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Advanced Remote Sensing

ENVS720

Practical Handbook

July 2011

School of Environmental Sciences


Howard College/ Westville Campuses
University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban
Advanced Remote Sensing: Practical Handbook (July 2010)

School of Environmental Sciences


University of KwaZulu-Natal, Howard College/ Westville Campuses
Advanced Remote Sensing
Practical 1
Introduction to ERDAS Imagine

In this class we will be using ERDAS Imagine - image processing software


produced by ERDAS Inc. (Earth Resources Data Analysis System), Atlanta, GA.

1. Organization of ERDAS Imagine

Start Imagine by selecting Start/Programs/ERDAS 2010/ERDAS Imagine


2010/ERDAS Imagine 2010. Imagine Interface displays on your screen. The
Imagine interface is now based on the Microsoft Office 2007 system using a
Ribbon that contains all functions of Imagine.

ERDAS Imagine has a Tabular structure, i.e. it is made up of Ribbon Tabs


designed to contain groups of related tasks. Each button on the Ribbon activates
the corresponding set of Groups group. The following 7 Tabs are part of a
standard installation:

Table of Contents
Pane Map Window

ERDAS IMAGINE 2010 Interface

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Advanced Remote Sensing: Practical Handbook (July 2010)

ERDAS IMAGINE button Ribbon Tabs

Groups

Quick Access Toolbar Tools in a Group

The Quick Access Toolbar, by default, appears above the Ribbon.

This can be moved to below the Ribbon by clicking on the small Drop
Arrow
and selecting the option: Show the Quick Access Toolbar below the Ribbon. The
Quick Access Toolbar contains commonly used commands or tools and can be
completely customized for each individual user. Tools are added to or removed
from the Quick Access Toolbar by right clicking on the tool and selecting either
ADD or REMOVE from the Quick Access Toolbar.

By default, upon startup a Viewer is opened. Notice that you can have many
Viewers running at the same time -- press on the Add Views button in the
Window Group under the Home Tab to bring up Viewer #2, Viewer #3, etc.
These viewers will be listed in the Table of Contents Pane and a viewer window
will open in the Map Pane. Pressing other buttons on the Ribbon will start menus
for corresponding modules of Imagine. Browsing through these menus and
dialog boxes is a good way to get some idea of the capabilities of ERDAS
Imagine. Again, note that many modules can be running at the same time, so you
could perform several tasks simultaneously (for example, view an image and
perform data conversion for another dataset).

2. Getting Help

Imagine includes extensive on-line documentation, which is organized by


module. Open Imagine Online Documentation... under the Help Tab to view
available documents. There are separate on-line manuals for almost all modules,
for example, Viewer On-Line Manual or Map-Composer On-Line Manual. These

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manuals contain detailed description of every entry in menus and dialog boxes of
a particular module, as well as some conceptual information.

Besides on-line help, Imagine comes with several published references, most
importantly ERDAS Field Guide and Tour Guides. These texts contain detailed
coverage of principles and procedures or image and geographic information
processing employed in Imagine. The manuals are all grouped according to what
kind of document they are for example the Tour Guides are together and the
Field Guides are together.

Short, one line help is provided for buttons and dialog elements move the
cursor over buttons in the Ribbon and observe the popup help. ERDAS IMAGINE
2010 is completely customizable using the Preference Editor Located by clicking
on the ERDAS IMAGINE button.

3. Viewer

Let us now make use of Viewer to display some images. To open an image in the
viewer, right click in the name of the viewer in the Table of Contents, in this case
2D View #1. Open image wasia_1.mss.

Open the same image again, but this time look at Raster Options. Notice that
color mapping method (Display As) is set to True Color. Make sure that the
Layers to Colors is set to 3, 2, and 1 for Red, Green and Blue color guns,
respectively. Before moving ahead we'll briefly cover color mapping methods and
assignment of image bands to color guns.

Color Mapping

Imagine supports four color mapping options

1. True Color. True color display is appropriate for most interval or ratio
multi-layer images. Ratio or interval data mean images where digital
numbers (DN) are quantitative and related to each other in a continuous
manner. With True Color mapping pixels with higher DN in a particular
band are displayed with brighter color in the color gun assigned to that
band. Notice that True Color does not necessarily mean that an image is
displayed in a "natural" way, just that the relations between DN are
preserved - high DNs look brighter, low DNs look darker.
2. Pseudo Color. Pseudo color is appropriate for nominal or ordinal images
in one layer. Generally, categorical data have either been classified
(meaning that the file pixels have been put into distinct categories

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according to their values) or digitized from maps or other data layers. In


either case, each image file value is a class value, which is simply a
number for a particular category.
Since sequential class values are not necessarily related, the simple
gradations that are possible in true color or gray scale images are not
usually useful in pseudo color. The class system gives the pseudo color
image a "paint-by-number" look, in which each class can have its own
color.
3. Gray Scale. Gray scale is appropriate for a single layer of interval or ratio
data. You might use gray scale to analyze single layers in a dataset. Gray
scale images are like true color images in every regard except that there is
only one lookup table instead of three. In gray scale, the file values in the
layer are mapped through one lookup table that is applied equally to all
three color guns, which results in shades of gray.
4. Relief. This option is appropriate only for gray scale layers. An image is
displayed using technique called analytical hillshading as if it were a digital
elevation model (DEM).

Layer to Color Gun Assignments

Usually, a three-layer set of raster layers is opened in true color (there may be
more layers in the file). These three layers correspond to the three color guns
red, green, and blue.
The most useful color assignments are those that allow you to interpret the
opened image easily. For example:

a natural-color simulated image will approximate the colors that would


appear to a human observer of the scene.
a color-infrared simulated image shows the scene as it would appear on
color infrared film, which is familiar to many analysts.

Layer assignments are expressed in R,G,B order. For example, the assignment
4,2,1 means that layer 4 is assigned to red, layer 2 to green, and layer 1 to blue.
This is the default assignment used when a 4-layer set is opened with the
Viewer.

Below are some widely used layer to color gun assignments.

