnering/abs orptioll fc;lIurO:l- " I' chlorop hyll lin.' t.'vi dO: Il1 in
e algae.ladcli Wllll,' r:
' strung chloru phyll 'I ah->t,rplillll OI' h1IIC lighlht.'IWl,'';-11 ~ 1l11
and SOli JIm:
chl orophyll II ab->tlrpliol\ 1'1' red
appw xlmalely n 75 nm I ( j ild o;l'n. I 'N;! ):

,Irung

lighl

at

rcncdancc llIi1ximum :lrllund 550 nm (g r.en pc'lk I l:,IUs,"d

br n:laril'l.'1r lower ahsorplio n of green Iighl hy algae
iGildsoll. I IN;!);

II
4

25

>

;;

'"

,,

soe

~"
.\ Iga t"-I:ld e n \ \ at.. r with \ ari"l1 \
SIl..pe nded S.:d iment C "nr l'nlrllli{tll'

'"

soc IJ\~ 1

"
10

;
/

500

b.

(,I~ t

70(1

SOO

lJ(J(J

Wave length 111 m)

"':l-

Figure 12-10 :'I) 1"'rn 'T11 rcllcctnncc ,,( clear aml ~l lg "elll d c l\
tcr t>"".:d on 1/1 ., i lll spcct romdiomc rvr measure11l~1l1.

hI

I'e r~, n l r<'ll~,I;\ nc ....

" I' <llg,I~'-la<,kn \\a lcr

h \ ,lri,'us ....1'nc"lllr.lli"ns of ' usl....ndo:d ,cdim cnt

\I' it

rllnging l'nlill 0

5nn I11g/l hl1.:r lIan.

1 1J~ 7 ).

pwminclll rcllcc lanct: pcak armllld 1',<)0 - 700 11m ClllI""U

and a mi nimu m
"u mbincd d 1l.."cl uf pigmclll and wato:r ahsl'rpti,'II. T he
height I' f lh l!' [1<." lk aOO\l: \h,' haseline (;IhSl}rptio n ITfl ugh )
ea ll he u..... J 10 ,Iccu raldy m.... llloUro: ch lorllph)'ll a moun l
( RUlldllU i~ICI al.. 11)1)5).
h~ an intn ,Klioll I ll' alga l-cdl scallcr ing

HlI..i<:all), 01.. ,'hl"rt'ph)1I ,'o llcO:lllr,ll lUIl i no.:rO:;ll>O:~ tn Ih..:

\\alo:r cu lum n. lho: r.... is a sig niticall1lkn~ase tlllh, rdal i\ c

420

C" II-\P" l t :lt

amou nt o f energy reflected In the blue and red .... evctcn grhs.
bUI an increase in green wa vele ngth refl ectance.
When both suspended min era l sedime nt and chlorophyll an.'
pres...nt in till: wa ter body at the same lime . a dramatically
d ilTerent spect ra l response is produ ced, f o r exa m ple, Figure
12- 1tlb demo nstrates w hal ha ppe ns 10 the spectral response

of water as red lI...m sediment concemranore, from 0 - sou

mg.'l an: added tu water tha i nllliains alg ae (chlorophy ll <II.
Fnr algae-la den water. the peak reflectance in the vis jblc
region sh ifkd

rrom 5~7 nm (green light l al 0 mg. l to 5% om

(o range) at SOO mg I.

Rundqu ist ct a l. (1 1J96 1 and IIl1 n and Rundq uis t (1 91)7 )

obt ai ned accurate estimates o f alga! c h l ll ruph~' 11 pig ment

amount in surface water using a simr k ncar-infrared 0 0:;

nm ) 1 red (CJ70 run ) rat io when the conccmration ofchlorophyll .... as rela tively low. Com pc ung the first dc rivu uvc uf
re flec tance aroun d h'Xl nm produced the best results when
a lga l ch lorophyll co nce ntration WOi~ re lat ively high.
Chln rop hy ll in Ocea n \ Val er : 11 is assumed that a remo te
es tima te of near-surface chloroph yll concentration consnlute-S a rem ote esurnatc of ncar-surface biomass tor prima l)
producnvityj fo r dee p oce-an (em: I) wa ter .... her e there is
liulc danger o f suspended minera l sediment comatuinarion.
Nume rous studies have documented a rela tionship hctw cell
sel ected spect ral hands and ocean chlorophy ll co nce-ntrati on
(Chf) using the- equation Ie.g, Gordo n et at. IIIX3 ):

( I:!-5;
whe re LO'I) and LfA: ) are the up.... ell ing radiancl.'s al
selec te-d wa \ekng lhs rccu rded by Ihe remote sensing sysh.'m
and ,\' and y are empirica lly de rin'J constant" Bukata ct :II.
( 1995 1 poi nt Illit tha i this approach docs Il ll! tah' intn
acc uunl lhe absorptiun and M.:atl cring chanu.: teri~ lie' 0 1" lhe
inorganic an d 0lli an ic CI'lh tituc nl, lIf lhe stud) ilrea The
only reason it is <,ueces...lul is that 1ll the m id-Ix' ean , l'hlllWphy ll pi gme nt~ ilre lhe princi pa l co lo rant Of C b e- I "atef"O.
Salel lite remOh.' M.'flsing syslems used to measure ocean
eol ur are summari,t...-d in Table 12-2 . Tho:- l'PCral l. mal a lgnnt hms used 10 e:\t ract phYlop lilnkton ab undance info mlatioll
fro m severa l o f thes e satel lite remote s('nsinl,! sy"tems are
summarized in Tah k 12-] . lI 11p...fully. the upna liol1<l1 J Igorithm s arc sp;lli" lly an d temporall y invaria nt. mean ing Ilu l
th~'y w ill wil rk nlll,a a nyw hl' re, anytime .
The SCil-view ing Wide Field of View Sensur ,Sea WiFS)
laun ehc-d in 1(jq7 "as designed by ;,\AS .-\ and ind ustry

12

Re mote Sensing 0 1 Water

IO RRI\ 1.-\GE, lnc. ) to bu ild o n wha t " J ~ teamed U~ iDgtb:

( 'oastal Zo ne Color Scanner. Sea WiFS has additional b.mlI
ill 4 12 n111 (In ident ify yellow substanc es tilrough t he lr ~hl
wa\ dcnglh absor ption). at -190 mn (to increase ~ l' ll ~ i li vityll
chlorophyll concenrration j. and in the 7(,5 and ~ (> 5 nm na
infra red no assi~ l in remo ving atmospheric anenu auom
Hecause of the role of phyto pln nkron in the global em
cycle. SeaWiFS data arc usc,d to a~ses.... the ocean's role
the global carbo n cycle and to ex amine ocean ic (J..1vrs
atfect g loba l climate cha nge ( Pink ert on et at.. 2005). <:;a.
Wif S data an: used to ide nnfy the mag nitude and \ anabllily
of the an nua l cycle of primary prod uc tion by marine pbJ.
topta nkron aml tu determine the distr ibution ond timing 01
~ pri n !! bloollls. The obscrvauon-, help sc kn lis!s u nd~l'li!Jnd
the dYl1 illllie s Ill" oc ean a nd coastal c urren ts. the physks ol
m ixing. ami Ihe re lationship.. betwee n oc ean phys ics and
large-scale paucm-, (I f prod ucuvuy.
Sea\\ 'if-S research mcorporat...... atmospheric correc tion mt
improved ill}!:orithms applied 1\1 ocean imagery, The ltll.ll.
impo rtan t SeaWiFS operational a lgorith ms. involve ue ee
ofband- 4-1 .'- -I'-IlI. or 5 1U nm div ided by the hand at 555nm
(I"ahk ~-3J (F'll kll\\'s ki et al., IYt,lX: Pinke rton t't al.. 2005
For exam ple . consider seve ra l ex amples o f the oceana
llpplicat illll' Il l' Sc-a WiFS datn in Color Plate 12- 1. The tiT>l
image is a gllllxd map o f chlorophyll a der ived from a compo snc of imag es obtained from Septe mber ]. 199 7. throog!;
December ~ I. 1\)\)7 (Color PI:tIl' I 2-l a). Th e next imageisl
true-color composite ofa portion o f'thc ea stern Unncd StaI<5
at a spat ia l res..lution of 1.13 x 1. 13 km (Color Plate 12-lhl
1 he true-color image i.. a color cornpos ue of'ba nds 670. 55'
and -II:! nm (RG BI and hlllhli ghts veg etation as>tlCwtll
.... ;th land morpho logy. Wh ile area... ilre elllud s and dense
a<,"fOsl,l s, ('ol,'r Plate 12-l c ]lres~'nt s the chlorophyll o COlIl"Clllr:ltilllh on September JO. 1'197. Rl.'d collie'S reveal high
l'lllwl' l1 lrat ions 0 1" chloroph yll. yd lows and gTl'cns inditalr
ink rnlt'd iate co ncentr at io ns o f l' hlorophy ll. and blues and
purples d, 'CUl11ellllllw chloro phy ll eo ncc- ntra tiolls .
rang ('I a l. (:21)(1.') found g'-.od agr~mcnt wi th SEAWiFS
dala and ill .illl ch lllTOphy II <I lIIea~uremcnh in Ihe Gulfof
Tl)nk in. South China Sea . (jrcg~ and Ca sey (;;004) c0mpar ed lhl.' S~';I Wi ~S ehlo mphyll da lO! Sl'l 10 glohal JIld
reg ional ilrc hives of :\ASA and ~ OAA ill .j/lt c hl\lro~n
data. The globa l curnp' lrison yicldl-d a roo t me,m squm
(I{ ~ l S ) log erro r \It" J I%. with a cocllicient of dl'temlinaliOll
t R ~) o t"O. 76 . lP;ing -I. 1M; J ata pllilll~ , RMS lllg elTu r foro~n
on':1Il (de fined :IS bOl to m dcp th >2()f) m ) w as 27.7% with R:
'" 0 .71. eompilred tv .U % R ~ I S log l' rTOr and I{ ~ '" O.6Ih ear
the cua"b .

42 1

mote Se nsing Su rface Wat er Biophysical Ch ara cteristics

12-2.

Satellite rcrmuc scnsillb ~}Sl<, rn~ U~L-d to measure ocean euler (courtesy of Intem;llinnal Ocean Colour Coordinating Group.
hllp:llwww.l<)Ccg.0TW'><:ns<lrs)

Sen so r

Ag e nc y

Satel lite

Sp atia l
Res olut io n
1m )

Number
o f bands

Spect ra l
c overage
(nm)

rzrs

NASA \ USA )

Nimhus--7 IUSA )

I Oi24 '7S-Q6l22,1l6

1115

ecrs

?\ASll (Japan )

xoros (bp;tn l

es- t 71'%-0710 1V7

ADEOS (Japan)

0&1 7rw,..n7101,V7

'000

",

411:! IZ500

CNES (Frnlltt)

"'"

DI.R W c rman}')

IRS P3 (India)

Launch 03/21 91>

suo

-Wli-I600

NASA\USA)

OrbView-Z

Launch 0810\/97

1100

OCI

"' IT (Japan)

ROCSA r - 1(Talw ;ml

Launch 01'W

l<2 ~

OC\1

ISKO tl ndia)

IRS-N (India)

Launch 05126iY<}

3"

"
,
,

~IODlS-To:rT<l

NASA tUSA)

r.,rTU (USA)

launch I2IUi'Q<)

1 5fl1~ 001 1 000

OS\U

KA Rl (Korea)

KOM PSAT\ Korea)

l aunch 12f10i y<}

1!50

\tERIS

E...SA 1Europe!

ES V ISA f 1 [Europe !

b unch 03/0 1'()2

) 00 1100

\IODIS-Aqlw

:"lASA tUSA)

tlqllo(USA)

La unch 05104-'02

oronts

CI's S\ \China)

xhen l ..hou-3 IC hina)

eOCTS

C\'\5A IChi na)

Ibi Yang- 1 (Chin a)

ell

('\,\5,\ (China)

llai Yang- 1 (Chi na)

0;

15iO~_WI~5 i03

250

(;U

NASDA (Japan)

AI>EOS-ll (Japan)

11,'14/0Z-I 0125/03

250/10tlfl

CNES (Fruncc ]

A1>EOS-1l (Jupan)

12, 14!O~ 10,25103

6000

""""1
~IOS

)eaWiFS

Pt,lder-.2

The primary insrrurncm for ass,,; ~s in g (}CC,Ul product ivity on

Ihe EOS Terra spucccruf is M ODIS. MOD IS bands X - Ill,
r!nging from 405 - '(1, 77 nm at 101 11.1x 1(1)0 m spatia l resoluuon. arc particularly well suited 10 the collection o f" infbrmaion on oc ean co lor, phytoplankton concentration. and
hogeochcmistry ( ~ I O IJ IS, 200(,). Ti.'nu I'I l () DIS produ ct
numhcr l\10D .2 I , parameter numbe rs 26 and 27 (C hlor_a_2
md a_3, respectively] can be USl ' U to extrac t Chlorophyll a
eeccrnration informal io n from Case I and Case .2 water
ising the algorith ms fo und in Table 12-3 (O' Reilly cr al..
~)()(); Card er ct nl.. 2002 : Darccki and Stramski. 2(114). A
IMp of the chlorop hyll 'I dist ributiun ulong the so uthern
Lnncd State s on Nov.. . t uber 23, 200 3, derived using the
MODIS Ch]('r_3_2 a fgonthm is shown in C o lor Plate 12-2.

lnfon una rely, 0..'\ en these algor ithms semcnmcs have diffi erlry ex tracting c hlorop hyll " inform mion from o ptica llycomple-c water such as the Baltic Sea {lIarecki and Strarnski.

Operat ing
Oate s

Jf>

4.l312500

433910

e.sas
433-IZ500
401885
405_1 43s5

o-soc

Z50f.'iOO/\OOO

,."

4 1210."0
405- 1431!.'i

113 lSf02-O'lll .'i112

400

J4

403- 12500

Launch 05/ \ 5102

1100

10

402- 12500

,.

421l..Kl/ CI

,
,

375-12500
~4 .1 _9 1O

20(4 ). Maruorcna and Siegel (20ns ) presen ted a W:lY to

merge satelluc OC<:11I1 color da ta streams From MO DIS "no
Se" Wi!'S to improve global daily coverage infor mation.
C h lo ro p h}'11 in ('n:ls l ;l l ll nd In lnnll " 'ntl'!": For inland and
nca r-coa sta l wate r hudics , i t is ofte n difficult to discntuug fc

the Information about the phytoplankton pigrncnrs in the

rem ote sensor data fro m the c uecrs of sus pended ino rganic
materials or dissolvcJ org anic maucr (DOM ). T h is norm ally
requires the lI SC nf sop histicat ed atmospheric correc tio n
technique, appl ied to the re mote sensor data te.g.. Ram sey et
al., 19921 and a complex multi ple-co mponent extrac tion

methodology t c.g., Bukata cI nl.. 1')1)5 ). For example.

Karaska et al. (20114) docume nted the usc of Airborn e Visible.l nfrared Imaging Spectro meter (AV IRIS ) hypcrspcctra l
da ta to map chlorophyll <I in coastal and es tuarine Case 2
.... ater associated wi th the Neuse Rive r in North Carolina.

12

422

Table 12 3 .

Rem ote Sen s ing of Watar

S...leered opcrauona l hand-rollina lgorithms for remote se ns ing ph)10pl,m kltln abundance .
Algorithm

sens or and A lg orithm

OCTSc s..'aOAS 4 .3
C hi _DC"'"

C"

(O.S SOOl>' M'l7RI

.[0

"

References
O 'Rci ll}'':1 al. I

ere

Pinkerton d at...

R
Sea V.W:o. UC: ~ v4
Sca OAS 4 .3
c h l_......2

R l490I]
R - lu!! w Rr- 555
L

S..:aWiFS 0 ('4,4

n(

"hcr.:,, = [O.J J'I. -1 .J_~t>.H.1I7" ..0. I J~ . (1.011 1

O"Rcillyo:taL .

Sl.-aIlAs-J.3

chl _oc4
chlo r_ 3

R "" llI '

"

fIIa.r I R, (+*3). R (4901. R (510I J]

'

~lU [

' S

R (<;55)
.

"

o =- IO.J66.J.007. 1.930. G.oN. -1.Sl! 1

O-Rdll}.1 al.,~{((r

....IOOIS D ,-\.\C-V4
C hlo r _1I_2

.... Iorel and Anloik

2000;

(based on Sc'aWiFS oc,

algon thm wnh modified
band s)

"as '" L
__,+I
_ '_) und r J ,
/.(551 )
.

=-

Darecki and S:,'1lIlIski.100t

Pinkerton et 31.. 2Q(\\

L(448 )
L( 55 1)

where <I =- Ifl.211.1. -2 .7~] . IA 57. 111>' '1. 1..J.U.l J

....10 1)15 UA /\ C V4
ch hl r_ \ 10 Ul S

\tOlll S Il\:\('- V4
{ -hlu r _Il_J
(fo r ('a"" I und (',I": 2
wlllcrsl

[0'

C" '"

C1~f".

",,[_
L=(..,'",,
,, )]-IAO
-: ""

D Jrc'd;.i and SU1lIlI-

"

,, - [H.2IN.

ski. 2004 :
Carder <:1 ,11.. ~()(l:

-x.z, 1.2J

~klrcl

MERIS-C

l oon

[ R" I'-")]

R '" !t)111 Rrs(SOO )

itT.. <: L then ~ ,=4.B and a .. [0,1. J 15, -1.1.; 44. 1.21': 1.. -2.747. 2.S65. -1.2(l4J.
if 1 ~ C.. 5 10. then >..u=.4')O and II = [O.311Nl, 2.020. 2.572 7.15". III IS. -0,S95J.

if Ca > 10. rhcn 1,,)>=5 10 and a =- 10.390. -3. litH, J.I MI. -20.33. 63.2 I. 11 J.'l].

N .\S n \ l' rnCI'""r C hi"

c:"
R

:JX~

L" n( 550)

ESA "' rm' \'~ ,ur c'nu

liLl O(' . H .iLl

I'/<J7:

Pinkerton el al.,

""

(/~

I0"

"'10[

I OI "" - " , H ~ " , R ~ ,, , f/

where

lII m l /".. ~ ( -1 'B ) , L..,,( -160 j. L ~ ,, (S2 0) 1 ]

1... ~ ( 5 -1 5 )

(05 12. -3.(.5. 4 ,45:. -2..175. -ll,167J

31\(1Antoine.

,
te se nsing Surface Water Biop hysical Characteristics

ssotved Orl:an ic Ma lt'rial

light pe netrates into the wate r co lumn a certa in photic

, h uhe verti cal distanc e fro m III.: \.\ atc r surface 10 the I
t subsurface irradmn ce le\ el} , Phytoplankto n w ithin
phone depth o f tile \.\ ater co lum n con sumo: numerus lind
vert them into organic maucr " ill pho tosynthesis. Thisis
jed p rim m ')'1',.".Ju("li(", . Zooplan kton cat the phyto plan k-

and create organic matter. Hactenoplankron decompose

m.s organic mutte r. All thi s conv ers ion introd uces Ji.HO/I'l,d
Of!:mlic malleI" ( DO I\l) into oceanic, nea rshore. and inland
Iller bod ies . In ce rtain instan ce s. uicrv ma y be su fflcicm
dssolv cd organ ic maucr in the wat er 10 reduce the pcn ctra lion of light in the wat er column (Buk.1l3 et al., 1 ~ 5 ).

The decomposi t ion of phytoplankto n cell s yields ca rbo n

ecxidc. ino rga nic nitro gen. sulfu r. a nd phosph oru s co m;JOOnd~. The more product ive the phy topl ank ton, the greater
tile release o f dis solved organic matt e r. ln add ition, humic
J~b,'/aJIC{,S ma y he produced . Th ese often ha ve a yellow
rppearance and represent an important colorant agent in the
laler co lumn, .... hich rnay need 10 be taken into con sider Ilion. These d issolved humic substa nces are called vetto.....
~lonce or Ge/h.\ /olJe and ca n I ) impact the absorption and
lQtlering of light in the .... arcr column. a nd .::! , change the
color o f the wat er.
There arc so urces of d issol ved organic matte r other than
pIly1 op lan kton . For exa mple , the bro wnish-y ellow color 01"
1M water in ma ny rive rs in the nonhcm United Stares is due
LO the high conccmra uons of tannin fro m the eastern hem Jod ( I ,f uga c(IIICld(1/.~ i.~ I and va riou s other spec ies o f trees
IlId plant- gro .... n in bog s in these areas [ Hoffer, 1971\ ).
Ibese tann ins can cre ate pro blems .....he n remote se ns ing
eland wate r bodies.

Water Penetration and Bathymetry

423

ope d a special wutcr pcnctnuion film in the 1970s thai was

sensitive to the wavele ngth interva l OA4 - 0,54 urn anc r tiltranon. Tlus infor mation was also used when sped(ving the
blec-scns iuv c band (OA 5 - 0.5 2 pm) r>1I the Landsat T hema lic M a p~r se nsor sys te m. ....hich is o nen ca lled the water
pc netranon band . If the .... atc r column is exceptionally clear,
it is pos sible to see subsurface features to a depth of 10 - 30
m by :'\.' n ~ing in these .... a\ ele ngihs.
Bathym etric mapping in the 1l.4 ~ - () , 5~ u rn port ion o f the
spectrum requi res thatthe wate r be almost free Irom org anic
and inorganic ccnstuucnrs such as c hlorophy ll and suspended sediments thai ....ould cause sca tter ing and/or absorpnon to ta ke pla ce and obsc ure thc bonom topography.
1I0 \\ <:\er, as dem on strated in the Cc zumel. Mexico, example l Figure: 12-4 J. even th e green a nd red wavelength re gion
arc o f vafue tor water penetration when the water is clear.
But what happens whe n wa ter is not clear? Perhaps the blueg ree n portion o f the spectrum may not he the mos t ide al
region to usc if the water co nta ins s uspended sedi ment.
Lcglcitcr ct ill. (2004) do cumented the effe cts o f cha nnel
water de pth o n remote se ns ing refl ecta nce (Figure I.:! II).
They found that at wa velengths <560 nm. remote se nsing
refl ectance from the bo n om substrate increased as de pth
increased from 5 to XO ern. Conversely. as de pth increas ed .
the remote sensi ng measu red refl ec tance in the red and part icularly the ncar-infrared spec tral regions decreased du e to
the slWllg ab sorption by pure wate r as previously d iscu ssed .
A crossover ponu of equa l re flectan ce for all dep ths separated scanerin g and absorpnon-dommarcd reg ime s [ Le gleiter c t al . 2IJlM),
Based o n these results, Leglcit cr ct al . 121)(M ) found that thc
natural log o f the simp le rat io of t....u ban ds o f hypcrspcctral
dahl center ed on 560 nm and 690 nm correla ted well w ith
stream wate r de pth (wd):

... d = In[/. (5 60 )] .
Bathymet ric ma pp ing can be pe rfo rme d using passive optical tc.g., aeria l photograp hy} or act iv'e re:motc scnsing ~ys
lClllS.
MO'it g..'O~ph iea l1y e:\tcn~ i v e and aeo:urate
bathymetric o:harting is perfomK-tl us ing act ive SO :'liA R
t\\hich rellcets S('u nd wa \C~ o tr the Otl!tom ) and L1DA R
(which rd klts laser light o lTl ho: botto m ).
Balh)-nw lr ic :\lappinJ:
SeI1VillJ:

I :~ i n ~

P:", i\{' Optica l It e mnte

The opt imu m optical wavel en gt hs to ornai n t>a thymet ric

(depth) informatllm arc from app rox imately 0.4-1 to 0 .54 ),Ull
based on Figur e 1.:!-3. In fact, Koda k. Inc.. seicll1 ists devc!

/. ( 6 QO)

( 12-61

ac ross a broad rang e o f strea m conditions ( R 2 = 0.79). Th is

techniq ue oUlperformed th e line ar lrans lClnn me thod used in
h l ~!clrical ro.:nWle sensing b<lthymctr ie mappi ng studies in
shallow cO:lslal waters. Legle iler and Robc ns (2005) subseque nt ly st llrlied the etre cts of c hanne l mo rpho logy and scnsor spa lial re ~() I U1 i ()n on dep lh estim ate s deriv ed using the
sallie rOit io . LJfon et aL (2oo.::!) found that acc urat e bath)metric mCilsu rements in CA SE II tidal in let wa ler cou ld beob ta ined usi ng. SPOT muh i!iopl.'Ctral da ta iflhe data .....ere cal
ibrated us ing III ~Itu dc pth measurement s.

424

n l \l"

t: rr... d . " r\\ al l'r n cprf u n lh e "tt'mul e St'n,i ng

R... Ifv... tan...... of a x rr eam ( "hannd

enu
O.O I ~

"k

0 III

- _. 5 till J c plh
--- 2U em
_.'/1 em
50 cm
65
~U crn

'Ill

~:H

Remot e S e n s ing of WOller

sendi ng acoustic puls es via it tran sducer. The ,lcoUSlic llu!sl:l

arc reflected h) the sea Floor and the reflected echoes n
rcccivcd by the transd ucer. I'he elapsed time belli-em
ou tgo ing pulse and the retu rn echo can be used to accUI1td
determin e depth , There a rc t h ree main IYflL'S of SO"lAR'i!"
terns { ~ ()A A e s c, 2UOf, j :
xinglc beam

12

S() ~ .-\ R:

~ O.OlJll

mul tiple beam SO ~A R:

o.e..
0 ,00'

.,-jJ.i::
->~.,.

'"

O,OO:?

5 em

Pcnph yt.... ... INr.au

SaI,""'n1 c.--..nl,. .....

W,IId >f'C"'l 5

,no'.

side-scan SO;.JA K.

'-. ~o .

' m, L
\"." <m,_

IlOcm ~

Smg h '-hf!l1m S(}',,"--fR-~ usc a transducer th at em its a s.i~

sound p ulse into the \\ are r co lumn at s pecific intel'\'als'll

a narrcw acoustic footprint (F ig ure I :!I::!). Th e ~OUnd"'i~':

reflects o fft he seafloor (or fish !) a nd the return is capwml

R gur e 12-1' t he ... nec ts ot warcr d,,..lh on remote se'flsi ng retlec1aIl<:<: from a ~lf("am channel. This particular a ream
ch annel bonom substrate .... as covered with Peripb)1011 'a curnph:\ lIIalri, of alga... ami heterotrophic
microbes attached 10 submerged mat erial in almost
all a'l ual1c l."\:,,,,y~kms) which has a ,uung absorpl ion f,'i\IU!'t' at (>7 5 r un. The stre am ....arer contained
ap proJHmaldy 2 mgll llf suspclH.kd scdrrncm. 1'\, .1<,:th at as,h,.. dep eh o (lh,' wat er inc reased truro 5 10 llO
e m. the red and ncar-infrared re flectance fm m the
Y" Il~" column dcnc;l'...d. Conversely. as the deplh
uf the W ~ ler increased. Ihc greater the reflecta nce
from w avc fcug ths -c ;(,.0 nm. A reflectance crossover occ urred at epproximatcly .'\hOnm ILcglcite r cl
a I., :!OO-\ : reprinted with pcnnission fmm EI"",'i<:rl ,

Wh c n cond uc ting bathym . . lric surveys using photog rallllllclric techniqu es. it im pon :llll to l:lke il1!o :lCCO U11l th e t:1Ct th:ll
lhe light from Ihe Sun is hen t fro m lIs trul: Cll ur~c in holli lhe
atmosp h....re and in the wa ler ....Ohllllll. ....ausing balh ym .... tri.... (: 1
in format ion in the im:lg('I)' 10 /l ll ' h(' in ilS pro per pl:lnimetr ic
(x ,l 'l po silion. Th..:refo re, ll1e ind.... x (l t~ rcfnl cl i o n pr....\i ous ly
disc uss....d in Cllilplcr 2 mllsl be l;lken imo ....onsid.... ration
whenever ren1\)te sensi ng n1l'thod s arc used to pe rfo ml
bathym .-trk ma pp ing .

Balhlm('trk I\lappl n::: Using . \ Cll\ (' SO:'llA R

TIle a.... ronym SO ~ A R ( SOund, NA vigation and Rang ing ) is
a n Am..:rica n ll' nn tirst lIsed in World War II. The Brit is h cal l
SO NA K, AS O le s (A nti-Suh ma rine lklL"t:tion 1m eSligalitm
(olll minee ). SO ~ A R tCl'hlltll(lgy may b<: us..:d to collect
measurem ents o f the scal1oor. When ac tive SO ;.JAR is used
10 l11ea sun: the d islall....e to th.... tll.lllllm, it is lnll" n as I'clw
,\ fJI l11d i ll};. Ec hu S\lunde f1i, arc uSt.'d to measure wa tL'r deplh by

hy the transduc e r t~O :\ I\ esc ::!006}. Smgk-a

SO~ :\ R data arc collec ted along transectlines and t~ p~
ca nnot provide co nnn uous coverag e n f'thc seafloor. The:
put resolu tion (,I' the da ta a rc determined b) the JCOJSJiI.'
foot print SiLC. s;lIupling inter. al, sam pling speed, and diIta nce between transects . Single-beam se nsors may colko
f>alhymltry dina (lr he calibrated til idL'ntify seafloor habllA
fish. or subsurface sedimen ts. Many of the systerm .-r
dL'signed tn he l'asily transported a nd used in small boats thlI
can access shallow areas. Recreatio nal fisherman use rdauvcly inex pensive single beam SONAR sys tems.

Htdfl/,le' '' ,'dm SO.YA H\ pmvide users with twn kinds of

data: bathy mctric (depth I and .. ucoustic backscatter" (Gard
ncr. ::!on::! ). T hey can he used in extremely deep water (up10
11,0( 1(' Ill ). ' I ' h e~e sen st' rs rmit multiple sound pul~
(b.. . ams l that cov cr lar ge overlapping swa ths of the scallooL
.:-nanli ng cnn ti nunus CnVl'f:lgc nf the sca llnnr, The backscat
ler sig nals 1.'(111 be IIsell for ha hilllt o r fc,llure mapp ing.
Mu ltIp le heam ;!c('Iuslic Sl'\lS(lfS arc Iyp icall y mo unted onthe
ship's hu ll. Th e ,onar s<:It,], a t:lll o t"sound energy to\\ aldtht
s....a tloor. tlK'n re....ord, thl: re tlected suu nd th rough a set of
naITO\\ rece iw rs a imed al d il1"ercnl an gle s ( rigtl~ 12-12l. 1t
call delec l feillures as sma ll ;I S o ne meter a.... HJss and ]OCJlt
lhe m 10 wilh in u ne m.... t.... r o f the ir true geographic location
( NO AA Olli e~ ('I f Coa:'lt Sliney. 2(1)0 ). Fnr example, 1M
K\lIlgsbcrg EM ..002 multipk b<:am echo so unde r has I
n"min al frcl.j uc n.... y l,f 300 t.. 11:.- wilh an angular eo\ m gr
he lllw the ship 0 1 ~ 2 00~ and up 10 50l( ac oust ic soundings
jl\:r p ll1 g as narro w ;I ~ I J e);:ree (Kong sb<: ~ , 2005 J. Aehie\
an k S\\ ath " iJlh (lli a nat OU!lOIll is nnm lJ Jly up to I0 ti~
thc water dl'plh_ T he sp.1c ing hclween sound ings as well as
lhe ilcoustic 1lltltp rinlS l"an ~ sel nea rly co nstant over the

te Sensing Surfac e Water B iophy s ica l Characteristic s

425

Side-scan SO'.jAR., <Ire usually lowed be hind a bo at l re ferred

\ !Ullir k -b.:;,m
"O'i AR

SO ~ ,\ R

H ath~ m t'tr~

S .n,l~ am

SCl"M R

_-

Tr;ul5l1Ul .In.! 1~"'6V'C

......

'9Jre 12-12 Single- and mutuple-bcam SnS .,\R s. A Singlebeam SO;";A R Imnloa'l \ <'1" ...."tId~ out a singh: puis.<:
ot acousnc ,,,,'und ) ,'n,'fS) usually dir,-ctl) beneath
the boar. The acoesuc enefl!.Y trefcrr curo as a p mg l
is rclkct.-d oITthe ""Ullin (or any intervening (ll>jecl
- uch as II ~hl ...1 u f fish l lind IS reco ....kJ by the
tran sceive r, It is then I'"ssi t-k 1<> de tcrmme lhl.'
de pth t{llal}!<"1~ ha....'<I ,'Il ho\\' IUIl I,! il l<>u I.. the pubc
lu return to the surfac... an d a knowledge ufth e speed
of "",,00 In wa ter \t Ulll pk -w m ~( ) "l ARs transrmt
n};lIlY beams per ae{lu"tk ping Ie.g , > 5001as narrow
as I degrl:\"amle:lnk(l,rlr:tel..nf~xllell) \\hen lhey
encounte r the bou.eu torother features in the wate r.

sanh in order to pnwid c a unifo r m and h igh detection and

lllJpping pc rforrnanc c . An acoustic im"b'c o f thc sea bed
fkor can a lso hc produ ced fnnuthc da ta (Kon gsbc rg. 2(H15 ).
Color Plate 12-3a dcpict-, thc shaded reli ef bathymetry of
lake Tah oe . C;ll iforni aN c vada. It W<l S create-d by co mbining bathyme tric datu obtained by n K (lI1 j;sbe r~ multiple'X'llm SO NA K syste m (to r depths > I 5 In l and d ata ohta ined
from the S I IOA LS U DA l{ ~ ys l .: m (for depths from 0 tu 15
m ~ (Gardne r ct al.. :WO(); U.s.G.S" 20(6). TIle cum hine d
Mhymetry data is color-cndell fo r de plh and me'l!ed with
lmdsal-7 inmgery l RG B = han ds J. 2. I) u f the surrou ndi ng
bntl. An aeou~ tic backsc~l1ter map oft.lIke 1 .,hol..' is slum n in
Cclor Platc 12-30. T he orif'hter to ns's indil'atl: hardl:r surlilct's suc h as roe l... wh ik the dJ rker tn llC;, iud u.:ale ~one r surlict:s such as sedime nt. TIle surmunding I;md is a sl13ded
Klier' image gencrated from US( jS IO-m !>E\1;" I\n nhlique
ie\\ o f Ihe bathymctf)' is ~ho\\ 11 in Color Pla te 11-3e
USGS, 20(6). The lake is alx>ut 34 km (21 mite-- ) lo ng.
llllI1h 10 SOUlh (Oa rdnc r et '11.,1110()1.

to as tow - fish ). Th ey arc use d pr imarily for searching for a nd

detecting objects o n the sea floor, nOI for bathymetric mappin g. The to .... -fish SO:'>lA R points multiple bea ms ar ang tes
and covers large overlapping swaths. ena bling cont inuous
coverage of Ihe: seafloor. The rmn smin cd energy is funned
into the shape o f a filii thai s.... ec ps the sca noor from direc tly
un der the towflsh ro cn ncr side. Like ot hcr SOf\A RS. a side
scan transmits sound ~ nergy and a nalyzes the return signa l
[echu ) renectcd oil' the sea floo r or other objects. The
st rengt h nfthc retu rn l....ho is continuously reco rded creating
a ' picture' o f the ocean bonom where objects t hai pro trude
from th... bottom crea te a Jar\.. image [strong return) and
shadows from these objects arc light area s (little or no
rerum ). Wh ile the shape: uf the seafloor and objects on it ca n
be well depic ted , most s id...-scan systems do nor pro, ide
depth informatiun . However, the y can be deplo yed in w at ers
up 10 I I.tJ()() l11... tcrs deep and pro vide data wit h a resolu tion
of a Ie" centimeters.

Bathymet ric information can he accurately extracted usin g

UIJ..\ R ( L,g ht Detection An d Rangi ngl remote se nsi ng
(re fer to Chapter 10 fllf iufonuauon on terrestrial U DA R
app licatio ns) , Gucm cr ct al. ( 2f1nO) provid ed a detailed h istory of airborn e U DA R bath ymetric ma pp ing . T he Scanning Hydro graphic O perationa l Air borne Lidar Survey
(SHOALS ) system is the most adva nced airborne U DA R
bathymetric nl<l pp ing sys tem (\\'I:s[ and Wigg ins. 2(1)();
Oprcc h. 2/)06; USAC E. 20(6). $ 1I01\ LS typically operates
o n a Twin O ucr or a helicopter. S HO A l.S sim ultaneously
Iires a near-i nfrared { IOfl-l. mn t pulse and a gree n (532 r un t
pu lse o f lase r liglu toward the wurcr surracc ut th... sa me
insta nt in time ( Figur e 121J ) (O ptec h. 2(1 (16 ). Much o f the
near- infrared pulse is uhsorbed by th e water as expe cted . hut
a certain ;U 1l0 UI I I is rc Fleeted back toward the UDAR
rece iver (Fig ure 12- 13) 1\ po rtio n ofthe green laser pul se is
a lso ahs nrhed hy llle "";tte r Cilium n. hut hope fully a su lli ciClll amoun t reilc he~ the boll om and is rc n ...cted ba..k
tow ard the UD A R reCl' i\"cr . (i reen ligh t is sekcteJ for botto m detl:c tion hl'eause lhat is the .... av.:!e nglh wit hin the 0.-14
tll 0 .5-1. lllll regi t.Hl lhat p.:nl'tl'atcs lY lli..al eo ast:ll wakrs with
the Il'ast atten uation . As thc lig ht tra \.:!s throug h the watcr
col um n :md rl'fkcts otr lhe st:llll",or. 1o.cullering , abso rptio n,
and refr adion all ..:ornbine 10 Iimitt hc stre ngth o rthe bo tto m
relUm, lind thcrl'!i.'re the systcm's max imum ext incti on
depth . Its ma \ imu m .... atl:r ~nctrdt io n dept h is ap proxi maldy flO 111 or 2 to 3 t i llle~ thc S<.'Ceh i Jc pth . Thc wat ...r
de pth is ca lcu lated from the tim ... diff erencc o.:twce n Ihe

( 'I IAnt:R

426

.--- "'f". !

Si multancoue
tran smi~~ ion of _

",

,,
:j

H alh~

.,: i

'.

"i

:_

Rem ote Se nsin g 01 Water

ta l pmi litJn acc urate 10 J m and a vert ical position aeeum

to 15 em. SI IOA LS is man aged by the Joi nt Airbome Lss
Bathym etry Techn ical Cen ter of Expertise bused out ofQr
US Army Eng ineer District in Mobile . A labama . An eumpic o f SI IOALS ba thymet ric info rmation is shtl" n in ( iii
Plate 12-3a wh ere il .... as used 10 co llect 0 to 15 m bathYIl'l!ric data of Lake Tahoe.

metry
Airbo m c UDA R bath ymet ry overcomes the limitation>
acoustic ISO 'lAR ) sensors in so me key areas :

Xcar-mfrared

surface return

..I

Airborne
LID.-\R

';

ncar-intirated 110M nm)

, rn1 green (SJZ nm)
.~ J'ul~ loward
wa ter bod} '

...-'~

12

II pe rform s especially wel l in sha llow wa ter where ro.

mig ht run aground.

WaleT

,~ Green
,,-bonom
return

Bol ,om

Figure 12 13 Airt>omc lIf)AR hal h) 'rnl.'t r)' sen ds tw o lase r pu lses

[ncar-infrared and l?fe..;l\ I IUWMd the .. aler at cxa...' t-

Iy the same instant . The nca r-infrared pulse is refleeted from the water surface toward the U DAR
rKCI VCI. TIle green pulse penetra tes into the water
co lum n. lf the wah:r is clear enough ant! the dep th is
nottoo great, a pt.rtion of the gr<X"TI pu lse is rdlec tcd by the bouom substrate bad . toward the rec eiver.
The difference in time betwccn the rec eption of the
ncar-in frared return and the grc....n return is used ttl
comput e the wa te r depth. The imcnsity I,f the hackscattere d t illAR pulse can also he record ed (ada ptcd fnnu SHOALS. 20(5).

near-infra red surface return and the green bottom return and
(he speed of Iight in a ir and water (Guenther t' t a l.. 20(0 ),
Terrestrial L10A R s)'stt:ms send out > )(}O,OO{) pulses per
second ty pically with a 10 nanosecond pu lse length. U [)A R
bathymetry systems operate ;\1 a much slower rate. c.g .,
I,GOO pu lses [i.e.. sound ings ) per seco nd with a 250 nano second pulse lengt h. The longer pu lse length is necessary
because a short laser pu lse would be scaucrcd in the water
column (O ptcc h. .:!O()tl).

The SIIOALS system ca n surve y up to 32 km 2 in one hour,

at an a ltitude of .:!OO 10 -100 rn a bove sea level (A SL ) with
speeds up to I I S kno ts. Th e S ilO..... LS sys tem. depe nd ing. on
ahitude and speed. i" capable o f co llec ting depth S(Jundings
on a -I m l:! rid . Using a kinematic global posit ioning s)"item,
SHOALS references eal'h depth mea.,;un:mt: nl to a horizo n-

It allows surveys of hazardou s coastal areas Ie.g.,

high "urf) 10 be conducted in com parative safety .
It is mobile, allowi ng rap id res pon se in emel]m.'

situanons,
Large are as can lJC'
economic adv antages.

inventoried quickly

pro\-~

U DAR an d SON AR harhyrncrric mapping co mplirn<ntlH

anothe r. LIIJAR is l'l>pe..:ial1) useful for hig h resoluticc

bathymcmc map ping in shallow water em ironmcm

wherea s sing le rm d muluple team SO'lAR are useful fer
bathymetric mapp ing in ime nucdiate a nd deep watcr.

Water Surface Temperature

We know from Chapter II (T herma l Infra red Remote Sen..

ing) thai we may ob tain the temperature of inland ....'ater bcdics and sea-s urface tcmpc ruturc (SS T) during daylight hOOT>
and nt night using thermal in frared remote sens ing ted!
niqucs. Unlike land surfucc s. howe ver, water bodies Iransfer
energ y primarily throu gh ...onvcction. Therefore, any helt
enc'r gy introduced into the system may he transferred hUlldrcds ormeters 111\0 the wa ter body. T his mix ing is rcspons.
blc for the relat ively un i form surface temperature of a ",am
hod y both day and nig ht. Thu s, water bodies generally hal'(
hig h thermal inertia. mean ing that there may only be a few
deg rees diffe rence bet.... cen the daytime and nighttime
wa ter-surfa ce temperature . T his resu lts in water bodes
uppc ariu g rela tive ly cooler than the land during da ) Iighl
hours <I n(1 rela tively warm er than surround ing land during
pr eda....n hours. as dem on -armed in the therm al infra red dr.',
ti me and nig.huime image~ of Atlanta, G A. in Chapter 8.
Waler has an emi ssivity 10 \C l) clos e 10 1_ Therefore. it is
pt.l..siblc to ubtain rclati\e ly aCCUralc .... ater-surface tem~

427

eaote Sens ing S urface Wat er Biophysical Cha racteristics

Sea-sur face Temperature Maps Derived from NO AA AVII I{R nata

.,

.-

.."",7........
.

-.

,
,

- '

.~

-. .
--, ,

a.
~ re

b.

1214 S...a-surface temperature t<;ST) maps derive d from a threc-day co mposite 01 ' OAA A\"HRR therm al infra red dal3 cent cred
on \'I,lTd, -I. I'J'N. Elich pi... .:1 .... ;0' alloc at..xl the highc,1 scrtace rcmp... r..turc lhal occurred Ju ri n~ lh..: three J a) s. a ) This ternperature "':II' has Ixx-n adjusted In highlig hl the coo l water adj acent 10 the fkorg la and Snulh Carolina coastline. b t Th is map
has been adj u, l"d Itl highlighl the circulation pauc rns 4'''''CI4k'tf wllh the .... an n tl shorc ( julf Srrcum. A color com posite of
rhccc imag", lh ;lt pro. ides addiTion:.1 infor mation is found in Color r l ;l k ' 124:. I":"U("-S) ~OAA I

measurem ents becaus e the (0.:11I011: sen sor rad unu remjeraturc measurement ( r "h l ) is approximately equal 10 the
l\I~ kinetic ternpcrtuurc II j,,,l, assllm ing the ct fccts of the
m elting uunusphcrc arc accounted tor. [I is important III
encmbcr, how eve r, uiut it is only a surface mcavurcruent. If
ibere is a signilie;Il11e hmlgt.' ill temperature just a lew me ters
!l:low the surface (i.c.. a thcnuocliuc l, il ma y Il o t he de tected
i!' the therm al infrared detectors.
Ire

~' O of the mos t importam rhcnna l in fra red remote sen sing
ssuumcnrs used III measure sen-surfac e tempe rature arc
nd on the ;.,lOA,\ Adva nced very High Resolution Radi~e(er (AVI IRR I and the :'\I()AA GClIl>latilll1ary Operational
Iavironmcnta! Satellite (G() FS I. Their spa tial. spec tral. a nd
enporn l characte ristics arc sumrnnrivcd in th e pte r 7, Datil
ium these sensors i ~ in the pu blic domain. ava ilable at a reaenable price , and are used ht.':lVil) to ob tain sea -surface
eopemturc l S S n rncav uremen rs ove r la rge oc eanic surbees usu ally at a spatia l reso lution of > I x I km . For exam~. SST m ea sure me nts o lT the so utheastern CI>.lS t of the
lniloo Slates ot>t3 i n ~'d o n :\la rch -I, 1 ~, hy thc SO:\ ,-\
AVHRR arc ShO\lll in Figure I::!I -I and in Color I[att.' I ~--In.

The SS T imat!cs depictthe co ol wate r adjacent 10 the Gcorg ia and South Caro lina sho reli ne ca used hy the influx ofcool
wate r from me major nv crs . A lso note the location of th e
warm Gul f'Sucam \~ indin~ its WII ) northw ard from the lip o f
Florida a!l'llg the Eastern Seaboard. Tang er al. (2003b)
c xanuncd lU M ):\ !\ ,\ Vll f{ f{ therma l infrared images to
monitor the tempera ture chnractcrisrics of the thermal plume
'lss,'c i;ll,'d \\1111 (hi lw's first nuclear powe r station {Dayn
H<lY) nnd the larp cst fore ign invc~t !l1l'lll project in China,
GOES-X sea SUI fac e tcmpc rnrurc measurements have been
documented to he ac cura te 10 within 1.0 0 lo r B ra zil ia n
co asta l wa ter (Franca and Cllr\ alh o. 20( 4).
[ I :'oI ino and l.a :\ ina

A g tobal sea-s ur face tempe ratu re (SST I map is sho wn in

Color Plate 11-4b. It \\ :IS created using day, n ight f\OAA - 14
thermal dam collected fro m xfurch '1- 13, 14'1<l. SST maps
such us this have been indis pe nsable ill m a p ping the dismbu tiun and m ov em cm of the [ I Ni no Sout hern O scillation
( Ef\SOl . [II n11l1-E I Nino conditions, the trade w inds blow
((I.... I N Ih.: .... esl ;t e ro~s the tropical lacilic. These \I inds pile

428

up .... ann surfac e water in (he .... es tern Pac ific. 'i(l thai the sea
su rface is about 0.5 m higher ncar Indones ia than ncar Ecuador. SOUlh America. The sea-surface te mperature is a lso
abou t ll"C highe r in th... west. Cooler tempcrauues exist off
Sou th Am e rica due III un upwel ling of cold wate r from
dee pe r levels. T his cold water is nutrient-rich, sup port ing
high levels of primary prod ucti vity. di verse marine ccos ysIl' J11 S. a nd major lishc ri...s. Rain fal l is found in rising ;Ji T ove r
the warmest water. and the east ern Pacifi c is relati vely dry .
Every t w 0 to seven Yl'an, the trade ....'tIU.!S relax in the ce ntral
and western Pacific Ocea n When this occ urs. the ocean currents an d w inds off'the .... es tern coast o f South America shift.
brin~ in!! warm watcr east wa rd, di splacing the nutrie nt-rich
cold w utcr that normally wells up fro m dee p in the ocean .
Th i.. invasion of wann .... ater d isrupts thlo mari ne food chain
and the economics of coastal communities. Fisherm en
named the phenomeno n EI Nmo (the Christ Child ) because
it oc curred du ring the C hristmas s...aeon . Thus. EI Ni no is
characterize d by unusuall y ....arru oc ean tem peratures. especia lly in the eas tern eq uatorial Pacific Ocea n. La Nina is
churuc tcrlzed hy unusually cool ocean hcmpc rutures in the
equatoria l Pacifi c Ocean . Tree ring ana lys is has doc umented
that these southe rn osc illat ions are not new. hut ha ve been
occurring syst...ma rically for more than a hundred ) C;J P.;
(NOAA. 1999).

EI 'vino can be seen in measure ments of the sea-surface temperat ure . For ex ample. Color Pla te l:! 5 depicts three different sea-s urface temperatu re conditions for selected
Decembers : a La Nina in ItJH loi. a nonnal mon th in [9<JO_ and
an El Nino in 199 7. These arc Reyno lds Mon th l)' SST (T )
ma ps derived hy analyzing satellite thermali nfrared data in
co nj unct ion \\ ith d<ti l) tem perature measur ements telcmcrcrcd fwm an arra y o fN O AA-spo nso n..d buuys straTcgically
placed in the equalorial l'ac itic O cean ( Re)'no lds and Sm ith.
1994). Th i ~ is a go od l:.\<llllpJe o (" thc UTi liT y u f usi ng both in
.\illl and rl:II101e \>ensi ng to imp rove The ac( urao:y of a prod uc t. Unfo rtu nalely. des pile our a hility to acn lr:llc1y map the
sea-surface temjll:'ratun: of thc EI Nino S('uThem Oso:il1atilln,
a \>ub~tantia l am ounl o f lite an d property is .\>till los t whl'n
Ihl' y occur. mainl y d u(' In poor preparat ion t>y local aUlho rilies ISupke, 19':1tJl. ,\ ST ER an d MODI S therma l infrared
data arc also useful for monitoring wall' r surface tcmperalure .

C11:\PTF:R

Remote Sens ing of Water

of \ ery small reservoirs. lakes. ponds. ctc.. then

infrare d sensors Jlo wn on suborbita l mrcraft Im)< ~
req uired . An exam ple of using an a ircra ft-mou nted thalli
infrared r nuhispectral sca nner to map the rcmpcranre
wate r in the Sava nnah River is fou nd in C hapter 8 IThaml
lntrarcd Remote Se ns i n~).
P re c ip it a t io n

Precipitation may be measured operationa lly on a locaI

regional bas is usin~ ground-based (terres tr ial) active mi.:nlW3\(' remote sensing . For e xample, the re a re more tIw1151
Ne>;t tiencrauon Radar (~EX RAD) W SR, /iJoi D s~.-TtII
(.!"'Crating: in the United Stares tr-;OAA ROC. ~OO5 ~ lk
~E XRAD antenna is enclosed in a rado mc ( Figure 12-15al
and e mil!' a bu rs.t o t'microw ave energ)' 0.. " 11.1 em}. If_
...ne rgy strikes an ohjec t (raind ro p. snowflake. hailstooc.
bug. bird. etc .). the energy is scatte red. A sma ll fraClioo et
The scattered e nerg y may he directed back toward ibe radJr
antenna. Co mputers analyze the strength o f the rctumcl
pu lse nncasurcd in decibels, d I3Z ). the t ime it roo k to tT'ilvd
til the object a nd back. and The dopp ler phase shift ofth:
pulse. T his proc...ss of cmuting a pulsed microwave s i~
lisll' ning for an y returned s igna l, then emitting the neu sig
nat, tak es place very fast. up to a pproxi mately 1300 1lIDtl
each seco nd. The maximum ran ge o f th... radar is approllm;Jtc ly ~50 mill'S.
~EX RA D functions in t w II modes: ctear air mode andprrd l'i/llfjo/f mode. In Clear Air mod e il produces an upd:uct
ima ge every 10 or I I minu tes. In Prec ipitancn mnde il ~
duces an update d image e very 6 minutes. In both mode,
wha l is important to loo k ...t is the level of rl'lk e ti\ity metsure d in dHI.. The slronge r the retu rn. The highl'f the dBl .1II
C1car Ai r 1l1OLk, the sca h: gucs as lOll as -2 8, which is \lhy~
is [lossihle to occas iol1ally detect dust or pollen in lhe air, 10
Precip it,u illl1 mode, lhc sc all' goes as hig h as 75, whichindic-ales Sl'verc weather . The rclk c tivity info rma tion is used111
ma ke preei pilation ma ps . Fo r (".'(amp le. a map of precipilltil)n in S,)uth Caro lina on July 30_ ~IKI5 . at tJ:IKI p.m. produo:cd fwm l\:EX RA D WSR S8D Prec ipiu tio n modc &u li
show n in Figure 12-1 5h .

Weath...r Sen icc Forecast Olliecs use th:

WSR -S8D s)'stems to provide re...l-lime infonJlto
tinn (lII lhe location o f dangero us \\eather and the amounTof
precipitutiun. In Ihe UniT...d 51;lles. T hc Wc;lthcr e haMcl
use s NEX RAD in!\'mKltio n to pro\ 'idl' n ... I time local and
reg ;lllw i weather filrccasts. Sim ilar systems function in
Eu rope (I3agd la et :l1.. 20(5 ),
J"ationa l

When h igh spiltial resol ul ion sea-sur fil...e tcm pc ralurc dala is
needed, it may he possible to usc Landsat T hem at ic r.lapper
(T M I data. For cX<lm plc. Thomas et a l. (2t102 1 used 23 La ndsat TM band 6 thcrmaJ iltfrarcd images ubtained from 19R6
- [tj\j6 to mon itor the sen surfac e tem perature along t he
enast o f Maine . When il is necessary to map the l<:mper;JTU rc

12

~r:XRA D

Precipitatlo n

429

.' EXU." I> 'te r rcstr ta r Remo te

St> n~ i n ~

S) ste m

a.

r-;nll!cncr~li,,,,

Radar t:"L\R:\OI
"<:alllc:r naJ.lr ;IfI1~"'I"'.

b,

'
,

NE.XRAD pn:dpil.l.lion milp OfSoulh Carolina

,>NalllC:',J OI l 'I ( ~) r Ill. un Jul~' 3H, 20ll S.

-gum 12-15 01) .\ :!s n , d iamete r \:C\ t g"''flcl'illiun Radar ('EXRA Oj .... "atho;r raJar anlenna i~ hUU'i<:tl in side a protective 30 ft. diameter
spherica l radome suuaied un a IflO It . tower. In precipitation mode. the volume scan of the radar i ~ co mpn sed of 11 lu ll 3(,00
sweeps at nine uni'luc d C\i11;OO angk... tbctweeeu 0.5" and 19.5o i1oo\e the 100; 011 huril lm). ' I,XR..\O data is updated e\'L"t)' 6
numnes when lhe radar is in precipitation mode. h I Retlectivity pre..irntatl"o map
"'uUlh r'arohna Mlai nl.'d from the
:'>lEXRAD in Co lumbia. SC. ob tained on J ul ~ JO. ~OOS. "ilh II>.: :"l I:.XR..\ O \\ SR-lum III precipitation mode. The reflectivity
data .... en.. pnll:e~Sl'(t 10 hlghlil;'! ht prec spitanon associated \\ llh a "'-"\ ere thunde....torm rll~,ing from wc~t 10cast. Intense thundcrstonn precipitation is highlighlL"d in .... hit\.'.

or

ntonu nutcly, the maj ority of the world's land sur faces do
"I enjoy such coverage h) weather radars or t' \ en rain

'Pu!;!.t' networks. an d will no! for the foresee able future.

ueteorological sat ellites arc the o nly systems capable of
);Ijuirin!;!. rainfall data over \ a~ 1 dismnccs. Fortunately, it is
JlOII poss ible III moni tor selec ted continents on a contin uous
jesis and to do so for a sl11:l11 fraction Ilf tllecllst ofa sur facebased observing network or eqllival.: nl spat ial density
ISmilh et al. . 2004 ). Unli.1J1U1111tdy. ins tead of direct ly mea1IJring rain fall usin g a ra in gauge. remot e s~'lls i ng methods
mu,t rely on using indirect remotely sen sed data o n cloud
eflcctunce. cloud-top tempe rature, and/or the presence of
fozen prccipuation nlott to est imate the surface rain rate.

Visible - Infrared Technique s

The earliest prccipnarion esumarion methods were based on

die assum pt ion that the hrig htncss o f refl ected sunlight in the
vsible and near-inf rared port ion o f the- spectrum fro m
doudsmigh t gi ve an indication of'their thickness and thu s of
tbcir likeli hoo d of bearing ra m. Un fortunately. nOI allbnght
douds produce- prec ipitation . Sirmla rty, the te mperature of
fie lop of douds was USl.-U to es timate prc-cipuauon. G cncr-

ally. the colde r the cloud top, the grea ter the likelihood of
precipuauon, Unforuuuucly, not all cold cl oud top s prod uce

prccipiunion. Neverthe less, some very use ful precipitation

csuuuuion k' l'h ni'll tl'S were de\ c lnp'..d based on visible and
in fra red d.ua, inc lcding I ) twice-dutly esuuuues o f ou tgo ing
Iongwavc rudiution from polar-orbiting infrared senso rs
onbonrd A\' I IRR to cs urnatc monthly rainfall. and 2 ) n
( ,O IS f'reclpil;llinll Inde x (( i l' l) bused on an an <ll ysis of
therm a l infr.ucd data, where pixel s W CR ' cla ssified as "rainil1g" atthe rare o f J rum hr' if the cloud- top tcmpcrmurc wns
<: 235 K. At one time. the 01' 1 wa s the standa rd c firnatological rain fall prod uct that provi ded a cttm.uc-scalc precipuation reco rd th roug hou t the tro pics and subrropics
A lgorithms have a lso been de veloped Ihlll mil i,e multiple
images o btained throu gh tim e to re line the rail' of ra in fa ll
estim ates.

Ac tive and Passive Mic rowave Techniques

A major milestone in satellite p recipitation -rar e estimatio n

wa s the <.1<.'\ efop mc nt o f mic rowave remot e se nsi ng ins trumc ms that respo nd in a more physically dilcr way 10 the
presence o f prccipuarion-size wat er and'or icc panicles

430

ell

Tropk...1 Rain fall

" l e;lsun'III ~'nl

\pn~R

Mission ('1'10 11\1)

12

IlII a:': l'r~

Remote Sensing of Water

tin "larch 9.1998

Aen

Gal

."rna
",,,

'"'
vid
am
Th

n
gl

",

Fig ure 12-16 ( )rhll'II .l a[,H;('lk~li"n Ctl\<:TOI!'C Il~ Ihe r [<'pl,il l Ram!,,11 ~ lc:\Sll[Cl1h:llt \ llssi "n l 'l R \1\\) M,,:ro W3\ C Imager ('I Mljon ~1Jld
'I. 1' 1'J ~ . :-Jll! icc lhal Ihe 35 0 Ilililk " f inc! in.u jon obtaius L,; '" " I ,'llIW :'gC "I' til", tropical and subtropical po nj " ns of lh ~ Eartl
..\ 11 intense frolltat sy stem is uvcr southern Hundn. A b o pl.:aw refer hI Color Pial," I ~-ha (WlIl tcS) ]\ASA <imlllJrJ TRWJ
(>I1i ..'c and J" l',lIl l"ati' "la l Space [1<;1d"l'llWlll Agency '

E
ir
rc

r,

c
.... ithin the clouds. althoug h rema ining inscnsi ti\c III 1101!"
precipitating clouds. Th e first Special Sensor \f icnlW3\ <:
Irnagcr( SS ~1. 1 1 \\11'0 launc hed in IlJx7 and included a highIrcq uency channel at l:'5.5 GI ll. Basil-a ll) . prccipnauon-sizc
ice partic k " and 1.:lrge ra mdrops ~ig:nific;lnlly red uce the
t"nlls~i\ ily ofthe cloud and thus depress it~ t-righlnl'l'lO remperat ure H~ below a no minal background Ic:\ ct. This allows a
rainfa ll es timate III he co mputed. T his se nso r could d isnngursh ra infall over land w ith reaso nable co n", i",ICrll') at 15 x
15 kill spatial resolution (A ll a~ c t al.. 20051. T he SS \l!1 has
provided wo rldwide prccipit.uion estimates since Il)X7,
~ illt!1c

mos t important ev ent in rainfall es timation (cspcfor tropical and subtropical reg ions 1 was the launch of
the Tro pic al Rainf all Mca -unn g "lis~ i,," (T R\ I""l 0 11
Novembe r ~7. 199 7, h) ~AS :\ and the National Space
Developmen t Agency (1\AS D:\l of Japa n tTR M\1 , 2IM "'I,
I bc satellue is in a ';50 kr n orbu ar an mchn.uion o f 35 ' .
T R\ l.\ ! carries five instrumen ts onboard: till" Precipitation
Rada r (I'Rt, the TR \ I~ 1 :\lic rowave Imager (T\l II, Visih le
Infrared Scanner ( \ ' IRS), Light ning Imag ing Sensor ( LISt
and the Clouds and Earth's Radia nt Energy System
Th e

cia t l~

{<.'FRES I.

The T R M\1 Mi.;rowu \e Imager lT~II ) is ,I passive rni..:mwnw ~c n snT dc signl'd to r rnvid c 'lu ant ita live rai ntitli inliJr
Illat io n nn th". illle gratl'd c" llIl11 n p r".~' ipi til ti l111 e\l nt ~ l1ll1\' CT a

4~7

mi ll' (il\O knu swath, 11 is re~t suited for rainfall estimates over oc eans wh..,n.' data are needed most for clirw
model verification. It lIlCasUR"S the inh: nsi ty ofraJiatiOl
li\ ..- frequencies: 10 ,7 t '; 5 km spatial rcso hnion I, 19.-', ~t.3
37, and x:".:" <1Hz I; km -paual resolurionj. II has dual pcUiza tion at fou r of the frell \l~ ne ies , The 10,7 G il l fn."t:!lJCl);\'
pro \ ides a mo re linear response for high rain fall rates ca.
mon III tropic al r'lInl;111. .-\ composite tmage Ill' alllh:
TI{ "' I ~f .\ l ieruwa \c lrnagcr orh ua l pa ths on Murch 9, 1m,
arc presented in Figure 12-16 and Cotor Pknc 12-6<1, \ ett
the intens e Iinc oftlumderstorrns nH'T southern Florida,
The TI~I\IM Prccipitmion Rada r II' R), the 1i""1 in space.
111.." l'li re" the thrcc-duncre.iona l ra infall distribution o'er
l\t'lh laml and oceans. It de fi nes tilt' layer dept h o f the precipuauon and provide s informat ion about the rain fall actual~

reaehmg the surface. .... hich i ~ used 10 dcrcrrn me the 121Clll

heat o f the atmosphe re IT R \. I ~ 1. 20061. Passiv e microwee
scusors ha l c diftku h) mea-c uring ra in ever land areas ldilcussed rn Lhaprer 'l }, .... berea- the scann ing radar npefal~
at I r.s Gl lll l l ll l provides accu rate prccipitanon data 01'0'
land at a spatia l reso lution of 4.3 km at nadi r and a S\l<ah
Width of220 krn. TR:I,l ~I Prec ipitat ion l{allllT data over Flor
ida obt aine d on March 'J. 19lJil is sho.... n as an ohli llue im:Jg(
in ( '" lnr Plate 12-hh and ;1, an alnng- lr:tck crn ss-sccticmm
('o l" r Plate 12-llc. T h... crll' ~ ~cl t i lln pro \'i(les 1I s ignifkJnl
;IIllOlJllI ofin li.mllalioll ,lbo u! clo ud he igh t ,IUd prl'cipita!ion

43 1

JemSOIS a nd C lo ud s

lJa et al. (2005) found tha t the T R ~ I M Prec ipitatio n

r estimates we re good agree me nt with g round-based
preci pitation meas urements , Alias er al. (2(05 ) found
precipitation esti mates from T R \I ~ 1 Preci pitat ion Radar
the Special Sensor M icro w ave Imager (SS \1 ' I) proexcellent rai nfa ll tn forrna non for use in hurricane
ysis and forec asting.
TR\t\1 Visi ble Infrared Scanner (VI I{S) pro v ides high
tion in forma tion o n cloud cove rage. type. and cl oudtemperatures. It is a five cha nnel cross-track scanning
mercr opcra ung at O.f.\ , Lb. 3.75. lO.lUl. and 12 u rn. It
ins ~. I km da ta at nadi r .... ith a s w ath wi dth of approxiy 720 km .
II: TRM~1

Lightning. Ima gin g Sensor f l iS) inventories the

incidence ofl ig htning using an optical remote sensi ng
em opt"rating at 0 .777 um uh a spa lial resofu uon 01'5 x
lm at nadir and a 590 km s at h \\ id rh. The Clouds and
h's Rad ia nt Energy System (CE RES) is a visihlc a nd
se nsor designed especially III measu re emiucd a nd
lectcd rad iative energy fro m the sur face of th c Ea rth. a nd
the atm osphere and its consutucms te.g. clouds. aero$1. It is a hroadhand sca nning radiomete r w ith a total
cl spec tral ra nge of 0 .3 50 m m.
~I M 's

uni que combmauon of senso r wa velength.... coverand resole ing capab ilit ies wuh its lo w-altitude. non-sync hronous orbi t provide mont hly precip itation
urns to a 50U x 500 kill grid (T R/l. I\ 1. 2(l()6). Unfon uely. a, can be se en in Figure 12- 16 . si nce the T R!\I/l.1 mis was mea nt to co ver tro pical latitudes. its 35 degree
tude lim it e m braces lill ie Il f Europe a nd nume ro us othe r
!I1POrtalll land areas in the Ncrthc m 1Icnusphcrc (Ga bcllu ct
.20(5).

an advanced , large apertu re. multic hanne l passi ve

mi cro wave ra in radio meter referred as the GP\ 1
.\1 icrowave Im ager 'G :\II).
This e tfort is prim ar ily a tuncuon of the Earth Observat ion
Summit (EO S, held in July . 2t1( U . in Washin gto n . ur ..
whe re more than thirty na tions mer to addr ess glo ba l cnviron mc ntal ami economic challenges. As a rc.... uh o ft he EOS
Summit. an ad hoc Group on Earth O h......rvanons .... as established to prepare a tell-year im plemen tation p lan for a coord inated, sustained Earth O bser vation System .
The G lobal Prcc ipita ncn ~ lca~u rellle ni m i~si()n .... ill hopefull y he launched in 2009 20 W . Tbc G M !"s sp atial rcsc !unon .... ill exc ec-d thai of lln~' current or p lanned micro ave
radi ometer, incl udi ng the nc.... Conica l-sca nning Mi cro ave
Imager-Sound er \C ,\ li S , radiometer being developed for the
:-.10.......... Pilla r Orbiter En \ u omn enta l Satellite S~slem
(:,\POESS) (Smith et al, 200l).

Aerosol s and Clouds

:-JASA Ea rth Science Enterprise scientists state that more

info rmat ion is needed on the fo llow ing variables if we are to
be able 10 model ami u nde rstan d the force, modifyi ng the
Earth ' s global climate S~'st L'l11 ( Ka hn, 199Q):
the amount and ty pe o f atmospheric partieiL's (llerosols).
incl ud ing those fo rmed by 1I011ure OI11d by huma n ac tiviti cs:
the amount. type. and height (.r elo lnk a nd
the distribution of lun d-s urfuc c co ve r. including ve geta tio n
cano py structure.

hrem utlonn l (;l uhall'n' l'iIJil ut illn M cnsurcmcnr ((;1'1\1 )

Pm ~ r~ 1l1

lin d

Aero sols

!' Ii ~~ i ll n

lm rovcd microwuvc-d crived rainfall datu will likel y

ecomc availa ble in thc fu ture. In particu lar, the proposed
~matiUl1<l 1 Globall'rccipinnion Mea... urcru ern tG P\1 ) mis~ cons isting o f a co ns tellunou o f eight or more satellites
Ny provide approximately three-h o ur sam p ling o f ra infall
boany gi\ en Earth coo rd in:lle appm'l irnat dy 90 pe n:e nt o f
~ time (S m ith c t al .. 2004; Atlas et al.. 2005 ). One of these
Iellites will be si m ilar to the T R/l.1M sa lellite. rel"errL'dto as
'it GPM Core sa ldli....., T he (i P\.1 Core will hav e ll\r its
min pa)10.1 d t\\O ra in-measuring insl n mle nts:
dual-frL'tj uenc y ( Ka.- Ku- band)
rrfem-d to as tho: DrR, and

' 3

pr..'Cipitat illn

radar

A eroso l part icles may be soli d or liqu id and rang e in size

fro m 0.0 I u r n to ... cv crel tens o f micrometers. Cigarette
sm oke particle s a rc in the mi dd le of this size range; typical
clo ud d rops are 10 or more mic rometers in diam eter. Aerosols lend tl) coni the surface bel l)w tho: rn ht:eau se most ;Ief()sols rellect Sunlight b;lCl lo spac t: reduc ing th... am uu nt o f
solar rad iatIOn that ca n hi.: :th...orhcd by th.... surl:1Ce be low
I Ka hn. IIN\) I. The lll11gnitude o f th is ... rreel depe nds o n the
size and cornpositi<ll1 o f IhL' aLfIlso1s. and Oil Ih,' rc n ecting
properties o f th~ un derlying su rface. Snln e h..- Iie\'e that the
cooli ng elli.'Ct d ue to i nLTea~ed amoun t!; of ao: m~o rs may
actually fLJ UlL or del ay some o f the ex pec ted warming due

432

10 inc reasc-, in the amoun t of atlTK.hph<:ric ca rbon dioxide.

Perha ps more smog is good! Others d isa gree .
A ltho ugh rem ote sensing aerosol ret rieval science has bee n
taking p lace for mor e than t.... cn ty years. um il recently I h l'1"C
was no method of obtaining inform ation on ncrosol amount
and d istri bution (called optica l dept h ) and pan icle propertie s
(Bojinski l ' t al.. 200~ ) . Th e EOS Terra Mu lti-angle Ima ging
Spcctr o k adio mcrcr ( ~ lIS R\ col lects such information using
four spectral hands (blue. gree n. red. and near-infrare d ) and
nine." look angles (refer to C ha pter 7 for a J<:IJ,i k J dcs criptio n]. Fo ur o f the linea r-array sensors look forwar d at an
ob lique angle (~ f, .I <>. 45./, ". I'll". and 70.5 ". respec tively).
one loo ks directly do.... n (nadir). and four look aft at the same
oblique angles. This provides multiple looks 3t exactly thc
same pan of the atmosphere [and the surface o f the Ea rth I.
allowing quantitative m formarion 10 be derived abou t aerosol location an d content ( Dine r ct al.. :m O; ). Aerosol characterisncs o fthe enure Earth may he ob tained eve ry nine days
Tang ct al. (:!OO5 ) reponed on the ex traction oi'ecrosol m for marion using Terra a nd Aqlla r<.t OD IS data. Boji ns ki et al.
j2 004 l provides II history Ill' aerosol map pm g and a ne w
aerosol retrie va l algorithm using hypcrspcc tra l dau.

Clouds

Ctouds playa major ro le in cont rolling the Eanh's climate.

xtorc than any oth er component of the climate syst em,
douds affect the Ilow of energy within the Earth's atmosphere. A cloud may warm or coo l the Earth . depending
upon its thickn ess an d height above the surface. Lllw. thick
clouds retlccr incom ing solar rad iat io n hack In space. which
ea uSl"S c\Mlli ng. High clouds lra p omg,)ing infm red radiation
and prod uce grecnho\lsl' ' Hu m ing. Oeo.: ause c1(' ud lype.
hei ghl, moislu re CO!ll.:'nl. and locat ion nrc s(\ var iahle . Ihl' ir
I:l1"ect o n glo ha l c1iIllallJ is \ cry dini cult Wllh:lISlln:. So me
bdieve that Ihl.' lal'gl.'sl ullccrt ainty in climatc prcd icl io n
mod el s is how 10 chnrac l~'ri;{e and par amelc rin ' the radi at ive
and physical propert i e~ of cluuds.

The lin-I metel-'rological satelliles (lnly measured \-isibk

cnergy n:fketcd from clouds (0.-1 - O.7IJm) CiOES ....nSOf<;
provide data in hn lh the visihle and lhl.TITlal infrared po rtion
of lhe spl."Ctrum. as summarized in Ch apler 7. In Ihe da)-li!;hl
hou rs, visi ble imagcry prov ides detailed vicws oflh~' c1nud
patterns Ihat clo~c1y mall'h our visual senses. i,e.. d ouds
usu:llly appear brigh l \\ hite l:tnd a nd wa leI' appear darker on
Ik illlnge,. C o nsi d~'r lypica l v isihlc imago:s of h('lh tIll' \n ' slI:rrl and eaSlern Un iled Slill...s o bta ined hy (iOES-l-:ast and

C11W1TR

12

Remot e Sen s ing 01Water

liOl~-Wesllln

Apr il 17. 1'1"~ (Figure 12-1 7a.b).I\<*

large low -pressure frontal system upproachmg Wash _
slate from the Bny o fAl:hka . T here is also a significanr
pressure system located along the Eastern Seahoanllllll
throughout the southeast. GOES was first laun ched (11\ Oc
ber Ih, 1'-175. Since that rime many new GO ES salelhlll
have been par ked (I I 35,790 kill in go.:ust;lli(.rhlry orbit~
obnnn visible and infrurcd imagery. They nrc used 10 mM
lor fronta l systems. inte nse thunde rstorm activity a~so.:isce
with tornadoes. a nd hurrica nes.
FUWpl' has a system similar 10 GO I-'S. called METEOi~
\ lET I.OS:\T 4 is a geostationary me teoro logical sal
located 31 O' of latitude and long itude. It contin
ob<.('f\cS the vv hole I'arth disk. The images gathered
to. IE1TOS AT in three channcls-c-visiblc to.4
1.14
thermal in fra red ( 105 1:!5 IJ.m)and w mer vapor(5.1 - umj-c-nrc transmuted .:\ery )0 min . T ho: METF.os,\T
irnagcs avai lable in hig h resolu tion mode have 5000)(500'
pixels lo r the visible channel and 2500 X 251)() pads fOlmt
infrared anti water vapor cha nnels rAmeur cl al., 2tlO4l.
"'l ost remote sc nsi11g systems ,1pCral ing in Ihe visible [l(1niali
of the spectrum can only collect data d uring the da}time.
How ever. a lig hH .ens it ivc instrument onboard the DefelL'l:
Mcl l'tlwlog ical Satellite Program (D MS P) ca n obtain visible
imaj!l's <I I nighl. I"his IS done by reco rd ing the features iIunuuatcd at niglu b~' moonlight.
In general, clouds do nill reflect solar radianon equally
in all directions. Therefore. a sin~ 1c measu rement of n:l1.
tiviry from a single direction (e.g.. 31 nad ir ) makes II diffiai
In detcrmme the nual amount of light re flected by lbec
Iils "Ih,'du) rd alivc to lhe ino.:ido.: nt energy. Ono.: soluti{l\llSll
(,hta in mu ltiple inwges ill' a cloud from d ilt"e renl van13!""
plllllls, T his illlrodlll.'~s slo.:rcOsc(\pic pitfalla,. The EOS
1('1""<1 ~lI SR co ll..,,ts stercoscop ic dO lld illromlation b)
\ in \ ing cill"h clou d fro m nine :mgles pn:viotlsly discussed
Tht' stereosc,' pie dal a e:m he an alyzed 10 yield thrce--dirnt:\lsillllal 4ualllitall\ e i nl~'mlJ.tioJl 3bou l cloud height. s1.rucIlJ~
thid. lll'SS. shape. and roughness of cloud IOPS_ ,\ lXlif3It
alhedo inlonn:ll il)ll can a lso t"C computed.
Cloud s in T hl.'rm 91 Infra rt'd

Im a ~ ('ry

The nlllsi l.'OmlnUIl lhernlal infrnn.-d band used in mcleorolugkal investigations is 10 - 12.5 jJm. The atmo~pht-re1S
rd,lt i,cl) lran,:.pa renl III thiS .... avC' k ngl h <.'Tlergy UP\\tIlill!
fwrn lhe Earth's su rfao.:c and dOI.lJs. ,\IS Il. thennal iofnrd
imag"s o.:an be oht:Jined al n ighl. so we can have a conunuOl!S
24-h r n:c l,rd nf c loud Pilltcill s Ihat incl ud<.'s importa nt lllt'k(lrolngio.: a l c,enls lakin!! plao.:c al nigh l.

Aero !

sols and Clouds

"

433

GOES-Wes t and

CO ES-Ea~t

Images

Figure 12 1 7

a. GO ES-West visible.

b. GOES-East visible .

e. GOE S- West thermal infrared.

d. GO ESEa~t thermal infrared.

c. GO ES-West wate r vapor.

f. GOES East water vapor.

E".Hll P Ic~ IIf GOlS-L!"t and

GO[S- Wesl irnal,:cs o f'thc Unncd States and p ortions of' Ccmra t America ootam c..1on Ap ril 17.

I Ql/N ( L.ltlr1 ~y ..... OAA)

( ' H A P n :1{

434

Col d

.::.)nh-..:tiV':'~'~':O:"d:':,,:~~;::)
m iddle -lev el
clouds or
m idd le-leve l
conv ectivc clouds

10\\ cumuli form

clouds

land

Warm

.....- - -- - - - -Bri~gh t

Om

Vh ibk

Rem o te Sensing of Wa ter

red ba nds.joc atcs it in the diagra m. and idcmiflcs thcnabtt:

o f the clou d under investigation.

lOps of la rge

semi-transparent
high ck.uu!>

12

Figu re 12 18 II is po~sillie 10 determ ine cloud type based on multispectral measurements in the visj blc and thermal
infrared portion o f the electromagnet ic spectrum
(a ficrOo:sboisctal..1911 2).

In satell ite meteorology. infrared images arc normally

inverted. i.c. tl lC gtcarc r the radiance of a pixel, the darke r
the pi xel. Th is way. clo uds. whic h are usually co lder tha n th e
surface o r the Earth. appe ar while . an d the wann er grou nd or
ocean surfaces appear darker than cloud s, as in visible
image s. T hermal infrared GOES-west an d loD ES-east
images o f tile Uni ted Stales ,HI: show n in Figure 12 17c.d. II
is easier 10 ilklltify the edge of frontal systems us ing the
therm al in frared imag ery. Also , the [and-w ater boundaries
arc more distin ct .
It has been known for so me t ime that it is possible to extract
information on the type of clouds and thei r he ight using multispcctra l re mote sens ing. One ofthe earliest relation ship s is
demo nstrated in Fig ure 12- I K where visible and infrared
data can be used to differentiate be twe en the sea. land,
cumulifcrm clo uds. se mitransparent h igh clouds. and co nvec tive clouds ( like th understorrns t. Tall co nvec tive cu mulo nimbus clou ds arc co ld und bright. The sea and lan d
surface are warm an d dark ( Dcsbois cr al.. 19lC). Th e analyst extrac ts the pixel value in the v isib le and therm al infra -

N umerous scientists have aucmptcd h) detect the presence

cloud s usi ng a the rmal infra red clou d tem perature thresMl
value. The goal is to identify low-temperature pixels till
co rrespo nd to medium- or high-alt itude clo uds. The Il\3!I
prohlem is usua lly the s~'Citkation o f the exact lernpeTlllr.
thr esho ld v alue. For e xam ple, Franca and C racknell (1995
deve loped the different cloud-detection algori thms btiej
o n visible and infra red spectra l in form ation us ing \OU
A\' ~IRR daytime data for tropical areas. Fcidas ct al. (2
developed a clou d classificati on scheme .... here thick op3lpiiI
convecti ve douds correspond III classes .... ith the kMtf
brig.htne~~ temperatures (Th) in both the thermal infurel
[below 223 K) and water vapor band ( bel ow 223 K). Frida
and Carralis (20115) buill upon thic wo rk and devetoped a
au tomatic a lgorith m for uackin g convecnv c cloud cells.Te
Sur",alb-" Diff':,.,:ncl' Snow tndex (NDSI) d iscu ssed in tit:
Snow section of Ihis chapter can also he used to identIi\
clo uds U~ illg se nsors thai con ta in a \ isible and mid-infrared
ba nd Ic.g .. Land sat TM ba nds 2 and 5) ( Hall ct al.. 1995
Choi and Bmdschadler, 20(111.
Cl oud- height informat ion ext racted from the rma l infmtd
data ca n be use d to gene rate pse udo ihree-dirnenscrsl
ob lique images o f major storm events. For example. tile
:\VII RR visible and in frared images in Fig ure 12 1cab capture Hu rricane Andre w moving toward Louisiana in 1'2.1n
these cxurnplcs. the v isib le (band I; 0.58 - 0.68 ~ m ) aM
ncar- infra red images (hand 2; 0.725 - I. 10 Ilm) arc draped
ov er the cloud -he ight information de rived from themW
infrared data (band 5; 11.5 - 12.5 1l 111)_
The TRM1\1 Visible Infra red Scann er ( VIRS) launched in
[997 provi des infur murion o n c loud ty pe and cloud -top tl'1ll'
pcraturcs using a five channe l cros s-track sc anning radiometer. The terra 1\1 IS H. se nso r co llects Infor mation in only the
vis ible an d ncur-ln frarcd portions u f the spcc uum. while the
Terra Clou ds and Eart h's Radi an t Ene rgy Sys tem (CER ES)
sensor co llects data from Just one look angle. hut across !he
entire sola r spec trum. C ER ES meas ures both sola r-reflected
and gart h-em itted radi ation from the top of the ntmosphere
to the surface. It a lso dcremunes cloud properties i ndudlll~
amount. heig ht. thick ness. an d particle size. Thus , the \'IRS.
MISR , and CE RES instn nncnts co mplement o ne anotherin
the collection o f clou d info rmation. MO DIS obta ins cloudtop info rmatio n frum bauds 33 - 36 in the thermal infrared
regi on from 13.1 loiS - 14 .3K5 urn .

w.

~ate r

435

Vapor

AV IIRR I mager)' ur Hu r ri cane A ndrew un A ugust 25. 1992

,.

a , Visihle band 1 (O.5R - O.6R j.1ml.

b. Ncar- infrared hand 2 (o.ns . I. III um).

Fgure 12 19 :11A\ 'HRR " lsi!'> le band I (0-:")0( - O.b!!J.1m ) IlTI3gCf)' oll-lurricant' Andrew bearing do.. n on I .("'ll ~iana obtained on A U~'11st ~ 5.
1'I"I:!. Oil ~n: 2 0 UT. I hl.. epparcr u height of the pcl'l;fll.."'I:li\'c r"'rnk rllljo: is il1\cr.ocly f'TupUrtl\,n,,1II' 1m: cloud te mperatures obsesv cd in baud 5 ( 115 1:!.5 j.lm). OI I\\"HRR band:! 10. T!5 - I. III j.1 m ) ncar-mfrarcd data (courtesy ofF lIa'-lcr. K Palaniappan. M . MiUl~'ln and II. I'lcr.:.:. :'>I..\ SA (j"ddard Space ~ li ~h l Cemcrr

Water Vap or

\\aler vapor is esse nnalfo r precipn auon. 1\'ut on ly i ~ wa te r

vapor the most important gre enhouse gas in the at mosphere
(Chylek er al.. ::!O(J()4 1. but thi s varia ble also plays a key role
ft1l' the undcrste nd mg and predic tion o f mo~t important
weather pro eess c,s Imm convection. to the fo rrnauon of
cloud. and precipitation . 10 the formation of severe storms
IWul fmey\.'r ct al., 2()()5). 11 is possible 10 map wa ter vapo r
b}' sens ing in water-vapor ubsorpuon han ds. Several wavelengths can he used. hUI on e o fthe most common is centered
around 6 .7 u rn . I\ILTEOSr\T I , launched in I ll7!'i by the
Eu ropean Sp ace Agency, was the first gcostutiormry satellite
to obtai n images of mid - III upp er-troposphere w ate r vapor in
the 6.7 J.1m regi on in ukluicuto visible a nd 10 - 12 Jim infrared images. ~ IET EOSAT 4 collects wutcr vapor information
inthe spectra l region fro m 5.1 - 7. 1 um (Amour et al.. 2iIl 14).

GOES sensors routine ly provide w.ucr-vapor images

obtained in the 1:>.71J11\ region . A t this wavelength. most o f
the- radiation sensed by the surcltitc comes from the atmospheric laye r betwee n 300 and (,I)(} kill. i.c . from the m iddle
layers 0 1" th e tro pos phere. h gures 12-1 7e .f de pict watervapor images of the western ami eastern Uni ted States. Note
the tremendous amoun t (If water vapor in th.., a pproa ch ing
storm in the western Un ited Sla tes and the departing storm in
the eas tern U ni ted Stares. A bo note the lad: of ...aicr vapor
on this particular date around Hawaii a nd in the lower pur-

t io n or the (iulf {If \1.:\;co ncar Coz umc l, vtcxfco . The

wea ther was very co mfortable on th is dayin these area s. Th e
rela tive humidity is likely to he higher in brightareas than in
dar k areas on a water-vapor image . Bright and d ark areas
may also indicatc rising an d sink ing motions. respectively.

It is ab o possible to e.\lm.:l water \upo r information in the

ncar-infrared portion of tile spectrum whic h has seve ral fenrurcs that ma ke It anmctive for remote water \'aror retr ieva l.
It I;. a reg io n where the so lar rad iation is still q uite strong:
and the re nrc spectral bands wit hin the nca r-infrared whe re
int er fer ence from other armnsnhcric gases is we ak. wuhin
the wav elength spau from ,lbol1t X9(J to (NO 11111 the re arc
th ree maj or wurcr vap or uhsorptiun hand s: a strong absorption han d centered ncar l)42 nm a nd wea ker absorption
hand, centered around l)(jll and ')77 um IChyle k ct a I.. ::!OO-t).
\-IODI S has several bands that arc sensitive to atmospher ic
water \'apn r in these rl'gin ns, includ ing hand 17 (890 - 920
nm j, I ~ (9.'1 - 94 1 unu. and 19 \ 9 15
965 nmj. In the
future . the European Span' Agency ll1i.1) launch the Water
Vapo ur l. idar Ex pcnmcm in Span' ( WA I. ES I using a di ffere miul abs orption Lida r twulfmc ycr ct <II., ~OO5l.

Snow

Snow runo ff can be both beneficial an d d isastrous. Spring:

runoff is the lili..blood tor most ag ricu ltura l activ ities in

12

( 'H M ' n :N.

436

semiarid cl imate s and pro... ides muc h of the po table drinking

wa ter (in ad d ition In gro undwa ter ]. Unfortunately, a rremendous bu ildup n f snl'.... or an unt imely thaw can cause sev ere
flooding and c on ~c4UCn l l ) II.I~s of life and prope rty Therefore. mc rcorologisrs. hydrologists. an d g lac iologists \\ork to
identi fy l ] the geographic extent of the snowpack O il a "1:.1son al basis. and ~ l il!> water equivalent.

