1) Explain the following terms

i. Satellite imagery:- is a special case of digital photography. Satellite imagery is used for
tracking and measuring human and natural activity across the Earth. The satellites can also be
turned and adjusted to capture detailed images of our moon. Satellite imagery can be used to
produce images of large or small parts of the world from a small section of streets to an entire
hemisphere. There are many techniques that go into the type of satellite imagery that may be
requested.

ii. Visual image interpretation:- is a process of identifying features seen on the images by an
analyst/interpreter and communication of information obtained from these images to others
for evaluating their significance. Visual image interpretation elements are the following

a. Tone:- refers to the relative brightness or colour of objects in an image. Generally, tone
is the fundamental element for distinguishing between different targets or features. Variations
in tone also allows the elements of shape, texture, and pattern of objects to be distinguished.

b. Shape:- refers to the general form, structure, or outline of individual objects. Shape can be
a very distinctive clue for interpretation. Straight edge shapes typically represent urban or
agricultural (field) targets, while natural features, such as forest edges, are generally more
irregular in shape, except where man has created a road or clear cuts. Farm or crop land
irrigated by rotating sprinkler systems would appear as circular shapes.

c. Size:- of objects in an image is a function of scale. It is important to assess the size of a

target relative to other objects in a scene, as well as the absolute size, to aid in the
interpretation of that target. A quick approximation of target size can direct interpretation to
an appropriate result more quickly. For example, if an interpreter had to distinguish zones of
land use, and had identified an area with a number of buildings in it, large buildings such as
factories or warehouses would suggest commercial property, whereas small buildings would
indicate residential use.

d. Pattern:- refers to the spatial arrangement of visibly discernible objects. Typically an

orderly repetition of similar tones and textures will produce a distinctive and ultimately
recognizable pattern. Orchards with evenly spaced trees, and urban streets with regularly
spaced houses are good examples of pattern.

e. Texture:- refers to the arrangement and frequency of tonal variation in particular areas of
an image. Rough textures would consist of a mottled tone where the grey levels change
abruptly in a small area, whereas smooth textures would have very little tonal variation.
Smooth textures are most often the result of uniform, even surfaces, such as fields, asphalt, or
grasslands. A target with a rough surface and irregular structure, such as a forest canopy,

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results in a rough textured appearance. Texture is one of the most important elements for
distinguishing features in radar imagery.

f. Shadows:- may provide an idea of the profile and relative height of a target or targets which
may make identification in easier. Shadow is also helpful in interpretation as it may provide an
idea of the profile and relative height of a target or targets which may make identification
easier. However, shadows can also reduce or eliminate interpretation in their area of influence,
since targets within shadows are much less (or not at all) discernible from their surroundings.
Shadow is also useful for enhancing or identifying topography and landforms, particularly in
radar imagery.

g. Association:- takes into account the relationship between other recognizable objects or
features in proximity to the target of interest. The identification of features that one would
expect to associate with other features may provide information to facilitate identification. In
the example given above, commercial properties may be associated with proximity to major
transportation routes, whereas residential areas would be associated with schools,
playgrounds, and sports fields. In our example, a lake is associated with boats, a marina, and
adjacent recreational land.

iii. Identify image preprocessing methods

Image preprocessing:- is the steps taken to format images before they are used by model
training and inference. This includes, but is not limited to, resizing, orienting, and color
corrections. Image preprocessing may also decrease model training time and increase model
inference speed. The following are image preprocessing methods in remote sensing which are
sensed by satellite.

A) Image Enhancement

The Satellite images comprise of low brightness level. This calls for the importance of image
enhancement with the preservation of important details without loss of information. Contrast
is an important parameter considered on subjectively evaluating an image in terms of its
quality. Contrast, from human perception, is what differentiates object-to-object with
background. In other words, it is the color and brightness difference between the objects and
background. Many algorithms have been designed and developed to accomplish contrast
enhancement and solve various brightness related problems in image processing. Also it is one
of the primary steps followed before proceeding with any of the other image processing
techniques such as segmentation, object identification and so forth.

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Image enhancement techniques categorized as spatial and frequency domain methods.
Histogram Equalization is one of the widely used image enhancement methods which can be
performed on the complete image or some parts in it. It can enhance the overall image quality.

B) Feature Extraction

Feature extraction involves generating features for selection and classification. These are
differentiable features and forwarded towards classification phase. Feature extraction plays a
very critical role in deciding the efficiency of image classification process. The various features
can be categorized as—general and domain specific ones. General features are those which
include color, shape and texture while domain specific features are those pertaining to specific
applications such as conceptual features. A feature matching algorithm involving graph theory
is proposed in Reference. This technique suffers from non-linear intensity differences.