Landsat MSS - 4,2,1


Landsat TM - natural color: 3,2,1
Landsat TM - color infrared: 4,3,2
SPOT Multispectral - color infrared: 3,2,1

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Advanced Remote Sensing: Practical Handbook (July 2010)

School of Environmental Sciences


University of KwaZulu-Natal, Howard College/ Westville Campuses
Advanced Remote Sensing
Practical 2
Image Enhancement
Image enhancement is the process of making an image more interpretable for a
particular application. Enhancement makes important features of raw, remotely
sensed data more interpretable to the human eye. Enhancement techniques are
often used instead of classification techniques for feature extraction - studying
and locating areas and objects on the ground and deriving useful information
about them from images. (ERDAS Field Guide)

Radiometric Enhancement
Contrast Stretch
2 standard deviations linear stretch.
Histogram Equalization stretch

Spatial Enhancement
Filtering / Convolution

Spectral Enhancement
Indices
Principal Component Analysis (PCA)
Band Ratio

Radiometric Enhancement

Radiometric enhancement functions enhance image using the values of


individual pixels within each band. The most widely used technique is contrast
stretch.

Contrast Stretch

Contrast stretch translates actual pixel values, digital numbers (DNs), into display
brightness levels on the monitor. The reason behind this is that DNs typically do
not cover the whole available range of values (0 - 255 for 8-bit images). To
translate image values into display levels a lookup table (LUT) is employed. LUT
is stored with every image.

Default stretch - 2 standard deviations linear stretch.

Open band 1 of TM image lanier.img as Gray Scale (choose Fit to Frame


to see the whole scene). By default, Viewer applies 2 standard deviations
linear stretch. This means that pixels with DNs outside of range (mean - 2
st. dev., mean + 2 st. dev.) are displayed with 0 and 255, respectively,

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while those within that range are stretched from 0 to 255. To verify this,
select the Panchromatic Tab under the highlighted Raster section. Under
the Enhancement Group select General Contrast (click on the icon) to
open the Contrast Adjust Dialog Box. Click on Breakpts to open the
Breakpoint Editor.

You now see the stretch applied to the data: gray histogram is the
distribution of original (unstretched) pixel DNs, dotted line is the stretch,
and yellow histogram is the distribution of stretched DNs. The horizontal
axis is the original (unstretched) pixel DNs, in the range 0 - 255 (for 8-bit
images). The vertical axis represents two quantities: display (stretched)
pixel DNs, and pixel counts for the original (gray) histogram. As you move
cursor within the graph, three values change: the original pixel DN is
indicated along the horizontal axis, the displayed DN and the pixel count
are displayed along the vertical axis (lower and upper values,
respectively). The stretch line itself defines the relationship between the
input (original) and output (displayed) DNs. For any point along the line (x,
y) all pixels with DN = x will get displayed with DN = y. For example,
pixels with DN = 70 will be displayed with DN ~ 130.

Notice that the line is 0 up to approximately 50, and 255 after about 88, in
between it's straight. If you check band information (Home Tab,
Information Group, Layer Info), you'll notice that (50, 88) is approximately
(mean - 2 st. dev., mean + 2 st. dev.) - hence the name, 2 standard
deviations linear stretch.

No stretch

Its possible to open an image without any stretch at all, that is, to see raw
pixel DNs. Now open the same band in another Viewer, but this time
check No Stretch option (under Raster Options). Open the Breakpoints
Editor again to see the stretch. Notice that the current stretch is defined by
the line going from (0,0) to (255,255).

Now set Method to Standard Deviations (Standard Deviations should be


set to 2.0), Apply. Both Viewers should look the same now.

Histogram Equalization stretch

Nonlinear contrast stretch resulting in approximately the same number of


pixels with each value within a range. In this approach image values (raw
DNs) are assigned to display levels (stretched DNs) on the basis of their
frequency of occurrence, more display levels are assigned to the image
values that occur frequently. Pick Histogram Equalization under Method in
the Contrast Adjust Dialog Box. Click Apply and look at the breakpoints.

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Spatial Enhancement

Spatial enhancement modifies pixel values based on the values of surrounding


pixels. Spatial enhancement deals largely with spatial frequency, which is the
difference between the highest and lowest values of a contiguous set of pixels.
Spatial frequency is defined as "the number of changes in brightness value per
unit distance for any particular part of an image.

Convolution Filtering

Convolution filtering is the process of averaging small sets of pixels across an


image. Convolution filtering is used to change the spatial frequency
characteristics of an image. A convolution kernel is a matrix of numbers that is
used to average the value of each pixel with the values of surrounding pixels in a
particular way. The numbers in the matrix serve to weigh this average toward
particular pixels. These numbers are often called coefficients, because they are
used as such in the mathematical equations.

In this section we will use the georeferenced TM image of Atlanta. Open this file
in a viewer. To access the convolution filters:
Under the Raster Tab, Resolution Group, select Spatial then Convolution.
Tmatlanta.img is the input file. For the output file, click on the Browse button and
make sure you save your output file to the correct location. Give the output file an
appropriate name of your choice. Set the Kernel to the correct filter. Leave all
the other values at their default settings.

Apply 3x3 convolution filters in the following order: (1) High Pass, (2) Edge
Enhance, (3) Edge Detect, (4) Horizontal and (5) Vertical.

To best appreciate the effects of these techniques notice areas that have a
variety of lines or edges present (i.e. the edge of a forest, road, wetland
boundary, land/water boundary etc.). Open each of these files in its own viewer.
To view individual Views as separate from the main window, use the Pin Button

to unpin and repin these views to the main window.