Rem ote Se ns ing of Water

ThO"
retries

Rt,nt'chl lin ' Ill' e lllud .. anti Snu"

SIl

Water

_._.,._-......

Deper

snow
.... ater
transl
mapp

\'.'

regio

2005
\SA 1
discr
and ,

Snow in the Visible Spectrum

When clo uds arc no t prese nt in a , i" lble and/or near-infrared

image. il is a relati vel y st raightforw ard tas k to identify the:
spatial dismbunon of snow becausc' it is generally much
brig hte r than the \ egetauon....)il, or water nearby that is not
cov ered wi th snow. A ls-o. one of the major diagnost ic clu es
that can he used 10 d istingu ish het" cell c louds and sno ....' is 10
obt ain numemuv unages of the terrain in a relali\ d y short
time period using AVIIRR or GOES data. Clouds mov e
snow does not .

Snow

men

~ "a

1J.!'"'r-i";-, r r nn, -T, r r r;rl'-rT-l"1

U.4

U,7

I II

15

2_0

15

Wave length, lIm

or

Figure 12-20 R...Ilectance o:I"lJd~ and ~n,," In the ...aH~I.

internl 0.4 1<1 :!.5 11m (alicr AvC1)' and Bmia.

'"'
extr.
gen.

exre
p4 n

m'l

Snow in fhe Middle-Infrared and M icrowave Regions

Hc wcvcr. if one can only' obt ain a si ngle image of the terrain
and it contains both clouds and snow, the n it is possible 10
utilize the middle-infrared portion of the spec trum to d iffer en tiate oct .... een snow and clo ud cover. Th e reaso n is made
dea r in Figu re 12-2 0. Th roughout the visible a nd ncar -in frared portions of the spe ctrum. d o uds and sn ow reflect
appro ximately equa l amounts of radiant l1u.'< .ln the middleinfra red po rtio n (If the spect rum tcspcc ially 1.5 - 2.5 pm)
clouds continue 10 reflect It subslanlial a mo unt o f en ergy,
whi le sno w rc tl ccurucc d rop s 10 near J:eruil lal1 ct al., J()95;
Choi and Hindschndlc r. 20( 4 ). T his relationship was first
documented by Sky lab sensors operat ing in the region 1,55
- 1,75 um. In this ba nd, clo uds ha ve a ver y high reflectance
and appear w hile in the imagery. whi le the sno.... has a very
low re flect ance lind appear s black . Th us, the Land sat T hema tic Mapper hand 5 ( 1.55 1.75 Illll) and the SPO T 4 senso r with its middle-infrared band ca n be used to discrirninn re
be twee n clou ds and snml co ver, T he de crease in re fl ectance
of snow from SO - 90 percent at wuvclc ngths < 1 u rn to < 10
perce nt at approximately
um i ~ ex traordinary when compared with the re flec tance cha racte ristics of other Earth su rfac e mater ia ls. Based on these relatio nships. lIa ll et ;)1.
( IQ(5) de veloped the /' /11/(1,(1/ Tvt Normafi:etl f)/j!<'n.'nce
SI/OM I", I/lx ( t\ DS I, h.IWll n n ba nd 2 and band 5 dala:

t.s

Land sat H I :-a>SI

( [.\12

T~ t5)

( H f ~ ' T M5)

(1 2-7)

A thn:s ho ld appli ed 10 the NIlSI image is used to separ.ll~

cloud pixels from non-cloud {snow 1 pi_\c1!>. The automate
cloud cover assess ment a lgo rithm (ACTA ) developed ~
Irish ( .:!:II/10 ) used 0 .7 as the th re..hold value (C hoi and Bindschadler. .20041. However, the optimu m threshold can val)
from one 1'\ DSI-derin'tl image 10 anot her,

MO lllS data na ve been used 10 prod uce global MtO.... -c OI I:f

map prod ucts s ince Septe mber 13, 2000 at 500 x 500 m resohnron (Dozier and Painter, .2fMI4 ). The automated MODIS
sno w-map ping algorithm uses at- satell ite rcflectances in
MODI S band s 4 (0.545 0.565 p m ) and (, ( 1.62S - 1.1>52
u rn} I II calc ula te the l/o n lS Norlll l/ {i:t'd IJ(lkl't'l1ce Sm)),
Index ( i la ll 1.'1 ul., .2002 : Saknuonson and A ppel. 2( 04):

Su
SO l

tiv
10<
do

p<

10

til

d.
I,

re
c:

o
r-. fODI S NDSI ( r-.10 lJ IS 4 - "-10D IS 6 ) .
( "-10 n lS ~ + \ lO[)JS 6)

(12.8\

II

"c
A pixel in a non -dense ly forested reg ion w ill be mapped as
snow ifl ho.: \-IOmS N I)S I ' s e 0.4 and re flectance in "-IDOlS
han d 1 is ::: l l~ ; " How eve r, if thc MOD IS band 4 refl ectance
is < 10 .., then the pixel will nor be mapped as sno w 1.'\1.'0 if
the lither criteria ar e met [ Hal l ct ul., 20(2 ), This prevents
pixels co nta ining very dark targets such as black spruce forests fro m bein g map ped as snow. Sa l(lm<mson and Appel
(20 t141 repllrt ed lhat the rclatillllsh ip oc lwecn fractional
snow eo'er and r.IO DIS I'DS I is rea sonably rob ust when
applied loca lly an d o ver large areas like :"o n h Aml"rica
Zho u l.'l al. (2 005 1 round MO DIS MIO\\-eOVl.'r prod ucts 10 Ix
o f val ue for mode ling slrea mt1o.... .

Qua lity Modeling

aicrowave region of the spectrum offer, promise for

'ing importaru 500.... information (Foster et .11.. 2(MI5).
ding upo n the .... avele ngth, estimates of the depth,
.... atcr equivalent. and the amoum/prescnce of liqu id
in the snow pack arc possible. In addition, clou ds are
sparent to ma ny of the mic rowave frequencie s so tha t
ing of the snow are a and pro perties is possible even in
re s " here clouds arc co mmo n and at nigh t (Foste r et al..
5). AircrllH and SP;lCCShun lc Synthetic Aperture Radur
RI measure ments hav e show" that SA R can he used to
minatc betwe en snow :111d glaciers and between WL' I
dr) xnu.... (Shi et al.. 1'N..f). Derk sen cl at. (20U5) docuhow data from the passive microwave Special Senuicro....ave-Imager (55 \ 1/1) .... ...ore use d 10 successfully
snow .... ater equivalent unormauon over Canada, In
I. optical remote sensing used 10 map snow areal
(S:\E) has milch higher spatial resolut ion when com.... ith micro.... ave remote M'nsing w hich ca n be used to
sno w water eq uivalent (SWEl [Zhou et .11.. ::!OO5).
Water Quality Modeling

and county agenci es arc req uired to red uce point

e discharges to sur face wa ters. Po int sources arc rela ~ ea~y 10 control and regulate because of their kno.... n
n. A phenomenon more common and mon.. difficult to
is 1/''''poIIII source pol/llti"" I ~PS). t<\ ps is defined as
ion originaling fro m urban runoff. construction, hydromodificauon. sil viculturc, mining. agncuhurc. urigareturn 110 w s. solid-waste disposal. atmospheric
snion. stream ban k erosion. a nd sewage disposal.
Is o f " PS include dccr":'lscd recreatio na l wate r usc;
..nion of wa ter sto rage capacity in st rea ms. lakes and
uaries: clogging of drainage ditches and irrigation ca na ls;
rcssivc en richment and scdhn cnt auon of surface \\.-atL'rs
,on trihutl' tn Ihe loss o f fis h. shcllthh and w ild life hahand a reduct ion in the aest hct ic qua litics o f thc ;u..j u:tti\
ironment (C(,rbill. 1990).
itiollill i/l sim me asurt'mt'nl tech niquL"S ha l e had a limdTn't on identifying and mt1dcling no npui nl '>C.'uree po lScic11li~t... !la\ e found tha t an Illt...g
. ratlon of ill Jim an d
e "<:nsing data eolk-ction .... ith GIS modding t<.'Chcan provide some \ef) u!i.cful .... ate r-ljua lily infonnaIn fact. remote ~nsing dal a col h:ction comhmed wilh
- mudding (,ITen; 3 mea ns of ide11lifying and ranking
Ws pOlcnt ial in su rl"a":L' wat ers with o utput that is relat ively
) for the general pu hlic to understa nd. Se hu hl ( I'IXXI
vidcs e >.ample s nflw w ren wtc! y sc ns.;d biophysic al \ari-

43 7

ables such as slope. S<.lils and land-cover cbaractcrisucs can

be used as il1pul to hydrolog ica l models.

An Integrated Remote Sensing and GIS WaterOuality

Model

T his brief ca se stud y evaluates water-qua lity deg rad ation

and iurpucts from urba n runoff with in the Withers Swash
water shed in Myrt le Beach . Sc. Wither s Swash is an urha nized wate rshed (.~ ..f% impervious ) that coven; app m xi mntely
-i.2 mi ~ and includes ind ustria l. resident ia l. commercial,
ugricukural, recreational. and undevel oped land uses. Th e
.... atersbed i ~ d ivided into IWO ""uhbasins (Figure 122Ial.
\\ hich drain into a tidal pool designed to capt ure sediment
before emptying imo the Arlnntic Ocean. A study was conducted using remotely' ..enced data 10 deriv e land -cov er
information which was then integrated .... uh other spatial
information such as hyd roll' gy. topography, and soil da ta ,
into a (i IS database. The data .... ere then analyzed using the
A:~rh'/I!t/lr"II\'oIlPoiIlJ Source (t\ GN I'S I pollution mud d to
g ...ncr.nc wate r-quality predic tinns ( USDA . I99X; Sc hill and
Jen sen . 1'1'11'),
The ,.\(j ~ I' S wa ter-qu ality mode l USL'S e ight d irecnonaltlow
attributes determined hy tlllltigra phy and channel charac te risti.:!> to route storm .... arcr th roughou t the wa tershe d to a si ngle outlet cell i Cronshcy and Theurer, 199 8 ). A pp roximate ly
one third of the mod el input parameters are derived from
tupugraphy (figure L!-l l b ). These parameters include tcrra in sl"pe. the Universal Soil Loss Equation (liSLE) slope
leng lh. and ~ Inpe shape . Soil annbute, incl ud ing erod ability
(US U : K I;v.: tor) and te xture. were ver ified through field
sa mpling and sicvc t csts ( Figure 12-2 1c). Lan d-co ver informar ion .... :IS deri ved fro m 1:11l,(ltll)-sca k ector-infrared
aerial ph\llogm phy anti from r\ AS A' s Air borne Terrestrial
Appli \atiolls Sl'I1S0r (l\T t./vS ) J )( 3 m multispectral data
(Figure 12-2 Id j. From lht'se land -co \'er alt nhuh:s. the SCS
curve num ber (ass igncd by sui l hy dru l\,gic g.rtIU p) . Mann ing
rou ghness coeflicient. US LE C (croppi ng ) and !' (pract ice)
fal' tnrs. so il L-(llldition nlllstant. a nJ ch<.'m ieal \l.\ygen
dema nd ICOD I .... <.'r<.' de rived based on loo kup tabk s in
Young ct a i, (l9tI-t).
Belo re e\L'\:ulin g Ihe mOOcl. all sPJ.lial dala wcre ass ignt.-d 10
a 30 )( 30 m cell (0.2 )( 0.2 ac re) lo r eac h o f the: 1....0 subb;lsins. A single stoml e\ ent ....as si mulal t'd us ing Ihe tiJl lu.... ing paral11<:lers; stonn enef!:)' inlens ily (r ractor ) o f 1)5.39.
sturm du ral ion of2..f hours. tllt;ll slOn n ra infa ll eq ual to 2 .t1 R
in.. am i ra inta lt nitrogen COlll'cntnl tillns of O. Sll pp m. An
l'x a111pk u l" two lIlodd output pur3mLters incluJ.: COl1eel1tratl' d Pl':lk !low in nJ p<.'r -,;c\.,nd (cfs) (Fi gure 12-2 1c) und

438

C H.. \ "T ~:H

12

Remote Sens ing 01 Water

Rete

tct a'
resu

Xon pclnt So urce Pollu tion Mo tlcl in:,::

usc,

, nd
ua r
h'"
oth
~p

L'
RJ

c Pea k now (chI

o o. o n ~
o u ~ .n l ~
() 1 ~ -02~

\U5 -o :\(1

r ('e ll emSIon
I (U II>

per ""'1'1: )

d. Land cover den,ell fronl remcic SC I1,'<,(lr 0:111;1

Fig u re 12 -21 :"ollpoilll source pull uliull mod eling using Illc Agri cu ltural ~"nPtli ll! Sou rce (AGNPS l pclluuon water-q uality nlOl.kl :tpplifl!
In two ~lI h.lla~i ns. at H)d rolog) ot'the Withl."l1' Sw ash waters h..-d in M) n le Beach. SC \1 oo t'ling was OOSl"d on 30 >< ., 0 mctUI
and a !.IlX in. ra il' ill 1 -4 huurs. bl Topography was Jcri n~J photogra mmctrjcully and U5'"U 10 cvrrac t slope inform ation. cjSoil
d.na " con: ,;.;,mrletl in the field. dl Land cover charack"Oslicl> were derived from I O<l. lys'i o f aenal photogra plTy and .-\TL~
muluspeciral sc anner data . 1." 1 \ 1odd ..'l.l concentrated peak 110w in It \ p'..r S<."\:o,llI. l) ~ lodc l cJ tut al cell ...rosion in tons per u
(Schill and Jcn ......"Tl. 1''')1\)

439

Ilferenc es

111 cell erosion in tons per ac re IFigu re 12-2 10. Mod el

::lulls have been compared with ill J im measurements and

ltd 10 locat e areas of increased sediment and nutr ient loss

ill to ind icate the spatial extent o f nutrie nt and sediment

Choi, II . a nd R. Hindschadlcr, 20U4, "Cloud Detec tion in La nd sal Imag ery of le e Sheers usi ng Shad"" Millc hingl cchniq uc
and A utomatic No rmalized Diffe renc e Sno w Inde x Thre shold
Value," R<'nw l<" S..".i"K o/f."m'''''mm",,', ~ I :237 ~2"2

espon. depo sit ion and accumulat ion. Th is in fo rmat ion

been used 10 spa tially alloca te vegetated bu ffer stri ~ and
~I manag ement pra ctices (ll\1Ps). Kin g ct al (200 5)
eon on the use o f re mo te sens mg land -usc input s from
..dsar T i\! data a nd surface ro ughness inp uts from
!ADARSAT 10 the ST REA M run off and erosion model.

ter

Dar ec ki, M. and u. Strams ki. 20ll4, " An Eva luation o f MOD IS
an d Sea WirS Bi, '-u plica l Algorithms in lhe Balli c Sea: ' R<,

Refere nces

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."w,.,,,,f

~5(2 1

3 50.

Dcs bcis. M .. G. Sc ac and G. Szcjwacb. l ~ g2, "A utoma tic Class ilicalion of Clo uds on \1 ET f ()S AT Satellite Image ry : Ap plicali"n~ to Hig h-le ve1 Clouds." J"..rn / o/Al'pfi,'J Jft'lt:oro {,,XI'. 1 1:4 0 1--4 [ 2.

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ulas. R., Hou . A. Y, lind O . Kea le, 200 5. " App lica tion o f Sell'
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\ lIa lysis and Forecasting," IS I'RS Journal oj Phm0i!mmme,& RI'm"f.. Se"'InI(.. 5'1:233-243.
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dillG, C, E.. Bowcts.D. ( L and E, U Mitchelson-Jacob, 211U5,

"Estimating Suspended Sed iment Foncentrauon s from Ocean
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lIIg

Chy le" . P.. Clodi us. W. B " Bender. S. C.. Atki ns. W. H. a nd L.
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of Ennronmeltf. 94 :37 3- 3K3.

jinski. S.. Schlapfer. 0 .. Schaepman. M.. Keller, J. and K. Itlen, lUO" , "Aerosol Mappin g o ver La nd with Ima ging Spec lIUS~'UP)' usin g S pccua l A 1I1 ()~' urrc 1<11 inll," In/ f. J"",."" I of R,',
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Din e r. 1>. J.. Ma rtonc hik, J. V.. Killin, R. A .. Pinty, B.. Gobron.
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A"""a I

Dox aran, D" fru idd o od. J. \ 1.. La vender, S . and P. Cas tai ng .
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$,

.,
m

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22:2 0- .\/"

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,len,en. J . R., Kjcr fvc, B. K., Ra mse') Ill. E. W., Magill, K, Fo.
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mem. 2X:.\ 3--44 .

Guen ther . (j. C.. Cunnin gha m , A. G . La koc que. I' . E. and D. J.
Reid. 2000. "Meetingthe Accu racy Cha lleng e in Airborne L1 [HR Bathymetry." "'.'ARSEI. "l'n w"",lill g.1 '~l,h,' LJDAR
IJi,rk, h"p.l )re....fcn . Junc 10-1 7, 1: 1- 2 7,

Kah n. R ., Iqq,!. G.-na ,,! 11I/"II,IIl<"l"' '' t il .HISH. Pasadena,

t\AS.-\ JP1.. hllp :/lw ww -mi sr.jp l.na sa .g o\ imi inlr o,hlml.

us u. n K. Riggs. C; A. and V, V. Sal"ml,nso n. I'N5 . -nevet.

opme nt o f Method s for ~ a r p ing (jlohal Snow Cover u ~i n g
Modcra re Reso lution Imag ing Spect rometer Oala:' H.-",u l l!
.li,.m ing of E""; ",,,,,,...,,. 54 : 127 14(1

Re fe

Ka r.iska. M. /\., Hu gueni n. R. L.. Beac ham . J. L.. Wang, \1.,

Jen sen , J R. and R. S. l.a urm a nn, :!:1l0 .j. nAVINIS Measureme ms ,,' Chlu rophyll, Suspen ded \-tlllerai s. Di~,,,h'cd Organic Carbon. and Turbidity in lhe Ne use River. ~C.W Ph",...
g,."mm,'/rll ' EIJgm ,.'r;nl: & R"""",' S,'milrg. 711f I) :125-133.

44 1

"elerence s

King, c., Lecomte. v., Bissonnais. Y. L.. Gag hda di. :-I.,
Secchc rc, V. and 0 Ccr dan, .2005. "R e mote -sens ing Da ta 35
an .'\ ltc m 3tiH' lnl"ut for the ST RF A M Runoff \1odel: ' Cat(' -

110. (>.2 :1.25- 135.

Morel. A, a nd D. Antoine. 1000, I'j~">t'l11 ",da R.'/ri" ",, 1 ill

ew.. I " ' lfer. ~ IER IS Algor ith m Tbeoreucal Basi ~ Documem A I HIl 2 . "'. p. 25. hllp:1 en vivat.esa.intrmstrumcrus/meris. pd f atbd _1 _(N . pd f.

tOllgsbcq; , l OllS. F. .\11:11 \I" ltjhe'lm Ec ho SOl"',}"", Ho rte n.

'lOf>l.ay: "'"n gs her~ , l ne . , hllp ;II\\ \\\\ ,l.nugs b<rg.culO.

M umby, P. J. E. P. Green. A. J. Edwa rds lind C. D. Cl ar k. 1<)9 7,

"C.. tal Reef Habua t-m..ppmg : Hu w Much De tail ca n Remo te
Se nsing Pro vide?" \tarim>HinluK.... 1311: 1<).' -202.

{roger, S. and R. J law, 1(11)5. "Sens ing lhe Sea ," Tn'n, /.'
81OIcchnoflJ/{l. 13 15 1;2 5tl-2 50.

\1 l1~ t.ard. J . F. Staid, \ 1. 1. a nd \\i. J. Fri pp, ~OOI. " A sc mianalyt-

j"

tncn. \'. Frordefond . 1. \ 1.. l.a het F. and P. Casta ing. 1/102,
""'>POT Sha llo \\ w erer Ua lh) metr) o f A \h>tlcrald y Turb id
Tidal Inlet Ba se d o u ricld Mcasu rcme nrs," R,mOl.' .~mjng

vr

ical Approac h to the Cahbranon of AVIRIS Data to Reflecta nce Ov er wa ter :\ prl icalion in a Terllpcr ate Est uary," H.:mut~' S<!mi" x

"r ""/"''' ''' <:111, 75 :33S - 34Q.

",.i" ",m, tI/, 1I 1; 1.\0- 14 1\ ,

legleuer. C. 1. diU.! D. A . Roberts . 1005 . - Effec ts of Chan nel
\lorpholog) and Sensor :-. ratial It.;,s o hu i,.n on Ima ge-derive d
Depth Esum ares." R"""" .: s.mlllg (If Environment. '>1 5 ;2) 1147,

NOA,' csc, 1/ll)(>. SinK'" H,'"", Smwr. Ch arleston: 1'0AA

Coastal Sef\h;-cs Cc nlt'r, www.csc .noaa.g ov 'crs rs_appp~
sensors. single _lxa m. hlm.
:'ol O 4, .~ ()m <:c of ( ">ii.;t Survc y. 20111>. S/d...Scan untl .\Iltfltb.!um

lq k iter, C. J. g o bcrts. D. A.. Ma rcu e, \\' A and M . A. Fonsrad,

1004. - Passi ve Optica l Remote Sen sin g o f River Chan nel
\t ()rpho lllg) and in-s trea m Habitat: Ph ys ical Ba sis and Feast~ihly," R.'m ole Sens ing of Em 'm "'''' ,''' ' , '>1 ) :4<) ) -51 0.

SOVA R_ Wa.-, llL ngton: :-IOAA Omce of CO~1 Sune)". bllp :1f
cbart ma kcr ne d. noaa.g o v' u s n 'wrec ks, hrm l.
;..lOAA ROC. 10115. ~ EX RAD WS R-!':Rn. Was hington : J'\OAA
Radar Oper atio ns. hn p:li \\ ww.roc noaa.gov.

Lod hi. \1. A ., IJ. C . Rund q uist. I.. Han and M ,:-' . J uzila . 1'1"'7.
"The Potcnnal f<lf R..me te Sem lllg o f Loe ss Su ils Suspe nde d
in Surfa ce Wa ters ," Jol,m<l1'iflh,' Am" ,icml If;,,,'r Resource s
j , w><'imin /f, 3' 1I ): 111- 117,
\!JrilOren a. Sand 1>. A. S i cg ~ 1. 200 5. "C o nsis tent Me rg ing (If
Satellite Oc ean Color I>ata Sds Usin tj A Hie -optical Model : '
R~mol" S"IH iIiX or EIIl'm m""' /It. 'J4 :-ll'J-4 4ll.
!I1ark h ~ IJ1 , It l.. and

J C. Harker, I'1St> . "Landsat MSS an d 1 M

O pl.-..: h, ::'0 06. S!fO.U.S- / (J()() , Toronto : Opt..eh. Inc . Hll p:1
\\ ww.o ptech.o n.ca.
O'Reilly, J. E., Maritorcnu . S. , Mitche ll. G., S i..gcl. 1),."1 . Ca rd er , K. L . Garve r, S. A.. ("I a t . Ill'l l'< . "() ee" n Colou r Alg orilhms for ScaWiFS:' .Immwl '~I (,",' 0I'h,\',I'i<"l11 Research,
10 3(C II ):249 37-2 -1 '153 ,

aud 2 1 co -a utho rs, 2\1110. "Ocean C olo r Cblorophyl l Alg urithm s for Se:t Wi rs, OC2 , anti OC4: Ver s io n 4 ." in

t ) ' Rerlly . .I, E.

Post-Cahbrarion Dyn am ic Ranges, Exua tmo sphc ric Rc Fl e elance and nt S,Llc ]lile Temp erature." f. w H/s'" r,' "!llIi,:ul ,Il,'"t,.,,

S HiHooker and E. R. F i rc ~t <ln e {Eels. I. St'II U"if'S I'o ,' /millch

l:3 - K.

( 'uli nr" t ilJlI lim/ Vo l idllt iOIl A 11<111,....". Part 3. J'\A SA Tech nical
Memora ndum. 20nO2 06lN 1. G re enbelt: c s rc. II :<)-1 7,

n."-

Miller. R. L. and
Mcx cc . 2004, " Using \ IOO IS Tt'rm 150
m Imagery to ~lap L'oncentrnncns o f Tota l Su sp e nded Matte r
In Coa sta l wasc rs." H,'", ol" S " f1SIII.I{ "I EIII'irullm" llf. 'J): 2:59-

260.

Pasqualini. V.. C- l' ergelil-f',Iart ine . C . Fe rnand ez and G Pcrgcnt.

I</lJ 7, " The Usc of Airborne Remote Se nsing for Benthic Cartography : Advantages lind Re tiah ifny," lntl. JOUr/wI of Re-

m" /.. S"I/,in!!, 1!l(5) :1107- 1177.

Milche ll. H. G. , ~ fJ(H. 0 /" ",-,1 /IIIU/.:' " IC I./) Slu" JurJ ..fl);!urillm ls
10,I-lI. CORO U ,,,,,I };4 911/ : Cu /ihmfi,,,, " ".J 1;,/id,lIio'l . htlp:llsha raku. en rc. nasda.go.jp ( j U / m l.'c tl 2(11l ll( 1_0 5.pd f.

'.tODlS. 20M, .\fOV IS II" ",.' rag... Gr eenbelt: J'\ASA Goddard

Space Fhght Ceme r, htt p:/o mo,tis.gslc. nasa. go vi.

Pinkerton, \1 . H.. Richardson. K. \1 . Boyd, I', W.. Gall . M.P.,

Zc!d ls. J. L.. 0 11\ cr. \1 U. and R. J. M urphy . 2005, " Intcrcomp" risun o f Ocea n Colour (b nd-ratiu A lgor ith ms fo r Ch loroph ~ ll Co ncc ntration in the S uhtrop ica l Front East of New
Zealan d : ' H.,,,,,,1l' S"", jn.l{ o f E"vmmm,mf. 'J7:)8!----402 .

Cll w n :n

442

Rams e y. E. \V. J. R. Jcns... n, II. E. Mack ey and J. Gladden. 1 ~<,l2.

" Re mo te Se ns ing o f Wate r Q uali ty in Act ive 10 Inactive Coo ling Water Re se rvoirs,' {111/. J""rnn/ of Remote Sen.om g.
t3( IXI:3465--34IlX.

Re ynu lds. R. W. and T. \1 . Smllh. l'N4. "Im prov ed G lo ba l se asurface: Temperature An alyses Using Opurnc m lntc rpola lion, ~ J ,mrn<11 vi e li",,,,e, 7 :')l 9 'J-Ilt.

-ne

Rundq uis t, D , c.. J. t . Schatlcs and J. S. Pc-a lo e. 19'15.

Response o f Volume Refl ec tance
Man ipulat ed AIg.. ! Co nccn aauons A bove Bri gh t and Dar k Bottom s a t Varicuv Dep th s in
an Expcnmc ntal Pool," C<',....<1r1<J tmt.. 105- 14.

'0

12

Rem ote Sen s ing of Water

Measurements Ilf lhe ThermalPlume from the Daya Bal.~

d ea r r o wer Stanon. C hina ." Rt'/Iwte S",,~ in.g of En"iron
1I~ : 5()n-5 1 5 .

Tan g. J., Xue. Y., Yu, T. and Y. Gu a u. 200 5. MA crosoI Optd

Th ick ness Dctcrrmnauon h~' Exploinng the Synl'rgy ofn i
RA and A lJ Uc\ MO(}lS: ' H"molt:: s..n.~mx oj E,r_in!/!_
Q~ : J ::i -3 3 .J .

Th oma s. !\ .. Byrn e, D. a nd R. We athe rbe e. 2(102. Coa.w SQ

Surfac.: Temp...raru rc Var iabi lil) from Land sat Infrared DaD.'
HeM"/" .w m mg of tom itT/nmi'nI. l\ I :1n 2-272.

r....

Ru ndquist , () C . l. Il an . J. I". Sc ha llcs a nd J. S. Peak e, 1'1%.

" Re mo te \ka surc rncnl of ,\ 1 ~ .11 Chlorophyll in Surface walen : The Case for the nrst Dc rivanv c of Refl ec tan ce Nca r
MIO nm ," PholO~'am m,,/'i(" EnK", et',mK & ReRJ(,te Sen .unK_
61(21: 19 5- 100 .

TR \t \ t. ::00ti,
I 'i<ul Rui"ft,fl Jk<-l-.ufl.Mt'm Mis' ion (TRW
If"",e P"g e, (jrt"e'n..,... li: (i S~C . hll,, : ll l nnm . g~fc .nasa , ~ov,

L 5.-\C E, 2006. SHO ALS, \l o hile : U. S . ,\ nn) Co rps ofElgine ers , htt p://shn.ak sam .usace.anny.m il defa uh.htm.
US D:\. 1<Nil .~G,"''PS 9/1 .4g, i,ulfll m l .....on-Point SoUI't't'

Sch ill. S. R. and

J. Jensen. I'N l... ~ M odeli ng 10 Predict St onn~'a

ter Runo ff i n Withe rs S wash Mvrtl c Beac h. Sc." /'ro..eedmKj.

Urban and RegionalIn formation Sy stems. Char jone: 83 - 93.

l jS ( iS . 2U(ln. I'o r i/ it" ,'ieo -f/fH>r Mt1Jll1l" g Image.f .

Sch ultz. G. A. 1':11111. "R em ote Sensing in Hydrology." Journal

,if / ( I'd",I" KY'

l oo:1 3lJ 2 6 ~.

1 'J'I~ ... Snu ....' \1app ing ill Al pine

Rc gions with Synt hetic Ape rt ur... Radar ," IEE E Transactions
,m (i('m , ,..", e (m d H('mote ,""mlll.l':. 32{ 11.

Shi. J. J. Dozie r and H. Ron.

p,..

1m" H""eI (l j'rwm .' III. \-lorri s: USDA Agricultural R~

search Se n ice]. h www.flc .nrcs .u!>da.jo:llVi!.luv.q ag nps.hun.
W;l~hing1oXl:

U.S . <k v I01/ical Su m:)' West ern Rcgiou Coa stal & MariIlI:
Ge olo gy. hll p;lIwa lru s.\ r,usg s.g.. vip:lemapsl .

wc. G. R, and C. E. Wigg ins. 1000,

"Airborne Lida r BllIbllll-

ctry inrhc Management of Florida's Coastal ZOnc.Illfegr(ll(ol

efll /"/ Lo u... AUl umn :nl) - 72.

S mith. E. A . and III others, 2 00~ . "Intcruancnal G lobal Mea s ure mcnt (0 1'\-1) Prog ram an d Mis sio n: An O verview." in V.
Lcvizzani and 1'. J. Turk . bh. Me'I,lI/rilli< l' rccipuouonfrom
Sp(/n ': F.URAINSj T and 110(' Filum' , London : Kluwcr, ~ 3 p.
hl1p:J/gpm .gsfc.llasa.gov /g pm _overv icw.prlf

Wulfmcycr, V., Bau er. II.. Girolamo. P. D. and C. Serio, 200:.

"Compa ri son of A ctiv e and Pass ive Wa ter Vapor Remolt
Se- nsin l;l frlllil Space : An Analysis Based o n the Simulal~
l'crformuucc of I/\SI and Space Borne Diffe rential l.bsor)'"
linn l.l DAR ." " .'moll' Sl'I1" 'ill~ nj f.'ll l'i r m mr.'nI. <,1S :11 1-2 30,

Suplee. C.. 19'1'l. "El Nino nnd La Nina : Nature's Vicious Cycle." NIJliml<l1 (f" ,)gra l' nic. 1'15(3):73-'1 S.

YUIJnl;l . R. A .. C . /\ . O nsl ad. D. D. Busch. and \1/, P. Andersen,

Tang, D. Kawamura, 11.. l.ee , M. and T. V. Dicn, 10 03, "S easuna! and Spatia l Il islri hlltio n o f Chlorop hyll , I Co ncentra tio ns
and Wate r Co ndnic ns in the Liulf uf Tonkin, Sou th China
S ca ." R,'lI w /e Seming "/ Environment, llS : ~ 7 5---4113 .
Tang. IL Keete r, D. R.. \\/'IlJI,t. Z .. Lien . J. a nd II . Kawamura.
200J b. " ,\ VIl RR Satellite Remole Sensing a nd Shipboard

Iu'J4 . "1!/"ic lllw m l ,v",r l'o i m SIIU R '., /'o/llllioll lft!<lt'I (AG
/IPS!. St. Jose ph: U.S. Dept . o f t\ grieu h urt'.
Zhou. X . Xi e. H. and J. M, H. Hendrich, 2nDS, -Stansneal

Eva luatiun o f Re motel y Sensed S no w-cov er Products "i lh

Constraints from Streamfl ow and Sr-,;O T EL M easur ements,"
Hem,,/(, S<,mm~ II) f.II\'im lml<'lIf. ')4 : 2 1 ~ -2J I.

13

Remote Sensing the Urban Landscape

rban landscapes are composed of a diverse assemblage of materials (concre te. asphalt, metal. plas tic, shingles. glass. water. grass, shrubbery, trees.
and soil) arranged by humans in complex W3)' S to huild hous ing . tran sponntion systems. utilities, commerc ial and industrial facili ties. and recreationa l
landscapes (e.g. Small. 2 ~). The goal o f this cons uuctic n is hopefully to
improve the quality o f life. In many instances. urbanaanon is lak ing place at
a drarnanc rate te.g . A U~'h et al.. 2(04). often without planned development
{referred to as urban sprawl) (Clapham. ~OO3 : Wilson l' \ al., 20033). A significam number of bus inessmen and .... omen. pub lic organiza tio ns . and sclc n11Sls constannv require up-to-date in formation about the city and suburban
infras tructure (Carlson. 200 3; Herold e r al., 1003, 20041. For example.
detailed urban information is required hy :
city. county. and regional councils (If governrn ents tha t a] legi sla te zo ning
regul ations to hopefully improve the quality of life in urbanized are a", and
bj would like 10 model [predict I me.' locat ion of' furure urban gr owth:
cit)" and sta le de partments of commerce , .....hich are mandated
development, onco to increase the tax ba se ;

10

st im ulate

tax -assessor offices, which must maintain lega l geographic descriptions of

every pa rcel oflaud. ass ess its value. and le vy uiux-rn lflagc rate;
county and stale dc panments of transportat ion that maintain ex istin g
facilities. hopefull y bu ild ne w Iac iluics w ithout damag ing the
environment. and prep are for future tra nsportat ion dem and:
puhlic an d pr ivate utili ty compan ies [e .g . water, se.... cr. gas , clcct ncny,
teleph on e.'. cab le ) 10 predict whe re ncw dc r nund wi ll oc cur and plan for the
mos t e fficient and cos t-cffccriv... metho d ofdel ivering the se rvic es:
pub lic service co mmissions, wh ich arc mandated to make the utili ty
se rvices availa ble economica lly 10the consumer:
depart ments of parks. recreatio n, and to urism to improve public recre ation
facilit ies;
de pa rtrnerus of emergency management/preparedness and homeland
security, whic h are responsible lo r remov ing rhe threat and/or m itigating
destructi on and allocating. resourc es in the event ofa disaster or terror ism :

-143

...

C11 ,\pn:n

374

appear to
infrarcl
the uI 7

III to lind the ideal

and residential

\ 1.

<f'

.'

mmercial.

and

...dn hydro logic cond itions. cli mate

.,nar) ' prod ucnv ny te.g.. Imho ff: 2005,.
.: educated , professional users o f urban info rma tion
oJ' hngworth, lyQ7; Jensen a nd Hodgson. :!0(4 ). The
urban suburban land they manage or develop is o f signil1cant monetary value. Therefor e, it is not surp ris ing that c it)".
county. and slate agencies as we ll as private co mpa nies
mvest hundreds o f milliuns of doll ars eac h yea r ob ta ining
acrial phot ography and other form s of remotely se nsed data
10 extract the requ ired urban mformauon, Idea lly'. most o f
thi......patlal urban informurion il> placed in a national spatial
data infrastructure where it ca n be accessed by a variety of
public and private users .

13

Re mote Sen s ing th e Urban Landscape

govc rnrncms, the priv ate sector a nd acade mic c

and the internati onal community [Jensen ct al.. 200~1
l "kwf0l'illK Spa lin/ lhll" Infrastructure: Tile SDI C~
,GSD 1. :!OO(,) introduces reg ional. national and
nat ional organizations to the co nce pts and su ndalds
implcrncming a g lohally eornpa nble Spat ial Data In
nn e. Se lected da taba ses from the South Carolina Data Infrastructure are show n in Fig ure J3-lb i!.J1d C
Plate l.~-I .
Urba n Re s o lu tion C onsidera tion s

Many of the de tailed urban/suburban attribu tes that

ncsscs and agen c ies requ ire are summarized in TaNt r
and Figure 13-2. Thi~ cha ptcr review s how remotely
data may be of valu e for the collection of these aunbae,
rem otely se nse urba n pheno me na . it is tirst IICces~
apprecia te the urban anribute's te mpora l. spec tral. and
lia l rcsoluuon cha ructcnsucs.

Nationa l Spat ial Da ta In fra s t ru c tu re

Urban/Subu rba n Tempo ral Resolution Consideraxa

In the Unit ed Stales (a nd many o ther nations) . an interagen cy Federa l Geograph ic Data Committ ee / FGDC I pro motes ihc coordinate d devel o pment. Ul>C. sharing. and
d issc mina lioll l1 f the nat io n's d igi w l geog ruphic informauon
re sources ( FODe , 2( 06). T hi s na tionw ide dat a publishing
effort is known as the Nal irll1<11 .'i" lIia/ lJ<lw ln trastructure
(NS lJ l).
lhe NSD I l'onsi sts of thr ee II'I/Inl'wol'k foundation sf/o l ia l
da li/h.lSt,s (F ig urc 13- 1a):
geodetic control
digitalterrain (clcvnuun and bat hymetry]
d igital ort horcc tiflc d image ry

Th ree typcs o f tem pora l resolution should be consitkret

whe n mo nitoring urba n enviro nme nts using remote
dat a. First. urban/suburban phenomena often prog:i:SS
thro ugh an id\' lllitia hle (/el'e/opml'lI/al cycl~ much l ike \~

tauon progresses through a pht/I<I[o)!./cu/ q 'c le (Chapter 11

fur e xample. Jens en a nd Toll ( 19&3) docu mented a 1 0-~
single- fa mily residentia l hou sing development cycle atll'(If!
in suburhun Denver, ("0, thut progressed from \lagt[undc veloped r'ln ge la ndl to stage. j 0 (ful ly landscaped res
denua l hou~ ing ) . often within j ust six mon ths ( F i~ure 1.1.
3u). ril e stage s o f rcsidcnual dc velupmcnt were idclitiflill
ba sed on till' presence or absence o f li ve major facjn,
including :
I . parcel clea ring [partial or complete)

four !rtllflt'wl'l"k Ihemll/if' (IOlah, l ln:

cadastral

boundarie s or poluical un it..

hydrology
trans po rtal io n

and several nth ..r themattr t"'I"n.t.~I'\. suc h as urb an/sue urban land usc and land cc vcr.
The H IDC dc\c1,)pl> gCl>l> patial data standa rds for implemen ting the 7'lSDI. in cooperation w ith stat e. loc al. and tr iba l

2. land subdiv ision [l.c. parce ls su rvey ed and gradcdt

3. roadst din or puved j
4 . hu ildi ngs (presenc e or ab se nce )

5. landscapi ng (partial or complete].

Single- fam ily re...ilknl ial ho us ing dev elopm en ts III S.
Diego . CA. undergo a sunilar cycle [Figures 13-3bc).lt

445

Urban Re s olution Cons iderations

it)'.

Sc !t'ct('d Ij araba scs rrum ~lIIl t h Ca r ulina 's

S p a li a l l) a t a f nrr a srr uctu r c

.'Iati u nal S p a lh ll llli la t nrr as rrucrurv

rho

""h ifor
,,-

Dig,tal

Other
then....ic
Data

ia l
10<

()nh.,re-.:I, rL~...t
lmagel)'

Wgctal ion

D'gJl.IJT..' rr:l.ln
Balh ~mdr)

Tran"p" m u .o..
l\ound.1I'ie-. {J:""cmmcnu l ueru I

;i-I
-d

Tra nSJ'O'Ution
landco,,'t1'
1..;Indll>'e

"

Fr.uncwon

.,

Foundanen
D at.:l

(j<"O<kt lC ( 'ol\lrol

Figure 13 -1

b.

at National Spatial Data Infrastructure frame wo rk foundanon . thematic and lither layers (a fter I GIX' , 20061.
b l Selec ted data base s Innu Sou th Car olin a's spatial 1.1"13 mfractru ctu rc ( pl.:a'>C s..' t: C.. lor Plale 13- 1).

,
imperative thai the image ana lysl understand the tempo ral
development cycle of'r he ur ba n phe nom cn .. heing a na lyzed .
lfi t is not understood. embarrass ing and costly image interprctation mistakes can he made.
The second type Ill' temporal resolu tion is how often it is
possible for the remote sen sor sy stem to colle ct data of the
urban landscape, e.g.. eve ry X days, I fJ days, or on demand.
Current infur nuuion is critica l for mos t urb an applications.
Generally, sensors that can he pointed o ff-na dir t c.g.. Gc-oEye IKONt )S; Dig illllGlooe Quick Hirdl have higher temporal resolution than sensors thut only sense the terrain at nadi r
(e.g., Landsat Thematic Mapper). Urban nppllcntions are
usually nut as time-sensitive as thnse dea ling with high ly
dynamic phenomena suc h as vegetation where a life cycl e
might take place durin g a sing le seaso n. For these reasons.
most urban app lications tcece pt traffi c count trans po rtation
studies and emergencie s) only requ ire that imagery be colleered every year or so . Orh ital charac re ns ncs of the satellite
platform and th...' latitude of the study ar ea also impact the
revisit schcdul c . Remote se nsor da ta may be co llected o n
demand from su bo rbita l mrcraf (a irp lanes. helicopters] if
weather co nditions permit.

Fina lly. tem poral resolut ion may refe-r to ho \\ often la nd

managers requir e a cc n am type of infonna uon. For ex ample.
local planning agcnci cs may need precise population csnmate s every 5 - 7 years in ,u1d iti(l!1 III the est imates prov ided
hy th c de cennial census. The temporal resolut ion requiremears for many ur ban application s arc summariz ed in Table
1.1 -1 and show n grnphieally in Hgurc 1] -2.

Urban/Suburban Spectral Resolution Considerations

Most imugc nualyst s would ag ree that when ex tmcnng

urba n/suburban in formation h o m remotely sensed data , it is
o ften more important III have high spatial reso lution (c.g.. S
5 x 5 Ill) tha n h igh spectral reStI]utio n {i.c., a large number o f
hand s). For e xample. loc al po pulat io n est ima tes based on
building unit co unts usually require a m inim um spatia l rcsolution nfO . ~ 5 - 5 m to .X2 n - 16.4 fl ) to dct cct. d istinguish
betw een. and-or identi fy the type- of ind ivid ua l bu ildi ngs.
pracuc ully any \isiblc band tc .g.. gre en o r red) o r near-infrared spectral band at this spatial r~'S(llul ion will do . O f cou rse.
there must he sunlc tem spec tral contrast be tween the object
of i nle re~t (e. g.. a building I and ih bad, ground [e.g.. the su r-

13

446

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,

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::0.

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Table

lOll

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ur

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3

.20 30

III

1\ :

55 d
44 d
30d

.22 d

S
S

.26 oJ

"' d
Qd

I
I

10.000 min

5d
4d

3d

e-

'd

LorIo min

'~
"- Lm
O~ .O.!I

I
h

111' 2

O :<lJ, O , ~Lm
U.. _ l. I~",

!!\ lI ~N ~ \ 1

12 11r

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T I ~ "l l ..

,~ ,

II ,

Ih .~ .I ' ; ~ ~ .. . (J.;" U'~d

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~"

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rn

' ;,,,1,),,, ", b H,~

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on

\>111<1 \1\1 :

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A'lune

I ;,\(. < 1m

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I ' ~'rn

1'>0 I , I",
MS < ~ , ~

1 hr

' I~lr ~ .

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II!!';

\1 SS 111\ 111 m

\" . lu~M,I,,1 P hu'u~,,,ph ,

" ..'5. ,, ~ ; ," , 0 .0"

u." n.)

1 , l n , i1 , ~ , l , S I'-l

min

n; ~; ,, 1"I'r" ".
(.n.... . In" ",,,

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3

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I
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3

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~m

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I

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r ...

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" r ll; ~ j l
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3

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5

I I I
2 34 5

.'luminal Sp utiul Resnlu ttun (ml'tl' rs)

Figu re 13-2

clear p.. l y~oll~ rcprcw nt thc spaual and temporal r.....utrcmcnte for sd\'Ch:d urban annbutcs hs ted in Table 13-1. Gray
boxes de pil:t the spana l and tempora l charac teristics o f the majo r rcmo ..: sensmg ,)'\ lcnt5 111.11 may lie used to ex tract the requircd urban infurma llc," (adapted from Je nsen and Cowe n. I<JON; Jensen and tlvdpon. ltllJ.t Jensen. 20(5).
Till;

ur ber

IS "

III )

u.s

Remote Sensing the Urba n Landscape

447

an Resolution Co nsid e ratio ns

Relations hip between urban/suburban euri butes and (he minim um remote sensing resoluucns req uired 10 provid e such data
tad aptcd from Jt'n"",n and Cowe n. 1'N'J; Jensen and Hodgson. 200..\:Je nsen, 2n(5 ).

JUe 13 1.

Mi n imu m Res olution Requireme nts

l.oad"..!I... nd~n'f"r
~LSGS I...c,d l
'~l 'S( iSLC'\C"1 1l

U -l'SGS
l~-l'SGS

L~,d

III
Le'd IV

Boildint:.Dd r ....lJ<"ny~l.i n~ Infr. , tru el " ....

pCflmclL'f,.on:~ , ...Iumo:. h~,l',ht
C - <'3<b51T31m (onnallOO lJ"l'f'l"C'f1) I,nc<i \

II _ bI"khn~

S -lO ycMS
.5 - 10 years
J - S yUr5

2 0~

I - 3 y'L'al'S

0.Z5

100m

~-::Um

1-5 m
1m

l -S~'c:-an;

0.::S ~0. 5m

I - 6 """'Ills

0.25 - 0. 5 m

.5~7 ~ean

v , ;.;IR . \1111. .Jbdar

\ ' _;';IR _.\1111. RaJar
P:on . V . !'IR - MIll.
Pal1chromatie ( l'an)

Stern> ran - V.ltD-\R

Stereo P<lIl ' V

"-<-..con omic ( h.ne l~d ,li~

), -I<ol;.l popu lal"" N "nauon
regional national populat;OO C'Slimali,,"

5 - 15 YClUS

0.25-5m
5 -Z0m

g-qualily o (h(~ indlC:ll<>!'S

5 -lOyc"""

0.::~ -30 m

Pan\' !' 1R.ltDAR

Pany - M R
Pan Y . !'IR

0_=5- 1m
1-5 m

1 1k

~. I"' m ~ nd

.nd ( 'on\('" ali"n

II ~ en'''ll~ do: nwtd IUld prod""'I "'" potential

C - k"ld Lnll-lnLul.l"," ... n e~ s
l",u'I""'t.t iu" In fr lruel " r r
1- ~ ... I n." '" crolerline
12 prt'C ir;c n.wl " io.ltb

T3 - lrallie counl S!oo>es (.....'5. ~,I"f>L"'.,'"

1- 5 )'''' ''''

t'tt.:. l

TJ - ... 1'1."'11 " ud,,,,,

tlilil~

lI3 - I"C~1I""

or p" Ie., m~nll<,I"s uh,llIli,~u

[li~i l. 1 H e..tinn Model (l) F:~11

0 1 cl igllal'''l f~c~ model u"d 'ur d 'll'lu lt"mll n n",<tel
02- ~I""" mup (d"n' <'(j Imm III M)

\ltlell...,I"r.: in l lJ " lll

\! I ~ w""l h...r r r,~\ld iuTl
\12 CUfTC1l1 Irmp",alut'C
\!J - , ,",,, "i r alld pr"C ;r i l~ I''' " mud "
\14_ "",.,,'" well,her m,,,,"
\15 ,m" nno,in!! mh,," h"al i,I Llnd ellect
l'rhllllll) d r"I"I!..\ '
HI impervi ous ,urr",,~ m"pp",!!
H2- ,ucam ~enl"rhtl e and n,>od p lain dc l ill~all un
("ririrs l .:,,,; rnn ,,,," t.l ,\ ru , \ " ~,, m " n l
Cl _ " ..hie "",,,, ill' " ,,"' ;ronmclIls
C2- d)'113mic ...:nsu;,., "''''i",nmcll b
Di...

1- 2 years
5 - 10 m;n
10 -6Om;n

"a" .\" _!'I R. un....R

0.2~ - O. ~ m
0.25 -0.5 m

Pan _\' - MR
Pen- V" ihlc
Pan Vi, ihlc
I'an _ Vi.iblc

1- 3U m
IU5 _ 11.6 m

.'a" _V, UDAll

I - 30m
0.25 - n.s m

In(ra,' r u rl u ,-r

UI - ~",IIII, lny hn'-IlI.lII'I''''l!.nd r"ull ng

V2 - rn: c '",: ""lily line " 'idlh, ri~h ... ,(-,.."y

't'" I'm" rJ:~nc)

5 yean.

1- 2 ycal'1<
1_:: ) ""n.

tlZ~

n,t> m

I'an . \1- !'I k

r .m,h",nlal'C, lt D AIl

5 _ 10 )'c"n.
5 - to year'

0.25 - 0.5 m
0.25 -0. 5 til

Sl"rw J'an .V;, ihle, l. tnA R

Stereo l'all -Vi, ihle, lt DAR.

3 - 25 min

I - Sl m
I - S km
I 4 km
I -4 km
5 -;\O m

V - Mk- n lt
Till
WS lt llKll R"dm
WSK_llKIl R." d" ,

3 -25 min
5 - lOmin
5 - llI min
12 _ 24 hr

I -~ y cars

0.25 - 10 m
1 30 In

I - 2 yea rs
l -b "" "'Ih,

(US -2m

I - 5 years

," m

'"
V _ NI It \<i l R, LlDAI(
V . NI R \-1IR.UlJAR

V _ M R \<i IR
Y .S1 R - \ t1kll R

Rr'\.IIn. c

Dfl -

rn:-cmt'rg""c ~' '1lI.lI~n)

DE1

~-~mc'1!<'llI.l' i m3~"ry

D13 - damaj!'...t hUII.Utg scod

OfA - damaj!cd 1ran'P''''.I;on
Df.$ - datn:JgN "ti\lti"", r;cn ;""

...

Spectral

Spa t ial

Tem poral

Anribute s

1 - 5ycan
12 hr -Zday..

1- 2 days
1-2daya

1 - 2days

1- 5 m
U2 5 - 2m
02 5 - 1 m
0.25 - l m
0_2~ - 1 m

P"n ' V , !'IR

P.n "Ill - Radar
Plln ~ lll.
Pan _ ~ lll.
Pan - NIR

C1 IAPTER

448

13

Rem ote Sens ing t he Urban l andscape

a. Single-fami ly rcsidcnua l development ncar D..."T1\l.'f. co. A pared ofland 1n3)' progress
from rangeland (stage 111<) fully deve loped, landscaped, single-fanuly residenual housing.
(stage IO).Th e stages o f reside ntia l developme nt w crc identified based on the presence or
ab-ence of five fa ctors. including pa rce l clearing, subdivision, road.., buildings, and degree
oflandsc aping (Jense n and Toll. 1983),

h, Cleared. subdivided. terraced lots with dirt wads 0 11 SIl'eP

slures being de veloped I'msingle-family r~':;I ..lcntia l housing in
San Diego. C,\.

Figure 1303

c. Smgle-family rl.'si tknlia l hllus ing in various stages of I;l\Usuucuou. Ro.... s on e und hll' ill Illl: IOIl1c1l have foundation f,"-llings. Rows three and four have sub tlooring and arc being framed

Examples {If slages in the development cycjc of single-family rcsi.lcn li,\l housing in Denver, CO, and San
Diego, ( 'A Remote sensor data may capture urban hllld use in 011<: 01 many sl<t~C' o f development.

ro unding landscape ] in orde r to d e tect. dis tinguish be tween.

and ide ntify the object from its bac kground.
Th ere are relat ively co arse regions o f the electromag net ic
spectrum that arc very use ful fill extracting certain types of

urban, sub urban info rmal ion ITable [3-1). For exarople.
USGS Lc vcl Ifl l.mdcovcr is bes t acq uired usi ng the visible
(0 .-1 0.7IJ m: V). near-in frared (0.7 - r.t u m : t\ IR I. middle
infrared (1.5 - 1.5 um: \ lI R ), and or panc hrom at ic (0.5 - 0.;
j.I\\1) portions of the spectrum. Bu ild ing perime ter, area, and

u,

n Resolution Considerations

II HI

449

'"
"'"

70 -

.'III(S -

", -

.," '"

!O - '

,
s

"

'"

~"

..

Urba n/Subu rban Spa tial Resolution Considerations

.."'
- ,
....!~~ll!'
"
..

O '~ ===

~ "i

00 - -

11 1

"'

'"
Figure 13-4

II

III

[V

Lind Cover Cia" Level

Retanonsnip he m e,.'111 'SGS Land-useLand-cover
("Iasslli<,;"l illn Sysrcm and the , pallal rcsoteuon uf
the remote sensing sY_" <'m totte n referred I" as

ground -resolved d i,la llce in HI d e rs ), The Nuunnal

Image lntcrp rcta bilny Rating 'ccalc (~II RS t is provrdcd fur comparison. A l"'IIRS vcru rating Sl.Igfcsts
lhatlhc imcrpretabibty "fthe- imag e i<precluded by
utN:Uf1lt iOfl, dc:grJdll ltlfl. or poor resolution,
~ighl

information an.' bes t acquired usi ng black-a ud-whnc

panchrornuric (0 .5
0 .7 pm) o r col or image ry (004 n.7
uml, The thermal infrared po rtion Ill' the spec trum t3 - 12
urn: T IKJ may be us ed lu obta in urba n surface tempe rature
measure ments (DouSSI.'I and Gourmc rcn 2003 ). Acnv e
microwave sensors may Ilhla in imilgeT) o f dllud-shroudt'd
urban aTt'as (c .g.. Canadiiln RADARS AT C band . and European Spac.: Agency FRS- I.2 C -tMnd ). l'l'H infrared l a~ cr
lighl (e.g. IO::!4 nnt) can 1'0..: USl.'d til l.'olke t U DA R digita l
!ourran' model Iinot. illl..:rm.:diatl' and lasl retu rns plus inlensity data ( Iit'lJg..s"n d 31.. 20(5 ).

oc

Unfortun atel y. they also encountered co nsidera b le sp ectral

con tusio n betwee n so me urban land cover ty pes te.g . spe ci fic roo f a nd road t~ pes ]. Smal l (2()()2 ; 200 3; 2~ ) summaril ed how different materia ls fo u nd wi thin the IFOV of a
sensor s),>I..:m treterred 10 as endmrmberv s uc h as co nc re te.
aspha lt vegetat ion. .: 1<,;. ) contribute to urban spec tra l reflccrane e and how the y ca n he discnuin gted using spec tral mi xtUI'<' analysis [re fer III Jensen (2005) fo r ,I discussion or
spectral mixtu re analysis]. So metimes the only way to
extrac t the urban infonna uo n req ui red is to utilize mufuple
lyres (If remote M'nsu r data 1I1 the san lt' ruvcstigauon
refc rrcd 10 <.I.S melts-sensor data fusion (Gam ba ct 31.. 2003 I.

\lan ~ urban applil'i1liuns can also

conducted using hYPI:r.
sp\:c tral fem tlte sensor da la_ I krold cl al. (::!U04 ) oolkcll'<l
field uman s j'lectr.ll measu rc ml'nl S from 350 III 2400 nm and
lilund putelllia[ fo r [ugh s pee tfill-n:~ol u !i"n rcmut e sen si ng
ror Je w.ileJ li la pp ing " r UI'LXlll II/</h'rial.\ 'Ill'[ thl' ir t:ond ition ,

tra ined image an a lysts do rely tin black-and-whitc ton ... or

c;slor ill aeria l photog rap hy or other types o f imagery to

e xtrac t usefu l urba n in formauon, How eve r. in many

mstance, the Ib'omt" /ri.. spa tial clements of ima ge intcrprcranon such as obj ect shape, size, tex ture. orie ntanon, partern .
and shado w srtbouene nrc onen j ust a ~ useful if not more
useful ~ a ll c !.... mcms ar .... discussed in Chapter 5), Generally,
thc h igh cr the spat ial resolution (If the rem ote sensor data .
the more detailed info rma tion that ca n be e xtracted in the
urban envmmmem. Uut ho\lo do \lo t' know " hat spaual resolut ion ima geI') to 1L..... fo r a speci fic urban app lica tion" Fonu n<l t.:ly. there are seve ra l method s available for asscss ing the
mtcrpr.... tubiluy o f inta gery for urban apphc.utcns based
lnrgc ly on till' s pat i ul rC S(1 [lit ion of the remote sensor data.
.'IJR~

( 'rileria

One solut ion migh t he 10 use the milua ry and or civilnm vers ions o f the National Image lmcrp rcunion Rating Scales
(N [IRS ) de\ do ped by the lmagc Re solution Asses sment and
Reponing Sl;lnda rd~ Committee ( 1RARS ). :"J [1 RS is the met ric use d by the intel ligclll'e comm unity to charcctcrizc the
usefulness o f imag..:I') for intelligence ptlTJllISCS [ Leachtenauc r er 31,. 11)9X: Logicon , 19'J 7; Pike . 2U(J6; FAS . 20( 6 ).
\I any urban una gc-imcrprcta rion las lu. arc sim ilar to rhosc
re'luired lo r int.:lligl' l1ce app lication s. Ttl.: f\ IIRS criteri a
consist Ill' 10 rating It' \" els (O-I)J till' a gi \-C:n Iyl'\: o f imagery
3rrhcd al thw ugh <,valuation by tra in.... d image ana lyst s. Th ....
IR..\RS cllm m itk l makes it c ko.,r lhal spiltia [ resolUlion
(grountl-reso lved d ist3nl'el is Ililly I'n e of Ihe mcasuft'S of
th... inte rpre tab ility of an image. althoug h il is 3 \-"Cry imporlanl onc {Figu rc 13-n O lher (;ll-tOrs such as film quali~',
at mosrh~rie haze . Cll/llraSI. ang le of oblh.luit y. and no is..: ean
rl'<l UCe th.... ahilit) o f a \I el l-tra ined ana lyst to detect, d isl inguish h..:twcell. nlld idc nlil): mi litary and civilian objects in
nn image , While it Wllliid he us<'!ul tn usc thc N I1RS cr it.:r ia.

450

C1LU'ln{

it is nOI opt imu m to r this discu ssion because I ) the civil

NIIRS criteria were o nly recently made available t Leachtcna uer e t al.. l ')<J~; F,\S. 20()(,). 2 ) ther e has not been sufficic m time for the ci vil ian community to fami liar ize itself
with the co ncept. and cons...-qucntly 3 ) the civilian communuy has rarel y reported its c-ollccuvc ex periences in urba n/
suburban informa rion cxtrucuon using the :-.lIlRS system.

A figure of merit fo r measuring the reso habi lity o f a film

ca mera syste m oft en used by pbotogremmernsts is call ed the

area ... dgJII.,'; '"'I.'r<lg" resolunan (AWAR ). measured in

line-p airs-per-m ulimcrer (Ip mm) ( Light. j<)Q3). A li ne pair
is the width of on... Mad " bar a nd o m: .... hite space as contai ned on r...~lI UliCl n targets recorded in an aeria l ph otograph.
Together. they form a pa ir and serve as a meas ure of image
q uali ty for the acnalfllm camera industry. Th e five essential
elcm ems that ma ke up the system AWAR ar c the lens. film .
image blur t smean on the film d ue 10 aircra ft In " vard ve locity, a ngular mo tion. and the resolution o f the du plicaung
fi lm. Al so , scene cont rast of the Earth an d atmo sphere play
a ro le in sys te m resolu tio n.
Sc ient ists haw stud ie-d tho: general rel at ion sh ip bet .... cen
aeria l photograph y scale a nd AWA R. For example. Light
( 1993, 1996) docume nted IhOl I if .... e ass ume that the Earth is
a low-co ntrast sce ne. the I :40,OOO-sca l.: Nati onal Aerial
Photography Pro gra m (:-.JAP P) photography exhibit s
approximatel y 39 lp.rnm a nd yi cl d~ approximately 25 IJ m
for th e size o f I lp in the ima ge. At 1:40 ,000 scale. 25 um
eq uate to a ground resolut ion ( I f I x I m for low-cont rast
sce nes. T here fore. a minimum of I m ground rcsolu uon can
be expected throu ghout the photographic mission . In fa ct.
the LiS{jS digital onhophoro quarter-quad files produced
from 1:40,O(lO-scule NA 1'1' phu log ruphy ure prov ided a l I x
I rn (3.211 x 3.2X fl) spa tial resolution by sl:ann ing the pho
\ogrH phy with 11 p ixe l si ll" (If I I ~lrn . Ligh t (19911) suggests
Ihat there is a general linea r rdat iunship fllr largcr scalc
aeri a l pho tography l'b tained using metri c eal11~'ras , i..:.,
I:20,OOOscale phn lngrarhy equ ates to approx imalely 0,5 x
0.5 m ( 1.64 x 1.64 ttl ; I : IO,Cll)(lscale phlJtllgrarhy t(l 0.25 x
0.25 m (O.K2 x O.K2 H); and I :S,OOOsca lc photog raphy 10
0 . 125 x 0 .125 m to .4 1 x 0.4 1 fl.). Unlnrtunately. most per
sons usi ng renWh: sensor da til Illr r rac tica l urThm appl ications do no t report their 1i11l.li ngs in ternls o f AWA R criteria.
:"ominal Spa lllli RC ~lI hll iu n t G rou ml Resoln"d Oist a nl.'" e)
The Ct \ ilian user com mun ity usua lly report.~ thl: util it) of a
gi \'e n ty pe of imagl:1') lo r ex tnl ct ing urban in fo nnatiOl1
baSl-d o n the co rnpa rati'iely easyto- undc rstand concept of

13

Re mo te Sens ing Ih e Urba n Landscape

aeroe

lIumill" I .lpal i,, { It'.'IIIUliu l/ ( al ~(J call ed K,v,md-r~.\IJI\'ed

TablE

ex am ple , the Land sat 7 Enhanced Thema

Mar re r Plus ha s cix multispectral bands at J O x 30 m
nal spatial resolution . a 15 x 15 OJ panchromatic ba.nd.w
flO x 60 m therma l in fra red band . The S POT 3 HR\'
has three mul tispec tral ha nds w ith 20 x 20 rn nominal
reso lutio n and a sing le panchromatic band at 10 x 10 m.

fa n c.. ). For

Another ge neral. nom inal spatia l resohnion rule is that ~

needs to be a mi nimum o f four spati al o bservations It,,pix els ) w ithin an urba n object 1(1 idcnufy it. Stated anodllr
w 01)'. the sensor spat ial resolunon should ~ one-half
widt h ofthe smallest obj ..ret of mtcrc'lit. For exam ple.toidelti l) mo b ile homes that arc 5 01 wid e , the m inimum sp.vilI
reso lution o f image ry needed wuhour haze or osher pm..
lcms is ~ 2.5 x 2.5 III pix els (Jensen and Co w en. I ml.
II is p..l:-:-iblc III idcnt ify IIr hmJifmi/llIp la nd cover versus
other land cover for regional u r global applica tions ~
co arse spatia l re solution satellite re mote sensor dati. FIl
ex ample. Giri ct al. 120(15) compared the agreement bl1\l~
the Glob al Land Cover 2000 dataset derived from the FrClld:
S POT I x I km \ cgl,.'1a tion sensor- data, and the MODlSG\(l.
ha l Land Co ver da taset de rived from .\10 DIS 25 0 and 500 11
data rcsam pled to I x 1 km . Unfortunately. tho: pcca
agree ment fo r the IIr h(/l1lhllllfUP land-cover class at the pc"
pixelleve l was poor in 15 ofthe 16 biomes examined.
T he temporal, ~Pl"CI r.lI, and spati al resolution requirements
lor selected urban aunbute, summarized in Table 13-1 atlIJ
Figure 132 .... ere synthesized Inuu practica l cxpcricrcs
report ed in j ournal art ic les, sy mposi a. chapters in books.and
go vern ment ami stll,. il:ty manuals [e.g.. Avery and Bellin,
19'J2; Light ( 1'l 93. 19% 1; Ph ilipso n, 1'l9 7; Haack ct al,
1l)'J7; Jensen and Cowen. I IIQ<); Donnay et nl., 2001 ; Jensen
et al.. 2002 .lenscn <lnd J It'dgso n. 201l4; Jensen. 2llO5; Pi k~.
2006 lind others in the individual sectiuns]. llopctll ily. there
w ill always he il remote sl'!lsing system available lhal can
ob tain images of the tl'rrain thal sat isfy the urban attribUles'
res" luti(Hl r.:qllir.:me nls (T"b!.: 13-1 ).

Remote Sensing Lan d Use and Land Cover

Th e te rm !tm,I II.'e refers ttl hllW thl' la nd is be ing USI."<! by

huma n hcin~s. La//J l"tIVt'r rclers to the biophysil,.al malcria6
fou nd on the land. ror C.'\lllllPIc. a state park ma y be used for
reerealiclIl hUI ha n- a co ni fcrous !n fC'lt COVel'. Ur han land-use
or land-l."over in l(lnnat itlll is required fo r a great vari.:ty of
app ticat ionl'i incl uding. rcsidc:ntial-i ndu!>t rial-I:o mmercial silt

c<

IIOte sensing land Us e and l and Cover

)e

13-2 .

Four levels of lhe USGS r.oml-( .:",/I.'lIId C ,,,",,r

CI""'I!kmioll "1'.<Iem {o" V,H' wuh Remotely .'\.'11..... <1
D.J,U "nil l'l,.pn:""'lU;llhe typo.-s of I'l,.l ntlt...ly sensed
data 1 ~ J"lca l l y used to prm ill< rhe infollTlalltln

:lassifica l ion
Level

Remote senso r Data Characterislics

NOAA AVIIRR (I. I)( I.ll..rnl./'o.l()J)IS

250 m: SUO x 500 m), Landsat \tSS
(7\1 >( 79 mi. Thematic Mapper 00 x 30 mi.
Indian llSS (n,; x 72.S m: ) n,25 x .'n.25
m: 23.5 x 2.U mi. SPOT \"egeLJlion 11 x I
km l. RA DA RSAT II 00 x 100 ml. aerial
(~ 5 0)(

photography 1:120.000 10 I c .ro.ooosca le.

II

LJndsal 7 Hnhnnccd Thematic Mapper Plus

pan (I S x 15 m\. SPOT URV Jl'l1l11O x 10
mi. SPOT II R\ ' XS (:!O x zn m).lndian
IItS pan 'S .lI x s.s mi. ( i,'I.'!:Y": IKO\,;OS I I
x I m pan :" x ..j m mult isp.:ctral l.
RA[)A RSAT (11 x 'I rr u. acn al pll(lI~ra
phy 1:60.000 to l : l l0.000 ~;Ik

Indinn IKS pnn (S.f\ x 5.S rnl. (ieo!-:ye

111

IV

IKONOS l l x 1 m punt, [)j ~ i l<tI G1HIl<."

Qu ick Bird panW. 6 1 x O.t',l mi. Orh\icv.' 3
( I x I m pan I. aeria l analog or drgnal pholtl1,'T"aphy 1:10 .000 10 I :flO,OOO (I ~ mj.

Uigilal( IIntllt ()Ul(I..Blrll pan CO.nl x 0 .61

m). aerial alM I"g Ill" digitul phl' lllgraphy
I :t>,(IO() ro I :20J)(Kl(O,25 - I Ill) ,

htion. popu lation estima tion. lax asscss meru . dC\l:lopen of l oning regulation... etc. (Cu ll ing",~nh. 199 7: Willi et al.. :!OO3b ). This me ans Ilt31 urban information
~led fo r one applicatio n might h" u ~cfu l in another.

andUseILand-Cover Clas sification Schemos

~ best ....ay to en!Sure that UrOOll infnmlation ueri\ed from

rote se nsor da la is use ful in many applic;t1i(1ns i~ t(1 Org:llle II acrord ing til a sta nu" ru ll.eu lam.l-IIW Il r 1<llId -t'm';!r
b.liliCllfio" sd,,'lIIt' (Cltell and 510..... ::0(3).

.mcr ir lill P la n ning ,\s..lIda tiu n " I ,llntl- Ullsetl

], \..ificalioll ,sta nd a r d"

lit m()'o.t com prehe nsin: hierarchical c1a..si ticalion lo),st...m

urban/ su burbll n la nd us.:: is Ihl' L<l",/-Bu.wd C/".'.fijiCllfiulI
ro,,<1o,..1 (L OeS I dc \cl0pl'd by thc Ameriean PI:lIlntng

Jsoeiatio n ( 20IJh j, Th is standard u pdates the ltJb5 S'<lIIjJrJ L<llId U'(! CodlllX .\I<1 l/1w l . wh ich is eross-rcfe ren n: u

451

w ith the I f),'{ 7 ....'<111.1",." IlIdll"''';u! CIa", ilk" ,ion (S 1(' ) '\/(1/1'
lit/I and me updated vorth Aml'rinm 1",IIHfr;af CfoHi(kotinn .\Jullliord i :\A ICS. :!()(l(,l. The L. ll e S requires ex tcnsivc
inp ut from i ll .f ill' da ta collection. ae rial photography. and
satellite remote sensor data 10 obtain mformation atthe pareel leve l on III..: rilllo\1 ing Ii \ c ch urac rcnstics: uctivuy. func t ion. own ersh ip. site. structure (F igure 13-51 (American
Planning Assoc iation . 20(0 ). The "ysll'lT1 provides <I unique
code and description lo r almost e\lel") commercial and
industrial land-usc activuy. TII.:- LHC S does not provide
mto rrnanon on tend-cover or vegt:llliion charac t... nst ics in
the urb an ,"n\ irc nmcm. ,h it relics on the Federal Gcographic Data Commiuce standards o n this topic. Users are
enco urage d 10 keep abreast o fthe L.RCS .md 10 uulizc it for
intensive urba n studie s tluu require detailed co mmerci al!
indu strial (" 1a~si tk:tlion codex.

LS.

GCt.l l .~.: ical Su nc~

-Land-L'se/L an d -Cover

Cla,,\jli cal illn !")"1(,111 for \'''r wjth Remot... St' n" nr Data"
Th.: U.S. Gc" lug i':-lll Survey L.mJ- CldL.llld-Conr Classification ,S:r." Im (Anderson et al.. 1'n 6; USO S. 1(,1(,12 ) wa s sp ecifically de sigu c d I" he re source-or iented (land cov en in
con tra..l .... uh vario us people or ac tivity (land -usc ) oriented
sys tems. such as the SI<1l1d<ln l l.al/(/- U.~1' Codmg\!"mml.
The USC,S rationale \.I a.. tha i "althll(Jgh there .... a .. an o bv ious need for an urbc n-oncutcd land-usc classiflcnion syste m. there wa s also a need for a resourcc-orierucd
ctasstncauon "y..rem wh ose primary emphasis w ould be rhc
remainin g lJ5 pe rc ent o f the Un ited Snnc s la nd area." Tit c
USG S ctassi ficauon system lIas designed 10 he d riven p rima rily to> the rrucrpretauon ofremote sensor da ta obtained
ar various scales and resolutions (Figure 13--4: TaM c D-~)
and nl11 data co llec ted in sun The L:SGS ~yMem addressee
th is need .... illt ..:ight (If the nin.:- le~d I cal.:gories lreating
land area that is nOI in urhillt ur !'lIill-III' cal.:-gories (Tab ll's
13-3 10 13-(1). The classitiea t\\lI1 sysll' l11 was im liall)' d.... \dopel! 1\1 indud.: land-usc dalil thaI wa s \' b ll<lll} pho tointe rpr.:t.:d. illthuug.h it hilS be.... n widel} used for d igital
nlult isp,'Clral remotc sen~mg c1as~ilication stu di.:s .
\Vilik the USGS 1..J1Jd-Jlw /I.",,,I-cu\ ,: r ("il.l .~tfinlti()11 SH was nllt uri{;inall) Ilcs igned e" c1u~ivcl)' to in':llrporale
de tail c"d urna n atlrinlll... infor ma l ion. il nc\e rth.:less has been
us ed .:\t.:nsi ldy f{1I lllllr" lhJll twn dec;ldes for urban landusc slud i...s . This is llsua lly pcrtf>nn...d 1- .:m tJd li, h ing lhe
cl assifica llon s~ " em \\ ith d,'la iled Le \ d IIL IV. and \ . urban
class detinitions su.:h a~ lito ",' sho.... n in Tatok-s 13-4 t,l 13-6 .
Th.:- utilily \~ f Ihe mocJilied ~ysll'm i.. that il may be adapted
to include liS man) leI ds .., llesir.:d ).:t i.. upwardl) compatib le \\ ith ;111 Ihe USG S Leve l l ,\IlU /I lanJ, u' l: a nd IllndCOWl' dat n ':\'lIl pikd I-oy ne ighhn ring eilies. count ies. stat,', .
f.'11/

452

(U.\l'TF I~

13

Remo te Sen s ing t he Urban Lan dscape

American "I ;to ni" !.: ,\ s\ocia linn I ,a nd -lb \ f,>(1Clas,ifka li on

ralTt'1 III
IO-S-I Ol:I

10 , 100
10-5- 100
lU-:"i- IOU
10-5 100

Fig ure 13 5

Actil ll,

Dl.'5C'ription

Funt'tlon

S, ' 1('01

l>r...:riplkJn

2 100
2200

, hI.'l"I'mg

2 1HI

r....U ur.m t

~S1 0

U-la,1 ...10 and .."...ICeo

full . """, ic,", resta ura nt

"'''''

"""131. n"lJg lU\J."

tx>: u

r ch g l UU> 11ll>\JIU\lum

f ll m il U.-c'

2121

fu m ll ll ~

"c hicub r pan ing

5200

f'o1r~ j n l:

e tc .

etc.

etc.

2 111U
5210

fXl lil1es

The Am erican Pbul1ing As"udatiun developed the L..md-LJ'I.>.-.I Cf""\i{icu/i",, S:r "/t"1IJ (Lile S ) that contains
rtctniled de finttious (If urban/suburban lnndus c. The system incnrflnr alcs mformntio n dcnvcd il1~ilrl and using
remote ~cll"ing ll: dll1i,-!un, Thi s is an oblique aerial ph ul,,~rarh Ill' II 1ll.11I in Ontario. CA. H ypothet ical ucuvU)' and structure codes associa ted with this large parcel nrc idcnufl ed. Sil,' de velopmen t and ownership infor-

m.nion uuributc tables arc not shown (concept eOI<l1....sy American l'lutuung

or nations, For example, Table 137 documents how the

i.and-Use/l.and-t;'ovrr Clw" ilit-arion ,~~'~ relll for Use wilh
Remote Sensor Dolo has been modified to include 22 class es
for the vanonot tund-Cover Characterization based on continuous production of a U,S. Nanonal Lend-C over Dataset
(NLCD ) derive d fWlII Landsat Thematic ~l a pp,; r or other
data. Many of the Level II classes arc best derived using
aerial photography (US(iS. 2nOfi).
The same classes arc also used by the NOAA Coastal Services Cen ter in the creation orthe Coa stal Cha nge Analysis
Prog ram (C-CAP) products . l\OAA C-CA P produc ts
include land cover for the most current date available, a fiveyear retrospective land-cover product, and a prod uct that
documents changes between the two dates (1' OAA. 2(04 ).

"" sn,: i ~ l i " n l ,

Urban Land -Use! Land -Cover Classification (Levels I

to IV) Using Remote Senso r Data

The ge neral rd,ltitlilship he1.... ee n USGS lund-cover c1a>sifi.

cation system le vels (l - IV) and the nom inal spatial 1'l.'SOllC
tion Ill' the senso r system (ground -resolved distance ill
mcwrsj was prese nted in Figure 13-4. Generally. CSGS
Lc"c1 1 classes may be inventoried e ff ect ively using sersos
with a no minal spatial res olution of 20 - 100 III such as !be
Landsat Multispectral Scanner (~ 'SS ) with 79 x 79 III oonunal spuual reso lution. the Thcmauc Ma pper (T r-. I) at 30)(30
m. S POT HRV XS at ~O x ~O m. and Indian LISS 1-3 t7~j
x 72.5 m: 30.25 x .' <>.25 m: 23.5 x 23.5 m. respceliwl)"l- or
COUI'Sl:. any sensor system .... ith higher spat ial resolution C<1It

R.

453

Remote Sensing Land Use and Land Cover

Table 13 3.

U.S. Geological Survey I.tI/ld, C,,'/Lm,I,ClJ"t"r

( /u ,..,j i< Yll j" Il .\\'., (<:m Ii,,' Use 'nIh R,mo,<".'Wn.wr

Ta ble 13-4 ,

Uroan Residential. Commercial and Services - Levcl l aud II arc rfl)l1l lh~ I./SG!lwnd-U.", if-" " dC",<'r
CI,t"I![i,"tirlll S\" "',,, .lor f " ' j ' ,,"lIh
-nsor
lJulu. L ~ vc b Ill . IV. and V are log ica l ext...nsions.

R""w,,' ....

lAsl,s (A n..krwn 1:1 al . 197 6 ).

Classifi catio n Leve l

Classil lc atlon Level

l' rb a n o r S .. ill. .. p La nd
II

R~"krmal

12Con uncn: ial and Scn ice'l

13 111IJustn a i
14 T rnn, ponal;on . COO1 munkanOOs, and l"l ihl i~

15 loouw1aJ and Commo.-n:ial C"rnrl<'''~'lo

16 Mncd L:rt>.In or Hu,lt-up
17 \;1Nn or BuilH,&p Land
1 "'ltrk ullunll . n d
~1 {"ror1and and f>aSIUtt
~2 Un;1\lanh. GIU,n. \-1I>C~1ll"Ib.. Oman...~ ,u.IIl"rh"ul'ufC

11 _

01
111 ........ 1 _ ~

11 1 ' 1 \ _ . - . " , , _
111: \_1<_
I I : ~I_,-...

1I11 '~

,IJ,....
.. ( _ (
n:._ I< _ '........,....
II::':

II:t~~

I :C_ ....... _

. l...... _ ... - , .... '

I:lllr-...
11111'... _

1:11) - " "

1: 11. ..... "" .. _

'21: _
l:ll l ~

1: 1 1 : _

m ll .......... " I : 'l l~ _

Ill l '
11 11:

_~_l<" ,

\Io .. '-I>R. ~ ..... ,

~.

11.. ' _

hr... 1 l and
4 1 [kc,dlJ<'tl, h >rnt l aoo
42 h ..-rgrccn r........' Lan d
4:! Mv.ed f urnl. lalld

..... _

....._

11' l _
11 11 _

23 (" OI"lr",c d fC'Cdma 0",:..,,,,,,,,

~4 0dl0If A grM:ull ....lland
Ita nllel a nd
31 Ilemaceo\" Ran ~d.nd
32 Shrut>-Brudl land ltantleland
H " n ed ~tld:md

. _

m.I_

' _

...

'_~

1:1':_

l11U~"'_
I:I ~("---

, l Il F_

-.l 0r4

1 : 1l1 ~
1:11:'~

Water
5\ Slream. and ('anal.

121 l J R _
111. 1.....,m
111.1 \~ " 1oOI)
1: 1"2["........., ..... ~~ _

52 La~ c ,
53 Rc.....rH" ..
54

~a~ $

u.:.-,_ary)

1111
Ul1ll101el
l1I ' :M....

3-noJ E,luancs

lJPH ~

6 Wetlan d
61 f ure ' leoJ Wetl.."d
1>1 Nu n1i',",,' I..-d Wetland

1:1 .11"""'-" ... ......

Oll rtell I.an d

11Dry Sa il Flats
72 llcllcne,
73 Sund y A reas (lIner '1han B.-a.,nes
74 H;H"e 1:0\p<'l'1."d 11.,,<;10:.
7S SII'p Mines, Qu alne. , .. ( iruvd Pil'

Ill " R........_.....-.:"'I

,..t>I"l
111~ j """'''''''''''' ~ I
' .."''''''' " ,",".,1< ~1I)
1:191 11,"0"')1
ll ll f',," ~.I ' .u,"'O'"'''''
U I\I-l(""lf
111'l,w,"," "",,
12' '''' '\<oJ ,W1", lnw l0i'" '1_ J
111.7

r",.,,,

I.' Ihr.''''' 1"""1wJ<o "'"" ;r''''

111" l it" ltl
lJ

11201,Il20 1 W,

tI"

76 1'ran,i,,, ,,,,,1 Areas

77 Miu oG Barren I...ml

I!1QIw

Tund ra

Snn,h and Bru, n Tun.ll;,

~ 1 I krN" Cl IoU' Tu", lri
~1

10 Bare Ground l'undm

~4

Wet Tundra

H5 MC'N TWldra
'I

h a nn ial Sill'" " r I....

'II P"n"lln,al $no",f,c1d.
'12 G ille": '"

~ ..
" ;'p' .. II",~ ,,1

12: I. 11.....,.,.;".....'1""""
III s<"".. U'. ~ I " ,...l
I~

0""'"

1'ul<1~

rr;",.,

lUl l " d "' , "i~lJI\"'"

l1llZ f'<!u<ot. ..

f l<mm...,

tW : l \ h ddl<

l:2Ill ll'gIo"",,,,",
'!ZIl. U"......
~
lUl l ,~. I'<>h, ~ .......
UZI' 11<0'''' ond ,"_ <0...
Inl' I;....,.
Inl ~ ...... nrr.,.
I nl7 "*",,

.,OI,...

un MaI",,1

Il .:.!1 HooJolaI

I znl Oll"" ..
IWR.Iop>oI ( _ )

"''''';''1

, ~r.l l) ,.

"",O;l,op 00<1 ..." ';1.......

1 ~ l! 1

w...

hq...ll

( 'H ,\ITt :H.

454

Ta ble 135.

Urban lndustna l Land-usc Classificatio n - Leve l I

and II are nom the USu S 1...l'ld- U-",il.u",'Cm'er
Cl"" ',14kllU" 1I "'.1'.1/. ,,,,fi'r U.fC ,,#11 R,'mo{t' St'II.l<Jr
1),/1<1, Levels Ill. IV, and V are logical extension s.

13

Rem ote Sensin g th e Urban Lan dscape

Table 13-6

Urban Tr.ltl~p,m,l\ i un.

C'om m uni~alit'ns.

Utilities.

Table'

and I'ldu sirilll/( 'ommcrcrat Com otexes- LevelIMol

II das...:s urc fro m the USGS L.,md-U,,jwnJ(ortJ

(,'l.... "inmnn Splt'ml"r I ', t' ,,'illl H..,nm<!.~

DuM. Levels 1II. IV .InJ V arc logical nt.::rlSioo!.

C lallS iflcatJo n level

C lassification Le ve l
UI_
IJI~,_

1111~
Il" ' ~

U Tr . .......... ' io.n. ("0..... . ., 1... ' ...... . nd l' , ib. ...

_ _"

11112 _ _ ........ . . . - . . _ _

J:

l ~lll l)jn

1'111('"""",
IJI!.l(;",.....
Lllll _ _"" - . - . l

I1Ul _..
Ill):,....
IJUJ~
1llJ.l ~ _

1.ll~ '~""'l,L-.o,j,; __ 1 Y"~

IJI O g " p - .

1 . I ~J

n.. ,coel

14 1 ~4

\11 '2(101_

Ill'.'"
1l1S1 _

I 40 '" IrjIOI1

14 131 K.....

a'......,

lJl'~S_...

l.n~Hupr

141)) 1"",,,..al

on-

1lI~~_

lll . I ' _ ~ " , ~

..

1)ll~._ _

""",,",

1414 hoD'i.l:upo

....

1 .:C,-....._~

1 4~1

1J11 " l _

0111 ............. _

....

I.J

S,p.

~J1-.l

IJ211Yol><>1 . k> ' ....... l abloo

F..:,bl"'"

~ Iil .,)

1 431llc<'ro:"~

n211~1_

IUllH~I""" ..

,....

' J 1 1~o.. _

111Us...._
llll~~r""

1l1IHT _ _

_ _ If>J_r........

IJ!H.lo<m
!J!: 1(1I1

~ ....

1 43~ J\al
14B 1'<1

p'
""

14 14 W ....

1l217Tullk

n:: .,..rr.>l

1"""....1
Ilnd(lr

111') "'_

1>21: ~~'I
11:~ 11"' ..<lo

,,
,

IJ!12I'a'N
1411J L'm""" ....>o (l~"", 1011,
lal 141m"",hanee
IJJ I <I'an.,"III
I U IIoHndf<
I 41~ Radn rod
IJI~I T,ad

lJlJ I!
_
120_
.....

Il n l

IJ

IJII R- ', ..,.J Ih , h.. ayl

lJll OpM",,_

IllI 9

I JI T ~

1~ I. ....,or '.l . . ... ('<""".1'<1.1 l -.. " 'pk.....

151 IOOl<>ln'" """'pl., lp.v ~ I

IS: (..... ,,,,,,,,.1&1 "",,,pic, ,,,,. 111

<l<.......

"'r....,.

"""""",,,,,,~. I

lJ l : ~ M .........

.............

Ill:l ,,," I, (>)1IIhO:1

I.In" ....,."J I,,,,,,.,,,,"

Ill) II ...

11HI

( . ~ i ...

,.".<1<

1J1)J('<",....

11l Jl n.,. I"'ot.....

111)4
IJllI<11 . ..
I J ll ~ 1", " .,HI ~<el
Illllu.d
I JlJ~ I ,;"",
I Ill' 1<1><10.. r.dl;,!"
Il 2..1_
1.10<,,.,
Il 241 7.;1'1<
III hbo><.. ..,

r_, ,,,,,,'''oil

nom

J"'l "'" rO'"

rm H -o
IlJII
I Hil

II.",~

mu

. h,I"

~.,

JJJI4'\ono::
Imwp

ml<h llW<Y ("'1I,I<'ImI, ... 1

~ , ...,.