C) Image Segmentation

Image segmentation involves division of the image into different segments such that objects
and boundaries can be located.

D) Image fusion

Image fusion involves combining two or more images to form a new image. With the
advancement of multiresolution analysis, it is possible to extract high-frequency components
and then inject into multispectral image. The wavelet transform is commonly used for pan-
sharpening.

E) Change detection

Change detection is done to understand the changes in a particular area given that satellite
data over that area is available easily. Change detection techniques can be broadly classified as
algebra based, transform based, Geographical Information System (GIS) and based on advanced
models.

F) Image compression

The hardware resources available onboard in a satellite is limited and the satellite images are
very large, which necessitates the need for satellite image compression. This reduces onboard
data storage and the bandwidth required to transmit the image from the satellite to the ground
station as there is only a limited time during which the satellite passes over the ground station.
Hence, it is an important technique which will reduce the dependence on the onboard
resources without compromising the image quality and the information content which is
required at the ground station for analysis. Image quality is a matter of concern since the

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compressed images need to be reconstructed at the ground station without missing relevant
information.

G) Image classification

Efficient image classification methods are necessary for categorizing the satellite images. Image
classification is a method of pattern recognition in which images/pixels are classified based on
some similarity measures. It is divided into supervised, unsupervised and post-classification
approaches. Supervised method needs the training data to teach the classifier and recognize
the instances of necessary details in the image. It is divided into parametric and non-parametric
methods where parametric method use algebraic method for assignment to classes. Bayesian
and decision tree come under this category. Non-parametric method is used when density
function is not present. K-Nearest Neighbor and Logical Regression come under this category
[68].Unsupervised method finds group of similar instances with no information about class
label. Unsupervised methods can be hierarchical and partition clustering. Image classification of
satellite images suffer from two major drawbacks. The first is the issue of mixed pixels and
second is the difficulty in handling large amount of data in the satellite images. Random Forest
Classifier is popularly used for land use and land cover classification. It is an ensemble learning
approach based on a combination of tree predictors. It combines the votes from different trees
to decide the final class.

H) Image Feature Detection

There has been an increase in the satellite images which helps to understand and analyze
various applications. Feature recognition is gaining importance with the advancement in deep
learning. The ability to differentiate features such as buildings, roads, vegetation and so forth is
important in areas such as environmental analysis, urban monitoring and finding the disaster
affected areas and so on. In order to find correspondences among a set of images, where
feature correspondences between two or more images are needed, it is necessary to identify a
set of salient points in each image. In a classification task, feature descriptors are matched with
all trained image features and the trained image giving maximum correspondence is considered
the best match. The use of global and texture features are successful for finding similar images
in a database, while the local structure oriented features are considered adequate for
classification.

iv. Image classification methods

A. Unsupervised Classification

In unsupervised classification, it first groups pixels into “clusters” based on their properties.
Then, you classify each cluster with a land cover class. Overall, unsupervised classification is the

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most basic technique. Because you don’t need samples for unsupervised classification, it’s an
easy way to segment and understand an image. The two basic steps for unsupervised
classification are:

1. Generate clusters

2. Assign classes.

Using remote sensing software, we first create “clusters”. Some of the common image
clustering algorithms are: K-means and ISODATA.

B. Supervised Classification

In supervised classification, you select representative samples for each land cover class. The
software then uses these “training sites” and applies them to the entire image. The three basic
steps for supervised classification are:

1. Select training areas

2. Generate signature file and

3. Classify.

C. Object-Based Image Analysis (OBIA)

Object-based image classification groups pixels into representative vector shapes with size and
geometry. Object-based image analysis (OBIA) segments an image by grouping pixels. It doesn’t
create single pixels. Instead, it generates objects with different geometries. If we have the right
image, objects can be so meaningful that it does the digitizing for us. For example, the
segmentation results below highlight buildings. Here are the steps to perform object-based
image analysis classification:

1. Perform multiresolution segmentation

2.Select training areas

3 Define statistics

4.Classify

 NEAREST NEIGHBOR CLASSIFICATION: Nearest neighbor (NN) classification is similar to

supervised classification. After multi-resolution segmentation, the user identifies sample
sites for each land cover class. Next, they define statistics to classify image objects.

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 Finally, the nearest neighbor classifies objects based on their resemblance to the
training sites and the statistics defined.

V. Spectral profile :- is allow to select areas of interest or ground features on the image and
review the spectral information of all bands in a chart format. A spectral profile consists of
geometry to define the pixel selection and an image with key metadata from which to sample.

Vi. Metadata is:- is 'data about the data' and it's vital to understanding to source, currency,
scale, and appropriateness of using GIS data. Metadata can be stored as an inherent part of the
GIS data, or it may be stored as a separate document.