Where else in ERDAS can you access the convolution filtering process and
how different is it from accessing the process via image interpreter? (5)

What are the differences between the various filters that you have applied?
(5)

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Spectral Enhancement

How to subset an image

Make sure the entire Midlands.img is displayed in a viewer and select the right
mouse button (rmb) inside the viewer to bring up the Quick View utility menu. In
the Quick View menu select Inquire Box. In the menu that appears change the
map coordinates to file coordinates. The white box that Imagine places over the
image shows the extent of the area that will be subseted (you may choose any
area). You can move the box with out changing its dimensions by placing the
cursor inside the white box and, while holding down the left mouse button (lmb),
moving the box to another location. You can change the dimensions of the box
by holding down the lmb while the cursor arrow is on an edge or side of the box
and, then draging the cursor around (the box should follow). You can also
change the dimensions of the box by directly entering the row and column values
in the menu that appeared with the white box. Once you have positioned your
box in the area to be subseted, select the Raster Tab, Geometry Group, Subset
and Chip Button (from the Ribbon), and then select Create Subset Image from
the menu. Use the following directions to fill in the appropriate menu choices and
note that we will make an individual subset for each band. Select
Midlands.img as the input file. Choose and appropriate output file name and
make sure it is set to save in the correct location. Select Coordinate Type equal
to File then click on the button that says "From Inquire Box". Notice that your
inquire box coordinates have been automatically included in the spaces that
determine the boundary of the subset. In the lower part of the window find the
words Number of Input Layers. In the space to the right you will find the entry
"1:8", this means layers 1 through 8 will be included in the subset (the default is
to include all image layers). You want to extract each individual layer as a
separate file, so change this entry to read only the desired layer (i.e. if you want
to extract only layer 2, type 2 in the entry). Select OK and the subset process will
begin. Remember to create a subset for each of the 8 layers as well as one for all
8 layers together.

Image Indices

ERDAS Imagine offers several well-known transformation indices used for


spectral enhancement. Vegetation indices are used to measure the presence
and condition of green vegetation. These indices are based on differences in the
response of vegetation as measured in the NIR (Near Infra Red) and Red
regions of the spectrum.
For this part of the exercise, select the Raster Tab, Classification Group, and
Unclassified Button. Then select Indices from the Menu. Select the file that you
have subsetted, including all layers, (e.g. Mid 1) as the Input File and give the
Output File any name you choose .The Coordinate Type should be set to map
and Sensor set to Landsat TM. Set Select Function to NDVI and turn on the

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Stretch to Unsigned 8-bit (this saves space). Leave the other variables in their
default state. Note the function being used and the bands that are incorporated
into this function. Select OK after you have set all the variables. View the results
and answer the following question. (Note: you might want to display an infrared
color composite for comparison.)

Compare and briefly discuss the normalized difference values computed


for water, vegetation, urban, and wetland vegetation areas. (5)

What other vegetation (and other) indices does ERDAS imagine offer and
describe the differences in data output and functionality? (5)

Principal Components Analysis

Image analysts can use Principal Components Analysis (PCA) as a data


reduction technique whereby the information content from a number of bands is
compressed into a few principal components. In other words, PCA can be used
to reduce the dimensionality of the data without a loss of information. In addition,
PCA images may be more easily interpreted than the conventional color infrared
composite. During the first pass, a covariance matrix of the input bands is
computed. This covariance matrix is then used during the second pass to
compute the principal components or eigenvectors.

Principal Component Analysis procedures using Imagine:

Open the Midlands2.img in an imagine viewer. Under the Raster Tab,


Resolution Group, Spectral Menu, select Principle Component. When the
Principal Components dialog box appears, use Midlands2.img as the input file
and give an appropriate name for the output file. Select File as the coordinate
type. Leave the Data Type unchanged, i.e. Input: Unsigned 8 Bit and Output:
Float Single. Leave all Output Options in their default state. In both the Eigen
Matrix and Eigenvalues sections select the Write to File option. A default name
for each should appear in their respective screens. Make sure you correctly
specify the output path for these files. Finally, select 5 for the Number of
Components Desired. If you are interested in viewing a graphical representation
of the PCA process (it might help you understand it more, then again it might not)
click on View before you complete the enhancement by clicking on OK.

When the processing stops, click OK and then open a new viewer. In that viewer
open your freshly created PCA image. Under Raster Options select Pseudo
Color and Layer 1. Do this for the 5 layers. The sixth viewer should be opened
and display the image using True Color. Six windows should now open, showing
you the individual six PCA "bands" and one composite "band". You will need to
study the images and the files containing the Eigenvector matrix (*.mtx) and
Eigenvalues (*.tbl). To view, and understand, the two output files, open each of
them in a text editor, ERDAS has a text editor that can be found by clicking on

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the ERDAS Button, selecting View and then View Text File. The *.mtx
files has a table of six columns with six rows each. The columns, as said,
correspond to the six principal components and the six rows correspond to the
six bands of TM data. The numbers represent a factor score (Eigenvector) that
each band contributed to the individual component. If band 4 contributed close to
1.0 to the component, one could then assume that that specific component is a
good measure of vegetation cover. The *.tbl file gives you the Eigenvalues for
each of the six principal components. The total of these figures will give you the
total variance.

Band Ratioing

For this part of the prac you will need to open the Classic Interface for ERDAS
2010. Close ERDAS, then select: Start, All Programs, ERDAS 2010, ERDAS
IMAGINE 2010, ERDAS IMAGINE 2010 CLASSIC INTERFACE.

Band ratioing is a process by which brightness values of pixels in one band are
divided by the brightness values of their corresponding pixels in another band in
order to create a new output image. These ratios may enhance or subdue certain
attributes found in the image, depending on the spectral characteristics in each of
the two bands chosen.

Using the image that you have subseted do the following: in the menu list that
appears (under Interpreter) find and select the Utilities... option. In the Utilities
option window select Operators... In the two empty input windows select your
image as the image and in the empty output window add a filename of your
choice. Under the input files, select any bands you wish to use (some
combination may not work due to the divisible by 0 error). For instance, if
you wanted to do a 4/5 band ratio you would select layer four for input file #1 and
layer five for input file #2. Select the Operator to be used, in this case the
division symbol. Leave all other fields in their default values. Select OK in the
Two Input Operators window. Use the viewer to view the image.