......11<,,,... ..-4 f<l"W

""'"

' _I ~_

Ill !1 ..."""'ft........t>l)o
lJJ12 " .........,. . _ , " 1-. ..... ""'-. .. _ '.. ,
DJJJ _
IlJlH_
U JJ5 U...r<oU<l

bo.Io"""- ond_..-

lJJ~~I"'-'~ ~

IJll 1 ~ I..o
..
llJl
proolom

be used to acquire Level I dal:.l. Color Plate 132 presents

Le vel 1 urban \":II, non-urban land-cover information for three
counties centered 0 11 Charleston, SC', extra cted
Landsat
.V1 SS da ta ac quired 011 six dates from February 14 . IlJ75.1o
Feb rua ry 3. IIN4, Fo r glohnl projccn, Level I landcovcr rna}'
be extracted from more C tl lt r s,' -atial resolution imagery
/c .g ., AVI1RR at 1.1 x 1.1 km
)[S250x 250111(1r500
x 500 m H e .g.. G iri c t al.. 20 1
Typ ical urban spectral re f
n zed in Figurc 1., -6 . LJ r'

"steel -gray" on color-i

because the urban le rm i,
nnd asphalt roads, parkin
ically reflec ts h igh prol
a nd ncar -infrared radi..r.r
lure co ntrasts sharply'
brigh t red ,' r m llgcl1la t ,
vegetation reflects s u.

.ia.unurcs arc summa,I, r typ icall y appears

, 'I' -om p os uc images

I'

.i .narily of ccncree
"

'lnd hare soil. typ-

,I

, -,

II

.idem green. red.

tt'; 'ray' urban signaraces that appear

1: 1 sges because til<::
11

(If

near-infrared

455

ftmote Sen sing Land Use and Land Cover

13-7.

LalHlfll lnry Sp c'el r n nu liom...ler ne necteoce

C o m mo n Urban .\ Ia te r ia ls

U.s . Gt"vlogieal Survey L,,,,d_V.\tif.<I,,,I_CO I'l'r

( ./"",\'i/k<lli(Jn .\)',, /<,'" Ji" CI<, wah Remote .....mor
Da ta rnooilieJ for lhe ;..Ialional Land-cover l1i.1 (ascl
and the l\ OAA Coosl,ll Chang<.' An alysi~ Program
I ~ O:\A, 2(14161,

Characteri~lifs tlf

.i..\~'i;

"",~G -

30

: Ot'H lul!"'d
21 Low-lntcnsuy Residential
22 High-Imcnsuy Rcsid<:nl ial

23 Commen;i"li lndustriaVrransponalinn

. . .. . - - - -

."0

,.

./!
-. /-. '

FON""i tl'd l lpland

41 Decidcous For",...,
~2 Evergreen Forest
43 '-1i.\..-..I Forest

Shru hl a nd
51 Shrubland

6 .\ on-:'\a tu ra l \\ "'HI )'

M Orchards.Vmcyard-, Uthcr
- Herhaceo u. l 'pla nd "'lllluraIlS,'minalur al Vi1:..' lllliun
71 Ij rasslands.He rbaceo us
i Herb aceous 1'1an ll'd iC u lli n ll"ll

SI Pasture.Hay
lI2 Row Creps
S.' Small Grain s
S4 la llow
lI5 Urban/R ecreation
Sf, G rasses
q W"'lland
\II Woody

Wetlands

92 Em ergent I lcrbaccoux Wet lands

mcrgy wh ile abso rbin g mu ch of th e inc ide nt green and red

~a\( le ngt h energy, as d isc ussed in Charter 4. Water abso rbs
most of the incident radium I1U \ , causi ng it to a ppea r d a rk o n
color-in frar e d imagery, easily d istinguishal'lk from the
urban lands cape, Co lor co mposites o f ..lownrown C harl l:SkKI. SC produced usi ng many orthe major se nsor systems,
are provided in Chapter 7,

__

~~

~t
Health y gra...~

10

,- --- _.- ..j

A ~troturf

j Barren

31 Bare Roc k/Sand tl ay

32Quarric~tnp \ linCS<Gralci rib
33 Transiuonal

..

Brick ' red)

J:

' -

"," . ....... Y
x

~,
~e'"

S\~\e.~
,....-"'.- -......... . . Concrelc

Classi fication Level

Waler
11 Op..m Waler
I! Perennial lcerSno ....

gra.;;S

,...." ,." '

_...1 ., _ .__/

Figure 13-6

05

Asphah sh ingle (b lack)

o
(1.4

0.7
0.'
0.6
Wa\ e le nglh , um

O.Q

(0, 0

Pc re<"m reflectance curve s for com mon materi a ls

found in urban en v rroemcnts. The reflec tance spectra \\ ,' reobtilin,'tl in a co ntrolled laboratory enviro nm<nl us inl!{ l1GE l{ I soc spcc troradiometer.

Senso rs with a min imum sral ial reso lution o f 5 - 20 m are

generally requ ired to .. ibtain Le vel II mform ation. SPOT 5
sensor sys tems provid e \0 " 10 m multispectral and 5 x 5 m
panchro m atic data . RADA RSAT pro vides I I " Q m spatial
resolut ion data for Le vel I and II land -cov er inventories even
in cloud-sh rouded u opic al land scapcs. The Landsat 7 ET M"
has II 15 " 15 m panchromatic ha nd,
More detailed Leve l III cla sses may be inve ntoried usi ng a
sens o r with a spatia l reso lut ion o f llpprox imatcly I - 5 m
such as: IRS- l e D ran (5 . ~ x 5.1\ t11 da ta rcsumplcd to 5 x 5
Ill): la rge-sc ale aerial photo graph y; IKO NOS ( I x 1 m pan:
4 x 4 III mulnspcctral): Q uick Bird (0.01 x 0.6 1 m pan: 2.44
x 2.44 m multi spectra l): and O rbvtcw 3 (1 x I m pan: 4 x 4
III m ultis pectral], The sy ncrg istic use o f high spatial resol ution panchromat ic d ata (c.g., I x I m ), merge d w ith lower
spa tial reso lution mul tispe ctra l data (e.g.. 4 x 4 Ill), provides
an image-inte rp retation enviro nment that is s upe rior 10 using
panc hnunatic dat a alene (G amba 1'1nl., 201H: Je nse n, l Oll5 ).
Le vel IV cla sses an d ca dastral (propert y-li ne) info rmation is
be st monitored using high spatial reso lutio n panchrom atic
se nso r>. including Quick Hird ll.6 1 "n.b! m panchromatic
d a ta. ste re oscop ic analog aer ial photog raph )" (~0.25 - I m)

456

(, lI A rn:l~

a nd stereosco pic dig ital frame camera image r)' [c.g. Le ica
\rcn Systc ms A irbo rne Dig ita l Scnsor ADS-IO ~ 5 x 5 c m j].
Urba n land-usc and land-cover cla sses in Lc\d s [ throu gh
IV have temporal attribute requ ire ments ran ging from 1 -10
years (Table [J-I and Figure 13-21. A ll o fthe sensors mentioned ha ve tem poral resolutions of' < 55 da ys. so the te mpoTa l reso lution of the la nd-usc-hi nd-cover attribut es is
satisfied by the CUTTent and pr opo sed senso r sys tems .

aeerc

Rem o te Se ns ing th e Urba n Landscape

a detac hed d welling composed of severa l ana ched

(this is not true in the centra l bus iness d istrict ). COlllend'.
a company producing finis hc d sle c1ty pically requireu 1o:!'
large, line, lr bui lding (I~l ml ) that can h uu~e the varioussea
processing acuviucs (function} , An ana lyst must be Cart
howcvcr, because a huilJing 's usc may ch ange over nee
T hus, a kno wkdgl' Il l' the seq uence- of-occ upance of Ni...
ings in a region becomes important.

Single-Family versus Mu ltifamily Resid ential

As previously mcnuoncd. urban land scap es are noto riously

comple x ( RiJ d. I QQ5: Small. 211UI: 2(04). While simple
binary urban/non-urban information is valuable for assessing grow th trends t c .g.. Color Plate 13-2 ), it docs oot provid ...
the kH~1 of land-use land-cover derail necessary 10 mak e
wise decisions. Therefore, it i ~ use ful to provide add itiona l
deta il aOOUI the e xtraction of the follow ing urban land -usc.'
inform ation from remote sensor data :

rc..ide ntic ! hou sing

indu stria l

A ., illjl f,,-j.,mif r ft','i,I... ltt' i~ de tached fWI11 any olh..T!loIl-ing struc ture. In de ve loped co umric-s il usua lly has J ~
driveway. a sidew alk leading 10 the from door. a front yri
a hack yard (linen fcnc c"lII. and a garage Ill' carport, It is llllIo
ally .:::: 3 stories in heig ht. Several s ingle- fam ily homes'
Richmond , C A , are in the process ofh.:ing framed in FipiR
13-7a. Completely laudccapcd single-family residences
Boc a Rato n, Flo and San Diego. CA , arc show n in Fi~
13-'tb,c. ,\ I (lhilC' homes (t rai lers l in d... \ d oped countries m
usua ll) much sma ller tha n orhcr singfc-farnily homes
[a pp roxima tely 5 III single- wid e; 10 III doublc-w idct, tardy
haw a ga rage (bu t may ha ve a carport) . and may or maytKt
have a pal cd d ri\ ewa) or sidc walk I Fig ure 13-7dl.

transpo rtatio n infrast ruc tu re

co mm unic atio ns and ut ilities ,

Residential l and Use

The home in almo st allcultures is the single mo st im portant

JlI lssession a person acquires in a lifet ime. It shehers (he
fam ily and usuall y repres ents the household's greatest ceo nom ic investment. Inventory ing (he locat ion, typ e, condition. and nu m ber of residences is on e o frh e most imponam
tasks performed us ing remote se nsor data . D iscrim inating
between Leve l II res ident ia l. c01l1ll1('rcia l. indus trial. and
tran sp.lrtatio ll la nd-uses re<luires a ~nsor s)'stem wilh a spatia l resolution lrmn 5 - 20 Ill. Ident i(y ing Lc vd III rcs ident ia l land-usc classes requi res a sputia l reS(l]u(ion from I - 5
m (Table 13- ); Figu re lJ-H,
Prior 10 in\'e stigaling ho w res ident ial land use appe ars on
remol e ly ~ n sed d;tta. il is importa nt 10 inuu d ul'e the co nce pt
o f form and j imctiul/, Basica lly. thl' funclion o f a buildin g
o ften dlcules its lo nn. In fact, we otlcn S.1Y "fonn fo llow s
function " or " !i)nn is dlclat ed hy functil)ll: ' For e'iJmpk , lht"
n...'Cd to hou se iJ single fiJlIIil) IIften results in the creat ion o f

In developing count ries. si ng le-fam ily res idences ma~ COl\lOist o f a bu ild ing, hut. tent. or lean-to dependin g upon
cultu re. For example. lrad itio n:tl housing assoc iated wilb !
pa sto ral vill'lge in Kenya is show n in Hgu re 13-1'a. It may te
permanent or temporary (seasol1al I. The st ruct ures may con,
ta in individ ual or exte nded fatui lies. Somer uncs it is difncull
III identify suc h structu res in developing countries because
they :lI' C made oftbc sa me mate rials found in the surrounding comurysidc, resulting ill low object-to-back ground con,
t ras! (Jensen et al., 20ll::!l.

In developed countries, l/IullifJ h':/i/ll/il.I' residences USUJ II~

have mor e than O1\e side walk. may ha ve large collective
abo veground o r bc lowground park ing gilfages O( parking
l(ltS, may he ~ 2 stor ies in hc ig ht. :md shaw front and bad
yards tF igure 13\).. ). The rl' may h..' a co mmun ity pool and;
or lenn is COlllt, VII I,/c.\('.1 (two attac hed housing units) and
tl' iph '.H',' (lhree allnclll'u ho u" ing unils ) ulOua lly have tI\<oor
Ihree walk.... ays and dr i\ cw 'I) S, resp...'Cti vely. Somelime~ I
co mmon par k.i ng are a i ~ pw \' ided . It is olk n d illicult to
det eml ine hl)W ma ny fami lies occ upy s ingle res id....ncl'S in
del eloping cn untr ies. When there are mo r.: than thl'
allached hou sing un its. it is usua lly ca lled an apartme nl DI'
condo mini um ( l'igurt.' 13-9I"1,c ). Such co mplexes olkrt
I,,"'C UP) a n c\tens ive a rea oflant!. rise man) "ttlries ahtl\"e tbc
gwund, an d in larg.. . e itlc" lila) be h igh-riw bu ild ings.

a.

"

ident ial land Use

457

Several sing lc-f:'nni ly reside nces IWlIlg framed in Richmond. CA

et r I II ) lcouncsy l ' ri ~ C. B":l1l<'Il 1.

b. /\ single-family reside nce in Boc a 1(;11 <111, Pl., ..... ith one sidewal k.
OI1e d n veway, lind II fCIKCd b~I.. YJrd ( k vd 1111).

UIl,,'I)' spaced s ing le- fa illily residenc e in San Diego, CA, with
sidewal k, one driveway. a nd 'It;ca''l~ IJlly a s mall swimmmg
[level II r I),

d. Si n\!k -fami ly traile rs {mobile homes ) in a tra iler pa rk l1t'ar \1yn lt'
!'k 'lCh. Sl Clew II I 12).

lilt

Fig ure 13-7

Examples of surgle-family residcmiat hl' lI,i ng CI"', d I I I I.

13

458

Remote sensi ng t he Urb an Landscape

:'oi airoh i. Kto) 1t

--

-.
--.

'0Traditional

Kenyan villa ge ... ith indIvidual

0.1 " dl ings sum..und..:d b)"a communal IiU"l;lock
corral .
Figure 13-8

O. Meltiple-farmlv informal
skirts ofNairobi, Ken ya.

(~ uallcn

Examples o f single- and multiple-ram iI)" residential housmg in

In developing countries, rural peo ple tl ock to the city to

hopefully obtain an improved qu ality o f life only 10 lind few
jobs and no available housi ng (Da Costa and Cjmra, 19(9).

This often resul ts in the crca uo n (If mtormol [squ atter ]

developments whe re mu ltiple families Iiv!.' in buildi ngs consuucted with any materials that can he: found (Je nsen ct al.,
2002 ). An inlonn a! sett lement o n the outski rts of Nairobi.
Kenya . is shown in Figu re 13Kb.
It is usu ally possible 10 dete rmine if a bui ldi ng is a single or
multiple-family resi de nce using ima gc ry with a spatial resolution fro m 1 -5 m. Sometimes it is necessaryto me rge multiple types of imagery such as Landsat Thematic Mapper and
rad ar imager y to identify villages in tro pica l part s of the
world ( Haack and Sloneckc r, 1( 1)4 ),
O n numerou s occasion s visual, head s-up o n-screen image
interpret atio n of ur ban struc ture ou tper form s co mputerass iste d d igital image proc ess ing (Jense n, 2( 115 ), Visua l
image inte rprete rs arc able to ta ke into acc o unt the sire. situ' Ilion, and associat ion o f structures , These clements of
image interp retation have been very d iflieu h to incorporate
into an alytic al methods of d ig itul ima ge classification. Only
no w are analyt ical neural net wor k-based image interpretation syste ms begi nn ing to include the fundamental elements
o f vis ual image interp retatio n into the image-analysis process (Jensen et al., :!OOI : Qi u and Jensen. 200..t ). For examp le, Figu re 13- 10 dep icts the user interface associated with a
neu ra l networ k-based d igital image processing system that

It

h,...,..ing on 11k' out-

dc\el "l"m~

t'tlUnll")- .

assists a n unagc interp reter to arrive at the co rrect lMd-

(OH'r or land- usc cla ssification for a parti cular pared ~

land, ln the pa st, th..- interpreter had to rely on complfi
branching dich otomous keys to ass ist in the inlel'J'rdatlOll
process . 1'0 w. the ima ge ana lyst ca n draw a polygon al'Ollnl
a feat ure suc h as the on e she w n in Figure 13 IOa and then
enter in the cbaractc rtsnc s observed in the polygon of iraeest using; a sim ple poin t-and-click menu such as the roc
shown in Figure 1.'- lOh, The c baractensncs might indUlk
the number of sidewalks. th... prese nce (If II driveway and:
garage, park ing lots , mu ltip le stories, and ge neral sizc oftle
phenomena. The neu ra l netwo rk then processes this infor,
marion and reports hnck tothe image analys t what it hd i ~vt\
i ~ the mo st appropriate lund- usc ur land -co ver code. Tht
neura l netwo rk is trained using real-world empi rical example" and in cuecr it 1"/11'//,1', Thc neural netwo rk classifies.
non system C' 1J1 also be used 10 photointcrprct other lam!
uses. incl uding comme rcial. services. an d industri al (Jensen
et al.. :!O(j I), Neura l network or e xpert ..ystc m-assisted intl.'!prcrction systems wi ll mosr likely be the means in the iimm
by which most derail ed urhnn mfomuuion is e\entUJ.I~'
extracted from digital remote sensor dl1ta (J en sen and 1I0llg
SOli,

lOW I.

Building and Cadastral (Propert y-Une) Infrastructure

In addition to fundamental nominal scale land-use and laMcover info rmatio n (i.c. ide nt ifying whether an object is I

Res

4 59

Resident ial L and Use

L Condomi nium rCl'i,k nlia l h,>u~; ng in Colorado (Ie\ el 11131_lbe

numm of dli\el'ay~. sidewa ll-s. ,111..1 no" r structures mdrcates how
many housing units are present. I hc !",, -Ieft condo i~ a Iourplex.
The 101' righ t b a S<.-\~"1l "le'\ . Ihe b onum1"0 condos an: lht"plc ~ .

b. Two- Sl" !) ' apa rtmen t com plcx in Cohrmbia. SC (le vel 1123 ). '" nh
sidt"" al" and pa rkin g around the perimeter.

num~'TOUS

Figure 13-9

c. Twelve-story sludcnl -holl~i ng apartment com rlc\; at the Univcr.ity ofSouth Ca rolm a (Ic\cl 112.1 ),

Examples " I' rnuluple-family rusidcnual housing

(b el li ::! ).

C II .-\I'TF.R

460

13

--

gem ct e Sensi ng t he Urban Landscape

:'rl l'ural
I ma~l'

E=

Reside

~t' h'lJrk

In terp reta tkm S p lclII

-=

""",.

-- - - ------"----- _-.. -~

""",_

r'_ ..._ _

~-..-..

a. User -interface.

-'

b. Data collection interface.

Figure 13-10 a ) The lIscr; "I~rrace of a Neural ~CI'" ork Image Interpretation System Ih313M;S(S an image a nalyst in the classiIicano n of diflkult urban landuse In this e xample. the analy~llIst'd \ Isual on-screen dlglli..mg to outline an unknow n objec t o f interest. b) The interpreter then used a point-and-cfick d ialog 1'>0.\ ' 0 i<lcmify prim itive auributcs
1\ uhin lh,' object o r inte rest. suc h as the e xistence of park mg 100(s l. Side...alkc . etc . T he ern pincal mformarion i,
pass ed (0 Ih..: ne ural networ k. ...hich then compares this paucm w ith pn:\ iuus panems (acluall)' " ... ights l and atte mpls to identify the un know n object as a multiple lamily resid entialhou sing cem pl.., O,,"~ n " I al., 200 11.

..

a
si ng le- tinn ily residence ( I f a commercial buildi ng). tran sportenon plann ers. utility co m panies. tax assessors. and otbcrs
req uire more detai led info rmanon on huilding footpri nt
pe rimet er. area. height. driv ewa ys, patios. fences, pool s.
sturagc build ings. aud the distribution <11' landscaping every
on e 10 fiv e years (Tab le l.~ -l ) ,

ca n he identified b)' a surveyor in the field and the information overla id onto the enhophotograph or planimetric map
database to represent the legal cadastral ( pro~ny ) map.
Many munic ipalities ill the U.S. usc h igh spatial resolution
ima ger)' as the sou rce for some of the cad a stral information
and as a n image hackd rup upo n which surveyed cadamal
an d tax in fo rmation arc pcrtrnyed (Cowell ami Cra ig. 2 0lM~

It is possible 10 identify the presenc e o f indiv idual build ings

using monos copi c images and several clements o f image
interpretat ion such as sil l.'. shape and context (Tullis and
Je nsen. 2003 ; Je nse n cr ;11,. 200S ). I Iowcvcr. dera iled building foo tprints lind propert y lines arc hes t obtained using stereoscopic (ove rlap ping: I panc hromatic aerial pho togra phy or
ot her remote sensor data w ith a spatial reso lution of ~ 0.2 5 0.5 m t e.g.. Ehlers et a l.. 2tlll3 ). Fo r ...s ample. panchrom atic
stereosc opic aeria l pho tograp hy w ith 0.25 x 0.25 m ( I OJ
spatial reso lutio n was used to extract tile e xact d imcnsions
o f Indi vid ual houses and outbuildings. trees . pool s. dri veways, r... nccs. and contours for the single- fa mily residential
area in Figure l j- Lla.b . In many instan ce s. the fen ce lines
arc the ca das tral property line-soIf the fe nc... lines an: not \isiblc or ar e nor truly o n the property tine. the- property lines

Detaile d buildi ng he ight and volume data can also be

ex tracted fro m high s patial re solution (O.::!5 - 0.5 m ) stereoscop ic imagery (C hapte r 6 ). For exam ple. consi de r the wirefr ame thr.....-dime nsicnu l ou t line of the United Stutes Capitol
shown in Fig ure 131 Ie. The pe rime te r. area , volu mc. crd
squ are foota ge of l h i ~ hu ildin g are now available. Such
det ailed building informa tion ma y al10\\ the exact type of
roof to be idc nuficd (c.g., riJ ge. mansard. hip ped, lean-to.
Ilal. ctc.). which rna)' he used to infer the date o f hllilding
co nsrrucuon I Lo and Yeung. 20(2). Bu ilding informanoe
ca n also be o btain ed from high spatial resolutio n satellite
imagery. For e xample. Fraser et a t. (200 2) fo und thar buildings co uld be ex tracted fro m -aereo IKOf'OS I x I m imag-

er

nlial Lan d Use

461

.-

temcel panchromatic I :2 .400-~le aerial phot ography

I'LmlTll<.'1ril: (."(.y) cad astral lnforrnancn ':Atra l:t..-..I from the
"~",,,;ic aerial photngTaphy. includinl,! 2-ft eon loIH'I. I"-llldfoctpnms, fences. r.:uining w alt,....nd larg.: trees (1enlo<:n
[o""ClI.19991.

c . Wire-frame mrormanon "fthe U.S. Capit ..,1 ':Alracto;o.! from lo~c

scale \ " n ;cOI I a"r;0I1 r ""I"I;1'3l"h). mcludmg precise b uilding footprim,
height. area. peruneter..lIld volume. The 1"'0 ph,,'lngraphs mOl) be
\ ic"' ..-.J 101\-'fl.,\)!i,wpi''0I11) (C(lurk'S>" UI S)~I..-ms. U C. San Diego. C 1\.
and f\larclIni Integ rated Sy~l ...ms. Inc.: (.~ S()(!:. r Sell.

Extraction of cadastral inform1ltiun fro m stereoscopic vertical m-nal photography using a ) trad itional, a nd b.c ) soft-copy phn

togrammctric t ...r hniqucs 11'1...,.-<:, ref...r 10 ( hapl...r (,), Such infurmali"n i, \ ilal III tlie Jccurate inventory vf residential, com
mcrciul. JnJ industrialIaudusc. Itcan be acquired us ing traditional sure c) illg or ph"\ "grmmn"tric techniques.

with an .l.y accuracy o f 0 .3 - 0 .6 m and he ig ht a ccuracy

Pop ul a rlon ":\ tim:uin n

8S - 0.9 m.
oecooomic Characteristics Derived from Sing le
Multifamily Residential-Housing Information

led socioeconomic aunbutes ma y be e xtract ed dir ectly

remote sensor data or via surrogate inforrnuuon
ic ed from tile imagery. Two of the most important are
lation es timation and quo li!.. f!(It(e ind ica to rs. derived
til) from sing le- and muluple- family rcside nt tal- housstock information .

Know ing how many people Ii, e with in a specific geo gra phic
area or ad ministranve unit te.g.. cit y. cou nty, state. co untry ]
is \ 'CI") powe rful mfomunion (Je nsen ... t al.. 2002 ). In fact.
some hav e sugges ted tha i the g lobal e ff ec ts o f inc reased
populauon density and ecosys tem land-cover convers ion
may be muc h r no rc significant than those aris ing fro m cl ima te change (S kolc , 19( 4 ). Population estimation can be
pe rform ed at the loc al. regional. and na tionalleve l based on :
coun ts of individ ual dwe lling units (req uire s 0.25 - 5 m
nom ina l sp anal resolution (Je nsen e l 31., 20 lJ5):

t3

462

meas urement of urbanizedland areas (often rcfc rrc-d to as

settlement siTe) {e.g .. Tatem et al., :!OO-ll;
esumau..' s deri ved fro m land- use/land-cover classification
(1.0, 1995; Sulton et al.. 199 7; Sunon, ::00 3 1.
Remote sensing tec hniques may provide population ..-sumales tha t approac h the acc uracy oftradiriona t c-cnsus meth ods if su fficient ly acc urate in .ifu (1;113 arc available til
calibrate th... rem ote sensing moo d . Un fortuu arcly, the
grounJ.ha-.cu po pulat ion estimarionc arc often ..voefully
inac curate. In many instances. the remore se ns ing me thods
may b.. MIIK'riM 10 the g roun d-based met hod s.

or

Th e mos t acc urate remote sen sin g method

estimating the
pop ulation of a local area is til count illdi l'idlm l d lld/il l):
l/11il.\ based on the foll owing assu mp tion s II indgrcn. 191\5;
Ln. 199 5: 11,, 11., 19KX; Haack et al., 199 7 ):
T he image ry mu st have sufficient spnua! reso lut ion III
allow idcuuficauon
ind ividual structures even through
sparse tree cover and 10 determine whe ther the struct ures
an: rcsidcnrial. commercial, o r industrial.

.,1'

Some csumcrc o f the average number of persons pe r

d"elling unit must he available.
Some e-umate of the number of homeless. seasonal. and
migratory workers is requ ired.

It i" assumed all dw elling units arc occupied. and on l~ /I

fami lies live in each unu tca librutcd us ing ill situ

Remote Sensing th e Urban Landscape

is toe time-consum ing a nd co sil y (Su lton ct al., 1997

han- suggested that this method req uires so much jll
til calibrate the remote sensor da ta that it can become
ncnally impractical. Therefore. othe r methods hal(
developed.
T heil' is a relations hip be tween the urba nized built-t4'
(scnlcmem site) e xtracted from 3 remo tely sensed
and senlcment population (Olorun fcnn, 19X-'I:
r

/,/>

where I" is the radiu s o f the pop ulmc d area circle. e s

empi rica lly der ived co nstant of preporuonalny, P is thc~
ul.nion. and h is an empirically derived exponent. Estiw
o f the se parameters arc Fairly cons istent ut regional _
bUI the es tim ate of th e 1I pa ra mete r varies between re~Ofl>
Sutton \'1 ul. (1t,l'J7) used Defen se 1I 1d l.'Ilruiogicai Sale
Pro gram Operational Linc scan S)'stC11l (DMSP-OLS) \
near-infra red nigh tt ime 1 x 1 km imagery In inventory
cxmu for the en ure Unite d Stat ....s ( Figure 13-12). Whell1k
d:lt;l lIere uggrcgatcd to the state o r county level.
analysis (If the- ct ustcrs o f the saturated pi"el s predic:ed Polulanon wnh an ,;' '"' 0.81 once aga in. Sutton (2003)
nightumc I>"- I$ P-OLS imagery to measure per capiuill
usc consumption as an aggregate index for Ihe spatiall~
tiguous urban areas o f the conterminous Unitcd Staes
populauon ol'2:: 50,000. Tatum ct al. (2lX)41delineated ~
mcms in Kenya using Landsat T \1 and J ERS- \ symbdi.
aperture radar (S A RI data wj th the glial of p~
medium-scale population ma ps for improved public
planning.

informauon j.

This is usuall y perf orm ed CICI) the In seven years and

requires high spat ial resolution rCI11(lh:~ )Y sl'I1SCl! d,lta (0.25 5 m). For ex am ple. ind ivid ual J wdl iug units in lnnc, SC
were c\ tr:lclld Irom 2.5 x 2.5 m airc ra tl l11 uhispl'c tnll data .
( 'o rrdatillll of the remote sCllsing----l.l<:rlvcll dwd lillg IInil d:lta
with 13ure:au "fthe: Census dwel ling unit d,lta for the 31 census h loc k arC:l ) iclded an R.' - l Ul l. "hil'h accou nted l(lr XI
JlC"1"l-'\:'nt Of lhc ~;I rianee_ T llese lin din g, suggest Ilwl the ne l\
h ig h spat ial reso lution pam:h rul11;l li..: '>Clblll"S may pw \- ido: :l
good sllurec Ill' inro ml:ll ion for moni toring the housing stock
of a Ctlmmun ll~ \lll a w utine l>a,i,. f h is " ill en ahk InClll
go\ernmcnts to an tIcipate and plan for s..:hooh and othcr :>cr\ ices" ith data that h:b a much more frequl.'nl h.'mporal re solut ion tha n lhe decennial census. ThIS da la will alSl,' be u f
\ alue for rCOl I es!.atc. marketing.. and otht'r bU:>Lne:>s applications . Unfnrtun;Jtc!y, thl' d \\ el ling -ull1t approach is not suitahll.' for a reglona lma tional Cl:nsus of J'I..pu latillll lx'Cause il

Re s id e

Fig'

Q.

A.
se

'q'"
E
br
aj

..\ lIotlll'r widely ado pted populanon cs tuuanon tC'C hni'lllC&

based on the use o f the Level I - [II land -use inlilrmaTIil
" his app roach l1SS U111CS thai land usc ill an urban am! ~
closely cor re late d with popu lation densit y, Re,c~rclIrn
e~ t ;;l h l ish nn l.' mr iti cal v31ue tOT the po pulation den~ ity fll
":<I..:h lan d U Sl ' hy tid d survey \' r ce nsus dala l e.g.. multlplt
fam ily resi de ntial huusi ng m ay cl' ntain fi\ c pcrsoll.\ popi\d " hcn using 30 x J o m Them at il' MaPJll' r data; M
li.1R.'"stl-d arcas m ighl ha lO: onl) 0 .20 po: rson s per pi'c
Thl'n. hy measu ring the 10l.al area for l'aeh l:mdu!'>C eale~
I he~ eSlimau the total f".p ul:l1io n for lna l categOf)'. S;m.
minjl Ihe l'st ima lt'd lota ls !t.r ca..:h land-us<: catcgory p1"
\ ides Ih..: lol al J'l.Jplllation projeclillll ( Lo. I
J.
bu ilt-up area and land- usc dal <l ml'l hod can t>e m!<d on~
..:uarse spatial resol ution mu ltisp...'Ctr;l1remote s<:nsordaul5
20 mJ e\ cry 5 15 yean;. I lc nderwn and Xia t \9QSldil.
CllS~ hn" radar imagery ca n t>e of \alue w hen cooductil!
ll'<.pul;llIClIl estimates lLsing thcM: same te..:h niqucs.

qqs

1lIe.

,,

463

lSidential la nd Us e

JUre 13-12 Defense Met.,:o rolugieal Satellite Program Opcr"lional Lincscan System (O\tSP-OlS) , i~ihle l>Cilf_mff3rC'd nigh ttime 1 x I
km imagery of the con terminous Unncd Stat..,;. w hen the data .... ere aggregated to the ~I.ale or county jcvet , ~['lI tial analysis of
the c1 11~ter,. of the ",-luraleJ pixc b, predicted pu pu !dliOll with an R? c O_I' I (Sulton ct al.. IQQ7; e"Une~) Am.TIc:m Society for
PhOlogTilmmctry & Remote

IJ l i l~.O r. l .i re

~~~mg ~.

Im lica lo n

kquate incom e. dece nt hous ing. good edu cauon, health

vices. and a goo d physical cnv ironment (c.g., no hazards
refuse) are important ind icat ors lit" . . lll:ial well-be ing and
olity uf !lfi.' (Lo and Faber, IW S: Lo and Yeung 2002 ),
:aJualing the quality Ill' life of a population o n a con tinuing
5i, is imponar nbe cause il he lps planners and governmen t
enctes involv ed with the delivery Ill' huma n services to be
areof pmhk-m are as .

OlSt quality-of-f Ic studies have been based (Ill the analysis

socioeconomic informtnion derived fro m ill situ cnumcrIn. Rem ote ly sensed images have rarely been use d in
.ial studies, Only recently huvc facto r unalysis studies
rencntc d how qua lity lit' lite indicators (such as ho use
ue. median family inco me, ave rage numbe r of rooms.
nagc relit. and education] CUll be estimated by C-\lrucli ng
urban attributes fou nd in Table 13-X from relatively high
nal resolut ion t ll.25 - .10 m ] image ry (L indgren. It,lX5;
lz. J9lo!8 : Met)' and Bcr liu. 1991 ; Hauck et al. 1991; l,o
IFaber. 1995; 0.1 Costa and ("inlra. I"}lll); Lo and Yeung.
12: Jen sen et al.. 2005 1. Note rhar the au ntuues arc
mged by silt' (bui lding and lot) and situation. The site
y he situated in positive and ncgmn e surro und ings.
remote sensing- d..-r i\ cd ullTi butcs mu sl be corr c lat..-d
h ill sit u censu s oMen:ll illns to compute thc q uali ty-o f..

:!<

life indicators Lo and Faller (I t,lI}X I suggesl thai in many cities gree n vegetation is \1.'1)' prec ious and cos ily. and thai
un ly the wealthy can a fford to include grass and trees in the ir
living environment. T hey found that greenness mtorma non
de rived from Tl\1 da ta was highly co rrelated w ith quality o f
lifc . Qualit y-o f-fife indicators arc usua lly co llec ted every 5
I (J years_

EnvlrunmcmalIu flucnc cs i\ ~ ~u d a t l'd w illi ZOll l n J:

Lon ing i, a tuolurbuu plunncrs usc 10 control physical charucrerisrics o f dcveloping landsca pes by imposing restriction
o n vnriahlcs such as ma ximum huilding height and dens ity,
extent lit" impcrv il\lIs surface and ope n Sp<lcc. and land use
types and aerie nic s. Thc sc variables. in turn. influence cn viro nmenral
r roc essl'~
o f atmosphe re/surface ene rgy
exchange, surface and subsurface hydrologi c ~YStC IllS, an d
micro- to mcsoscalc weather and clim.ne re gime s. Wilson ct
nl. (200Jh ) found that the re were sigmficam differences in
rad iant sur face tem peratu re and the t\ o rma li/ cd Diffe rence
vcgcranon Index ( ~ D V I ) derived fro m Lan dsat 7 E'I'M "
imagery for drtfcrent types of :loning in Indianapolis. 1:'-1 .
Ihis suggests that the uue grurion I1 r a city's G IS voning da ta
w ith remote sensing mea surements of surfac e temperature
and l" DV I can help plann ers gain in ~i gh t into Ihe environmen tal consequences o f Itl n i n~ decisions.

C HA Pn :1{

464

Table 13-8 .

Urban/S uburban anrib urcs that may be c~ tracl"d

from remote ~n",'r data and USloJ IIl1lS~SS huusing
4L!il l i ly and.or "lual il} of life.

Fac tor

Sil"

A ttributes

Buildinll
single Of multiple-family
sin ' ( m~
height (m l
age [derived hy convergence (If evidence )
~aragc [attached. detached!
Lot
s ill: { m~ l

sensed data. First . the St.juilrc footage (or m:) ofindivi

buildings is determ ined trom high sp;l1ia l reso lution imatery, Loca l ground- reference in fo rma non abou t cnc'1!) CISsu mpuon is then o bta ined for a representa tive sample
hom es in the are a. Regress ion rela tio nsh ips are then denll'l
III predi ct the antici pated en"rgy co ns ump tio n for the l"t]!'
It is also possible 10 pre d ict ho w m uch solar photo\ olllt
enc rgy poten tial a geograp hic reg ion ha s hy modeling .
ind i\ idual roofi t,p square footage a nd or ientation It
knott n phutovoltaic generatio n co nstrain ts. Both applicJ.
nons require high spalial resolu tion imagery (0,:;:5 - I
(Curra n and Hobson. It,lX 7; OOL :!()f15 ). Regional .
national energy co ns ump tio n may also be predicted ~
D~l SP image l')- tc .g.. 1".1\ idge et al., IIN 7: Sulton eI

that
ty pe
sim I
foro:

oftl
10 ')

rcrr
see
cor
me

tiOI

1'0147 ).

backy ard 1m: )

street frllnWge lml

drive.... ay (pa ved . unpa ved)

fenced
pool tmgroend. aboveground )
patio. deck
ou tbui ld mgs (s heds)
dcn sll y ofbuild ins per l()[
percentlandscaped
health o f scgelation (e.g.. ;";DVI greenness ]
fron ts pal ed ( II" unpaved road

abandoned autos
refuse
..\ d ja{e m:~ 10 Co n lln u " i l ~ Am" lIitks

schools
, h" Plllllg
ch urches
IlI'spi"" s

tire station
Il]X"1l '1';1':1:, parks.\! lllf cour ses
marsh
. \ I1 J :l n m ~ I" ~ t1 i"Ul n'\ or lIal ard \

heavy strcctrra fl'ic

railroad or switc hynrd

airports and -or

Com

Rem ote Sensing th e Urban Landscape

a.

Iroru yard 1m:)

Situa tio n

13

ll i~h lpa lh

Numcrou -,stud ie-s have doc um ented hllw high vpaual ~

tion ( I - 5 r n} pred aw n therm al infra red image ry (I( - IJ !1A
can be used to incemory the fI.' lal i\ equality ofhuusing imtltauon if Ljthc rooftop materia l ic known te .g.. asphalt \Cl'SllS
wood ~hin!:des). 2 ) nil moisture is pre-em on the roof. and]
the orient ation and slope o f the roof arc known (Eliassoo.
ItN:! ). If energy con servation or the generation of solar ~
10\ onaic pow cr we re important in cou nmcs. these \aria~
wo uld prob ably be collected every o n,' 10 Ii \ e years.
Ac tive and p<lssi, e usc Ill'sola r energy can be used to redIlC(
cl...ctrica! e nergy cons ump tion in bu ildin gs and thert:b):
reduce the con sumpt ion of fos sil fuel s. Ham me r et a! C.OOl t
demonstrated h'lll the amouru til' sur face so lar irradiancc ca
be dcrcnumcd from ge'l~tal itln al)" satelli te remote scn>Ol
J aw and then used in a prcdicuv c modeIIH U ,IOSi\T) f('(
sola r energy predicuous. rite gllal is to provide near rca\.
time intelligent buildi ng Icmpernture -colllrollcchniql1l:sthi!
lake into account syste ms unu II SI' solnr energy teg .. solar
rands... kylighls )_

Comme rcia l and Services Land Use

freew ay
l ocate d 011 n Iloodplain
sc wage-l rr nlm,nl plant
mdustrial .u cu

power plant or ' Ubsl;}ll,' n

ove rhead uulity lin,."
steep lelTain

Energy Demand and Conservation

Loca l uThan suh urhan energy tk ma nd (s ometi mes referred

10 as h,at- I'lild J" ns it~) rnay hi: csti rnJt,-d using. rcm lltd ~

People eng age in commerce (husinc ....) til provide food,

c lolh ing . and ..hd ter lilr thenheh es ;md thei r extended families . Many \-Iorl.; in the sl:T\in' indu sl';"s p rovidi ng ,'duca
linn . m,-dil'a t sani tation. tir l' a nd po lice protec tion, etc . ttl
imp ro\-c Ihe quality o f life li' r Ihe en llre co m munity _ l nt~
estmg.ly. man y \lf lhesc ac ti\-iI16 arc \is ihle in tho: land:;ca ~_
C('lIlm e rcial and s\:rvice ael i\ ities o ften hal e a un ique nJ
rura' .{;gnamn dd i nl-d as Ih..: assemhlage o f s[lC'Cili c mat";"
a ls an d strur.: tu res Ihal r.:harnc lcriL": c.:nain :111.1\ iti;:s in a
part icul.lr cult ure. Each cu lture has cu mme rce and ser..iccs

er

cc

'""
f,

rc

p
o

c
s

465

Commerc ial and Se rv ice s Land Use

ilt arc unique to tha t culture. For example. there arc many
~pes of commerce found in Asia tic urban enviro nme nts that
SIm ply arc not found in Western urban landscapes. Therefon:. an interpreter must understand we ll the cu ltural milieu
i the count')' o f interest before he or she attempts 10 iO\ enU) and map the commerce and se rvice activitie s using
smote se nso r data. In fact . if an interprete r has not act ua lly
een the phenomena on the grou nd and docs not understand
pletely the cult ural signi ficance and purpose o f the comeercc or acti vuy. then it is un likdy that 3 co rrect imc rprcran wi ll be ma de [Jen sen et 31.. 2no2 ).
The author extended the L"SGS l.A.md- LselLt.md-Co \'('rCtassfication System in Tabl es 13-110 J.l-h 10 include Le\'e1 IV
llld sometim es Level V clas ses. Thi s extension is prima ri ly
.. U. S. an d wcsrcm European land",apo.'S but ma y be generally applicable to ot her dev eloped nations. It represents a
rommon- ,cnse hieran:hi eal system thai can be aggregated
leek to Levels I and II. It is nOl complete in con tent ; rather,
~ reflects an attempt to categori ze the land use that accounts
b approximately Q; percent of the urban land ucc cncou nrreo.1 in mo st developed cities. 11 uses common terminolog y
whenev e r po ssible. A detail ed dcflninon of eac h class is not
pr(l\'idcd he re. However. it is instructive to provide numc r!XIS exam pl es of the va rious ty pes of land UM: and C0l11111eni
00 unique characteri st ics that al low on e Iype of comme rce or
service 10 he di stinguished from others.

The Central Business District

The central business district (CB Il I of man y ciuec is the

m(l~t distinctive urban landscape With ill' high-rise buildings
lIld the highes t densi ty of land usc . Muny CllDs have
changed co nsiderab ly in recent yea rs. particularly in the
Uni ted SIMes. Urban geographers usc the term deindll'\lrializanon IU de scribe the loss o f manufacturing industries in
Cities today. an d the rise of ,,/"Ii(l/)' and qUall'rnar)' commercial activi ties. notably financial services. insurance. and real
esta te. There arc also many other profe ssional services tha t
characterize the modem cures and the phe nomenon of slIh~rh,miziJtirlll . Ix",. ruow n Scaute. \VA , is an excellent exam~c ora central business dis tric t ( F i~ ure 13,13). Numerous
high-rise office buildings hou se the financial se rvic es. insurance. and real estate lion s . I tow ever. some (If the towers also
remain singtc- and multiple-Family residences.

The C HD" of so me cities in the Un ited States have bee n I)

transfo rmed into po vert y urcas. ~) genuilicd . meaning that
onlyolder people live in thl'm and that ,<'ery ti:w yo ung la mlliesare pres ent. and o r 3) r~-Cll n struClcd \00 ith ne\Oo bui ldings

Figu re 13 - 13 .-\ fl<lrlion III' t~ ("1'''''<1/ Im.'IIIt''' <li."T,e' CCRO ) of

d"",nh'\>. n Sc aulc, \VA. TI'e ll."J;ion has been 0.1.:(01"cered. II is flrimarily co m pos...-d of impcrv ious highri.... huil<lings thai contain financial "".. rviccs. insu rancc, and real t'~lalt' compa nies . :'>l unlt'rollS multipk-lot<lf) a p.lr1 mcn t complews arc also present. A
rectangula r, '~.ll'mm ica lly surveyed lra nspunalion
lo}slern sc..... es Ihe area. A new ull k.: building is un,k'r constrncuon III the top' le ft portion of thc irnage.
l his is a I x I In A UA I{5500 dig ital frame camera

Image {colln.,s)'

1' (l SI II \ '1.' Systl.'ms.

Inc_I.

III attrac t p rofe ssional middle-class people and thei r small

famil ies (usua lly ~ 2 child ren) to return and stay. These and
other condi tions mak e it difficult In identify the exact land
use ora particular parcel of land in tile central busi ness di strie r. lnstm obse rvation is usua lly required in add ition to the
analy sis of remotely sensed data,

Commercial Land Use

.<\ utllmn th l' and "uIII

The developed world and es pecially the Unite d States is
enamored w ith the nutornobrle an d other loons of personal
trunspon auon. incl ud ing trucks, sport uti lity vehic les . rcc rcauon \ chides. and boa ts . Much of our d isposable income is
spent acq ulTing and mainta ining lht....c veh icle s. Th ~rcloH: .
the- urba n land scape is lith:rcd w ith dca le r-; hips tll se ll them.
sen-icc stati "ns til li ll thcm up wi th petroleum di sti llate

466

C H:\ pn ;R

3. Automobile dealership in Columbia. SC (level 12 11 1). Can for

sa le are arranged systrmallcally for t>uYo:'f inspeclion and .:'3'< of
exit and return .

13

Remote Sensing the Ur ban L andscape

b. T)l" <:31a utomotive So.'I"\IC'e Mall.m '" j,h multiple islands iOf Ihpcusmg gaso hne Of I.h,,-s.:l f\ll:l aOO a ma in bu ild ing coru.ir.u~ Ii
.-.cr\ icc bays or mirn- rnarkct 11.:-, ...1I :!l l:n Jhe c ircular 'op$ lillrf
underground petroleum slur-J.~'" u.nls arc \ iSlbk in this c:umrle.

Figure 13 14 Examples of comm.. reral aUlolT1l .ol lc establishments 1k\ o:l 12 11).

products. and bus incs~:; that repai r the m. Finally, their

rema ins can often he see n in automobile junkyards.
New an d used ca r. truck, and boat deale rships arc rclmiv cly
easy to idcnlil)"due to the myriad of'vehicles Of bo ats pa rked
systema tica lly in large parking lots, thc presence of large
show rooms and att ached service ce nters ( Fig ure IJ lb ).
Isolate d se rvice and repair businesses arc mor e ditfl cu tr 10
identify but usually have sma ller p.trking lot s with many
can; prese nt in the lot in various slates o f rep air.
Gas service stations o ften have a se parat e island str ucture
with ils own cano py \\ here the fuel is d ispe nsed . a detached
buildi ng that is usually a mini- market. and occasionally
anoth er bui lding when: automo biles arc w ashed. Gas statio ns arc 0 111;11 IIKalel! (HI corner lots (Figure 13-I-Ib) .
Numero us cars are o ften located around the perip hery of the
service- stuuons.

bu ild ing tc.g.. sporti ng goo ds. garden, cl othing. market.

toys ). The building usuall y is one of the large-.t (m~) in the
region ( Figure 13- 15 location <I I. :\ very larg e parking lotit
adjacen t to it. Isolate d dcparuucnr stores often haw 'iIOIlgl:
loc ations in the ~Irking hIt \ 1 her e ca rts ca n be returned.
Conve rse ly, a ma ll is a collection o f multiple dc partmes
stores rl'ig ure 1) 15 loca tions hed). II is us ually the large;<
bu ildin g. co m plex in the region (m 2 ). The d epartment , 10m
w ith in the mall arc usually connec ted hy a centra l .... alk\\al
that is o ften enclos ed. Skyl igh ls arc oncn located above the
centra! walkway. The mall is o ften comple tely encircled
wi th sing le or multiple lew is o f pa rki ng, w ith perhaps some
unde rground parking. Department stor es and malls arc often
located at the j unction (If major highwa ys . T hey ure usuall!
straig ht forwar d 10 idcnufy be cause ofrh cir extreme size and
sit ua nou .

Fi nan ce li n d ('o nst r uc ti on

Junk ynrd s have ;1 largl' num be r o f ve hicles arranged in II
haphaz ard fashion. runny m i..sing hoo ds and trun ks. Als o.
grass may be grow ing bet ween the cars. ma king it stra ightforward 10 drsun guis h it fro m a dealership.

Department stores t e.g . \ValMa rt, K-Man . Scars-Roebuck )

co ntain many type s of prod uc ts locancd .... ithin a single

Com

T her e art: ofte n a tremendo us numbe r o f banks. brokerage

firm s, insurance agencies, con struction fi rms. and real esne
offices in the ce ntra l busincss d istrict or a majo r cit} te.g.,
re fer to the image o f' Scaulc. \VA in Figu re 13-13\. Parking
may be \ iviblc abovegro und. in multiple-story aboveground
parking struct ures. or unde rg rou nd . For exam ple. consider
the Affi nity Office Building loc ated in dcwrucwn Columba,
SC (F igure IJ-l t><I ). II is the ta lle st building in
city and

me

Commercial and services Land Use

467

Figure 13-15 Example of dcpanrucm ~ll)fe "nd mall commercia! [and us.: in sorne developed c<"mlnc'S. An isol.ucd Toy....RUs. Inc. defl'l rtmclll store Iat IS Independenl ufl tlc mall t lcvt'l [113 11. 1l1c m,,11 commercial cl>mpk" Ct<:\c1 12 [32) i~ anchored 11)' three
maJur chains: Scars-Roebuck, Inc. tb). BcI~. Inc. Cc l. and Dillal,l,. lnc . (d l. The centra ! walkway of the mall is encl"'e...l "llh
occasional s kylights. The m;.11 is completely ""rro untlc>J II) p;lrk lll~. some Ill' whi.:h I" aSl'h.lh (\laTin and sonic concrete
(light). I hc roof uf Whi l.:" department store Ce ) is asphalt. barely d i'li lL~ lI j , hahk from the {'nrking 1m. ~ " I e' the rmnu-ruus airconditioning unils on each huild ing.

bcuscs banking, brokerage fi rms. insura nce agencies , an d an

airline ticket o tfice. Parking for chis bu ildi ng is pnmarrly
aboveground. It is impossible 10 idc mify (he specific act i\ ities laking place .....ithin this office building. Therefore . it is
often necessary 10 sim ply label the hui Ming or parce l a:.
being ('fml/>/t'I"!::i<l/ lan d usc. Field work or census euumcr ulion can provide some ofthe mfo rmauo n
l arge multiple-story buildings like this nrc commonplace in
major cities ofth e world. On large-scale ae ria l photography
relief d isp lacem ent of the top o f the build ing is a funct ion of
II how high the bui lding is above the loca l datum.:!j the a h itudeo f the aircraft al the instant o f exposure. and J ) how far
the buildi ng is located aw ay fro m the princ jpa l point of the
pbotog raph. A lso . rhc bui ldings tend to cast long shadows.
The relief displacement and the shadows ca n both hinder
and hel p in buildi n~ idcnuficanon . In this exam ple. rchcf
displace ment aids in the idcmificanon, ,I" the sides (la \"ade )
of'buitdi ngs a re actua lly visib le provi d ing a good impression
ofbuildin g vert ica l relict. Shad ows help to setthe buildings
(lIT from the remainder
the sce ne. when using such aerial
photog ra phy . it is necessary to usc photogram mcrric techniques ro co mpe nsate lor the rel ief dis placement if one

or

desir es 10 ma p the' e xact perim eter of the bu ild ing in its

proper planimetric: (.l.y) posinon, O ne ca nno t simply draw a
polygon around thc hlp o f the hllilding an d ass ume thlll il is
in us proper planimetric position. O ne might thin k tha I relief
displuccr ncru would be absent from high spa tial resolut ion

imagery obtained fro m sensors placed in o rbit. Unfo nuna tel y. lhls IS nOI Ihl' case. 'IS de monstrated in the GeoE)'e
IKU :-.J OS I x I 111 imag e of downtown Sea u le. \VA . where
bui ld ing displaccmcrn is srill apparent (Figure I .~ -I J}.

Isola ted. detached banking faciluics typically have a d rivethro ugh po rtico struct ure w here fina nc ial transac tio ns lake
place (Figurl' D]hh). O ne pa rking a rea is usua lly a"..o cratcd v\ith v.a lk-in ban kin g. \\ hilc the other pomon o f the
parking area ~o:" ices the dri ve-tbmugh traffic. One must be
care fu l not 10 con fuse the d rive-through hank bui lding v. ith
a gas station that also has a drive- thro ugh portico.
t'onsuuc uon companies ot len ha H~ heav y equipme nt (buc khoes, dump truc ks, ct c. jlocmed on the prope rty. as well as
stacks or piles o f raw materials (c.g . lumber, cement. palC!lI;"S ofbricks).

46B

( ' I L\ I'TE R

a l"llmm"'1 ~ ial finand al ".,0 leo. . ind udin!! banking (I....d 12141).
insurance [level 12142 1. and real esta te transacnons [le vel 1214} 1.
take plac... in th... A ml1l l~' Ottlcc nu i1dil1~ in dow ntown Columbia.
Sc. Building relief displa cement in l h i ~ original 1:b.lMlO-sca k vertical se n..1pho!\lgrd phy prv it.l..-s lktaiktl info rmation abcet rhe Iacadc

13

Remote Sensing th e Urban Landscape

b. An ist>ldkd ,;mall b<lIlking ..-"wblis hl1lClll [Icvel I:l~ l

Clnnpldt' '" llh the m;lln huil<ling and atta ched limeIhm ugh td ler sy-rcm. In thi, e xample. one parLlOg lR'a IS
as sc.. ia....tl '" Ith walk-in ban king " hil l' Ik- other pOI1JOl1 01
th..' r arklllg arca S('l"\ ICt'l' the dn ve-through customers.

(sid c ) of th ... f,IlI1 d ing and :Ji,ts in huild ing im age iml.TJll\"lation.

Fig ure 13- 16 F'Iamplcs of commercial financmt ....-rvices (level 121';1

Food a nd Dru g
The urban landscape is replete \\ ith many food and d rug
busi ness es tabl ishmen ts . Chninsrorc markets and drugst ores
occupy larg e hUlldi ngs " ilh ex tensive parking facrlities.
T hey may be isolated . but arc oft en [uuud attac hed . Fur
example. consider the unachcd drugstore (1) and supc rma rkct (2 ) shown in Figu re 1.\- 171\. T he IiIOU and drug esta blishmcnts share a large common parking lot. The cxact land- usc
code of suc h buildings is ofte n difficult to dete rmine wit hout
ill ",jill inspection beca use the large extended building and
p'lrk illg fuciluics ma y ap pear sim ilar to other commercial

enterprises.
Fast-food rcstuurams geucrully occupy n-lariv cty small, sing jc-stcry huil din gs. T hey arc located on both majo r an d
minor roads. ha ve modest hut adequa te pa rking fac iliti es.
a nd often exhibit a " ing lc automobile d rivc-th rough wi ndow
lane thai encircles the t>u ilding ( Figure 1]1 7t>c). T his is
important bec ause drive-t hrough hanks typ ically ha vc mu ltiple drive -th rough lanes. There arc usua lly numerous
entrance s and exits tll the 101 . The lot is usua lly modestly
land scaped. Som et im..-s there arc elaborate playgrounds with
gymnasium equipmcru present in front oflhl.' rl.'stau r.mt s.

More- ex pensiv e. upscale restaurants arc larger in si/e (m-],

have wett-manic ur..'d lawn and tree landscaping. occupy a
much larger lor. and have large r park ing areas than fast-food
res taurants . Both fas t-food and upscale restaurants have a
large number of vents 1111 t heir rootlop s. Sometimes the
smo ke discharged from the vents disculors the rooftops .

Fun eral al ul

(' l'nh'h' l"~

Hav ing traveled the equivalent of 100 rimes aro und the
Earth in our aumnmbilcs during a lifetime {the Earth is llnl}
~5.0 0n miles in circumfcrcncc t ;Ind c.ucn at far too muny
fast -food restaurant s, American and Western Europeans
linally reside ill a cemetery " r mausoleum . Interestingl)',
cemeteries ofte n con found image inte rpreters. yet they have
unique charactcnsncs ( Figu re 13- IXI. In developed nations
they gcncmlly ucrupy all expensive and ex tens ive tract of
land. often udjaccmto churches. The landscap ing is usually
meticulous The ro ad nl'IWl1rk is intrica te. w ith man y narrow
roads. O ften. the road-, Iolluw the contour of the land . But
must important. there arc hu ndr c-ds ofsystematically spaced
sma ll wh ite dots o n the landscape. There is otlcn a shed on
the propert y w ith heav y equipment tbackhoc l and \JUllS
locatcd in Ihl;' shl,.-d tlr 1>11 Ihc g ruuml out of sight from tbe

Comn

".12
f,

469

ommerc lal and Serv ice s l and Use

LExample of d drugst"TC (r.:~'d I:!I SI ) (lfI the kfl (11au...:hed 10 a supermarket (lew l
l~l S2 1

on the r ight (2). The smalloue -story hlll!<l ing m thc par kin g

fOlomat (3l.

r", j ,

a 01ll."-h' HIT

h. A fact-food restaura nt (le \ e1 12 153 ). r-;Ille

the ample p<lrki ng andthe dri ve -throu gh WIIldow june.

Ftgure 13 -17 b,am pll-'; of I.""" ,moJ

I levc11215)

oJru~

commercial businesses

t . A,nuther fast-food n..~laur;ml (k\ d 12 1:53) Again nUle Ihe dri\ cthrough window lane loaded", Ilh cars.

pohlic. A mortua ry or funeral home may he located on the

property, II is o ften a sing le large- t'ouilding with subvra nrial
parking.

People thro ughout the .... orld )\lVC 10 go (In ov ernight and
extended vacau ons . Th is has resulted in a p lethora o f small
motels that ca ter to the motori st and large r hotel s that arc
used lor roth husin~~s and pleasure. One Ilfthl' major d ill er -

cnccs be twee n a mo re l and a hotel is size, Morel s lend III he

smaller and have fewe r stories (Fig un: 13-ll)a) . Hote ls arc
etten impnsing struct ures risi ng 2: 4 sto ries (Figure 13- 1%).
Both motels and hotels usuall y ha ve large par king areas and
s.... imrning pl lol(s). Mo te l pnrkin g is etten d irectly in front o r
the ren tal un it, whe reas hote ls oft en have large und erg round
parking areas Ihal at c d iOicll lt to detect. Hotels often ha.....
tennis courus. whereas molds us ua lly do nul. large hote ls
tend to h.: located nea r major thoroughfares. airports. and
limned-acecss highways while motels may he loc ated j ust

13

470

Remote Sensing th e Urban Landscape

Con

,Ix>
seal

Th.
"I
ind

P"
Th
,~

..

,n
II

T
Ftgu re 13-1 6 A purtiun .,1' Ill.: Elmwood Cern ..,~'I)' in Columt>ia. SC (1ev ,;1 111(1). ori~in ally
recorded 011 1:10.000-sea 1C' aerial ph,,'u~'T;Iphy_ Th.. small white dots are mdividual headstones. The larger white seructures ... nh shado.. s are mausoleums. llIc
t>u i ldil1~ at the right is a large ma usoleum .

a. The 1!eM! of Cawlina :\Iv l..:! {le,,:1 121721.

Many ofthe cars arc par ked d il\'clly In fnl ll1 o f

h. I cm porury h"u~i ng .il lh.. Columbia Plaza 111'10:1 (J,,: \c1 1117l l. Nut.. the high-rise hottl
complex. the 1<l111\' p;lrKing 3 l\':J. and attached conn-n lln n hall wuh its \lwn elevated ramp

the patron's ruvms.

for [oaili ng and unloading convennon exhibus. TIle po,,[ is ins ide til.: building.
Fig u re 13-19 Commercia! motel ami hold temporary

hou~ ing

(Ic\ cl 12171.

"a

s
a

~ me rc ia l

a nd Servic es land Use

47 1

anyw lll..rc. Hotel s usually have me re luxur iant land-

fairw ays, numerous brigh t sa nd traps. and well-manicu red

gree ns ( Figure 1323).

arc al so sp,..ciahzed campgrounds that cate r spccifi:lilyto the motorist . Th..-se han: unique attrib ute s. incl ud ing
lIdi,'idua l d riveways wher e the car is parked and CIllJcrete
peds where a lent o r recreat ional vehicle may be placed.
e is oft en a centrally loca ted sw immi ng pool and oth er
ecreetionat am enities. Th e campgrou nd is o ften q uite large
t!Id loca ted nca r a major high .... ay. Campgrounds arc usual ly
...ell-manicured.

Sw immin g pools arc easy to iden til).' if on e re mem bers that

there is usually a dark er deep end to the pool and that many
pools have pa ra llel swim min g. lane lines o n the bo ttom o f the
pool. They co me in a trem endou s variety of shapes an d sin'S
hut a lmost alwa ys hav e a signi ficant amount of dec k surroun d ing the m. T.... 0 e xamples are shown in Fig ure 13-24.

110 0101.'

lind Gard en

This type orbusiness (e.g. Lowes. 110mc, n l.'pot ) usua lly ba-,
asinglc large building. atta ched greenhouse(s). and rows o f
shrubbery outside or adj acent 10 the building. A lso visi ble
art palette s of fertilizer and other mat eri als, yard machinery
loch as 1.1'" n tractors and tra iler s sitt ing outside the b uild ing.
md a large pa rking 101. It is usuall y situated in the city on a
major highway or in suburbia near residential ho usi ng.
Recreauc n
The post -w w lt ba by boome rs arc mat uring rap id l)' and so
the ir chi ldren and grandc hi ldre n. Msn y of the adults are
out of shape. ha ve substant ia l disposab le ince rne. and .... ill
obtain mo re and mo re leisure time, es pecially \l hen thl.'Y
retire. Th c-refore, it is nOI surprisi ng that a great dea l oft ime .
money. a nd landscape is devor ..rd to public and co mmercial
recreation facilities. especially golf. Also. num erou s amu se ment parks are now rounne ly ava ilable that co nta in a variety
ofrecreational facilities. These arc rel at ively ea sy to ide ntify
on rem otely sensed data d ue to their un ique shapes and curvilincnr patte rns. For ex am ple , co nside r the roller-coaster.
go-cart track and water-s lide faciliri..,s located in Myrtle
Beach. SC , in Figure 13-20 .
In.'

It is a re latively straig htfo rwa rd ta sk to idennty basebal l dia munds. foo tba ll or socc er fields. running tracks. and tennis
courts usin g remo tely sensed data. because they arc la id Oil!
according til st rict spec ifications. Examp les of these acuvines and the d ime nsion s of the d iamond s, fields. and co urts
are sum marized in Figu res 132 1 a nd 13-22.
Perhaps the g.re<l test Ct.lll"umt.'f o f pri me land in antl around
citiC'S are commercial a nd public gol f COUf'!;CS . They co me in
an endless varict)' o f fairv. ay shap<.'S and si/es and may
indud" 9 , 18. and l.'Ven 36 hol es . The)' arl.'l.'spccially cas)' 10
identily o n remotely se nsed data bttau<;c they al way s
include a c1uhhous.: w ilh ample parking. It.l n~ cu.....,ilinea r

Man y co mmunities usc tax doll a rs to support public stadiums. coli seum s. or co ncert ha lls . A good ex ample is the Univc rsu y o f South Carolina Coliseum (F igure 1).25 ). These
taciluics arc used for an amazing varie ty o f recreational and!
or c-erer uonial purposes. includ ing illdl.m bas ketball. circuscs. trac tor-pulls. roc k concerts. grad ua tions. ere. The)' a rc
usually e xtremely large multiple-story buildings that are
well-landscaped and have extensive park ing.

It is practicall y impossible to identify a movi e thea ter

locat ed with in a ma ll. Howe ver, man y thea ter complexes arc
now bu ilt unatt ached w ith num ero us large screening rooms
and am ple pa rking. Some co mmu nities still ha ve a dri ve -in
movi e thea ter that at times has been one: of the most diffi cult
feat ure-s to iden tify in the urban landscape. Th e drive-in
movie t heater s ite is us ually fan-shaped . With a large vertical
structure at the apex of the fan (the sere-cn ). It lypiea lly ea~L"
a lon g sha dow, de pending o n the t ime of day . A fan-sh aped
mad netw ork is fo und w ith in the site. and there are po les
placed sys temat ical ly about every 5 m on the g round that
hol d the detachable spea ker. T he co ncession sta nd is almost
a lways located in the cente r of the sill.'. There is usua lly no
landscap ing. the terr ain bein g com posed of asphalt or gra vel.
W:lrrho ll\in wS hi p pin g
w arehouses receive goods and then reo rganize the mater ials
acco rding to a hil l of lade n fo r shipmen t via truc ks. railroad .
or sh ip to an inter im or fina l destinat ion. T he)' a rc usua lly
\'cry large bu ildings w ith modestlandscaping In the case o f
truc k transpo rt. there is usu a lly a large parking lot w ith an
elc vat..-d 15 tl high 1doc king system on o ne or multiple sides
o r rhc bu ildin g. Forklifts arc oft en present inthe ya rd . Oc casionally. so me nonperishable com moduies o r container
C3r}!O box es may- bl.' X'l:n o utside in the parking arca . The
mos t diagnostic Icatu rC'S arc th e tractor tra ilers that are situale-c! with Ihl.'ir ha,,' k doors aga inst thc hu ild ing or arrange-c!
sys tematically throughout thc sitl.'out \If harm's way.
Shipp ing and warehousing alon g harbor waterfronts usua lly
invoh~ e:lItremcly large warchouscs sit uatl.'d o n the doc ks
or iml1lc:diately inl;md . For example. cons ider the ae rial pho-

C H,\ P I F R

472

13

Remote Sen sing th e Urban Land scape

Co n

J'

a.

Roltcr-cua~l ...r

reereanonal facilit) , 31 the M)rt lc Beach. Sc. Pavilion am usemen t park (lev el 11191),

b. A lypical go-can trac k. The O\'Crp.1S' and musl,,1"

the corners an,' ccncretc. "hik the remainder oftl1l,'

c. A waH.r-slide ride tha t empties into a pool.

track i~ asphalt.
Fig ur e 1320 L'cmmcrcia l recreation amusement-park t':!c itillcs (revet 121',l11.

tograph (If a portion Ill' the Scanl..., \VA. harbor ill Figure 13:!6. llcrc. piles of minerals ore being loaded omc the ship
fro m the conica l storage str uctures using a sop his ticated
overhead conveyor- heft system. Extensive la rge warehouses
arc als o located nearby. TIll' minera ls were brought to the
shi pping facilhy most lik ely hy the adjacent railro ad.

O ther Commercial
Fina lly, there is the mauer ofwhat tu do about allt he other
my riad uf commercial landuscs Ih;1\ arc found in alm os t
every urban landsca pe (hobby .c;h0!'K, Forom ars. clo rhing
-aores. bow ling aile)'". etc.j. It i~ im possible 10 determ ine
what typo: o f bu siness i ~ be ing conducted from their re mote
sens ing attr ibutes. Only in J im mvest igation w ill 3.t!ow them
to escape from la nd-use class / 7, Othe r Urban or BI/ill-llp
L.mdcalegory in Table 13-3.

Services (Public and Private)

In developed countries. mankind has organized a sophi.ti

cured in frustrucrure of pnh l i c scrv ices to i III prov e the quality
o f life . Some of the bui ldings a nd grounds assoc iated with
thes e ser vices have relunv ely diagnos tic c haracter istics lhat
a llow them Itl be identified in remote se nso r data,

Puhlic lJ u ild in ~s a nd "'acililil's (Ad m inisl r atin n. Flre.

Ponce. Rl'WUC. Post :.I. Llbru rtcs, J' r iw lIs)
Preenunent puhhc facihucs SLJ.:h as state capitols (Figure 13

n al ;II\U major admi nisuauvc bu ildi ngs ( Figure 13-2ib) art

re latively easy to idcnnf y in remote sensor data. They usaa lly have ..trikmg architecture because they are SUPpl.1Sl>d to
last an d inspi re us fur many gene rations. They typically have

473

Commerci al and Service s Land Use

...111
R~ ...," ~l1
lli~m " ..d

b. Capuol C lf) 11.omh...'T"i (lmfeMlonal rmnoe-Jeague baseball stadium. L'ofurnbia. SC (origma ll) I :n .()()() scale].

c. High schoolbuschall diamond.

d. Atlanta Fulton County stadium. horne uf the protc ssion al Atlanta Braves hasch alltcam (originally 2)< 2 Ill ).

Figure 13-21 Examples of high school. millor-kagu., ami professional basc bnl! diamonds [leve l 12 1')~ ). l h. baseball-dia mond
(hme'1lsions remain the same while the facilities for the team ami SpeC!; IIHrS chenpc drama lka lly.

....'ell-landscaped grou nds and am ple parking. w hich may he

located in m u ltip le-sto ry parking garages. Nationa l monuments suc h as the S ta tue o f Libert)' in New York and L'Arc
de Triomphc in Paris. France, otlcn have vel')' diagnostic
architect ure (Figure 13-::!7cd . resrccll\dy).

Conversely.the only way to idcmify fire-and-res cue services

is if the engines. res cue vehicles . and'or lin:lighling or rescue equipment arc te m poraril y visjble ours.ide the bu ilding.
Also. some lire- statio ns have a t....o or th ree-story towe r
nearby " here they practice Ilreflghting. It i:; possib le to

13

474

teo

,m,

,~I

Fo ol ltall

,~

~
IL r-,
I .,. .
... ',.. .... -. ..........
.", ~

Rem ote Se ns in g th e Urban Lan dscape

~
<,

-,
-,

""I.

aoo
ve-

~ I so~

II. Dlm~slons of II f'lOIhall

li~ld .

b.

L:n i\~i l y

o f Sou th Cllft' hna fonlOitti stadium Oeve1 121931.

1
i

'r
>

.;
~

!"I - h '

~4'

.-

..

I..

.:r

31M! _ l 'lIf
c . [ ) lm c ll s illIl S o f 3

soccer field .

d. High school soccer field and track [le ve l 12 IQJ) , The goal peru;
revealth at the lit'ld is alsoused tor I(ltllhall

i
78

,.-

....,

:!

c. Drrucnsious of a tenni s court.

Figure 13-22

E:\a mpl~'l> o f II univer;j[~

f. Muluplc re mus courts at a tcnnrs dub ( I<: \ cl 12 1'ol7j.

football stadium. high .;chool socce r fie ld and track. and com munity tenms club.

Comr

475

temmercra t and SCrvices Land Use

F"tgure 13-23 L c... -ot-l iq~ lK'Ii.11 pht>lOj,.'Taphy of .1 gnl r COUI"'!>C near A tlanta. GA. with multiple
long. cureilincar ruirvo O1y5. bright sandtraps. and m..nicured gr~'l;n~ (lc\ c1 1219.. j ,

Figure 13-2 4 Large-scale vertical ucriul phtltugr<lphy nf s" Imming ptK,ls (1.' \c1 121'15 ) and aS~K; iateti decking. T he pool
onthe lell has swimming lanes. The p'K\1onthe right has debris in it. Horh pou ls haw shallow anti deep ends.

identify a po lice sreuou i f the cars parked ou tside have numbers on their roo fs.

buildings. with a mp le parking nearby. In fad. rhey may be

indist ingu ishable fro m lcc al Iibrancs .

Regionat po st offices arc large buildings wit h extensive

parking and a sign ilkan t number o f postal trucks and
smaller post a l vehicles present. Local rost offi ces art': difficult to ident ity because the y arc small . well- la ndsca ped

Prison s art: usua lly easy to ident ify because they have large
buildings. amp le parking. guard rowers. mul tiple rows o f
very high fencin g. and restricted access. Exercise fields arc
usua lly prese nt \\ ithinrhc fenc ed perimeter.

476

C I L\ I" I EH

Remote Se ns ing the Urb an Landscape

Figure 13-25 M ult ipurpose coliseum tadium l associated with the Unh,t"I"1\,ly "fSt"Uh ra rolina tlcv el l~ I,}(,). A rec reatio nal u r c ultura l nell! is laki n~ plac.. 011 this date.

Figure 13-26 Shipping ;lnd ....arehousing of groin and other commodities in th...
Seattle. WA, harbo r. ;-':Oll.' the conica l M"r,l~c structu res. th... danorale c"n\l<.'}'or -l>clt system. 111..- 13I);c rec ta ngular warehouses. arid
railroad Sf'll'S that transport raw matcna!s 10 and fromthe facility.

corm

~merc ia t

and services Land Use

a. Sl"t..- Capitol "f S"lJlh Carolina In L'olumbia l lc\ d 1:'.11 1).

c. Ellis Island and lhe Statue of Liberty

'\3ti"n,,1Park in '\ew YI'Th. ~,. ( 122 17 )

d. Low-obliq ue "",rial photo,:r"p h "f I: Arc de Triomphe in Paris (122 17 ).

Figure 13-27 Public ad ministra tion buildin gs, nat ional parks, J.ntl monume nts.

4 78

CU \1'1 F!<

Remote Se n s ing the Urban Landscape

Ind.

i1 IT
U!>U

An

oft

ote
So
0'

"sI

b.

a.
Fig u re 13-28

E~ampk'to

(If univ crsit) public ed ucation facilities {level I ~:!l:! -\ I. a.] Vertica l aeria l phuwl;rap h of the manicured
(lllh.. Umversuy o(Soulh Carolina. founded in 11<111 . At one tim",ruostofthe buildings surrounding tk
hON;SIMC were fur udminist rarors, class...s. and students and their cucndon ts. ~ " ..... most o f the bui ld ings facing the
horseshoe are admhustrauve. This t}TJ('" of archncctura! design is common on other south ern campuses such as the
CnlHni ty of Georgia. b.t Low-ob lique photograph of the Uuivcrsuy of Cal ifornia at Sam.. Barbara in Goleta. CA.
w ith its varied arcfutectura l forms. well-m anicu red landscape. and nuncare net work o f w<llkways between huildmgs.

"h(lrs~h(l"'''

Edueatiun
Universities arc rela tively easy til ide nt it): in high spatia l resol utio n remote sensor data. Except in the dm\ ntown ar eas of
the largest cuies (e.g.. New York. Chicago. AtlilnLH I. unive rsit ies us ual ly e xhibit a gellgraphic ally extensiv e collection
of build ings. ope n SI1ilCCS , rec reat iona l f,lcil itics Is\.\ Imming
pools, baseball, tc.lolha ll, socce r. trac k. te nnis'), gym nasiums.
coliseums. and stad iums. Many Ill' the ed ucation buil di ngs
arc mulnplc-siory. Als o. large uon nitorics ,In.' often prescm.
Tilt' problem is usual ly de c id ing whe re the forma l university
begins and cuds. Two diffcrcnr examples of umvc rsuic s arc
provided in Figure 13-~R. T he University of So uth Carolina
was founded in l xn l . All of ih... original administration
buildings. studcm donnuorics, anJ teaching facilities were
systematically or iented to look ou t upon a landscaped par k
ca lled the ..horscsho...." (''In\ l.... c1y, the oblique aerial pho tograph of a portion of the Uni\ersity of Ca lifornia at Santa

Barha m reveals the unsystcnuuic place ment of facilities

interspersed w ith <I complex networ k of s idewalks.
Most high schools andmiddle sc hoo ls hav e large buihlings.
am ple pilrki ng, and outdoor tic Ids for ba schall, football. soc'
cer. tra ck, ami/or tennis. High schools usually have it football
stadium and a poo l, whereas middle schools do not. In cold
climates. till' pool mllY be Indoo rs. High schools and middle
sc hools arc often kn eed .

Elementary l'Chonl<, have relative ly s maller bui ldings, ample

parking, and a few outdoor flckls. TIICY ra rely have a poolor
a foot pall stadium. Eleme nta ry schoo ls may he fenced.

It is difficult 10 itk nlif; medica l business omces or health

and fitness clubs. They appear sim ilar to ma ny other nonde-

scrip t commercial acuviucs rhat can take place in a building.

:fustrial Lan d Use

cwevcr. it is relati vely easy to iden tify hospitals. The)' arc

sually \cry large multistory buildings with man y add ition s.
.mple pa rking is necessary, Walkways. tramways . et c.
hen connect one buildin g 10 anome r. Sorneumes it is possiIe 10 detect t he emergency-roo m automotive entrance.
omc hosp ita ls have a hel icop ter land ing pad on the gro und
ron top ofa building .

Indu strial Land Use

1Ihis section inuod uces the concept of imug..: inte rpretat ion
r the analysis of aerial photography and othe r types of high
rial resolu tion re mo te sensor data for ex tracting industria l
douse informauon. Th e heurist ic rules discu ssed lire
igned 10 ena ble the interpreter who is not II specia hs r in
dustrial image interpreta tion 10 ident ify those industries
imarily from their image s a lone. If the image an alys t ca nlKIl spec ifically idcruify an indust ry. how ever. he o r she
;houkl st ill he' able In place it in a category that limits the
lind of mdusrry it may be . The term industry include s those
oo,incssl's engag ed in the extraction of raw materials. the
proces.\i/l.l: of materials. and the fabri cation o f imcrmcd iatc

and finished products.

First. howe ver. il sho uld come as no surprise that milita ry
intelligence g:n h",ring orga nizations throughout the wo rld
are very interested in monitori ng the industrial land-use of
foreig n co untries . The y have developed excellent ind ustrial
urget image ana lysis manuals that may a lso be used for
civilian applicuuons. Several ofthe more impo rtan t ma nuals
focu~ on I ) gene ral indus trial target analys is logi c IDuD.
I(7 6). 2 ) the coke. iron and sted indu stries (DoD. Il)nla). 31
power and water faci li tk~ (DoD. 1(77). and 4) the petrolcum industry (OuD, 197Xhl. Co pies of these manuals mny
be viewed at the Federation o f American Scienti sts hom",
page {Appe nd b, A I.

4 79

from their d istin ctive forms. patterns. and rel ationships. one
freq uen tly can infer the kind of ma terial or equipment
obscured fro m view. For instance . unusually sha ped buildings may he specially de signed to ho use speci fic kinds of
eq uiprnem. S im ilarly, ch imneys and stac ks by their number
and arrangement may indicate the specific kind o f furnace or
oven from which smo ke o r nox iuus gase s arc being vent ed.
ldcnnficarion o f the various industry-related co mpo nents in
an image may a llow the industry to be placed into one of
three maj or ind ustrial catego ries (e.g. ", PIC, 1'161 : Avery
and Berlin. 11)92):
extraction
pnl(;cssing:
fuhric urion ,

When allc mpting 10 categorize a n indu stry using remote

sensing dna. il is recommended tbar the analyst I ) first
decide whether it is an e xtract ion. precessing, or fabricat ion
ind ustry: 2 \ if il is ,I proc essing ind ustry. deckle whether it is
chemical. heal , or mec han ical processing . in that order; and
]) if it is a fabrication ind ustry. decid e whether it is light or
heav y tabricauon. T here arc a tremendous variety of Industries. It is only possib le 10 prov ide a fo: w reprcse ntativc
examples o f each major industry category.

Extraction Industries

EJ,II',/Cf/IC' ind ustr ies extract the natural resou rces of the
Earth \\ ith the minimum handling requi red to accumulate
raw materials in a form suitable for tra nsport atio n or pro
cess mg. The ext ract ion usually take s place from a sha ll
mine. opcn-p u m ine. well . or cu tt ing field. e.g .. forestry
clear- cu rung o r hig h-grading {Tnble 134). Extractive industries typically have seve ral o f the toltowing diagnostic recognition tcutu res:

Industrial uma-Use Classification Logic

the presen ce o f open-pit e xca vatio ns. ponds. mine
openings o r derrick s:
Industries o tteu have uniq ue' assemblages o f raw ma terials.
equipme nt. final products and wa ste. as well as buildings
that cha racterize the indu stry. Somcrirues these industryrelated compo nents are visible 011 the phot ography or imagery: at other times the equipment or material may he: sh eltered in build ings or otherwise o bsc ured from view. In th is
case. images of other compone nts. not signific ant in themselv es bu t closel y associa ted w ith the hidde n e ssen tia l components. may still he: recorded on the image ry. Moreover.

normal and ove rsized handling eq uipment including

bulldozers, dump truc ks. c ranes. pow er shovels. dredge s.
tree-c utters. and mine cars;
an clabornre transpo rtation syste m to mo ve the raw
material about the site . incl ud ing conveyo rs. pipel il1 <:s.
railro ad s. drag lines. and/or road network :

480

C H .\ P I } :K

13

Remote Sens in g the Urban Land scape

Indust

Catchment basin
Tai lings pile

n-

Open-pit m ine

,u
Tail i ng~

pile

Figure 13-29 Panchmrnnuc ~lc r" "pair Ill' lhe Kenl1<."1:o11 Rl<lgt'way Minin!,! Company local...u ncar Ridgeway.
Sc. nil March If>, I'J'J:! (k v.:1 IJ 12) (ctlUrlc,y K"l\lIcc"ll Ri<!gcW;IYMining COl1lpany).

ex tracte d hulk materia ls stored in piles. pond s, hop pers. or

tan ks; and
p iles or ponds o r wa sil" that haw be en separated from the
valuab le materia l o f inIe rest .

Allthe ext ract ive industry features are rarely seen at any one
loc ation . O tte n the surroundi ng count!') sid ... shl)", c\ ide nee
of rect a mauon. reforesta tion , c IC. in an attempt to repa ir the
e ffect s o f the ex tractive industry.
A 1:19.200-scak black-and- w hire penchromatic srcreopa ir
of the Kennec ott Ridgeway l\Imi ng C ompany located nea r
Ridgew ay, SC , ob ta ined on March 16. 1991. IS she.... n in Figure 13-29 . T.... o wry large open -pit mine s arc visjblc in the

pho togra phs . They arc surr ounded prima rily by lohlolly rlO~
plantatio ns , The raw o re-be ar ing ma terial is extracted from
the earth using hug h shovels with in the ope n-pit mines. It is
transpo rted to the central facility by d um p truck s using I
complex networ k of w ads. T he gold is separat ed from the
ore -bearing roc k using a chemical proc ess at the mine- centra l procescing facility. Two elevated r i b o f material thal
have already been proc essed (\II1.:n referred to as tailings
piks) arc \ isjblc. No te that a substantial amoun t of lhe prece s-ed roc k material also has been used 10 construct a catchmeru basin . The m ine .... as de..... omrn ission..-d in 1999. The
process of resto ration is underway.
The larg.est "fltm-pil mme in the w odd is the Hingham Canyon Cop pe r xt inc ncar Sa lt Lake Ciry, UT. operated by Ken-

481

iIlus tri al La nd Use

a. lu'" -obhquc _,,;rial phvlv graph of the Bingham Can-

b. Tertesrna l photograph o r the mmc reveals o re trains,

yon Copper Mmc n~,1T Salt Lake L'ny, UT. the larl!...sl
open-pitmine in the world .

huge shovels. and a lk nsc nt;lwork of pllwcr-line JlI'ks.

Figure 13 -30 TIll: Bingham Can~'ofl COPJXr \t ine nca r Sal! Lake Cily. UT. ISan ext racuve indusny (1.\,e1 l3 1:!1 1.

nteOU Copper Corpora tion. II is -I km in length and has a

depth ofl\()() m. II is one ofthe fl;:\'\ featu res that man has erened unn can be seen from ~ rac ... (another is the G reat Vi all
of Ch ina) . \-Im c tha n J billion to ns o f co pper ha ve been
extracted. mor t' than five tunes the material excavated for
l!le Panama Canal. Figure 13-30.1 is a low -oblique aerial
photograph c tth e min e. Figure lJ-Jllh is a terres tria l photograph tak en w ith in the m ine. The ter restr ial photograp h pro vidcs inform.uion on j usl how large the mine is when we
discove r th at the da rk linear fea tures located a lo ng: the farthesl wal l are act ua lly four lung tra ins that arc used to
remove ma teria l from the minco The rai lroad tracks spiral
down ro the IO\\ C"'1 lev el.

open-pit g ravelmine in South Carolina is show n in Figure D-] Ia. Material is dyna m uc d fr om the wa lls of the
excavatio n a nd ca rried by' truc k to a collection po int at the
base o f IIle m ine. A conveyor belt then ca rries the unsorted
material up IUti III to the surface. w hero: it is sorted into various gra des o f g ravel and sand. The so rted material is then
transported by truc ks to fiual destinations. Precipitation cnnnot e scape the pn. resulting in all interna l drainage pond ut
mebase ofthe m ine.
1\ 11

Figure I3-J I b dep icts a sma ll portio n o f a petroleum extraclion we ll field situated in the mountainous wr rain behind
Ventura, C A. Each c1<.'aring co nta ins line or more ni l we lts
that an' connected via an intricate svsrcm of dirt roads . The
oil is actuall y pum ped by pipeline from the wells to collec ting po ints not present in thc pho tograph.

Processin g Industries

rmn:.~.\;lJfI, ind ustries subject the accumulated raw materials

to me chan ica l. che mic al. or heat treatment 10 rend er them
su itable for further processing. or to produce materials from
which goods and equipment can be made.

The processin g industries art' c harac teri zed by the presence

of faci litie s for the storage and ha ndling o f large quant ities
of bulk materials.These materials may he sto red in the open
in pil es . ponds or reservoirs, or in stor age containers such ilS
silos. bins. hoppers. bunkers. and open o r closed tanks. The
materials arc ha ndled by p ipe lines. co nve yors. and fixed
cranes . 11'; well as ra ilro ad cars and other mobile eq uipmen t.
The \:011\ eyer-belt system used to sort the gravel in the ope np it m in", pre viously discussed is a good example. In addition. other outdoor equipment arc commonly present.
inclcding blast furnaces, kilns. chemical -p rocessing towers.
la rge chim neys o r many stac ks. indicative of'rhe kind o f proccsses being carrie d out.
Th e precesses invo lved usually req uir... la fl!l' qua ntities o f
power. which is ind icated b~' the presence- o f coal piles. fue l
tank s. boiler houses. o r transformer yards if electric power is
employed or produced. Th... buildings thai ho use the processing equipment frequcmly arc largc or at least complex ill
outline and roo f struc ture . Since the process ing ofmw mate rials usually invo lves refine me nt . piles and ponds o f waste

13

482

Remote sensing th e Urban Landscape

mousu

arc co

waste
The p

;mag(
me

ch
he

\ 1eo
a An opcn-pu gravel mine in S"ulh Carolina (1o:'\(:l lJ l21:). The gravel is Im" Sport ed from the: base (lrlhe mme \ ia OJ "inglc conveyor ben rc several sorters al the:
lop of the mine. Truc ks transport the 501'1I:d mat erial 10 final des tina tio ns.

h. Petro k um c\lracl ion from 011 ....ells in the __

lams t>chind vcmura, CA I level 1315 II. Each c~

contams ('Ille or mO' oil wclh that afe corm\Cd \

an intricale sys tem of..hrt roads.

Figure 13 -3 1 E\a ml' lcs o f ope n-I'll mining and petroleum ... \ lraclion ind ustries.

erv

m'
m'
sto
SU I

cr.

;n
ca

or

o
c

,,

a . Lew -obliq ue photogra ph o f mech anica l processing 31 an

agric ultural milt .... here wheal is processed into bak ing
Ilour for human consum ption and animal feed . T he grain
is stored in III... :>ilu~. and the prtll:css ing la~cs place in the
buildin gs. Flour and t....... d are transported 10 market b)'
In/f,;1.( 1.:\.: 1 131 11 ).

b. Low -oblique photo of mechanical processing laking

place er a scwugc-rrcanncnt plant in Ne wport Beac h, CA
(leve l 13215 ). Soh d, nrc mec hanically se parated fromhquids. hence th.. term mec hanic al proc essing . to.:OIC the :;.o:tlling and acration ponds. Purified etllucnt is pumped son m
10a submerg..od out fall 111 Ilk- l'ac sfic ( kean tlcv el 131151.

Figure t3-3 2 Examples of mec harucal-proce ssmg industries Hevel IJZ I ).

lustrlal Land Use

483

~ commo n. and care is req uired 10 dist ingu i!>h betw een
rste \ crsus use ful raw marena ts store d in a sim itJ r manner.

merged outfall in the Pacifi c Oc ean . Water p uri fi catio n

insta ll,ltio ns a re a lso mechanic a l-proce ss ing indust ries .

processin g indust ries can be subd ivided on the basis of

rage componems into three .suoca ll.'gtlric:s:

A hyd roelectric ptl.... ..n plan t ut ili7cs the "hy drost atic he ad "
of wa ter stored in rhclake to spin turbines that create elcc tnc uy. For example. co nsider the hydroelectric generati ng
facilities at the Lake M urray Dam nca r Co furubia. SC { Figure 13-33}. Fo ur int ake to.... e..... transport wat er do.... n 200 11
10 the turbine IWUM:: \I here the water pressure sp ins the tur b inl.'s gel1l:rating electricity. T he water then enters the Sa luda
River. The electric ity is trans port ed to the reg io na l pow er
grid \ ia a large substation co mplex. T here is also a thermalelectric po we r plan t at this locat ion whic h w ill he di scussed
in the heat -proce ssing indu stry sec tion

Ie

mechanical

chem ical

beat processing,
'!Ie subca tegories

hav e funct ional sig nificance.

C h e lllic:l l - r ron'~s i nl:

..x hanical- pmcessing ind ustrie s size. son. se para te . o r orh-ise change the physical fo nn or appearanc e of the raw
lerials. The image com pone nts that cha racte rize the
IleChanical-pll'Ct.'Ssing indu,tries art: the: bulk ma terials
scred in pile s. pond s. or reservoir s. o r o utdoor eq uipme nt
sach as silos, bins. bunker s or ope n tank s. as \I ell av a n abun4mce til' handl ing eq uip me nt such as conveyors. la unders.
cranes, rai l cars. a nd other mo bi le equipment. The proc essi1~ involv ed may requ ire large qua ntit ies of powe r. as indieted by.. the presence of bo iler houses \I ith the ir fuel s upply.
or transformer ya rds when electric powe r is em ployed.
Many of the bui ldin gs may be large or 'It least com plex in
'lllltlinc and roo f stru cture. Piles o r pon ds of waste a rc qu ite
common. The iudu suics in the mec han ical-pr ocessing cme'gory diller from the other procl::ssing industries in rluu they
ve fe.... pipelines. closed or ta ll ta nk". or stacks other th an
boiler hIlUSl'S. Fu rthe rmore. there is a n absence nf the:
ilns associated w ith the heat-processing indu-a ncs.
uec hamca! proc,,'ssi ng take s p lace at the Adlu h f lour M ea l
and Feed C ompany {level 132 11 ) in Columbia. SC' ( Fig.u rc
1~-32a l. G rain arr ives at the m ill by .... ay of a ra ilroad spur
behind the build ings or by truck. Th ree large concrete s ilos
ore the unprocessed wh..':II. Wheat milling takes plac e in
lafl!c. co mple x buildi ng 10 lhl.' right Trac tor tra ilo: rs
I:tao:led up to the build ing tran :>pon Ihe tinishcd llour to loca l
Jnd regio nal m.lrkcl.
Figure 13-32 b dep icts a 10.... -ubliquo: ph(llo graph o f mec hanical processing ta king p lace at a se wagc-tre:<llmo:lll p la nt
(Ind 132 1; ) in Ne wpo rt Ik ;lCh. CA . T hc sl'wage is rou l..'d
[rom the nearby comm un itit.'S 10 Ihe p lant \ia u nd e~'TOund
pipchnes. Mechan ica l pmccs<;ing at Ihc plan t ,,'pamlt.-s tho:
wlids from the liqu id . V.ninus set tl ing ponds. encl osed
tan ~s. ae ralon.. anJ anerob ic baCleria facilit ies purity the
:;ewage so that it C:1fl e\enlua tly l'>e pum p.: d 500 m Itl a sub-

luduv n-ics

Chemical-p roc essing ind ustries utilize che micals or chem ica l proce sses to separate or rea rra nge the chem ical consutucrus ef thc raw ma ter ials, Petro leum refi neries and fertilize r
p lant s nrc good examples . Pressure, hea t and catalysts, or
other chemical s may be emp loyed. C losed ves se ls for ho lding. or han dl ing fluid s. gases. or suspens ions o f solids in liquids. and the u-c of fluid 110\\ in process ing the raw
mate ria ls arc typica l of these indu stries. Consequently, the
image co mponents that c haracte rize the chemical -proc essing indust ries are an ab undance o f d osed ta nks, p ipelines ,
and such large proc ess ing equipme nt :\s lowe rs for c racking
or distillation . As \\ ith a ll pwcessing industries. those in th is
cat egory ha ve facil it ies for the storage and hand ling o f hu lk
mater ials and require large quant ities of po.... cr. The building:l. frequently are complex. a nd extensive waste pi les o r
pon ds are common.
The AI Qa im superp hosp ha te: tenilizer plant in Iraq is she.... n
in Figu re 13-3 ~, No te the exis tenc e o f numerous enclosed
stora ge tan ks. a large conica l pi le o f mw ma terials, a ci rcul ar
p ond. and la fl!1.' p rl1cess ing huildings (sever al with recent
bom h damage). Phosphates ma y he used to produ ce explosives suc h as those usc.1 in the Okl a homa li.'d e rnl buil d ing
homhing. Thai is why thc)' ar.:: talltetl'd Juring war.
Indu st ry gcn er;ltcs a sig nificant am ou nt of chemical halard(IUS wasles, So mc I." lrnpanies USl rl' llw te sl:lIsing data 10 do c
umen t the ini tia l con diti ons undc r wh ich the materia ls are
store d and then mo nitor Ihc surfa ce e Xpfe"SiOll all er they arc
stnre d. r or ex amp le. Figure 13-35a is :l II,.... -u hlil.j ul: aerial
phohlg nlp h o f the l o .... -lcvel Wa ste Mana geml' nt s ite al the
Dcpartm.::nl l,f Ene rgy's IOO EI ;'\lev'lda Tl' st Site. Th is 1000ation pnw ide s etli ciem d isllPsa l llf radi oa..:ti\ e chcmical
....ast ..... gl' uer,lll'd in the nuclear \\ capons progra m. Waste is
trucl t.-d tOlhe site in Dl'pan ment (lf Transpu n ati on appro\ ed

484

Remote Sensing the Urba n Lands cape

FiglJre 13-33 Aerial photograph of'tbc Lake I\lum~ Da

S( ', hyJ rt'l("k-c-mc rower planl lle\d t;!1
anJ the S..ludarbcrmat-ct..-ctric puv. ..'T~
F r intake lowers provide lhe hl~
sure water thaI dri\l"" the turbines tb3l: P""
ducc lhe elec tricuy, The 1h<.nnal-cld1r.c
power pl.ull bums coal thai produces see
In drive the separate turhi lll"S that pmlIct
d ..-..:tn<.:i l}.Tho: cool is dehcered

~)

and lransported from the railroad cars roil

pi!.: \ ia clime) .'!" bell,. The elc..~ &
d,strihul..>J from the sire Imto the regiaul
rower gnd via lhe:SIlbl.lalion

containers (i n this exam ple dnuust ami buried in the large

trench . As it fills. the pit is cove red ~ jill Sl';1.
Figure IJJSh is a low-oblique photog raph of radinac uv e
wa SI;: be ing stored in a !;lI1k fa rm at the llanta rd . WA. DO E
facility, The lank farm- store hy-produr t materials len On-T
from plutonium extrucuou o perat ions pr ior to pcrmnncm
disposal. T his by-product mate rial ha s no useful purpose a nd
is stored in a pprox imate ly 177 underground storage tan ks
with a cumulative 101<11 o f 55 rmflion gallons capacity. with

so me individualmuks wllgil1g up III LooO,OOO g'llln!ls. The

trailers and cars in the ]OW l.'T right o f the photograp h provide
some idea o fthe s il o.: ofthe Wilks.

Petroleum chemical-processing mdusmcs co nve rt raw crude

oil into gasolmc. diese l fuel. synthetic textiles. and plastic.
The plants usua lly have a n ex tensive. ofte n dense nctw ork of
above nr underground pipel ines suc h a ~ those found in a
petrole um re fin ery in Tc'(a., ( Fig ure 13-36;)_ Storage tan ks
arc etten com pletely su rrounded hy Eart h dike revetments
that can contam the chemical i f a sp ill occu rs. For ex ampl e.
Fig ure 13+3bh dep icts a tnnk farm at the petroleum re finery
at ,\ 1 Ba srah.l raq , in le)'}t. Several o f the tan h arc on tire

and kak ing . The ta nh J iles arc containing mu ch of the

spill. Figure 13-3(,c depicts tho:A llan tic Richfield pt:tIllkllm
storage and transport fac ilities 111 Seattle. WA.

The heat-p rocessing indus tries utilize primarily hear to

re fine. scpur.uc, or re- form lite raw materials. or to derive
energy Irom them. [ron and steel production and therma le lect ric powe r plants Ihal burnnil o r coal a n: good examples.
The image com ponents th.u d ist inguish this category are the
large quanuucs of coni or other fuel. large chimneys. large
numbers Ill' ~tac b, !lu es and ki lns o f var ious kind>.
Althoug h pipelines and tanks Ircqucmly arc e mploye d in
rh..-se ind uv ries they aTI;" us ually not abundant. and their
presence i ~ outw e ighed by the image compo nent s cvidencing the usc or heal. As w itll Ihe other proc es sing industries,
these ha ve ex tens ive taci fnic s for han dlin g and storing bulk
mat erials and req uire large <.luilrt t i t i e~ o f fuel or ~)w er_ lJfl!e
ou tdoor equ ipment. suc h as bla st furnaces an d kil ns, onee
are employed . The hu ild lngs trcqucmly are complex. and
piles o f "aste arc com mon.

In'

485

Industria l La nd Us e

FIg ure 13 34 Imag."!) ..,f lht' AI Q ain. supcrp hospllale fertilizer plant in Iraq. obunn...-d during lht' Gulf War in 199 1
(U.S. Navy TARPS image released
under the Freedom of Informa lion
.\ ( 1 10 WilIiam ~ . A rkin) .

--

a. R.,di" 'll"li ve hanrdllllS waste h..-ing , t<'n." ! in drums al the

Department ,,1 1.lIng)'"s Nt'\ "d a Tes t snc Lo.... -Lcvcl W", IC Man~gemenl facility. Th e wa.' le is e\eI1l1l;11I) covere d with sa nd (CO UflOy Dt'p;lf1rn"nl of fn erg) . ID W1\2 12; Julin Prke. FAS ),

11. Hazardous-waste orage l'lIlk~ ntrhe DO E Hanford . WA facility,

At one lime ap pru.\ i tlldtc1) 2,300 person nel sllpptlfted the total tank
farm activities HI Hanford (co urtesy Department \ )1' Energy. I D 303-

Iron a nd sled heal proc !.'ssing ind ustries are US tl 311y straightfonl ani 10 id...-ntify on re mote sen~tlr data. Fo r example. Figure 13-37 is a historica l ae rial photograph o f a small portion

house thc, steel rolling mill.. and hla..t furn aces, many support buildings. and considerable smoke from large stacks .

cfr hc Bcthlchc-m Sled Company at Sparrows Point, ~ D. in

Nuclear faci 1ilief> are abo relative ly easy to ide ntify. The
Fast Flux Test Facility at the Han fo rd si te in eastern Washin gtc n if> a ';OO.megawatt therm al reactor cooled by liq uid

1952. The photogra ph record.. num ....rous lo ng bui ld ing s th at

.....

OSllUot; John Pike. Federation of American Scienlists).

486

CHA t>T ER

a. Large-sca le v...r nca l aerial photograp h of a dense network of

pipes ,11 a petroleum refiner)' in Texu .

13

Remote Sens ing t he Urb an Landscape

b. P<:l rol~ m refinery at AI Hasrah. lraq. Kote lht: targe tanl-s lllIl
Eart h dikes that separate the 111_ Th i~ photograph was acq uired in 1991
durmg the {,ul f War, and some tanks are on fire and leaking (l~
Na vy TARrS imagc released under the Freedom o f Illfonn aliOll .-\cl
10 Wi1I i3m M. Ar kirn.

Fig ure 13-36 l-xamplc s o f chcmrc af-pr cc e- smg

(bcl l.l 22).

c. Chemical proccssmg, )lvragc. and transportation of petroleum

products atthe Allant ic Rich field tncrhnes in Seattle. WA. ~Olc the
petroleum tank farms. tanker )h,ps. and railroa d tan l.. CaN.

indusme s

lndl

487

ncr strtar Land Use

Figure 13-37 Bethlehem Steel Company 81 Sparrows P(\1nl . \H>. ("IfI ,\ priI 2';. Il,lS2.

sodium (Fig ure I3 -J Xal . [I .... as built in 1'17X 10 test pla nt

eqcipmeru and fuel lo r the U.S. Government's liquid me ta l
reactor deve lopment program . This program dc mon srrau..'d
me techno logy nf commercia! breeder reactors . The co ntainmen! dome is easily identified in the image . A bove ground
esung of nuclear materials has been banned for deca des.
However. underground testing continues. Figure U -3Kb
depit: ts the res ults o f one test at the Nev ada Test Si te wh en:
a 100 kiloton explosive was burie d und er 635 fee t of desert
alluvium and det on ated on July fl , 1962. displac ing 12 milhen IOns of earth, Unde rg roun d tests cond ucted by nat ions
through out the worl d o ften leave craters suc h a~ these as ev idence ofwhat has take n pla ce .
Below Me some add itiona l Iund.nuenta l image-recognition

features that may he use d til distingu ish among the three
Iypc~ 01" proc essing industries:
itechanical-Proccssing Indus trie s :
few pipe lines or closed tanks
little fuel
conveyor-belt syst e ms etten present
few stacks
no kilns.
Chemical- Processing lndusrnes :
man)' closed or tall tanks. inel ud ing gasholdcrs
many' pipelines
much large out donr processing equipment

Heat-Processing Indus tries:

a few pipelines or tanks
large acrive chi mneys and.or stacks
large quantities offucl
kilns,

Fabrication Industries

Fabrication indu stries assemble the mechanical and che mical subcom ponents into finished prod ucts such as auromohiles, truc ks, boars und sh ips, trai lers. hea vy equi pme nt (e.g..
b ulldozers], plastic prod uct s. and electronic devic es. The
fa brication ind ustries may be subdivide d into heavy and
light fa b rication . Heavv-fabrication indu stries oft en have
tall heavy stee l fr<l111C one-story bu ild ings, storage yards with
heavy lifting eq uipme nt and cra nes. and occasionally rail
lines entering buildings. l.iXht-jilhriclllion ind ustries oft en
ma ke usc o f ligh t steel an d wood -fra me bui ld ings (perhaps
mu ltistory) and typica lly lack heavy- lifting equipme nt.
Heavy Fabri cation
Below arc some o f the funda men ta l image-recognition features th at may be: used to d istingu ish amo ng the major
heavy- fab rication ind ustries. Heavy fab rication is a lmost
universally associa ted .... itlt Ia rge buildings.

Tran

Rem ot e Sensin g th e Ur ban Landscape

' BB

o.
Figure 13-38 a ) The Dcpanmeraof t:n<'" rg}' Fast Flu>.: Test Facility at Hanford, WA, has a 40(1-mega...an thermal reactor. 1110." dome 'Sill:
c"()fIlai nm....lI slnKlun:, b) The Sedan Crater Il.;b form cd .... ben 11 lOO-L iiotOll C''''p losi\l~ buried 635 fl beneath lhc ikso:n
detona ted on July to, I'Hi::!. at rhe Nevada Test Silo.". displacing 12 million tOIlS of earth. The massive crater is 320 1'I~.
1.2l.iO n in diamc lcr. T\O,o cra l,;n formed from OIhn dt"lon al io ns arc ...-en in the dista nce tcou ncsy Dep t. o f Energy).

He3\ )' Machinery Fabr icati on:

storage yard (or heav y me tal shapes
piles ofstructu ra l steel and other ma terials
finished hea vy m ach inery .
Ra ilroa d Machinery Manufa cture and Repair:
railroad locomotives and'or cars unde r con str uction
ra ilroad track ne two rk.

transported 10 an d from the busi ness eit her b) truck or III

the railroad spur.
A vertica l pl.' l'Spe..:ti\ c of him s uch structura l st~'t:l is useda
the buildin g o fa pt' wer plant is presented in Figure 13-39\!.
Aerial images such as this can document the progress
spec ific dates in the cons rrcct iou proc ess .

OIl

Li ght Fa b r tca t lnn

Shipbu ildin g :
sto rage yards fu r sled plate
extens ive dry -do ck an d ramp facil ities
shi ps unde r con structio n
large cra nes.
Struc tura l Stee l f abricat io n:
stor age ya rds ofstructural stcd
struct ura l steel fabricunon ya rd.
A structura l stee l fabric at ion ind ustry is show n in Figure 13393. The actu a l fabncauon o f the iron-and-s teel girders used
in build ing and bridge co nstruction takes place inside the
large elongated bu ildi ngs . The iron and stee l stoc k mater ia ls
a n: so rted by si/e and type in the ce ntral ope n-a ir sto rage
yard. Two o verhead cranes (not visible) move the iro n-and stee l raw materi als back and forth (left 10 rig ht ) into the
bu ildin gs to r fabrication . Raw an d finish ed materi a ls are

Belo w arc some or the fundamental image-recognition features that cau be used In dis tinguish among the major light.
fabr ica tion indu strie s.
Aircraft As sembly;

aircraft or seaplane r,11l1pS(II' taxiways adja cent 10 or

connected to the fab rication building
hangars
finished airc raft stor ed in the op.:n.
A utom obile

,\ s~ e m h l y

tea rs, truc ks. motorcy cles ):

s ingle - or m ultipl e-s tory buildings

finished pa rked vehic les a rrang ed in an orderly system
tcstt rackrs]
tractor-trai ler shirring facilirics w ith cars on trailers
rai l shirpi ng container curs .
Boa t Bui ld ing and Repair:


489

portat ion Infra stru c tu re

,;wy fabrication at th... Khne lron and SI...e1CO, in Columbia. St: . lrun 3ml
~Iod i. '>IlR.'J b) ~iLe and rypc in the two open-air storage )'3nh, Fabricatakes place inside the buildings_ Raw materials and finished products arc
poned 10and frum the faciluy \ ia truck s or the railroad spur{ le\ d 13314).

b. A dewiled vertical "erial pho!<ll;rap h of a power pla nt

under constmcnon. The project contains signilicam liliant i l l"~ of prefabricated struc tural iro n and slc'l'"l (coon \"S)'
Eastman Kod., k Company).

Figu re 13-39 Examples of iron and ~ted fabrication and the 11:< of such makrials in the building of a power plant.

shipped from the sh ipr ing bays located at the back llf the
building .

boa t com po nents stor ed in the o pen

Ilbcrglass form s
bu ilding where li hc'l! l3 ~s appl icatio n ta kes place
boartrailers
finished boa rs in oren sto rage .

A f ish-canning plaru loca ted in SJ n Ped ro Hamo r. C A. is

found in Figu re 13--10b . H IC ships moor ar thc dock ne xt to
the plant. TIle ma nu facturing p roc ess (canning) takes place
w ithin the Inrgc buildin g. Num erous tanks hold chemicals
used d uring the- ca nn ing proc es s. The plau t is dischJ rg ing
effluent into the harbor using an undergro und pipe .

I Packing:

hold ing pens

a few ta nks

railroad s id ing
Transportation Infrastructure

tractor-trailer parking.

iles;
tractor- trailer shi pping and rece iving
bales orcotton or ot her raw materia l

Transportation planners ett en usc remote sensor data

p ipel ine s and ta nks when creatin g synthet ic fabrics

autom ouv e-compone nt

manufacturing

eo mp;tn )

III

nubia. sc. is show n in Figure 13--IOa . Raw materials

are not s uscepnblc to damage by the Su n o r prcc ipnat ion
sorted and stored fly type ill the ope n a ir. Fab rication
s place ins ide the building. T ile finished products arc

10

upda te transpo n anon net.... o r\. maps. evaluate road and railroad conditions. sludy urban traffic paucrns at chok e po ints
such as tun nels. bridges. shopping malls. a nd a irpo rts. and
co nduct par king studie.. ( 1 I a a~ L. ct a l.. 1997 ). Th e mm t comprchcn sive wo rk to date ( I n remote se nsin g ap p lied 10 tra nspo rtation problems was cond ucte d hy the Nat ion a l

13

490

a. Light fabrication compan)". Some of the 1'3'" materials arc sorted b)"I)-PC:
in the open air. Fahrication \.al~ place in !he Nn ldmg.

Remote Sensi ng t he Urba n Landscape

b. A Iish-canmng

Jl lan ll~C'1

13324) in San Pedro Haro,."(,

CA. and iii as:;oo,:ialL"d pollution.

Ftgure 13-4 0 Examples of light fahricalivn (manufacturing).

Con sortium o n Rem ote S<:n~ing in Tran sportation sponsored

by NASA and the Department of Transportation tf\ ( RST.
~(06). Th irumala i (lOO)) re viewed "eRST research performed by co nso rtium me mbe rs on: a ] envi ron men tal impa ct
for mult imodal co rrid or imp act p lanning. hI haza rd and
d isaster prepared ness and li feli nes secur ity. d in fra structure
asset managem ent and sec urity, and d) multirn odal tra nspo rtation flow manag ement .

Road s a nd 1IiJ,:lnn l)'S

Road, may he un pave d OT pav ed, Paved highways rna) he
access ible to motorists at almost an y locat ion along their
rout e or they may he limited-access (freeway s, 1011 ). T he
general updat ing of II mad or highway networ k cen terline
map is a fundamental task . Th is is often done every one 10
five yea rs and , in area s w ith min imum tree density, can he
acco mplished using imagery .... ith a spat ial resolu tion o f I 30 m (Lacy, 19(2). If mor e precise road dimensions arc
requ ired suc h as the ex act wi dth of the TO;\ d and sidew a lks.
then a spatial resolution 01" 0.25 - 0.5 III is required (Jen sen
ct al ., 1(94). Currently, o nly large-scale aeri a l p hotog raphy
can prov ide suc h planimetric informa tion . In addition. consider the aerial pho tograp h of the intersect ion sh ow n in Figure 13-41a. Th e stoplig hts suspend ed across the street.
ind ivid ua l cars and truc ks, and e ven the right-o f-wa y w hite
roa d ma rkings arc visible. Future unma nned aerial veh icles
(U AVs) ca rryin g lightwei ght d ig ita l ca me ras might we ll provide sim ila r high -resolution inform ation at a reasonable cost
l " e RST. 2(}(X1).

Ili gh....uy interchanges arc use d 10 route tra ffic onto and off
nflimued-accev s highways. They com e in an end less \'~
of shapes and siz es a nd are relati vely ea sy to distinguish ea
remote sensor data . For exa mple. conside r the classic limired-access interc hange show n in Figure 13--41 b. It is gClld:o
slop ing a nd has very long entranc e an d exit ramp s lhat allcs
tra ffic 1\, merge carefully w ith ot her tra tfl c .
J'\e_\t to lIIcteomlog ica l investigation s. truffle count stud io
of automobiles. airplanes. hoats, ped estrian s, and pcopl( in
groups requ ire the highest te mporal reso lut ion daraonee
ran g in ~ from 5 III 10 minutes. h is difficuh to resolve lIle
type of ca r or boat usin g even I x I OJ data . This task
requ ires high spatia l reso lution imagery fro m 0.25 - 0,5 m.
Such information cun only be acquired using aer ial photograph y (' I' v ideo sensor s that arc l jlocarcd on the l Op edges of
hu ildin gs looking obliquely nt the te rrai n. (II' 2) placed in aircra ft or helic opte rs and Flown repeti tively ov er the stud)'
are as. Figure 13-4 1c captures the pmking chamc rcrisricson
parking lilt at It siug le insuuu In time . Whcn such informslion is collec ted at an o ptimum time of J ay. future parking
and tra ffic mov ement decisions can he made. Parking smdies requ ire the same high spat ial reso lution (0.25 - 0.5 ml
but sl ight ly 10" er tempo ral resolu tio n I 10 - 60 m inutes).
Roa d. ra ilroad. and bridge cond itions (cracks. pot holcs.eic.j
arc routine ly monitored both ill snu lind occ asionally usir.g
high spaua l reso lution remote senso r data . For examp le. Figure 13-4 1d presents a pa nch roma tic image o f a highway and
ra ilroad br idge. Careful inspec tion by' a trained analyst pro-

Tm

49'

tra nsportat i o n In fr ast ru ctu re

a. lligh spatial rt"IDIUl iOll image o f an intersection acqu ired

usin~ kite aer ial plmt,,~raphy.

b. A hm ucd-accc ...... highway Ink'l\:hange In T.:'l.as.

d . A ~-ria l phologruphy of highway and railroad bridges.

Figure 13-4 1 Example s 01 roods. hrr uted-accesv highways. 11l1<.-re hang<.-,;. par king. and bridges reco rded usin g
\arium scales of ae ria l pho tography (level 14 11)_

vides significa nt infonunnon aboutthe couduicn ofthe wad

and bridge. Road and bridge cond uion call be doc ume nted
using hig h spat ial reso lution ae rial photog raphy 0.25 x
O.~ 5

rm

Ibilru lul~

Ranroa drracks. focornonv es. ca rs. and tenuiualtaciliucs arc

relaliH'I) easy to dist inguish o n high spatial resolu tion
im a ge f)-- be ca use

CHA PTE R

492

13

Remote Sensing the Urban Landscape

Tra n s

Z u ric h Tra in Statio n. S \\-itll'r land

Figure 13-42 The train stali,," in Zurich. S.. itzerlend. recoorccd on Augusl 16, 1002 IcI,urt.:S) Illg ltalGlobo:. lnc.).

the trac ks rarel y mllv c from yea r h i ye ar:

lon g runwayt s }

the: tracks have no right ;mgt.:s. o nly gradual curvilinear

flight-tra ffic control Io\~ er(s)

turns:
tcrmmafrs l lciv ilia l\]

railroad bridges become narrow as opposed to highway

bridg es. which generall y sl ay the same width as the road:

han gar s

railroad cross ing signpllsts and thei r attendant shadowsan:

located at almost every maj or inte rsection with a Wild ;

an extens ive tarmac mad network coneccnng the hang;m

and terminals with the runways

railroad tracks rarely cr oss other railroad track s: and

large pnrking areas

locom otiv es and railroad ca rs arc large. long, and linea r,

visible aircratt.

m ak ing them fairl y easy III identify.

Much o fth e ac tua l work or a ra ilroad lakes place in the rai lroad marshalling (, Iassilk a tioll) yard. 11 is hen: thur railroad
cars go ing the same direc tion d ow n the line or railroad ca rs
goi ng to the identical destination <Ire placed in a spec ific
trai n. Figure 13 ~2 depicts the Zurich Train Station termi na l
a nd ra ilroa d marsh allin g yard.

Airpu rt
C ivil ian and milit ary airports usua lly have:

Rural airports etten have a sing le run way. a w indsock. \ ISI'

hie planes. and II hang,tTo r two.
Fig ure 13- B;1depicts a bip lane reco rde d at appro:\ima!ety6
x (l in . spatial resolu tion. The bipl ane photog mph we,
acqu ired using kuc ae rial photograp hy. A po rtion of the El
Toro\larinc Air Stat ion , C . \ ( I x I It).reeordedusingacon
ventirmal camera is found in Figure I]~ J h . An IKO\ OSII
x I til) imag e o f the Rona ld Reagan l'\3tional Airpo rt is presente d in Figure 13-43 c . The civilian airport has an e:\ltllsivc termina l system to move people to a nd from the plane.

a,
01

493

jra nspc rt at lo n Infrastructure

./

A \ ima g... biplan... ,,,,-oro..>d OIl appro:\lmat...l y 0 x (> 10. spat ial res lIiulioo u~i ng kite aerial phn((,;;rap hy rcounesy C ri!> C & '1l(00),

I.

b. JC'I aircraft OI l the 1-,1 1 0..-0 ..h rin e \ 11 Stalion. CA , recorded OIl
appro:\imalclr I x I ft s(lillial resolu tion

c.Panchromauc I x I m im.lge uf Ru ua h.l Rcal.!"n "' alional AlrptlM in

[court cs)' Space lm aging. (f Cf\l'yc, lnc.j.

Y,:a~hlllg h 'll,

DC. reco rded by the U;.o:,\O S ... tclhtc in I ~J<,l

Fig ure 13 -43 Examplc-, " I' aucran. tarmac. hangar>. and ml lna r) and ( 1\ ,11.ln rcrmmals ( Ie \ od 1-1 1J j.

C II.\ PTER

494

a. Sailbo.lts at illll:ho' in a harbor ncar San

Francisco. C t\ [ courtes y ens C. H..-nIOO ).

Remote Sensing the Urban Landscape

b. lligh spanal rC!iOlulion vertical aerial phtltug ntl'h uf t\loche

barges on l~ \1 i s~i ~s i rri Rive.. t1cin{l pushed tly two tugboats.

c. Four battles hips, ' .,.,0 troop transp o rts. ami an aircrnft currie r in stora ge at National C it)', Still Diego, C 1\

Figu re 13-44 E~ 'Ulll'lc 'i of'boats and ships reco rded on remotely 'cn~c'tt image!")' dcv et I ~ 14 1.

Conversely, so me military mrport s do not have terminals. as

the crews are ferried 10 and h um the uircraft by vehicle.

T hey are o ften seen as iso la t...\1 man-made reflective

o~j cxts on a relat ively uniform wurcr su rface. \\ hich can
increase their objec t-to-background co ntrast.

"mils a nd Shi p..

Small boats and large ~hip!o arc rclanvelj easy to id,'mify

using: high spatial recolunon rem, lie sensor data for the follow ing reasons:

Boars and ships have rclauv e ly unique shapes (i.e.. tk

length is almost al.... cys at leas t t.... o times greater than the
wid th. .... .th a rda ti\ d) p ointed 00.... I becau se they need to

Co

495

munl c a tlo ns a nd Utilitie s

:\I ilita r)-Appticanons

- .....,.,
,.....,..........

a Submarine base at Andreyeva Guba. Russia.

obtained lin February Q.:':()().l

b. Aircraft grav eyard nt Davis-Mom han Air force Base

ncar TU~Ml n . AZ. on August 11. 2002.

;:jgore 13-45 .. Two submarmcs are present at In.: Andrc~e"'l1 Uuba. Russia, submarine base (image courtesy (If l ma~eSat Internall,mal.
In~ . l h. Th<, Aen"f"lcc \-ta i nt~n ance and Rcgcncranon Center (" \-iRe ) at !)avisMonlhan Air Force Base in Tucson. AZ.
,h'n:s more than :'i.OUOaircra ft and providl's spare parts for n ld....r aircran in S<.'I":I ~'" thro ugho Ulllll' ""m id. The center annua lly
take'!> in abou! -lon aircran for slorage and ." pons about tile loame number for return to active sel'\ice. N"llte lhc B-52 bombers
In the !o" ....r lel\ poruon of the image that han' been cut into piec .... using a large blade dropped by a crane . The pieces are lell
o ut in u.c open for an expended period o f umc fur snetlnc nuticua l technic al means ( i.e . spy s.ue [[lle} verific atio n as part of
lhe strategic arms limitation treaty (SA LT II Treaty lind Protocol) agrtt ille nls be twc-en 111<: United States and the Union of Soykt Socialist Rcput>lics umage court esy o f OigitalGlobc. lnc.j.

hydrod ynamicall y s fice thro ugh the "" urcr with a m inimu m
amount o f fr iction.
Boars and ships range in Sill,' from rhe sm a ll fami ly row ooals. pow.. r bll<t l~. and sailboa ts from 3 - 10 m in length
F i~urc 13-44al to e xtre mely large cru ise ShlJh, pa\osen gcr
liners. ni l tanke rs. h3U!c'hlps. submarines, a nd a ircra ft carril'I'S. Figu re I J 44h depi cts twelve co mm ercial barges on t he
~1 1 ~ si s;; i pp i Ri\ et being pushc-d by IWO tu gboat s. xcmerous
large military shi ps are in storage in National C ity. Sa n
Dcgo . CA. in Figure 1344c.
Military orga nizunons throughou t the world usc h igh spatial

and spect ral reso lution re mote se ns ing technology to mon itor the locat ion and d isposition of military equipment. For

example. Figur e 134 5a dep icts two subm arines al rhc

Audreyeva Gu ba. Russ ia sub m a rine base. Aircraft in storage

!t lh.: Aerospace xtemtcnance and Rege ncra non Center at

Davis-Monthnn Air Force Hase in tucson. AZ. arc sho.... n in
Figure 13-4 5b.

Communications and Utilities

Urban/s uburban environments arc enormous consumers of

e lec trical po wer. natural gas. tel ephone se n -icc. and potable
wate r ( Haack et al. 1 ~"7 1 . In addit ion. they create g reat
q uan tit ies (If refuse. wastewater. and sew age . The re mo va l
of stor m.... atcr from urban im pervious surfaces is also a scrions problem I Sc h u lt/~ I"XX; Jen se n et al.. 2005a ). Automated ma pping.fucitiucs management (A\l!I-'M) an d
geograp hic information sys te ms i IS) hav e been developed
to man age e xtensive righr-o f-way corridors fur various utilitie s. es pecially pipelines (Jadkowski ct al., 19<)4 ). Th.. mo st
fundam ental ta sk is to upd ate mar s ttl show a general ce nterline of the uti lily of interest such as a power line righ t-ofway. Th is is relatively straig htforwa rd if the ut ility is not
buried and I - 30 m spa tial resolution remote scnsor da ta is
availa ble . It is a lso etten necessary 10 ide nufy prototype util ity t e.g .. pi l~lillc) rou tes [Feldman et al., 1995). Suc h studies require mor e geographically exte nsive imagery. such as
Lands at The matic Mappe r dura. The refore. the maj or ity o f

CHAr .:Ie

4 96

a.

Fcn~ c,j

water tower with adjaccmmanu.... nal ll'c buildin g.

Rgure 13-46

b llmp le~

13

Remot e Sens ing t he Urba n Lan dscape

11. WIS TV- IO television stauon i!'> in the huilding on the right. It h.t-; a
11111"'11113 on th.. rout" lind a large circular satellite dl~h in the parkmg Id ~
govc mmctu oll;l:c building i, \11\ the left.

of utility u ensnu..... ion facihtie s (l e\ <:1 I-B).

the actua l and proposed right-of-way may be obse rved .....ell

on image ry with I JO m spat ial resoluti on obtain ed once
e..'cry o ne 10 the years.

When it is necessa ry to inventory the exact loc ation of rhc

uti lily Ioot pads. tra nsm issio n IO \\ CTS. ut ility poles. man hole
coveo.jhc trw centerline of the ut ility. the wid th of' thc utjlil) right-of-way, and the d imensions of build ings. pumphouse... and subsrauons, then it is necessary to have a spat ial
resolut ion of fro m 0.15 - 0.6 m {Jadko w ski et al. 1(94). Fo r
exa mple, Figure 13H, depi cts a water-s torage lower and the
satellite transmission taciluics associated .... ith a televis ion
station.

aml]og (II" d igita l stereoscopic large-scale metric

photogra phy .... ith a spat ial rc....ohuion of ~ 0.15 OJ m;
U DAl{ data with masspo im post spacing of < I m and
vertical acc uracy o f approximu tclv 15 em.
Digital so ft-co py photogrammerry based on hig h spatial resolmion remote sensor data has revolutionized the CKJt!lll
and avail ability of digital surface and digital terrain modctl
(Jensen. 1'}95: Linde r. 20(l3) (Chapler (,). The extracnen rl
high resofuuon b ald-earth UTf\- ls using U DAR is bce(lm~
less expe nsive and may be the t.::eh nology of choice in I~
fu ture (l laala and Brenner. Ill)t); Hodgson 1'1 nl., 2 ()O~1