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Advanced Remote Sensing: Practical Handbook (July 2010)

School of Environmental Sciences


University of KwaZulu-Natal, Howard College/ Westville Campuses
Advanced Remote Sensing
Practical 3
Image Rectification

Geometric rectification (geographic registration, georeferencing, or


geometric transformation), which matches (registers) the grid defined by the
input image to some other grid that we define. Another image, a scanned map,
or a vector could define the new grid. The transformation of the (i,j) coordinates
of the input grid to the coordinates of the output grid ( I, J or Northing, Easting) is
called spatial resampling. Spatial resampling can be achieved via non-
parametric or parametric models. The most common models used to perform
spatial resampling are 2-D Conformal, Affine, and 2nd Order Polynomial. The
parameters for these functions are defined by gathering ground control points
(GCPs), which are easily identifiable features, contained in both the input image
and the image, scanned map, or vector used as a reference. The rectification
process will resample the DN values of the input image to create new DN values
to be placed in the output image. The transformation of the input DN values to
output DN values is called spectral resampling. The mathematical function that
performs the spectral resampling can be either Nearest Neighbor, Bilinear, or
Cubic Convolution. The non-parametric models can only compensate for
differences in translation, scale(s), and rotation between the input and output
grids. They do not correct for distortions due to terrain relief. Higher order
transformations (Nth order polynomials) can be used to apply a "rubber sheet"
transformation, but they do not rigorously correct for relief distortions and can
cause severe "warping" effects.

We will rectify a Landsat TM image of Atlanta, GA to a georeferenced SPOT


panchromatic image of the same area. The SPOT image was rectified using the
State Plane map projection. This kind of rectification is known as image-to-image
rectification.

In rectifying the TM image we will follow these six basic steps: (1) display
images, (2) start Geometric Correction Tools, (3) record Ground Control Points
(GCPs), (4) compute a transformation matrix, (5) resample the image, and (6)
verify the rectification process.

Display images

Start two viewers (arrange them using Session/Tile Viewers if desired). In the left
viewer open the TM image to be rectified - the input image - tmAtlanta.img. In
the right viewer open the SPOT image - the reference image - panAtlanta.img.
Fit images to frames by clicking on the Zoom to Data Extent button in the Extent
Window of the Home Tab.

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Start Geometric Correction Tools

Select 2D View #1 from the Contents Pane. Under the Raster Option (highlighted
above the Menu Tabs) click on Multispectral and then click on Control Points in
the Transform and Orthocorrect Window. The Set Geometric Model dialog box
opens. From Model List select Polynomial and click OK. The Multipoint
Geometric Correction window and GCP Tool Reference Setup dialog box both
open.

The GCP Tool Reference Setup dialog lists all the ways in which reference GCPs
could be obtained in Imagine. Reference GCPs are GCPs for which real-world
coordinates are known. We will be getting reference GCPs from the SPOT
image, so accept the default choice Image Layer (New Viewer) and click OK.
Navigate to the image panAtlanta.img in your home directory and click OK. The
Reference Map Information window just lists projection parameters of the SPOT
image, click OK in it.

When the Polynomial Model Properties dialog box opens, note the Status Bar. It
reads: Model has no solution. This will change after we have recorded the
Ground Control Points. Close this dialog box.

Record Ground Control Points

The Multipoint Geometric Correction Window contains 2 panes (the left pane is
the Input Image; the right pane is the Reference Image). Each pane contains 3
windows. The top left window of the Input image and top right window of the
Reference Image contain the entire image. There is box (you can resize this box
by clicking on the centre markers of the edges and dragging) that defines an area
that is zoomed in, in the main window. The main window also contains a zoom
box and this zoomed in area is shown in the last window of the pane. Try moving
or resizing a zoom box (make sure pointer tool is selected in the Multipoint
Geometric Correction window, otherwise you'll add a GCP) and the
corresponding window will pan and rescale. The purpose of these two additional
windows is to zoom in on some part of the image in order to position GCP
precisely.

Now we'll add four pairs of GCPs (strictly speaking, we need only 3 for
polynomial transformation of the first order, but 4 is better). A pair consists of an
input GCP (recorded in the X Input and Y Input columns of GCP Tool) and a
corresponding reference GCP (recorded in the X Ref., Y Ref. columns). To
create GCPs look for locations that are (a) present in both images, (b) easily and
accurately identifiable in both images, and (c) evenly spread inside images,
preferably closer to image edges. We must first remove the existing GCPs from
the GCP Table. Using the Shift button, highlight all the GCP points under the
Point # column. Right click and select delete selection.

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As a starting point, use highway intersection in the upper left part of images.
Drag both zoom boxes to it, resize the boxes and/or windows so that you can
clearly see the detail of the intersection. Pick a convenient location, for example,
an overpass. Now switch to Create GCP tool in the Multipoint Geometric
Correction window. Add a GCP in the input image (tmAtlanta.img), then in the
reference image (panAtlanta.img).

Add 3 more pairs of GCPs in other parts of images. It is important to space GCPs
as widely as possible on the image, generally it is best to keep them close to
edges or corners. This way the polynomial transformation calculated from the
GCPs will be valid for the whole image, not just for the portion where GCPs were
concentrated. Pay attention that you don't accidentally record corresponding
GCPs into different rows - the pointers ">" show the current row for input and
reference GCPs, and these rows are not necessarily the same. To move a GCP
simply drag it to a new location. To delete a GCP right-click on the corresponding
row inside the Point # column, choose Delete Selection.

When you've all 4 pairs of GCPs, take a look at the Control Point Error field in the
button bar of the GCP Tool. Error is given in input units that are in pixels in our
case. The Total error should probably be less than 1 pixel.

At this point please save the input and reference GCPs to files. Choose File/Save
Input As... and save as Atl_in.gcc in your home directory. Use File/Save
Reference As... to save reference GCPs as Atl_ref.gcc.

Save table in the GCP Tool window as report. To do this, first unselect all rows in
the table, then right-click on any column header in the table, choose Report...
Print the report [and submit the report as part of your assignment].

Compute transformation matrix

At this point the transformation matrix is actually already computed. Click on the
Display Model Properties in the Geo Correction Tools to verify that the Status is
now "Model solution is current".