(Cbaprcr WI .

Ur b a n Digital El e va t io n Model C reation

,\ d ig ita l mod e l of' rhc earth's eleva tion is referred to gencrica lly as a digita l eleva tion mudd (1)[1\1). l f thc OEM co nta ins buildi ng and veget ation elevation in fomnuion. then it
is ca lled a ,Iigifa{\'/I/:!(/('(' "'mil-! (DSM l. lf all the building
and vegetation in formation have been re moved. thcn it is
called a bald earth .Iigital tvrrun mod.:1 (OT.\I ). Most G IS
used for socioeconomic or environmenta l planning in the
urhan environment include a OSM or OT"I {Jense n ct al..
~OO51. T.... c sensors thai can prll\ ide such in forma tion are

Te rrain ele vation in urban enviro nme nts d.lt.'s not ehangt
very rar 1d1y. Th e refo re. a DT\I of an urbani..ed area need
on ly be acqu ired once every I to 5 years unless there is sig
nificant development and the analyst desires IIIcomp areIII
ditfc rc m d ate DSr--1s or IJT\h ttl determine chang e in telT3ll
eleva tion, identify unpe rm itte d additions onto huildings. eM'
identity change, in hui lding hl'ights. fi gure IJ- 47 depicts I)
11 large-scale aeria l photograph uf downt(ll-\ II Co lumbia. Sf
21 a dig ita l surface mudd of the sam .' area ex tracted fnIn
the stereoscopic photography M ric ling the height {If e\~
building. J lthe orthopnotograph draped 0\ cr the DSM. ereal ing a \ inual rea lity representation til' a majo r sirce-t. and~
use ofthc 1l'\\1 for model ing fhc optimum locat ion for 1<.lC3f.

~n

497

Dig ital Eleva tion Model Creation

a. Panchromatic vertical aerial phomgraph.

c. Onh"pholO draped ove r DS M

1>. DigH,,1Surface Model IDS\1j.

0.1 ,

Cellular phone transceiver location model

Figure 13-47 al Vertical ae rial photography o f downtown t'olumbie. S{ ', I'l l [)l!,.'Hal ~lIr l':lI'<' model dcnv ed using S"n ' Cl>lly photogramtue try
an d ster..-osc opic imagery, C) lJil!ilal crthophoto draped ove r the DS/l.1. oj l ll., ap plicruion ofn G IS int crvisibiliry mode l 10 idcntif) dead zo nes lhm wou ld he produced if a cellular phone transceiver II ere located un this particular building.

mil a cellula r phone tran scei ve r (Jensen, 1995: Cow en and

Jensen, 199 R), A rch uccts. p lanners. e ng mc'ers. and real
estate pe rso nnel a rc begi nning 10 usc such informa tio n for a
variety of purpo ses,
A digital surface model of a portion of the Westing house
Savannah River Company' nca r A iken, Sc. is show n in Figure 13-4 8. This three -di me nsiona l sce ne wa s deri ved from
UDA R last rerum da ta obtained al a flthl ing dcnsuy of
approximately 10 em. Xotc that this i:. nut a bald-earth digi-

tal terrain model as the huilding: and vege tation elevation

intormauon are sti ll present 10 the SI.:~m:.

vcndcrhoc (:!on5) compa red nnd contr aste d elevation information derived usin g phntogrammcrric versus lidargrammetric methods for transp ort ation engineer ing design
purposc-s as part o f the U,S. Department of Transportauo n's

l'ational Consortium tin Remote Se nsing in Transportation

resea rch program (NCRST, 10061, lie found that elc-varion
in format ion de rived from lidarpramrnctry was J US! as etfec-

CHAPTER

498

--13

Remote Sensing the Urban Landseape

syst ems that some time s gen erate dead ly tornadoes and hur
rican es. Full hemispheric disk images may be ob tainedevery
25 minutes . Intense thunderstorms in relati vely smaller
regions ma y be imaged every 3.1 minutes. The spatial resolution is I x I km for the visibl e band and 4 - 8 km forth,
thermal infra red bands. European nations use METEOSAT
w ith visib le near-infrared bands obtained at 2.5 x 2.5 kmand
thermal infrared dat a co llected at 5 x 5 km every 25 minutes.
Early hurricane monitoring and modeling based on these
data have saved tho usands of live s in rec ent history. For
example, in 1989 Hurricane Hugo caused approximatelySI
billi on in damage to resid ent ial, co mmercial. and industrial
fac ilities, but no live s were lost because of remo te sensing
assi sted ea rly warning and evacuation .

Figur e 13-48 Analytically hill-shaded digital surface model

( DS M) ofa portion of the Westin ghouse Sava nnah
River Co mpany near Ai ken, SC, deri ved from last
return LIDAR data ob tained in Nove mber, 2004, at

a posting density of approximately 10 em. The elevation of buildings, trees, transportation features
and the terrain ca n be ex tracte d from the DSM .

live as that derived photogramm etricall y for transportation

applicatio ns .

The publ ic also relies on ground-ba sed National Weather

Servi ce Weather Surveillance Radar (WSR-88D) for precipitation mapping and timel y severe storm warning (Chapter
12). Th e maximum ran ge of the NEXRAD radar is approximately 250 nautical miles. The N EX RA D net work provides
significa nt improvements in severe weather and flash tlood
warnings, air-tra ffic safety, flow control for air traffic,
resource protection at mi litary ba ses, and management of
water, agriculture, fore st, and snow removal (NO AA ROC,
2006). The Doppler radar "c omposite reflecti vity " productis
projected onto a Cartesian geographica l map w ith a I x I krn
resolutio n out to 230 km or at a 4 x 4 km resolution out to
460 km . The dat a are obtained eve ry 5 minutes in severe
we ather mod e, every 6 minutes in precipitation mode, and
every 10 minutes in clear air mod e.

Meteorolo gi cal Data

Daily weather in urban environments affects people.

schools, businesses, telecommunication, and tran sportation
systems. Great expense has gone into the development of
near real-time monitoring of fronta l systems, temperature,
precipitation, and especiall y severe sto rm-warning sys tems.
Th ese imp ortant meteorological parameters are monitored
almost excl usive ly by sophisticated a irborne and groundbased remote sens ing systems. For examp le, two Ge os tatio nary Operati onal Env ironmental Satellites (GO ES) are
positioned at 35,790 km above the equator in geo-synchronou s o rbit s. GOES West obtains information about the western United States and is parked at 135 west lon gitude.
GOES East obtains information about the Caribbean and
eastern United States and is parked at 75 west longitude.
Every day millions of people wat ch the pro gr ess of fronta l

Hi gh spat ia l resolution (5 - 30 m) day- and nighttim e thermal infrared data may be used to obta in deta iled qua ntitative
spatial information on the urban heat island effect (La et al,
1997). Landsat 7 Enhanced Th em at ic Mapper Plu s, with its
60 x 60 m spatia l resolution and A STE R w ith its 90 x 90 m
spatial resolution are parti cu larl y useful. Th e sp atial informati on can then be used to de velop "g reening" campaignsto
ame liorate the urban heat island effect,

Urban Hydrology

Civil and hydrologic eng inee rs and urban planners constantly require up to date information about urban hydrology. Two useful measur em ent s that can be rem otely sensed
inc lude impervious surface area and floodpla in del ineation.

an Hydrology

499

Ext ra ction of Imperviou s Surface In form ati on

a. USGS NAPP digital orthopho to I x 1 m (red band) .

h. Extraction of impervious surface material s.

Fig ure 13-49 Impervious surface s were extra cted from U.S.G.S. 1 x I III Nation al Aerial Photography Program (NAP P) colorinfrared digital o rthophoto quarter quad (DOQO) imagery of an area in Nort h Ca rolina [courtesy Tom Tribble and
Frank Obusek: North Carolina Center for Geog raphic Information and Ana lysis; Jensen and Hodgson (20 04 )].

pervious Surface Mapping

mpervious surfaces such as asphalt. concrete. and build ing

eof materials keep precipitation from percola ting into the
ground. The greater the amount of impervious surface mate"a\ in a watershed. the greater the runoff and the higher the
ak flow of tributaries that collect the increased runoff, Sigificant work has been con ducted to deve lop methods to
xtract impervious surface information from remote sensor
ata. Impervious surfaces such as parking lots, highways,
buildings. etc. ca n be readily iden tified on large scale remote
,sensor data using the fundamenta l eleme nts of image interf,retion. In addition, the spectra l charac teristics of selected
.impervious surface materials can be co llected and used to
train digi tal image processing prog rams to automatically
identify impervious surface cove r and quantify its extent
[Ridd, 1995). For exa mple. Figure 13-49 demonstra tes how
U.S. Geol ogical Survey National Aerial Photography Program (NAPP) I x 1 m orthophotograph y was used to extract
impervious surfaces associated with a large mall in North
Carolina (Jens en and Hodgson. 2004).
Impervious surfaces can be inventoried most accuratel y
using mu ltispectral remote sensor data that has a spatial resolution of 0.25 - 10m (Ridd, 1995; Ji and Jensen. 1999;

Jensen et al., 2005ab). Urbanization is taking place at a rapid

pace in many countries (Jen sen et al., 2002). It is necessary
to collect impervious surface information every one to fiv~
years in such environments (Table 13-1).

Floodp lain Delineation

The geogra phic extent of floodplain s can be identified using

multispectral remote sensor data in conjunction with digital
terrain model (DTM) information derived from terrest rial
surveyi ng. soft-copy photogramm ctry, L1 DA R or IFSA R.
Vegetation cover and soil associations are often in transition
at the floodplain boundary. Therefore, it is possible to utilize
mu ltispectral data to identify changes in vegetation type or
soi l association and use this information in conjunction wit h
elevation and slope data to identify the boundary of the
floodplain.
Multispectral or hypersp ectra l remote sensor data with a
spat ial resolution of 1 - 30 m is usually sufficient for floodplain delineat ion when used in conj unction with elevation
data. In dynamic areas . floodplain delineat ion should be
upda ted every one to live years (Table 13-1).

CHAPTE R

500

Critical Environmental Area Assessment

Urban/suburban environments often include very sensitive

areas such as wetlands. endangered-species habitat, parks,
land surro unding treatment plants, and the land in urban ized
watersheds that provides the runoff for potable drinking
water. Rel atively stable sensitive environments o nly need to
be monitored every one to two years using a multispectral
remote senso r co llec ting I - 10 m data. For extremel y critica l areas that cou ld change rapidly, multi spe ct ral remote
sensors (incl uding a therma l infrared band) should obta in ::
0.25 - 2 m spatial resolution data every one to six months
(E hlers et a l., 200 3).

Disaster Emergency Response

The Federal Emergency Managem ent Age ncy (part of the

U.S. Departme nt of Hom eland Sec urity) is ut ilizi ng rem ote
sensing data as it co nducts the Multi- Hazard Flood Map

.- 13

Remote Sensing the Urban Landscape

captured in digital frame imagery in Figure 13-50c.lftle

terrain is shrouded in clouds. imaging radar often provids
the mo st useful information . Post-disa ster images are registered to the predisaster image s, and manual and digital
change detection takes place (Jense n, 200 5). If precise.
quantitative information about damaged housing stock. disrupted transportation arteries. the flow of spilled materials.
and damage to aboveground utilities are required, it is advis
able to acquire post-di saster 0.25 - I m panchromatic and
near-infrared data within one to two days. Such infonnatioo
were indispens able in assess ing damages and allocating
scarce cleanup resources .
Mayors and governors o ften use pre- and post-disaser
remote sensor data to obtain a rapid assessment of the devastation. For example. before and after tsunami images ofBandAceh and Gleebruk, Indonesia, revea l destro yed homes.
washed-out road s and bridges. and deforestation (Figure Il
5 1). When this information is correlated with the parcel
property va lue stored in a G IS for the same square km. a
quantitative do llar damage asse ssment can be made. which
is indispe nsable w hen requesting disaste r assistance.

Observations

Modernizati on program. This includes mapping and analyzing data for all types of hazards. T he program require s geo detic co ntrol, aerial image ry. elevat ion, surface water extent
and other thematic data wh ich are used to produce dig ital
!lood map s and other hazard-related products. A ll data are
serve d via the Geospatial One-Stop portal and The National
Map ( Low e, 2003; FEMA, 2006).
Floodi ng (e .g., Mississippi River in 1993; Rhine and
Danube in 1993), hurricanes (e.g., Hugo in 1989 ; Andrew in
1991; three in Florida in 2004; Katrina in 2005), tornadoes
(every yea r). fires, tanker spills, earthquakes (e.g., Saugus,
CA, in 197\; Nort hridge, CA , in 1994 ), and the 2004 Indian
Ocea n tsunamis demon strated that a rectified, predisaster
remote sensing image database is indispens able (Jensen and
Hodgson , 2006). The predisaster data only needs to be
updated every one to five years. However, it should be high
spatial resolu tion (I - 5 m) mu ltispectral data if possible
(Je nsen and Co we n, 1999) .

\\'hen disaster strikes. high resolution (,:S 0.25 - 2 m) panchromatic and/o r near-infrared data should be acquired
wit hin 12 hours to two days (Schweit zer and McLeod,
199 7). For example, Figure 13-50a records the spi ll ass ociated with an overturned tanker truck immediately after an
accident. Aeri al photography acqui red immediately after the
letha l Sau gus, CA, February 1971 earthq uake is shown in
Figure 13-50b. Torn ado damage nea r Mec han icsville, NY, is

Table 13- 1 and Figure 13-2 reveal that there are a numberof
remote sensing system s that currently provide some of the
desired urban/socioeconomic information when the required
spatial reso lut ion is poorer than 4 x 4 m and the temporal
resolution is between I and 55 days. However, very high
spatial resolution dat a I x J m) is required to satisfy many
of the soci oeco nomic data requirement s. In fact. as shown in
Figure 13-2, the only senso r that currently pro vides such
dat a on demand is anal og or digital aerial photogra phy (0.2;
- 0.5 m). GeoE ye 's IKO NOS , with its I x I m panch romatic
dat a; GeoEye 's OrbView 3, with its I x I m panchromatic
data ; and DigitalGlobe's Qu ickBird, with its 0.61 x 0.61 m
panchromatic data, may still not satisfy all of the data
requirements. No ne o f the sensors can provide the 5- to 60minute temporal resoluti on necessary for traffic and parking
studies . The GOES satellite con stell ation ( East and West)
and the European M ET EOSAT provide sufficient national
and regiona l weather information at reasonable temporal (3
- 25 minutes) and spatial resolution s (I - 8 km and 2.5 - ;
km, respectively). Ground-based Nationa l Weather Service
Weather Survei llance Radar provide s sufficient spatial resolution ( I x 1) and tempora l resolution (5 - 10 min) for pre
cipitation and intense storm tracking in urban env ironments.

References

501

a. O vertu rned tractor-t railer tanker in Alaska

(Jensen and Coo.en. 1999 ).

b. Aerial photograph y of collapsed spans o f a freeway near Saugus,

CA. immediately after an eart hquake in 19 7 1. This spa n was suppo rted by pillars that could not withstand the quake.

c. Tornado da ma ge nea r Mechan icsville . NY. Thi s is I x I ft spatial

resolution imagery obtai ned on June I. 1998. using a d igital frame
camera. Fire and medical rescue wo rkers arc on the scene (cou rtesy
Litton Emerge. Inc.).

Figure 13-50 Exam ples o f high spatia l resolut ion imagery acq uired imm edi ately afte r disasters
using trad itional metri c aeria l photograph y (a.b) and a dig ital fra me came ra (c).

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Ts unami Impacts at Band a Aceh and Gleebruk, Indo nes ia

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P.,
to

Light. D. L.. 1998. personal communi cati on . Emerge , Inc.

!ent

Lindgren. D. T.. 1985. Land-lise Planning an d Remote Sens ing.

Boston . Martin us Nijhhoff
raegi-

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Lo. C. P., 1995. " Auto mated Population and Dwellin g Unit Espor

timat ion from High-Resolutio n Sa te lli te Images: A Geograph ic Inform ati on System Approach: ' Int I. Journal of Remote
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Olorunfemi . J . F.. 1984. " Land-use and Population: A Linkin g

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Phil ipson . W.. 1997. Manua l of Photographic Int erpret ation.

Bethesda: ASP&RS . 830 p.
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Lo. C. P. and A. K. Yeung. 2002. Concepts and Techniques of

Geographic l nformatlon Sy st ems. Upper Saddle River: Pren tice-H ail , 492 p.

in

os,

e r.
es
in

Lo, C. P. and B. J. Fa ber, 1998, " Integ ration of Landsat Th emat ic

Mapper and Cen sus Data for Quali ty of Life Assess ment ," Remote Sensi ng 0/ Envi ronm ent. 62 (2) : 143- J 57.
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Qui . F. and J . R. Jense n. 2004, "Open ing th e Ne ural Network

Black Bo x and Breaking the Know ledge Acqui sition Bott leneck of Fuzzy Systems for Remote Sen sing Image Class ifica tion ," IntI. Journal of Remote Sensing, 25(9): 1749-1 768.
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Surface-Soi l) Model for Urba n Ecosy stem s Anal ysis throu gh
Remote Sen sin g : Comparat ive Anatomy for Cities," Intl,
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13

Remote Sensing the Urban Landscape

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rban
sing

Remote Sensing of Soils, Minerals, and

Geomorphology

14

riforrta-

.nc-

De[ape,

a ils:

rItify
nvi-

f erling

'ing

nly 26 percent of the Earth's surface is exposed land. The remaining 74 percent is covered by water (including inland seas. lakes, reservo irs, and rivers).
Very few people actuall y live on boats or on structures located in water.
Almost all of human ity lives on the terrestria l, solid Earth com prised of bedrock and the weathered bedrock we call so il. Humankind is able to obta in a
relatively abundant harvest in certain parts of the world from this soi l. They
arc also able to extract important minerals from the bedrock and deriva tive
materials that we use in industrial/commercial proce sses, hopefu lly to
improve the quality of life on Earth. It is importan t to have accurate info rmation about the location. qualit y, and abundance of soils, minerals, and rocks
in order to conserve these often irreplaceable natural resource s.

Bedrock is continually weathered and eroded by the combined effects of

water. wind. and/or ice. The sands tone monolithic dome Ayers Rock in Australia is a good examp le of tilted sedimentary bedrock being weathered and
eroded (Figure 14-1). The once buried sandstone slab was exposed to surface
erosion approxi mately 70 million years ago. The eroded materials have been
moved to other locations via mass transport. These unconsolidated sedimentary materials are called surfic ial deposits. Remote sensing can playa role in
the identification, inventory. and mapping of soils that are on the surface of
the Earth. especially when surficial soils are not covered with dense vegetation. This chapter reviews the fundamental issues associated with remote
sensing the spectral characteris tics of soils. The impact of soil grain size,
organic matter, and water content on soil spectral reflectance are identified.
Remote sensing may also assist in the modeling of soil erosion. provid ing
biophy sical information for the Universal Soil Loss Equation and other
hydro logic models (e.g., King et al., 2005).
Remote sensing can provide information about the chemical composition of
rocks and minerals that are on the Earth's surface and not completely covered
by dense vegetation. Emphasis is placed on understand ing unique absorption
bands associated with specific types of rocks and minerals. as recorded using
imaging spectroscopy (Dalton et al., 2004; Hook et al., 2005). In certain
instances. remote sensing can be used to identify geobotanical relationships
and to identify soil geochemistry or rock type (e.g.. Rowan et al., 2000) .
The chapter concludes with an overview of how general geologic info rmation
may be extracted from remotely se nsed data, including information on lithology. structure, drainage patterns, and geomorp hology (landforms) (Walsh et
aI., 1998; Boceo et aI., 2005). Remote sensing data arc generally of limited
value for detecti ng deep subsurface geologic features unless they have a surface surrogate expression that can be extrapolated to depth .

507

CHAPTE R

508

14

Ayer s Rock (Uluru), Aust r alia

Remote Sensing of Soils , Mine ral s , and Geomorphology

Soi l is co mprised of so lid particles (mi nera ls and organic

matter) of varying size an d composition that make up about
50 percent of the so il's vo lume. So ils also contain liquidaed
gases. A soil is characterized by one or both of the follcwing: horizons, or layers, that are disting uishable from the ieitial material as a result of add itions. losses. transfers. and
transformations ofenergy and matter or the ability to suppon
rooted plants in a natural environment (USDA. 2003). The
weathered. unconsol idated organic and inorganic mineral
material that lies on top of the bedrock shown in Figure 142 varies greatly in composition and thickness throughout the
Earth. In the heartland of continents such as North Amen"
it may be 25 - 300 m deep. On steep mountain slopes orin
deserts it may be almost completely absent. Permafrost soils
may exist in arctic climates.

Soil Horizons

QuickBird image obtained February 4, 2002.

Figure 14- 1

Ayers Rock (Ul uru in aborig ine) in Australia is a

mono lithic slab of Arkose sandstone that rises more
than 348 m (1,100 ft) above the desert. The once
horizontal sedimentary slab was tilted (folded) so
that it protrudes through the surface at an angle of
approximately 85, It con ti nues be low the ground
for 5 to 6 kill. Some layers of Arkose sandstone are
less resistant than othe rs and erode more rapid ly.
This prod uces the para llel ribs or ridges. Ayers Rock
has an area of 3.33 sq. km with a circumference of
9.4 krn and lies 1,395 km (538 mil south of Darwin
(courtesy DigitalGlobe, Inc.).

Soil C ha racterist ics a nd Taxo n o my

Soil is unconsolidated material at the surface of the Earth

that serves as a natural medium for growing plants. Plant
roots reside within this material and extract water and nutrients. Soil is the weathered material between the atmosphere
at the Earth's surface and the bedrock be low the surface to a
maximum depth of approximately 200 em (USDA, 1998). A
mature, fertile soil is the product of centuries of physica l and
chemical wea thering of roc k. combined with the addit ion of
decaying plants and other organic matter (Loynachan et al.,
1999). Soi l is essential to the Eart h's life-support system o n
the land . Agronom ists refer to th is as the solum,

Biological, chem ica l, and physical processes crea te vertical

zonat ion w ith in the upp er 200 em o r so of so ils in which
there is co mparative ly free mov eme nt of gravity water and
gro undwa ter ca pillary moistu re . T his res ults in the creation
of relat ively ho rizontal layers, or soil horizons. There are
several sta ndard hori zon s in a typi cal so il profile situated
abov e the bed rock. incl uding (F igure 14-2) 0, A, E, B, C. R,
and It: that may be disting uishab le from one another based
o n their co lor (hue, val ue, chroma), tex ture, and chemical
properties (USDA, 1998; 2003).
The epipedon (G reek epi, over, upon and pedon. soil) is a
horizo n that forms at or near the surface and in wh ich most
of the roc k structure has been destroyed (USDA, 2003). The
humus-ric h topsoil, or 0 horizon , in the epipedon contains
more than 20 percent partially decayed organic matter, Thus,
it is a complex mixture of inorganic soil particles and decaying organic matter. 0 horizon soils typically have a dark
brown or even black surface layer ranging in thickness from
a few centimeters to several meters in areas where dense
plant cover exists. This horizon is created by the interaction
of water, other chemicals. heat. organic material. and air
among the soil particles. Plant root systems extract much of
their water and nutrients from within this "zone of life"
(Marsh an d Dozier. 198 1).
The A horizon is a zone ofelnviation or leaching formed at
the sur face or be lov..' an 0 horizon. where water moving up
an d down in the so il co lum n leaches out m inera ls in solution
(ions) and clay co lloids from within the soi l and relocates
them to other hor izons be low. A hori zons exh ibit ob literation
of a ll or much of the or igina l rock structu re. In a humid (wet)

Soil Cha racte ris t ics and Taxonomy

nie

-'-- .:0 h'ori ~on -'-c

w-

nd
o rt
he
ra l

4-

tion o r irrigation. Here the materials may be deposited in the

Soil Pro file

ut
nd
01 -

509

Zoneof {

Eluviation
c>

Zone of {
Iliuviation

he

A I
:
:':' ::A '
:
,
.
.
. ' - } ..
..
..
:'f:
-: B I '.;., co

~~

'00-'0(--

in

Humus-rich
Fine-text ured humus
Light -colored
I

nineral particles

.~

-.

o.

Colloid accumulation;
Transition to subsoil

<:>

'yIrk
)m

se
on

air
f

at
up
on

:es
on
er)

unweathered bedrock (R) below and the deve loping so il

'..0 ; -:::...

~Q:.:,: -

the so il. The water ma y be permanently frozen (W/l or not

permanently frozen ( IV).

Soil Grain Size and Texture

~I m

\'"T

Bedrock

A standard soil profile as defined by the U.S. Departmentof Agriculture. The major soil horizonsare
0, A, E. B. C. situated on top of bedrock, R. The 0
horizon contains partially decayed organic matter.

Subhorizonsare transitional to and between the horizons (U .S. Department of Agriculture. 1998).

a
st
he
Ins
us,

material is co mmonly subj ected to physical and chemica l

minerals weathered
';::... . . : . ~ ~~ :'i-:.; ,~,,:. from bedrock

:.. :.:
:";-n':i.'~}r
.-::"
~r !5--

Figure 14-2

The C horizon is simply weathered parent material. lying

below the B horizon. Mo st are mineral layers. Th e parent

above. Sometimes there is a water layer within or beneath

c::J (/

are
t ed
R,
ed
al

interparti cle air spaces become clogged. cementing the par-

Sub soil; usua lly a

depo sit but may be

IOn

can collect such a mass of colloids and minerals that the

weathering from frost action, roots, plant acids. and other

agents. In some cases, the C horizon is transitional between

::'"T-:- ;:):7::' -'

ils

rich in clay an d is co lo red red or ye llow by iron o xide s

(Loynachan et aI., 1999). Over tim e, the zo ne of illu viation

ticles together. This can lead to the development of an

impervious hardpan .

~= B}~6 hardpan likely

-C:::::-<;:""".:-i...::::.:.-:,
cr--,
_= . ~ B3

lea,

B horizon, the zone of illuviation. This layer is commonly

The average diameter of grains ofsoil in a soil horizon is one

of the major variab les used to identify the taxon omy of a

soil. There are three universally recognized soil grain size

cla sses : sand, silt, and clay. Figure 14-3 identi fies three different scales used to classify soil particles based on their
d iam eters. The U.S. Department of Ag riculture sca le is
(Loynac han et al ., 1999):
Sand: a} so il particle between 0.05 and 2,0 mm in

diameter; b) soil composed ofa large fraction of sa nd-s ize

climate, clay minerals, ironoxides, and dissolved calcite are
usually moved downward. Th is leac hi ng may ca use the A
horizon to be pale and sandy, but the uppermost part is ot\en
darkened by humu s (decomposed plant material) that co llects at the top of the so il. The A hori zon so ils may be influ-

enced by cultivation or animal pasturing in agricultural

environments.

particles.
Si lt: a} soil part icle between 0.002 and 0.05 mm in
dia meter; b} soil, composed of a large fraction of silt-s ize
part icle s.
Clay : a} soil particle < 0.002 mm in equ ivalent di am eter;
b) so il that has propert ies dominated by cla y-size particl es.

Sometimes an E horizon exists between the zone of eluviation (A horizon) and the zone of illuviation (B horizon). E

Sand, silt, and cla y- si ze particles play different ro les in the

horizons have min era l layers in which the main feature is the
loss of silicate clay, iron, aluminum, or some combination of
these materials, leaving a concentration of sand and silt par-

soil formation process. Soil particles with sand-size diametersenhance soil dra inage because water can percolate freely
in the large air spaces between the large soil particles. Conversely, silt and clay-size soil particles enhance the move-

ticles. All or much of the original rock structure is usually

obliterated in an E horizon.

ment and rete ntion of so il capillary water. The very sma ll

cla y-si ze soil particle s carry electrical charges that attract
and hold minute particles of dis solved m ineral s (ions) such

The downward movement of ions and colloids in the soil

often terminates at a certain location in the soil column

as potassium and calcium. Because the ions are attached to

where the upward pressure of capillary groundwater offsets

that of the perc olating g ra vity wa ter from surfac e precipita-

the clay particles , they are not readily wa shed awa y. Thus.
some clay in a soi l hori zon helps to mainta in soi l fertil ity by

510

CHAPTE R

14"

.Remote Sensing of Soils, Minerals, and Geomorphology

a. So il Scien ce Society of Am erica a nd U.S. Department of Agr icul tu re Soil P a rticle Size Scale
Sa nd

Silt

Clay
0.002

Grave l

0.05 0.1 0.25 0.5

.!.

..

2 mm
Particle size re lative
to a gra in of sand
0. 15 mm in diam et er

S ilt

Clay. -:

76.2

Sand
b. MIT and British Standa rds In st itu te
Silt

C lay

coarse

fine

0.002

Sand

0.006

0.02

0.06

G rav e l

coarse

fin e

0.2

0.6

Stones

2 01m

c. International Society of Soil Science

Clay

0.002
Figu re 14 -3

San d

Silt

fine

0.02

I
0.2

Grave l

coarse

2 mm

Th ree soil particle size scales: a) Soi l Sc ience Socie ty of Ame rica. b) Massac husetts Institute of Technology and British Standards Institute. and c) International Society of Sa il Science scale (after Marsh and Dozier, 1981; Loynachan et al.. 1999).

(tundra soils), Histosols (organic soils), Inceptisols (young

soi ls). Mo llisols (pra irie soils). Oxisols (tropica l soils), Spodosols (forest soi ls). Ult iso ls (low- nutrient so ils), and Vertisols (swe lling-clay soils). Add itiona l dichotomous keys
a llow the sc ient ist to classi fy the soil into Sub orders, Great
Gro ups, Subg ro ups, Fami ly Level, and Soil Se ries.

retaining nutrient -ric h potassium, calci um, and other disso lved m ineral s (Marsh and Dozier. 198 1).
Soi l horizo ns conta in various pro portion s of sand, silt, and
clay-size particles. Soil texture is the relative proportion of
sand, silt, and c lay in a soi l. A typical soi l's texture is the percentage in 'weight of part icles in various size classes. The
USDA soil-texture tria ngle sho wn in f igure 14-4 ident ifies
the pe rcentages of sand, silt, and clay, co mprising standard
so il types. For exa mple, a loam soi l found in the lower center
of the diagram consists of 40 pe rcent sand. 40 percent silt.
and 20 percent clay. If a so il has a greater co ncentration of
sand - say, 60 percent - and 10 percent clay and 30 percent
silt, it is ca lled a san dy loa m so il, etc.

Soil Tax onomy

We no longer identify a "soil type." Rather, soil sc ientists

dete rm ine the soil taxonomy (Petersen , 1999). Keys to Soil
Taxonomy have bee n used by the USDA Na tural Resour ces
Co nservat ion Service (US DA, 2003) since 1975 to qual itative ly and qu antitat ive ly differentiate between soil taxa. T he
hig hest category of the U.S. Soi l Taxono my is Soil Order.
Eac h order refl ects the dominan t soil-form ing processes and
the degree of soil forma tion. Th e 12 domin ant U.S. So il
Orders are: Alfiso ls (hig h-nutrie nt so ils). An d isols (vo lcan ic
soils), Aridisols (desert soils), Entiso ls (new soils). Gelisols

..,

The So il Taxonom y is a re latively co mplex syste m based on

the use of elimi nation dichoto mous keys that allow the soil
sc ientist to eva luate various cha racte ristics in a soil profile,
incl uding soil color (hu e, valu e. chroma), soil-texture class,
moisture conten t, bulk density, poro sity. and ch em istry. For
exa mple, the first entry into the Key to So il Ord ers is, Docs
the so il have I) perma frost with in 100 cm of the soil surface,
or 2) ge lic materi als wit hin 100 em of the so il surface and
permafrost within 200 cm of the soil surface? If it does. it is
a Gel isol. If it does not, the ana lyst then prog resses through
the dichotom ous key until he or she find s that the soil meets
a ll the co nditions identified.

Remote Sensing of Soil Properties

From the previo us discussion it is c lear tha t most of the

inform ation used by so il sc ient ists to map a so il series in a

511

Rem ole S ensing of 5011 Propertie s

where.

100

Lp : Thi s is the porti on of the recorded radiance resu lting

from the downwe lling solar (E"m) and sky (E,,,,,) radiation
that neve r actually reache s the so il sur face. This is
un want ed atm ospheric path rad iance no ise and sho uld
idea lly be remo ved from the imagery pr ior to trying to
ex tract inform at io n about surficia l soils or minerals.

30

L. Som e of the do wnw e lling so lar an d sky radiation

reaches the air-so il interface (boundary! layer) and
f

20Y-

penetrates it approximatel y 1/2 wavelen gth ( A) deep into

the so il. If the major wavelength of light being
inves tiga ted is green light . the dep th of penetrati on into the
so il co lumn wo uld be approxi ma te ly 0.275 urn (i.e., 1/2 of
0.55 urn), The a mo unt of rad iant flux exi ting the soi l
co lumn based on the reflectio n and scatteri ng taking place
at th is depth is L.f The characteristics of the so il o rganic
matter (decomposed veget ation o r animal materi al) and
ino rganic (mineral) con stituents and the amo unt o f so il
moisture present have a signilicant im pact on the amount
of energy ab sorbed , sca tte red. and/o r reflected from this
surfic ia l port ion of the soil/rock matrix. Figure 14-5a
depi ct s a so il with well-develop ed 0 and A hori zon s. It is
likely that most of the energy rell ected fro m th is soil w ill
be rep resen tative of the constituents of the 0 hor izon . As
the amount of humu s (o rga nic matter) dimin ish es. the
sur face reflectance will be more representative of the
characteristics of the A hori zon (Figur e 14-5b). If both the
and A hori zon s are almost non existent, as shown in
Figure 14-5c, the surface re flectance may be a functio n of
the weath ered subso il (regolith) or even the bedrock ifi t is
co mple te ly ex posed. as on a stee p mountain slope .

-(
sandy

loam

90

..

Fig ure 14-4

80

70

60

10

Sand (%)

Percentages of clay 0.002 mm ), silt (0.002 - 0.05

an-

mm ), and sand (0.05 - 2.0 mm ) in the basic soil-tex tural ciasses (USDA, 1998).

ng

region is obtai ned by direct ob servation in the field. It is

essential that subs ur face so il profiles be examined and ca reful bio logical, chemical, and ph ysica l me asur emenls be
obtained with in each soi l hori zon. Thu s, it is not reali stic to
expect rem ote se nsi ng to be a universal pana cea that can be
used to perform soi l taxa mapping witho ut in situ data col lection. Rath er. we shou ld und erstand that under cert ain conditions it is po ssible for rem otel y sensed data to be of value
10 the soi l sc ientist as he or she collects a ll the pertinent
materia l necessary to per form acc urate so il classifi cati on . In
fact, man y soil sc ientists tind that remote ly sense d ima ges of
the terrain und er investigation are essen tia l to the so il mapping proce ss (Petersen , 1999). Fortunately, so me soil property characteristics may be measured remotel y under idea l
conditions.

0-

ISS.

'or
es

ce,
nd
is
gh
ets

be

For examp le, opti cal remote sensing instrum ents such as
aerial photograph y, multisp ectral scanners, and hyp erspectral remo te senso rs ca n reco rd the spe ct ral refle ctance characteristics of the surface properties of soils if they are not
totally obscured by de nse multiple-story shrubs or tree s with
their coal esc ing ca no pies . Th eo ret ically, the tota l up well ing
radiance from an ex posed soi l reco rded by the sensor
onboard the aircraft or sate llite. Lt. is a function of the electromag net ic energy from the sources ident ified in Figure 145 and summa rized as

a
L =L+L +L
1
P
s
v

(14 -1)

L ~. :

Some of the incident do wn welling so lar and sky

radiation ma y be abl e to penetrate perhaps a few
mi llimeters or even a centimeter o r two into the soil
column. This may be re ferred to as volume scattering , L\~
Unlike water (refer to Chapter 12), how eve r, there may be
very litt le vo lumetri c visible, near- and mid dle- infrared
rad iant Ilux exit ing the so il profi le fro m any appreciable
depth . In fact, a lmost a ll the sp ec olar boundary layer
rellec ta nce (L,) and volum etric scattering (L ,.) may take
place in the firs t few millimeters of the soi l profile, The
amou nt of vo lume tric rad iant flux scattered or reflected
back into the atmosphere is a fun ct ion of the wavelength of
incident energy (i.e., lo nger wa ve lengt h active microwave
energy may penet rate fart her into the soil, as has been
demon strated in the Sa hara), the rype and amount of
o rga nic/ ino rga nic co nstitue nts. the shape and den sity of
the minerals, the de gree of m inera l compac tion, and the
amo unt of so il mo isture pr esent. Figures 14-5b ,c suggest

C'H \ I" It.R

512

Downwel ling
Sun a nd Sky
lrradrance

14

' ['o tal

R ~ d j J1K'C

I., .. I p ... I.s +

A horizon

1' 1>

R florilon

a Soi l with w ell-de-..eloped

() anc.! A horilllih.

b. Th in 0 oonlCln O\'eT less

de vd llpo..'l.1 A an d B horizon s.

thai as the 0

horizon hcCOO1 t:S less \\ ct t-d ev e lo ped.

perha ps more incident cnl"Il!Y interacts wi th the so il
particl es in the A horizon ( Figure 14-5b) or even the
subsoi l an d bed roc k (Fig ure 14-5e ).
,11e goal of mos t soil and mi neral re mote se nsin g is In
ext ract the radiance of interest from all till: othe r ra di ance
co mpo nents being recorded oy the sens or sys te m. For CX:1 mpie. the scicuusr interested in identify ing the orgamc a nd
inorgan ic (mine ral] ccn-ritucnt- in th e very rep layers o f the
soi l profile is most co nce rne d With measuring the int egrated
spect ral response ofthe surface and subs urface radian ce. i.e.,
L, and i;
=

"

L, -I./, .

( 14-2 )

T his inv olves carefu l radi om et ric correction o f the remote

sensor data to rem ove urmosphcric uncnu ution (L r,). Ideally
we could di senta ngl e the indi vidual contribu tion o f L, and L"
to rhc re flected rad iant n ux. Un tortuna tcly. this is diffi cult.
and usuall y we m ust be co nte nt ana lyzing an inte gration
(summ ation) o f these two radiance consuruems. Nevenhcless. it is possible to make some gene-ral observations about
ho w surficial soi ls appe ar in rem ot e se nsor data base d o n
the ir spect ral re flectan ce properties .

The spectral reflectance characteristics of soi ls arc a fun ction of

c . Very thin 0 horizon OWl

subsotl and weathered bedroc k,

So ils and rocks receive irradia nce from Ilk' Sun j_' and atmosphere (E.. ,). Tbe [,lI.al radiance U p \\ c!ling from a soil'rod
maIm. toward the I"C'fJU>!t' '<:l1sor is a funcuon of radiance (rolll unwanted all11<"'rM1C scauenng (L,. ). a substantial amounld
rad iance (L.) relk ...'1,'d Of scattered from the upper surface ofthc !>Oil/rod .. matrix (arrmx;maldy 1/2 wavelengt h deep). a!i1ll3ll
amount otsubsurtace \ olume rric radiance (L, and a \ ''''1') small amount (,fr6ltianc\' from ~Un...."qlk.'fll soi l fOCI. SUbStr1lle.

Figu re 14 -5

I., + L

Remole Sensi ng of Solis, Mineral s, and Geom orph ology

several nnp orram chara cteri stic s. includin g:

soute vture tpercenrage (If san d. silt. and cl ay )

soil moistu re content Ic.g., d ry. mo ist. satu ra ted !

organic m atter comcm

iron-o xide content
soil salinuy
surface roug hn ess.

Gene rally, a Ilry soilrhar contains al most no orga nic malta

exhibits a rela tiv ely si m ple. less co mplex s pe ctral reflecta nce curve tha n those asso ci at ed wit h terrestrial vcgeiaiioe
\Ch apl er I I ) or algae-laden water bodi es (Chapte r 12). Fot
e xample. Figure 14- 6 depi ct s la b spcctroradiomctcr reflertauce of dry s ilt an d tlry sand so ils. T his dem o nstrates one nl
the mo st consi stent characteristics of dry so ils : inclt'Il.llng

lI'ith I/lCl1'<I.I'IlIg wavelength, e,'p"dally ill the vis1M", near- "lid middh'-il!(ror"d port 10m of the .lpe rlMlm,
"PC('/(// I<'t'

How ev er. as a sol! ga ins mo is ture . and/or add itional organic

co ntent or iron ox id e. its s pe ctral response may de part from
the sim p le c urve. l'hcrefor e, it is useful to review how these
parameters influence th e spccuul res punsc of' surflcial soils,
A goal of remot e se ns ing is to d isentangle the spectral
response record ed from a sur ficial soil and be able III identify the proporti ons and/or lnf'lucncc o f the charac teristics
""ithin the m stnntancouv field of view o f the sens or system.

$oil Texrure and Moisture Content

There is a re lations hip be tween the size of the so il panicles

fo und in a m ass o t'soil Ie.g . m ~l an d the a moun t of moisture
that the soil ca n store. Figure 1-I-7a depic ts several theoreu-

513

Remote Se n s ing of S oli Prope rlles

'"

10

O'-!---+--+--+--+--+--io.s

06 lJ.1

0.11

f)Q

1,0

I I

dry

l -+--+---+-

1-1

1-1

soil

15

'" .,ek:'nl!tb llotml

'roc k

nt of

mall

alter
fle eIlion
For

nee-

1('

of

sill~

\'is-

FIgure 14 -6

I" <1m "f'IJ1lI'3diomctl:f reflectance curves for dl)

Mil and sand wlb. Reflectance ~~'llcrally increases
Wi lh increas ing wan-length lhrol,l~houl the- \ isit>le.
rk;ar- and r mddlc -mfrarcd portions of lh<.' spectrum.

cal grains of sand. Incid ent rad ian t n ux may be re flec ted
from the surface of the sa nd grai ns y ielding specular reneeranee. o r the incident energy lIlay penetrate so me d istanc e
Into the sand particle , T he enL'rgy may then be absorbed by
the panicle and turne d into heat e nergy or exn the pa rticle
and he scanercd or a bsorbe d by other part icles. The void
between the soil part icles is called rhc iml'nlilia! a ir Sp llc{.
The tota l refle cta nce per wavel ength (e.g .. blue, gree n. red.
rear-infrar ed light) for a givc u dr y soi l w ith no organ ic conlent and no iron ox ides is u func tion of the ave rage of both
the soil specular I~P<'{'/('I/ I"WI~'V from the soil part icle su rraces and the .,,,il m /,/ lIIt' rctlectance laking place due to
internal scnttcriug.

anic

hesc
oil s.
nral
fensties

c lcs
Me

reu-

interst itial
mr "pace

TIle finer clay soils have pa rticles that arc pac ked very
closely to on e another, TIll' interst itial air spaces between the
soi l part icles are very smal l. tonv ersely, sand pa rticles arc
very large and contain re lat ively large imcr stuia l air spaces.
When p rec ipitation occurs o r ground werer rises into the soi l
horizon. the indi vidunl panicles may become surrounded by
a thin me mb rane of capillary water . w ater may also occupy
the interstitial ai r spaces (Figure 14 -7h ), The densely packed
clayey soil. "' ith each III' its small pa rtic les ho ld ing a mem brane o f water aro und it. ca n ho ld a m-mcudo us amount of
....ater, Conwrscly. "-lndy sorts with thei r significa ntly larger
~il pa rticle s an d large air spaces I ) d rain much mo re rapidl y
than clayey so ils and 2 ) arc d ried out much more rap idly by
evapora tion tha n the cl ayey so ils. So w h. ndoes th is hav e to
do wit h the spec tral re flec tance ch aracte ristics of soils?
Basically, the amount of moisture he ld in the surfici al soi l

- - ~ specu lar refl ectance

volume reflecta nce

specular
refl ect an ce

~,

-,

, -,

h.
Frgure 14-7

'1//1/ ,

10m

a.

a ) lncidem radian t ener gy may be reflec ted from

the surfac e otthc dry soil, or it may penetrate inlo
the ~"i1 particles. where nmay be absorbed or scatrcrcd. The 1,lt,rI reflectance leaving the soil is a

function nft he specular reflectance and the internal

volu me rclketanee. b)

A~

soil mois ture Incre ases.

each part ide may he encapsulated with a thin membrane of capillary water, The intcrstuial spcccs may
also lill with water. The greater the amount uf water
in the soil. the greater the absorption of inci dent
clectromagncnc energy and the lower the so il reIlcctancc.

layer is a fun ction ofthe sou te xture . Th e finer the soil re xlure. tho: g reater the so il's abilit y 10 ma intain a high mo isture
con ten t in the presenc e of prec ipitat ion . The greater the so il

514

14

C1IAl'n:R

"'

Remote Sens ing 01Soils. Minerals . an d Geomo rpho logy

urn and deepens the ahsllrption around the watcr-ahsorpriee

bands. \,jot ice. hOl\l" l'T, that the wa ter-ahsorpt jon bands
appea r to he much more acnvc. This is becau se clay ey soils
with their line soil te xture manage to hold mo re moisture in
the upper portionofthe soi l horizon, which allows the moisture to ab sorh so me of the incident radian t flux, creating sig"
mncam dip s in and arou nd the wate r-absorption hands.

Sand

22-J~

Exp..-ricnccd image analysts kno.... that remote sensor data of

exposed sod surfaces ob tained attcr a major p recipil.uim
0. 7

0 .9

II

1.7

L'J

2. 1

2.3

2.5

~
o

50

~
, .lll

~ \11

e vent such as a thu nderstorm or prolonged fron tal al-1iut)

w ill be noticeably '/<lrJ.er than if thc image:I)' was acquired
attcr man y J 4 ) S .... uhout precipitation. This is because the
water in thl' sur ficia l soil absorbs much of the incident radian t e nl'Tg). l-'p.."t:ia lly in the visib le and near-infrared port i oll~ of the spectrum . re,ulting in I~j radiance C',iting
towa rd the sensor sys tem.

211

~ lfI

"t~+-+--+-+-':::+--+---.!\o:::::;:::::::;::::::F
0 5 0.7 'PI
I I U
17 1.<J 2.1 1.3 2.5
I.~

1,\~, ,,kngl h'l! nl J

Rgure 148

Higher 1Il<11sl11 rt' content in sandy (a l and clayl."y soil

(1. resu lts in dec rease d r.:n ccl.;tncl: throughou t th...
ns ihlt:' and nca r-in frared region. c spoxia lly in Illc
wawr-absorpu on OOIHJ!o al 1.4, 1.'J. and 2.7 um

(I!c>fT.'r. I'm q,

moisture. the more incident radian t energy absorbed and the

less reflec ted c:ncrgy.

T his is dcmonsr ratcd for sa ndy soils wim liule surfa ce vegetat ion in Figure 14-lo: a. T he dry slInd ) so il has a relat ively
simple. incn:asing vpcci ral ft'spon sc lhrollgho ut the region
from 0.5 ::U' um. However, us soil mo istu re incre ases. lhe
water in the upper few ce nti mete rs o f the soil begins 10
selec tively absorh , igni fl cnnt ;1I1111U I11, o f incident e nergy in
the wa ter-abso rption hands at 1.4, 1.9. a nd 2.7 um . The soi l
mois ture a lso lIh~(lrhs more incident radiant energy in the
spec tral regio ns aJj.l<.:cnt to these abs o rption bands. The
resu lt is:l muc h more complex spe ctral response', wi th charactensric dips in the reflect ance curve at the I.... 1.9 , and 2.7
11 m atmospheric water-a bsorption bands . A lso lill ie that the
amoun t of reflected green. red. nca r- a nd middle-i nfrared
radia nt enC'rgy i~ dr amatically reduce d as the mois ture co ntent inc rea ses .
Th is same rclatitln~h ill ho lds li,r c1a)ey "Oils as demon stra ted in Figu re 14gb. where increased moisture in the
uppcr few centimetc r.- (If the so il dampens the em ire spec tral
rcspt'nsc thw ughout the I\a\ekngth internl from 0.5 - 2.0

If hig h spec tra l and radiome tric resohnion sensors are available. it may I'C possible to differentia te be tween soil s with
different so il textures. Th ill is because almost all soils that
have il modcr.ue to large proportion o f clay-s ize panicles
nhihit strong h.n /m.\}-t uhsurpfioll funds at approximately
1.4 and 2.2 urn. The spectral response of the sandy soil m
Figu re l.f-Sa was not influ enced by the hyd roxyl abso rption
band at 2.2 11m .... boreas the spectral res po nse of the clayey
soilm f-igure 14-Xh exhibited sip mflcn m absorption at both
1.-1 and 2.21J.1ll. or CI1Urse. it i ~ only possib le to d ifferentiate
between the clayey und sill's:mdy soil te xture ch aracteristics
i f the su ils arc almost dry and con tain very lill ie organic matrc r rh.n could mask the rel ationship. and the se nsor is sensitive to wry specific wavelength i ntervals (c .g. centered at
1.4 and 2.2 11 m ). Ch abrillar et a1. (2002 ) mapped ex pansive
da y soi ls {smectite, illite. and kaoli nite) a long. the Colorado
fnuu ran ge using hypcrs pcc tral da ta and the inforrnauen
found ill the: ab sorption hands in the 1(100 - 240n nm spectral
reg ion. Okin anti Puinrcr (2004 ) used hyper-spectra l data III
map the sp;lIia l di stribution o f sand gra in size ( from 1.010
0.2 m ill ) in ...... indhlown abnudoncd ag ricultu ral fie lds in a
de sert envi ron ment. Th ey found tha t the larger the gra in size,
the tower the short-wave infrared reflectance, especia lly in
the Tcg i()n~ centered on 1.7 a nd 2.2 u rn,
It is als o poss ible h I .11 ffe rennatc between some soil textures
using active microw ave (1-li\D:\ R) backscatter cba racrcrslies. Fur exam ple. the 19ltl ~ i\S A Sh uttle Imag ing Radar
miss ion (S IR-AI missinn revealed buried river channels
beneath the: sand of the Sa ha ra t J\. IcC au lcy c t a l.. 19X2)(Fig
ur..: 9-2 1l. Riv..: r (' hann d !i appea red as dark. dendritic patte m ~ in L ha nd t2.f em ) image-s, and sand-covered bedrock
returned a bright radar s ig nal. Th e r.ltlar signa ls .... ere able to
penetrate up to 1- 2 III Il l" ,"CI)- dT) sand to ret urn a sigo.al

515

Remote Sensing 01Soil Pro perties

R N ' d on these relano nvhips . Ch en cr a l. (2(105) developed a

biological so il crust index ( HSC I ) usi ng. Land sat Enha nced
T hematic :-'1apper Plus (El ~ ") ima gery :

tion
mds

rib

re in

>

torss tg -

of

mon
i-, hy

tired
the
a di-

perting

-'

"

( 14-3 1

'

;:~: :::;;:>..//..

./

..

BSC!

..

.,/
/

(a

-' .-

.....

$11" ..

Ur'1!.~ n i c

5-11 . .... nd
7$
2$

U r:o.nic
S~ nd

.........-...........
...............

wh en: RI/.... " and R""tl TC rcn..-cm ncc in ET~ I? han ds 2 and J
and L is an 3llJusime nl factor to amplily the abso lute diffe rcncc between Rvn." and R""" If the numer ator g.'ISa negative
valu e. L i... rcst ri.."led to a range fro m 2: to 4. Th c' denomi nat or
IS the mean reflectance of green. red and the near- in frared
refl ectance in ETM ' bands 2. J. and 4 .

Iron Oxid e
0 ,4

0<

ne

nt

o. ~

II ~

1,0

\\~,d"""h. I""

'a il, uh
t ha t

FIQure 14-9

The greater the amount of organ ic content In a ,;(>11.

the grea ter tll... absorption " f incid.-nl mCr) and th.:
loy,er the spec tra l reflecta nce .

cres

lely
I in

.ron
) vy
o<h

iale
lies

131-

l siI at
J\"e
rdo
io n
Ta l
to

'0

I ,

EI:.

;0

,k

o
I

from buried bedroc k and calc ium carbonate-ce men ted nodules. Willia ms and G reeley 1200 4 J found that rel ati vely short
"""-\ .:Iengt h C-hanu (5. 1\ em ) signals were t>csl for identifying the exte nd of dry sa nd while lon ger wa velength L-ha nd
signals penetrated thin ml,isl sund best.

In the so uthea-stern U.S .. So ulheas t As ia. and several o the r

parts til' the \\ orld, iron oxides are pres en t in the soil. Th e
ext-renee of iron o\ idc-, },':enera ll ~ causes an inc rease in
re f lectance in the red port ion of the spectrum (600 - 700
nm I. and hence its reddish co lor ( Ptgure 1 4 ~ I I) . Th ere is
also a noucea ble de crea se 10 the blue- an d gr ee n re fle ctance
in the iron-oxide soil. The iron-oxide so il also ex hibits an
absorp tion band in the X:"O - <)00 nm region w hen compared
y, uh a ' <lnd) loam soil II uh 11(' iron oxide.

Soil Salinity
Soil Organic Matter and Biological Soil Crusts

Plants and auima h. decom pos e and become organic hu mus

In the tippe r p...n ions o f the so il horizon, Thc amo unt of
organic matter in the soi l ha s a signiti eant impact on the
spectral reflectance ..: ha raet..: risll1.:s
ex po se d soils. GC W..T+
ally, the greater the nmoum of org nnic corucm in the uppe r
portions of the soi l. th..' greeter the ahSOT1' lillll of inc ide nt
energy and 11K' lowe r the spectral re flec tan ce. Figure 1-1--9
summarizes the cur vilinear rckuions hip I'm soils with 0 to
100percen t organic runne r.

or

Sometimes soils hav e crusts of biological maile r ( Wass enaar

er al.. 2( 0 5). UioloXinl1 .1011 c r /l,I'II' art' comm unities of
moS'>CS. lich... ns. Iiverw \lrts, algae, fung i. cya nobac teria and
bacteria. T hey C' IO survi "e des iccalio n a nd e:>;treme h:'l11pcralllTl~ lUI' to 7C1 "C ). high 1"11, a nd high :<aliniIY. Biolog ica l
wi l crust:> ha w been fo und in ueSl;' n s throughout the world
Jnd play an im porta nt role in desen ,;',;'osyslems in soil form.ati(lI1. sta hi lity and tC ni lity an d pre:","nt so il .:rosio n (Bdnap. 200J ). The speclral re l1eetan..:c e harac ter islics lJf thrce
types of hiologic:lI soil emst :lrt' shown in Figure 14+1ll.

So il salin uy is u major en viro nmcma t hazard . The g hlhal

extcmof pr imary salt -alf..".:lt'lI soils is abou t 955 \-1 ha. whi le
secondary sulimzauon ;llTcch sli me 77 M ha. with 58 percent of th ese in irrigurcd areas . Nearly 20 pe rce nt o f all irriga ted I,LIl d b salt-aff ec ted. and this proport ion is mcrousing
despite land rcc tum.rnon e ff orts. Salis tend In concentrate on
the soi! sur face in ar id ilml irrigated areas.
Men..-rnichr a nd Zinck (lOll] ) provide an ove rview of the
considc r.mou-, that m ust he made when trying til ex tract
sahn it), information from remote se nsing sys tems. Fig ure
14 -12:1 depicts the spectra l charucrcns ucs o f saline versus
non-sali ne crush for silly 1Il,1m soi ls in Bolivia, No te that
sli me spectral confusion occ urs bc twcc"n SiJlty crusts and silt
10al11 hrig hl .:rusts in Ihe blue and g ll'Cn po n ions ofthe sflCetru m (4 50 - 55 0 linn Rdle elance gene rall) in..: reas t"'S w ith
increasing sUrf"Cl" soi l salt eon.:e ntrations . Salt-atfe cted
soils shll w rcl;lIi\ cly highe r s pe-c tra l f'l>s pllnse in th.: \' isihlc
an d nca r-infrar ed regions of the spectrum tha n no ns.aline
soils lin " and slrungl) SiJlinc--sodic soils e, h ihil h igho:r spectra l re... pnnses lhan I11 I.dcrat d~ '\3llne-">Odie soi ls ( Rao et al..

UIAI'TUt

516

14-

Rem ote Sen sing of Soils , Mine rals , and Geomorphology

Rcn cclam:e o r mu l u~ical So il C r u~ h. narc Suil.

nil

ETM 2

\ ~J:llaliun

UIIO Shad Ul\

ETM4

EH I3

VcgclJ tnm

511

III

500

""

ROO

11100

'>00

1100

Wavelength (11m)

Fig u re 14- 10 Spectral reflec tance of bIological sOli crusts compared "llh bare '>OIl, vegetation. an d vegetation ~had(l", rdlcctam:c (ChenC'l
al., 2000; repri nted wuh p<...-m ission from Elsevier ).

Loam

1995). This grap h makes it clear why saline deJlOsits typ ically sho w up as bright w hite in colo r-infrared ae rial photography Of multispectral false-co lor com posites (due to
relatively high proportions of green. red, and ncar-infrared
reflectance). while vege l:llio n shows l ip as hright red t due to
chlorop hyll absorpti on in the green and red portions of the
spec trum and high reflec tance in the ncar-infrared}, Ind icators used to d isting uis h sa line/al ka line soils are spotty
gro..... th of crop s. presence of dead trees. a blue-gree n tinge .
and moisture stress condition. Spcctroradiomcter measurement s o f halite with variou s sa linity concentrations are
sho wn in Fig ure 14412h ( Fur iftch cr al.. 200h).

Surface Roug hnes s

As we learned in Ch apte r q (Active M icro wav e Remo te

So:nsing l, the smatter the local sur face roughness rela tive to
the SilC (If the incident rad iati on, the greater the spec ular
spect ral reflectance from the terrain . We may utilize this
infcrrnarion to ma ke some ge nera l statements abou t the
amount of spectral re flectance that .~h(lltldhe exiting certain
soil textures. assumi ng they contain no moisture. orga nic
content, or iron oxides. Dry. [inc-te xture clayey so il should

~lIil

.. ilh nll

iron

OVi~>/'

..
.....
f '; .oam loil
....
whh
'
irun o ~ide

.".f

1
iron oxide
al>sorplio n band

'"
1).4

(1.5

1),(,
1J.7
U.8
W,ncknl1th. u m

lJ.'1

1.0

Iron ox ide in a sandy loom soil causes an increase

in retlect ance in the red por non of thespectrum (06
_ 0 .7 ~m) an d a decrease in reflecta nce in the neatinfrar\-.J reg jon HUIS - O.'Kl ~m ).

....

ReOec tance o r Sa line and

~ <) n- sa l ilU. ('ru~h lint! Vl.'I:.-lati" "

-- ,.-....:;. .~j.;,:;.;~_

- ' <." .

..,

. ;;... - ..

_..-. ....-.

5"
~ 40

:: 3U

__

.. .. ../

HI

".
"

", +---,.---,---~-~---,---,.--
450

;00

700

550

750

'00

Wavele ngth (n lll)

;" ~~~~-------:;::::='\-/';-:~I
Ilallte I "I..CLJ

'"

~ 30

...-..~-...... ..

....

20

'" ~r ....

. ,i l

I d,'

517

Remote Sens ing ot Soli pr operties

h,

(J

y
c:
......

~.-.-

7.7 "' S .o...

-....,._~\

.~

...

- ..

"'H" 4 4mS"'''

+=--,--r--,---,r--r-~--,--r--,---,-...,..-I

3411

707

2 143

1425

I0 6R

Wavele ngth ( nm )

Figure 14- 12 a l Spectral rcllcctaucc of saline and nun-saline s" il crusts (Mcncrnicln und Zinck. 1003; rcprhucd with pcmlbs iun from
Els"'l irr ) versus ihc spc crral resp onse O f\cg~l a li(ln . hI Spcctrorndromctcr reflectance measureme nts of halite (NaCl ) at varyin!:, salt conc entrations If-anftch cr al.. 2006; ~p rinled with permission Irom Elsevie r).

prod uce a h igher spectral res ponse throughou t the visible

and ncar- in frared po rtion s of the s pec tru m due 10 the nea rspecular reflccuou tha i sho uld take place fro m its surface
versus silt or sand surfaces. [Infortunatclj', this is oft en not
the case because a ~ moisture. orgamc content. o r iron oxide
tS adde d It) the d aye y soil, it begm s dr amatically to ab sorb
incide nt radi ant nux. a nd quire possi bly to appear like silt or
perhaps even sand on remote sensor data. Th is ca n ca use
tnrcrpreraricn proble m s.

Con versely, lIt) sand with its well -dra ined large grains
should lhl l uscl y scalie r the incide nt wavelengths of v is ible
and ncar- infr ared energy more than clayey and sill soi ls .
Th erefore. it is commo n for more coarse-grained san d areas
to he amo ng the brigfue st terra in in the landsc ape wh ile
clayey soils are a mong the darke st. King et al. (2005 ) an d
Zrihi et a1. (20(J) descri be ho w surfac e roughness can be
measur ed using acnve micro.... ave remote sen sing systems.

518

14
Remote Sen sin g of Rocks and Mine rals

R,I("h arc assernblagc ~ o f IIIII/eral. thai han' interloc kin g

~rJins OT arc bound toge ther by venou s rype-, Ill' cement
(usu ally silica or calcium ca rbo nate ). Whe n there is min imal
vegetauon and soi l pre-ern an d the rt'lC'k material is \ isilt1c
directly by the rCIIlO!" M:nsint,: syswm. it rna) be possible 1\ 1
differen tiat e between seve ral roc k 1) p..' S and obtain inforruat il," about the ir characteristics. ~lo,,1 roc k surfac es consis t of
several type s of min er als . Clark 119l)l} j sugg.e sls that it is
possible to mod ... 1the reflec tance front a n CXptl SL'<I roc k co nsisting o f , ...ver a l minerals \I T a sin gle minera l bused nn
llu pkc 's ( I ()93) cquuuon :

Rem ol e Sens ing o f Soils. Minera ls , a nd Geomo rphology

I m31:i nl: Spec rrnmetcrv

Imag ing spec tro me te rs m;IY bc, used in thelab. li eld.Of ina~
airborne rcrncte sensing mission. RelleCI;\I1Ce and cmiltanc~
spec troscopy o f natural sur face, arc sensi tive til xpecuk
chemical bonds in nuncrinls. In the p,IS!, one o f the problem,
a csociarcd with spt:et m'C(lPY was Ih;!1 it was 100 scnsiuve ~
s ma ll changes in the chemistI')' andor the structure (If ~
ma te r ial. This resuncd in the creat ion of \'Cf) complc:l. ~.
ITal reflectanc e curves that we re o ttcn unimelhgible. Fortunatel y. significant strides have been mad... in I ) th e qualil) 0(
the imaging spcctromct cr sensors, and ~ ) our abilit) to
und e rstand and d isenl,mg it" the info rmatio n con tent (If thr
spectrorudiomcter infor mat io n. Thus, '01 hat was once a Jrav.
bac k ti.e. . wry complex spect ral reflectance curves ) isnOli
an advantage as it a llows s..:ientists to extract IIlMe valuahle
infon uutiou abou t the d w m i"lf) o f the natural c.nvironmem.

( 1"'.4 )
E n cr~)- .\ latlc r I rll l' n ll' lio ns ~ Refl ect iou a nd
Ahsoqll inn I' r ncl."sw "S

where r~ is the re Ilectanc c at "aH' lenglh ..l.. 1-1.. is the (\ls in...
of the ang le o f incide nt light on to the rock or mineral of
mterest. Jl is the cosi ne oft he an gle of emIned light. g is the
phase angk. ", ' is the uvc ruge smgtc scuncnng albedo Irom
the rock or mineral of intere st, 1J~ is a backscatter function.
PI{ is the ave rage single particle phase func tion. and If is a
function fur isonupic scuucrcrs.
Armed w ith this adva nced reflectance thc"f) and the kno wn
optica l cons tants of the mine rals invo lved. it is possible hi
com pute the theore tical rctl..reran..-e spectra fo r I ) pure m inerals that have a smg le grain size, ! l a pu re mi ner al w ith a
\ariCI) o f grai n s i.ll~. and 3 ) minera l mixtures with \ a f) ing.
grain si7cs (Clark, 1'11)<). Thi s is im]l<.lrta nt 1x-c3usc il mcans
that wc may h<: ab k to J'l rcd i..:t whatthc rc lkc ta n..:c cu r. es o f
spcei li,,; typc s ofmincm ls or rocks should look like at var i()1I~ wavelengths. Th is can ne im portant when we ;lllcmpt tn
inkrprct thc in fo rmatio n cOll!ent o f i m a ~ i n g spectroscopy
r..' motc sc nsor d,Ha " f miucra lized terra in.

Imaging Spectros copy of Rocks and Minerals

Im ag ing spcelToml.'try instrulllc nts arc u~fu l lor ol:>tJin ing

q oa nt itat ive infonnati(ln a bou t roc k type and min..'ral cumpos lli(ln. Chapter 7 r<.'v iew l.'d the fundamenta l charac t<.'Tlsti..,s
of imaglll,!; Spl.'ctroscopy S,,'llsor syste ms suc h as the Airhom c Visi nlc Infrarl'd Imag ing Spec tromete r (AV IRIS ).
This sl'cti" n reviews thl.' fun damenlal ehamcteristk s lh,ll
illlp actl,u r ilbi lity to det crm illl.' rock typl.' altd mi nera l eomp<lsili(ln remotely usin g ima ging spcrt w mclry.

As p rcv io usly di sc ussed. photons or" light incid..nt on a min(If rock arc ' I reflected fro m gra in su rfaces omo otber
grain surfaces. .:! I pavscd throug h the gra in onto ot her grairs,
and'o r 3 ) absorbed w ithin a grain, The photons that arc
re flected from the grain surfac es IIr refracted through a P<I['
ticle arc' s,lid to be .l'l'(lf/en-d T he scaue red photons uf Iighl
may encou nter anot her grain or be scaUcr l.'d awa y from 1~
sur face . perhaps toward a remote scn sl ng sys tem where the
amoun t and properties can be detected and measured. We Me
primunly co nce rned he re wuh photon s of light that origl>
naied at the Su n and th..-n uueracrcd wilh the mincralol
inter.., s!. It IS im port an t til remember. howe ver. that pht)(iJll
ma ) a lso be ('milt.," fWIll a mincra ll:>..'eausl.' (a s d isc us5t.'l! ia
C hapler X) all (lbjccts ano ve abso lute ] em emi t radiation

era!

If e\'t.'f)' mineral a b~lH bed ,Jlld sc'llll.' red thl.' incidl.'ll t plW\lI n,
nf light in lin i(k-m ic;\1 malll1l'r. then th..' fl' I-\'(lul d he no ha~i ;
fill' mirll.'ra !tlg iral rl.'l11Ull.' sl.' lhi ng, Thl.' amount til' enel)l~
Iea\ inl; l.'ach type o f m inl.'ral al l.'ae h spl.'cific wa\'l'll.'n~'th
\lI ould h<: lue nt ical. f-'(lrtllmu e ly, certai n types of m iner:ll~
absmb and or scatter the IIIcidl.'nt l.' ncTg) d ilTe rl.'ntl).
Therc arl.' 8 number of proc e sse s that d(termine how a minerai will absorb or scaUn thl.' inc ident ..' nl.' rIlY. Abo . ths' process...s ah'i.(lrl:> and scatter light dilTcrcnt 1y d epend ing on the
Wa\l.'k l\llth ( A) o f h~hl be ing investigated. The variel}' (If
:lhsllI'Ptio ll proCl.'SSl.'S amI tht.'ir v.'avckllg th uepcndcnc~
a llow 1I ~ tn deriv", info rma tion ann ul the ("1I" lIIi.I/I")' of a min
era l r"TllIll its re n ...o.:tl.'d or ..' l11 iltl.'J elll.'rgy. The idea l sc.'nsor i,
the imag ing sp..': u om......r beca use it can reco rd much of the
ah....rptlllll info rmat ion. mu ch like usi ng a h;lIIdhc1d S~1'l)-

519

Remote Sensing o f Rock s and Mine rals

i:'

m an

ancc
:cilic

.,

( , aIH.nl"t~

Ahmue

' p,'d n
1.,I:----~~-~'i.

QuarlL Optica l C llns la nls

70

n, iOO<, '1. of refraction

~.

.lcms

'vc 10

f th...
spcc-

ortu -

ty o f
~ to
f the
ra w-

"

,
~
,

lank

ntnuhc r
sins.
are

"0 L,-",,"""-7c---!""-"!-;--;-;---7-O-~*--7~?": fi t> ox 1,0 U

1.4 l ,t> I. X !.O 2.2 2 4
W.l\ elcnglh. JIm

FIgure 14-13 Com parison of a lal\or.llOf) spect ra of alunite (an

aluminum , ulfale). a simulated Land....l Tbcmauc
" appeT spectra [rcsampled from the lab spectrum ).
aml spL'I;lr,1 obw inL-.i u,i n;! .lII airborne 63-dlalmd
GeorhY'll1cal and Fn vrronmenral Resea rch Imaging
Sp...'I;lroll1 c lcr IG r.RIS )al Cupritc.X 'v. Symbols and
cha nnel num bers nn me l\1 and CrF.RIS spect ra
identify band centers. ..lost charactcris tic absorption halld in formation is lost with lhe T\.1 spectrum
Iwuh the eM:epiiuli uf 10.... re flec tance in T ..., band 7

at 2.1 u rm while much " t'lhL" spectral information is

pre....n ed in the lil::IUS spectrum. The; spectra arc
ot1~1 vertically for clarity (after Kruse e t al.. I ~lj( l l_

paright
the
the

'"

-igi-

I of
o ns
~in

\ll1S

isis

",y
g th
1Ils

"-

ro-

th,

radiometer. For exa mp le. co nsider thc spectral ref ectance

curves for alunite shown in Figure 14- 13, The most de tailed
spectral re flectance mfurruauon is obta ined using a handheld
ecctroradlomctcr. Airborne spectral re flecta nce data
obtained us ing the 63-o,: halll1.:1 Geophysical and Enviro nmental Researc h Imaging Spo,:ctWl1Ictt:T (GER IS\ retains
much of the spectra l inform ation . Unto rnmntcly. much 01"
the Spccualubsnrption iuformarion is los t when thc spec tral
data arc obtai ned I"WIIl six ba nds 01" s uuulur ....d Lands at Thematic Mapper duta (Kruse cr al., I ll901.
All ma terials ha ve a com plex tndex of refraction. For cxample, the vac uum of I'ul er spac e. the atmosphere, qua rtz, and
water all ha ve diffe rent ind exes of re fraction , [I' we illuminate a plane surface w ith photons of lig ht from di rect ly m erhead, the light R, will be refl ec ted fro m rbe surface
according 10 the Fre snel equati on :

of
Icc

"-

"

"

10

no\\

.em.

extinction eucffident

(lI - ll~+ K~
(1/ +-1) 2 "K~

( 14-5 )

IlohCTe 11 is Ih... intle.\( o f refroiclion. an d A.' is Ih... extineli,)n

OO(ffio,:icnl. [kllh Ihl." index. o f refrao.:t ion and lhe extincli,)n

0
0

(Ju an1

( po ~ de rffi)

u
~

til
12
Wa\elcnl,!lh. ~01

"

"

Figure 14-14 a ) The inde x of re fraction and extinction coefficient

of quartz for the .... av clcngt h interv al (> - I (> 11m. b)
The ~pectru l re flectanc e charactceisucs uf powdered
quartz obtained u~in g a epcct roradiometcr (after
CIJrk, I'lY'J I,

coefficient o f qllan, are sho wn in Figu re 14- 143 (Clark,

I')l)l)), Fro m thi s illustration it is clear that the optical COIlstnnts of I I and K tor quart z vary strong ly with' wavelength.
Note tha t the inde x o f refraction (II) reaches a minimum just
be fore 1l.5 u m and 12.6 am. The rela tive reflectance o f powdcrcd quart zmeasured by a spe ctrome ter for the wavelen gth
mrcrvalf rom 6 - 16 11m is show n in Figure 14-14b (Cla rk.
1999 ). The reflectance spectra of quartz throughout the vis ihie and ncar-in frare d reg ion is c ffcc uv ely zero and is therefore not sho wn. IIowever. fro m K - 9.5 11 m and at 12.6 11rn
there is a d ramat ic incrca sc in refl ect ance. If quartz is to be
detected at all usi0 l:! imaging spectrometry . it may be necescary to sense in the region from Ii - 10 u rn as shown. But
III ha t cause s Ill" re flectance spec tra of qu artz to appear as it
does'.' Why arc ccnam p.1TB ofth c spe ctrum abso rbed mo re
completely then Olhcf"'.' T he answ er ties at the heart o f using
imaging spt'etw mctr)' for mi ne r31 ana lysis. II is beeause of

520

e-n \1' 1Fit

14'

uic specific types of ab sorp tion that take place wit hin the
mine ra ls.

As demonstrated in til t' previous illu..trarion. a typical specrrel reflectance curve ob ta ined by an imaging spec trom eter
exhibits var ious max ima and minima . Th e m ini ma ere
ca u....."\! b} suong ahsurpt illn bands. For example. labo rato ry
and AVIRIS remote sens ing derived spec tra lo r three mineral s. kaolinue d ay. aluminum sulfa te (alu rute ). and budd ingto nn e (an ammonium fd th par) aTC shown in Figure 14- 15
[Van d.... r "I..-CT. 1994 1_ Scientists have d(.....umcnrcd that specitic mmcrat s c.\ hihl1 relat ively unique absorpuon spectra.
For exam ple. ke y absorption feat ures associated \\ ith kaol inite arc typicutly found ar :!.17. 2.21, 2.32. and ::?3lo! pm. If a
spectra exhibus m inima at thes< locations. it may well be
kao linite . It is important to point out here that only a hype rspectra l sensor wi th a s~(" t ral bandwidth resolution of
approximately I() 11m could capture ..uch info nnauon . Spectrc radiometcrs with 10 nm bandwidths might miss the
impo rtant minima or maxuna ent irely. This d iagram also
sugge..ts that the differences in maxima. mi nima. and the
slope between nraxima and min ima might allow these three
mineral s 10 be di tfercmimcd nne from a nother usin g hype rsIX"(:tr31 remote sensor data. The abs o rption bands in these
minerals an: ca used by electronic and \ ibrat io nal processes.

Rem ot e Sens ing of Soi ls, Minera ls . and Geomo rphology

..........
".......
Kaolinite
.wuus

Lab

'. 1_32
'.
2.38
:.
-,
. .
.;

"' .

".

..:

Aluni te

-,
'

... ...

2_17 2.21

'

"\"IRIS

..-..
'

.., .

-,

-,

..

-,
-,

A\"I RIS

....

2.10

2.()(J

Buddin gtomte

2.:W

2.:'0

2..10

Wa\ d e ngth. lJm

Electrunic t' rocesws: 'lhc most common elec tron ic process

revealed in the spectral reflectance curves of min erals is due
to unfil led el ectron shells oftransnion elements such as 1'\ i.
Cr. Co. Fe , etc , (Clark. 19( 9 ), This is culle d a crystalfield
e ffect. Absorption band s can also he caused by d l <ll "g" rml/~'
fer absorptions, conduction bands, a nd color ( T lllel.\', Plea se
refe r 10 Clark (19 <)<)) or the 1I1Wlllal of Remote S"llsing Gt'/Jsri, '111','.1' (R cncz, I () l) t) ) for derailed in formati o n abou t
these electronic absor ption proce sse s.
Vih r ntl unal Procesves : T he bond s in a molecule or crysta l
lattice arc like sp ring , w ith we ights atta c hed tha t cause the
system to vibrate. Th e freq uency of vjh rauon depend s on the
bonds in the mo lecule and thei r masses. For 1I molecule with
N ato ms. there are 3N-6 norm almodes o f vibrations cal led
fiIllIl01l/<'/110{,1 . Eac h vibration can also occur rou gh ly at rnultiples ofthe origi nal fundamenta l freq ue ncy. The add ition al
vibr ations arc ca lled over tones o r comhinationx, Hun t
( 1977) de vised a spectra l s ignatu re d iagram that summarizes
the impact nfboth t!t'c/rm lj( and vibrational absorption p roccsscs for se lected minerals (Clark. 199 tH. water. h)"d1O:\)'1.
carbo natC'S. phosphatl's. bolr.ltes , arsena tes , and \ lInad:lIes
ha~e diagnostic \' ibralional ahsorption bands.

Figure 14 15 Spe.:lla \lft hre..: minerals dc rivcd from the ,\ irbom:

Visible Infrared Imaging Spectrometer lAVIRISI
using

lab ' 1)<,,I:tr,l ladi.Hllch:r (aller \"an dct ~"'tf,

1'l'i4), The vcrncnl lines identity key ahw rptioo

tc.nurcs useful fur ido;mifyi ll3 kaolinite. The discrcpancy N lw .. en the lab and AVIRtS curves f(lf
cadI miucral is d ue to I ) the lab spectra ale prednccd tr om pure samples wh ereas the AVIRIS dlta
a rc ext racted Ihuu rcl.nivcly lal1:<: 1 0 x 20 III :1n:J \
thilt contain a mixture of mater ials within the IFOV
"f the wns or systelll. 2 ) the AVIRIS data arc recordcd through an atmosphere. and 31 the lab samples
arc dry ,.hel"'''s th", real-w orld te rrain may exhibit

slight differences in soil moisture. The spectra ere

,,1li.lt vertically for cl.mty.

Th e U.S. (koltlgiea l Survey bas compiled a Digi tal Spectral

Lib(31)' /lJS<iS Spcclab. 2W b ), The Cal ifo rnia lnsurute of
Technolog y Jet Pro pulsio n Labor atory compiled a spectral
libra ry that incl udes the Salisbury et al. ( 199 1) libra!), tile
J PL AST ER Spl't.:tra l Library and the aforementioned USG ~
Digital Spectral Libra!): OPt , 2:006)_ These are accurate

52 1

Geology

crralhbrurics. One sho uld only usc spec tra llibraries thai
-e been cre ated Ilsing rigorous imag mg spectroscopy callion stand ards .

.... e obtain high spectral resolu tion remote sensing spectra

br an unknown surficial rock material. remo v e the

atrno-

!plIeric e tfccts and \:OI1\en the brightness values to percent

eilecranc.... (or exuancc]. then il may be possible 10 search a
nral Iibrary and jdenufy the type of m inera l that has an
tical or \ -c ry similar spectra. In this manner. imagi ng
lpttIfOSCopy can he used to derive signitic:mt mineralogical
formation .... ith link or no in si l /l field work . In certain
lIstanees. mineralogical maps can be made.

fcor example. consider the tw 0 mineral maps sho wn in Color

nale 1-1 1 dcnv LoJ from low - and high-.dt itude " VIRIS data
fkained over Cuprite, :,\V [Swayze ct al., 19QQ). USGS sci:/llists first remov cd atmospheric effects in the da ta and then
lISCd a computer progrJ.m [ Tctracorder ] that compared the
ahbrared spectra obtained fo r each pixel in the AVIRIS data
o:ith th e spectra contained in a mineral spectral re flect anc e
brary. Twenty-four min eral categories were found in the 2
- 2.5 pm region using Tetracorder. Note the detai l present in
!Ik' 2.3 x 7 III low-alritude ,W IRIS data whe n compared with
ie results fro m the coarse IX x I!o: III hig h-al nrudc " V IRIS
ala (S", ayze et al.. 1')<1<),

om,
RIS)

f cer.

.[Ion
dis; for
pro-

data

reas
OV

cdpk-s
~ bi t

"

,1
of

,,1

S
It ...

Rowan ct al. (::!IHlO ) conduct cd a geohotan ical study using

J"V IRIS da ta in Nort h and South Carolina to identi fy hydro1hcmlully altered rocks based on the spectral re flect ance
charaet~'ristics nfforcsr vegetation growing on th em . Sparse
monoculturcs l It chestnut oak resul ted in lower apparent
canopy density at the altered sites, wh ich wa s ex pressed in
111~' AVI RIS dala by lower ()I I absnrpuon inte nsity. Galvao
etal. (2 005 ) used wel l-defined 2200 11m hydro xyl absorption ,
features to idcuti Fy hydrothe rma lly altered minerals (kaoli nrte and muscovite ) using AST EK data . Tne y cam ion. how ever. that substantial veg eta tion eo\'er luwe rs Ih<: prob;lbility
ofcorrecl iden tifi cation in trop ical env iro nlllents. Ellis ;md
Scolt (2004) used Hy,\ -lap hyp...rspeet ra l da t:l and ah:iorp lion
band Ic atures tu d iiTe rc ntiate het ween biot ite and topaL granne mineral units in the United Kingdom . Absorption bands
asr,oc iated with rem,' te sensing sa lt-a lfe.. . t ~d s,)ils are ",ummariled in Fari fieh et ill. t2006l.
-\STER R l' fl fi'llill n ' 1I 1ld AINl r pt ion C h a racte r i ' l ic ~ of
ral ul' fur Ro ck a nd 'Iiner ;l) Dherim inal ioll
"any ur the :-pcetrdl diagno..tie characteristics ,lfr'......k!> and
minemls arc found in the thernlal illrrarcd po nil.ll1 of the

spec trum. The mo st impo rta nt sa tellite senso r tha t provid es

such in form ation is AS II::K - the Advanced Spcccbcmc
The rma l Emission and Rc tlccncn Radi ometer launched
onboard EOS Tar" . Six AS TER bands (4 - 9) cover the
short- wavelength infra red (S\\ 'I R) range. Hand (, is cen tered
on a clay- ubso rpuou featu re otlcn assc......iated w ith hydro therma l altera tion and mineral potential. Hand X is ce ntered on a
carbonate-absorption feature. allowing glo hal d iscri mina tio n o f hmcston cs and dolom ites from ot her roc ks. Five
A STER hands (10 - 14) cover the the rma l infrared (T IR)
range. Ha lld ~ 10. II. and 12 arc designed 10 de tect sulfates
and silica spectra l features. Evaluaung reflectance in S W IR
band 6 With the thermal infrared ba nd 10 allows discrimination bet ween common minerals such as alunite (a su lfate
mineral importan t 10 precious meta l deposits) and anhydrite
(an evaporative sulfate common in arid regions), Rand 14 is
ce nt.... red on a carbonat...-absorption spectral featu re complemen ting the SW IR hand K tSAS.-\ ASTER. 2()()(,).
Geo log y

The Ea rth i" nnt rock so lid. It ts con etanny cha ng ing, moving:. and being rearranged. Gt'Ulugy is the science of rocks. It
reveals the im mense history of the Eart h and e xpla ins its
geological formations. From a go:ologieal viewpoin t.
humanity b a rel atively relen t arr ival. and il is one species
am ong man)' m illions that sha re an Earthly he ritage.

fossils. the rem ains of ancient

organism s IhOll ha n' bee n turned to stone. Will iam Smi th's
(1 769 - I !'> .N) work marked the hcg muiug o r geo logy. He
stud ied Engl ish coal m ines and obs erve d that the same layers 1' 1' sedimentary rocks were reveale d in cuttings o ver large
geog raphic are as. I lc iden1ilkd and correlated the strata by
thei r fossil content. l ie discove red rh.u Ihe on kr ill whic h
roc k unils were depos ited d id not vary across t heir ge og raphic e \le nl. lie eon elulled that n .ek un i t ~ (It the b<.'ll olll
we re o lder than thnse ahove.

! 'al e(//IIOloXI' is the study of

S,;ouish geolog ist James !l ulto n ( 1726 - 1797 ) bu ilt upo n

Smith'!> find ings ;lllJ eOI1c1 lJd~'d tha t the history o f rocks
o('cu rs in (I"C/",\' (Trdil anll Hal e ll. 1( 95 ). Rl...... ks are decom posed illto sedillwm by In 'llllnr ing . The sedi mclII is otlcn
mo\ cd hy torces o f \'ro.,irm an d 1II<1.U Irmuport t() a" cum ulat... in no: w III,;ali,)n". The M.oJ ime nt is (,ft<:n e'lTISl.llida l....d
into a lIe\\ type ofrod, tlwi eu uld be buril..'t! unde r more roc k.
unt il. he:l\ed to Its melting poi nt. it may flow hac k unde r
pre~ ..ure h) Ihe surtiJ.. . e as e \lru~ive la\a Llr to somo: interio r
locat ion as intru~ i\c magma. The la\a or magma coo ls into

14'

522

roc k. Weathe ring begins immediately on extruded lava.

whereas it may lake mi llennia 10 e xpose the intrusive
magma at the surface, ~ he re it may he weathered. In either
case. the cycle begins aga in. Huuon raised the possibility
that the Earth was milch o lde r than previously thoug ht. and
was cont inually ch angi ng and recyc ling itself ISel by, 1 9~ 1J ).

gemote Sens ing 01 Soils . Minera ls . and Geomorphology

II1IfizomaJly bcddcd suara

Anticline

r ulds

C harles Lyell ( 171)7- 1875 1, the foun der of modern ge lllngy,

introdu ced IIl1i{imnif</rhmi\"m - the C('Il\;cpt tluu past eve nts
occu rred at the same rare a s they do Imla y. For example. sed -

imentary rock was formed hy the sa me processes of sedime nt depos itio n and cementation. and at the same rate as
those that can be observed 1003Y. He v. as thc first to suggest
that the Eart h .... as minions o f years o ld .

Finally. A lfred Wegener (1880 - 1')30 1 proposed the theo ry

o f connnental dnfr. Then, during the co ld .... ar o f the 19 50s .
U,S. and Russian scientists set up sen sitive vibration o.k tcctors 10 mo nitor each other s atomic tes ts. Suc h instru ment s
a lso a llowed the m 10 id... ntity the epic...me r u f thousands l l f
earthquakes throug hout the wor ld. These epicenters usually
occ urred along dist inct ive lines. It hccumc clear to geo logists that these I inc s we re edg es of enormous plates that covere d the Eart h 's surface and thur earthquakes were the res u lt
of friction between the plates. Co ntinents nn the pla tes were
slowly mov ing on the sur face of the Earth. The concept of
pIalI.' tectonics is re lated but not idcmic a t to contine nta l drift.
Tod ay. mos t geological phenomena can be explained hy
these two concepts.
Most of ou r geo logic in fonnation co mes from detailed ill
in\ estigauon by geologists and palcull tlJlogisb. The}
excav ate. bore hole s in the Earth to extract geo logic co re
sa mples, and inte rpret fossi l rema ins . ln add ition . so me of
these sc ientists us... airborne and satellite remote sensing
technology to supple me nt the ir ill sitn invesngauons.
Rem ote ly sensed image s a rc routinely iruc rprc ted I" ide n lil~'
lithology. structur e. d rainage -pattern c1 mraelerist ies. and
land forms. In adduion. remote se nsi ng is often used in minera l and petroleum exploration.

J j tu

Uthology

GeologiSls usc remote sens ing in co nj unction w ith in .f llll

observation to ide nti fy the IllhQloKY ofa reck t)PC. i.c . ill.
or igin , Th e d ifferent rock types arc formed by one of three
processes:
igf/l'OlI,~

ree ks are formed fro m molten material;

c. ' - - -Figure 14 16

~)

----

Iloriw l\lally bcdd..d strata. bj ltorizontally bed-

dcd strata Ih;11 has be...." COillpr",sl'd. creating fold!

10 the rud " includin g anticlines and synclines. cfAll
l'x'lml'k of faulting \\. ht:r.:: a !lInd has bee
dowmh mwn relauve 10 1\000 stable blocks of r'll:l
Thi ~ i ~ referred 10 as rifling.

wdimt'lIlary roc ks are forme d from 111\: panicles of pre-

l.\ i!>ting roc ks and pla nt and animal rema ins: or

metamorphic roc ks are form..d by ap plying heat and

pressure to pre v ioudy cx isti ng roc k.
Roc ks arc weathered fro m the parent material and Iran"
parted !ly erosion and mass tran sport. T he- unconsolidated
sedirncruary materia ls arc called .Iu,./i("io.ll deposits. Th... surficia l depos its may be transported an d eve ntually deposited
hy water. in w hich case we call them all/lvial deposes.
Examples include atluvia l fans . sandbars, sp its. and river tcrraees. If rhc unconsolidated mate rial is tran sported b} ice,
we have g lacia l till , including es kers and dru mlins. WhctJ
the un consolidated material is transported b} the wind, .. e
en counter eolian land scapes. includ ing sand dunes and glacia ! loe ss dcpo-ats. Fina lly. the ma ss wasting of rocks by
grin It)" ca n produc c talu s or sc ree deposits. Under certain
favorable c ircumstances. a ll these materials may be visible
on remote sensor data.

523

Geo logy

S!rUcrure

..

Tho: major mountain ranges of the "odd are o f \ olcanic or

bided or igin . The mountains in the oc ean (i sland s) arc usu.lily volc anic. The \'3St majority (If mo untains found on thecon tinents were create d by folding . Bas ical ly. lI1lJS t o r the
MJg('"f.'. i. (mountain bu ild ing) ta kes pla ce at the margins of
d\( continents "here con tinenta l plates push against one
lIIOIher and .... he re rock i:. compressed and forced to move
IIp\\ ards. perhaps thousand s o f meters.

.l.

IllOnronl.llly b.:.J.kd

Rod. type dete rmines ho .... mu ch stress (or compress ion ) it

.:an withstand. when a roc k (Fi gure 14- 1(>31 is subjec ted to
comprcvsion, it may experience I) d mtic de forma tion. in
. hich case it may return to its o rig ina l shape and size after
ibc stres s IS remov ed. 2 1r (mtir deformation o f rock ca lled
plJIlfj!. .... hieh is irreversible
the com pressional stress
ISbeyond the clastic limi t) (Fi gure: 14-1f.h ), o r 3 )fru cturil1g.
here the pla cnc limu is exectc-ded and the rock break s into
piect's (the pieces ca n he e'ltremcly la~I:! ) (Figure 14- 16c).
Basalt has an averag e compressive rup ture or fract ure
srength (kg 'm l~ 1(If ap pmximately 2750, q uartzite (20 20 1.
nanite ( 14 KU1, slate (14MO l, ma rble (1020). limesto ne (960),
;00 sands tone (740) . Thus. if more than 2 750 kg 1cm2 or
rompre-ss i'l n is applied 10 a piece of basalt. it may fracture .
Sandstone fractures under far k~s compressionalst ress.

u.e..

>l -

''''
A"

ecn
,k

rllldi n ~

re-

nd

v.

,n
y

",

Figure 14-17 31 Hurii'lllllally bedded l..train. b l A gen tly slopmg

rnnn"cli rll:. l) " gl'ml) ,I,lping auuc hnc. dJ" syncline, .: . An ov.. rtum ..d Iilid.

FII/d il/g takes place when horizontally bed ded materia ls are

mmprcvccd. The comp ression re~\Ihs in wa velike undulauons imposed on till' strata . There arc fou r bas ic typ es of
folds, A monociinr is a sing le told on horizontnlly bedded
materia l. It is like a rounde d ramp ( f igure 14- 17b ), Monoclines arc uvuully asymmetr ical. Archlikc upfolds arc calle d
Iinliclilw.I' t fig un- 14- 17c ), Anticlin es typ icall y have 3 con\~x upwa rd told with the u ldesl TOll s in the core or center.
The beds of sedimen tary strata d ip in opposite directions
alia)' from the central ax is " I" the anticli ne . Th e do wnward
eou rncrpurt of all unuclinc is a svncline (a nuughlikc do wnfold) (Figu re 14- 17d I. Syn c lines h:1VC a co ncave dow nward
fold Ihal typically has the yo ungest rocks in the center. A
syncline is a fold in which the scdimcuuiry beds dip inward
from both sides towa rd the :lxis. forming a sy ncli nal va lley.

:u lIid incs and syncl ines ca n he sym llldrlcJ I or asym metr i.

ral. They CJn also plung.: hc lnw Ihe surface. cr...ating a
plunging an ticline " r sync line. SUlIldi m<.'s Ihe compressive
foret'S arc so great thai Ihe sedime ntary b..-ds arc u\ ..rtu rmJ
on top of ooc an otht'T U:igure 14- l7el . Anti c tin...s and syl1-

c hucs arc con unuously weathered. g iving rise III a var iety o f
land l(1J111S such as hog backs, CIC . Exam ple s of folde d strata
in remotely St'l1sl'd images arc found in the sec tio n on
"L an dforms D.. . vclopcd 011 Folded Strata."

Rock frac tures may he div ided into II-H1 categor ies : joi nts
ami tauns. .>\ joil/ I is a crack in rock along 1-\ hieh the re is no
ap prcciublc d isplacement ( i.e.. sideways or vertical mo ver ucn t], A ) imlt i'\ n crack aloug wh ich d isp lace ment has
occurred . b mlt ing invo lves the mo vement o f mass ive b loc ks
o f rock and u,ually ge nerates earthquakes. It is only the fracturc s a long which rock bodie s actually move relat ive to one
anot her that we call / '/IIIt.I . This d is placement ca n he local m
nat ure or occur for hund reds of ki lometers, In ce l1Jin
inSlanl'es . lht' d irt' clion and amount o fm o\"cmem (d isp lace me nt) all'"!? Iht'Se lillt'(//1/t'lJl.I can he measurl'd from pas"i\ e
le.g., \\'on -In and Charusiri. 20t)J : Fernandes Oa Sil\a,
2(05) ;md acli\ (" r('motl'l) s.:nscd data l i looper et al .. 2no} \.

(, II A rn~ R

524

14

Remote Sens ing of Soli s, Minerals, and Geomorphology

FauJI ~

J.

!\ormal d ir-~li p faull

h. SmkC'-~lI r fault

Figu re 14 -18 a) A normal dip-slip fault, where the hanging " all is displaced (Will the !'lIutw, IIL Note Ihal th... ang le ofthe fault pla ne is called
the dip and thatthe fault line trends aero's lite terrain in a certam azimuth direction ca lled the strike . The dbplaccmcm C3U>Oi
a [ault scarp, b ) ,\ strike-slip fault. c) An obliq ue-slip fa ult.

There are three major types o f displ ace ment in fauns. inc lud ing: dip-slip, strike-slip, and oblique-slip . as shown in Figure 14-18. Displ acement occ urring up or down the faultplane walls prod uces a dip-slip fau lt (Fig ure 14-1Ka ). lfthe
displacement OCCIIN parallel with the faunline . a strike-shp
fault is created ( Figure 14. l!ib). Displacement up and down
a nd along the fau lt line creates a hybrid nl>liq/le-.~ lip fault
{Figu re 14-1Xc ). The diagra m also highlights ~\ eral param-

ctcrs that lIlay he idennflcd using a cornhination of field

work and remote sensor data. Th... fi lllit scarp and the fa~11
line may be identi fiable. They may trend in a certain direclion on the terrain , called a stri ke dircctinn. The angle lhat!be
surface i ~ tilted Irom a horizontal plane is the dip ang/rl81
11 i ~ me asured dow nwa rd from a horizon ta l plane and ranges
between no and \,1(1" . The dip direction to" to 359"1 is rnasured orthogonal to thc ~I ri "c direction. There arc several

:.tology

525

'ar:w 14-1.

Draina ge morphometric parameters ladapl:cdhum Reddy C1 al., ~()()" ).

I
Morphometric parameter

Algorithm

Drainag e den sity (D)

"

L:C,

JJd =

Totallength ILl of /I stream channels in a dramag... basin

divided by the surfucc area (A I of the basin.

,. ,
..J

' "

( .\'~ + I)

B. - h",... - h ...,,,
R~e:Une,;s

Description

l{<IIi" b... tween th,' numbe r of strearns of any given order

to the number of streams in lh... m:. l h ighe r order.

Maximum vertical distance between

Inc lowest and

highe!.l points of a sub-basin.

Product o f the hasin relief and its drainage density.

number ( R. )

F = ~

Texture ratio (n

Rallo between the tota l number of sueams and ltu: area

of the basin.
Rat io between the total number of first-o rder streams
;md perimeter ofthe basin.

Ratio between till: basin area and the square of Ille basin
length.

Ratio be tween th... diamete r of thl: circle ha ving the

same area (as lhat of the ha~inl and the maximum length
nfthe: basm.

typeso f dip-slip faults. TII\:s.... are dis cu ssed in the sec tio n on
"Fault-Controlled Landform s."

Drainage Morphometry and Patterns

led

held
<lull

River and stream basin sur face d rainage pur.uucwrs may he

measu red us ing remote sensor data . Sornc {I f the most
IKni ly used morphometric: parameters arc summarize d in
fable 14-1 (Red dy et a., 2004). \\'e wi ll foc us here prim arily
on drainage densitv. which i~ de fined as the tote! length of /I
srea m cha nnels in a dra inage basi n d iv ided by the surface
area of the basin, and how it relates 10 te xture vis ible in
remote se nsor data. We will then loo k a t the ch..rac tcnstic of
various dra inage pan....m s.

treephe
( M.

Dra i n a~('

ngcs
nea-

The permeability o f a soi l o r rock (i.c .. how easi ly wa ter

passes through the material} has a grc.u U<': <l 1 III do with
drainage density, Perm eability is inv ersely prop ort ional 10

-cral

Denclry a nd Tt>lture

runoff Whcre pcrmcnhilitj- is low and runo ff is high. many

guthes typic ally form . Conversel y. when permeability is
high and runoffis low. m uch ofthe water infi ltrates into the
gw uml and (I large r sur face area is req uired to pro vide suffi cic nt runoff for the creatio n and maintenance of a c han nel
uributary ). Wea k. relatively impenncublc clays and shales
produce the highest dr ninagc de nsi ty. Regions wit h
extn,'ll1l,' ly hig h d ra i ll<J~L' density are ca lled badland s. e.g..
the Badlands Nationa l Monument in So uth Dakota.
Th e dra inag... patte rns' isibk in remotely sensed data d isCUSSL-U below are often adJee tioa ll) desc ribed as ha ving fine.
medium. OJ co arse te xtures. Texmre is formall y de fined as
th.: ratio bct w een the: total num ber or first o rder strea ms and
the pe rime ter or the bas in [Table 14 - 1). A fine-textured
dra inage pattern typ ically e xh ibiu.. rela tively sho rt dista nces
between the first-o rder tribu taries. i.e. il has a h igh density
o f closely spaced cha nnels per u nit area (or pe rimeter ). T his
tex ture indic ates high runo ff from easily eroded form ations
such as thos e co mpos ed o r shale and cla y-rich soils of low
permeability. A medium-textured d rainage pattern typically

nl.\ I'H~R

526

14'

has m..derate tril'o lll:lr) sp, u:ing and de nsity. It is prod u,..:.:J by
moderate runotf from relatively perm eable soils \ JT bedrock.

Thin beds of sands tone can produce such a texture. A

pattern hJS a IO\.~ dra inage de nsity
,\ uh \\ iddy spaced channels. It suggests the prese nce of
hard. resistant rock types (e.g.. gra nite, gne iss) and/or \C'l)
permeable SIJils. Sudllllaicr ials typic ally absorb a great de al
of Will cr. and there is little runoff ,\ Iso. the bedrock may be
fractun.. d.
clltlrI't'-leXlItN:'d d rainage

D r a i n a ~l'

Pat tern

The drainage pattern developed thro ugh tim e on a landscape

provides clues about the bedrock lithology [c.g. igneous.

sedimentary, metamorphic]. lope'graph) (slope. aspecn. the

texture of the soil and \IT bedrock ma terials, the permeability
of the soil (h(1\O..... ell water pe rco lates through ill , and the
type of land form prescru (c.g. . alluvial. eolian. glacial).
\\'hi le ill vitu obsl'I"\3tions arc essential, physical scientists
often esc the syn.\plic bird's-cye view provided by remote
"t'nsing to appreciate a regi'llla l drainage- pattern. The-refore.
it is important to be able to recognize the maj or d rainage palterns present in remote se nsor data.
Somcumcs there may he a variety of drainage patterns
w ith in a watershed or -egion. in whic h case it is called a
mnt'd pa ltern. whene ver poss ible. it is better to slmtif) the
m ixed patlern into multiple areas wi th unique dra inage pa tterns. II lso . it is importantto remember Ihat the drai nage palter n may be com posed u f wet and dry chan nels. especially in
arid e nv iwn ments.
Il endrilie : The mosl comlilon I)p<: o f drainage pattern is
dend r;t i(' ( Figure 14 I')aj. It is characler i7t'd hy a treel ike or
ft"mh ke palll.'m with orand ll.'s lhat interst:d pr ima rily at
acu te ang les (i.e .. < Q(F ), Th ere ;Ire Ie'" abrupl bends in the
, Irea m c!wnnL'!s. lk ndritil: dra inag.: pattt"m s ar.: tkw!f'l'cd
by nm dotll h':'ld\!.a rd eH" ion of ins<:qu.:nl slr.:>lms on roc ks
o f un iflmll rcsistanc.: wilh liu l... or no stru':lUra l COlllwl
ca uscd hy fo lding or tilult ing. It i~ o ti.:n found o n l a n d t"'nn ~
composed of rcllltiv ...ly' hl'llltJ~ ...ncous. hor i:wll tally bcJd.:d
SCJilll"'11I,Hy w d . (e.g" "hale). gl,ll' ial till (e.g., lo.:ss). vokanil' tull on sandy .:n:hla l pl ains, nn tidal marshes (Fi gure 1-414a ). 'r on g laciall::J out wash plai ns.
l'inn:lIl': A pinmlle dr-linage palt.:nl is a \ ariat in n oft h.: (I.:n<.Iritic pat t...m where the slr.:ams or gullies hav.: a kalherli k.:
branc hing paU"m th"t typ ica lly imersecls at acute :mgks.
Th is pau"m indlciltes that the kind form has a high silt co nI.:nt usually consisting of lo.:ss. si lty a llu\i um. or \':f)' soli
erodible s.:dimemaf) materia ls.

Remote Sen sing of Soi ls , Minerals , and Geomorphology

Trdlis : Th... trellis drainage pattern is a modified uendritic

pattern that resembles a \ inc on a garden trellis. It o!Ull
" , hillits straig ht. pa ralle l pri mary tribu taries and shoncr secondaf) tribut aries that joi n the large r branc hes at rigfu
ang les. This drainage puncrn oneo indica tes that the t>.,'\ln:(\
structure is tihcd. folded, l,r fault c<.I. [I is often found OIl
inlcrbcddcd sedimentary rocks. Trellis dra inage is espiaIl:common in areas o f folded sl'(limentaf) beds of diffenfIE
resistance such a.. the I(idg.... and Valley topography oftM
Appalachian M ountains from S.:w York to Alabama, t"l
as"lll.:iate-d wuh the hc>gt'lad :s of the Uinta Mountains oi
L tah (Figure 14-19bl. The prima ry parallel channels folm
the I.'S., resistant be ds . The shorter tributaries flow down tllc
sides of the more resistan t uptu rned beds.
1{ N:"l a n ~u l a r : II rectangular dra inage palt.:m also exhibits!
treelik e p,ttlt'm: \l<"..C\"'T. the ma in channels have ll'IOI't
abrupt bends. Stre ams often join at approximately riglt
angles, [I dc vclop... in areas " here joints or faults haw' deleloped in the bedrock. R l'~ta n !(ul ar drainage is PI\.'S<.'nt wbere
the bedrock is fractured. jointed.tr foliated and i... Ii\;e1~ 10
occur on met amorphic ..tare. ,,('hi..t. or gnt'iss. It can al<o
form in hard. re..i..taut san dston... in ar id climates (Figure l ~
19c). Th ... st ronger an d 111(\re rec tangula r the pattern. generally the thinner the ...oi l covering the bed rock (Rasher and
w ea ver. I')<l0l. Alt hou gh both trellis a nd rectangular draiaage patterns have right-angle tributary junc tio ns. indi\'idUl!
streams in rectang ular p:llk'rn s gt' nL"ra lly have n ghr-angk
bends in the ir cha nnels.

Par:llit'l: A p:mt llc l d ra in:l!:!e patte rn co nsisls \,f tributaries

th<ll n ow nearl y par allel to 01'" anoth.:r. A ll th.: tributa ri~!
joirllh... mai n ,hannd:l l app Olx i111:11d y the same angle. Par
a llel dra in:tg.: suggests thaI th... ar...il hilS a gcntl.:. unif0f111
s "-,p .... Th ... tr iblltar i.:s fullo w lwds in th.: k ss res islant rock,
I':lritlk l an d mr!;;d draina ge on :I vo lca no in Maui. HI. art
shnwn ill Fignre 14 -2()a.
Ib d i:11 (('l'nt r ll"ul!lIl) lllld Cen t r ip d a l: A radi al J minage
plltl.:rn forms \, h.:n waln !lows down ward o r o utward from
a hill or dOI11.... T it.: rad ial drai nag.: paU.:rn of channd s produced can tx' liken.:d tn a \!.hl"t:l consis ting \l f a circ ular net
wo rk Ill' pmll llci d tan nds Ii ..:.. the spuk.es) llo.> wing a\~ a~
fro m a l:cntra l h igh po int or\II'l1Ie ( i.e .. Ihe huh), [n Ihis c:J>e.
hn\\ e\Cr, the huh o f tot: \\ hl'<.' 1 is ekvated ahove the spt)ko.
I(adllli JrOli nag ... is o l\.:n fo und on th... sltJpt.'S of volcanic
':Ol1l'S suc h as Diamon d . ka d C r.lIer on O ahu. HI. or on
steep m,)unl"i nllus terra in ( Fig.ure 14-2 00 I. It is also referred
to as u'llIrifilgul raJi Oll draini.ll::e.
.-\ radml dra inat:.: pllu...rn can also J ... n~lop on ci rcu lar areas
tha r d rain ill/u 01 ':OIlUllon. endo,.:d C.:lUrOlI basin or dcprl:~'

527

GeOl09Y

-friti c
pllen

I ......

se\"-

structurally
controlled

r igh t

lrock
d 0"

:iall y
eriog
,f the
3. or

ns of

I
ndgc

) 110 ....

'0

the

bits a
more

ngtu

leve lvhere
ely to
a lso

'e I ~-

cncr-

rand
IminiJua l

a.

angle

tancs
tones
Par -

iform

roc" .
1 arc

lnage

.ion This is referred 10 as cen tripetal radial draina ge , In this

ease. the huh of the 1\ hee l is loVo er than the qm kcs. A cinde r
tone volcano may have l'clllrifugal rad ia l drainage \111 the
exterior sides of the volcano and centripetal mdinl drai nage
1n the interior wa lls lll"thl' crater I Figure 14-2Vn l.

W l11

prof netaway
f

case.
okes.
arne

\n n ul:1r: An annular dra inage pattern is similar 10 the rad ial

paucru e xcept thur ring.l ikl' tributari es inte rcept radia l
streams .11 right an gles ( Rasher and v.,..ea vc r, 19( 0 ). These
delelop when stream cours es a<IJ us l 10 111)w around resista nt
4omc:;, (I runirc or sedime ntary domes o ftcu de velop this patern, as \10 so me meteorite craters ( r igure l 4-2Oc),

)r o n

IT<d

llichu tumiv: r\ d ic hot omic drain age patte rn may be foun d

alluvial fans or on alluvial dehas at the mo uth o f strcams
nverx ( Figure 142 1a ). The water and suspe nded sediment
esually enter the alluvia l fan or deltaic area through a s ing.le
dlannd _The 1111\\ is then red istribut ed througho ut the fa ll or

illI

area s

pres-

b.

Rgure 14-19 a) Top- Hypothcucal dendritic dramagc pattern. Bouom: Vc nil;t1 aerial photograph of a ocm1ritic drainage pattern found Oil
r i",uli r.; urth Bay ufthe IludSllJl River National Estuarin... Rcw,u",h Reserve in ," c" York. t-) lrelhs dnu nagc pattern found 011
lhl' hogbac k mlgl"s on the edge (If the Uinta Moumams in Utah (I ands,n I\ISS dua I c I Srructumlly controlled rectangular
draina ge pattern of the Colorado Rivcr in the Grand Canyou (Thcma nc \ l .q'!x:r huml 4 data, courtesy Spa ce Imaging, lnc.).

dcha via a number (lfdi.l'lrihular!c _\', O n an alluvial fan, the

coars e malcrillls (cobhlc s, gra ve l. etc.I arc deposited al the
ape x 01" the fall while tbc smaller and lighter minera ls arc
dcposucd toward the terminus o f th e tan In certain
instances. the dichotomic drainage patte rn may co mpletely
disappear ucur the te rm inus of'thc fan. i.c., the material is so
porous rhmallofrbc wate r percola tes underground. Simi lar
dichouunic d istributaries Ill'-l)" form un rive r deltas ( c.g.. the
\-1ississi ppi aml N ile) . The dichotom ic d rainage patte r ns can
only for m on ddw s when the sus pe nded sediment is very
fine-gra ine d ,Il1U CJn be transported great dis tances.
Knlid l'o : A braide d stream patte rn may de velop on t100dpla in" whe re strea m \ch>ei t) is not s uffi cient 10 move the
suspended scdrmc mlood dm, nctre am. The re su lt is the dcposruon of ~u spc:ndeJ mate rial in inte rtwin ed channel.. that
appear much like braid ed hair. For example . consider the
braided stream p,IlII'm found at the mouth of the Betsiboka

528

(" II A1'1 t:I~

14

Remote Sens ing of Soils, Minerals, and Geomorphology

~J~
---. "-:.
+--...-::::.:-.

'lJ\'

Rad ia l and Cen tripet al

<.
Figu re 14 20 81 SIR.{:" radar image of paraljcl an d rad ial drainage pauerns found on I~ volcanjc cone in \\ estern MallL HI (('OUT1ts) \.-,,,-,
lei Propulsion Lahor~IOf) I. bl Lo .....ot>li'lU<: ae rial phol ugrap b c f Diam ond Head Crater on Oah u.. Ill. revealing boIh
n'furiJll.1.a1 interior dra inage panerns. c) Space Shut1k ph{ltograph o f l~ a nnular d ram age pattern on the M anicoua gan Crm
on the Canadian Shield in Quebec Province.Ca nada lcourtes~ I'\AS,\ Johnson Space C..-mer: STSI J(l'J..48..] 13'1).

radial_

River in Madaguscur ( Figure 14..2 1b ). The sands a nd grave ls

that arc sys tem atic all y sorte d and deposi ted in a braid ed
stream drainage netwo rk n11lY event ually have s igniflcmu
ec onomic importance.
()t'ran~ l'd : A de ranged drai nage pancrn exhibits streams
that wand er in d isorder in swamps and among water bod ies
[n ot show n). It is mainly fo und on very young landsca pes
that have al most le veltopog raphy and a h igh water tab le. It
can occ ur in young glaci al ti ll p lains. moraines. low co as tal
plains. and floodplains. Us uall y swa mps. ma rshes . bogs. a nd
ta kes or pond s are prese nt.

A nas lo mn lic : An anasto motic d rainage pauem ma y be

found 011 mature floodpla ins where there is ample hornogcncous sed iment a nd red uced stream fln w or vclocuy, Basical ly, the hydro logic sys te m docs not have su ffic ien t energy
10 rem ove the sedime nt from the area. Th e major stream

c hann el adjusts 10 the decrease in ene rgy by deposi ting Its

sediment 1n;\I! and incr ea sing the length ofrhe stream channet. Typi ca l d iagn' lslic features include mcund cnng streams
and re mnan t meander scars and/or oxbow lakes such a~
those fo und on the Missi ssippi Ri\ er ( Figure 1-l-2I c).
S ink ho le (d nli ne) : A sinkho le dra inage pan crn consise cf
isolated lakes o r po nd s lhat d,) nOI appear to he connected ~
any sys tem atic surface dra inag e. If sh..m stream Sl.1Jrnenu
are present, Ihey ofte n end ab ruptly or disappear into karst
topog raph y sinkholes or d~pTt:ssions. Tb rs dra inage p;tll:m
dev elo ps o n sedi mentary li mestone (('aCO) where the sinkho les and dep ressions hav e formed by c hemical dissoluliOll
(Tre fil and 1Ill/e n. I'N5 ). Somenmcs the subterranea n drainage network that is nu t visible in the imagery emerges to
torm sprin gs lind lakes. An example ofsinkhole t('lp<)g:raph~
in Flor ida is shown in the section on karst to pography.

529

Geomo rp ho lo gy

meand...ring

'j-t-

nver
saml bare

b.

roller

tits

F'9ure 1421 a) .-\ST ER image ofan d ichotomic drainage pcuern onan a lh.<inl ran betwee n the- Kunlun and -\ !tun ml>unlam ranges on the
sou thern bonk! o f the Takhmakan I><.-,..:n in C hina's XinJi.iug Pw' mce . The images "as acquired on Ma f 2. ::!OO.:! rcocncsy
Cl (:"lASA'GSFC \tfTI T RSI) /\ CIJAROS and U.S.JaI"l" ASTER Scienc e Team). b) Sp;I<"" Shun lc ph "hl~f3 ph o fthe braid ed
-trcam paue m on l-k"lsih"la River mouth in Madagascar (,," unes)' Kamlesh Lulla: "'lAS,\ Johnson Space Cenler). c) SIR..('I
XSAR L-band radar imago: of \t iss ;'Isippi Rive r ananomonc d rain :_!?c pauc m (courtesy )\ASA Jd Propulsion UOOT:l:IOI)').

Geomorphology

haneams
h

:IS

Is o f
d by
crus
~arsl

.te rn
ink -

lion

am-

".
phy

c.

A kmdtiJrlI/ is a thrce- dimensi onu l fea ture on the Earth's surface formed by natural processes. Typicallandfo rms include
volcanoes. plateaus. folded mountain ranges. stream cha nneb, etc . (jl'(J/IWlp"oloK~' is the science tha t studies the
enure and history of la ndforms and the processes of weathering. erosio n. and depovitinn that crea ted them I H.)CI,.'t. ..."1
!!.. ::!OO51. At one lime il was know n a.. the science of phvsi()gruphy. T he study of geo morp hology involves an appreciation fo r Ih t' majo r pn.x:e.\.\t',~ at work thai constantly erode or
d..'P'''it materials on the Earth's crus t. incl uding running
water (fluvial). glacial ice (glacial I. wind teohanj. groun dwater. and wind-driven wate r waves. Geoillgists. phys ical
geographers. lind other scie ntists routinely usc the synoptic

view associate d with remotely Sl'IISl'U data 10 identify and

imem rct geo morp hic feat ures on the Furth's surtace. fn fact.
idcruifyiug, understanding . and upprccluting the nature of
landforms present on remotely sensed imllgl'fy is one of the
great benefits 01' remote sl'nsing science. One should lake
time to appr eciarc the treme ndous beauty and var iety (If
landfor ms o n the Earth and h" w ecosystems associated with
rhc \ anou, landfo rms interact .... ith one a nother.
A wo rd o f caulion is in order. In th c lat... nineteenth and early
twcmic th century . principks ofland form evolution were put
forth such that any current landform could be interpreted as
I'>t:ing in <I ...tage of evo hnion ( e.g., that stream \a lleys
rru~re", from youth. maturi ty. to old agel . Land forms do
cvolv c. but the complexity of clima tic change and its influencc s. the enects oftectonisrn. and man's impac t as a geomorphological agent may be so ove rriding tha t fe w
geclml''l'holtlgi"ts now bcliev e that there is a simpl e and

530

C II ,\ I""H R

14

direct sequence of landforms tha t ca n be recognized as

deve loping acco rding \0 a pa rticula r in variahle pattern
(Wals h et a l. 1998 ; Jam es. 200f
Fonuna re ly, ma ny landforms do exhi bit observable. r...peatable aunbu tcs such as size, shape , height . three-d ime ns iona l
topogra phy. composition . slope. aspect. 1.'11.'. These attributes
may he used to c1a~si fy landforms into the fo llowin g class...s:

ignc\\us land fo rms

Iand forrns developed on hor izontal strata
land fo rms dev elo ped o n folded strata
fauh-cor urolle d land forms
Iluviulland forms

Rem ole sensing of Soils, Minerals, a nd Geo morphology

sion . ,\ Isu , imagery obtained at a relatively low Sun angle

o ften enhance s the an alyst's ability to id enti fy landtorrre.
Finall y. one has 10 he VCl')' careful whe n interpreti ng images
in the No rthe rn Ilcmispherc because shadows in images fall
towar d the north. a\\ 3Y fro m the \ ie.... er, Therefore. e\peri
enccd ima ge analysts often rotate the Nort hern Hemisphere
images so that so uth is towa rd tho: to p 10 pre vent pseudoscopic illu sion fro m taking place (i.c ., co n fusing mounne
rid ges with valleys). Some of the illustratio ns in this ehaplCl"
are oriented in thi s ma nner to facilitate interp retat ion,

It is beyond the scope of this ch apter to pro vide examples of

all the possible geomorphic landscape s prese nt on the SUIface of the Earth. Therefo re. Hilly representative examples of
so me o f the mo st impo rtant land fo rms are presented. Pkast
refer to boo ks on geomo rphic ana lysis from aerial platforms
such as Shelton ( 19(10). Short and Blair (19'-)9), Rasher and
Weaver ( 1990), Strain a nd Engle ( 1993 ). uno Way and Everell (1997),

kars t lan dforms

Ign eous Landforms

shor el ine land forms
glac ial land forms
eolian land forms.

The Soi l Conservauon Sc.'TVlcC produced a n excellent manual that summarized the major land forms and ho .... they
ap pe:n on ae rial photograph y (Rashe r and Wea ver. ItNil ).
Several o f thei r examples are used in this chapter. Short and
Blair ( 1999) provided a tho roug h re view o f ho.... to pe rform
geomorphological analys is from space especially for obtaining informuuon abou t large. regional landfo rms . T hey pro\ ide examples from arou nd the wo rld .
One m ight ask. What is the idealtype of remote sensor data
and'or image pr esen tatio n format to study. ap prec iate. and
class ify the Earth's landforms? First. no sing le sensor is
idea l for the stu dy of al l lnndt orms. Ae rial photograp hy may
be ide al for studyi ng land forms in the re latively clo ud-frce
arid wes tern United States, .... hi le radar data may be ide al lor
studying landforms in cloud-shrouded enviro nments (e.g..
Lu et al.. ::!nU4 j. Many a nalysts ca n e xtract la ndform info rmat ion by \ ie\\ ing a single ae rial photog rap h or imag e.
Howe ver, many scientists prefer to study lanJ fo nns while
viewing the te rra in in a three-di me nsional presentation us ing
I ) stereoscopic pho tograph y or imager} (e.g.. Baldi et al.,
~OO5 ). 2) drap ing a monosco pic s ingle image o ver a digi ta l
e levation model and then man ipu lating the o bse rve r 's \ ic.... ~
ing posi tio n to enhance topograp hy. and/or 3) ob taining
obliq ue imagery that generally en hances the thi rd dimcn -

The Earth's upper mant le is pa rtly molten. with many minerals in it tha t were force d dee p by tectonic forces and eventual ly melted . tgncoes rocks arc produced from this molten
fluid magm a. If the magma is e xtruded o nto the Earth's surface . extrusive igneous (vo lca nic ) rock is created. If the
mag ma is ex truded into some subs urface portion of the
Earth's crust, intrusive igneous roc k is formcd.Hthc molten
lava Flo ws or is expl oded OUI of a central vent and produces
a mound o r cone-shaped fea ture. we have a v olcano.

Cinder ('fl/lC' vo lcanoes arc built ent irely of pyrocl astic mate-rials that are ejected into the air and fall to Earth nearby,

Their accumulation ev entually bu ilds rhc cone. For example.

conside r o ne ofrhc Menan Bulle volcanic craters ( Figure 1-1
12). It .... a s created .... hen a dike of magma int ruded into a
sha llow aquifer. Th e water in the aq uife r turned to steam and
explosively fra gmented the basalt ic ma gm a into volcanic
g las!>like pani cles called IUfr , The volcano was built up layCl
by layer, hy ae rial deposi ts o f tuff and larger pyroclasrk
(bom b ) mate rial. Th e two Menan Run e volcanoes also
extruded lava onto the surface covering a larg e portion of
eas tern Idaho. Diamond Head C rater on Oahu, I II. is also a
turf co ne volcano.

un..,

do mC' (.~hidd) ,v/nJIIU('j arc crea ted when the Ian

po urs ou t on to the: land scape. Generally this results in more
gently slopin g volcanoes depend ing upon Lhe: viscosity of
the lava
the mor e high ly fluid the lavarhe mo re gentle
the slope ; the more viscous the lava . lhe stee pe r the slope

u.e..

Go<

09'

lin (Ingle
rdforms.
~ images.
ages lall
. experi-

53 1

Seomorpho logV

Menan Butte Ctndcr Cnnc vulca nn in Id ah o

nisphcre
pseudo-

rounrain
I chapte r
n

n ples of
the surn plcs of
. Please

arforms
he r and

rd Eve r-

minerevcmu-nohcn.
'r's surIf the
of the
molten
e duce s

: mateeearby
ample.

rrcl -t111 0 3

re 1422 Panchromatic ~t<;:T'l.-opair o f the wuth~'11l Menan Butte cinder COlle volca no in It1.Ihu obtamcd on J une ::-1. 1'>60. It is une o f the
\\(lf ld's largest tu fTcone volca noes . wilh a volume ofOJl7 mil (U.~O c ubrc " m ') . The lu rf l~ made of volcanjc glass Ihal has
teen altered b) 11M: adJ ition o f \\ 01l<:r. The cone is laic Pleistocene i n age. The ~lcnan il l/lie vo lcano al,;o c.\trudcd lav a on the
surface 10 the west tbon om nf lhe photographs ) for many kilometers. There ISsllnghm (In Henr) 's f ork in the leli photograph
as it 11\,,,, s into the Snake River Note the radial and parallel drainage on the l1.mks ofil le crater and the eL"'lltri[k1al drainage in
the inter ior of the CIlIK'f.

uccd). Common extrusive rock s arc basalt, andesite,

dacite, and rhyolne. Havalt is the most widely d istributed
.olcanic roc k. It is also the mo st common rock on the Earth 's
erfacc . It flows out from volcanic vents over other rock in
pearlobes or thin sh eets ( L. t1 et al.. 2(l t~ J . II ca n trav el hundreds ufnnlc s. It is fine-grained. black, rich in silica uud thc
erromag ncsian minerals . Basah normally ap pear's dark o n
pmchrornaric li lm because it contains feldspar. hornblende .
lnd miens. Dac ite and rhyolite appear in light tones on panchromatic images.

m a nd

Jeanie
1 layer

stasuc
I a lso
ion of

also a

lava
more

ity of
lemlc

slope

The Shutt le SIR-Cl X$A R rada r image in Color Plate 1~ -2a

reveal seve ra l componc ms o f the Kilauea shield vo lr nno
located ou Hawa ii. T he massive volcano conti nues ro he erened by the ext rusion O( I WO types of lava : a'u is extremely
rough and sp iny and w ill quick ly lear shot' s when walking
OIl it, and ! /(, 'j",*,!wt' is a I\I[)C Y lava rhur look s like burned
pancake bailer. The vo lcano is enlarged by the extrus ion of
lava onto the surface. Numerous individualflows are easily
seen in the three-dimensiona l radur-pcrspec nvc vie w in
Colo r PI:lIe 1 ~ 2 b . Noll' especia lly rhc dark mate rials from
the Kupaiauah a cra rer Kilauea ha s been crupnng almo...l
constan tly since 19R3,

Figure 14-23 A threc-drmcnsional per-pecnve view of Isla lsabcla

o r the {i;llapagvs !>Iauds. TIlis is a Space Shul!lc
SIIot _1'/ XSAI{ im;lge draped over a digital elevation
mod e l. [{"ugh au la vu !lows produce a bright radarreturn on me srde..fthe dome volcano. Ash deposits
an,1 relatively .' 11I<.0Ih11</'/""'''''(' 101\ a appear as dark
nrcns nn rnc eidc "I' rhe volcano (cnurtcs y NAS \
JPL ).

I,-Ia lsa bela j, une of the G alapagos Istands loc ated off the
coast o f Ecuador. South Am erica, It is a lso an ac tive
lava dome (s hie ld) volcano. rigure 1 ~ - 2 3 depicts a Spa ce

" I,.'S t

CII AI"IER

532

14

Remote Sensing of Soils. Mineral s. and Geomorphology

~ Io u nl

St. Helens

u. High oblique pho tog raph.

b. Stcrcopair.

Figu re 14-24 a ) High-oblique pl1\lhlgraph o r MUUIl! 51, Itcicns crupung nil May 1S. I <) ~O ( C" lUt c ~ > "f U .S. (ico]"gic;.tl Surv<;y). h) USGS
lligh A lti tude' I' holography' (HA l') stcreopatr of Mount '-;1 I k I L'n ~ in Washinghln (>11 August fl . t cx I (I I,S. Geological SUf\e)'
photos I (l'J ~-l . 1l 5) _ The acti ve 1a\:1 dome in the center ofthc C'Hn..: i~ visible. Steam is rising fruTn wi thin the crater. A ,diml'lll
cho ked radial dminage paucm has developed. North IS tothe lett. Please re fer In ('OIOT Pl.ne 14-...

Shunle S IR-C/ X-SA R image o r Isla lsabcla dra ped ove r a

d igital elevation model. The brigh t are as arc very rou gh ]:1 ' a
fl ows.

Lava flows on the wcstdchl Volcuno, Alas ka, wcrc, map ped
using radar and Landsat Thematic Mapper imagery [ Lu er
al.. 200"). Baldi ct al. {200S ) used a...rial photography and
phorogra mmctry to map geo morphic changes on the Stromboli volcano in Italy, Thermal infrared AVHRR data were
usc-d to map hot spots on .'viI. Etna and Strombo li volcanoes
( Pergola et at , 200-1).

Composite cone or s tru to volcanoes are created from both

pyrocl astic mal...'r ials and extrud ed lava . The world 's most

impressivl.' volcanoes Me C11ll1fK'sitc cones. For example,

:\1(IUl1t St. l ic k-us in w ashin gton (R,311O ft: 2,548 m) is J
composite cone volcano ( Figure 14-24 and Co lor Plate 14
31. lr erupted on May IX. [IJXO, at X:32 u.m. Pacific time. .l.
se ries of moderate-to- severe ea rthquakes preceded the eruprion, sending th... north side ofrhe mountain cascading downwurd toward Spirit Lake. This avalanc he. the largest eHI
observed in the wes tern Hemisphere. weakened the magma
chambers .... uhm the volcano. causing a northwa rd lateral
and vertica l explosion that destroyed over 270 m i ~ (7.000
km ~) of forest in live seconds and sent a billowing cloud of
ash and smoke 7U.ono n (.21.0CIO m I into the atmosphere. A
pumice plain \\a_~ produced. cons isting of'v olcanic mud. ash.
and debris that buried the original Toutle River Valley to a

~I o gy

533

~m o rp ho logy

,\ I n u n l Taranaki.

;\~\\

Z t'a la nd

'.
~J:",()lI(

'ialional Pari.

Mgure 14-25 ASlfR image of ' lounl Taranaki tin :'>It" Zealand's North Island ooraincd on May 27. 2001. TIns cOI11 JlO'>l te cone volcano is
madl' of amk,i lc lava and a mixture ofsolid pyroclastic rocks (tcphn ),and ash.Tbc unique shape ofthe Egmont National Park
resuu, frum Il' pnuccuon in l ~~l. whic h specified thai a tllfeCo,l reserve would extend in a 'H ' km radius from the summit of
~ h'ul1l Taranaki. ,\ series of montane habnats oc cur in procession from the pasture farmlands up the Flanks of the votcanc-cfrom ram forest, ttl sbr ubs, to atpme. and fi nally snow cover (eourt."~y of NASA etSFClMETIE RSDAO JAROS and U,S}
h J'dll ASTER Science Team},
depth (If 1.000 Ii (WIl m) . The stereoscopic phot ograph y
obtained on All~ust 6, I\)XI , OIlie r the eruption re vealed
another lava dome {Ie \'dopi ng in the ce nter (If the cra ter.

'Set s
trvcy
111111

pte.
h a
4A
up-

s n.
kr

."
tal
00
f

xtouru Turanaki in l-gmont National Park on New Zeala nd's

North Island is a composite cone volcano made o f andesi te
lava (F igure 1425 ), The fOcb arc a mixture of so lid p}rnclastic rocks lt e:phra l, a sh c.~ . and lava Flows. which lack
cohe sion and arc easil y carved by eros io n. 1vloun t Ta ranaki
stands at 251 X m. The volca no ~ga n fnm li ng 711,OOO yea rs
ago. a nd las t e rupte d in 1755.
Intrusive igneous rock i ~ for med when the molten magm a
cools and c!") stJl1 ilt: s .... ithin tho: Earth's crust. The material
lying abov e this pluto nic roc k may eventually he eroded.
Large igneous intrusive ruc k hlluil's. or nll/hl//ith." oft en
fonn the foundauon fo r entire mo unta in systems such as the:
Sierra Nev ada in the weste rn L'nilcd Slates or the Andes In
South America . Sma ller u{lme-sh'lped intrusive flick bod ies
arc c a iled l<t<"fJlirh., or .l / tK h .

ous rock . rich in q uartz and fe ldspa r hut poo r in the fe rroma gnesia n ( iron and magnes ium I minerals. G ran ite usuall y
ap pears in light tones o n panch rom atic image!")', whereas
diaba se an d gabbro are dark. Granite cools for an exceptiona lly long time unde rgroun d : therefo re . it has large crystals
that a rc visible 10 the naked eye. Whe:n granite is exposed at
the sur face, ex fofiancn may ta ke place where co ncent r ic
shells o f rock material break o JT du e 10 chcmicu l or thermal
wealhering and from the release o f interna l stress w hen
ovcrburdcn is removed. For exa mple, Figure 14-26a depicts
Stone Muuntu in in Ge orgia, which is a rel atively sma ll intrusive stn c-k. It is approximately 360 m h igh and I I km in c ircumfcrcncc. An imagc
the top of the do me revea ls linea r
slr i at jon~ uuu radiate a..... ;L)' from the apex ( Figure 14-:::6b).
Anot her excelle nt example is the Bra ndbcrg Massif in
Namibia ( Figu re 1 ~- 2 7 ). Th is massiv e granite intrus ion is
exposed at the surface and CU \eTS approximately 650 sq. km
(25U sq. nu) an d rises 2573 r u(I ,h m il above the des ert .

or

Somcurncs the tess rcsisram ma terial su rro undi ng the intru -

sive volcanic neck ((IT plug) of a volcano erodes, exposing

The mos t common intrusive (plu tonic ] rocks incl ude granite.
diorite, diabase. and gabbro. Granite: is a lighr -colorcd igne-

the more res istan t vo lcanic neck materials. For exam ple ,

Dcvil's To.... e r in Wy(lming is an intrusive volca nic nec k


534

14'

Remote Sensi ng of Soils, Mine rals , and Geomorp hology

Stone Mountain, C;,\

b.
Figure 14 26 al Pan<'hmmalic aerial pltoloparh of Slone Mountain. 00\. II 1$ a gran ite exfol iation dum e (re3100 oy intrusive magma!iOiidif) ing .Ill.m:.al depth. It is lxli.:\<-..1 that more than 10.000 ft. ofk-,;s n.." i5l.;m l material "iUO cr ..>lk...J to expose the inl1U'il\'crocl
l>' Large-scale photograph of the 1111' o f Stone \ loll nl3;n . I'\l'le the gllndnla. facI lity. linear striations in tbe rock, and thc:-p.nIld
and annular dr. nnagc pattern pr.."c nt.

(f-'igure 1-1-21\) . Occasiona lly the mag ma is ex truded away

[Will the main body via cracks and fissu res in the Earth 's
crust 10 fo rm d ikes and s ills, Later the mate ria l a bove these
dikes and l>ills may be eroded. e xpo sing wall-like res!..tan t
Jikl-".

Brandbcrg :\Iassif. Xamibla, Africa

If the g ranite at the surf ace is largely unfr acrur..-d. a dendri t ic

drainage pa tte rn will res ult on the domelike h ills. Co nvers ely, ifthe gra nite has been exte nsively fractured , this can
result in a rec tangular nr I rd1i ~ dra inage pattern.

Landforms Developed on Horizontal Strata

Many landforms haw de veloped o n tlar, hor i70ntally layered strata. A layer is co ns idered to be horizonta l when the
dip (inc linat ion from i1 hor izonta l plane) ofthe strata has not
sign ili cam ly ,, 11~(1~1I the developmen t of the topograph y.
The type o f roc". its crud ubility, amount of prec ipitat ion
ava ilable to the regio n. and loca l stream grad ient control
landform dc\ elopmcru.
Hori zontally bedded sedime ntary rocks arc formed by
ce men ting the loose pan icles produ ced by weat hering . T he
most co mmon ce menti ng agen ts an: quartz. calcite, and iron
oxide. ;<, lost sed ime nts scutc in wa ter in re lati vely horizontal
layers called .' /n ll,l. Sedime nts can collect in slo .... -moving
streams. in swamps. lakes. a nd shallow seas. Se dime nts als o
collect in oc eans. where they are deposited on contmenta l
shelves o r Ilood down submarine cany uns and nrc depo site d.

Figu re 14-27 The Ilr;uult-.: rg \ lassir in Namibia is a dome-shaped

grllllltc intrusion cove ring 650 sq. km (150 sq. mit
It n ...:s 151.' III ( 1,(, mi) above the desert. Thisimage
was recorded hy the Landsat 7 ET\ l+ on Sq,temb.:r
In, 2lN1l lcuuncsy uf t"AS .\ l.

The 11" w s ti"'t dcros i t t.mu~ sand. then finer clays a nd slits.
dcpcndmg upon grain SiIC. The most common rock outcrop
formations on the coruincms arc co m posed o f mudstone.

537

Geomo rp ho lo gy

.thcrstone
T he

Sh~lc .
~l\at,'

end)
'1 the

o.

--

Limestone - Kaibab
- TOl'(l\\e:lp
Sand- tone - CIlro nino
Lime~lone

G ~(l l n ~ic

C ross-section
or the G ra nd Ca nyo n
in Arizona

V~

Shi,...ru"'I'

M,,,,,,k,'r' ik"7: --

nd a
I the

j hy
ired

m a-

'4-

Li 1Tll'~l<lnc

oJ"
lent
'c ry

- vtua v

S ha le - Hn ghl Ange l
Sandstone - Tapc ais,

eof

<p-

he r
, of

.......

t he
j cs

......01 11

e.

'm

epe

;he
jO(

So uth

Rim

""
ill
ru

,.

n
, oJ

ic

b. Stcrropair o f the Gram ! (" ,In)OI\.

Figure 1429 a ) Geulogie eruss-),,;eliun uf the Gra nd Ca nyon in Arizona . h I Panch ro matic slcreupai r of the 0 1',111<1 Canyon . Viewi ng and
cam ping fac ilities an.' located 1I1l 1he sandston e cap rock ti l' the <. 'ue uninu Plateau on the Sou th RIm.! he Imag es were rotated
so (hilt :;,'uth is to the Icn to avoid pscudoscopic illusion TIle r"s i.slant sandstone ,mJ Iimcstone f"on M.C p cliffs. The klo.~
I'l."'ii~t;mt shale is easily eroded, causing more gradual slopes I II form . 1he Iiright A"go:! buue is locat.:J at "rr",

Landforms Developed on Folded Strata

~u i kling) can ev entua lly lilt or fold

the honzomal scduncm ary or me tamorphic roc k la ye rs. The
fold ed te rra in ma y pr od uce: monocline domes suc h as Aye rs

lJiaYlrophl_,m I mo untain

535

Geo mo rp ho logy

511Ull It.

d-

( ;"n l,,!!if
( 'n,ss-scctiU II

lel

Talus

45un

'000

b.

Tdills

I
lsI

hh
Jp

"h
Tas

FlQure 14-28 a) Panchromatic stcrecpair of the Devil's Towe r. WY, volcanic l1I:d. obtained on September 15, 1953. with SC'IUth al the top.
Venleal j<lints dlvide the rod " mass into polygonal cnlumM that extend fmmjuSl abo ve the baJ,e 10 the top of'thc Tower. De...-il's
Tower is R05 !'t. talt. with an elevation of 5.1 17 It The Tower is more resista nt to erosion than the surroundmg sedimentary
rock, It was formed by the intrusion of magma intc sedimentary roc k. Weath..red rock ( t ;l l us~ li..s m the b ase. b) Geologic CT<lSSsec tion: Tp '" volca nic neck consisting of crystalline int rusive black igneous roc k - phonolite po rp hyry' ..... ith crystals of v.hue
feld,par; l as = n.-d sillslOOf and sandsroec with interbedded red shale: Jgs - gypsum wn h interbedded red mudstone: h b gra y-gre.:n shale with sandstone: Jsh - yel l o~ sandstone; Jsr - gray-grcsen shale ~ ith san..l sto nc and Iirnes ton e.

sandstone. sha le, and limestone. Greater water force is

required to mow larger pebble-size particles that are d cpo....
ired as conglomerate.
Mu.bIU/It' has no vis ible gr ains, being composed of
extremely tine sediments deposited on ~ u iet flood plains, in

lakes. o r deep oce ans . Thi ck depo sits of mud stone are
present in most deltas, where rive rs en ter still water. Layer.
ing occurs in thick m ud deposits becau se the clay panicles.
being flat. align themselves horizonta lly, They are usu ally
gray to shades of red in co lo r. Th e Miss i<;sippi delt a coma ins
mudstone.

ihs,

"p
one.

Sandstone has vi sib le grai ns like coarse sugar" up til a lmost

1/12 in. (2 mm ) in diameter. Mo st sandstone is co mposed <I f
rounded particles o r quartz . b ut it can con tain feldspa r and
fragment s of unweathered roc k. To move particles of th is
size. the water or w ind mu st ha ve force . In arid envi ronments. sandsto ne is a weather-resist a nt, hard roc k. Outcrops

often appear in light tone s lIli black-and-white phorogruph y

unle ss cove red by dl"SC11 varni sh, in wh ich case they may
have dark tones. Sand -tone in ari d a nd semiarid en v iron me nts often produces phJ/ l'<llI .I'. 11I....\ <1.1', and b uttes, Cliffs
may occu r where sand ston e caps (o verlays ) less resis raru
sed ime ntary rock such as shale. Sandstone is no t a s plas tic
[pljahle] as shale and ot he r sedimentary rock s . Therefore. it
is bro ken easily" hell stress ed. T he fractures become visible
and may produ ce angu lar. de ndrit ic, tre llis. or rectangular
d rainage pattern s.
! .illh '.\'IOI/t ' is formed from ca lcium carbon ate. Lime prcc ipitares (.tl!n sha llow sea floors in warm tropica l water s where
a lmo st IlU oth er scdirnc ms clo ud the wate r. Limestone rock s
fo rmed 10 thc bro ad centc rs o f 1l0000ed ancient co ntine nts
and along the edge o f continental shelv es whe re reefs "ere
bui ll. ,\s a rcsuh, man y limestones are co mposed ofthe skelet on s of ree f-formin g ani ma ls. Limestone (an d re lated dolomill...1 are susc cprible to solutio n. mcan ing thai the y can he

536

( 'II AI ' I EK

14'

d issolv ed. In humid environ me nts. "hen: there is plenty o f

.... atcr; we may lind karst topograph y, named after the Karst
region 1)1' the former Yugo slavia. created by lime stone d isso lution . Th e undulating 10 hu mm ock y terrain o ften contai ns
lin ,-isihk' su rface dra inage pattern but instead may e xhibit
oval sink hole.. called dolincs. Limestone in and environ mcms behaves quite diffe rently. Bec au se there is litt le water
for divsofuuon. limeston e may Ill' \ cry resista nt to weathe ring. III fact.l iL.e sandstone. it may fon n cap rock s with venical faces when underlain hy less resi stant sedimentary roc k
such as sha le.

Shale sed imentary rock is prod uced by the depos ition an d

compaction uf !oill and cia) particles. It is relatively impervious to w ate r moving throug h it; ther efore, mor e wa ter is
available for surface erosion. In ari d en viron ments the soft
imperv ious shale is ~asi l)' eroded. It gen erally doe s not produce as steep r.lopes as sandstone or lim...'Slone. When no
ca prock is prese nt, il ...' an y ield a n lgg ed had lands topo graph) consist ing ofa fine-text ured p innate dend ritic dra inag e:
pa tte rn \lo irh sharp ridgclince and steepe r slopes. Generally,
shale is mo re pliable: Ihan sandstone a nd.therefore. is no t as
a ff...-ctc d by gc-clcgic stress. T his results in a greate r numbe r
of fine - 10 med ium-te xtured den dritic dra inage patterns .
Shale ge n~rally Ol pp..-ars in ligh t tones o n panchromat ic
Imagery.
The G rand Ca nyo n in An /OIlOl is a good example o f vario us
land forms developed I ll! hllri/ o nla lly bc-ddcd sedi me nta ry
rock. A di ag ram ofthe tx'dd ing srrucnrrc is found in Figure
14-1 9a. This reg ion comams a nCOl rJy ...-ontinu ous sedimentary r..."Cord ofthe Ea l1h's histlll)', w ith approx imately 5,000
n, ( 1,500 m) of h...dded hnn lonta l laye rs. all stac ked in
S~4 Lle n.:e v. ith th.: (llde sl at th.: boltolll. Oll~ o f thc tl' P laycrs.
the Ka ihah linK'stolle. lilrn1l'11 from the re ma ins l,f corals.
~ p()n gcs, and (lth...r Illnrin l" anim als and is nne o f the youngeM in the seq u~ne~ - ahoul 241l milliun yea rs old. AI tli.:
hottom Of lhc canyon Ik s lhe Vishnu Sc hist wh ich is abou t
1.7 h illion yea r~ old . so mt' o f the p land 's ollkst me k. Thl'
in' P<::lwee n layers o f roc k reveal a turbulent hislOry o f mOlln~
tain uph eaval , l(1va de posits, erosi on hy w ind and wat"",r. and
pa st en vironmental e h i\nl!e~ as , k sens we re repl!!c.:d hy rivers, t h~n I;lkc s and ",hall"," inla nd se' lS. finall y. lh~ land was
uphllld. forming the Colorado Platl"au , Five 10 six m illion
years ago . Ihe you n~ Co lor.ldo River began to cut into the
by'l:T5 I,f ro.:k. ;snd Ih.: G rand Canyon was o.'T ealed.
A pallc hronw lic st.:rco pa ir " I' Ihe ar~a n~ar the So uth Rim of
the G rand Ca nyon and Brigh t A ngel sha k hutt e is fou nd in
Figurt" 14-24h. The Sou th Rim is com posed o f sandsto ne

Remote Sensing 01 Sal ls , Mine rals, and Geomorp hology

caproc k ",r the Coc onino Platea u and is res istant to lI'cather
mg, forming a tlat dissected plateau (m esa ). Roth sandsrore
and limestone form stee p el i 11-.. in ari d envi ronments. Tbe
less resis tant sha le is e;bily eroded. c rcOlling more ~('Iltly
sloping erod ed surfaces ( Figure 14-2 %). AI"'., present in tilt
stc reopair is the crurcnc hcd Colorado River with its deep. \.
shaped inne r gorge and rapids.
Anothe r example of borizomally bedded strata is found a
few hundred mi les do wnstream. Figu re I4- JOa depicts the
Colorado as il di sSl."CIS the Sh ivwits Pla teau as recorded tr,
the Landsat Thematic Mapper. Th is band 4 ncar-infrared
image pro\ ides sig nitkan t det ai l hut not near ly the inllJrtnl.
lion co ntent of the color composites found in Color Plate I'"
-rab. wh ere the more resi sta nt sandstone caprock and L~
more gc ntly sloping "hale sedimentary rocks are e\'idenl
from their vib rant colors. Image ana lysts ort en lind it \et)
uscfu! III have information abo ut the elevatio n and slope of
an area when intcrprcnng landlonns. Fig ure 14-J Ob is a represcmarnm of USGS d illital elc vauon da ta. Note the higbeJ
c' k valiu n of the Shiv w ils Plateau and th... lower elevation of
th c Colorado Ri\ cr. An analyt ical shaded relief image of the
d igita l ele vation data is shown in Figure 1....3Oc. It provides
add itional informat ion of value to the image analyst about
the three-di mens io na l na ture of the rerram. Fina lly. the slope
ma p (F igu re 1 -l-J Odl ma k l-~ il clear that th c tcrrain with the
gre atest slop..: occurs :Idj an'nl to the Co lorado a nd ill; msjor
tributa ries . Pla teau s and me sas arc nat . hav ing litt le slope:
there fore, they appear dark in the s tope image.
Another e xccllcm ex ampk of a pla teau ..ir mes a is found in
thc rh ,l n~ I loei Range of no rth cClllni l T hailand aoo ul40 km
nonhe:lst o f the ...' ily o f I.om Sak ( Figure 14-3 1). The resis
tOlllt pliltcau ris.:s maj.:stic'llly ahovc the sUTro unding countrysid... in this Shunk Imag ing Radar C-band BV pnla rizcd
Image ,

Somd inK's we enco unter horizolllally bedde d metamorphic

T(>"k~ th,ll w\'re rreatt'd hy e~ ptls ll re to he,lt Hlld pressure,
Th is 1//<'1<111101])/11.\'/11 ea us~s sandst une to become qUJrtlile.
whil:h is wry rcsislalll tll wl"athering a nd can fonn sharp.
e rcst~d ridges in ,lll c limates. Simi larly. metamorphosed
shale h..:...Ol11CS \ e l) ' resistant slate. Orthogneiss is mel:lmor
rhoscd gr.mit" :md has a simi lar aplll'ar:mcc. A variety of
pJ rag lleiss ro~k s may h<: d~\ e1 ofl'C d from meta morphmed
sall,\sIOIle:. shOl k and Illhc r s.:di lll~n ls. Sch isls arc medium
grai ned cryst:d tinl" rnc ks d...' ri\'ed from sed imen tary rocks.
I he) a re easi ly v.eath...rcd III humid c1 imaks hut resistant in
ar id Cl1VirOlimen b.

538

( ll '\ I' I 'U~

14

Rem ot e sensin g o f Solis, Minerals, and Geomorphology

Grand C a nyon in ,\ r izo n a

..

3. landsal Thematic Ma pper band 4.

e. Shaded re lief map uf DEM.

Sluvwrts Plateau

b. Digital elevation model.

d . Slope map derived from DEM ,

Figure 14-30 :II Another secnon of the (Irnnd Canyo n on the Colorado River in Arizona. as recorded by the Landsat Tb..-rnatic Mappcr fhand
4; 30 x JO on. North is ro the kn to improve intcrpretahilu y. Color Plate 14. 4 provides additional information. h) Digital eleva rion model derived tr om 30 x 30 rn US(iS data (d isp l a~Td as 3 'Ire second, <,lJ )( 93 m cells) Note the higher elevation
Shivwits Platlall. c) Shaded relief map. d} Slope map where the brighter 1111: pixel. the steeper the slope tan e r Moja ve Desert
Ecosystem Program. l '19 ~; Landsa t imagery courtesy of Space lmaginj!. tnc.).

Rock in Figu re 1-11. anticlines. ami synclines. as previously

illustrated in Figure 1-1 17. T he fo lded strata are eroded diffcrentially, depend ing upon the typr: of sedimentary rod.
present. For interbedded sandsto n" and shale in arid en vironmcms. the more resistent sa ndstone forms nnnctinot ridg es,
whereas the shales arc eroded to sym'!inal vattevs, This ca n
form nearly parallel systems o f resist ant ridges separated by
eroded valleys. T he res istance of carbonate rocks such as
limes tone and dolomite depends on the climatic cond iuon s.
In arid reg io ns with lillie water. limestone is resistant to
weathering and tends to create ridges. Conversely. in humi d

reg ions limestone may be dissol ved and therefo re is more

easi ly erode d. forming valleys or lowlands.
Depending upon the stee pness of the d ipping terrain, the
ridgcs may he asymmcmcal or symmetrical. A hoghack is a
sha rp-creste d ridge for med by d iff crcnual erosion of a resistar nbed of steeply dippi ng rock. For exa mple. a folded land,
scapc ncar Ma veric k Spring, WY. is shown in Fig ure 14-32a.
It is a dissected asymmetrical dome with a se ries of res istant
hogback ridges surrounding the structure . Figure 1-'-32b
depic ts an App alach ian Mountain range syncli nal valley
bounded by the Brush ~ I\'unta i n ridgdi ne to the wes t and the

539

Geomo rp ho logy

sin (".ha n d

J{,\ U.\ I~ I m :ll:t' o f Ih (' I'h an l: Hnei f{an gt> in I h a ila nd

Figu re 14-31 Shunk ImJl,! lng ltJd.l r C l:>md imago: of the

Ph<lng Hod Range ur north central Thailand on Oc lOhcr J. l"'~ The res istant plateau i!> JXll1 of Inc Phil Kr.tdllng ~Jt ional
Pm (coI.Jne,)' NI\ S..\ Jet Prop ulsion La b).

Canoe MountJ in ridgeline to the cast ncar Tyrone , PA. In

this environm ent. the sandstone is more recistam to erosion
than the solub le limestone. f igure 14-3 ) dep icts the San
Rafael swe ll in southern Utah . This is a flat-topped
upwa rped mo noc line that slopes to the east-sou theast. The
more resisuuu sandstone ridg es fonn hogba cks on the so uthern and eastern fl ank s o f the monocline .
Sometimes rh c fold ing is so sc vcrc th at th c lay ers are nearl y
vertical. For examp le, Figure 14 )4 depicts th... Ugab River
in Nami h ia in ..a frica w hich Ilnw s throu gh nearly vertical
folded laye rs of thinly bedded limestone. sandstone , and silt
stone (Color Plate 14- 5).

wd
el-

:iO Il

""
)fL'

The a ng le of dip ofu resis tantbed such as a hogbac k may he

calculated usin g phlllogrmnnll'tric me asurem ent tech niques
and the formula:

""

tllnO '" -

( 14 -0)

where e is the dip angle, 11 is the vertical distance. and d is

the horizurual distance. as sho wn in figure 14 35,

FaultControlled Landforms
:11...

sa
is -

od-

".
om
2b
oy
b<

Therc arc th ree ma jor Iype s o f d isplac eme nt in fau lts. including: dip-slip, strike-s lip, and obl ique-slip. as pre\ iouslv
shown in Figure 14- IM. The dip-slip faults rna)' he further
subdivided uno normal, revcrsc.mrust. graben. and ho rsr. as
shown in Figure 14-36a -c l. In a lIorm,,1fonh, the hanging
wall is moved (displaced) do wnwa rd from the footwall.
e\ pos ing aj"lJII scarp on the foot wal l l Figurc 14-3(01), The

Wasatch fau lt a long the Wasat ch vt ountains 10 Lt ah is a

good exa mple I Figure 14-37 ). 111c wasatch Mounta in Ra nge
of the Rock)' Mountains is the uprhrown block , an d the
dowm hrown bloc k is the valley floor. Faun scarps at the
base o f the Wa sat ch Range gene rally face west.
A n'w rsC' fau lt is cre ated when the displacement take s pla ce
in the oppos ite direction (Figure 14-36b ). If the reverse
faulting. causes the slab o f strata to m ove hor izontally on top
of the la ndscape as shown in Figure 14-36c. we hav e a thrus t
or Ol I.'I"-/ I,,IIM fau lt . " fau lt ca ll also inv olve Iwl.' fault
p lanes. .-\ grah,11 is produced w hen a b loc k of material ge ls
displaced dow nward between IW(l norma l faults (F igure 14J 6dl. Thcs... often produce rift valleys, such as thc grcar East
African rin syste m. "lIor,, ' is created w hen a block of rnateria l is thrus t upward between parallel fault p lane s (F igure
14 -36e).
When the d isplaced roc k marcria l occurs paralle l with the
faultline . a .\ Ir ih-.\'Ii" fault is crcmcd (Figure 14-IKh). For
example, the San Andreas Faull in CalifllOlin is a classic
~t ri ke-slip fault. It passes through southern California cast of
Los i\ngdl.'s.lhrough tho: southern portion of tho: great Ccn tra l valley. runs through S:ln Francisco. and then o ut to sea .
A portion orthe faultline in so uthern Ca lifo rn ia is show n in
Figu re 14 -3ft The we st s ide o f rhc San Andreas Fau lt is
mov mg nonhwcsr. \\ hill.' the CllU side ofthe la u lt is movin g
so utheas t. hence the 0 11 4 uuted observation tha t Los A ngeles
and pans of San Fra ncisco. because they arc on the we ste rn
side of the fault. are moving Ollt III sea a lbeit eve r so slow ly.
Figure 1 4-J ~ also ide ntifies the Garlock normal fau lt. The
imcrscc uo n ofth e Ga rlock and San Andrea.. fau lts is a \ cry
mtc resung place to live with minor trem ors occurrin g almost
e\cry daj , ~ulic e that the San Andreas Fault has created a

540

( 'IIt\ I'l'n~

14'

Remote Sens ing of Soils, Minerals, and Geomorphology

..
S~" ncl i nal

, 'a ile)' in t he .\ p p lll.:tc hia n

_' I " u ll i ll i n ~

nea r T) ru nc. P..\

b.

Fig ure 14-32 a) USGS High Altitude PhoMgmph y ( HA PI oran eroded folded la ndsca p e ncar Ma veri ck Spring, WY, It is a dissected esrmmetric dom e . " luc h is an crustona l remnant cfu plUlllolil1j; unuchuc . 1"\11<.. the fine- te xtured hJpl'l;rilphy. the strike ofth .. ridges
and valleys. a nd th e radial an d trellis drai nage controlled h~ the anuclina l stnlcm rc (lHlrth is In the righl). Also note the pWIIl'

incm hogback ridges. b) 1I:\l' of a synclinal valley in llie Apl'a lachi:!11 MOUlllains ncar Tyrone. I'A. uluained on May-l.

I ~S L

The ridge lines of Hrus h MOUlltain on the west and Canoe ~ 1""n l ;l in l'l1 till.' ca st arc ~llll1 pu,~d " I' more resista nt sandstone.
.... hile thc Ics, resistant. soluble lime stone sedimentary rock has been eroded. I'lw lI11e rhcdd ing " rl hc s;llldslune and limestone

results in hogbacks at the periphe ry of the syncline with a lr<.'1Ii , l!raill.1gl' ratt <.'nl reouncsy U.s, Gculog ic,1I Survey ].

sma ll rill ...'alley thut is relatively llal whe n com pared with
th e te rra in on ei ther si de ofthe fa ult line Th is is most e vide nt w hen v iew ing th e s ha ded relief version of the dig ital
elevatio n model (F ig ure 14 3Sd j. Nat ural la kes ofte n oc cur
in these rill valleys w here lhe dra inage pattern has bee n d isrup ted .

Ffuvial processes create eros iu nal alld depositional landlimn s in virtually every region o f the globe. Consequently.
there tire a tremendous \ar iel) o f IlU\ lullandforms.

Fluvial Landforms

It is im po rta nt " hen mtcrp rc ung tl uv ia l land forms In an

10 understand the cha rac te ristics o f the rock types
with in the drainage ba si n. the drainage pancm. its density,
and the gradie nt (s lo rl' ) ofthe w a tershed. St ream s o r rivers

Fluvia l la nd fo rm s are c reated by the weathe ring . erosion,

transporta tion , and deposition materials by flowing wate r.

ity (e nergy) a nd hence g reate r bedload and su spended sedimen! ca rrym g capacity, They can even entrain pebbles,
cobbles, and bou lde rs in the 110 w. Conversely. when !he

Image

I1l1\\ing over te rra in with steep gradicrns have grea ter veloc-

or

541

Geomorphology

San H. a facl S.... ...II in Sout hern Ut a h

Figure 1433 Lllldsal Th cmanc M.lppc r band .. image of the San

Rafael S", ...11 In southern Utah. II is a large tlat-toppcd
monoclmal UplOo arp bou nded b)' hogback ridges on the
!Mlulhern and eas r...m flanks. Tbe more res ista nt hogback ridges are composed o f sands tone. '" h ile the less
rer-istanl shalt beds ha, el:>eefl eroded (f;('IU r1..-sy Doug
Ram~. Utah Sta te L'n i" a nd Space: Imaging. 11K.),

l!~ ll h Ri ve r; :'i amih ia

tym-

dges

"Om\t~ J.

one.
tone

md-

nl y,

Figu re 14.34 ASTI-R image of N ami hi'I~ Ugah River obtained on December 25. 200(1 (h'lIld .'). This river only flows aboveground for a
few d:IYS each yea r. [,hl' river pnssl'Sthrough nearly vcrnca l folded layers ofiluuly hcddeu limes tone, sandstone, and s iltsto ne.
Sec Color I' lale 1-1 5 for a ellIOT vcrilln ofthis image (w urtt'sy (It"NASA'( iSFC/ \1 ETI+ RSf)An J ARI lS and U.S .lJapan AS-

rD{ Science Ieaml.

an

"'''
sity,
vers
10<.:edi-

rles.
'he

Figu re 14-35 The angle of dip. 8. of a monochnal ridge \u t;h as a hogback may
he calculated from stereoscopic imagery uSing Equa tion 1"6.

O IA i' I EI{

542

:I .

14'

Rem ote Sens ing 01 Salls, Min erals, and Geom orph ology

Norma l fault

c. 1I,.rsl

Figure 14 36 111<' majo r types uf dip-slip fuuhs: al Normal Iauh. b] Reve rse fault. c) Thru st fault. J I Gruben associa ted wnh a di," nlhmy, n
block between two normal lauh s. e j Horsr associated with an \Il'lhw\\ n raul! hind,.

stream gr.ulicru dec rease s. sln:;II11S or rivers may no longer

h~' able 10 hold uw sediment In suspension and then depos it
Ihe material in the c hannel bouom ur ll~ bars. spits. de ltas . ur
alluvial tans. In eff...ct. the vel oc ity o f the stream determ ines
what kind of m.ncrials (sand. si ll. clay. gravel. cobble s} can
be mo ved a lon g by th.: strea m. Even in dese rts. where storms
arc infreq uent. shee t-was h CUll induce massive erosion
beca use of its inte nse velo city and transport the eroded
mate rials gre al d istances. It is important to also po int out thdl
the greate r the velocity, the grc.ucr the amoun t o f in-s tream
or rive r ab rasion, co rrosion . and quarrying that will lake
place. Th us. strcams an d ri\ crs arc active agen ts of geomor ph ic cha nge that produce both erOSi{lIMI and depos itiona l
landforms. So me: o f the rnore impU!1ilnt landforms inc lude
stream-c ut valleys. Iloodplaius. terraces. deltas, allu vial
fans . pc dimcn tc, and p layas .

Str eam

\'ll lll'~S.

Fluud p illin'i. an d I(die Terra ces

Uplift ed terrain ruuy he ero de d b)' sheet erosion. creating

gu llies . O ver lime and gi ve n conuu ucd precipitation. these
g ullies 111;1;.' tum into smalltributary ch annel s or streams that
have grea ter crosinnal powe r. espe c ially if the tCIT'J in has
suhvtanrinl gradient (, I(lpe ). If the so urce of wate r continues
unabated. the stream or river mOJY inc ise am i erode both the
base and wa lls
the ruck material creat ing dee p. steeps ided V-s hared valleys w ith minimal fl oodplains and fairly
slntight wate r courses.

"r

lf thl' gradi ent is sufficicm. fhe strea m o r river may contin ue

to deepen and wide n the rive r channel. However. at some
poi nt the river may e rode the river bo tto m to the point thaI
the river gra die nt is substanually redu ced . If this occurs. the
river IO~l'S veloc iry an d bl'gllls to depos it so me: o f its suspcndcd se diment load. Th is ca n be the beginning of a river

543

Geomorphology

Wa~iHc h

Moumains

Hobb le
Cm:k

Maple
Sr~ nish

Creek

fork

"
Figure 14 3 7 landsat Thematic Mapper hand ", image o f the Wa.-.alch fault a long Ihe Wasatch ~oumains to the ca...t ofS pringvmc and Spanish Fork, UT. This is a cluwic norma l fault. with the dowmbrown hloek being the valley 110m and the upthrown block ~ ing

g
c

cc

",
,r

the Wasatch Mountain Range. There are numerous fault escarpments all along the fault line (courtesy Space Imaging, tnc.).

valley with flood plains. .....ide mea nders, and occasiona l

0:0;00'" lakes. There arc a number of factors that can cause
the river or strea m 10 hal e a red uced gradie nt including land
subsidence.
Sometimes a stream or river loses a subs tantial amoun t o f its
source .... atc r or its gradient is d iminis hed greatl y. when this
occ urs. even more sediment may be deposited . This can

result in extremely broad a nd shallow valley s that have

meanders. meander scars. cur-off meande rs. point bars ,
numerous o xbow lak es , and naturallevees. II is important 10
point 0111. however, that this proces s does not alwa ys happen .
Unusual climatic eve nts and man-ind uced impacts can inter-

vcne and dramatically alter" hat "as once thoug ht of 3.<; the
vouth- maumry-otd-age srrea rn-valley e rosion cycle (Selby.
19IN).
w ay and Ev erett ( I Q97) sugges t that there an: thr ee type .. o f
river floodplains: mean der, covered. lind com posite. Mean der jhlfldp/aill s arc caused by a low stream or river g radient
and the deposition of some of the suspended sediment load.
Thus. il is a low-ene rgy hydrologic system. Moreo ver. most
of the sediment load in a meander floodplain stays w ithin the
co nfines of the riverbanks . even during flood stage. The
greatest erosio n in the floodplain takes place at the outer
edges of the meand ers , The greatest depos ition take.. place

14

544

Re m ote Sensing of Soli s, Mineral s , and Geo morphology

Sa n Andn.'ns :w d (;nrlock Fa ults in Cali fornia

~

-.

...
(-

-.:.;

,
J

a . Landsa t Thematic Map per [land 4.

b. Shaded-rel ief display of a digi tal el eva tion model .

c. Entargcmem.

d . Enlargeme nt.

Figure 14-38 aj Jnterscc non ,If lhe San A ndrca~ a nd Garlock hlUlls 111 southern Calitllffiiarecorded on a mosaic of Landsat Fhcmnic Mapp:!'
hand 4 im...g<:s. The San Andreas h uh is a nonhwcsr-sout beast 11\.'!ldll1g :;trile-slip fault. hi Shaded-rcbe f displ a~ (lfa Ll'GS
digital elev ation mod el (3 arc second. 93.3 m cell). Cl Enlargement of the Larn1<;a1 data hl ghli ghling a portion o f Ihe San Andreas 0 1\ vonc In the lower right portion 01'('1 l. d ] The rclathdy narrow rift ,-"nc us poruuycd by the shaded-rclref moMl (atlCI
the Moja\'C Ol'scrt Ewsys lcllI Program. 1')'):-:: w unt"sy SI'Mc<'lm<1J;lI1g. lne.l .

alo ng inside edges of'thc rucuudcrs . Th is proc e ss call lead 11'

the creation o f sand and gravel pobu burs in the river. Crll't,rt',I j1UU</f, lu im arc created when addiuonal energy is pmvided during Ot'lIl\1ing: and the fl ood waters rouuncly
0\ crtjow the rive rbanks. T his may create naturalle vee s consi>ling: o r coarse sediments (usual ly sand] which arc formed
adjacent 10 th e o riginal strea m channel. 0\ er time, the nat ural levee, arc built up by cemin ued acc ret ion. ,\ ny wa ter
flowi ng over tho: naturallevees IUI\ Ic~s velocit y and can usually on ly eruram tine part ide silts and cl ays that arc the n
tran sported to d istant sla ckwater loc ations beyond the natu ral rive r lcH'CS. Hopefully. these scdim..nts imprtJ\e the fertility of the soil . A co mp o" i l., jlo"dplaill cont ai ns features
commonto both meander and covered llood plain". Composite floodpla ins arc the most common t) pc o f tloodplain .

A small secti on o ft he M issi., sip pi Riv e r show n in Figu re l4

39 p rovides exam ples of several com posite floodplain fcaturcs. Both n;JIlIrJ,] and man -made levees are present. 11k'
la ndsat T\l near- and middle-infr ared bands arc ideal for
iJ enti!Ying. tho: \lxho w lakes and till' more geo logically
recent flood ed meander scars..... luch arc barely d iscernible
in the green and red band image!'>. The sand and po int bars
arc \ isi blc 1)1\ all ima ges The middle-infra red hand 5 provilll'" mo re detailed soi l mo isture infor mat ion than any nf
the ' II he r hands. As ex pec ted. vegetated are as are dark in the
green and red bands end much bri ghter in hoth the near- and
mrddlc-in fmred hands. A colo r-com posite ofTM bands i . 3,
an d 2 (Rrin ) i~ found in ('(1 I,)r Plate I ~ - 6 .

Floodplains sometimes ha ve relic terr aces associated .... ilh

them. A terrace is a gt'n lly inclined. elev 11100 bcnchlikc rem-

545

Geomorphology

-r
is

.er

14 -

rl l hematic \tlpper B"n,151mid- inrra'"o1 )

b -

h,
for
J J}

Figu re 14 3 9 f'l" ...dplain lam lfonns on thc Mi1>si';"'; lppi River recorded b) the L lIlJoa l Thematic Map per o n January 13.
1q~3 (SI.'(' Color Plate 1~-6 1 (images courtesy of ~ A SA ( Jbserv atortum and :-pac'l.' Imaging:. lnc.]

DIe
.~

ro-

uf

h,
,d

th

n-

nant flood plain tha i lies at a higher e lev arion than the pre sent
Jay flood plain. TCrT,ICeS may parallel the ex isting l100dp lain
on bo th sid.:-.. although [hi1> is nu t always th..: case. A terrace
typica lly has an escarpment on the side f3l'ing the prc-scntday floodplain. Terraces may be prod uced by glac-ia l activ ity
or b} dramatic cha nges in clim ate whe re more water a nd
energy is mad c availa ble [0 cut through the e xisting floodpla in. Se vera l layers o f terrace" prese nt in a region indicate
that d ramat ic cros ronul-d cposuicnal changes have occurred
throug h time.

When a st rea m or n ver with a substantial sediment load

cntc....a stand ing body of wa ter suc h as a lake, resen..oir. sea,
or ocea n. its ' d t,,;ity b slo.... ed drama tical ly, Th is causes the
stream or rive r to deposi t ils base and sus pended sed iment
load. with the more coarse materials depos ited at the upex
a nd the s ilt lind clilY particles moving farther out into the
water body, TI1l' continued dep osition of'rhcsc ma terials o ver
lime may c re ate ,I delta. T hese tend [0 have triangular s hapes

546

C IIAP'TUI.

14'

plan imetric view somewhat sim ilar 10 the G reek letter

Delta (a I, but many other shapes also occur. Th...re are five
co mmo n delta form s.
In

I::JOIIX"fed or "i~ilafe deltas an: created when the system is

dominated hy the cont inuo us input of a large volume of
water and sedimen t tha t is "01 impacted severely by waves
Th is ca n produce ....hat is called a birds-foot del ta. such as
the Mississippi River delta as it enters the Gulf of ~k,ico
near :-.Jey, Orleans. LA ( Figure 1-4-40a). Continued input of
sedi me nt causes the deltaic stream channels to migrate ba ck

and forth across the delta . Sometimes, however, the scdime nt dcposued on the bank s of the inp ut channel create natural levees sim ilar to that Oil the C\l\ Cn.:J Floodplain
previou sly discussed Intense tlond ing may cause the input
stream to break free from its confi nement .... ithin the na tura l
levee and migr ate to a n curby location. This process can lead
to the creation of an ent irely new lobe of sediment depo sition in the: della . Th ere may be se v...ral main input distrihutary cha nnels prese nt in a bird's-foot delta .

On a lohule dcha the river builds into the sea, but relativ ely
intense wa ve action redis tributes much of the sedimen t
along coastal barriers. cau sing it to have a convex edge o r
fan shape facing the water body. It is a wave-dominated systern. T he Nige r River em ptying into the Gu lf of Gui nea in
Africa has crcured a class ic lobate delta (Figu re 14-40b). The
Nile River emp tying imo the Mcducrraucan Scu is also a
lobat e delta (figure 14-4Oc).
A cremdate de lta form s .... here tida l currents help creat e

numerous sa ndy islands se parated by tidal channels along

the della from. It is a tide-dominated system. The Irrawadd y
Ri ve r delta in Burmah is a good example (Figure 14-4Od).
Note the extens ive man groves visible as bri ght areas on the
Irrawaddy delta .
l fth c wave s or along-shore CUITl'I1f.~ are extremely strong ,
thc y may move the sediment away from the mouth of the
river. and only cuspate sand rid ges will be formed that parollel the beac h. Thi ~ creates a cuspate della .

Strea ms enteri ng coasta l estuaries also experience a redu ced

gradient. nu!>ing Ihem to dl'posit much of the ir suspended
sl-dimem load. An t'slll<1r;ne ddta .....ill fonn if thcs.... deposits
a re nOI remo ved hy curre nts in the estuary or by diurn al tidal
flushing.

Remote Sensing 01 Soils. Mine rals. and Geomorpho logy

dcpo su malcrial in order to ma intain an adequate gradient.

An oll" I'j"l.lim is a low. conic al-shaped depos it with the
apex uf thc co ne ut thc mouth ufrhe valle y from which ihe
fan-building srrcum issue s. The mo re coarse materials such
as gravel. cobbles. and even boulders are depo sited ncar the
apex while the sand , s ilt. and d ay part icles arc transported10
more distant parts of the fan. These mat erials arc collectively
called alluviu m. he nce the term alluv ial fan ,
The conical mound of material is deposi ted as distributary
streams swing bac k and forth across the fan , l bi~ can crcae
d ic hotcmic or braided draina ge pattern s. Multiple alluvial
fans that coa lesce at the base of a moun tain range create a
haiada.
A Landsat Thematic Map per band 4 image ofan alluvial fan
adjacent III the: Salton Sea in California is shown in Figure

14-4 1a. Note the input stream channel in the upper right.md
the conical-shaped alluvial fa n that has resu lted due 10 millions of years of suspended sediment tkposi tion frum \~'
sporadic rain fall events. It is clear that the bright- lone materials depcsued o n this fan had thei r origi n in a d rff erem localion when compared .... ith the darker ma te rials fou nd at the
base oft he nearby moun tain range. A lso note the dicho romie
drainage pattern . Another largl' alluvial fan in the While
Mountains is shown in Figure 14-4 1b.
An ASTER image of the Taklimakan alluvialfan in the 13klirnaka n Desert in C hina's XinJiang Province is shown in
Figure 1.$--12. This fan is tocutc d in the Iandsca pe bcr.... een
the Kunlun and Ahun mountain ranges.
Peclimenl '"
A P{'IIiIll..nr is .. gentl y inclined erosion..l s urface carv ed in
bedrock, thinly veneered with grav el. and developed al the
base of mountains. Pediments arc most prevalent in very arid
environments, i\ pcdim cnl may look like an alluvial fan on
an image . hut it is dram aticall y different . A pcdimern is an
erosional surface, while an alluv ial fan is a depositional surface. In fac r. many of the conical featu res in the G rear Basin
of North Ame rica. in southern Africa . and in Austra ha art
actually pediments and not alluvial fans. Examples of pedimenrs at the base of the White ~l ounla ins in Ca lifornia arc
shm~ n in fi gure 14--1 1b. The head.... ard erosi on {If the bedrock st rews sortl'd material d uwnslup c. The mountain may
eventually <trow" in i1s own r ro<k d debris,

Allu\ ial F:lns :lncl Ih j :l cI:l s

Streams l'merg ing from a mou ntain valley inw a lowla nd
area often enco unter reducl'<! slopes and are forced to

Pla)as arc shullo.... lake basins funnl"d in arid desert regi,,1lS

Ihal arc intcnniuellt ly filled .... ilh water that e\ aporn les rela-

547

Geomorp ho logy

ient.
the

Mississ ippi River Delta. United Slates

--

Ih<
uch
the

Niger River Delta. Africa;..._ _

ro
'\ c ly

Ia')

all'

vial
Il' a

lim

~ure
and
m ilIfcry

,.

sate-

cca-

Nile River Della, Egypt

h.

Irrawaddy Ri\ cr Delta, Bumlah

. the

tnic
ite

ra km
en

in
:thc
arid
on

an

W T-

Ism

'ce
~i -

'"
ed-

"l

c.

d_

FIQure 14 -4 0 a) Space Shutt! c photpgraphy o f tho: \ol issis..sippi River " lml~.'1<'llhl rd 's-fOOl delta. C'oosisting ofseveral otllklS and W iTa....
socillh:'l1 nat ural k\ccs ( ~"Im...~y K. Lulla, :"ASA John son Space Ccnlctl. b) Spa(.: Shunlc photOgrolph of the :\igl"'f River lo1>." .. ...... lta cmpl)in b into the Gulf ofGu ino:a in Afri ca I l\ AS . \ Joh nst>nS['3Ct" ( 'cmer; STSt>IC- 1::-0 0721.ct MI)l) IS ima ge o f
lhe Nile R,ver lobate dell .. in t~ypl ( c.lUnl~y '\lASA Goodard S p.,~C' Flighl Ccmerl. d I Iffil\\ aJ.J) Ri\ cr . fl,,,,/nl, delta in
Burmah. recorded on il Thcm mc ' Iar pc'l" rood " nea r-infrared imag e \counc-sy '-;pat:e Imaging. lnc.j.

548

('"IIA F I ER

14

Utile Sa n Bernadino :\llIunta ins. CA

Remote Sens ing of Solis, Mine rals, and Geomorphology

White 'tountains near Death \'all l'y. C A

California
Aqueduct

b.
Figure 14- 4 1 a) Alluvial fan i~~u lJlg from between the Little San fkmaJIRO \1 ou nLilfn) 01110.1 Cbocolare \1ounLain n<Jf1h<:,as.l o f lh.: S.allOll Sa.
CA. I'hc Ca lifonna Aq ued uct is also vis ible in this Land ....1Themat ic Mappe r tMnl1 4 imagC'. Its rowed shape ~1\<'S;;om( Indication o f ho", the '~1Jl has increased in \ olume ove r ti me. bl A large al11.1 \'131 fall. several pediments. and a playa associat..I
with a n urea in the While Mountain Range northw e st o f Dc,ttn Valle)'. ('1\. There are severallocations in these images wbere
a lluvial fans arc coalescing, creati ng a bajada (cou rtesy Muja ' e lx '>t!r1 Ecosys tem Progr am and Space lm apin g, lnc.).
Taklima k .. n lllu\bd hill i n X i nJ ill nf;: Prev i nu'. Ch in ll

Ftgure 14-42 Tbe Taklirnakan alluvial fan ex tends across the

ok-so lal': landscape between the Kunlun and Ahun
mountam ran j!:C!i thaI roen the socrhcm bonkr or
the Taklima k.m Desert in Chin a's Xinl iang Province. Note the intricate dichntomic drainage pattern. 111 is AS TE R (magt: was ubramed on May 2,
~uo2 . Nonh IS at the bonorn of the illustration 10
aid \is"a1 intcrprctauon (l'OUnL"S) o(NASA GSrf
~t ETll f: R Sl)AC JAROS and U.S J J.tpan "~ sTE R
SCiL....cc Team).

tiv ely quic k ly. leaving a resi due of fine-textu red sur face
materials . .Man y pla yas arc sa line a nd ex hib it bright tones in
imagery. MO"t playas are barren with hn le vegetation. A

p laya is present at the base o f the a lluvial fa n in th e While

Mo unt a in s of Cehfomia [ Figure 1 4~ Ihi.

549

Geomorp hology

Kars t Landforms

Landforms crea ted in lim eston e a re gene rally re ferred to as

l(lr.~t topography. To be a true limestone at lea st half o f the
rock co nsis ts of car bonate m iner als o f whi ch calcite
(CaeO J ) is the must common (Selby. 1989\. Dolomite
(CaMg )CO_I anot he r ca rbona te roc k. is also suscepti ble to
dissolution but is nut <I S read ily affected l:ty slightly aci dic
precipitation as limestone. Th is lowe rs solu bility and
increases resista nce to weathering and eros ion. The refo re.
dolomite rock does not pro..tucc the sam... karst topo graphy
as limestone rock in humid clunatcs.

'ea.
in-

Surface water derived from precipitation is ac tually someII.hat acid ic. Wh en acidic surface water percolates dow n.....ard through limestone. rhe chemical proce ss o f
carbonari..m takes place ailing joints a nd bedding pla nes,
graduall y enlarging the openings by dissol ution . un til subsurface cave rns. C;l\CS. a nd subterranean chann els are created. Collap se o f thc roof o f a subsurface cavern o r
do ~~ nwnrd d isso lut ion o f limestone from the surfac e pro duces dep ressi ons at tilt' sur face commonly re ferred to as
dolincs (th e English term is .linkJwl<'). Dolincs <lrc formall y
defined as closed hollows o r depressions th at arc co ne or
OOVl l-shaped. w ith rocky or veget ated sides. circ ular or el liptical in shape. :! - 100 m in depth. and 10 - 1000 m in d iameter. The major karst topogrn phy is found in the form er
Yugovlavia along the Adriatic Coast. sou thern France.
Greece. Cuba. Jamaica. the Yucatan Peninsula in Mex ico.
Tennessee. Kentucky. so uthern Ind ia na. no rthern Florida.
and Puerto Rico .

Figure 14-43 L'ahbrared Airborne Multi-pcx-tral Scanner (CAMS)

ncar-infrared J)( J III data of ~arsl dclin c [sink hole)
topography north of Orlando. FL. The depre~siCl IlS
arc l:leateu hy d issolution o f limes tone roc k. Ther e
is no surface drainage patte rn in this area bcca u..... al l
drainage is subterranean. TIle darkest arcus arc dcep
water Th... llrighl are a IS sand. Many of these dolmes
arc bcavily vege tated.

ka rst topogra phy. Conversely. dolomiuc limestone such as

lnal found in pans o f Kent ucky is less susce ptible to erosion
Consequently. il develops a hi ll and va lley topography along
with a surfac e drai nage pattern.

th'
tun

of

,.

,.

er-

'0

"C!

;"

Limes to ne with > 4U percent calcium carbonate is w ry suscepubte 10 weathe ring in humid climates and may result in
the ..lcvclo prncn t o f an cxrcnslve network o f dol inc features .
For examp le. cons ider the blac k-and- white infrared photograph o f karst topograp hy fou nd nca r Orlando. FL sho wn in
Figure 1-l.4 3 These dolincs (si nkho les) were produ ced by
dissol ution occurring ur fav ora ble sues suc h as the ime rsection o f major joints in the limest one. The lim esto ne is disSOI\L'Cl and the solution an d residue mow downward,
con ..tamly w idening rbe fissures unnl a surface depress ion is
created. Tbis permits the collccuon of more o f the surface
wate r runoff and therefore the prog ress ive enlargement o f
the do bne. Sometimes. the dolines collapse. leaving large
surface de pressions. In th is ex ample, there arc few su rface
drain age channels. only subterranea n one s.
In are as o f high loca l relie f and abundant trop ical prccipira tion such as in Puert o Rico . Inc we atherin g is g reatly acce lcrated. causing the sin kholes III coalesce. c reating haystack

Limestone is especially d ifii cult to idc nt ify in ex tremely arid

desert s or co ld Arctic environ ments because the small
amo unt o f pre c ipitation doe s not prod uce the weathering
features disc ussed ab ove . Instead. limestone IS likel y the
resistant caprock on escarpments or pl atea us.

Shoreline Landforms

More than two-thirds o f the wo rld's po pulation lives w ithi n

100 m iles o f the coast. Scientists arc interested in understanding: coasta l processes associat ed VI uh the: dy namic
coastal plain. beac hes. spits. ba rs. terraces. est ua ries, etc.
Th ree major agents arc re sponsible tor the crea tion of specifi c types o f lan..t form s in the coastalzone: 1) energy from
the Sun. wh ich produc es wave s and ocean curre nts. 2) thc
gravi tatillna l pu ll of the moon and the Sun co mbine to c reate
tide s. and J } man is a very active geomorphic agent.

550

C I!AI'T ER

14

Remote Sensing 01Solis, Minerals, and Geomo rpho logy

KU l'l ait ( 'if)'. t\ lHUh

Figure 14-44 SI't n panchromatic 10 x 10 m image of Ku\\ ail City. Several man-ma de gloms lIcn icsl influence the deposition (Or ercsce
,,( sed iment carried hy the kmgs hore C"lllTt"nl . \\ hreh g..nerally flows tro m sou lhc3S1 t(l nort hwest. A 13rg.. Splt or hook il
pre -em ... the no rthe rnmost pari o fthe <:11)'. T his is a good .:x..nnplc of hl' " lIwnlo.. ind IS .ln ac tive agcr uo f geomorphic chan~c
in t h~' coastal W ill." t c SI'<H Image. tnc.)

Rad iant energy from the Sun d ifferent ially heals the Earth's
surface. creating variations in air p ressure, w hich produce
wea ther dis tu rbances. Wind-generated surfac e waves are the
main source o f energy along a coast and arc respons ible fo r
man y o f the erosiona l landfo rms a long the co ast. Converscly. ..... a ves also ge nerate coast al cu rrents that arc respo nsible fo r the l (l ng ~ lltl re move me nt o f sed imc nt a long bcac hcs
(Sel by, 19X'J). A wave of he ight (II) is produced by a sustai ned wind blo wing me r a wa tcrbody for a cert ainktdl distance I F) where It =- O.J6JF , wave height may also be
estimated if only the sus taine d w ind vclu... ity (f) is known
using the rel atio nship Ii 0,002 4
Sus tained prev ailing winds hlow ing o ver grea t ex panses ofwat...-r may create
oc ean currents that arc a lso influenced by varia tions in water
tempe ratu re and sa lin ity. TII..:s... oceanic currents suc h as the
Gulf Stre am ca n impac t shoreline landform development
becau se they influe nce the Ic mperat ure and am ount o f suspc nd cd sediment in the WOl ter, which in tu m C;l1I impact the