Resample the image

In the Geo Correction Tools bar click on the Display Resample Image Dialog...
button. Set Output File to tmAtlanta_georef.img in your home directory. Click OK
to start resampling.

Verify rectification

In a new viewer, open the tmAtlanta_georef.img image.After opening the image,


fit it to the Frame.... Visually evaluate the result of rectification.

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Briefly describe the advantages and disadvantages of the various spectral


resampling methods available in Erdas (10).
Prac Challenge
Mosaicking (adjacent images)

You are provided with the following datasets

Wassia1_mss.img
Wassia2_mss.img
Wassia3_tm.img

Mosaic the above images

Provide a flow diagram detailing the mosiacking process in Erdas (10).

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Advanced Remote Sensing: Practical Handbook (July 2010)

School of Environmental Sciences


University of KwaZulu-Natal, Howard College/ Westville Campuses
Advanced Remote Sensing
Practical 4
Supervised Classification
The Box (Parallelepiped) and Minimum Distance to Mean (MDM) Classifiers

This practical session will introduce you to the supervised land cover
classification process. Recall that we have already tried to do this through level
slicing a single image band. In this practical session, we will use the Box and
MDM classification methods. These methods are called supervised because the
user determines the types (and therefore the number) of classes to use in
creating the classification. This practical session is designed to help you
understand how these classification algorithms work. An actual classification
study has a lot more planning and steps involved! You will be collecting training
sets for this practical session through imagine to perform a simple 6 category
classification. We will be using ERDAS IMAGINE to perform these classifications.

Images:
mad_spot.img - SPOT image of Madison, WI

Part I. Collecting Training Sets


A. As you open the file mad_spot.img in an Imagine Viewer and open the
image as a true color image. Note that for SPOT imagery, band 3 is NIR,
band 2 is Red, and band 1 is Green. Hence, this will not really be a true
color image. To view the False Color SPOT image, click on the highlighted
Raster heading. Click on Choose Sensor which is found under the
Multispectral Tab in the Bands Group. Select SPOT XS. Then click on
Custom, also in the Bands group. Select False Color IR. This automatically
sets the Band to RGB-colourgun assignments. Inspect the image and try to
find large areas of the following land cover classes: Water, Grass, Road,
Wetland, Pines, and Buildings (Check these 6 classes in the attached
PowerPoint slide).

B. To create training sets select Signature Editor from the Main Raster Tab,
Classification Group, Supervised.

C. From the Signature Editor window, select View Columns. Highlight


Signature Name, Color, and Count in the list shown in the View Signature
Columns window. To highlight these all at once, first hold down the shift key
and then click on the number by the appropriate names in the list. Click on
Statistics (on the bottom of this same menu) and choose Mean and
Standard Deviation (Std. Dev.). Click Apply in the View Signature Columns
window. Close the Column Statistics and View Signature Columns windows.

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D. You will perform the following steps for each of the six classes listed
previously:
1. First zoom into an area that could be a training set (a homogeneous
area that represents a class). Then, create a polygon around the

class. To do this, select the Create Polygon Icon from the


Highlighted Raster Heading, Drawing Tab under the Insert Geometry
Group. Delineate your polygon on the image. Double-click to complete
the polygon. If you mess up, you can use the Undo Last Edit (i.e.,

oops) Icon. Otherwise just press the Delete Button on the


keyboard while the polygon is still highlighted.
E. Create a signature for this class by selecting Edit Addfrom the Signature
Editor window or press the Create a new signature button, on the
Signature Editor window. Do this for all 6 classes.

F. Move the > indicator to the signature in the Signature Editor list if it did not
move automatically to the newly added class. Look at the histograms of the
signature for this class for each band by selecting View Histograms within the
Signature Editor Window or pressing the histogram icon on the Signature Editor

menu,

G. Change the color of the class to a color that makes sense to you. Do this by
moving the > indicator to the appropriate signature in the Signature Editor list.
Move the cursor to the Color column in the list and click with the right mouse
button. Choose a color from the list that appears, except for black. We will use
black for unclassified pixels later on. You can choose Other to create your own
color.

H. Name the signature with the name of the associated land cover type by
clicking on the name in the Signature Name column and editing it.

I. Note you can delete a signature by highlighting the signatures name under the
class column (the row will be highlighted in yellow). Then right press on the
mouse button and select the option to delete the selection.

J. Examine the statistics for each of the classes by moving the > indicator to the
appropriate signature in the Signature Editor list and selecting View Statistics
or press the histogram icon on the

K. There is many more function in the signature editor. If you want, experiment
with the various icons and pull-down menus. Remember there is Imagine Help.

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Advanced Remote Sensing: Practical Handbook (July 2010)

L. View the graphs of these signatures by selecting View Mean Plotsfrom the
Signature Editor window. Select View Multiple Signature Modefrom the
Signature Mean Plot window. Select View Scale Y-Axis from this window
also. How can this graph help you to decide how unique these signatures
are?

M. After you collect a number of training sets for each class. Save this signature
file to your working directory by selecting File Save As. Name your file
"6classes.sig".

N. Save the statistics for your signatures by selecting File Report. Select only
Statistics and select All Signatures, then click OK. An Editor window appears
with a report of the statistics for each of the class signatures you have defined.
From the Editor window select File Save As and save this report in your
working directory as a file called "6classes.txt". Close the Editor window.

O.Why do we want the histograms to be mono-modal for each class? How


can the mean and standard deviation for each band of each class help you
to decide the uniqueness of these signatures?

Part II. The Box Classifier


A. Again from the Signature Editor Menu select Edit Parallelepiped Limits
from the Signature Editor window. Select Set from the Limits window. Set
the Standard Deviation to 2 and set Signatures to All in the Set
Parallelepiped Limits window. Click OK and close the Limits window.

B. Select Classify Supervised from the Signature Editor window.

C. Under the Supervised Classification Window, save the Output Classified File
as a file called "boxclass.img" in your working directory.

D. Within the Supervised Classification Window and under the Decision Rules
select Parallelepiped for the Non-parametric Rule.

E. Use Classify by Order for the Overlap Rule.

F. Use Unclassified for the Unclassified Rule.

G. Click OK to run the classification algorithm. Based on the parameters that


have been set in the steps above, briefly describe how each pixel in the
image "mad_spot.img" will be classified (1) if it falls within one box; (2) if it
falls in a spectral space region covered by two or more boxes; or (3) if it
does not fall within any of the boxes.

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Advanced Remote Sensing: Practical Handbook (July 2010)

H. Right click on 2D View #1 in the Contents Pane and select Open Raster
Layer from the Viewer Context Menu. Open the file "boxclass.img". In the
Raster Options portion of the Select Layer to Add Window, deselect the Clear
Display option and then click OK.

I. Select Flicker from the Viewer context menu. You can click on the Manual
Flicker button within the Viewer Flicker window to animate the original and
classified images. Comment on the number of unclassified pixels, if any,
and on errors of commission and omission between any two classes
you choose to compare.

J. Another way to look at the classified image versus the original is to select
Swipe from the Viewer Context Menu. Then you can move the classified
image over a portion of the original image.

K. To change the colors in the classified image right click on boxclass.img in


the Contents Pane. Select Display Attribute Table. A Raster Attribute Editor
window will appear at the bottom of the screen. You can change the colors
by right-clicking the mouse button over a color of a class you are interested in
changing. A list of potential colors appears. Note also that you can select a
number of classes by holding down the shift button and selecting a number of
the rows (under the Row heading). Then move to the color column and right
click, select a color and all the rows (classes) you selected will now be
changed to that color. To undo you last edit - select Undo Last Edit in the
Edit Group on the Home Tab.

Part III. The MDM Classifier


A. Open the Signature Editor and open the file 6classes.sig. Select Classify
Supervised from the Signature Editor window.

B. Save the Output Classified File as a file called "mdmclass.img" in your


working directory.

C. Use None for the Non-parametric Rule.

D. Use Minimum Distance for the Parametric Rule.

E. Click OK to run the classification algorithm. Based on the parameters that


have been set in the steps above, briefly describe how each pixel in the
image "mad_spot.img" will be classified.

F. Select Open Raster Layer from the Viewer Context Menu for View #1 and
open the file "mdmclass.img". In the Raster Options portion of the Select
Layer to Add window, deselect the Clear Display option and then click OK.

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Advanced Remote Sensing: Practical Handbook (July 2010)

G. Use Flicker from the Viewer Context Menu. You can click on the Manual
Flicker button within the Viewer Flicker window to animate the original image,
the box classified image, and the MDM classified image. Comment on the
number of unclassified pixels, if any and on errors of commission and
omission between any two classes you choose to compare. Compare
and contrast the results from the Box and MDM classifiers.

NB: Make sure you save the boxclass.img and mdmclass.img files as these
images will be used in Practical 5.

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Advanced Remote Sensing: Practical Handbook (July 2010)

School of Environmental Sciences


University of KwaZulu-Natal, Howard College/ Westville Campuses
Advanced Remote Sensing
Practical 5
Supervised Classification: The Maximum Likelihood Classifier

In this practical session we will continue our exploration of classification methods.


So far, we have tried Box, and Minimum Distance-to-Mean classifiers. This time
we will use the Maximum Likelihood classification method, which is a supervised
classification method because the user determines the types (and therefore the
number) of classes to use in creating the classification. Previously, you manually
defined training areas. In this practical session, we will investigate an automated
way of defining training set boundaries as well as using the signatures you
defined to create a Maximum Likelihood classification.

We will be using ERDAS IMAGINE.


Copy the file mad_spot.img to your working directory.

Make sure that you still have a copy of the signature file as well as the text file
you created in Practical 4 ( I will refer to them as 6classses.*). You will be using
this signature file to compare the results of the Maximum Likelihood classifier to
the Box and MDM classifiers.

Part I. Use of "seeds" to determine Training Sets


Recall that in practical session 4 we manually defined polygons with the
assumption that they contained pixels of the same class within their boundaries.
Criteria that had to be met were a low standard deviation in each band, a
unimodal distribution for the histogram of each band, and a large number of
pixels (greater than 9 times the number of bands, rule-of-thumb). These criteria
were often difficult to achieve! The "seed" process uses these criteria to
automatically determine training set polygons, and only requires a single point in
the image (the "seed") to "grow" a region. However, it will not necessarily
provide a large number of pixels, so watch out for this.

A. As you open the file mad_spot.img (Viewer Context Menu Open Raster
Layer), highlight mad_spot.img in the Select Layer to Add window and
then look under the Raster Options tab. Display the image as a 3,2,1 (RGB)
true color image. Note that for SPOT imagery, band 3 is NIR, band 2 is
Red, and band 1 is Green. Hence, this will not really be a true color image.

B. Open the Signature Editor (Raster Tab Classification Group


Supervised Menu Signature Editor).

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Advanced Remote Sensing: Practical Handbook (July 2010)

C. Navigate to the Highlighted Raster Heading Drawing Tab Insert


Geometry Group.

D. Click on the drop down box of Region and select Region


Growing Properties.

E. From the Region Growing Properties window, select the 3 by 3 pixel icon

for Neighborhood, set the Geographic Constraint for Area to 15000,


and the Spectral Euclidean Distance to 10. When you are done click the
Close button.

F. Create a training set for each the six classes that you defined in Practical
session 4 (i.e. Water, Grass, Wetland, Road, Buildings and Pines) by
performing the following steps for each class:
1. Create an AOI polygon around the class by using the Region Grow

tool within the Highlighted Raster Heading


Drawing Tab Insert Geometry Group. You will notice that the
Highlighted Heading changes from Raster to AOI and an AOI layer is
automatically added to the Table of Contents.
2. Create a signature for this class by selecting Edit Add from the
Signature Editor window.
3. Move the > indicator to this newly defined signature in the Signature
Editor list as necessary.
4. Change the color and name of this signature.

G. Answer the following questions:


1. How do the polygons around the training sites derived by the
"seed" process differ from the ones you created in practical
session 4?
2. How do the number of pixels per training site and the statistics as
derived by the "seed" process differ from the process of
obtaining training sets in practical session 4?