de velo pme nt of co ra l ree f a nd ma ngrove ecosystems.

r.

Th e gravuarional pull o f both the moon and thc Sun o n the

Eart h c rea tes tides defi ned as tho: periodic rise and tal l ofsea
leve l that occ urs in mu~t seOlS twice da ily. Tides arc impo r-

ram

I- ":":::I U''':

Ihe) inc re as e rhc vertica l heigh t over which

wave act ion ":.1 11 ntfcct thc coas t. Cu rrents produced by tidal
ebb and How cun en ...k as \\ ell as trans port sed iment. The
tides also l1ush much of the nutrie nt-laden dct ritis from

with in es tuar ies and lagoo ns into the o pen ocea n, The dcrritis is very important in the aquatic food chain.
Fina lly. mankiml is an active geo morph ic ugem constantly
cllj.:incering and rccugin...... rillj.: the coas tal zunc . He rouunely
d iverts majo r streams. rivers, and long shore currents from
th... ir norm a 1 cour ses. significantly impact ing their rradrlil'n:i1 suspended scdimcm loads. 11c dredges r ivers ;lnd
streams. chang ing th... ir gradie nt: fills werlands: builds jetties . re\ ctmcms. and se awalls that red irec t W3V1." energy; and
builds rn.m-madc struct ures un top o f fragi le coastal landloons such as dunce. Figure 14.44 d epi,ts groins (jellies)
rcv cunc nrs. -cawatls. and ma rinas present on the Kuwan
C it) sho reline tlMt impa...t the dcposuion and erosion ofsusponded .....x trmcnt carricd by the lo ngsho re CUlTC nt .
Th...

CO<l.'(

i~

f'lmla l1) dcfincd as the g...-ographical upland

n: g1l111 adja ccn t to a sea. The . horeline (o r com tli",' ) separares the coa..1 from th c sea. and is the geograph ical area

55 1

Geomo rp hology

"'ar('l\l'Il Spit. So u t h h la nd. ;\ ('1 \ Zl' alan d

Rgure 14 -45 F~d l Spit at the northwestern point ofSouth Island. ~ew Zealand. stretches, for .'0 km east from Cape Farewell. This AST ER image "'as obtained on February 13. 200 1. Tho: north sid... rof!hl: ~pi l is composed of sand dunl"S, while thl. south sid e
facmg Golden Hay is wet soil. Submerged uda l mud flats are \'i~i t- It' sout h ofthe SPit (courtesy of ~ .\SA/(iSfC MI:': T IIERS-

DACfJ:\RUS and U.S. J a.pal\ ASTER Science Team).

""is

.'

affected hy wave ac non, The

vided into (Selby, 19R9j:

.\ hflrt'

may be fun her subdi-

the ldf.'I/O/'<' area below the low -tide wave-breaking line;

'h
~a l

Ite

the nearshore b...twee n the low-tide breaker line and the

hig h-l idc shoreline:

om

n-

the fareshnre between high - and lew -ride shorelines;

Jv
I,

the h<lekslwl"<' between the highest high-tide line wit h

storm effec ts. 10 the base "I' th e p...rma neru land. wh ich
coul d be a eli ITor sand dune .

litd

,.
d

Depos it iona l an d erosion;11 coas tal landforms arc discussed

below,
Hea ch ev, SlIlh. HOll ks. Ilan. narrtcr Isl a nd s. La gonns
and t:\ tuarit'~
A beuch is co mposed prim ari ly of inorg anic sediment
deposited b)' long sho re curre nts in the shore zon c. Conunuous wave action causes beache s EO he composed of wellsorted sand-sited particles. a lthough th is can \ ary. For
example, some bea che s adjacent 10 major rive rs are com posed o f gravel ma terial s or even co bbles transpo rted a lo ng
shore from the bedload of rhc r iver. Th e source of'bcach \CJ-

iment rna) he from upland weat hered materials adj acen t 10

the beach such as a chtfwall, fro m the offshore zo ne where
wa ve act ion moves sedimen t sho rewa rd. fro m fragments o f
decompostng shell and/or coral. and from suspendcd sedimen t or bedload material from rivers and streams.
The conunucd buildup o f sediment 011 ge ntly sloping shorelines may cause the beach 10 enla rge in size, move in land ,
move up or down the shoreline. or move seaw ard . A major
sturm can cause :.IIlY o f th...sc e ffec ts in a vcry sh ort lime . In
any cas c. hcuch ,.idg.'s may Ill' fo r med . [I' the beech ridge
e nds in open water. it is called a .I'JIII, The Fa rewell Spit in
Nc\\ Zealand is shown ill Figure 14-4 5, The bcach ridge o r
spit in Iron r o f Morro Hay, CA (F ig ure 14-46 ; Color Plate
14- 7). creates an excellent bar hor if it is dred ged rout inely.
S pi t~ 1... nd to develop in thc predomina nt direction o f the
longsho re sed ime nt tra nsport unde r wave ac tion, If the spit
curves hack towa rd the lan d. it is ca lled a houk.. Th e hook
along the shore (If Kuwait Cit)' is a good examp le (Figu re
14-44 ). A sp il con necting two head lands is called a bar.
Behind the sand spi l or sand bar a shallow /"X()<)tI or "'-I) ' may
ronn. Some bars nrc so ext ensive that they are ca lled harrier
;<1,,11<1.-. On th... eastern coa st ofthc Un ited States they exte nd
for a.. much as 100 kill and may be scv ...ra l ki lometers wide.
For e xample. Sullivan s Island is a coastal barrier island near
Ch arlestnn, SC ( Fig ure 14- n and C olor Plate 14-8.1). Barrie r isla nds take the brunt o f hurricane storm surf and storm

14

552

Remote Sensing of Soils, Mineral s. and Geomo rphology

:\Iorro

Ib ~ .

CA

a. i'"dn " f Morro Bay.

CA, digital "rt h(' l'hn[o
<.J U4r1cr 'l"" drJuglc
(DOt)()1 M ay

2~.

1'N4.

c. Landsat Themanc Mal' f'CT Hand 7.

Fig u re 14-46 a) Panc hromatic USG S DOQ() of Morro Bay. C:\ . The thl} or 1,lg(lo1\ i~ ~r,\rJ I~t1 from the ocean by an e xtensiv e beach ridgt
(courtesy U.S. G~'(ll og ical Su rvey ). b l The beach bar a ls" has numer ou s dunn. "" IlJ~'!l f 1'0hieh are vegetated. w ave aClI\lty In
the shore Tunc is visible in LandS31 r \l hand -l cl Ran<l 7 11Il.lcan be Ilw d ill c l.:arl~ i.k m ify the be ac h ridge shoreline. wa vecut terraces arc a l....) presen t in this are a koun.",,}' "' ,-\ SA O!lscrn[" rium and Space Im.lging. lnc.). T.." , ..,,,I(1fcomr";>sitc. of
this area a re sho'" n in Color 1'1:1[<: 14-7.

Geomorpho logy

553

Figure 1447 Panchromatic version of the USGS digital orthophoto quarter quadrangle of Sullivan's Island, Sc. Numerous wastal landforms arc
present. including a harrier island created by
accrctiun of multiple beach ridges. sandba rs.
tidal ink ts, and tidal marsh (Sparr;,,,! altorniI/ol"a) , A cotor-mtrared composite nlthc area
is found in ('" lor r lat... 14 lIa,

surge . Sullivan's lsland experienced a 15 n storm surge du ring Hurricane Hugo in I lJX9. A tomb oio is formed when a
bar or spit joins an onshore isla nd 10 the mainland. ,\ 11 estn(II :\" is a buy at the mou th uf' u r iver where the tide infl ue nces
the river current.

Tid:ll Flats, Tida l .' l a rslll.'s, li nd ;\ I ud Fl a ts

A cur ious thin g abo ut the nearshore 10111;' is that the conun uous wav e act io n ca uses clay and vilt-sivc part ic les to flocculate (meaning that the particle s crick IOgo-ther) into loose,
relatively la rge agg regates in seawater. Often this material is
moved from the shore l one into lagno ns o r estuaries hy
wave or tid al ac tion . When the wave or tidal actio n ceases or
becomes slad.. the floccula ted material is de pos ited un the
lagoon or estuary bottom. Th us, one mightthink o f the shore
zone as a place that scrubs the water column , (k positing the
more coarse sand and gravel-size material on the beach and
preparing the chi); and sil t-size part icles tor deposition elsewhere. This Ilocculuuon and movement of materials
expla ins why there is such a differenc e between beach :l11J
estuarine environments .

lidu! fl ats arc coasta l areas that <Ire protected from d irect
wave act ion by spits, hooks, bars, a nd beach bnrric r ridges or
islands . Tida l Ilars have very little slope and may be complctcly exposed allow tide and a rc totall y submerged at high
tide . Tidal Hats may con ta in a significant amount o f'v egetatiOil such as smooth cordgrass (S/J,II"/il/{/ alh'rnif/ol"a), mangro ve forest (Rhi::op!wra mal/gall'), o r other species of
vegetatio n in which case they are ca lled tidal marshes
(Davis and Jensen. 1998). If no veg eta tion is prese nt. the
arc u is s imply culled n mudflat. Tidal marshes and m ud flats
usually have :1 we ll-d evelop ed den dritic drainage pattern
because the clay-silt mud is homogeneo us sueh as that
shown sou th Ill' Farewell Spit in New Zealand ( Figure 1445), The t idal ma rsh behind the har rier is la nd Isle o f Pa lms ,
Sc. is show n in Figure 14 -48. II consists o f tida l ch an ne ls
containing snline nnd b rack ish water, unvcgctated tidal mud
tl ats. and tidal mars h vegetation (s mooth cordgrass). Co lor
Plate I..l-Sb provides mo re dram atic information abou t the
cha racteristics ofthe tidal I1Ms and tida l marsh behi nd Isle of
Pa lms, SL'.

554

CH \P'J EN

14

Remote Sen s ing 01 Solis, Minerals. and Geomorphology

.\ l il n h Iw hi ll d hll' "r 1>:.I IIll~. sc

e. l"AS!\ ATI.AS Rand (, 1 1l<.-;u;n ~m:I)_

Figu re 14-48 a J NASA ATLAS band 10 thermal infrared 3 x 3 m imag v o f the maNh behi nd Is le of Palms, SC . nhtninc d in August. 1m
hj EIl[;,rgcd ATLAS Hand t> l1<'ar-infran."d imag", of a poruon of till,' area. The images wen.' obtained at mid-tide. Some urIbe
tidal mudllatli [which have no \eget.uivn) arc \'XPO"l'tl , while others an' inundated by the incoming tide .lowing through tlte
tidal cha nnels . The moll,' den se patches of smoot h co rdgrass (S,.urWIU ult.,.,.if/ />r /I ) show up <IS bright areas a long the Ilolln
jevecs in the ucar-mfrarcd image. The dcndriuc drainage pancrn 3......" ...-iuted '" uh homogeneou s soil materials is t"\ idC'nt.ltlS
much easter to discriminate be'tWl.Tf1 the tidal flats. liJiIl WilleT'. and '>Il1OOIh corogras.s ",h<m ~ I ~"""' in g lhc coloe-Infrared cob"
compo-ne ofthe same area in Color Plate l-t-xb.

"brin e Ter-races
when a coastli ne is uplifted through tectonic activity. the
original wave -cut platform is raised 10 a higher a ltitude and
wave action begins to create a new wave-cu t platform. The
result is the prese ncc o f a relic mari ne terrace and assoc iated
slee p bluff s or cliffs . During the Pleistocene many tectonic
uplift s occu rred . T he dramatic marine terraces along the

southern L'alifo rnia coast ncar Pa los verdes were produced

in this manner.

Cora l reefs are created b)' living coral polyps and ca jcarecus
a lgae ( Figure 14 4'1). Cora l reefs develop bes t in seawater
betwee n 77 0 and S6F with norma l le vels of salinity Thus,
coral is g c nerally restricted I I) the tropic al reg ions of lhe

Geomo rpho logy

555

I'a lall c n Reef. Cezumel, :\Ini co

..

Frenc h :\lururull ,\ 10 11 in the SIlm ll

b.

Figure 14 4 9 ,1 1 HI\: (i real Burrier f{,;cfof i\\l~lralia exten ds for appm"ill1aldy 1.211lJ miles (1.0()(I km Ialon g the Ou ..... nxlarnl coast. T he reefs
C;lp lurcd on this Sh un k photograph (STS H.. o_()77_0~ I ) arc located a l<lug the eas tern coast " f C,1X' Yl'rl.. Peninsula (courtesy
Kamlcsh Lulla. t\ '\SA J\lhn, u" Sp a...: Cente r}, b ) Sl'{ ) I IjRV XS band I (!!fee n) ima gl' or a p ortion of'th.. Palancar tri ng ing
reef on the bl and otCosurncl. ... te xico I C' SI'(H Image. Inc l, c l L m.ku T M bcnd Z (grcl'nJ image (lf lhc Muru roa cor..1atoll
in the P.lClli, ( )cc"n [cou rt...s) Space Im,lgi n!t- 1m:. I.

world between 30
and 25 - S latn ude. Co ral requires
water lha l is < 100 m dL'CP and generally free o f sedi me nt so
that photosymhesis can ta ke place. Coral reefs etten ~'TOw
b.:st on Ih.: wind ward s ide of islands .... here .... J,\e energ y provjdes food and o xygen fo r the co ralpolyps. Howe ver, signifcam reef development can also lake place on the leeward
Side of islands if a stro ng ocean curre nt is prevent. For e xampte. the Palan car reef system on the leeward side of th...
0

:-.;

er
s.
e

Isla nd of Cozumet. Me xico. IS hathcd by a stro ng, clear

up" cIlin g oc ean current. Fresh ....arcr and significant
amoun rs of sedi men t can prevent co ral ree f growth. Coral
cannot ~f\ m' (lui of sea.... all.or; therefore . mean lo w-tide determine s the uppe r hmit of coral grcw th, Sea levels may rise
due to g10""'11 \l. armi ng Consequen tly; we ma y expect it comm...nsur:lle growt h in cora l reef building during th... co ming
century if pt.,lIuliun docs nnt destroy th... co ra l first .

556

("tUY I Ufo

14

The coral polyps litera lly create a built-u p Iimcsrouc surface

anchored to hnrdhottom materi aIs. There are three primary
types of reefs. A barrier reef lies offshore ami is separated
from the land by a lagoon. The Great Barrier Reef is an

"Remote sensing of Solis, Minerals, and Geomorphology

Ant arctic lee Sheet ncar

Ge

~Iollnt Vinson

excelle nt e xa m p le ( f igure 14--49a) , It extends I{lTmore than

1.200 miles along the north coast of Australia. If a reef is

A

attached to the land and extends out into the sea. il is called
a fri nf:ing reef A portion of the Palancar fringing reef on
Cozume l is she w n in Figure 14-4% . There muy be gaps in

"g l
to

fring ing reefs due to the input of fresh water or suspended

sediment. Fina lly, we may encou nter an 11(/111, whic h is a
ringlike reef encl osing a lagoon with a central island Iwhich
ma yor 013 ) ' no l be present e ith er du e to subsidence or sealeve l riscj. The M umma atoll in the Pacific Ocean does not
ha w a central islan d I Fig ure 14-1ge).

SI

rc
b

f'
M

n
I,
L

C ua..ta l Er ucien a l La ndfnr m c

Coasta l erosionallandforms ar c crea ted when the combined
transportin g capacity of wa ve an d longshore current energy
exceeds the supply o f sed iment. Most coastal erosion takes
place during storm ev ents due to the desrrucuvc fOR~ o f
wav e ene rgy. Dependi ng upo n ho w 3 coastline is oriented,
wa ve refract io n may ca use either a spread ing out o r a co nve rgence of wav e energy. Headland s or points experience a
conv ergence of W3V'C energy a nd arc therefore more susce ptible 10 erosion . Conversely. adjacent bays generally cxpcriencc a divergence o f wave energy and less erosion ,
The eros ive power of wate r may prod uce beach cliffs with
vary ing grad ie nts. Rock fragmen ts in the sur f and the treme nd ou s air pressu re produced when surf breaks may combine to erode beac h dins , crea ting ca l"t'".~. arches, and e ven

blowholes,

Glacial Landforms

A gl acier is de li ned as a body of ice. fim (c om pacted gran ular sno.... ). an d snow. originating on land and showing evidence o f past o r present 110w. Glacial landform s are created
by the movin g ice , nivano n ( 3 combination of freezing and
tha wi ng precesses ). and g lac ial mel twater. There art: tw o
general categories o r gla ciat ion : cont inental and atp inc:
D uring the Pleistoce ne Epoc h (so met imes referred 10 as the
Great lee Agel. lay e r upon layer o f snow accumulated from
year 10 yea r. creati ng va st g laciers that covered much of the
Northern Hemisphere. There were approximately rour major
advances and retreats or the co nt inental glaciers. with the
most recent continenta l glacier retreating (diQpp.:aring )
approx imately 10.000 years ago from the northern Un ited
States. Only portions o r Antarct ica a nd Greenland cu rrent ly

Figure 1450 A small portion of the Antarctic icc sheet ncar

\ l"url1 Vins"n recorded by ASTER 1-'11 November
15. ~OO~ . ~ole the compression ridges formed 011
the c... t ~C I' f the glol.:ial tee ,b it ~'s bl.1I1< l--.:tl I""
mountai n ridges. Antarctica contains <10"/. of tile
world's icc. The Antarctic icc sh1has an amazing
a\erage thickness on, ] eo m (7.090 tH tcounesy ct
;'>lASA!( iSFO \I ETI' I,I{SUAClJ:\ROS and U.S)
Japan ."ST ER Scien ce Team),

have continental glaciation . For example. fi gun..- 14--50 is an

AST ER image of a small portion of the Anta rctic ice shoo
nca r Mou nt Vinson. Note the com pression ridges alon g the
edges or the ice as it 110\\ s through the valley be twee n two
mountain ridges.
Alpine glaciat ion is still present in many of the g reer mounta in ranges ofthe .... orhl, such as the A lps. Himalayas, Rocky
Mounta ins, Sierra Nevada. Andes. etc. Both a lp ine and continental g laciatio n prod uce un ique land form s based on erosion and deposition .
We focus (lUI" euemion first on the major land form s that C3!l
be identified thro ug h an alys is o r remote ly sensed data . II
sho uld be stressed that the optimum method o f study ing glac ia l land forms is often to evaluate them in th ree -dimensions.
i.c., stereoscopically or in pseudo three-di mensions. For
exam ple. Color Pla te 14.1} contai ns b oih vertical and threed imens io nal vic ws o f a small pa n of the \1a laspina Glacier
in Al aska, Th e three-dimensional h igh obliq ue view was ereated hy dra p ing a Land sat Themati c Map pe r image o n top of
a S pace S huule RADAR Topography Mi ssion (S RTM)
derived d igita l eleva tion model. T he three-drme nsi onal vrcw

,
I

r
r

Geomo rpho logy

provides unique in formation aboutrhc relativ e heigh t, depth,

and slope of the glaci:ll featu res.

hallgillg vulleys, lI :ulg ing valle y streams often e nter the

main Ya lky as wnte rfalls.

Er o, io nal r.lada l l. 11n tlror m~ : C ir q ues , Tarns, A n 'li's ,

Ho r ns, l J.Sha pl't1 Va lll')" , I bn ~i ll lt \ 'all e)"

UI'lllIsitinn :11 G lacial La nd for ms: \lo rai ll l"~. '\Iorain a l

Lakes, Till Plai n.., t-:,kl'n, K l"tt k~, and Ilrumlins

A cirq/lf' is a se micirc ular srccp-w ailed a mphithea ter-shaped

valley ill the uppe-r reaches of an a lpine glacier. An a lpine

Impressive glac iallandforms arc a lso created by the depos ition of glacially eroded materia l, Rock material that acc umulates on the side or ed~e of a glacier is ca tted a la teral
moraine, [ftwo glaciers mee t. a ""',Ii,,1 (or midd k ) moraine
may he created at their confluence. This often ap pears 3.<; a
dad, ribbo n on aerial photo graphy or other irnagc ry, For
e xample, Figu re 1-I-55a de picts the Barnard Glac ier in
Alaska .... uh several tributary glaci ers . Nume rous lateral
moraines are prese nt. Several m~-J ia l morai nes are created
h} the confluence (If the lateral mo rain es.

glacier erodes hcadwar d. downward, and alo ng the sides of

the original v-shaped stream valley using the immense pressun: of the o\~rl) ing ice, niv ano n. and g lacial quarry ing of
rock. Interestingl y. after the al pine glac ier ret reats, there may
be re lat ively little material in t he bon o m of the c irque. In
fact, the base of the c irque rna) have been eroded more
severely in certa in areas creating a de pressi on. After glac ia l
retrea t. the depression may fill with runoff: creating a glacial
lake or tum, Numerous cirques in the Uinla Moun tains of
Ltah arc shown in Figure 14-5 1abo,\ co lor image o f a Landsal MSS image of the area dra ped over a digi tal elevation
model is found in Color Plate 14- IOa.

.,

he

of
~ .1

an
ct

"

An /lff t" is formed .... hen c irques o n opposite sides uf a

di\ ide erode hcad w ard c reating a narrow. serrated mountain
ridge , If the I\VO c irques conti nue to e rode hcadward. they
may even tually produce a ("01 .... hich is a sa g in the serrated
ridge. Numerous arercs and cots arc visible in the obliq ue
image of the Uinta Mo untams show n in Figure 14-5 Ib. A
born is formed when more than two cirq ues erod e head ward,
leaving only a sp ire-shaped pinnacle. The most famous is the
Matter horn in Switzerland ( Figure 14-51 ). Horns o ften
appear triangular-shape d w hen vie.... ed from abo ve in vertical remote sensor data.

'0

During g laciation in mountai nous terrain. the glaciers do not

~
II-

o
[,

,
,
,,
,

557

normally prod uce new \ allcys, Rather, the accumulation and

mov ement of g l;u:illl icc in exisun g \ a lleys erode..beadward.
erodes the sides o f" the valley, and sco urs ami deepens the
valley floor. Th is process creates a U-sllafl<'cfglacialtrough

or valle y that is \'0.'1)" impressive once the g lacier retreats.

Wallsburg Canyon in tho.' W,lsatch Mountains of Utah is a
good example of a glaciated Ll-shapc d valley (Figure 14-53 ;
(',11m Plate 14I Oh ). Some glac i~ rs ,c our c\ trcmely dee p
. . alkys thaI become la"es a ller the glacier retreats. Fo r
exam ple, La ke Tahoe sho.... n in Figu re 14-54 and Colo r Plate
I-l-IOe was created in this manner. Lake Tahoe is 23 miles
long (37 km ) and 12 miles wide ( IQ k m). It lies 6,12 8 IL't:1
(1,l\I,ll( m) ahlwc sea k'\,el a nd is I.MO feet (500 m ) deep . It
is one of lhe dee peM lako:s in lhe l"o ntim:ntal Unih:d St.l tes.
If the major g lacia l U-sh:1JX'd valley erodes down.... ard more
c:\tcllsi\ cly than the tribu lary glal"i",r 110.... s. it may c rcate

If a glacier reaches eq uilibrium betwee n accumula tion and

ablation (melli ng). it prod uces a terminal moraine at the end
of the glaci er (Figure 14-55b). If the equ ilibrium lasis for a
co nsiderable time . the g lacier co ntinues to move rock and
debris dow nslope. ca using the terminal moraine to increase
in volume. If abla tion exceeds acc umul ation. the glacier
retreats. leaving the terminal mora ine as a remnant landform. I f t he g lacier reach es eq uili br ium once again. a reces5;UII<l1 moraine may be produ ced. It is possible for a number
of recessi onal moraines 10 be present. So metimes water is
impounded behind the terminal mora ine. form ing a
mcrainui f"h'.
Sometimes continental or ('.. . en a lpine glaciation de posits a
mix ture loll' clay, sund . gravel. and e ven large boulders ove r
the entire cou ntryside. Arter retreat, the mater ial is referred
to collectively as gll/cial /ill and th... landfo rm as a gfaci<lllill
ptatn. The re nrc typica lly no major land forms with an y significanr elevation in thcull plain. only ge ntly rolling te rrain.
Much ofthe midwestern United Sl'tlt:s.t he bread basket of
the world , is covered with glaci al till de posits of vary ing
thickness. Suc h till ottcn has a mo ttled texture. with the
lighter areas bei ng composed o rw ell-dra ined sandy soil a nd
the da rker area being composed uf poor ly drained clay-rich
>.oi I.
Scveral glaci a l landfo nn s nrc produced d irectly within
upu n. and n en ulJ(lt:r the g lacilll ice. For ~'xam plc. a suhglacial ~t rca rn nmn ing. v. ithin stagnall\ (non- movi ng ) g lacial ice
may deposit we ll ~oned sand and gravel within the strea m
l u n ne l ~ . Afte r ~!I ac ia l !"Clreat. Ih.: dC:Jl<lsiled materia l appea rs
as a s inuou~,1i nea r ridge l ' f o:~li. l'r on tht: terrai n. ollen reac hing he ig hts fro m 5 30 m high and 50 - t>O m wide. Eskers
may run for many kilometeN, Fore xamp lt:, Figure- 14-56a is
a low-obliqu.: aeria l pho tograph o f a sinuous. gJ"a\cl csker

558

nL\pn:1{

14

Remote Sensing 01 Solis, Minerals , and Geom orp hology

Uinta
.' fo u nta ins
in Uta h

a . Land sat Th ematic Mappe r band 3 ( n..-..f l ima ge.

cirques and Ushupcd

va llcy ~

b. Landxnt T M band 3 illl.lg<.' draped ove r a USGS 311 '-

:;0 m d il1i u l c1~"\;I1I"n m" dd .

Figure 14 5 1 al Lenosu Thcmauc \-tapper band 3 lk'dl image "I' a portion "I the Linta Muuntain Range o f the Rl1Ck~' " Iountains in LulL
b ) UUd>.J.1 T\ l ba nd 3 image draped O\ LT 3 30 x 30 m l: SGS digital elevation model ( vcr1lcd l exagge ration is 4 \ 1a.nd \i~ed
,," liquef y. t\ color YCr"'l t lfl IS ''''u:al in Co lor Pla te 1+ l ua Icou rtccy Spa<:e Imaging. I",: I.

559

Geo mo rp h o logy

Fig u re 14-52 f1i gh-ohliql,le aerial photograph of the Matterhorn in

Switzerland formed hy ure headwanl eros ion or more
than two cirques. The cirque on this side of the Malter hom still co ntains a glacier and to the lefl is a hangi ng
glacier clinging \{J the side of the peak . Glacial crevasses
are Tl.'adi l~ apparo:TlI [courtesy Amerkan GL"Ographical
Society Collection archived at the !\'ational Snow and
tee Data Center. Umversuy of Colorado. Boulder. CO).

\\'a..a lc h R an ::,t' of th e Hocky \Iuunt a in s i n Uta h

Mouru Timparmg ns

cirque arete cirque

Fig ure 14-53 La ndsat Thematic :\-la pper hand 4 mcar-mrrared r image ora portion ofthe Wasne ch Mounla in Ra nge oft he Rocky Mountains
in Utah draped ove r a 30 x 30 m USUS tligital elevation model tvcruca l cJl:J/L/Lc raliull is SJI: I highlighting the Mu um Timpann!:l0S glaci a l cirques ,1ml uretes and U-sha p<:d Wallsburg Can yon . Seve ral eols arc present on the serrated Moum Timpanogos
nd gcbnc. A color version is found in Color Plate 14- l llh (co urtesy Space Imaging, Inc. ).

trend ing across the terrai n in Northern Manitoba. Ca nada.

Th is es ker also dcposued S<111J y alluvium imo the g lacial
lake as the i!lacie r ret reated .
h.

'"

Somcnmes a large bloc k o f glaci a l ICC that co ntai ns an

assortment of glacial debris becomes detac hed fro m the

main glacie r. The bloc k of ice and materia ls may he s u bsequemly co vered b)' nth cr deb ris. A It er glacial retreat, the ice
in the block mel ts, leaving a depres sion in the lands ca pe.
These depressions or kettles ti ll with wa ter, creating lakes
and swa mps. A relat ively large kettle is s how n in Figure l~
56a.

14'

560

Sle r r a

;'\ 1,"\

Remote Sens ing of Sa lls, Minerals, and Geomorphology

ada 'fountain Ra nge in Califo rnia

F'9ure 1454 Land:;,.,.1 \ISS ha nd 3 (ncar-mfraredj irnag... of La ke Tahoe in In... SI\.'fr.I ~ evada o f Lahfomia draped 0\ cr DcfL'TlSC ~la rPing
Agency Levet-t Digital Terrain EI.:\ arion 0 ,,13 l\ cn ical exagg"r~lion is S:\} . In addiuon to Lake Tahoe. there arc also ....... enl
stair-stepped glaciated valleys in the southern ponion oCth.. image Ih:1I contam lakes [courtesy USGS ~AlC d.a lab'!sc). A
color \'ersinn is f011l1(\ ill ( '" lllr Plate 14- I Oc.

A drumlin is a smooth. oval- shaped (e llipticel) h ill o f glacia l

till material w ith its long axi s parallel to the d irec tion o ftlow
of the fo r mer glac ier. It is generally more blum and sleep on
the g lac ier-facing end and mor e elon gated down -g lacier
.... ith a thinning tail. Drumlins ofte n occur in clusters.
re ferred 10 as drumlin swa rms. Drumlins consist of unsorted
gra vel and sand mixed wit h some clay. There is much cantrovcrsy as to the processes thai produce drumlins. It is genera lly believed Ih<l t a dru mlin de:\ clops beneath ac tive icc
and is formed b)' hig.h water pre ssure that mo lds the saturated ti ll into a strea m lined form . Drumlins may be 111 - 50
m hig h, ron- _,00 m w ide and 2 - J kill long , A sma ll dru mlin field in an d around Grafton Lake in the Kejimkujik
National Park of Canada is shown in Figure 14-5bb.

II)IN)..\1 osl sa nd gra ins moved d uring saltat ion on ly rise I

2 em above the g rou nd wh ile a few bounce I - 3 m. The
repeated coll isio n o f partic les causes them 10 become
increasingl y roun ded and smooth (and slight ly smaJlcr~
\\'hich mak ..-s. II c \ en easi er f,IT the pa rticles 10 become
entrained in the wind field . AI'>I:I. some of the, encrg} of saltaring grains o f sa nd is trans ferred directl y III part icles on the
ground upon impact. This causes tbcsc grai ns to 111('I\'C ferwurd sl ightly or creep. Extremely fine-grained silt smaller
tha n ZOO urn may be captured in the first I - ::! km of a turbuleru atmosphere and moved great dis tan ces as dust. For
e xample, npproxirn.ucly 10 em nfs lll has been dq)l~ ilt\l in
southern Fran', from sources in A frica in the last 300 years.
Thu s. part icles of san d arc tran sported in the w ind I"oy Sl) ;'pe nsion and sal tation. and o n the groun d by c reep.

Eolian Landforms

When wind erodes, tra nsports. and -or depo sus mat erial. il is
ca lled eolian (aeolian ) acuvuy. WinJ l)pically- creates both
eros ional and depos iuonallundtorms in coa stl area s and in
deserts. Eo lian land limns ma y develop wbcn there is an
ample supply of sa nd and enough w ind velocity to mow
indi vid ua l soil panicles . Good SO U T\.'CS of sand include:
coastal and lacustrine bea ches . a lluvial river de posits. and
material Irom g lac ial lill pla ins . Given a srrong w ind and
amplc supp ly uf sand. the individ ua l gra ins of sand b ounce
along the terrain through the p rocess of ""IIII /if", (Sel b) .

Sometimes thc b lowing, sahmin g sa nd encounters vegcunon or other phenomena tha t impede its forwa rd progress, III
w ind " doci ty decrease s. ca using the sa nd panic les to be
depo sited . Whe n su fficient sand is accum ulated . we have a
sand dune which is defined as a mound. ridge. or hill of
windblown sand-size panicles. This mound o f sand affects
the n ow Ill' the air over the mound. (ienerully, the wind
speed is greatest on till' w indward (up w ind) side of the
mound and decrea ses un the lee ward (s lipfaccl, wmdshadow side .F igur c 14-57a I. The zone o f red uced air velccil) cnuxcs the sand to he depos it!.'J just beyond the lop ofihc
mou nd onto the leeward back -slope (s lipfa ce) . Every size of

Geomorpho logy

561

lateral
moramc

__________\ t~~---

sping

vcrn l

medial moraines

et. .\
3.

lateral morame

Lat era l and med ia l moramc s o n Ba rna rd Glacier, :\ !\:.

,,The
ome
ler},

<Illle

531 -

t rhc
for-

suer
tu r-

Fo r
din
ta rs.

terminal
moraine

sush. Lateral and ter minal glacial moraines

I of

"'''
i nd
the
nd0< -

t he, of

011

Hyle r lvlnnd. Balli n ls1;ltld. NW Ter ritorie s Canada.

Figure 14-5 5 ujlhgh -cbliquc aC IUl I plnuograph uf the Barnard (i 1,u: ;eT. AK. Ladt olthe tributary !;!lucicrs ha.s latc ralmuraincs. The connue'n ee o f the rrihuta ry g laciers .:rem.." med ial mo ra ines. The tributary glacier on the irnmcdimc right receives mate ria l fro m at
1c",IIIilC other tributary glOlcicr. us <, \ ;d<:11<:<.1.1 by the two med ial mor.uu..", wufun Ill.., cclllcr lO r it, 11m" lel' unes)' American
(iL't>graphil"ul Soc iL'I) Couccuon 31 the Narional Snow a nd tee Data Ccmcr. I :ni\ of C olorado, Houldcr j. b) l.ow -ohlique pholu~raph url,ll.:ra l and tcrminalgtacialmoraincs 011 ll yllll ls l;lllJ . lta tlln leland. ill Ih,: CUIl;IJ I;ln 'II,,"hll C~l Te rritories.

sand gra in has a different a ngle-of- repose, i.e.the maximum

slo pe a t whic h loose soi l ma te ria l re ma ins stable. Whe n this
angle is reac hed for a pa rticul ar sand t e.g.. .30 - ~Oo l . the
sa nd pa rt icl es slide dow n the leew ard s li pface caus in g the

mo und to grad ually mov e

fO N

ard in the di rection o f the pre-

vail ing Il ind .

Sand deru~i l S mit)' to.: shaped m to a variety of bedforms

including ripples (bctwc.....n 5 em and 3 m apart a nd 0 . 1 - 5

...
( 'Il , -\pn;~

562

14'

Remote Sensing 01Soils. Minerals , and Geo morphology

drumlins

a..\ n esker and keute in Xort hem Man itoba. Ca nada.

b. Drum lins in Kcjunkujik National Park. Ca nada.

Figu re 14 -56 a t Lu w -obliqec photograph o f 3 si nuous, gravel esker an d oV;ll. slupo:d h'uk in the ho.lC\.'al fi>rs'$( o f Northern \{ ;m iloN. The
Iigh l-loos-d a rea hi the left and righ t o f the es ker in tbc foreground life !'and de lta.. deposued b> ttl<: ~l~ into the glaciallalt
that was formed as the glacier retreated. b ) Low-obliq ue aeri al phol Ob'faph of severa l drum lins in th e Kcji mkujl\ " :uiooll
I'ar\( 01 Canada ICtlUT1("o.)' Ten-ol in Sciences I>lvi ~ion. (;,-olojl.ical SUf"'e) of ( "lInadal.

e m high). dunes ( .~ - t,OO m apa rt and 0. 1 - 20 m high ). and

m",l{udum:.\ (3tlO In J km apart . 200 - 400 m high. and

many kilometers long). Of course. small ripples may exist

on ind i\ idua l s and dunes a nd rnegad une s. Th is discussion
focuses on dunes and meg uduncs.

All d une types may occ ur in three forms : simple. co mpound.

and com plex . SimpIL- dun es arc ba sic Cornu. wuh a minimum
numbe r of SIiP!:lCCS that de fine the gco m ...tri e type. Com{101m" dun es are large du nes nn which smalle r du nes of sirnilar t) pe and sli pface or ient alIo n arc supe rimpose d. Compler
d unes arc co m binations of IWO o r mor e du ne type s (Walker.

UlllUli tilln al [ lilia n 1.1I ndfo r m\

Il)lJlo! ).

Mo st dunes arc co mpose d o f medium gra in-size quartz sand;

howeve r. they ma y 1I 1 ~ o he composed o f volc an ic ash. ca lc ite. and even gyp sum panicles. The re arc a var iety o f dcp c sition nl sand dune type s tha t have characteristic
dC\iClopmenta l eyries an d di agnost ic shapes that can he recoguizcd in aerial photo gra phy or other imagery. Scientists
have co mpiled inventories of the major type s ofd unes found
througlunu th e world an d how th e d une s appear in remo tely
se nsed data . For example. sec work hy Rinke r ct al . ( 199 1),
Dokka ct al ( 19\)7 ), and Wa lker t 19X(,; I"Nx),

Crevccnt rjc: Th e crcsc crunc dune is the mo st common

dune on Earth (and Mars) . They arc gene ra lly mure wide
tha n they arc loug. Hascd on the work o f Baguold ( 1941),
these dunes arc o fu-n re ferred to as barcha n. ba rchaaoid, (If
transverse dunes. Barchan crcsccntric dunes such as those
shown in Figure 1457b,c may be produced when I ) the prevailing w ind l"ll111CS frnm a urn form . consistent direct ion. 2)
the re is little vegetation present 10 ancho r any port ion uf'thc
d une , and J) there is a relatively spa rse su pp ly of sand. The
two horns o f the c rescent point downwind. The gent le windwurd slope is usua lly < IS. T hc leew ard, slipface side of the
barcha n dune is sh:l.' pes t with an angle-of -repose ofapproximald ) 34 - 4()" for dry sand. lndi vidual barchans or
cx rrc mcly la rge lIlegaha rdmn ~ commonly occ ur in elongate
c hains or train s that ma y merge with coale sced dunes in
tid ds or ergs. Small ba rchan " move se veral me ters per year,
but mc gabarchans me v1.' more s lowl y (Walk cr. 19981.

T he earli est sig nifi cant work o n the phy sic s, orig in, and evolut ion o f eo lian sa nd dunes was performed hy Ralph Bagnoll! ( 194 1l. who work ed in Egyp t prior to wortd Wa r II. Il l.'
rectlgni / ed two basic d une type s: the crcscc ruric dune.
which he c alle d "b arc han." and the linea r dune. wh ich he
ca lled longitudinal. or "scif" (Arab ic fo r "sword"). Unfortunately, his tcrmmology wa ~ then app lied 10 many ot her types
o f d unes, rc.... ulting in a be wild ering te rmin ology, Th is secnon utili;..:s the follllwillg d une classificat ion sys tc m
ada pled from sc \ cral sou rel.'S (Wal ker, IQ~f> : I<J'JX; I(inker el
al. 19<J I) : crescentri.:, linea r, du me . ~tar. an d pa rabolic .

!.i ncar; Linear (or lun ~ i t llu ina l ) d unes may be straight or
irregularl)' sinuous. t\ 10" -ohliquc photograph o f a linear
dunc in thc south c-nd o f S..lt1a La ke is shown in Figure I+.
5Sa. ThC'M: dunes mil)' b< llIany kilom ...tcrs lo ng and hundred~ Ilf m...lcrs high. They arc gl.'ncrally co mposed (If loose,

563

Geomorphology

a. Sand movement nn a dune

.'

A
.. , . .

... . -

' ",,:(

'"
ce

..
\, r

'
\ .

.,

d.

" ~

.....;......''...
"

~:

'~

,J

,~

'x

b. Oblique view of crcscemnc dunes

catted barchan Of tranev "r~" dunes)

c. \ 'kw of a single crescentric du ne

(al~l

e
I.

Figu re 14-57 a) ( Ieneral charactcrtsncs <,1' 1101'1 sand is moved through sahanon and creep nn a sand du ne. This illustration is keyed 10 the
wind direction and feature s in \ 0 ). b) Several crcsccr uric (OOl"l: h,1I11 dunes on the coas t of Peru migrat ing from right t(1 left,
par alle l wuh the wind duecnon (courte sy U.S. Geologica l Survey: Walke r, 1'/<1101; ami Jnhn ~kCauky ). e) View " I' a single
crc ' c cntric. barchanoid dune (cou rte sy Desert Processes Working Group: Rinker et al.. I"N l ; Dokka ct al.. 19') 7).

well-sorted very fine \(J med ium grain sand. Extreme ly

straight. linear dunes are o ften referred 10 as ,\,( /1111 ridges.
whi le the linear, sinuous var ieties arc o ften ca lled .wi6. T he
leng th o fa linea r dune is much gre.ucr than its width . While
the crescemric dun e is the most com monly occ urring d une.
linear du nes cov er more desert area. esp eci ally in central
Aus tralia . .s outhern Africa. the Arabian Peninsula. and parts
of't he Sahara. The la rges t <l11l1 1illlesl d unes in the world are
found in the Namib Desert , Namibia. ..'vfrica , Some dune s
are greate r than JOO m high ( Figure 14-59 ), Color Plate 14.
II de picts a ponum t.f the v;lsl Namibian san d d une la ndscapc using Landsat 7 ET~l and ASTER data dr aped ove r a
dig ital elev ation model .

ulso play a role in the ir deve lopment. It may be tha t the

length of the d une is enlarged when the wind nlow s in the
predo m inant direction. The width o f till.' dune is enl arged
when the wi nd blows strollgly at right ang les to till' prev a iling w ind direction for relatively brie f period s of time. A n
ex tens ive SCi! of linear dunes is shown in the Space Shunk
photo graph otthc J\lar/ uq Desert ofl.ibyc in Fig ure 14-58b.
Dome Dunn: Oval or circular mounds of sand that gencrally tack a slip face arc called dome dunes. They are rcla tively rare . Figurc I 4-5Xe dc picrs a ste reopair (11' do me dunes
in the w estern Shicld o f Saudi Ar ab ia. The domes arc partly
separated by interd une hollows tha t are en c losed by subsidiary dunes of hard-pa rked sand .

The origin of linear dunes is co ntro versia l. Some suggest

that the linear d une s are pro duced I:oy un idirectional winds
and that the alignment o f the linear d unes is par-did ..... uh the

Star nunes: St:lr d unes may develop where there is an

ample amount of sand and the ..... ind blo.....s in many dircc-

w ind direction. Others suggest Ih31 mult idirectional winds

nons. They arc a lso called pyramid or radial dunes. Three or

01,\ 1'1EK

564

a , Obliquo:

\~

or a lin.::u

l Jon~nudin;>11

14'

dune on Soda

Lak~ .

Remote Sens Ing 01So il s. Minera ls . and Geomorpholog y

b. Shunk pOOl<.>gfllph 1)( linear dUlk~ in the Manuq Do:.:-s<..-n. Libp..

Figu re 14-58 a) Exam ple of a linear (longitudinal) dune. Nore the phy, ical uhstrucuon cunsiug ihc majority of 'li nd to deviate from it.>
course w hile some spi lls OWl' the lOp (court esy o f De sert Pnl<:CSSl'S Working G ru up; Dok ku c t 'II.. 1')<)7). b ] Black-and- white
vcrsi ,," nf Sp an : Sh ull lc ph<l l<>graph ST S 054- 15 2- 1HI( obtained in January 1'N3. depicting an e xte nsive sea of line ar dunes.

111" <la rk urcas arc part " r Ihe Hammadat MarLII'l (rocky UCM:rt ) cOlh h ting o f bedroc k outcrops ((ourtcS) SASA Johnson
Space ('en"" r), c) Panchromatic stereopair of dome dunes in rhc western Shi d d of Saudi Amh ;'1 I photogr a phy obtained ~.

the AnTI) M ~ p Ser\ icc: courtesy or Desert Preces ses W0rldnl! Group; Rinker cl .11. I'N I: n ul la el .II. 19"7).

mo re arm s of sand typica lly radiale from a high ce ntral

mou nd. Th e arms can vary in leng th. width. num ber. and
shape. but eac h has a slipface. Star dunes acc umula te in
areas w ith m ultid irec tion a l w ind re gimes . Sta r d unes tend to
inc rease in he ight rather than migr at ing ho rizontall y across
the landsc ape. ca using them to tJC one of the tall est d unes

found. They may reac h 211Cl - ]llfl m In the great deserts of

the world. Star d une s a bo occ ur as sec ondary de men ts on or
in co mbmauon with oth er du nes. A single sta r du ne in the
Namib Desert IS sho..... n in Figure 14-60a. and a Spa ce SbuttIc pho tog raph ofstar dun es superimposed o n linea r dunes in
,\ Igeria is show n in Figu re 1~ " M)b.

565

Geomorphology

Nam ib Desert. :\am itJia. Arricll

Ftgure 1459 Looguudmal JUIl~"S in the: l'\amib Desert in Xanub-Na ukluft :"ali"n..1Par\.. r~""1....dcd by the Landsat 7 EP.,1+ on Augu~1 12,
2000 These arc: the lalle~1 dunes in the world. some > JllO m (almll~l <,ll'i0 IH (.:tlune') l 'SGS and ~ASA). Refer 10 Color Plate
101-11 a fur a \ i..:.... of a portion uf the lkUrIC urea rec orded by Ihc ASTER sensor.

m its
" hill'
uncs.
JlS< H1

!d by

-ts of
m or
"he

ib utes. m

Parabolic Uum'\: A parabolic dum: ha-, a crescent. U

sha pe like a ba rc han d une l:J.("{'p l lh3t its horns point in the
oppo site d irection into the wind. They are also called U
shaped. blowout, or hairpin du nes. Parabo lic dunes are ereatcd 1-1 hell wind is sufflclcmly intense 10 literally blowout
the cen ter of a du ne- but a rehnivcly small amo unt of \ egetation Oil either side ca uses the edges o f the dune to be sta biIizcd. Someti mes the horns of the parabolic dune remain
attached to the vegetation for some lime as the main bod y Il l"
the dune migr ates do wnwind. w hen this occurs. the parabolic dune resem bles a hairpin lying on its side instead o r a
neatly shap.:d barcha n crescent. Parabnlic dune s arc alway s
associated with vcgctarion - grasses. sh rubs, and uccasionnltrccs tlun anchor the trail ing anus . They usually form
in areas with stro ng umdirecnnna l winds.
I.o r's : As a continental glacie r retreats, it may deposit gla-

cialnll in all ou twas h plai n. Stro ng winds blowing fo r millcnnia ove r the ou twash plaiumay ex tract the small. si n-size
particles. These wind bornc, sin- size pa rticles may he deposited du wnwind fW ill the till plai n as II laye r of IOt'." I' soil. For
exam ple, the thickest know n depos it o floess is 335 m on the
Loess Plateau otCtnna.Loc accumulations in Europe and
in the: Ame ricas resulting from the: Wiscuns in glaciation are
generally 20 - 30 m deep . Loess is a very highly erodablc
soil thai is usually j ust 3 fe w feet thicl.. Drainage cha nnels in
loess so il often have very steep banks. Dunes arc not gcucr-

a ll) limned on loess de pos its. beca use of increased co hesion

between the Itles S soil panicles .
Enl\iullil l t';olia n 1.II11dfurms

Blowing sa nd can a lso produce impressive erosiona l features. T he kinet ic energy ofwind acts UPOll the ground surface. So me ofrhc ene rgy is transferred 10 the grou nd as heat
while some ofit detac hes soil part ic les from lite' ground and
moves them along through salta tion. When material is
remov ed from a S Url~ICC via wind, we have de flation. The
cont inuous remo val ofboth sand and sill from areas with an
allu vial depu sit lea ves onl y a comb ination of coa rse sand
nnd pebbles and some d ay mater ial. This can resu lt in the
creation of ;l desertp,nt' llwlIl landsc ape wh ich is a sheetlike
surface of rod. frag ment s that rema in after wind and water
have remov ed the fill ': particles, Almost half of the Ea rth's
desert sur faces arc stony de flation zones. Desert pavement
reg ion>. are culled I"l:K~' in Algeria. ser ir in Libya, andgibbcr.\
in A u-aralia. These deflated regio ns may be ve ry extensive
in large dese rts. A de flated basi n is ca tted a blowout. Sometimes a dar k, shin) dese rt varnish is found on the desert
pavem ent surfaces produced from manganese, iron oxides.
hydrox ides. and clay minerals.
Ihe surfaces of rock bodie s may also be erode d by ab rasion
and sandblasting by wmdbomc particles. In extreme cases
the wind may he so strong that it cuts channels in the less

C HA P IER

566

14

a. Star dunes i n the Namib Desert.

Remote Sens ing of Sa lls. Minerals, and Geomorpho logy

b. Space Shuttle photo graph of the complex linear

F rfcrnm c Dunes in the Ta s~i l i ~ 'Ali<:r of southeastern
Algeria supe rim pose d with sta r dunes.

Figure 14-60 a ) Large-scale aer ial photog raph ofa sta r dune in the Namib de sert . Each star d\lnc consists o f mu ltiple arm s ..ac h with the ir
own slipt:,,..., radiating from a central area. Star dimes are produced by winds W illing from multiple dirccuons (n lurt<.',y
USG S; Walk er. I')98). b) Blnck-nud-whitc version of Sp;llc Slnl1lk photognlph ST so70-70:". O'14 o f the 'l'ifermnc Dunes of
Alpcri;1 in July, I'N;. Extremely I,m!!. Itn"lIr d unes arc pre sent. The linea r d unes ha ve star du nes S UI)<; r i lllllU~J un pu rti,ms of
t hem. Resistant. weathe red sandstonelies 10 lhe so uth and ca st ~md appe ars in dark ton es. Se ve ral while" pla yas arc present in
the image (cou rte sy NAS..\ Jo hnson Space Ce nter].

res tsta m roc k. leavi ng residual streamlined ..pines ca lled

uoc co. Ii . Vda7quC1.. A . and C Siebe. 200 S. " Usin g t teomor-

.m n./ung l. wh ich may be tens of mcrcrs high and kilomet ers

long,

phulog ic \ la pping 10 Sne ngjhen l\alurat RCWUTCC ~hll3gc

meru in Develo ping Cou ntries," Cat ..ne. (,0:23<,1 - 253.

Ch al:lrillal. S. GoeIT. /I.. F. II.. Krosley. I.. and II. W.

References

Oh~,

:!OO2. " Use o f Hypcrspec ua t Image s in the ldenuflca tion and

Ma pping u f Expansive Ct ay Soils a nd the Ru le o f Sp atial Resulu l inn.- Rt''''o/,' SI'IHl IIJ.: "JEnl'irullm "/II , 1'12:4 31-44 5.
AS 'I f-. R. . 2U1l6. A d l'llII<,<," .1," </""/" 1/"1' <' rll" ,.m<,1 1:'II/I.,-,"i'l1I </11'/ N,' ,
P'TU"I/ N"diomd,'' Waslung tun : ~A S A , hnp:/la slcrwc b.jp l.
nasa.g ov/.

("]ar ~ ,

Ba ld i. P.. Fa bri s. M.. .Marsella, M. and R .."' " nlied li, :!OO.'i.
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Fuoco dur ing lhc 2002-2003 Stromboli Eruption using Mulutempora l Phorog ramns et ry," /SPRS Jo"rtI~1 til Pllologramm,In,' ~ R" m(ll" S.. nun~. ;<,1: I W -211 .

Che n. J . Zha n g.

Ragnol d, R_ A .. 1<1 4 1. The 1'11.1'. 1;0 oJ RlolI" -",md uml On " N

/)l/l1e

Lo ndon:

~ Cl h u e n ,

2f1.'i p.

fk l nilp. J., 2003. "T he Wo rld at your Feet : Desert Bio logica l
S...il Cr ll sl , ," 1-"1'""1 /.,,-,, ;11 f.'r otoR\' un" III<' Environme nt,
l( S ) : I Il I - I ~ <) .

R. N.. I')')'), "Sp ectros copy u f Rucks and Minerals. and

Princip les of Sp cct rnscn py:' in oHm"',,! ol N"IIIfJ //' S('IlI;ng <;.0\('...11(-, . A, R. ~ nCT. ( Ed .) , ~Y: Joh n Wiley.

~ . Y.. Wang . L. . Shimazaki. Hiand M. Tamura.

1005. "/I. N.:\\ tndec for M lIpp i n ~ Lichen-domin ated biological Soil Crus ts in Dcecrt Areas." R,'mo',' S<"Ining tlJ Em';"",
111<'11I. <,1 6: I f15~ I 7S.

t:ern andes da Silva. p, C . Cr ipps. J. C. an d S . M . wr se. :!OO5.

"The use of Re mot e Se ns ing Tec hniq ues a nd Empi rica l Teeto nic Models for In fere nc e o f Geological Stru c ture s: (Jri d ~i ng
fro m Regi onal I" Loc al Sca les: ' R" mo lt' S"II-'i"8 "I E"l"{nmm e lli, 'l o:I I'l-3h

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Referen ces

Dalton. J. IL n o ve. D, J.. \1 lil,l inie h, C. S. and II. W. Rn.:k1.\- e ll,

~004. "ldc ntif'ic auon u rSpec tra lly Similar M ~ to:ri" b,lls i ll g the
USGS Tcrracordc r Algor ith m: the Ca lc ite -epido te -ch lo rite
Problem.' Rt' mof. ' Sell""~ "f Em 'i n m", e",. 1\9:455 -41'>6 .
Da vis. H. A , and J. R. Jensen, I<)<)x. "R emote Sensing of M anl'ro \ e BrophysicalCharacierisucs." Geocarto Imi.. I J :55---{w.
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.\ lapp ing em"p 1)"II<lh.lh' o.',';gll D "Olm.'fIf H:nioll :!
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\1 a r ~h ,

( Ialv ao . L. S .. A lmc l{la f ilho. R, and I. vnorelfo. ::!(KI5. "SJ'<:'Ctral I>lserimi llJlion of lI )d rotherrn"lly Altered Mate ria ls using AST ER Short-wave Infra red IJJ n d ~ : Evaluation in A

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/1" ,. Journal

01 April",}
Eu,.,;' Observation ,.m,} C.'"III("ml.llwIl. 7: 10 7- 114.
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en.

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\t eC au l,' ) J. F.. Schaber. fi G . Br.....d. C. S. G rober. \1. J..

lIa} lIes. C. V., Is-aw i, II.. Elachi. C, a nd R. m om, 1'-Ix::!.
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Mojav e Dese rt EC<lsyslcm Program, I vex. M II; (/\,I' l JI'w rt ("0-

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Karl- tnuu. K. E. and J. .\-1. Stu,", ::!(}05, " Mappi ng Variat ions
in Wd gbl Percent Sil ica Measured tT()1J1 Muluspcctral 'l'h crma l In fra red lma pc ry," N,'"", /;: S<'II.\' III)::
1::111';"0111""'11/.
')5:273 :!IN.

or

\ nl" 11/ l ' lYJj! I"<I>II Hied/lill ie I h u"ha" e, Wash ington : Dept. or
Defense ilnd usnl. II CD s an d maps.
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i
,.

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nf High -resolution. tmcncrom cinc DF. \-ls III Ge o mo rphic

Per gola. N,. Marchese , F. and V. Tramuroli. 200 4, "A utom ated

Srudics or I;a ull S,'urps. hsh l.a ke Valley, Nevada-Ca liforn ia.
USA." RI",,,/, S"".'III,~ '1/ EII.';m"''',"I. 11 4:255-267 ,

Detection o f Th er ma l ~ e ;l t llre s " I' Ac tive volca noes by Mea ns

of Infra red AVlI RR Rli co rds." Rcnwl. Sc m illg vi Ellvi f<m -

,.

Hunl. o. R. IY7 7. " Spectra l Signatu res of Particu late Minerals

in the Visihle and Ncar -Infra red." G. uph,nin. 4::! : 50 1-513.

""'11'. 'H:31 1-3::!7.

>

P<: l er~ en ,

G , 1')<)1) , correspondence. Pres ide nt uf the Soil Sci-

enc c Socicty of America. Pen nsylvania State University.

Ja mes, A ., 2()()h. curre~pondence.l!/eulJ1orphologlsl in the De pt.

o f Geography. Lniv. o f Sout h Carolina. Co lumbia. Sc.

Rae. B.. S"nl..;lr, T., Dwivc di, R,. Fhamm a ppa. S.. Vcnkataratnam . 1... Sharma. R, and S. Da s. 1'-14 5. "Spectral Be ha vio r of

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Salt-affected S,lils:' Im l
10:2 1~5 -2 1 Jt. .

)Il u,."al (!f

14

1("1>1""-

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Remote S e ns in g o f Soils, Min e rals, and Ge omorpholog y

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37 1 p.

Reddy. G P.O., \i..jr, ,\

Morp homet ry and ib
in a Uasa llic Terrain.
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ke ys, key , ,, cb.pdf

K. and K. S . ( jajhh l)c. 2U0-4. - Dramagc

Influence 01\ LallJ f" rlll Churucterisrics
Cc nlr a ll ndi a - " l{cmOll' Scn~lOg: and

)(>110 1<11 n.( AI'f,/ied E",.,J/

",,,I Ge"in for m" II,m. b : I - I b .

J{ encv. A. (Ed. ), I'N 'i . H,WIIl,1,,{R,-,"oIl! .\"'/1,"",1.:

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()b.a"'~liu"

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Anal YL ing Hypcrspcct ra l Image (AVIRIS) Data 01 Forested
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Salisbury. 1. W., Welter, L. v , ve rgo. :'\. and D. \1. I>'.-\ ri..,

1'19 1, /l11,.,,/'.'d (2.1 2S p lll i S"""I"" "1,\Ii"...,' I , , Haltlmnre :
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US(;S Spcclah, ! lll/fl. L ,W;S f) ,gu'll .'O,,1i1><.4 S/",,/ral1.ibr,Jr)'

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\V. IlI.Ii t. G"""''' 'l'h"I''.l!j' jm", !l/"'<'''. A (i!"nt/! (ht'r rhl! "I
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Wa lkcr. A , S ,. 1" ')X, f),',,""" ; ( ;""(Ogl ' m,d N,s""n,'., W3 sh i Tl~
ton: U S( 'S. h llp :lJp lII'> S.USl.-! s.gu v,g ipi\lc sert sic ,>n!Cnls,

Wal ch. S . 1.. BUller , 1>. R.and <i P Ma lan"..n. lV'))j. - An Olervtcw of .. c;lle. Pattern . IH.... e"s Ke la liu n"h ips in Gcomorpholugy : A Rcmo rc Sens ing and GIS Pc rvpcctivc." C;e<JIIJ",!,I",I".
xr , : I : 1.'1.1-:!(I(,.
Was,,nil<lr. T.. Andric uv, I'.. I1MCt, F.. and J, \1. Ro bbcz-Mas,,,no :005, -Soi l Surtnce lufiltrauon C~pacj t>' Cla ssific ation
h;l','d on the Br-dirccucnal Re flec tance Distribution Function
Samp led b) Aed;>1 I'h.. tog raphs." em.-"" . b:!:q4-l l fl .

Sho rt. .~ . M. and R. W. Hluir. PJIll), G' "'"iJ/l'h"lt>gl'.fi"Ol1l Sr'''''',

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ton. http:! daac.gefc.nasa.gov I/OA,\('_ DOCS/uaae _cd.h tml.

\\'-a ~ .

Strain . 1'. and F. Ingle. l 'IlIJ . ,-""kllIX

Publishmg, 304 p-

Zribi. M .. Baghdad i. :-.r . ll " lol h. :-.r , Fnfin, O. and C. Guerin.

: nll ~. - j- vafua no n (If A R (lu ~ h Soil Surface Dc scnp uo n with
AS ,- \R+NV1S,\T Radar Da ta: '
Sen sing "I

<1/

I'"r/h. .-\ II<II\la: Iu tttcr

D S, and J, R. En' fell . I'N 7. '"Cha pl,'r 3: Landforms and

Geolog y," \{""/lal '!( Plw l"g ro!,h ;c Im ,-rpn'I<II;o", 2nd Ed.,
Helh.:sua \:-<i'& RS . 117- ltIS .

R,'",,,,,

Swayze. ( i, 1\., Cla rk. R. N.. (i"el/. A. f. II.. LiHI. K. E. and S.

S SUI ley. 1'1'1'1, "AVIR IS l'I'I t-; Low Alntudc Versus l llgh A I.
titude Cump;m",m ( h er ( Uplif.... ~ e\ a,b : Denver: LS(j ...
hll p:" speclab.cr.usgs.gov I.

"h//I.').'i:(,i 71.

E,..",...

In Situ Reflectance Measurement

15

n s itu spectral renec tance measureme nts obtained on the grou nd using a
han dheld spcct rorud iomc tc r call be used to :
gai n ins ight intu [he spectral reflectanc e characteristics of selected
mater iels:
ca l i brate rem ote sen sor data : and
provi de unique spectral data for impro ved mform .nion extractio n usi ng
mu ltispec tral and hy pcrspcctrul remot e se nsor data .

ln "'"11I spectral rene-cnaucc data are ottcn col lected by scientists simply to gain
insight into the spectral characteristics of Earth-surface materials (e.g .. Bahiag raw). Add itional knowledge about the material can be ob tained by subjec t-

ing it eo \ arious treatments tc.g.. application of different amounts of Nitrogen

to Bahiagrass ) and determining if the trea tments r esul t in different spec tral
reflectance patterns. The various tre atments and the ir spectral re fl ectance
characteristics ca n be: monitored th rough lime 10 obt ain additio na l insight.
Scientists often create spectral reflectance libraries o f the materials found in
thei r stud y area. Se vera l publi c age ncies share the ir spec trallibraries via the
I n t ~'01 ":!, e.g.. U.S . Geologic al Survey Spectral Library 115 (C lark er a I., 20()])
and thc ASTER Spectral Libra ry (ASTER. ~OO(i ) .
Rcmot... sensing systems collec t spectral reflectance data o f the terrain in the
visible and ncar -in frared tVSIR) and short-wavelengt h in frared lSWIR) pornon of the electromagnetic spectrum l O.35 - ~.5 p m ). Atmosphe ric sca ttering.
ab sorpt ion , and reflccuon often impact the energy reflected from the terra in
and recorded by the remote se nsi ng sys tem (re fer to Cha pter 2 ). Fortuna tely,
remote se nsi ng-derived sp ectral reflectan ce data ca n hi: corr ela ted w ith i n
.Ii/II percent re fl ectanc e dura uf the same phe nomena ((I CIlTT~'C t for aun ospheric effec ts {Tcillct et al.. 20(2 ). For example. a 3 x J III plot of'Bahiagmss
on the ground ca n he measured using a ) a high spatial rcsot uuon airborne
multispe ctra l scanne r. and b ] a ha ndhel d spec troradiometer. The remote sens ing data may be co llect ed tho usand s o f meters AG L. The in situ specrroradiomcter measuremen t is typic ally collected ep prcximatcly 1 III abov e the
canopy. Numerous paired airborne and g round-based spec tral reflecta nce
mensurem cms (c.g.. 20 to 301 ca n be used to calibrate (adjust) the remo te
sens ing-derived spectral reflec tance measurement s. to min imize the etfccts
of uuuuspheric scauer ing, absorption. and reflection (jOel/, ~nn~ ) . T he
result is a calib rated remo te sensi ng data set that often y iel ds more accurate
la nd cover or b ioph ysica l information (e.g.. biomass . lea f-are a-inde x] than an
uncnlibrared dataset.

569

570

( ' H A I' n :R

15

In Situ Refl ectance Measur ement

Spect ra l Reflect ance ;\l e3suremenf Using a Handh eld Spect rnrudlomet er

Referenee

Targcl

(Sp l'crrfl hm Plate)

(4:'.g. B(/hill~r"_H )

Refl ecta nce = Target I Reference

--

,.

'.

eO<

,..

.,.

. ,.,

_.....

' >0

.,.

.,.

."

".

II'<'

...

I"

w.......

,.
Figu re 15' A spectral reflectance curve of Hahia grass obta ined
spect ra tc.g .. a " hile Sp..'Clrnlo n referen ce plat e).

c.

b.
b~

//1 sltn spect ral reflectance data from almost pure Earth surface materials (e.g.. hea hhy full- canop y Bahiagrass. fresh
asphalt. Jeep-clear .... <Iler ) can he used to locate cndrncmbcrs
(i.e . pure c las ses ) for lIS\' d uring mu ltispect ral or hyperspectral da ta analysi s. The cmhnemhcrs He used 10 perform
spectral unmixmg whi ch can he used 10 produce ma ps that
revealt he prop ort io n of materials wit hin each pi xel in the
dataset (c.g.. cue pixel might con tai n 40% Bahiagrass, 30%
asphalt, and 30% water]. Jen sen (:!.OOS) pro vides. n d iscus s ion o f linear spectral unmixiug.
Th is chapter de scribes se vera l paramete rs that shou ld he
considered when ob taining In J il/l spectral reflectance measurcmc nts o f land 'over materials using a ha ndheld spectrerad iomet er.

Spec tral Reflectance of a Material

The proc e ss of ob taimn g handheld spec tra l reflec...ance measu reme nts is intriguing . To obta in the re tlecrance s pect rum

d i\id mg the target spectra (I lilhiagr;lss

In

this C\ 3111I'h.) t>~ the reference

nf a target ma terial, PI' it is neces sary to onta in 11,','0 spectral

mea surements:

I. the amount

"I' radiance reflected

wavelength interv al trom

Spcctrnlon plate):

11 rt:(I'I"t' I/{ 'P

in ;1 specific
sample. f. , (e.g.. a

2. the amount or radiance reflected from the target of

inte rest, 1. 1' in the same wavelength interv al (c.g.,
Ilahiag rass).

The renccuncc spec trum. p " . is computed by dividing the

spe ctral res pnnsc o f Illc target of inte rest hy t he spectral
response o f the re ference sample:

PT =

L,
-x L
I.,

(151)

T he correcuon la ctor (kl is the rano Ill' so lar irradia nce to ref-

crcncc plate exuancc and ideally should be nca r I ( McCoy.

:!.OO)). An e xamp lc o f re fe rence __pcctra (Spccrralon 1, targel

Referen ce Mate rial

571

Ill umination Considerati ons

O.\lH

" ow,
E
0
o. ~
0.\12

,,

0.'"
O ~~

250

500

7'0

I~K)

1 2 mt 5 00

1 7 5 n2Iro

22 5 0

2 ~K )

Whe n com puting the reflectance spec tru m o f a material in

the ficld or in thc laboratory, it is impo rtantthat the illum inatio n charac teristics o f the referenc e mate rial (e.g.. Spec tra!\)l1 ) and the target o f intere st (c.g.. !3ahiagrass ) rema in the
same .

Wa' ''.....C'b. nm

Agure 15-2 Spcctr.d rdk'clanc... cheracrcnsucs of a Spcctralon

pIal' over the.' spectral range 2~1l - 2~()() nm mensurcd in the 1;d:...,ral\l[) under comrulled artificial illumination. The reflectance ru n e d......s nUl exh,t-it
the atmosphe ric absorption bands that arc present
when measurcmcms are obtained in direct sola r illumiuanonas shown in Figure IS- Ia.

spectra (Bahin gm ss }, and percent reflectance o f Bahiagms s

is demons trated in Figure 15-1.

Refe ren ce Material

"
Ic
a
1

Spearakm is th... most wide ly used reference mate r ial " hen
ob taining insitu spect ral re flectance measu rements. II is a
thermoplastic white (o r gray ) resin that has dcmcnstrared the
high ...st diffuse re flectance of any knllwn materia l or coating
for terrestrial remote sensing a pplicati ons for bo th fiel d and
laboratory ap plic ations. Space-grade Spcc tralon combines
h igh refle ct ance w ith a n extrcm e ly Iambc rtian re flecta nce
pro file , exhi!>iling reflectance values o f >99% over rhe
wav e length rang ... from 411() 10 1500 nm and >95% from 250
In 2500 nm {Labsphere. 200 tl). Spectra l re flec tanc e characrc risucs of a Spcc trnlo n p late measu red in the la boratory arc
shown in Figure 15-2. Spectralon plates range in size from:!
x 2 x 0.56 in. up 10 24 x 24 x 0.56 in. Most scien tists use 10
x 10 or 12 x 12 in. p lates mounted in a dura ble 3110Jil ed a lumi num fram e . It is possihle.' to purc hase larger plates ba t they
become d ifficult 10 handle in tho: licld. They are also wry
expensive . The surface of the Spcctralon plate sho uld be
ke pi clean from dust and de bris. After heav y usc it may he
necessary to use w utcr and very-line sandpa per to restor ... the
surface .
Each Spcc rralon plate is calib rate d by thc manufaelUr...r. Ca libralion data from 250 10 25()() nm. e\Cry 50 nm i:s suppl ied
with a Spt.'Ctralon plale . Cal ihralion da ta ar ... tracea hle to
nat ional labo rntory standards.

A ny \ ananon in the illum ination characteristics bet" cen the

lime the reference spec tra arc collected :1110 the time the target of interest spect ra arc co llected resu lts in error in the
derived re flectance spectru m. Tha t said. it is usefulto rcv ic....
various scene illumination co nvide ranons.

In Situ Spectral Reflectance Measurement Using Sofar

Illumina tion

Th e so lar energy reachin g the Ea rth's surface and the domi nant factors a ffectin g th e illum ination .... cr ... di-eus,...'1:1 in
Ch apt ...r 2. They are revis ited in Figu re 15-3 for this hand held radiometry disc uss ion. wate r vapor impa cts the iocoming radiant flux the most (Gao a nd Goetz. 1(90 ), So lar
ent"rg) reaching thc Earth 's surface is es sen tially zero in thc
regions aroun d 1400 nm and \900 nm bec ause atmospheric
wate r vapo r absorbs light in these region s ove r the lung path
length of th c atmos phere. The great er the d istan ce that thc
energy has 10 pass through the auuosph e re (i.e. tho: path
length l. the greater the a mount ofabsorption thaI ta kes place
by the var ious atrnus pheric constituents , The amount of
.... mer vapor in the atmosphere changes diurna lly and seasonall) and can vary in space o ver shtlft distances dependin g
upon the characteristic, o f regional a ir masses.
KeIlcct anc c spectra obtained in the field usi ng a handheld
spcc trorudro mctcr arc infl ue need b) fi ve types o f sola r illumin ation . T he mo st dominant irrudiancc is dir...cr solar illumi natio n (E,,: path I) as show n in Figure 15-3. It may
contribute as muc h as 90'% IIf the total energy illuminating
th... ta rget under clear sk) conditions. Scasonal so lar eleva lion ang le HJl and atmospheric co ndnio ns (e.g.. high watervapu r co ntent ) will uffcc t the amount o f radiant tlux and its
spectral cha racteristic s illumi nating the target. Figu re 15-4
documents the sola r irradia nce that actu ally mak es it to the
Earth 's surface after pasving through the atrnosph ...r....
Sca tte ring in the at tllo:sph" r... res ults in d il1"us... sky ligh l illumin ation . Thl" ditlusc sky light usuall y accounts Ii)r 10-20"/.
of th... tota l ...nergy illum inati ng the terra in. T he spl'ctral
chara..:teris lics or J itTuse skylig ht illuminat ion ,Ire a ti lllct io n

In Sil u Reflect ance Measurement

572

III .filii Spec tral Refl ecta nce

\Ica \UTelllCnl U s i ll ~ Su lar Hlumin ation
Sun

Cl (>uJ~
l) 'r I:CI "",' l3r
illu mllut io n. Eo

S pec lru r.ltl ",m"h"

[S]

Pa th

r.u liar;::..(
() ,tlu.;e ",ky
lrr.....ianco:

\~'

\"

~
In"lallla nc"u'"
lidtl...I'-H<.'w t H'O\ "'
o ( lhc .....n""l"~~"l"m

II
H z ] m
Ah lhKle " 00""

b'TOund lc-..d
lAG L I

,f,ldili"",,1fac/on
Iv <'<ImiJ..,: d oud

"hadow. OI:'arhy
ot>Jcc l ",hadO".

w ind

1_ 0 _1
d iafll<.'\ '''' ohM
gmund-r roj,"'l....t lf OV
" n th e IalS'" .1'''01

Figure 15-3 Spectroradiometcr setup for obta ining in sim "lX'<"tra l rerl ec ta nce measurements u, ing solar Illumi na tion.

of the type and amount of atmosphe ric scattering and

abso rption taking place. Some of this d iffuse sky illumination never reache s the target bUI is scatte red into the remote
sensing instru me nt field o f view ( Ed: path 2). So me of t he
diffuse sky irradiancc reach es the ta rget and is subseq uently
refl ect ed into the rem ote se nsing instrument flcld of vic....,

Solar Illuminat ion l-l:ea chin2the

t:a rth ' ~

Su rface

Solar radiation at the

to p of the atmosphe re

nearby terrain is retlecre d

into thc rem ote se ns ing inst rument 's field of view (.t).
Fina lly. the targe t of interest (e .g . Bahiugrass} may be illum inated hy light scatt ered from nearby agriculture, grass .
fo re st. or urban structure s (5). C urtiss and Usuu ( I98H)
found that as milch as 20% of the illuminat ion ( In cleared
forest areas ca me from adjacent forest cove r,

(Ed: path 3). So me irradian cc on

Th e irradiance that never reac hes the g round (2) and the
reflecta nce fro m nearb y feature s on the gro und (4) are co nsidered to be noise and arc called p al}, radiance (L pl. T hus.
the total rad ian ce reac hing the sensor (Ls ) is a fu nct ion oft he
atmo sph er ic path rad ian ce ( Lr l a nd radiance re flected from
tile target o f interes t (1.,-). Sever al atmospheric c harac ter istics also affect illu m inatio n, incl uding the presence o f d oud s
an d wind .
CI(J ud,\ are visual e viden ce Il l' wat er vapor in the atm osphere. C louds can modify the spec tral characterist ics o f the
irradia nce reac hi ng the terra in. Th ere fore. on e might th ink
that it is necessary to han ' an absolutely clear sky dev oid of

() 0,2 0,4 1) I'

U. ~

r.u

1.2 1.4 1.1,

I .~

W.1"c len~,h .

2.0

2.4

z.e 2 . ~ 3.0 3.2

j.lm

Figure 15-4 Solar illuminati" " read, ing the Earth's surface.

clo uds in order to o btain reflectance sJlCctra, T his is not the

case. As long as the re fere nce spect rum (e .g.. derived from a
Spcctralon prate ) a nd the t.lrgel spec trum (c.g., derived from
Bah iilgra ss ) arc obtained under a lmo st identical clo ud-cover
cha ract ensuc s (i.e.. taken in very rapid success ion j. ihen the
subseq ue nt rauoi ng will reduce the error introd uced by
atmospheric cl oud and wa ter vapor varia bilit y (clouds).

1,

573

In S itu Spectral Reflectance

.\ h'a\ UH'mcnt U..in ~Art ifici allllllmin al inn

Tung.'\lt'l'i-Quart7lIotlogcn bmp

/I
Alt itude above

tnstamuncousfield-o f-view

ground level

Tungstcn-QuartzIlalog~-n Lamp

fi rm') of tho:

(AGL)

M:nWf system

/1 - I m

I _D _ I
Diareetcr of the
ground-rrojeeled tFOV
on tile laI~ area

Figu re 15 5

SIX'l.lroradu'm~"lcr setup for

obtaining i" ~j,,, spectral reflectance m.'aSUT1."ITICTlIS using amflcial illumination in a lab.

If the ill situ re flectance spectra arc going 10 be used 10 calibrate satcttuc or aircraft remote sensing-derived spec-Ira.
then the ill ,f i lii reflecta nce spectra should he collected at
ap proximately the sa me lime and under the same atmospheric conditions as the remote sens ing miss ion.

Hilld can play havoc when obtaining in .filll reflectance

spectra . Vegetation ca nopics are particula rly suscc pnblc
because reflectance spectra for a target typicall y arc not
obtai ned in a ~ ing lc me asure ment. Rather. a Spcctralon reference measurement is made. and then perhaps III or more
wrgl.: t measu rements arc m.nlc. T he 10 targe t spectral re n eeranee rncas urcrncnrs arc then averaged to yield a singk target re flecta nce measurement that is d ivided hy the reference
spec tra to yield a calibrated reflectanc e spectrum for the canopy under investigation . Idea lly, the ca nopy rema ins completely st ill d uring the co llection of the 10 target
measurements. Ideally, the leaves are in the same pos ition.
and so arc the shado ws and the a mount of hare soil seen by
the spectrorudiomctcr de tectors through the o ptica l instanta neous field of view (l FO\') Wind moves the leaves in the
canopy. mod ifying the amoun t (If vegetation. shadow. and
bare soilmeucured within the co nstant 1I:0 V of the spectrerad iometer, Wind can even cause d ifferent structural pans of
the canopy te .g. stems , the unders ide o f leaves) to he
viewed dur ing dufcrcm scans. This introduces noi)e into the
reflec tance mca surcmcms.

In Situ Spectral Reflectance Measurement Using

Artificial Illumination in the Laboratory

Somet imes u is useful to obtain the spec tral renectance charactc nsucs (If grass , lcaves. or other land cove r subjec ted to
various treatmen ts in a cont rolled laboratory environment.
In a lahoratury envir onment. the analys t has con trol of:
illuminatio n geometry based on the
positioned and calihrared lamps:

IIS C

of carefully

spcr tromdiomctcr viewing geometry (usua lly poin ting at

nad ir):
environmenta l effects (e.g.. there is no wind . and it does
nol rain in the laboratory ]:
nrmospheric effects te .g., it ts possi ble to control the
tempera ture and water vapor in the la b).
A good configurat ion for indoor artificial illuminat ion is
shown in Figure 15-5. It consists of two 100 - 500 \\ . Tungstcn Quartz Halogen filament lamps (each approxim ately
.l 4 nO K color temperature ] placed in aluminum reflector
housings. orien ted 30 0 Irom horizontal, and placed I m
above the phenomena of interest (ASD. 2005). The power
sup ply should he stahk-. The specrroradiometer optics are
posuioned to \' ic.... the vegetation ca nopy at nad ir. Idea lly.

("IIArn:H.

574

15

In Si tu Refle ct ance Mea surement

Tung~ ltn -Q ua rtl.

lI a lo~l"n

J~

400

.J~O

.0;00

5~ (.t)(J

1150 700 750 ROO 1150 QOO

W,,' .:k ngth 111m)

Figure 156 Ibe spectrum of a rluorcsccmhgju.

the "CnO;OT fiel d of \ iew is compl ete ly tilled by the rarge

mater ials of interes t (e.g. Bahia grass ]. Can: must be exercised ...hen using artificial illum ination 10 collect targ et
reflectance spectra. how ev cr. because exte nvive expos ure 10
the Tungst en-Q ua rtz-H alo gen lam ps can actually "c oo k" the
vegctauon. Thi s can d egrad e the chloro phyll in the pali sade
parench ym a and cause plant \\ atcr to hi: evaporated fm m
plan t spo ngy nicsophyll. These conditions result in spurious
vegetation reflectance spec tra.
Why TUIIJ.:.\l(,, - Qllu rt;-lIuhlJ.:(" ""Imillalit", ? Many
sources o f light can toe USL"<l when obt a in ing in situ spectra
using a handheld spccrroradiomctcr. For example. we co uld
usc co mmerc ial fluore scent lights powered by 60 cycl e AC.
Unfortunately, fluorescent lig hts produce several sha rp
energy peaks throughoutthe visible poruon ofthe spectrum
l Figure 15.(, ). TIley also prov ide litt le energy long er than
750 nm. Converselythe l.'lll.'rgy spectrum otalx: powered
Tung sten- Q uan z-flulogcn la mp prod uces energy that peaks
at npprcximutcly 9 0 (\ nm and yiel ds energy we ll beyo nd
2500 nm (Figure 15 7) (ASt.>. 20(5 ). The tungsten filament
resides insi de a quartz g lass bulb con ta ining halogen gas .
This cornbinntion of marcnals emits a smooth energy curve.
Because this energy is measu red "closeup" in the lab, there
arc no atmospheric ubsorpuon features present in the refer ence or target spectra obtained in the lab . Also. there are no
solar absorption featu res (F raunho fer lint's) discussed in
Chapte r 2.

Charact eri sti cs at th e Spectr oradio meter

Used to Obtain th e In Si tu Refle ct an ce
Spectru m
Th e reflectan ce Spo.-c lr:l 10 be measured are spec ifi ed in the
project experime nta l design . For example. perhaps \\ e want
to collect Uahiagra ss reflectance spectra. There arc seve ral

500

eoc

IlXI(I

\\"a ", kn~l h

La mp

2l'IOO
lo ml

Figure 15-7 The ' f'<."\: trum o( a run~ll'1l-Quart.l-lIalo~:t'n Ia.-np.

oth er important c harac terisncs that must be "pec ified to

ob tain thc de s ired spec tra. inc ludin g: general spectral region
o f interest. spectral rc....olu rion. spectra l ~ m p l i ng interval,
spec trome ter desi gn, da ta colfe-ction speed. view ing georretry. and field of view.

Spectral Region of Interest

If rbc goa l if> til obtain reflectance spectra for a particular

m.ncrial t c.g., Bah iagrass) and neighboring lan d co vcrtypes
te. g .. bare soil . forest. aspha lt). we may nee d 10 mea sure the
spec tral re fl ec tanc e of the materials thmughout the wavelen gth reg ion 350 to 2500 nm . The most impo rtant absotpnon features associa ted with vegetation are summarized in
Table 15- 1 for the wavelength interval -UO nm 102350 nrn.
Figure 151! depicts tho: spec tral reflec tance characteristics of
IWlllthy gr een vegetation from 400 nm 10 2400 nrn .
Strong chlorop hyll nhsorption bands occu r at 4.)() nm and
6h(l nm lur chlorophyll {/ and 4(l(1 nm and 64 0 nm for chlo-

rophy ll b. Wh en vegetation is stressed there is also noticeable moveme nt in the tmnsuion region trorn ncar-infraredto
red reflectance known as the I'ed f'dKf' position. The greater
the amount of "tress, the greater the movemen t of the rededg e to shorter wavelengt hs (Ca rter et al.. 1(96). The shon
wax elcng th infraretl (S\VIR ) from 1050 to 2500 nm provides
valuabl e information on the amount o f wa ter in a plant [i.e.,
its relat ive turg idity ) I Figure 15-X I.

Nume rous vegetation indices di scussed in Chapter II

requ ire mformanon in the chlorophyll absorption bands. Tbe
theoretica l basis lo r "empirically-bused" vegetation indices
is deriv ed from examination (If typical spectra l refle ctance
spec tra ofleaves IF ig.ure 15~ ). Th e re flec ted em:rgy in t/l(
visi b le band s is 10\\ a.. a res ult o f hig h ab sorpuon by photo-

C ha racte rist ics 01 the S peclrorad io meter Us ed to O b tai n t he In S itu

Tab le 15-1.

aenectence Spectru m

Folia r ~~I absnrJllinn feat ures tadaptcd from Curran, II.JIN; ,\ 'il >. 2U05 i.

Mechan ism

Wavelength

Chem ic a l(S)

t~OO

Electron tran sit ion

(,h l0l'Oflh~' 1l

(J.l ~J

Electron U"an~ ition

ll~O

Elect ron tran sition

Electron trans ition
C _ll stretch. 3rd ovenon...
C-Il stre tch, Jrd overtonc
0 -11 stretch. 111d overtonc
O-H stretch. 2n" overtone

ChlOfUph),1l b
Chlorophyll II
Ch lorophyll a
Protcin
Oil
water. sta rch

UM O
0'110

U'IJll
OQ10
11'1'10
1020
1lI4CJ
1120
121111
I,mo
142U
1450
14QU

Protein

19Ktl
21Hltl
20611
20HtI
21011
2UII
2111n
21411

C-Il stretch

15J U
154ll
1:,1I1I
16'111
17Kll

111211
I 'HMI

19J1l
I Q~II

1960

o-n

2l~ n

D-Il stretch. O H deformation

2l7fl
2lHil

C-II SlrelciliO- H stretch. C I I:! beml/ Cll:! stretch

z.tnu
2.\ I u
2,UO
2.1411
2.1 ~1l

C' ll strelch/r l12 deformation

N-II stsctcb. CoO stretch. C 11 bend, :!nd overt on e
(" H bend, 2nd 0\'CI10 1lc

("-II ~treleh.ICIl2 dcformanon

(" H slreldl/O H dcforrnanou r 1l deformation'O- H stretch
Cl I2 bend, 2nd OV<:f1One. (". 1-1 deformation, :!nd overtone

synthet ically active pigm ents wuh ma x imum scnsiuvuy in

th e blue (470 nrn j a nd red (670 nm) w3H' !cnglhs. \1os1 of
the ncar-i nfrared ra diati on is sca ttered tret lecied and transmitted) with \cl) link- absorpuon, in a manner de pendent
upon tile struct ural p ropert ies o f till' ca nopy ( L \ I, leaf angle
distnbuuon, k af murp hology) , As a re sult. the nmtru\(
between red and ncar-infrared re sponses is a s e ns it ive me a -

Starch

!,<-11 stretch
C-I I stretc h. C-H defo rmation
C-1I stretch, :!nd 01ienOIW
0 -11 bend, r overtone
0 -11 bend. 1st o vertone
('-II stretch, CB deformation
0 -11 stretch , l st overtone. (' - II stre tch. C_II deformation
(lH stretch. 1st {w ertone
1'0 -11 stretch, 1st overtone
o-H stretch. 1st overtone
0 -11 stre tch, 1st overtone
O-H stret ch. l st overtone
C 1i stretch, 1st overtone
C-H stretc h. Is, overtone O- H stretch.1I-0 -H deformation
0-11 sectcn'c-o sl.l\.'1ch. 1Ild ovenone
stretc h. C -0 stretch
A bsorbed water
O-H stretch. 0-11 d.:lonnalion
O-H stn: teh/O- Il bend
NH asym metry
O-H deformation, CoO dcforrnanon
N-t! bend , 2nd overtcnezv-H b.:nw'l"- H stretch
(l U >tTeldlfO-1l deformation
O H bend/CoO stretehiC-UC stretch, Jrd overtone
1"-11 stretch
"'-If bend. 2nd ovcnonc/ c-u slrelch/CO stretch:C- ~ ..u crch

mo

575

ou
Lign in
Water, cellulose, sta rch, liguiu
Will"r
Ligum
Stare'h, sugar. lign in, wate r
Cellu lose. sugar
Protein. nitrogen
~Ian; h

Starch, cellulose
Starch, sUgilr
Lij,'11 il1, starc h, protein . nilmg" n
Cellulose, sugar. starch
Co: llu1t~

Starch
WJk'T
W~I<:'T, hgrun, protein. nitrogen. starch. cellulose
Sugar, starch
rr"tei n
Starch
Protem, nitrogen
Sugar. starch

Starch. cellulose
Protem

Proeein
Protein
Starch
Cellu lose. sugar. starch
Starch . cellulose
Protei n. nitrogen
(l il
Starch
Cellu lose
Cellu lose . protein . nitroge n

s ure of vcgcta uon amount. with maximum red HTSUS ?\ IR

differences occumng OH1' a full ca nopy. a nd m inimal contrast over la rg ets wuh little o r no vegetation. For 10\\ and
medium amount s of vegetation, the con trast is a result of
roth red and ~IR changes. wh ile at higher amounts of vegetat io n. on ly the f\IR contributes to inc rea sing co ntrast as the
red band be comes satu ra te d due to c h lorop hy ll a bs o rp tio n.

15

ClI-\ I' IEH

576

I'h ~ , i ll l ll l!j c a l

"

In Situ Reflect ance Measurement

Ua,i.. fur Ik \d lll' i ll~ \ 'l'J,:ct a t iu ll In ll in ''''

.>

Carotenoid and
chlorop hyll
absorption

liquid \'o Jk r
.rbsorpuon

Fuli.1[
rctlec rance

--:::::==:7\.- _. - --I
/

J~

"

"",1

t ."

.'

__
.
.
L
,
1

.
,

/ . \

rV

r> I

v\ /\

\'C&"13I'(lQ

R gu ra 15 -8 I' h}s io log ic:II I>Jlils for dn cloping \cgctat i,m ind il'C'S in the n'g in" fro m :!:'iO - ::! )() nm .

The red versus :-.11 K corurasr can he quan ti lied thro ugh the
UM~ of ratios (f'\ 1R I lh -dl. diffe rences (:-.1 1R - RedI. \\ cighted

diffe rences rNIR - ( k Rcd t]. linear hand combin.uicns

[(:-.<I R - Red I / (l\ IR + Rcd j]. or hybrid approaches of the
aNIVe. Yl.'gc lali,'n indexes an: measu res ofthis cont ra- a and
th us (ITt.' integrative functions of canopy struct ural [c.g ., pe rce nt cove r. LAl l and physiological (e.g .. pigments. photosy nthesis f paramet ers (Huctc et ,II..

2 00~).

Numerous

vegetation indices were summarized in Chapt er I I .

Spectral Resolution

ohnion of about III nm (refer

about A\' IKlS I.

10

Chapte r 7 fo r information

Sp ectral Sampling Interval

....i1"clral .,(/ml'lill,~ interval is the sp;H: ing betwee n sample

poirus in the re flectanc e spectrum. It is w ise to use a handheld spcctrorudiumcrcr LIMl has a spectral sampl ing interval
(If I A nm (il J:'i( l - ]LUIO 11111, and 2 nm (if I l IO(l - 2500 nm
{ASD, 2tllJ5J.

Spec trometer Design and Data Collection Speed

resolution is defined as the full- wid th-half-m aximu m ( FWII" !) o f the spcc rrorodiomctcr response to a
monochromatic tig ht source ( AS!>. 20115 L T he FW HM conce pt was introduced in Fig ure 16 . Spec tral resolution may
a lso be de fined :IS the na rrowest 5.pectral feature that can be
resolved by II spect rome ter. I\I00ny scicnnsu, are imerested in
obtaining re flectanc e spectra for selected land cove r types
S,/IXlrlll

subjected II) various tre atments in order ttl understand thc

spectral respllnsc to these trea tments. If po.;sib lc. it is idealto
use a han dheld spcct roradiomctcr that has a spectral rcsotulion of 2 to 3 nm for the region J f>() to 1000 nm. and III nm
(or tho: reg ion woO nm to 2400 nm. Hypcrspcctral a irborne
remote sensing sYSh~Il1S such ali A\'IRIS have a spectral res -

Some spcctroradunuctcrs used for in .\'il/l data collec tion

record thc spectral infurmarion mo re rap id ly and accurately
than others. The mor e rapid ly the spcc tro radio rnctc r collects
all individua l scan in th.... field. the hig h<:Ttho: probability that
additional spectra '" ill be obta ined before envirenrncrnal
conditions t e .g.. cloud cove r, win d) and ~e nSOT system condruons IC.g.., vrewmg geometry) change. Reme mber. the
gOJI is to ho ld as ma ny env ironmc rual a nd sensor paramet e~
a s constant as po~s l h le while the target a nd re fere nce scans
arc coltccwd.

.-- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - .
,

Characteristic s of the Spec troeadicmeter Used to Obtain the In Situ Reflectance Spectrum

Si licon de tectors prov ide the b..'S1 perfo rmance for remote
sensi ng invest igations in the- \ isihk a nd near-infrared
(VN IR ) portion ofthe spec trum from 350 to 1000 nm . In the
sho rt-wavelength infrared (SW IRl region from 1000 - 2500
om , the amo unt o f so lar e nergy availab le for me asure men t
decrease s. There fore . mo re sens itive de tectors a rc required
III mea sure energy in the S W iI{ region ( AS D, Z005 1. Typical
detectors include 1w 0 separate InliaAs ( Ind ium ga llium arsenide ) photodiodcs.

577

Fil'lds of Vtcw
,.\....nc iated with

Var ious Fere-optlcs

All spcctroradiomcters produce: .... nn e noise. Dar k-cu rren t

{i.c., electronic o r detector no ise) can be measured by view -

ing a blac k reflect ance target or hy lak ing me asurements

w ith the optics cove red , The dar k-cu rrent sig nal can the n be
subtracted from subseq uent spe ctral measure me nts. Most
spcctro radiom ercrs include softwa re lo r recordi ng and subtracung dar k-c urrent.

2~ ~ 159,9 em diam"l"n

1M" (42.Mem olamd er)

Viewing Geometty and Reid of View

g" t l ll.l'i ",m Ol"" Ktcn

Ideally, in ,H t /l a nd remote senving-dcrived refl ectance spectra are ob tai ned by a spcctrorad iomctcr vie wing the terr ain at
nadir. Most spec tral invest igation s have problems dea ling
w ith the bidirect iona l refle ctance dis trib ution funct ion
(BRDF ) effe cts introduced by the di urnal chan ge in sun I:Ievntion and azimuth. Schil l ct nl. ( 2 ()O ~ ) doc um ented how the
spect ra l reflec ta nce o f Smooth Cor dgrass (S,,'lrtil1,j ulternijlUrtlJ cha nged throughout the day du e 10 changes in Sun
a hit udc and ze nith angles . The HRDf problems become
even more acute whe n the ~nsor ob tains data o ff-nadir.
Th ere fore. when ever po ss ible . ill situ refl ectance da ta shou ld
be obt ained at nadir.
T he actualte rrain ... icwcd by the spcctrore dio mctc r at nad ir
is a function of several facto rs. The diam ete r (/) of the
ground-p rojected ins tantaneou s field of view o bse rved by
the spcc trorud iosnctcr optics is a function ofthe ang u la r fi eld
o f view (IJ ) multiplied by the d istance of the rad io meter
abo ve tho: phe nomena o f inte rest (If):
1J ""~xlI.

( 15-2)

Th o: d iameter (0) of the ground -projected IFO V sho uld be

decided earl} in the project. In ex ploratory studies, [) mi ght
be set at re latively sm all d imens io n 10 obtain spect ra at the
leaf. bra nch, and cano py s patial se al... [e.g .. D va lues ranging
fr om j ust a fe w centime ters to 0 .25 III (appro ximately-' I tt.j].
Thi s wo uld provide detailed in formation Ull vegetation .
sha duw, and soi l characteristic s typ ically encountered in a
remo te se ns ing inve stig anon Refl ectance me asurements
from individualleaves and branche s arc bes t obta ined in a
controlled laboratory en vironment fo r reason s pre viou sly

1 (2"' em di a m~fi) -:1::~::::~~

JO( 7 em ,harnet"rl

5" ( l l .ll em diameterl

Figure 15-9 Fi,' I,lsofview using 1 .1.5, 1(, l x. and 25 degree foreopncs fur a handheld spcc troradiomcrcr positioned
I ~ ~ ern above th.:- terrain uf interest.

di scussed re.g.. illum ination varia tio ns ca used by clouds.

w indj . Valuahlc information about the effects o f me va riou s
treatments might be discove red in th is ma nner. Howe ver, it
sho uld he not ed that reflect ance spectr a derived trom indi viduallea ves and branches ar c usually (If limited valu e " he n
tryin g to per form matched-filtering M othcr ty pes <If image
classifica tion bas ed on 11/ si l/l re flectance s pc ctra ( Resea rch
Sys tems. Inc . 20041.
Con versely, i f we arc interested in using the re flectance
spectrum for ca librating a specific type o f remote sensor
data (e .g., 224 hand s o f AVIR IS dat a at 3 x 3 m ) or performing matched-filtering cl assi fication (Ising: these data. then it
wou ld be logi..:al tu adjust the diameter ( D ) of the grou nd ,
projected IFO V o f the handh eld spcc tro radio mc tcr to be 3