H. Highlight all your signatures and then select View Histograms from the
Signature Editor window. In the Histogram Plot Control Panel window, set
Signatures to All Selected Signatures and Bands to All Bands, then click
Plot.
1. Comment on the shape of these histograms.
2. Comment on the separability between the histograms in each
band of any two classes.

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Advanced Remote Sensing: Practical Handbook (July 2010)

I. To improve and add to the number of your training sets change the Region
Growing Properties (see step E). Note: use spectral class names that helps
you know what information class they belong too (such as water1, water2 ).

J. Save this signature file to your working directory by selecting File Save As
from the Signature Editor window. Navigate to your directory and name your
file "6seeds.sig". Save the statistics for your signatures by selecting File
Report. Select only Statistics and select All Signatures, then click OK. An
Editor window appears with a report of the statistics for each of the class
signatures you have defined. From the Editor window select File Save As
and save this report in your working directory as a file called "6seeds.txt".
Close the Editor window.

K. If you have not done so already, save the files "6seeds.sig" and "6seeds.txt".
You might want to look at the signature file "6seeds.txt" when you write up
your report. The file "6seeds.sig" is a binary file and cannot be viewed as
text.

Part II. Signature Separability: Transformed Divergence


There are many different measures of class signature separability. In this
practical session we will look at a separability measure called transformed
divergence.

A. Open your signature file called "6classes.sig" by selecting File Open from
the Signature Editor window.

B. Select Evaluate Separability and set the Distance Measure to


Transformed Divergence, then click OK.

C. A separability report is generated. Look at the table entitled Best Minimum


Separability. The values in this table are the transformed divergence
values for all possible pairs of class training site signatures. As a rule-of-
thumb, values between 1800 to 2000 are considered to be statistically
separable. Values of the Transformed Divergence less than 1800 are
considered to be unseparable (i.e. redundant classes). However, you can be
more cautious and maintain training sets with transform divergence values
that are lower (say around 1200) and then merge this spectral classes
together after the classification has been performed.

D. Answer the following questions:


1. Which of the six classes appear to be more confused?
2. Why do you think these two classes are the least separable? Use
supporting evidence to argue your case (plots of the signatures,
statistics, shape of the signature histograms, etc.).

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Advanced Remote Sensing: Practical Handbook (July 2010)

Part III. Maximum Likelihood Classification


A. Use the 6 class signatures you defined in practical session 4 to classify the
imagery contained in "mad_spot.img" with the Box and MDM classifiers. If
your files "boxclass.img" and "mdmclass.img" are still available, then skip
steps B and C and perform the Maximum Likelihood classification outlined in
step D.

B. Select Edit Parallelepiped Limits from the Signature Editor window, and
then click on Set From the Limits window. In the Set Parallelepiped Limits
window, select Std. Deviation, set this to 2, and set the Signatures to All,
then click OK and Close the Limits window. Select Classify Supervised
from the Signature Editor window. Navigate to your working directory and
then set the Output file to "boxclass.img". Set the Non-parametric Rule to
Parallelepiped, the Overlap Rule to Classify by Order, and the Unclassified
Rule to Unclassified, then click OK.

C. Select Classify Supervised from the Signature Editor window. Navigate to


your working directory and then set the Output file to "mdmclass.img". Set
the Non-parametric Rule to None and the Parametric Rule to Minimum
Distance, and then click OK.

D. If you had to do steps B and C, close the 6classes.sig file if you have not
done so already and open your 6seeds.sig file in the Signature Editor
Window. Select Classify Supervised from the Signature Editor window.
Navigate to your working directory and set the Output file to "maxlike.img".
Set the Non-parametric Rule to None and the Parametric Rule to Maximum
Likelihood, and then click OK.

E. If you have more than one spectral class per information class then you will
need to recode your classifications down to six information classes. Do this
by selecting the Raster Tab Raster GIS Group Thematic Menu
Recode. Fill in the menu and of course the input file will be one of your
classifications with more than one spectral class for information class. Press
the Setup Recode button and recode the spectral classes down to the six
information classes.

F. Display the results from the Box, MDM, and Maximum Likelihood classifiers
(and Recode) in the 2DView #1 window. Select Utility Flicker from the
Viewer #1 window and animate the results from the three classification
algorithms. Ensure that you are looking at the full extent of the images
by selecting View Fit Image to Window. You may want to "hide" certain
layers so that they do not appear in the animation. You can do this by
selecting View Arrange Layers and then right mouse click on a layer and
selecting Layer Visibility. Repeat this procedure to "un-hide" layers.

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Advanced Remote Sensing: Practical Handbook (July 2010)

G. Close the viewer. Open a new viewer and display the original image
(mad_spot.img) as a 3, 2, 1 True Color Image. Then open the results images
of the Box classifier (boxclass.img) the Minimum Distance to Mean classifier
(mdmclass.img), the Maximum Likelihood classifier (maxlike.ing) and the
Recode image in new viewers. To do this use Home Tab Window Group
Add Views Create New 2D View. Once all the views are open, use
Equalize Panes to view all the Viewer Windows evenly and compare them to
the original.

H. Answer the following questions:


1. What is the major difference between the MDM and Maximum
Likelihood classifiers and the Box classifier?
2. Compare and contrast the results from the Box and MDM
classifiers to the Maximum Likelihood classifier.

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Advanced Remote Sensing: Practical Handbook (July 2010)

School of Environmental Sciences


University of KwaZulu-Natal, Howard College/ Westville Campuses
Advanced Remote Sensing
Practical 6
Unsupervised Classification The ISODATA Classifier

In this practical session we conclude our investigation of land cover


classifications. To date, we have tried three supervised classifiers (Box,
Minimum Distance to Mean, and Maximum Likelihood). Now, we will use an
unsupervised classifier called Iterative Self Organizing Data Analysis (ISODATA).
This method is an unsupervised classifier because the algorithm automatically
determines the class signatures to use in creating the classification. However,
the user still governs how many classes into which the algorithm will organize the
data. This algorithm will provide us with a classified image as well as the
signatures for each of the classes.