m. We mig ht need ttl collect the i/l situ spectra wh ile stand ing on a ladder in orde r to obtuin such a Held o f view.
Fig ure 15,1) dep icts field s o f view ava ilable us ing 1- . 3-, 5H-. 18 -. and 25 -degrcc forc-cprics fe r a spcc tro radio rnerer
hdd 135 em aNn e the target of inte res t. Th e 25-degr field

-15

578

l'Iunt.1{

of view fore-opt ics may allow the spectroradiornetcr 10

ob ta in data that ls more represe ntative o f airborne hype rspec tral remote se nsing systems.

In Sit u Refl ectance Measurement

Cu rran . P. J.. IQloN . "R cmote Sens ing of Foli ar Chemistry," R~I1!<'lf

Sell.'mg of f :m 'i n mm,'nI ..'11:271- 271( ,

( 'urt iss. l. and S , l. Ustm , l'IXI( "S pectral Changes in Pond.-rosa

Candida te specrroradiometers
Reffectance Data Collection

fOf

In Situ Spectral

Pine associated wuh Natural <>lnne Ex posu re." Fore,.' Se" '1lY
Fun :!>1 R.~pulI." l'nJg ru,,, Am lll<J{ .\ f.....ti ng. Corpus Christi. Fet>-

mary. 1'1' 23- 26,

There arc a variety o f handh cld spcct roradiomc rcrs that may
be used 10 collect the required in situ spectra l reflectance
information. Tw o of the mos t widely used spcc tro radiomclen; arc prod uced by
Geophysical Environm ental Res earch (G ER).

cr..

{",u~<'
: mji.'ulivn L$Ulg"
Ralch r"'wending Fuz::y Lellrning v.'C'"r QII<m/i::o lion Artificial
."<,uru l S/;',..,"'.. '~<,futi,m M<JPl'ing IIf the loon f: fo.:en.,ro..
Spu..,.. C"nI.,.. M.asIL'TS ItM:s is. Colum bia : U mv. o f S.C. 276 P.

Filippi. A.. IQ<)<). IIll,,-,..,{,,-'c!,.,JI

G l: R, ;:1100. f"idd

"""',lfH...

SI'r<'fmruJ",merel"'1>. M illhl'OO.l k, 1\Y:

GnMlI' for Environmen tal Research , www.gcrt.com .

Analytical SpectralDe vices.

Spcctroradio merers produced by thL'SC vendo rs are capable
of obta ining the required spectral reflectance data over the
spectral region from 400 - 2500 om at approximately 10 om
reso jution. Each is easy to usc, stores info rmation in a d igital
format. and can be customize d 10 fulfill speci fic user
req uirem ents in the field {c.g .. field of view, interfaces,
bac kpacks) . Specrroradiomcrcr instrum ent speci fica ti ons
change rap idly. so it is ncceeoary 10 con tact tile vendors to
obtain cu rrent information .

Goetz, S. J.. 20ll:!. " RL-.:o:nt Advance, in R<:nwlc S<."llsing o f Bil>.

physical Variahles.: ,\ n Dvervjew o f tI'M: Special Issue," R,_t
,'\en\inR n/ En 1'ln mm ..nI . 7~ : 145- 1 .u. ,
Jt'I1 'lC1l.

mor,'

J. R.. 2005. Intr....JI/,H)Dig ilu{ Imug"

PrtH.,,_uing ' .~ R..-

,o;.-n'IIIR P""(J<'< 'f" '<'. 3 rd Ed . U J'f'('T Sadd le I{IW T: Pren-

uce-usu. S:!5 p.
fiac, B. C and A. F. H. (;,)("tl-. I INO. "Column Atmospheric Water
Vapo r Ret rievals fro m Airborno: Imag ing Spectrometer Data,"
Jnurnal "1 C""l'h,n iml Rl, ,,,lt"h Alm"'l'l...r.:~. Q5:354Q-3564

References
Hu ct c. A , R.. Did an , K.. Miura. T.. Rod riguez. E. P. G ao, X. andG
Ferreir a , 2002 , "Uvervicw of t he Rad iometric and Hiophysical

Perform ance o flhe 1-.101)1 S \ ....1i-c( HlitHi lndiccs." 1Ie-"Wl

ASO, 200~ . T"cllIIi('ill Gui,I,, -tth Ed.,l1 oulder: Analytica l Spectral

es..",mg

'if 11\'1"""''''/11 113 :195 -2 13,

De vices. hllp :l/w ww.a.<tl i.com.

l.ahsphcrc. 2lKJ(,. ,\i " ,,'lruf"l!. North StUt"l l. N f l. http ://ww w.labAS]), 20llo, F I('Id.\;><'( Pm . Boulde r: Analytica l Spectra l Devices ,

sphere.com.

hltp ://www.asdj .cl.rnlproduc ts-sp...c troradiometers.asp

~k Coy,

AS TER , 20{16, AS7't.'1I S{wC'tml Library: Pasadena: A STE R Com-

rmnc c,

R. M.. 2004, Fidd Jkllwd ,' III 11..",<11,' S<'lI.<ing, NY: Liuil-

r"nl. 159 p.

hl1p ://, pccJib.j pLo a"q~<l v I.

Caner. <i ,\ .. Cihuln . W. (i and It L Miller. I'No, "Narrow-band

Reflectance Imagery C tJlllparcd wi th Th ermal Imagery fo r Early

Schill. S.. Jensen, J. R. arul (i Raber. 20U-I, "Bi-direct ion al Reflc ctnncc Distribution Function o f Sm ooth Cordgrass (SI''''''I II'I ,~ /_
I,'mlt/"r a l: ' (I/Sn,'"' ''' ,to R"m"'" Sen \'i" l(. 4 1(2):I J(,- 135.

Dl'll'Cl i" o of Pla nt Stress." Jlltlm,,1 vi l'lll'll Php iulub:v ,

1411:515- 522.
Clark, R, N.. Swayze, (i A" Wise, R" Live, K, E,. Uoc f<.' n, T, \1..
Kokaly, It 1'. and S J. Sutley_ 2UOl USG S Digifal Spect,." f L ,brary : Splih()jll. USGS O pcn Fi le Re port 03-3Q5, Was hi ngton:
USGS, hnp:/l sp..'Clah.er.usgs.ll OV!sp,:clral. lih. hlml .

Tcilict. I'. "-I.. G aeth ier. R, P" Cbic hagov, A . and Ci Fe-doscjc vs.
20(}2, " lima/d, In tegra ted Earth Se nsing: Adva nced Tcchnclogic s for In Snu Sens ing in the Ccnrext of Earth O bserv ation." Co-

n,,,fia,,1011""./ nj Rem"', Sl'In i" f.:. 2K(0) :7 [ 3-7 1K,

Appendix Sources of Remote Sensing

Information
On -line Tutorials

Funda mentals ofRemote Sensmg. by Ca nada Center for Remote Sen si ng.
W \Ii W .ccrs .nrc an .gc.cazreso urcc I UI Of' fundamJindc.\_e.php

NASA Observatorium. http ://o bse,,,e.arc.nasa .govrne sa 'core.sht rnl.h trnl

NASA Global Change

Ma.~'l'r

Din-crary. htl p:lIl;cmd .gs fc.na sa.go..-1

mdex.hunl

Remote Sensing Core Curriculum, hy l eRSt: . A SPRS. and l'\CGIA . http:/

Iv. ww.r-s-c-c.org /
Remm e Sensing Tutori al, by Ni chola s \1 . Short. NASA God dard S pace
flig ht Ce nte r. hn p:flrs Lgsfc. nasa.go \'/
Remo te Sensi ng Tutorial, by the Virtua l Hawaii. hup :/lsatlip.sClcsl.haw ai i.
edu .space/ha wai i/ vIts/oahu /rem_scns_cxzrsex.spc rrar.t.tumt
Virtu al Library: Remot e Se1l-<; II1:. http ~ ll\' i rtua l. vu.fl/space/rsvlib'!

IAEGS Model Curriculum, by t he Univ. of Miss iss ipp i Inst itute fo r Advenced Educ ation in Geospatial Sciences. hup :llgeo\\ork force. o km iss.
cd c /overview.p bp
Societies
Alliance fo r Marin e Remote Sensing -, www.wrncrohscrvcr.crg
Ame rican Geop hys ical Union - www.agu.org /
American Soc. for Phot ng ra mmctry & Re mo tc Sensi ng - www.asprs .org

Canadian Remote Sensing Soc . - www.cavi.ca/ind-ex. phpvpg ...crss

Euro pea n Assoc . Remo te Sensing Labs - www ,earsd.orglwelcome. btml
FeJ ...ration of Ame rican Scientists; Image imcfligcnce - www.fus.org/

IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society - ww w.grss-ieee.org/

579

Appe n tU l< S o urces 0' Remote S e ns Ing tntcrmanen

Inll. Comm issinn on R ~' rn' lI'" Sensing - hltp:/i hydmlah .

arsusda.gov 1- j ritchie/

( '01111'' '''''''''''

Int i. Soc. lor Phorogrammetry & Remote Sensing - www.

isprs.org

Eart h Observation flfaga=i"f' - www.eomo nline.com'

( i("<,sc i ,,,,,",'.,

w\-"w...,b;cliicr,eo miloealcl

compgeosci/

National Stereoscopic Assoc. - www.stereoview, erg/

Gcocano International - "" w w .gcoca rto.com/gcocarto,

himI

Remote Sensing and Phorogrammetry Soc. (L:K) - "" \\ w.

Gcohsfonnattcs

ww w.j-gcoinfo. nct/

rspsoc .o rgr

Geosp.nial Solutions - www.geospanat-onlinc.com '

Remote Sensing. Spec ially G roup. Assoc. Am er. Geog raphers - w"" w.aagrssg.()rg!
SPIE tn u. Soc . For Optical Engineering - www.sp ie.org/
Nat ional Space Ag en c ie s
Canada Center Remote Sensing - ww w.ccrs .nrcan. gc.ca/

G IScie llce & Remote

Sell~ ill~

- www.bellp ub.cnm msrs

IEEE Transactions Oil G.'O.<('iI'II c e & Remote Sensing hup:I/il'ev.p lore.ic.o'll/xpI /Rcccnthsuc.jsp?
punumber= 36
Inll Journal "f Rem ote Se n,illl<: - www.ran-df.co.uk/
journa ls/onlincl O143- J 161.a sp

Centre Nat iona l d'Er ude s S pariales - www .cnes.fr/

CS IRO -Scientific and Industria l Research for Au srralic -.
www.csiro.au/

IS I'RS Jou rna l o/ I'lw lox rulI/l/ft'lry Ulld Rt'moTt' Sensmg -.

www .ehc\"icr.cum 'l<)c:lte'isprsj pn;

t'anern R.'coXflilitm - http ://se ienc<,: .dir<:ct.eom

European Space Agency - "" .... w.eva.iru /
R"II/tl/,'

Na tional Ae ronau tic s 8; S pace Adm inistration

nasa.gov /

Sn l"i" x 01 Environment - www.elsevier.com

~ WI-'.'W .

National Re mo te Sensing Agency Ind ia - www. nrsa.

gov .in!

Photogrummctric Eng ineering .{ Rl'/I/()/" Sl'IIIillg asp rs.o rg/pubIicatio ns Iindex .hI m I

www.

Sl cn'O u'orld -: National Stereos cop ic Association - www .

src rcov i CW . I lrg/slereowo rld .hrIn ]

National Re mote Sensi ng Agl'ney Ja pan - www.nusda .

go.j p/index _c .hrm l

Aeria l Ph otography Sou rc es

K ite a..'r ia l phorogrnph y - htl p:!!arcl1.l: cd .hcrkc lcy.cd ul
kap/k aptoc .htm l

Journals

Ad vances ill Space R"I,t,tIId, - www.clsc vicr.co m'wps/

product/cws_h01l1e/644f
Aunosphertc R"~I:<l/t:h - ww w.elsevie r.eom/wpsiprodm:t!
cws_homei5 0JJ23

NII A I' lind NII AP

USGS , Na tionalHigh Al titude Photogra phy ( I\ HA P) & Natiuna l Aeria l Pho tography Progra m ( ;<'; .'\ 1'1' ). hltp:/lcdc,llsgS.gov lgui dcs nap p.luml

US DA Photog ra phy - www.apfo.nsda. govl

Bl1t"k.n-'II II,: r -

marine remo te sensi ng: www.watcr

observer.erg/
Cartugra phy.( Geographic lnformatian Science - www.
acs m.nevca g is/cagisjr. ht mI
Cunadian J ournal 0/ Remote Sens ing - www.casi.ca,
indexphp

Multispectral Remote Sensi ng Data Resource s

ADEOS-J1 NAS DA Ad va nced Ea rth O bse rving Satd
lite-It , hu p :lls ha ra ku.c orc.j axa.j p/ AD EOS2/i ndcx .html

581

Multispectra l Remo te Sensing Dat a Resour ce s

A\1SR - i'\,lI"SA Terra Advanced vti crowavc Scanning

Radi ometer [onboard ADEOS-III, hnp:/lsharaku .eor c.
ja xa.jp/ A:\ IS Rzindex _e . htm
ASTE R - NASA Terra Advanced Spucebom c Therma l
Emiss ion a nd Re flectio n Radiometer, h tt p : //ll ~ t l' rw e h .
j pl. nasa . gov /

LA:\DSAT TM - Themat ic x tappcr, http://l' dt.: .us gs.gov /

products/ sa te 11 ite/t m .htm 1
LA:'oi DSAT 7 (En..I-t- ) - l. a ndsa l 7 Enhanced Themat ic
Ma pper Plus. hllp :ll landsa t7 .usgs.go v!
Mer cury, Gemi ni. A pollo. Sky lab - .... ww-pao.k sc.nn sa.
gOYIh isrory/rucrcury/mcrcury.htm

r\V II RR ~ ~O AA Advanced ve ry High Revolution Radicmctc r, hHp:J/edc.usgs ,go v/prod uc ts/satel Ii te la \I hrr,
html

M[ T EOSAT - hll p:!lo iswww.cu mcts31,org l l[)[)S -cgi l

lis t!mages .plv mebnw

AVIIRR Pathfind er - hllp :l/podaacjpl .na sa .go v/cgi -b in

dcatalog Tam _su mma ry.plvss t- pfsc t

:\IIS R !\"ASA Terra :-.t ult i-a ng lc Imag ing Spcc troradiomet er. \\ ww-m isr.jpl.nasa.go v/

AVIRIS - :-.IAS:\ Ad van ced Visible/infrared Imag ing

S pec tro meter. hnp:/la \ insjpl.nasa.g c v/

1\IODIS - l\:AS/\ Tel"r a \Ioderate Resolut ion Ima ging

Spect rometer. htlp :/Imod is.g '"fc.nasc. ~O\"

CAS I - Compact Ai rborne Spectrog raphic Image r, ITRES

Rese arch Lim ited of Canad a, www.n res.com /

1\ IOP ITT - \:ASA TI'I""o Measurem en t o f Po lt uuon in the

T ropos here. hn p:1f e (l~ " cb .Iare .na...a. ~() vi I' R0 OOC S:'
mopi ltlla bIe_lIIopi tt,html

C ERES - NASA U '/"I '<I (lou us and the Earth's Rad ian t
Energy System, hl1p : lla,d-www.larc.n <tsa.gov/cen~s/
AS lkercs.html

1\ lOS- II ~IU S - 1 b - 1\ I urine O hsc rvation Satcll itc, Im p:!1

www.cocja.\a.jjlfsall. llitclsaldata/mos_e.ht III 1

(' O R O ~ A.

O('TS - Ocean Color and Temperature Scanne r. www.

eoc.jaxa.jp satc lli tc'sc nd ata /oc ts_e.html

D\ISP - Defense Meteorolog ical Sarelhte Program.

" W", ngdc. noaa.gov /dmsp lndcx.hnn l

O rbvicw-j - GcaE)1.'. Ind .. www.Gcoliyc.c om

ARGO"l . LAf\YAR f) dec lass ified ima ges.

htt p://edc.usgs.g:o\!produets satel liledeclassL hunl

EO- I - NASA ~o:w Millennium Pro gram . Earth Observing- L Advanced La nd Imager. htl p:lleo l. gs fc.nas a.
go v!

GO ES - l\:O AAfN ASA Gcoste rionary Operat ional Environ -mental Sa tell itc, hllp :!lg oes.gsfc .nllsa.g nYI

Qu ickH ird - lJigilalOloho:. Inc.. ww w.digital-globe.com

abou t quic khird.hnnl
RESU RS-OI - R IJ ~ s i an satellite, hUp:!lsputnil.,infllspace.
ru -rcsu rs.cng l.rcs LIT s , lu In
ScaWi FS ( O rhVll'w-2 ) - Geo t.yc. Ind.. www.GcoEye.c orn

Goog!c Earth - Gcoglc. Inc.. h tt p://ea rlh.g{ll)g le.com /

I ~ [I nformation. ln te gr unon. Image, lnc.j. www.iLccm /
IKO~OS

- Geohye. Inc. " 1-\ w.Geoli ye.cum

IRS - I A. B. C, D - Ind ia n Remote Sen sing Syst em . Linear

Imagi ng Sel f-scann ing Sensor ( L1SS). hltp:/i .... 1-\" .
spac.:-i mag ing.co m: prod ul'ts: irs /index. htlll
LA NDSAT \.1 SS - Multispectra l Sca nner. hllp :/!ede .usgs.
g O Yzpnxl ucts/sa tc lInc/mss.hun!

SO IIO - Sc..lar and l te ho sphc ric O bse rvatory. http://

soh owww.n ascom.nasa.go..-t
Space Shuule Photo g ra phy - www.nas m.s i.cd u..c epsirpi l1
ssp r.cfm
S PI:".!1 TK-35 0 and KVR IOOO - U.S . co verage served
on Micro soft's Te rra Server (www.rcrraserver.com '
pTOvido:rs/SP I ~~ .a sP I
S POT 1- 5 - www.spot.com

582

AppendilC - Sou rces 01 Remote Sensing Information

SS M,.' I - NOAA/ NA SA Spe cia l Sen sor M icro wav e/ Ima ger. hll p:/lpouilac.j pl.nasa.gov :203 1/sc nsof_docs/ssrni .
htm l

SLAR - NASA Si de - Loo ki ng Airborne Radar, htt p://

p uhs ,usg s.gov'/ofl20( 1)'o llfO-OO6/ ht m/s lar. ht rn

TO Yl S - Tota l Ozon e Map ping S pectromete r. http;/!

j wocky.gsfc .nasa.go v/

S RT M Shunk Rad ar Top ogra ph y M ission. w wwj.jpl.

nasa .gov .sn m'

TOPEX/POSEI DO:-J - hn p:/II(\pC':\-www.j pl ,nasa.gov!

STA R-3 i Sea Icc and Terra in Assessme nt Rad ar. Tnrerma p Technologies, wwwin termap.c o rn/ jma ges papers/
Imcrma p _STA R.3 i. upg rade.' _ ~crecn _ v'2.pdf

TR M M NASN}J AS DA Tro pica l Ra infa ll Meas uri ng

Miss io n. hnp:htrmm.gstc .nasa ,gnvl

Virtual Earth - Mi c rosilli Inc .. ..... ww.local.li ...e.cum

UARS - !'ASA Uppe r Atmos phe re Resea rch Satellite.

htlp :l/um pgal .gs lc .nasa .gov/Rad ar Sensor Systems

On -line Remote Sensing Resources at the

University of South Carol ina

AIRSA R - NASA JPl SA R. htt p://airsa r.jpl.nasa.gov!

Or. Jensen provides I'o w crPu int 1M lecture materials containing non-copyrighted illust ralio ns round in this book free of
charge for educationa l pu rpu~s . The proct.'SS can be initiated
by , 'is lt ing the Unive rsity of Sout h Carolina Ce nte r for GIS
& Rem ot e Se nsing 31

ENVISATI - Europe an Space Agency. hnp J /c nvisal.

csa .int '
ERS- 1. 2 - European Space Agency. hlt p:!lcanh.csa.int'
crs/

JERS- l - Japanese Ea rth Resource Satcflit .... www. nasd a.

go.j p/proj ects/sat /jcrs I ii ndex_e.htmI
Li ghlS AR - NASA Spaccbome Radar (propos l:dl, hn p:/I
sourhport.j pi ,nasa, go vI Iightsarl

Dr. Jensen a lso provide s free acce ss to remote sensing cxcrcis~ an d selected re mote se nsing daiascts that he- uses in the
Univcrs uy o f South Carolina "Remote Sensing of Environmcm" course . Please acce ss the infc rrnanon at:

1\ 1\ \~ .cas.S(".eJ

u/l,:cul,:' Rsbook/indcx.html.

RADARSAT - C anadia n, www.rsi.c u/

SE AS AT - hUp://SOUl hport.jpl .nasa.g.ov!seicm.:..:apps/
scas at.h un !

SI R-A. B. C/X-SAR - A'ASA Spun: Shunte l /l/ugillK Ra.tor:

Sl R-A -

htlp:llsIlUlhport.jpl J1ilsa .gov/sc icncca pps/si ru,

htrnl
S IR- H html

http : //sllu lh pl lrt .j p l . lla~ a. gll v /scie nceapps/s irh.

S IR-C/ X-SAR - http ://southpo rt.jpl.nasa.gov/si r-c!

You are welcome tn usc the lecture mate rials a nd exercises

and adapt them to your req uireme nts. Several of the exercises require access to the ER D/\S Imagine digi tal ima g~
p roc essing sy stem ( Of cl[uiva t.: m ) 10 perform fundamental
op crution s such us vicwiug a culm-co mposite image and
m~ "-ing rneasuremcnr s . In most instances. uhe imagery used
in the e xercis es is in thc public dom ain unless otherwise
noted. If yuu usc the remote sen sing e xerc ise materials.
please send the autho r information about inno vative uses.
Il1ctliOlhllllgica l re finements rhat co uld be made. and
improved d;LlaselS rhat might be usc,i,


Index

A
Absolute zero. N . 249

All....>rptiOll bands.
atmospheric. 51-52. 5+-.55. 25 3 ~254
extinction coemctem . 51. 411---4 12

rocks and mineral s.

a lunite. 5 19
holi nite. 520

518-5~O

quartz, 519
vegetation
ca~cne. J59-3 ~. J ~X

chlorophyll a and b, 205, 35Q- J60. 4 11\-41 9. 422

phycoery th rin, 351)....360

ph)'l;ocyani n.359-360
...1111.,.,

4 1 ~ lq .

423 . 425-----4 26

Across- track scanners.. .....' Scann ing

A("th c microwave. S<T Radar
AOAR 5500 s.:nsot sY$ll....r. 15
Advanced Spac...b ome Thermal Emission and Re tlecnon Radiometer ( ASTER ).
13.2 -1.23 1- 233
Advancc-d V\'f)' High Resolution Radiometer (AW IRR l. 2 15--2 111
Aeria l perspecuve. 'll, 127- 118
Aerial phlll01!T3phy ccameras
focal (film ) plane, 92. <)5
foc al len gth. 95-'1/:1. 911

.p stup. <)(......97. 109. 118

imllgemotion compensation. 'i'l_1 00
mtcrvalomcter, 9<)
jens angle of view. IN
shutte r. 95-96. 9~
shutter speed. 'In.-'n, 117
tYPI:S of
digital, 9 7, l OI- 105
mulripte-Icns. multi-band, 97,10 1-102

panoramic. 95
sill~l.:lcns

mapping. 'n-l 00

Aerinl phulograph ) films, HW- 124

blac k-and -white

infrared. I II -Ill
panchromati c, 1[ 1-[1 2
orthoch rornanc , I [1- 112
color
color t non nal). 111. 1[3, 122- ID
color-infrared. II I. IB , 1:23-1 24
history of, 62-M
negarivc'poshive process . 62---6.5. 113---11.5

583

584

winduw s. 25 3 -254
rada r pe nerrauon or; 32H- 32 I
M:all~Ti n!:\ in. sec Scatteri ng

silver halide crystals. 110-112

spccd.Lln

Aerial photography filtration, 104- 109

band-pass fihcring. !07- 10S
haze filt er, 115
Kodak wranen, 107- 1Oi!. 122
minus-blue. IN
polarizing lih ...rs, Iii, 107- 110
Aerial photography platforms

aircral\, 72-74
\lo n ght brothers. 72-73
WW I and WWII . 74 -76
balloons, 60-70
(i\,'1lctri\ . 77
c ivil wer. t>~9
cold ...ar. 7r..-lll
Corona -a retlue. It 1- 10

SR71 aim afl.. 1I0

U-2 aircraft. 77-1l0
glidl.'B. 7 1. 7J
klle:<. 70- 7 \
ormthoptcrs, Of>
pigelln s. 71- 72
rock ets, 6 3, 69

unmanned aerial vehicles. K5- lIl!

Aer osols. remlll.: sensing o f, 4 31..... 02
Agri culture Nonl'llinl Source ( AG f'\PS f po lh.l\ion model. 43 7
Agric ulture . remote sen sing o f, 371 - 373 . ~ 77 <HC2 , 40()-4 fl2
Ai r ba se . /lll_lll"l
Airborne Terre strial Applications Senso r (ATLAS ), 220-222
Airborne Visible/l ntrared Imaging Spt.'Cullmcle r lAVI RIS).

13.240-241
Aircraft . Sloe A...ria l phn\ography platforms
Alluvial depos its
fans . !i4f>. !i411
bajadas. 546. 5411
pediments. 546--54~
Altitude above-ground level (AGL), 92 . 150
American Plan ning Associntion. ~ ~ 1-452

Analog-to-digital conversion. I. 1Ill - I l l.

Ancillary informntirm, 1 ~4
Angle of view
oblique

101<. 92 - (,l4
high. 92 . '14-'15

vertical. 1)1 - 92, 14'J

Anastomotic drainag.. pattern, !i2K-529
Annular dra inage paueru. 527- 5211
Ante nna . sec Radar system com ponents
Anticlinal ridges. 522- 523. 53~. 54U
An-a arrays. !In. Illn. 101-11'"
Area measurement s, 189 - 1"'2
dot ",'Tid. 19H... 19 1
on-sc ree n

dlgitiz;Jtiull. 191- 192

Arete. 557- 5511

Atmosphere

absorpti(lfl and transmission in. 51-5 2

B
Beck scartc r. '<t Kad ar. terra in
Badland topograp hy, Sl;C Drainag... p"1I...rns . pinnate
galleon phulllgral'h~ . f>(>- 7 tl
Bands u f the electro magnetic spectrum
infrared
r... Il... cuve. 12-15. 42 -U . 4 7. 4 14
midd le. 12- 15. 42 -45. 41
th<:rmal. 12-1 5.42-45.41
rmcm wa ve. see Radlr system . ",a vclenglh (0.- freq uency)
ultraviolet, 42 -45. 4 7. 4 14
visible. 12-1 5.42-45. 41. 4 14

'1M

parallax. 173- 114

shor... hll..:.45 1-452
Harriet' island. 55 1-5 53
Basc.lilm.llO- 112
Batho lilhs . 5.':1- 534
Bcach . 551- 553
cliffs. !i54. 5 sn
Ikdflld,. 5()ll-501~
Bid irec tion a l reflectance dismbuuon funct ion . 2ll-- 21
Ui"d i, ~1> 1 1). .N 3- 3~ 1
Biophys ical variables. 10--12
Hlack-and-w hue pho tog raphy, 111- 122
Blackbody. W. 254
Hh...:l o f ae ria l ph" logra ph)'. 150- 152
Braided drainage panc m . 527 _52"j
Brightne ss lelllpc:ralu r..:. 'ec Passi, ~ rnicrow av...
fluildin... infonuanon, 11~ . I K ~ _ IIQ. 4 ~ ~ -404

C
Cadastral mforruauon. 17 ~. 4<W--445. -I5 ~ --464

Cam c nl ~. ' ce Ac rial photography cameras

t'a mu\l 1 1ag~ d..rec uon Iibn , s"~ Aeria l photography films
Ca nopy
closure pe rcen t. 1- 2. 344 ---.'45

leafurea index. 1-2

penetration rradan. 317- 32 1
Cardinal effect , !>I.''': Rad ar. lcrrain
L'cntrifugnl drainage I'<lll .. rn , 521>
CClllripclal drainage pattern. 526
Change ddl'<'tioll . ." J1-UI2. 51KI, 5112.
Characteristic c lll'\e . 1 1 6 - 11 1~
(,hl"mp hyll. SC'l" Vegetatiun and Water
Chloroplasts, 358 - 359
Cinder co n... volcanocs , 53U...5.11
Cirque. 551 -55 lS
{AS II ~(lll. 241-242
Class ili,,:ulioll
land usc andland cover, 44 ~ . 4 50...--4;6
schemes, 4 51-4 56
Cltluds and Earth's Radlan l En('rgy S~ ~tem lCE RES ). 24

I"W r.X

Cloud". remote sensin g of

heig ht, -1 32 -4 35
III therma l infrared imagcr)', 02-13.'
in \isiblc imagery. -I32 --l33
type. B -I
C03"lal Zone (' 1,lor Scanner (e ZCS I. 2sn
Collateralmtormation. 1-14
Col, a glJdallandform. 5SS
Coll>l'
additive theory, I0-1- 105
balance shift in culot-Infrared film, 124
complitncurary. I~
false. ee Aeria l photography films, color-infrared
history of. 65-66. I O,t 122
photography, see Aer tal pholography 1iI 11l~
primary CQII'~ 104
subtractive theory, IM - ln7
(oll>l' photography, M.'C Aerial photography films
I'omrnerciallnnd IISC. imerp rcrauon o f. 42 ('- 4 3~
aulomot ivclbl....I.405---loo
central business dicmct (C RD), 41\5
finance and construction. 4M---4611
food and drug, 4toX-4 6'l
funeral and \'",m clery. 41>11-170
bouse and garden, 471
Iwusinl,! ~ temporary I. 40 ')...47 1
other co mmercia l, 472
recreation. 4 7 1- 4 12
ward'K''UsinS shipping. 4 71--476
Fommunicatious and uuhues. intcrpre tauon 01:
Compact Airborne Spectrograp hic Imager. 13. 2-lI - 24 2
Conduclion.37-3X
Cone, volc ano
cllKkr.S3O--531
c(>mposilc.532-533
Ccrqugate pnncipal point. 153. 101>-1 hX
I'onnnental drift, 522
(01'1\':1100.37-31'
Convergence of evidence, 132 - 133. 145
Coral ree f 554---551,
;11011, ~5S -55 6
bmicr.555---556
fringing, 555 556
Corona satellite. XI- IIJ
Critical environmenta l a reas. interpretation uf, SUO---SOI
Crop (alcndars. ~ \ 'cgctatiol1 rh\'1'\(llngical cycles

o
Data Analysis
analog {visual image proc\",si n~),!). 24 :'!6
digilallmage proc essm g.. "I. 24---211

Data t'cllection
1-2 . ('I laplcr 15
remote sensing, 2 -1'

III $;111,

D.:fcn-e M C1\'UI"01~ical S..telli l'" Program 1 (>\1 S PI..

Ikforma1ion of rocks, 512-523
l>clla,

585

l.'f<'ll ula1c. 5-10- 54 7

cus p:llc.SU, -S47

elongated or diguat e. ~S47

lobate. S~(s 547
Dendritic drainage panc m. 520--527
Ik ns ltomell.'r , l l l' -l l!)
Dens ity. 11ft- II II
f)q>ress ion angle. S<'C Ra dar system components
Depth perception. 163
Detectors. 1 )5_ 197. 224 -226
'
Did lOh't11ic drain age panern, 527---52'1
I>tclec tric consram, complex, J I b - 3 17
Drffcrcnua l fMra lla\, see Paralla x. stereoscopic
lli gi lal(, lot'l:,233- 235
I) lg iWI ele vation mod e l. 335
D igila l

frame cameras
l.e jca Emc rge Il igital Senso r System (U SS). 2-14-245

Vcxccl Ultn,C"am, 24S

/ i 1 Digua l M"du lar Camera , 24 5
Dsgrtal surface mud d lO SM I. 335, 3)7. 3-10-34 (
Dignaltcrram modcl (I> r~f). 3J5. J -II -343
Digiti7ing
liucuroran-aarray. 11 '1- 122
rnicrod cnshomctcr, us 119
\,idc< 11"1
Dig it:11 im age proce ssing. 9
change detection. c, 21>
C'lJXn syste ms and neu ral nd\l.urb . 'J
gc<>melric coerecnoe. 26
hypcrspecua ! data ana lysi s. 'J, 27
m<>dchtlg. 'J. 27
tlOlll'.lramdrie infor rnatlcn ex tra ction, 'J, 20
para metric feature c 'l1ract ion. 9. 26

radiumcuic corrccuon, 26
Sllti-c(lPY photogrammctry, '), :'!5- 2(,
terminology. 104 - I 05
I>isast<:r emergency response, 131. 500 502
Dolinc ts mkhole], 528. S4'J
!>llmc
lav a. 530-5 .1 I
sand d une. <;03-5M
Dooplcr frequency in raJat,3011-3 12
1>01 grids. 1'10- 1'11
!>r<l irhtgc puttc m s . 525~52 'J
anastomotic , 52R-529
annu lar. 527
braided. 527, 529
J l.'n dnt ;c. 5~b- 527

de ranged. 521'
dichotomic, 527. 52'1
parallel. 520, 52R
pinn ate. 5:'1'
radial tccrun fugal} and centripetal. 526, 528
rcctaug ular, 526--527
~in kholc (dolinel. 5~R. 5-N
trellrs. 526--527
Drumlin. <; 67, <; 6fI. 562

II\ IH:\

586

I lull ~S .

l.mulvion. ",-"e A.'rial I, ht>wgr" phy lilms

f nJ iap. ~1crcosc"r ie, 151l -151
l:nc'1! y. 37
Fnc'1!} . matter i nlc r'lcli "n~
h..r msphcncal ahs"'l'laIKe. 54 -50
hemispherical rc tlcc umce. S4 -56

sc e Sand dunes

E
('.anh Observer (lO -11 NASA
Advanced Land Imager (AU I. 2 11-212
Hyperi o nhyperspcctral senso r, 2 11- 212

LE IS,\ atmospheric correc tor. 2 11-2 12

Earth O~",,'in~ System ([ OSI - ~ASA
Landsat 7 Enhanced Them atic ~1" l"PCr"' . 11- 13. 20:,-2llQ
science plan. 22- 23
T erra O;'1lMlr syste ms
ASTl::R. 11- 13. 2-4, 2.;1-233.
CE RES. N .
"' ISR . 11-1 J. 2-1, 232-233.
\tOOlS. 11 ~1 3. 2-1.242- 244
""O rI' ETT.2-1
Earth o>Os<....... ation economics. 2~ -30
Earth RC'l'oun:e Technolog y S<tldht.. 'ERTS ). ....-c Landsat

hem isp he rical lr<u h rnlllanl"t'. 54-56

rnlian ti.'a lurcs. 5f,(l 56f ,
Esker, 557, 5h2
l.v foliaricn. dome, 533 534

Eastman, (j~'OI'f'c. 66

~all l1 s. l!col ~ ic, 522-524. 5.ln. 5 4~

tiduo: ial nwb , 152 -153
Field llf view. see InstanlanC'(lUs field o f, iew
r lightlinc, 150--15-1

Elasnc dcfllnnal itln. 52.'

E1ocuu magnt:tic radiation. 37- (>0. Chapter :2

al>sufpl ion. 51- 52

b) atmospheric gases, sec A lmOs phl;'11,'
hy s urface leature ~.
budget eq ua tion, 54
creanon
-1 3-4 7
fiu\ density. H -:'i f>
e xua ncc. :'i4. :'i f>
irrudiancc, 54. :'i e,

","'C En.~y-rnallc:r

naerccuon -,

cr.

~ X-47

p"nide.3R. -I3-4 7

waw. .'I'(-t ~
radiance, 54, 5t,-5 7
radiant tlux . 53-5 4. 252
re flectance, 51, 53 - 56
rcfra,'lioll. 4K-t ~
speed orliglH, 3R
units o f meas urement. 4 1-44
waveleng th, J() 40
Elem...ms nfimag.. interpretation. 25. \ 27- 1../1\, Chap ter .5
association. 25. 132 133. 143
hcighlAI"('ll h. 25. ' 32~ IB . 142
pattern. 25. 132 -133, 1)') - 140
shadow. 25. U2 - U3, 1511- lfI ()
~ hOlPC, 25. 1.'2- 133. 137- 13ll,
Sil",25,132- 1.\3, 143
siluall\>l1.25. 132- 133. IB
s i J~, 25. 132--1.'3, D'\-.- 137
slcpc'espc ct. 25, 132- J33,
texture.

25.

Ll ~ -J33 ,

I3s- IN

lon.:-, o lor, 25, 132- J33, 133 - 135

film . 11 5-1111
stations, 150

l.y c base. 163

F
Fa l ~ 001...... see Aeria l phOf(lgra ph) films. co lor- infra red
Fan. a lluli OlI. 546. 54 !/'

Film.....'(" A.'lial r hOlOl,!raph) film~

r dlers. sec .' erial phv1<l~raph} Iih r auon
FlJR Iforward look ing infl".lll."d sysle ms l. 25 1,27 1-273
f' 1.."Jplain~
com...uc. 5-1J

covered. 5-l4

Irequency. .'It>-4U
interactions . sec Energy- mailer
models.

t- \ ro- UR"

localion. 25, 132- 133. 132

Ele vation data. sec I>igila l elcv anon mode l

F.I ~;n o. sea-surface tempe rature. 427-t2!/'
Emissivity, 2S 5~256

meand er. 54 .\. q ~

11m ial lJ nJ rllnns. 5~ 1 :"'4!/'
Focullcngrh . sec Aenal photograph y ca meras
l-oc al p lane, ,.:e ,\ eria l photography eall1o:r....'
Folding. 5~3. 5.\11. 537 541
h're,ht>rll'lIiulI in radar i lllJ~CS. J 05-J()(,

r "n,l ry. SCI.- Vcgcrauon

l r",:luring "f rock . 521-5 24
f~l "p . sec ,\ ,,ri'l1I'how graphy com..'ras, 9(,

G
(iilp

analysis, Nil -.1'J7

(ic\lEy..,/SI':\" lma lling, 2.15 2.1h

(je"lng). 52 1 521\
dr.unagc
,k nSlly. 525
pancrn. sec Drainage p.mcrns

Icxlllll.", 525- 520

5:22

1i [h~,I .. g),

mc twe. 523
faulling.5:23 -5 25
normal. 524.
oblique slip. 524

reH' r'lc. 52-.1 .

sl:arp.524
strike ~li p. 5N
thru'l. 524.

!"!dmg. ';2 _1 --5\7

alitictmc. 53!:!, 540----5-.1 I

587

I:'lUEX

hoglxld. 538. 54 1
mm1l1(11nt'. 52.'
overt urn....J. 5~ 3
s)rw:line. 53 ~
Geometry of a vert ical aerial photograph. 153- 155
(ico morphll lllgy. 52'1- 51'>1'>
Geostationa!)' Dperauonal Environmental Satel lite l G O ES ). 2 11
<iO ES Ima ger. 2 13-214
GO ES Sounde r. 2 15
Glacial tilt. 5.'i7
Glaciation
alpine. 556
eOlllin..'fllal. 556
Graben , ;42
Gra) ,o..xl y. 255 -257
G rou nd-rangt'. 2'N -301
Ground reference information , 1-1. Cha pter 15

H
u w e. see At mosphere
lleat Ca pacuy \t.pping 1-hsMtln (11( \ 1\,1). 2 ~1
Heatloss. the rmal infrared imag"s u f
buildings . 2 5 1. 1 X2 -~ !(7
buri ed heatin g lines. ~ 67
lIei!thl me asure ment W>lllg
air p ho to relief displacement. 1 ('() 1 6~
,hado " le ngth, I (,~
stereosc opic p arallax. 162 - 17-1
so n-<opy photog ram met ry 174--I X3
Ih gh" ays . !lC.'C Transportanon infr as tru<:!ure
ltopback. 5311. 5-11
H,)<"k , 551
Horst. 542
Hous ing. M:C Residential
Hybrid \ una hles, m-12
Hypcrspcctral re mote sens ing. 1-1. 237 - 245. 5 18- 52 1
Hypc rstcrcoscopy. 1M

manua ls. 47 11
ext raction indu stries . 4 711 --482
fab rication ind ustries, -IJol1 --4lU(
heavy. -I1l 7--4JolIl
light. 4X7---1 R9
proces sing industri es. 4Jol l---lX4

chemical. 4S3 - U~ 5
hea t. -I1<4 -41l7
mec hanical. 4R ~---I83
Infrared

reflcctive. 12-15, 42--45 , 4 7. -1 14

mid dle. 1.2-1 5, U --45. 4 7
Iht'T11l al, I2 15. 42 - 45. -17
Infrared ill1"gcs.
ph,'l ograp hy, sec Aerial photogra phy film s, infrar ed
th..e-mal. sec Thermal in fra red remore snlsmg
In _,11" da ta cotl ..- cnon. I 2. 8
til ' S.
lea f urea index, 1-2
spect ral re flectance. 1- 2. 5t>lJ---.5711. Ch apt er 15
f"lfJ'O"< of. 5M
referen ce materia l tspectralon). 570---57 1
targct m.ucrial. 570 -57 1
ilhamnanon
.ular.571 -5i3
la bontl'l!)'. 573-574
spcctrora dio mcter ch.nac rcns ucs. 574--571\
lns tantaneous tidd of \ jew. 3
jnrcrv ctomer cr. IN

Inverse-square law. 2l'>-1

K
Karsttupl.>graph). 523. 54 '1
Kenle. 5511. 51'>2
K inelk temperature, 253
Kirchotf's rad iat ion law, 257-.260
Kod a k acriul films. see Aer ial ph" tography films
Kodak wranen liilers. M:C Aerial pooh>graph) filtration

I
l K O ~OS.

11- 1J. 235 -13 (>

Image

enhancement. 'I. 26
uuerpreteuon

analog or \ isua l, 'I. 25-26

digital. ....'\.. DigItal image processin g
Imag ing spect roscopy
Imagi ng spt'CIT'OIlll"I("I"$
sec AV IRIS. CASI- 15txJ. fl,10UI S
reflec tion and absorprirm processe s. 5 1R 52 1
elec tronic proce ss es, 520
vihrational processes. 5~0. 575
spectral re flcctan..-.: lib ran..... 5211-521
lncident a ng le. see Radar system components
lndex of rc fracnon. 4:S--4 ')
Ind ian Remote Se nsing l IRS ) Satellite progrJ.m . 1~ 'I 231
Industri:tl lanJ usc. mterprcteuon of. 41lJ--4~'I
classification logic. 47'1

L
Lam bcrtia n surface. 53
Land eo"'er......-e Lan d usc/land cov er
Land form s, m tc rpreranon o r.
de\' e l"po.'ll nil horizontal strata. 53n. 53-1
developed on Ii-.ld ed strata. 5}O, 537
eolian. 530, 56()
fault-contr olled. 5_1tl. 5,lll
110\ ial, 530, 540
glacial, 530 . 5 17-52 2
ig neous. 530, 5}O
~ an.1.. B tl, 5-111.
sborcliue, 530. 5-1'1
Lands,ape ecology, .'IIJ---W7
indica tors . 3<)4-3')(,
patch mct rics, N 4----3%
l.and use land COH'f, -150---45 1
clasvrfl canon sc hemes. 4 .~ I ---I.S(,

I:'"I) EX

590

advantages limuauons. 7-&

art or "l:kn,;c." 5
h,ophysi';31\lanah lt"S Co be sensed, 10-12
data colll-Clion,:! R. 12 - 2 ~ and Chapler 7

definuions " I~ '"

ASP RS. '"
maximal and minima l. '"
di stance , how r,lI is remote.
history of: 2-4. I>
instrum ents . 7
logic. ~
milestones in. I) (Table 1- I)
process. 11 -<,1
reso lution
radiometric, 14. rs. 20
sp.uial . 14-17
spectral. 14- 1f>
temporal. 17-111
statement of the pr" hlcm. lI

Ik prl_m.u i\ c traction. 155-160

Residen tialland use. mllTjl rCI<llinn o f. 4 St>--4M
Cnt:T~Y ..Icmand ami conscrv unon, 4tH
single- an d muhi-tam ily, 45f>--4 SX
Rock s and min,-rals, remote sensi ng of. 5 111 -52\
imag ing spectroscopy, 51 X- 52 I

imaging spectrometers.
see AVI R1 S, CAS I- 15IKI. M ( )l)I S
ref'lcction and absorption processes.
e tecuomc proc esses , 52U-521
evnnc uon coc fficrcm. 5 I'"
index ot refrecnon, 5 1'>1
.ibf".llwn.1l processes. 5~O 5~ 1
spectral reflectance hbraries. 5~U

Saltanon. seo. :10.1

Sand dunes. 562 -Sf>(,
types
crcsccmnc. :162-563
dom e. % 3- 5(,"
linear, 5(,2 -564

para1:'(llic.51,5
s tar. 5(.) -564. 56f>
radar pe netra non u f. 310-317
Sandstone. 535--536
Sea lc (If a verucal aeria l photograph, 155-160
terrain
1e\.:'I.1:l5-151\
\anable, ISll -IM
rep rcscntanve rr-Jctioo. I55- 100
verba! sca le. ISS
Sca nning
across- uack. I'Jf,_197. 261 -261'
Scattering
at1l1mpheric. 4R- 5 1
mic.4'l -50
non -selec tive. 50 51

ra) leigh , ..9-50

surface
in u tlar imagery. 30~. J 1~ -3 15. 3 17-32 1
in vcgetanon, 35'1--J03
mlooils.5lo-512
in water column. 4 10--4 12. 415
Sea -vie wing Witle FidJ v r View Sensor (Sc a WiFS I, 13. 21lt-21Q
S,'din1<"Olary roc ks, 522, .'U5
Se lec tiv ely r~tl i at i llj,\ hlldies .155 - 257

Services land usc. mtcrpretarion 01

pu blic buildings and fa c ilitie s, 472- -17<1
Sh'ldow. D2. 1-11 142
Sha le, 535
Shape. II1.137- 13~
Shun k Imaglll g Radir (S IR). 293, 323 324
Sidclap. sltTOO"COrllc,
Sidelooling alrborllc radar, SI.."'C Radar
Sig moid or s-shape dl"101110o. 20'1
Silver halide.SI.."'C A ..1'ial phot ugraphy !ih n lo
SilC. 132. 135 1.17
Slant-range, scc Radir
SOli-copy photog rammctry, 174--- 1 ~"
aero-triangulation. 178- 1so
collincuruy condinon. )80- 1:< I
co ntrol. 175- 17h
definition. I H
c:>. lrd cl il ~l of
cOnitlurs.1I11-11I3
dlgilal d"" i1tion moods. 170, 18 1- 1!l.J
elcva tions.I7l>.Il'l I - llG
l>rthoimal!-L"', 176. 183 - 1811
rhcmanc tearures. l i6. IKIl-- I II.,.
....."'fltallOn

-xtcrior. 171l. 178-180

mtericr, 17(>-1,.,
Space Imaging, lne . IKO 'I OS. 11-1 J. 235 -231l
Spa.'e Shunk phol,,~r,lphy, 245 -2"7
Specia l Sen,or Mic ruw avc/fm agcr (SS M/I l. .U n-3 _~ 2
S 1'111 I l1l a !! ~ Corporuuon. 223- 22')
hi~ l<lr)', 223 229
seor 1.2,3 Resolution Visi ble 0 II{V ) sensors. 224-21(,
SPOT" II nd:l, 22(, 229
Sn<l w. r': IIIUl C , cn, ing (If
microwave region. 436-437
middlc-hrfrared TCgion. 436
\;~il>k spec trum. 4 .~"
Socioecononnc lIlfnnn8l iol1. -161----4M

s..,il
ddil1llion "I' ..... tum, 50>;
grain sile (sand. silt ;lod clay I, 50!l ~511
ho n 71111S. 50l\--51)1l
bedroc k. SOli
")flO:

o f eluviauon . 50S

mn c o f illuvialion. 5011

reflec tance dom inant fa cto rs . 51 ll- 5 17

air -soil interfac e scauc ring.rctlccemcc. 510-5 12
iron ox.de, 515-51 6

59 1

,"ohturc colllcnl , 5 1~-S IS

Ih...rmal infrared remote

..rgas uc m atter. 5 15-517

salinuy, 5 I5 517
stlil c m"N. 515-S 16
subsu rface volu me scattcrinJ,:"rdl~'l:lancc. 5 Iq
surface toIJ-II~,. 21(>...217
texture. Si ll SlJ
h)dr""yl al"""l'fIlilm bands. 52]
intcrsunal air ~pac~"" S13

melhods of 'lewmg.I M- IM
principles. 162 - 16-1
St('T("Omcll"f. ~c Parall ax ba r
Stereoscopic

model. 150
pa rallax . 162. 1M [74
\ ie \\ ing
a l i ~l1Incnl tl f r hmo gr<lphs in. [t>tt-- 16lS
anllglyphic or polari zmg gla sses. 164
cruocd-cycs. 1(,5
parallel-ey es, 165
us ing a SIC IC<l s.;Opl:. 165- 167
Stereosco pes
lells. 1M -1 6K
mirro r.1o';-lM(
Sunglinr. .; I0-4 11
Surfa ce roughn ess. .1 13 - .' I ~
Symhc tic- apc nure radar, see Rudur

T
Tangent ial scale distoruon, 2MI-2fl')
Tempe rature
cn 'ss~l\Ier periods in. 27~ 277
diurnal. 274-170
imagl.'l' l, l~ sec thermal in frared remote sensing
km cnc [ t rue ], 252-253
radia nt, ~ 5 2 -253
'I empcral resolunon . 14, I 7-l li
r"rr<J. S.l' Ea rth O bs crv ing Sysh:m IEO S )

tenu re
drai nage. s...... Dra inage patterns
photographic . see Elemen ts of image mtcrpretano n
in radar ima g...e. sec Radar, terna in. surface roughness
Tbemauc Map rct (T M I. see La ndear

N tJ- 2<)(). Chapter K

sources. 2n<l
spJiI-winJo\\. 271
dcrecrors. l n2-1M
e rnissh rty .255-256. 25 X-25~
forw ard look ing infrared t FU R I. 272 - 273
ground
rr:-<ol urion ce ll see. 21'> 1. 2";-2M
s\\ ath width, 26+-265
imcrw+"'luare taw. 2M
inSl.lntarl<.VU5 field uf \ ie...... 261
radeometrtc w;(llulion. 26')-271
relief d ssplaccrncm, 266-26!l
o;c annml!!
acn oss-trad... 264 -265
tangenua l scale Jl ~rmtion. 26K-26~
thermal n:sptlnloC number tTR ~). 2lil<

l.;]\ oo <lmy . 5fl!<i } I O

SO:\!\R. 4 :!~ CS
Spectral hands. SC'e Band ~ ctme ~leClromagneiic spect rum
Spectral
reuectaoce. 14 -1S. "~5.
Spcctroradiometers
airborne. see AV I IUS. { 'ASI-I ;(10. MO()lS
handheld. 2. 5/)'1, e ha!cr IS
Spectrum
c1cclroma!PlCllC. lle -+;
SR-7' aircra ft. Sfl....X \
Stefan-Boltz mann law. 254
Ssere....SCOfty. 11'> 3
h)po:n.tcrc<>cwpy. 1M

.cllSIl l jJ,

calibration
raJ lumetric. 2M 27 1

Therm a l rrof"l'Tt ic~

capecuy, 2(>4)
con ducnv it),. 2W

inertia and apparent inertia, 2bO

Thermogra phy. 24q
Toumachou. Gasl'afJ Felix t J\AIHR). 67

Trcnsmutancc.c-t
Tran cporta uon intra vtructure. intcrpretauon of. 4lN....-N 5
airports. -In
boats a nd ship:.. -I~
rt>;Ids and hig hways. -IQO
rarlroads, '; YI
Trc Uis dn, i na~ e patte rn. 52(,--527
I'ropic al Ra infall ~kasu rill g Mis si"n (l'R MMI. 33 1-33 2. 4311--13 I

U
U- 2 airc ra ft. 77 1I0

Ultraviolet mdiutmn. SIT Hands o r the elec tromag netic spectrum

United Sla ll'S(,,:" klgk Survey ( USGS)
land lise land cover elassifinrl10n system, 4; I
Unmanned acriu! vehicles. S5- S ~
Urban. 44 ,' - 50/" L'h aptcr 13

developmental cycle. ~-I'; -4~1\

ht'at islan d , 2Xf, -2 X7
laud us c/Lmd cover, sec Land usc/land co ver
meteorologica l data . 49~
Urbanizat ion. ~-I3

V
Vcg<'l mion. 35.'i -Inx. Chapter I I
agriculture. remote sc nsi n~ o f. 355
hiodheNiry and gap analysis of, 3'16-31)7
billmll-'IS leaf area mdcx ( LAI) o f. 2. I N>
canopy model ing or. 371-372
chang .. detection of 3\l7--WO
nn aging sf"l'Ctrumctry 0 1: 372 -373
inu lC<..'s. JlS2-3 ~3
landsc ape em l.'ll) mc tncs of, JQl -3%

592

I"' OEX

phenological

(yd~"I.

373

rnanaged.J75-J16
natura l 377-3S2
phceosymhetically active radianon ( PARI. JMl
rcflc..'13n<;:C dom inant (acton.. 356
chlorophyll a and t> piglnt"llls in,
10\\l1' cpidcrmrs. 355-360
pah~ IIle!\.Of'h~ 1I cells. 355-360
sJlt,ngy mC!otlph> IIcells .' (i1- 365

upper eprdermrs. 355--300

ot her pig me nts
anthocyanin. 3Ml
canncncs. 359
xanthophyll. 3.:'i')
phycoe ry thrin. 35" 3M)
ph~ c,x)' ll n m . 359- .(,0
lcafndditivc re fl ec tance, 362 -3(,)
lea f water con te nt. .114 _) oti
bidirectional re flectance dembuticn funct ion. 367- 37 1
u no!')' closur e.
c hlorotic. )(,1
phcrosynthesi s, -'55-3 51>
Vo k ancx"S. 530-534

reflectance domina nt facl"r~

bottom radiance. 410
chlorophyll. -II ~~J
in eoo~13 1 and inland water. 421-422
in ocean .... all". 42lJ..--422
dissolved organic material. -1 15
G..:Ibl.tulTc. 4 ~ J
free-surface layer radiance , -I1lJ..--41 I
subsur face \ Ullllllc:lric rat!lall\:c, -1 1(1.--1 11, -1 15
suspended mi nera ls, 4 1~-III<
wavele ngth. -1 11-1 1-1
sno w. 435-1 37
surfac e ex te nt mar r inl.l. 41 3--114
t ...mpcratu r.... -12(, -421<
vapor. -133. -135
\>"':l\l' lo:nglh
J O Ill inant. 3'1--1 1. -I J
un its o f m c asurc mcnr. -II 4-1
\....ien's Displaccment law, W--11
Whisk broo m scanning, 1')"
\....indu .... s. a tmo spheric . 51 -52. 253-254

X
x-purJll;u.. S<.'\: Parallax ,

>t...rcoscc pic

W
Waler. 4~2 . Chapter 12
bathymetric mapping. 423--42"
U DAR. 425-4~ "
optical. 423
SO'l r\R. 424 ...t! S
c1oudsA32 -435
optical properties. 4 \ 0---4 14
penetration. 4 11-1 1J. 4 23-4 20
precipitation. 4 2K-43 1
q uafuy modelin g. 437-43'1

Z
/.(lOm stereoscopes . t" 7
Zoom-transf...r-scupc, It> 7

S ila lia l :IOd Temporal Resolution for Selected Applicntiuns

WtI

.11,1-

"'x"-

10

I a

be

Utility,
Transportation
Infrastruc ture

...........L~I~~I~~~~ .1.6. ~~ !~~i.:'~1

0.1
Precision
Ag ricu lture

~ ~~~~I!l~~~. ~ .d.ay. ~o:.\!~i~ _

J satellites : -l Jay rc... isit

(WI

~ O,O(] I
( iOES

')
~

:>

e,

e
i

(l,tlOOI

)/ =
0, I m

S:

g
t;

~':::

,~ ,

2-

~ /:t,

r~

/.

"
1m

.s
r

1- 9:::
.
~

c:: ~ ~

~- -

"
;:;t-

'';:: :::':

b
c,

10 III

:l .....

~:t

f.

l' ...fJ

, ~

..:..:<
100 m

"

I km

10 km

100 km

No minal Sp;lIial Resolution

e
r

Color Plate 1,1 l he nonuual pauul and 1l,'IlIi"lntl r<'s"lnl l\l1l charact cri-uc s 101' ,d<'<'lnl :l1' P!i,',ui " ns are pr"'''llI <",L w hen couducung
<t rt'1ll0 1<' S<'llsing project. the re is u"ully a trade- o ff be tw een spat i;lt ,mu l.:m l,<II;1I r.:s"luliull req uirem ents. G.:n.:r all y.
as tem pora l r"s"llllion r.:qlll r<"m ..nls inc rease II is usuall y nec essary I" 1,, \\ <"I' 1he spat ial res olutron rcqusrcmcnts S,l lhal
lhe amount "I' rCllIut.: sell.....'r W la u lll.:cteu docs nul become unrnallagcah l.:, r " rtull,lld y. m any applicutious Ihat re 11Ulf.: w ry .1<,I;likll spat ial inrormanon (e .g .. land-us c m aprlll g ) numl ;d ly tlo uor require h igh rcmpora t re-olut wm data
( I,': . ua la cu llce leu once ':\<'r) Ii V<' 10 te n years lila) 1:>0." sufficicntj. 1 her e 'IT<' exccpuons IU these gcn eral rule " f ur
c camp l.... prt..... ision ngricunure. cwp yield invcsnganons . n atf... ~h llti~'S . and ... rn~'f!:e nc> rcsponce ;lpplic; u ions so m...
11m..., requ ire very hl;:h ' 1};Ilial and tempora l r.:,.o lul i"ll ICllW!C sensor dat a. Tho: volume u f o.IOIla C\,lIc':I.:II cancreate
s.:n" us dal ., m.m,'J;e m':lll and alla l~sj s proble ms. The-e ure al-aitrad co ll" " Ilh the olh...r resolutions te.g . spt'Clral. ra dn-mc tnc. i",larit;tllun . Iha l ma y ne ed 10 be 1:"",.1<.1.:100.

Sola r a nd Hcllosph eri c Observ atory (SO Il O) Imag e

or the Sun Obtained 011 Septe mber 1~. 1999

C o lo r Plate 2 1 An image nf the Sun obtained Ily the So lar 311d Hcbospheric Observatory {SO HO I ElT ins trum ent on September 14. 19V1
(cou rtesy Solur u au Analysis Cente r, NASA God<Jml Space Flight Ccnrcn. The bright fea tures urc ca lled active regioo;.
The Sun has a diameter o f 1,._'/ 0,0011 krn. The temperature o f the Sun 's core i ~ 15.n()O.()()O K. Th e tem perat ure of the Sun'!
,urfa cc nbc photusphcrc ) is 58 00 - 6110 0 K. Just ahu 'c the' Sun's Surf,Kc is the chromosphere. The re gion above the elw
rnosphc rc is ca lled the coron a and e xtends m illion , o f kilometers into SP;l('C' hw is \'lsih lc only duri ng eclipses. Temperat\lR\
in the corona a rc m e r I .lMlO.{)l)U K. A huge e rupting prominence is seen escaping the Sun in the' upper right. r rominenct!
an: relatively " cool " 60.(l{)() K plasma emh<:(lded in the m uch hotter surrou nd ing corona. I f an eruption like thrs IS direct((
tu \\ urd the t an h \1ca n cause' ~igni lio:an t gcoma gncnc acnvuy m the' Earth's environment. The Sun is the lafl1e~1 objecta
thc s(llar sys tem and contai ns more than 'N percen t of its total ma ss (Jupiter ('on tai n, mo , t of thl' remainder ]. The Sun i~:j
percem hydrogen and 25 perce nt helium by mass. The Sun-, energy ou tp ut is J ill. hil liul\ billion IlIq!J\\ J U S per secon d p!O'
duc cd by nucka r fu s ion reactions. The Greeks ca lled the Su n I Iclios and the Roma ns re ferred til it as So l. II is the soorn
"I' m uch 0 1the c1eoo;tl"llll;J~nl'tk t'n.:r~y recorded hy remote "cll'Ullol sys tem, .

' -"Ullt., Pon ton nf th e Elccrromegncu c Sp('('l r uni from .snu to 7UII nm

5 >ll1

500

Xanu mcte rs

'~. /

1'; '
~ ~

./ 3

Gamma

sc

X-ray

Ultraviolet

I O!

I O~

./

..

7;.

10'" (~,.m ) 't.m:Al'ht - -

Radio

".s
t

.,
0-

es

"

Color Pla te 2-2 The portion " r llle electromagnetic spec tru m \ is ihlc by hur uan beings is ge nera l!) cOlls i.k rcd to be from -lOll

ttl 700 nm
c,msisting o f hl llc(..\OIl .. j (M I nm). grt"t"1l l5UO- f>OO nm ]. and red ("Oll .. 71M) JlJll l light, Th o: image o f the solar spec trum was
obse rved with the Fourier Tra nsform Spo..'Ctrmllch:r at the .\ h; \-l.llh Pkrct: So lar l' acilil) at Kin Peak l"at ilma l O hSl.'TVat0I)'.
near Tuc s on. AI. Eac h orshe 50 s lic('~ covers Nl angs tro ms lind wavelength increase, Ir orn lop to bouom along eac h slice.
Nut.: tha t it con ta ins rclauvcly narrow. ,furl Fra unhofcr lines n.1lI1cJ for the Germa n phys idsl Jos eph von Fraunh...r... r ( 1787ll'l~o) who " mappe d" thc location of over ;70 of the m In thc solar spectrum. Later sciennsts dis cove r ed that the: da r\. lilll:'"'
an: ca used b~ cheuuca l clcm...m absor puon in the uppe r l.l} ef ~ uf the Sun and some .Ibsorpllu n b) o .l ) ge ll mu k,<:u l.."S in the
fanh 's alrTl(Krhcrc 11e-c'<1 with 1"'1'llI ; \o.~ iOl1 o f :\ . A. Sharp. M )A( )11\";( I Km I'e:&k ~TSJ,\ U R AI'\ S ~ I.

H urr lcan c Katrfna Damage

:11 G ulfp o r t. :\ IS

a Low .. >hli<l,......... ria l rh"IO~""rh or a i"'>r11011

Il l' .he: Grand Ca~Ir><ll1lUwtl b~' M,,"JI SUJ~" ..Jlh)

l lit:hway 'It),

"",,..
r-

b. Vertical aerial rhol~r.!rh ofthe Grant! C asi lKland ~u rTOUnd ; nf area o Naiocd
at a - paual re~oltll i,,,, or 37 a .\ 1 e m ( 1.2 .. 1.2 fll,
Co lo r P la te 4- 1 a ) 1 " w....., h li411" ae rial ph" lugra ph "r w intl " lid ~l"rm surgv J am ag..: L'a tlsctl b) I Iurricnuc Kamna at Gu lfJ'l,n . \1 S. obremed
"11 August ~ (). 20H5 (c' " 1l1e ~y "f I IS{ iS ( 'O;"I .d and \laTl n.: (i ...olog) I' I"tl~ Ta l n ) . t>J Vertica l ae rial plHll0!lfllph (co unc, y of

."\( l -\A l{e lTInl<, Sen_in],! 1)1\isinll l.

Dispe rslun o f W hil e L igh t Th rou gh

:I

P rism

.-\ddil i\ e Col ur T heory

Sub rructive Colur T heory

b.

c.

Color Plate 4 2 31 Sir lsaac

~ <'WII1f1 discov er ed th at ",hite l i ~hl could be dispersed nuo u-, spectral components by p;lssin g "hill.' light
throu gh 01 pri sm ( " rl a\id Parker, 1"Wlo Resea rche rs, In.' ,I, h I .IJdil;n ..,,/"', Ilu,<>rI' - <'GU<t1 pn'l'"ni"ns I.f blu e. green.
and red light sul .... rim l'" scd o n top (, f one another crcat....; w hir.., h [:hl . i.c.. " hi te l i~ht is composed of'bfuc. gn.,..-n. and red
light. m e com plcllll."l1 I;U) coiN" ~(' llo"' , mag enta. and C)'Jll arc cr eat ed h} sd<"\'l i\\'Iy addlll j,; hl gelher red and ~r..sen. Hue
and r..-d. an,i blue and ~T<.cn light. rc spccnv cly. c ) S"hlmCIll' l" ",,'or Ih",,,, - eq ual proport ions of b fuc . g reen . and red
p lgtllellts yield a hb d : surl:I..'", A y\'l lo" filter ... n...o.'li\ dy " IN ,rl,s all hill': lighl. J m. lgc ma fil ler a bsorbs a ll green light.
and a eva n ti ller ar s<lri>-< a ll rro light ,

.\."".n.

~:\pn'"r(".I }(Hlnl'nlt n l .

lind (" nl n. Furm ,Uin" nn ("ul n r Film

r.n...... "".

...
( ;'C<'n ,he

HI",, It,..
romphrnenl~f)'

,i

0 .1 of yd l,...-

.,.,~

[ 'l. l-'u ~ u r{'.

RC'd ttl<'

'OtOph""""~,y .'""ph""",'~1)'
"" k... "fma~.,n'. ""I." ,,{ ~~n

Developmen t, a mi C n lor f o r mal in " un r ll l, \' C"lur I nfr ;lr c d ..-jlm

\."'<tn.

'"
'"

:::r-

r. n""tan

::I"

K. Hln,

\ oil " .. \ \ n tl ,'n 12li ll n 1" lu.-bl" ....,i n~ 1

,ft., [::~:;!~~~~;:;~[!!~:i:l~;;::E~E!!~~::J

'I,n,,,'.

A.l ;\'B,.d
L _ ,_ _...1__, __-'-""''''''''-J

luTiun-J """" ,... lay. ' L

I~ " '"I
;m "x~

h.

. , "liTo

c. r:ill " . f l n
.-"1,,, ",,,r1
I'roc.'"i n~

,
,
"I "I " "I I " "I ",. " "I I "I
,
,
I

..

. ( jl n

Yd l" "

m",, ,b<
"""I'l ;-~ ~"')'

", ..... " f yd l,""

\ d l" ..

Ydl" ..

,r:

"4' \"Il l .

"

"""11 -I""

R.J -,...,

"'''''rllI'''''''.'' .""'f'l,,'........ary

""""..r n~"...

,~

..." uC .",,,,,

Color Plat e 4-3 Process or ""P'-""inl!. ..k \duping. and fonuing ctllor VII atuormalcolor film.md bj falec-color infrared film (<:olll1c..,y Uslman Koda k I.

Tivoli :"Oo r- th Bay un th e Hudson Ri ve r , :"O Y

a. Norma l colo r aeria l photograph.

h. Col or-infrared aeria l pho\(l~rJ p h .

Color Plate 4 -4 ar A normal tnatural} color plwlll gniph ....f Til o!i N" 11h l3"y ailing the Hudson River in )'.;CWYork. CUlM ..eria l rh (llogr;lrh~
rec ords blue. grc-.:n and f C-..J light reflected from th.: scene. A bazc tillerl llF3 1 ilo usual ly placed in frotu ofthe lens to pre\'("fI1 scattered ultravioletlight from reachlllg the film plane, \ 'cgel.tlillfl sho...s up in green hues beca use the rlanl~ ah'Wfh
more blue illid red incidcnt bghtthan gn.-.:n Iit:h!. h I A c(llof i n lTaf~ aeria l phot ogra ph rec ords green, red. and nea r-infrar",t! hg hl ll'l1c'Cle d from Ihl' scene, A yellow IWr"Uen 11 ) filter h usuallj placed in fronl of the lens 10 prcvenll>lue light
from reaching the film plane. The land-water interface is es prcinlly well-delineated because water a bsorb s most u f lhc inc ident nca r-infrared Iighl causing uro apr<"rdarl . VcgetlHion "Ilr<a rs 1Il mag cnta huc'1o because healthy \egc l;lli" n reflects
substantial .lIllOun ls of ncar-infrared tlghl'" hile ah"" rtoing mtll'h nflhi.' green and red incidembghttatlcr Bcrgfuud . IY'N ).

Un ive ... sil~ of :'\t'h raska. Lin wln . :"'1\

~~;:::::;;;::-"1

a. Norm a l color aerial photograph.

--

b. Col or-infrared ucrial photograp h.

Color Pla te 4 5 al "Il" nn al (natural, c"l or terre- anal phowgmph of a huih,hnl! at the Un i\ cr~ll) of :"kbra~ka. b) C(,l" r infr.<rcd
photog raph aC<juircoJ u, ing " wraucn I ~ minus -blue filter (a ficr Rundquist ami Sam pson . 1 'Il< ~q.

Remote

Sl'Il ~i ,, ).:

Ca II I' ro \ lde Knnw Icdgl' h~ ,\ h'a, ur i ll J,: r il l-flo:} C ha rac h' ri ..l k s
in Sp l'r tra l Hl'g ion.. Uc}ond Our Human \'isu a ll'crcl'IHinn

r-

.... -

.... -

3_ Gl'C<.'1I r... l1 CCld llCt: of llJl

a~ricu llu ral

area in Siludi Arabia

c. :'\car-infm rcd reflectance.

d. Co lor composite 1RCm

ncat.infrarcJ, red. green).

Color P lale 5 1 :-'l lllli, p..":lr;tl imag ery of center- pivot ag ric uhurc in Saud i Aranla a.l1 ) " cg.'t ali,," ;lll'l(lrt'o .. m ost o fth ... gr.....n and red irn: idenl
l'lwrg y ca us lUg \ .:gcl;llcu tields 10 ;lppcar <lou!.. in grc.; n ,.IIId red Uluh b pI:<:tril l i ll1 agc~. d ("IIl\ l' rsdy. \ <:gcl:J.titln rd lel.'1u
suhstan tinl a moum of'th... incident ncar-inf rared l'TlCry)" c31lsmg 11 tn appeor Ilrigh l. In this exa mple, severalfields ar pcar dJrI.
in III<;' grr vn and red images lfll ~ i bly d ueto recent irrig ation. - tubblc from a pre iuus n"I', or 1'1"", ingl sU!.l,\!cs!ing that I I't
eranon is preecn1. C ar,'flll ,' \a nl inaliOll o f the same ticld~ in the ncnr-iufrarcd image re veals IhM
little l eg clal ion il
pn:":lIl, T ho: near-infrared image also pro vid es c.Id.a ik tl information about th.... sll'll i,,1d ,slr it>ulIIlO M the bi"n1a~, pr",,--'fI1 In
enc h field. d ) A .... olor-in fm red c olor co mposuc ma kes it de;lr '" h,,-h ncld s are ' eg...tared (I RS I e L1SS III imagl'" c ,ItJI1~
,,( InJi"n S pace .-\ ~''TlC y ).

'-'-I)'

.J

Planimetric In fnnn atiun Ext r action:

Acro-t rta Il l!ulal t'd Stt'n'upair Ui<;pla) ('11,\ ll a ~ l ) phi (' all)

Color Plate 6-1 Anaglyph su-n.. opair of Colum bia. SC, created lI~ i ng <otl . ....(>l'y photc gra rnmemc rcchmques. l)lra ~(" ucc anaglyph !/Il-'I
10 vic \\ 1h.... Ih ~-d l mc n SI"I\a l mood. The kIt a':T1 al rh"I,,~ph ,~ \ iC'o\L..J through tbc ted lens ...bile the righ t phol,'~
is viewed through Ih.. hi"..' kn , .

E'h'ri u r Orit' u tatinn : \\ l\ , j n ~ h n ll \l' Sa\ IUIlIa h Riv er Si u '

S ll"rco \cupic Colk1."li un of IllIll!:l' Coo r d inlltC\ of (; r" und Co nl rul P" in"

""'l --r_....
~ru::l"~r-

. 1Y~) -: r-

,.
,.

~~

Plate 6 2 a) b . ter " " oric...I;llill" "fa "Ilh ....,... ir of the W~'!il inghol1'>C Savannah KIH"I" Site ncar Aiken, S{ ' t> J The <! lgil al lCrmin rnod...l
t I) 1 \ 11ex tra cted u' lng >otl-.;opy phOl~r.a mm~"lric t~-.; hl l i<l u",,, I" <! rall<-.... \\ Ith '>II.' o f the natura l-color aerial photogra phs
from rh... secrcopair and displ;lycd from an "t>lique .-anI3g.' pomr The four le,1 f'il"~ are used 10 anal~/t' th... et f.....1 h ...IlC...,
of \'arinlls materials 11,<,<1 til ca p haza rdou v waste s ites. An) su bsidence d ue 10 prut-k lll" Js...xiatc,l wuh the cap can be
documented hy cmnpar illg I)T\h deriv ed I'rum 111L1 11il'l.' <la lC~ "I' remote sen sor dma

Planhueu-ic Info r ma tion Ex trac rion:

Sh' rrnw u pie .\ n a l ~ ~ i ~ 'If An ,\ n a :.:l ~ p h ....It'r t'u pa ir l r ~in J.: th... . I u a , i n ~ \ Ia r"

a. :\Cf\.. lfia,,~ub'~'ll anagl)ph ~l"f."'>pa" analyt.-.J m Ihree.,J,n"",. ,..,..

'0 t'\1~("1 r 1anim.:loc OOa\1. Please vi..... ' h,s ~r,"",>pa\r llM n~ lIIl<IlIll) rh IIlla~,

I> lluolu ",1.l r"" rl'rmb. l'<moJ I"',imeler. and . rree! ,ellle, lill~ " ele e' I'Jc1eu rn~n lllc

"M gl)l'h ~1"n'<"J'll' 1

.h"".. abov e

PI"" "" ",,,,, th" .r ~rt't'l"i'" ",mill ~

""""""'."1"<'.

Color Plaia 63 al This a n.l~d )ph stcrcopair ~ JS ;tnalYl cd in t hree -di mensions u,mg lhe l1'l;Ililig mark III identify three building f('l(l(prinl.
till- perimeter o fa rc tlecnn g pond , and >I street centerline l>l l'he l~alU r~'S e \ lrdekd are J r"pla yed ill 111<: ae n l-lri:mgulatt
stcr~...>pa ir

and can he \ i~ ...ed ...ilh a stereoscope.

USGS (,'J"b,,1 J 1.Hllllb ,rioll Ilewer

ll. St.-an:h f,'II" 1n1d~'<:1' . 'f l"h.Ulc1.l00 . SC. usin~ the cntena: Pa th Iii and It..... 37 .
Land-a l 45 TM. \ b y 2005. 10l"'~ mH;m um dou<! c,we r; n's,a ml' k d (" 1.000 m plxd .

.
'_

0" _ '.

1>. Sc,,,ch. fo r Chari" " ..".

~.

using

ri ~d,

'"""mpled to 240 m .

COO" Plate 7- 1 US<' n f l lll' l 'S(i S ( ;/,,"'11 I ;' II,,1I=<lII.m I i",,-,''' 1I>I' ....-are !..m ll""'l I hemanc \1.. pJl<r Image,; of ( "h.arl""'I'lfI, St ' ,

La ndsat 7 En ha nced T hema t ic Mapper Plu o; Illl a ~l' r~' of San nie~ll. CA

Color-infrared color eompocitc tRGR " h;mds .J, J. :!) ,

Color Plate 7-2 C" lor ctlln posi h: of l andsa t 1 Enhanced Thcmauc Map per Plus ima ~ el') of San Dr.-go. CA, obtaineJ on April 2t
:!III)O t cou rt...sy "f 'I A~ ,\ )

- 1 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - --

~():\A - 16

Ad va nced

\'('f)'

l ligh Resolution Ra diom ete r (A\, II IU{ ) 1111 :1 :':('1")"

- -

Sea-surfac e tempe rature (SST) map derive d from )\;(JAA I(, AV!l RJ{
band 4 (10.3 . I I.J Illll) imagery obtained on October 16. 20D] .
Color Plate 7-3 Scu-surtace 1"'I1\I'l,'r alUn:/ SST j map derived from ;\JO:\:\I h A\ 'IIKi{ thermal infrared imagery [co urt esy of
~ (lAA nud the (k cJI1 Remotc Sen,i ng Program al J"hns Ilurkins University: <iasp;mllk. ~()03 ).

Ad va n('l.'d veey II igh Resotu ttcn Radiome te r [,\ VII HR ) .\ I II \ :I ir of the 1'l\ih't1 Slat e..

,.
:\vcrage ' \ UI:II\ I ,\ \ "11 RK Nor ma lized Diffe ren ce \ '{'g l'tatinn I nd cv (:\ U\"I ) t t,lH I - 20110

Color P late 7-4 ..I ,\ VIIRR mosaic of th.: conter minousUnited States deri' cd from

Si .. tCL'1\ 1 x I km '\I() \A Kand '\10.-\:\ -<':\ n l RR inap!

c bmrned ITlIm \-ta) 24, ] l,l1l4 . 10 May 14. 1'Ixt>. u~ing c hann.' j, I ..nil 2 t IlIUl \tC c' IUI1 ,"' y " f I\.O A ,-\ and U.S. ( ico lo~ical ~
\ cy. b) Awrage A ugu, t '\Ionn.lli l cd D ,lTcrL'11CC \'cgcWlion Ind.':I. t \:[) V l l lI l\ ;lgc o f :-,I,'nh :\mcn<;a derived from AVHD.
im<l gl'T)' I t,lX l \0 :?OlIO l im:1ge courtesy o f "AS -\ Cillddard " p;lce H lgh l t enrcr 'cere..mflc \ 'lSualil<.l i,ln SlI.ld i" ,

--4If~-----------------------------

Ai n ...aU ' 1II IIi~ p Cl'lr a l SC;lII IIt'r Da ta of Four .' Iib- e r n ... Delta in Suu lh C a rolina

<L

Dacdalu-, ba nd 10 (O.')::!

1.10 1"111 ) on .\I an;h 31. 1':l81.

c. 1)J.cJ Jl us band ltJ (0 ,'12 - 1. IO lJm ) ....1 ,\ pd l 23.

OOnl~i lC

b. Color-infra red

( RGIl - bands 10.6.41

(;"l1l po.,~j l<:

(RGIl - hands 10, (', ..h

Color P la le 7 -5 D"cdahlS US- l 1(,0 uircratl muluspccual scanner inlilg..:s ofthe FOOf M ,1o: Cm: ~ delta on the Wc sl in ghtlu~
';tV annah River S ill.". ~C.
Band 10 near-infrared rmape obtamcd " 11 !\h.r ch J J.. I'ilol l . bl Color-infra red
wrn pusilc .':l (lind 10 image obtained UI1 April :!J. 1'I<):!. d l Color-infrared composite. No te th...diffe ren ces
in the werland vegctauon drstribution in th... sloughs ~1 "H'Cn 1"11 1 and I'N,! Iimag,s C\ltJnCSY of Wcslinghouw s...... unah River C U!ll pan~ and the Department of Energy ).

;J .

,.

]')<)1 .

b. Color- infra red

SI'OT:, Jm:l::t'r y or 1.11.. Anuetev, CA

Color Plate 7-6 '>!><) r 5 imagery of Los Angeles. CAl me~ i ng 2.5 x 2.5 m pJ.llehrom.1tl.:
wit h 10 x 10 m muhispec tra l dam. The
cry wa.'>lb apo:d over a 30 x 30 m CSGS
terrain model ( SPOT Image lnc.],

Purtton or th e Firsl G loba l Ten - Day S ~ nth eviv

Im age Produ ced U~ i ll :: t he SPO T \ 'c~l' l a t i oll Scn sur

Color Plate 7-7 Punion <>1' ... Global Ten-Day Synthesis

geiler-lied u,i ng the SI' OT of Vcgctalioo!iCr.Slt
111<' daily product pro vid...~ \ .:getalioll indo.
iuformution ill ~l spatial resolution of 1 x II,;.
ove r the whole l-a rth. The Global Tcn!II!'

Synlhesis is derived from analysis of W

S yn lh e s i ~

:-'I...~, 11-10. 1')98

dalll ( ") S I'l l ll lllagc, lnc.j.

Terra

AST E I ~

Op tica l lm agcr y of Oahu. Hawa ii

a, ASTER 15, 15 rn colo r WllIlX"ilC obtained "" June 3, ~nIK) ( RGB - "'l mh 3. 2. I I,

"
m

'.

"

b. Enlar gement centered on Pearlllamor.

Color Plate 7-8 Terra ASTER irn;l~ery of Oa hu , Hawau (courtesy uf "' AS:\. (iSF l/~ 'lTl/E RS :\DCd AROS. U.S ~ J;lroan ASTF R Science
Te-am, and the Cahtortua lnstnutc l,f Teehnologyl.

I ~O\rjOS

c. b ud

\ 1111Ii~ I)t'c l ra l

(0 ,70 - o .<)(l !-lm l 4

and l' unc h rum a ric IlIIa:.:cr y uf C ultllu hia. SC

4 m.

d. Panch romaticba nd 10 .45 n ,'lC) !-lm) 1 , I 111.

e. et,lur cnm p<" ilc c RGU - bands 4. 3_ 21.

Color P la te 7-9 IKO\;OS imagery " fa I>u~i ucss park in Colu mbia, SC'. a J ) In,lividll.II-l )( 41l1 I11uh isp<.'\:lral bands and the I x l mperr
chromatic band are displayed. <' I Standard color composuc " I' IKO....( IS hand." -I. 3. and 2. l) ( "O!Of comp<Kil c o f mcrgal
mulns pccnal H x -I ml anJ panch eomau.. (I x I OIl data li magcs c" un,",,} "f (j,,oE}c. Inc.l

AV I RIS Im a uc of I\loffl'lt Fit'I{!. CA

'''p

Image on
o rrhe dsta cubc
is a colo' e" I11 I'<"'lIC of
II1Q~ "f mc 224 band s

c\-af'l>T:lI,on
,./ I"md~

214
hands al
lOom

lJon

11m

nUl11 illal
band... iUlh

l.uNI ern

I<JOO nm

l'IlK) nm
25(Nl l1m"

Color P lat e 7 -10 An Airborne Vb iNe Infr.m:tl lmJging SrcClnlmel"r \AV IRISI tlatascl l'f \ 1" nc u Field. CA . adj ac ent 1(1 San
I runciscoHay . The data ...-erc acqurrcd Oil AU!,;ust 20, I '1Il2, toy ,hi.' NA:-'A 1'.H:-2 mrcrattta m"Jilk tlL"- 2) .n
an a l1 it ll(lc of 2H.OOI)m I(,SJl/lO tl.) r''''u h inJ; in 21)x 2U m ""fIlmal ,p;tt ia l resolution. ..\ " IR IS acquires images
in 224 ba nds ea ch III nm wide. in the 400 10 2 5ll/11l1ll reg ion. Three " f llle 124 ~I'<'clr;ll band s (If JOlla were
used to produce Ilw l " I!Of Cl)!\ll" ...ire on 1" 1' " r the "h~ perspccnal dat ac ubc - 10 ac,'elllu;lle the ssructure in ' he
...atcr and in Ihe e\ a pornl ion J"'m js " n the right. The ~i "es of the cube de pict j ust the ed ge pixels 1;'>( all 224
o f tile AV IKIS -pcc ua! cha nnels. The top n ftllc' sides arc 111 the visi"k p;.tn ofthe sl-ccuu r n(ollK I nm ) a nd the
I"..IIt"m is in the middle-infrared ( 2~1l/1 mil). Th e bluck a",,,, in the duacubc rqll\.~nl almospllerk ab:Kl!"pt iun
hands, especially at I-lOO and 19/11) nm . The ~idc's arc' d l ~pI3y ....d in a pse udo-color rangin g fro m il iad and
blue t vcry lu I' fc" J't'IISC ) to red Ihl!!11 fCsfl" ns<' I. ( If pan;eul ar ;1l1er<....' 11I 111 e dat acube is lhe smal l region t,f
hig h rc...J'tm"t' in Ihe LI pper r ig hl corn ...r of th... datac ubc j u-a 1'...: 1.1\\ the c vapo rariou ""nd,. This res po nse is in
lhe red pan u f the v isiblc spectru m t nf-out MiU 11 m I and is J ue to th c presenc e of I e m In.; in. I lo ng red brine
shrim p in th.... cv ,1 J't'rali'~l J't'nus I court c,) of R. ( I. Gree n, 1\" 'i:\ Jet Pn 'pur, ion l ab I

. C" lor'lnfnu'e'd pMiograp h.

Color P la ia 711 I-me T!!" ()i~ild l s<''11.;c \f S~Slc," t Ih S Idata. a ] ( 'I>I"r- in lr"r~-d irnag.. ( f{( iii = near-m tra red, re-t. and gTe.:-n1otI xm kirk. ~"' .
al I )( 1 III Ilblailled on Decem ber I~. ION.'!. Tlk: l cnn i ~ court am! tr.ld .. arc covered with astrotur f b l Natural color imagr
t l{( i II - red. green. and Nue Iofan area :l<lj3,"<:01 1<> ,I " Y, P""'cr \ mhomy luke. TIl<,' 1 )( I Ii data were acquired un (lcloOcr
U . ]'J<J7. Tho: Jt'l: idu"u ~ hardwood trees we re captured lo<:l1":'ClIl,>: In tlns bcaunful i lll.l~c rim..~c, court."y o f Don Ug.hl ~

Ther mal Infra red and C ulnr \ ' i d c o~ r a p h~

or S Cl.:lIl l' ll h or t he Um pq ua Rlver Hll, jn in () rt'~n ll

a~;u!u

as 31.0

n. F olor de nsity sliced the rmal infrared image and natural co lor vidcog raphy of the con fluence of the
Sou th Umpq ua River (27.5 "t' I ar1<ll he North Um pl.l lla Ril c r (:'.5,7 "C! at river 11" 1.' 10' 1.).

h, Contlucncc o f Wn lfC rcck 119 ,7 "C ) 'InJ l.iuic !{ in'r (22.S ~C l ;< 1 river mile 11.

CWf Plate 8-1

I' ''rward-l"okin~

infrared (I"LIIU imagery of two segm,,'nl ' (, f th..- I 'mJlo.lu;l Ri\C'r l ~a-,m d , ~pl a ~('d a lo n}! '" uh narun..l-color
at the sa me time . Th<- thermal-in frar..-.J data were c ClhN.aI~-.J I" surtacc temperature and color-ced ed
Idc nsuy sh ceo.l ). rile remote >-Cllsi ng .de rin-d '" aler s urface tcmpcrmurc mc-as urcmen te are generally '" ith in 1. n.5 -c of' thc
u"': kinetic temperature {imago:'s court ..,sy " I ()rcg" n Departmcm (,f Environmcuta! (J u;d ,ty. ~ O()3 ).
~' idCl~'T.lph, ohta;o<-'d

Thl'r1uallnfra r o:d Deteetion uf Thermal w a ter " " Il11 li" n in Iht, Sa\ lInl1llh Rn er

3.

Ikn~lly ~Iict-.J

I'rOOa"'TI therma l

in rrarcd l ~ - 1 4 I! m l J.lla .

h a ll",c lllll i~ '''l:ra rn

T nll "" '1 LUI(i<"

>20" C

"'0
En<.l in ~
rl~ <:1

in

rran-cct

2. <

E~

.Il" lw river
amllk-Ill

wh ile

1'''lIl I'C r:ltU!C

10.2 l It ' ('

red
140

Bcgillllilig ph d
In u auscct

::c

J 20

'~

J()(I

5,2 IIl"C

-r-c

'"

12" C
riv er

'"
'" "

ambient

'"

211

,. 1)

411

Pixel in I ran....-..:l

<n

"'

c.
C o lo r Pla te 8-2 3) Dc usuy ..heed d l"p I3)' .. r prcdaw 11111<'rm ;]1 in frar<:d dal .l " f til ,' Fo ur ~ l i k ("rwJ,. therm al plu me in the Savannah Rl\(I' llI
\ ta n; h 2S. r<,lx I 12.1'1 x 2.1\ m spatia l resolunom, Ihe data are color-coded aCl'Ord ms tn rhe eta es intervals su mmanzed I
Table S_lI. 1 , Three iransccts are passedthrough the plu me atlc r roc<l ling it H,~ , ,"I W hy it is imp<1/1;.Int 10 l'OI3lC tl!<: i~
<I) I hc It'l11 pc falurc m fomuuion in I ransect H displayed in a his eogram format.

SP lIC{' S hlltl lt, I'huln l:,rallh and S I H.-ClX-SA R 11II;ll:,t' of tilt' i"i1c River; S ud a n

;I.

Spa~c

Shuttle photogra ph.

b. SIR..('iX ,SA R image.

Color Pla te g _, a ) Space Shun k photo gra ph o f the Nile Ri\ cr. Suda n. l:>l SIR-C/X-SA R color-composite ima~c of C-l:>;lnd v. nh II V polarizauon, L. b.> nd with II V IX,lariL.lliwl, ;lI\d L-rond with 111 1 pola rization Th e dnta wcr c acqu ired hy the Space Shu nl ... EII-

d"",,,r in Apri1. 1' 1'1-1 (councs y "'AS A lei Prcputxion l.ab j.

S I R-C/X -SA R 1 11I ;I ~l' r~ o f Ron do nia , Hrll/il

Color Plate 9-2 SI H-C1X SA R image or c pon itlll of

l~ undol1ia, Brazil. obtained on April
Ill, I<)<)-1 . It is a color composite o f Xband VV pular i711tion, C -band I IV 1'0 lanzation. and Lcband !-IV polurizalI ea\ y precipitation appea rs as a
hla.'k cloud in the X-hand image, mo re
faintly in the C-oond image, and is relatively in_isihle in the Lcba nd imag e.
Til., hright pink is rainfon: st lcoune sy
Nt\'\A J..t I' ropuls ion Lah },

uou.

X-hand\'\'

-band U\

L_haoo IIV

SII{-C l.- Uand a nd Ccu a nd Int crfcroa r am s nf Fort Irwin, C A

C OIOf P la te 93 SI K-C"X-SAK intcrfcmgrams of Fort In, in, C:\, in Ih~ Mojav e Desert The colored b auds provide Ikl nikd. l.j uamilil!llt

ekvati un informat ion that can be USl..'"tlIO con - rr uct a d;gila llcfr'tin model

( c (\u rt e~ y

l" l\SA Jet l'ropulsiou La b}.

Color P late 94 Three-dimensiona l (l<.'T'!<!",~li\e \ h~"" oI" O "",en" Va ll... y, nea r B..IIlIf'. C ,\, c reated b~ comhining 1....0 spccc bomc SIR-eX" ,\1{ itl1 a ~cs " hlaim'tl ill October. I'N-I. using inter ferometric tec hniq ues. Th o.' Whit<' \ lI' unlllins arc in th e cent..r of tile
unage und riseto ., ,00 11 TIl ( I(Ull ~) ft). Ihl' (lwe n, I{ lwr omd II, tributaries ar.. ' ccn (courtesy t\/\SA Jcr propulsion L a~ ).

-,p-- - - - - - Ui:.:i131 rle,-ali,," \1 t1dd of the Wa ~a l (" h rronl in t:la h llerh ed

fro m S huttle Radar TopogTaph~ \ Ih\i nn (S R " .) Ual a
Ur:apl'd "ilh Landvat Th ematic 'lappt'r Ima l.:l r~

W;""lch
\ 1'HII11:lin
Range

~ Pla te

9 -5 al SIH\1-<kri \l.-..Ilh l'llal d ':\ ;lI,,1II m"dd u:;IJ'l:d wil h l .md....~ 11 \' rmap e Il{ liH '" t>and~":. 3. I I. IlK' C -bdll<! S RT \ t l1a1.a
"ere o btained Fct>rual) 12. ! CMMl ". An anagl yph prc ...:nlal ltlll .,f the s ill' " ( "-band dat a ' 1'1.:3 u.... anaglYr h 1!.la~~s l_ c l
A stereopair .,r 111<: llln,hal f \ l dalJ drar...:d "HT the SRl 'I,\ ...J.:riH'd 1l1- \I l imal!c~ cHurt e,) :" A"' ''\ k l I' rupuls iull La b j.

C om pa ri son ofGH) I'()JO n E:'\1 and S R r :\l-d(' r i\('d I) E:\I

of :\loUl1 1 Kila ma njarn in Ta nzania a nd "':('11) 3

3.

GTOro30 I x l krn digital eleva tion mod el.

c. GTOP0 30 I 'I I km lli ilal cle vauo n model

observed from an ubljquc vanta ge point loo king \\"-1\\....

b. SRTM-J erived 30 .\ 30 111 digilOiI elevatio n model,

d. S RT ~ I llerivcI130

'I

j n m digitill ele vation mod el.

Color Plale 9-6 a) GIOI' OJI) digital elevation mudd al I x 1 m. T his is pun of the global GI OI'OJO DEM database maintained b~ lht
USfi S. I'!) SRl\.l -dl'rh l>d l>EM at J() x 30 rn. e) (iTOPt no IWM \ iewed from the w.r-.;w d l SIU Mderived OEM \~
frum the WNW. NUle the detail associated with the small cinder co nes l'fI lhe Ibnl.. " r lhe Ill.'untain (images courtesy 'i .-\SA
Jet

rnlrLl I~ i "n

l.a h ).

Adv a nced ,\ Ik rtm a' l' Sca n n illi,: Rudjurnct cr (A \ISR- J:)

3 C" ml""'ite of A\f SR-E derived S<"a

1c

~urfa.-c

temperature (SSTl f,>r June. 2002_

Color P1ale 9- 7 a) Co mposite imag e o f Advanc ed Mic row ave Scanning Raduunc tcr (A /l.1SR-E) d<'rivcd W;l sur face tem perature (SST) in
the birthplace of hurricanes, the 1I1ICNll.lpicall'On\crg",ncC' zone. h ) A j-day iI\Crag'" of SST for the Caribbean Sea andthe
Atlant ic Ocean from August 25-27. 10115. de riH:d Irom the .-\ :MSR-E. Warm oecan ....atc r fuels hurri ca ne s. and there was
plent) of .... arm water for Hurricane Katrina to huild up stren gth once she: crossed 0 \'<:1" Flori da and mo ved into the G ulf o f
Mex ico. All }ellnw. orange o r red water IS ::: 1 7 ,~ C 1 ~1 Fl . r\ hurricane r~q ui rcs SSTs .n about this leve l o r warme r to
streng then. CJ<J ud cov er da ta w en- e xtrac ted Irom ~(lA ,\ (j t ll' S imagery. Lan d d<llll were obtained Inuu MO DIS imagery
( images cou rte sy of~ ASA and the ~at i ..nal Sfl3.cc Development A!!cl1cy cf J " p.:lJl ).

Swectuum
(Liquidumbar .\ /y ruci flua L. )
'~ ~

. \ .~

., .

~.

"

,
,.-

,"r

'"

70

."

0"
t
c"
"
~

red
lea f

60

50
yellow
lea f

40

~ -'0
e

"

brown
leaf

20
to

e.

green
tellf

NJ H.

0
.J(M")

SilO

(,1)0

70f l

' OIl

-n ll )

10110

Wavelength. 11m
C o lor P la te 11-1 1l1 1 'h\'llls> lIlhc"I.f In~ green Swerctgum lea f (L1 ,/wd<l",I ,</r _'f\ r",-',f/ ll u L I ob tamcd from .i tr...-c on ;.i,,,,,mkr 11. 1998.k\
Scn...~ll 'g yd to.... and r...--d S"' <'CII,'Um leaves o btain ed from lhc IT('C. d >St"Tl{,,'i.C...-d Swec lgum leaf thai "a~ on the gTO\ll1d.
Speceruradrometer pe rce nt re flec tance mCd"un:rncl1l" ove r ttll: wavelength inl<:r\ ;l14 00 - 1050 urn.

O r u und Reference lnfurmarion Ov crtatd nn

II S inJ;:ll' Channel of ,.\ VIIUS IlIIa:':t"r~

Sa il Luis

\ all l~ .

, "c l-:d :H ill" (' I""ili,,":.! Iion '141.)1

Sl' pl t' mhl'r J . 199J

CO

b.
_

alfalfa

II

o at

II barley

h;J)'

\' l'~(' l at ill ll

canola .

~ spinac h

pasture

spi nach

II

nothing mapped

II] potato

_....

SCfl("' ('t' n n'/S l n '\\ .\ Ia p

healthy green
vege tation
dry vcgct.uicn'
bare gro und

stressed
vege tatio n

Color Plate 11-2 a) ( imund reference mtorm anon overlaid nil a ' ingl... channel of :;n x 2n m .o\VI!-t [S d;lla C't>l amed on ~epl ember J. 1'1'13.
b) \ 'e ~ CI>l l i lln - pccic, c1Ol--.,; ilk aIlUll map derived frum JIldlpi!> o f A\"IRIS d..la l'l Ve ~<;tauun sen..esccncc stre ss ma p JOI ne r
('lark <,I ;11., IINS).

3. CA ~IS data (RO B = hands J, 2. J).

b. c,\ ~ I S data (RCm = hands o. 4. 21.

Biom a ss in a Pnrtfun of :\lurn'lIs Inl et, SC,

Deri ved fro m.3 '( .3 m C a lib ra ted Airborne
;\l ult islll'l'lni l Sca n ne r (C A MS) Data
O b ta ined o ll l \ u gm t 2, 1997
T o tal Bitllll <l SS (gra ms/ fil2 )

500 749

I
I

1000 -1 49'.)

750 999

ISOO 1999
2000 - 2499

c. Map o f biomass.

2500 - 2t)1)\}

Color Plate 11-3 a ) Nalural color composite of'n sma ll rtMti nn of Murrells Inle t. Sf". r~'C,>r<t.:tl by Ihe ~AS A Ca hhral,' d Airt..o rne Mulli>p
tral Scan ne r ICA\lS ) on t\ ug ust 2. 1'N7. h ) Color-infrared ( Ol ' l l composuc. cJ Bil''' ''''''' t~ 1I1 ~ 1 information extracted frog
the CA \t 5 dala (Jensen et al., I')<) X).

Phc n ulogtca l C ycle u f C ro ps in Ca lifo r n ia 's Sa n J oaqui n a nd Im pe ria l Va lleys and

La ndsat ,\ I ull islll'ct r a l Sca nner Im a ges of On e Field I)UI"i Il/.: a G ro wing Season

Su/.:arhl'l'ts

M, y

Ripe

J une

HarvCSI

July

Au g

Fie ld prcparauen

S~'P

Oct

Ihll'i n~

Emergence

Plant ing

Thi nn ing

C otl o n

,,,

f <b

Mar

FielJ prepara tion

Apr

Planting Emergence Squa res

Bloo ming

seumg

Bolls

Roll,

s<.'t ti n ~

opcmng-

Harvest

Discin g
Plow ing

defoliation

"

,-,

"

Floweri ng

{,

1Sl cun ing

2nd CUlli ng

3rd CUlling

'

tee,

-trh CUlling

Sth cuuing

6th (lilting

Color Plate 11-4 Phenological cycle s Il f a ) sugarbccts. h j conon. and c t 311:111":1 grown in the San Joaquin and lmpc rial Valleys "I southern
Calilom i ~ , Land sat !'.ISS images .... ere I>b tuin..-d ov er a 12-month period ill Ihe S.lII Joaquin Valley. 'Ill.. colo r composite imagC5 (RG B - hands 4, 2, I) of three lield ~ arc ~"'fraCIC'<1 and placed hdl,.... the cro p calen dar inform atio n.

C hl\ !'l ifica li un ,\ I ap uf Imperlat Valle)". C A. nil December Ill. )lJH2

Deriv ed fro m Landsat Thematic

~ laIlP('r

Bands 1-5 a ud 7

a. HI ba nds 3. 2. I IRGB).

b. n t bands 4. 3. ;; (RG lll.

c. T\1 bands 5. 3.;; (R G B).

d T/-o. l bands 7. J. ;; lRGTl).

II
D

SlIgarh ...ets

/\ lfa1!;\

I I l 'O\\Illl

t'; 11 1,lW

c ( ' Iassific,lli' ln map .

Color Plate 115 a j Land....1l thema tic \l ilp""t natu ral enl(... ,,,m po"I1~' ,ma!!e nfa "..,n i' " l ofl he l mpo:ria l Valle}. CA . ,ll:>wm,'1J 'In [)"cemb
IO. I 'III:!. h ,II Set e ral t>lher ralsc--<,,,l,,. com po "il,~_ e) C1"...,iJi,'a llnl1 mal" ,krl\CJ h~ ,hgital im"ge r rllcr.'Ss;ng _

r\~ricullUr aJ

Landccver .\ Inn;.: th e .\ l l1 lalh u, e River in Suuth .-U r ica

a . Part of Water :'\lanaI:emcm Area fOb; L'sut u and ~l hl Jthule RI..::r cac hmc nts
recorded 0 11 S PO T 5 imaS~7) collected on J a llU.l ~" Q. ~ l ll).l ( Re iB = hand, _I. :!. I ).

Sugarc.", c
Citru~

Foresl
Bu.sh \ dd
I<oad
Wate r
narc ' ul!
Win.th re;lk
Banana

11_Clas-aficanon map ,"'ri ved fro m :!11l)J

sri IT mul1i'pccl ral and p'lnchrum ali" .1.11<1 _

Color Plat e 11-6 a ] SI'OT II KVIK c"lur composite image of a n area " lung Ihc Mhlathuzc Rive r ill Ihe' Republic " I'Stllllh Africa. hI Remote
sc-nsinl:!....lcri vcd classifica tion map o f the st udy area . Tf us . }~ of mfonnation is used II) the' Rcpublrc o f So uth Al r k a De..
partrncnt of Watl'r .-\ m Ufl> &. F....-e""l1- 10 inh-ntUf} the ill;Ji<:nll ura llan d cover (, ... int' UI t..l the W Oller ' ulh on,... i" n and k e.
soerce \ l.lIIagc lIIcllI System I WARVIS) "I" llial dec ision sur!" '" cysu-m lcnun.:,y Jen ....n o:t al.. ~(I( lf, )_

r
St'a -vit'\ \ in:: Wide' ""it>ld-ur-Vit'\\ (S t'a WWS)

Im a g{'r~

a. Global chlorophy ll u (g m J ) derived [rum S":JWifS imagery obtained from September 3. 199 7.
through December 3 1, I'N7. The warme r tilt: co lor. the greeter the chlorop hyll co nce ntra tio n,

illlal!": of Inc EiL'tcrn Seaboard

o f the U. S . 'W>13ined o n S<.l'lcmo.:r .lO. 1'N7.

b. True-color

~WifS

----,.pI'-_..:

c. Ch l.>roph)1I u .llstribu li"r1 on Scplembt.'"f 30. 1997

derived fmm ScaW iFS d ata

Color Plate 12- 1 Exa mples ",fs.:.a ~ lc'" ing Widc ridd-of-\k'" (S.'a WirS j rcmorc ....."'.. 11" data [coun csy NAS.'\ Goddard Space FliPtt CCllo
tcr and Ort>it:ll lmagmg Corpo ration (ORHIM:\( il- t; used wIl h poamissi.....J.

.\ l OUlS C h l o ro p h~ 1I a Product

Color Plate 12 2

Chlllfoph~lI " ,Ji, tn "u titm on ~ O\ ('Tll ""..r 2J. 21NlJ, al''"11 the '''It.llh'''<!'krn United
L'hjor _1I _2 algori thm tcourtesy ~ r\SA ).

~l.l les

derived using the \<tO l}(S

Lake Ta hoe, Ca tifum ta- xcvad a

a ll~th~ "I<:I1') dcnv... ,J fWIll [ ID AR lor depth' from 0 h'

b lIackscaner mf"m1<'I,un <le n \'ed fn,m

I ~ m amI f r" m muhirk ho:a m SO"' i\ R f.'r ,kr lh. > 15 m

mu llir 1c-h.:arn SO K I\R

C o lo r Pla Ia 12 -3 ill Hathymctry or La ke Ta hoe d...nv ...d us ing th...SH O A LS L1J).\1{ sy sh:m fur Ikrlhs < I ~ m and a KUlIgst-erg: m ulnplc bece
'" It\ AI{ li ,r dcpth s > 15 Ill. 1 Brig ht.:r ' '''' es in rh..- acousnc had".c llh:r ,h ta ind icale harde r Mlrfa".:. such as rod. [}drkcr
tone' md icarc ...,ncr su rfac ..,. such as ....x hm... nt . T ho: surr""nd il1l! lau d I" a sh,..kd-rdlO.'fimage g...nerated from USGS IllIII U E\h. 0:) Tbcccnrratpart of the \\ CSI<TI1 margi n coliapse,1wndmg larj;o:l>l,.ds .l<:n"iS the no" r ofthelake. Larg e blocll
'" Ithlll the dchr i, ." nguo: are lip I,) 211 m hi gh. Th is large failure h called a debns avalanche and IS \'C~' SIm ilar in silt III
",1 1.:If"': features found al .. n~ ocean marg ins in ' c"ClOn k .J1 I} active .lfca~ ant.! ,on \ " kan".~ (n>tlncs}' U.S. Geological Sur
\cy.1 1l(1/>1_

;\,OAA A\' IIR R-derind Sea-S u rface Te mperature

xo
Arramie
On'(JII

.20 "c
a. Compos ite sea-su rface tern pc ra uuc
, SST) m;.p ofthe so utheastern

oO"f

bigfu der ived from A\' II RR data.

10

v-.-', '#.
\

.-

'"

'or;
1
,
~,
',
,,,,.' ~

...........
,

< ,

b. WurlJ \\ ide sea-surface temperature (SST) map dcrivcd from

~ O:\A - 14

:\ \ 'I IRR data,

Color Pla te 12-4 a) Sea-su rface temperature I';;ST I mar derived fnun a three-day romposuc nf I\( lAA AVlIRR therma l in frared l!;tla centen-d on Marcn 4. ]lJ'-N, Each pi\d " ,I, ,lll"caled ' hc hllthe,t -unucc tcmpc r.nurc that occu rred durin!; the three daysr ecurlcs) uf SOAA Coasla \ Se rvices Ccntc n. h) (JI" h,lI ocean 51f x 50 km SS Tre i dcnvcd fnun Marc h 'I , I '1'Jl) through March
1'" I '1')'1 \ 'l~ h" Llfs 1 M l,.\\ _14 AVIIKI{ data (co url,'s> ,.f:-J( lAAi \' LSI)IS 1.

'I flnthl ~

Sea-S ur face Temperatu re ("C )

32
28
24

20
16
12

8
4

o
a. La Nina in Dece mber. 199 M.

32
28
24

20
16
12

8
4

o
b. Normal in Decembe r, l QQ(J.

32
28
24

20
16

12

8
4

o
c. EI Nino in Decembe r. l IN?
Color Plate 12 -5 RC)Ill.llds numt hly sea-surface temperature (SS T ) mJ[)S ..Icrived from in ~ i1rl buoy (\ala and remo tely sensed data lcllllltO!
'- ( JI\I\ JTAt ) f\,111t' '' ;11 CC'l1ICr lOr f n\ ironmenta l Prediction I.

Trnplcal Rainfall :\Ica sure mt' nl :\Ii",..io n (T IO D I)

a. T RM M Microwav e Ima ger ITMI) data ob la incd on Ma rch

Il

Q,

1Q<1l1.

h. I" R \1 \1 Pr.. cipimnon Radar ( " I{ I data

obtamcd " 1\ March 'J, I'N I'\ .

III

' 1il1 ~..

n d BL.)

Hlt l

:!(JO
()i~t;:'"~'l: l l;ml

c . A ltlllg-track

<' n'ls~_""I:li,)n

" f TR MM Pr<'l;,p;ta', on Radar d;I' '1"bla in..'d on M;orc h

Q.

I'NX ,

Color P la te 1 2- 6 ~ ) Worldwide TRl\1111 Microwave Im ager data collec ted Oil Murc h '!, 1'1')1'\. til Precipita tion Radar dal~ of suu lhcrn Florida
cl Cross -section o f Prccipita uon Rad ar dala (courte sy NAS A Goddard T RM M 0 1licC' and Ja pa n ~ al ion a l S pace Dcvel(lJllllcnt A~\'nCY ).

------ - - - - - - - - - - - - -r
Selec ted Databases rrom
South Cer ull na's S pa tial Da ta In fr astru cture
[).~il.,1

Or1hor':~l iti,,"
Im'I!~1)'

01,l'l;l1 lemun

Tr:ln'l"""annn

Colo r P la te 13 1 Sd<'CI,'<J databacc.... in the S" luh Carolina

IhrktI ( ~ .

~raljal

1),,1;1 Infra~lnI<lllre _

Level Il'rh:m/.....un -urbau La nd cnve r fur

Dorch est er. a nd C ba rtecto n Counnes i n South C a rullna

a. Feb ruary 14 , 1975.

b. March 26. I lJNI .

d . Jarmon)" -I, I QIN .

c. \ h rrh 17. 19<12.

"If

c, February 10.

1 l)~ 5 .

Color P la te 13-2 Level 1urt>.m/nullurhan landco vcr

Berkeley. Dorc heste r. and C h;u ksh lll ,uunlks cente red Oil Charlceron. SC J<.";I,x
from La ruh .m MSS 7" " 7" m data Th ... landcover intorm ano n IS d raped over a ncar.mfr:Jrrd Im.1g<: (:viS" h,.nd-l).

Co

_.w.___..-,--

'". . . .
.........

--..".__.
_.0.
_ _. .
.. . ..

_
_.
_.. ,-I
....

.
~

,""... ...=:~ :!:

- .'.__.

,-_.'__.-_.

::,-...;.._.
.
~.

~--

=0,'_
, ~. I .

::dar Ptaie 14- 1 .\tilll;ra] llldl" ofCu pruc. r--:V. derived fWl11 I,,,, -ahitud.. O 'llmU iL) and hig h-a huude (20 km AGU AVIRIS dala .."t"i n..-d on ( lc t" ber 11. IlN s. "n,1Jllll<' IX, I'WI<. r<:!op,,:.:t l, d~ 1.:' .... n .."1>)" S"a)lc,,'1"1.. 199'J j.

_......,

Shuttle S IR-C/X-SAH. Images of Kilauea volcu nu in Hawaii

b.
Color P la te 14 -2 aj { 'ullIp<" irc Shunle SIR-CiX -SA I{ irn,,!;c of'Kilauca \"1c:Ill,,. III. (hand. C. X. I.) nh laincd on April 12. ]<J<l4 . t Th..
imugc overlaid on a digita l ,'le, anon ml,dd. The ll\" r1a r1l11h, w uf la l it <I n this slucld volc ano is \ cr) evident (court.:,)'
,'I,AS\ k l l' r"I'"I,; ul1 Lal:l)

S tcrco pat r of Mount Sl. Helens, Wa\hingron

Color P late 143

u.s. Geological Sllm:~ Hlp

tude Phot ography IIlAP)
infra red seereo pair of MlJlII
Helens, WA, on A Ugtlr.r 6, 1
Thc ac tive lava dome in l~ i:CIo
tor o f the cone is visible. Ai&

men-c hoked

radial drall-r:

paucrn has developed. I'or6.1

to the

left (count'$)' U.S,G

ical Survcyl.

c
T he G ra nd C a nyon

a. Landsat

T~ I

colo r composi te (RGB .. ha nds 7.4.2).

h ('o[o rcnmp"site ( IUi H .. bands 4 , J. 2).

Co lor P late 14 4 Lands,tl Thematic Mapper color composite s of a portion ur lhe Gt.uul Cally"n (courtesy NASA)

Plate 14 5 ASTF.R image uf Namibia's Ugab River obtained on Dec ember 15,1000 (KGB hands 7, 3. I) . Thc river passes through
nearly vertical folded la>'ef1'l oflhinly bedded limestone. sandston e. and silt,tunc [cou rtesy o f N ASAl( j S ~ O~l ETIIERS
IH CJJAROS and U.SJJ apan ASTER Scienc e Team ).

:\1is ~i~s iPJli

River

c.:ior Plate 14 -6 l and:s.l l Thematic \la procr co lor com posi te ( RG B = bands -l, 3_ 2 ) o f lhe' \ Iis.sil's ippi River (court esy Space Imaging. Inc.).

r
,\ Io r ro Bay, C A

a Landsat T\t ("O InTcom pocitc ( RG H '" h,lnd~ 7. 4 . 2 )

b. Colnr c.. m posuc (IH, U '" I>" n..h ..I. J, 2) .

Col

Co lo r Piate 14-7 Landsa t Thc manc \ lapper color compovues of \ l orm Hay. CA Icouncw ~p"n' Ima~IIl~. Inc. I.

S ulliv a n's Island. SC

......"

3.

:\AI'I' color-infrared unhuphorograph.

b. ATLAS mulnxpc caral U.l'.l of the lidal flat behind r- tc uf Palms , SC.

Co lo r Plate 148 a I Portion " I' a IJS(iS ""\I'P color-in frared on hophoto quarter quad r.ml1!c of ...ul!i\;m, leland . "'C (c<llln <'l;YU.S r..:ole!ical SLJnc~) . I>l A IL\S muhiepccua! scanner da ta 1~.5 )(~.5 nil of till.' lllidl l!..", behind hI..:",fPalm" . SC'. CRGB = ~
f> ..I. 21 lclluncsy f'o,AS \ Sh.'nni, Space ( 'en": r j.

,'(;::""
i,
I:I<' i..,

" " " llrt!

f ;hlc i..,

L\ lala,pina Glackr. :\ L

a, Land-at 7 1- nh.a.I1I;<"<! Tbemauc Mapro.'T Plus

imagcl'} " r lhe Mala~r "u Glacier o btained on
AUl!u>ol 3 1. 20(10 I K( i ll = NnoJ~ ~. J . 31.

b. HiglH.'>bhqu.: \ I....... ,.fthe ~lac i cr c reated b) oJrJ.plll~ II LandsatTbcmanc

"" ~ppcr imag e obt ai ned in Fc hruary. 1000 . (R CoB .. I>J noJ~ 3. 1. I I. OH'r II
oJ ,glla l ete... anon mo Jd extracted In au S pace Shull ic KaoJar Topography
, Iission (,-!>anJ mtert cl'llmelri<: S!\R d.u a ':OIlCC1.-d in Fe brua ry 2000 ,

Pla le 14 9 a ' Vcr nca l nca r-infra red iln'" b ) high-obliq ue natural-color \ i.' " "fth. Mala spina Gkmcr in A l a~la , Th is is ,",Iaska 'slargcst
glacier and cove..... 150U '\Q mi (3. 1\ ~() ;,q kmj. II is a com pou nd ~I ae, cr formed hy the m': Il!'" g or valle')' g laciers, the
lI1U,1 prouuucut o f \\ h' ch arc the A!!.I:>si, Gla cie r and the Scward Glac ier (Cllun.,S) ~ A S:\ antJ Jet Prv puls ion Lab),

Remot e Sensi ng Glaciated Landscapes

a , L'inla Mountain Range in Utah.

b. wasatch Range in the Rocky Mountains ofUtah.

c. Lake

lahoe inthe SIO:rm Ncvudaon

ofCulrfornia and t",'C\'IJa.

the border

lIs

Color Plate 14 -10 Lan do,;u ,-,,1,,1' co rnposues of glacia ted landsc apcs in ""n,on. o f a l 1h.. Uinta vtoumams in Uta h. 1> 1 the Wa.salCh Rang.. In
Utah. md cl lhe Lake l ahue regron III the S ierra :-';CI J oJa. CA. l' ka>.<.' refer l<l the blac k-and-w hue illus trurions in Chapter
I J fur nrmotauon t i mag~ cou n.>s.y U.S. Geological Sun C) ' an,t " 11.1" ,," tmagm g, Inc.j.

Act ivo

---

Namib Ikscrt, ....ami hia . .Urica

lh
eir

,h.

o!
sp

;"
fe

Eqc

"';

""me

3. Landsat 7 Fnh allCC'J Them atic Ma!'pcr Plus (ET M +I ima~<:r>' orthe " am ib Oc...:rt
obIai"",d 011 August 11.10l111 (RG II :c band.. 5. 4. 3)

n
a

H
u

1
r

b. l uw-ob li'lU<: \ lew uf a portio n o r de same area in AST f.R inl.L~cry ,ltJlaincd on Oct.>l>cr 14. 100 1.
The rmage wJ~ d raped OWl J d'gllal ek\"3!ion m.'<lel ntrll(lc,1 jrllm .'cr,-"""" !,i,, AS 1T R dila

Color Pla te 14 11 a ) Vertical and b i low -obl iq ue views of the Namib Desert in !'oi.llllib-:-.Iaul lu fl NatioualPark, T hew arc thc 1a11cs1 _
in (he world. some > 300 m (a lmost llSO ft). The area receives an J\ cr.I~C o f (ln ly to .; m m ra Infa ll per year. The CII'Z@\'
cotordeveloos o ve r time as iron in the sa nd is oxidized . The " Ide r (he d un.:, ll~ hnglnc r lhe o ra nge color (eOllrt,"!>y tJ~
and l' AS A'GSFCM ETliE RS IlA DJA ROS and LT.S JJ.lpa n :\STF R Sc jcnc.... T,~.11111.

ing

337

Princi ples

per

b':l>

\ pulse
m s I)

ncnt of

.. target

ulse III

L1DAR nUll) C o llec tio n

" S lc xY

~
hnsnm:JG

.v--"

" 1lI

(10-1)

m:Clh' r

sensor

Ka nn ina;
lIlirror i

h.:lght AGL."

rrang-

I ".,.
~

"
I "

p ower fincs
'

..

I.. sc:r
beam
,J,,...~ ...nc...
0

Ilisiantauc ous
la -.er
footprtm

ion of
o int , I

1<:.

r<~

a.~

ooims

h. U DA R elev ation r nas spoint s fo r a small area.

a. U DI\R data collccnou.

.'. and

the > thc scan a ngle. 6 ;

> the a mount o f ca nopy 10 be

'(lund

Ih c

roun-

p c nctrat ...d 10 H'-iICIl lh<: h a r<: Earth :

rco us

cor n-

o-

sca u
ang le

u
u
F

aen-

ver;I!..

Iy{ing

01"1
Jh),

e. Impac t ofinc reaced sca n a ng le.

~re 10-1

n
II r

.....

a) L1 DA I{ m-annn...I1l,s tra nvmit pulses orta-cr hg llll" .... ardth... gWOlHJ o~lng a ,COlnnUI!! rnirru r. Sum ... ofthis ene rgy is scan...red
boll;k towardthe aircraft anoJ rc....o rdcd III the rec e iver electronics Un board G PS and l' ll l doc nmcnt th... csnct tocauo n ot rhc
aircntlt and th... roll, pitch, and ya .... at the insramthe lase r pulse IS s...nt lind rc-ccivcd. h) L111\I{-,kri\eJ l,I', and z ele vation
m;lsspuint, fur an area n,'a r Aik en, SC. Some massf"Jinls arc loc ated on the L IMh'" surfa",- while oth ers are loc ated in the tree
ean "py and ...ve n on the Ill'.... cr trarwmi....~ion line and IX'..... cl As~u min~ that Ihe tree canuJl)! ha-, a uniform height an d canop y
density. th,-n the l;r<:;lIer the scan ang le from nadir Ute greater lite amount "r can<,py th;l! .... iIl haw to be penetrated to reach the
grou nd l<I acquire th... information n"" ;l."'<ar) tu cr...ate a ba r..-Ea r1h ,J1~ll a l ....r ram m<lIie l. ,J) U DAI{-d<.'rih"d digual surface
model for an area ne ar Aiken. SC I fr" m CO.... <'11 el al.. ~OOO).