Data required for this session:

Bera_mss.img Multi-date (May 19 and July 30, 1981) Landsat MSS imagery
(one RED and one NIR band for each date) of an agricultural area
located in the Berea Creek West Quadrangle of western
Nebraska.

Berapolyshp.* This is an ArcView shape file and supporting files of crop


polygons with crop type attributes attached (you need to unzip this
file and save in your working directory).

Part I. Iterative Self Organizing Data Analysis (ISODATA)

A. Navigate to Raster Tab Classification Group Unsupervised Menu


and choose Unsupervised Classification.

B. Set the Input Raster File to your copy of the Bera_mss.img" file.

C. Set the Output Cluster Layer to a file called "isodata.img" in your working
directory. This file will contain the classified image output from the ISODATA
algorithm.

D. Set the Output Signature to a file called "isodata.sig" in your working


directory. This file will contain the spectral signatures created by the
ISODATA algorithm.

E. Click on Initializing Options and note the default parameters used for
initializing the class means.

F. Change the Number of Classes to 20 and the Maximum Iterations to 10.

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Advanced Remote Sensing: Practical Handbook (July 2010)

G. Note the default values listed in the Processing Options section. The
Maximum Iterations and Convergence Threshold parameters will be used to
control when the algorithm should stop. The Maximum Iterations is the
greatest number of times the algorithm will loop through the ISODATA
processing logic. The Convergence Threshold is a percentage of the
classified image that must remain unchanged between two successive
iterations for the algorithm to halt. Briefly describe how the ISODATA
algorithm will classify the input imagery. Be sure to include comments
about where the locations of the initial class means will be set and why
there are two rules to stop the processing.

H. Click OK. Watch the status bar carefully and note how many iterations it
takes to complete the classification. Which of the two criteria (number
of iterations or percent change) was used to stop the algorithm?

Part II. From Classes to Information


So now you've got 20 classes from the ISODATA algorithm, so what? One of the
most difficult tasks of using an unsupervised classifier is assigning information
classes to the numeric classes of the classified image. Let's see if we can
make some sense of these classes. Well need some ancillary information to help
us.

A. Display the classified image contained in the file "isodata.img" and


overlay it with the crop polygons contained in the ArcView shapefile
Berapoly_shape.shp. From the 2DView #1 Context Menu, open the
Raster Layer called isodata.img. Next open the Vector Layer called
berapoly_shape.shp.

B. Access the Polygon Database by right clicking on the Vector Layer in


the Table of Contents and selecting Display Attribute Table. Use the
Vector Viewing Properties to see the Crop Code attribute and Crop
polygon with outlines. Access the Vector Viewing Properties by
navigating to the Highlighted Vector Heading Drawing Tab Symbology
Group Vector Symbology Menu and selecting Viewing Properties. Access
the raster Look Up Table (LUT) by right clicking on the Raster Layer in
the Table of Contents and selecting Display Attribute Table. From the
Highlighted Raster Heading Table Tab Query Group, use Column
Properties to arrange the Color and Class Names fields next to each
other. This will help you create a legend for your work.

C. Note that you will have to interchange the raster and vector layer by
Dragging them up or down in the Table of Contents

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Advanced Remote Sensing: Practical Handbook (July 2010)

D. Arrange the layers such that vector coverage berapoly_shape is on top.


You can determine where the different classes are within the image by
noting the Crop Code and by finding the corresponding Crop
Description within the Berapoly_shape Attribute Table. Alternatively,
you can select Rows based on their Criteria. Select the Vector Layer
(Berapoly_shape.shp) in the Table of Contents, then go to the Vector
Highlighted Heading Table Tab Row Group Criteria and enter
your selection criteria to highlight all polygons of a particular class
(e.g., $cropcode == C for corn). For each of the 9 classes (i.e., Alfalfa,
Beans, Corn, Grass and Pastures, Potatoes, Sugar Beets, Summer
Fallow, Wheat Irrigated, Winter Wheat) do the following:
1. Arrange the layers such that isodata.img is on top. Click on a pixel in
the classified image that you think corresponds to one of the 9 classes.
The Row (class number) will be highlighted within the Raster Attribute
Window.
2. Change the Color of this numeric class to indicate information (i.e.
Yellow implies Corn). Other portions of the image that contain this
same class will automatically be colored.
3. Name the numeric class by editing the Class Names field.

E. Answer the following questions:


1. How many unique information classes do there appear to be? Give an
example of any two numeric classes that seem redundant (i.e. belong
to the same information class).
2. Which information classes seem unseparable? In situations where two
or more information classes are unseparable, which class should take
precedence and why?
3. Debate whether or not increasing the number of classes created by the
ISODATA algorithm would help in discriminating between
unseparable classes (Hint: Classifier Signature Editor, File
Open, isodata.sig, View Mean Plots).

F. From the Raster Attribute Editor window, select File Save and then File
Close.

G. From the Viewer #1 window, select File Close.

Part III. Class Fragment Reduction


You may note that the classes are highly fragmented in some areas. This spatial
fragmentation might be undesirable if you were going to vectorize this image
(raster to vector conversion) or if you had some minimum mapping unit criterion
which must be met.

One way to reduce this fragmentation is to pass a convolution filter (kernel) over
the image.

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Advanced Remote Sensing: Practical Handbook (July 2010)

A. Make a copy of your isodata.img file in your working directory and name it
"isodataflt.img".
B. Select Viewer, and display the classification image in the isodataflt.img file.
C. Go to Raster Highlighted Heading Thematic Tab Enhancement
Group Statistical Filtering Menu and select Statistical Filtering.
D. Set the Function to Majority and the Window Size (kernel size) to 3 x 3.
E. Click Apply and note what happens to the image. You can undo this change
by selecting Raster Undo.
F. Answer the following questions:
1. What happened to the class fragments?
2. What happened to the class boundaries?
3. What happens if a larger window size is used?
4. Why didn't we use a mean or median value for the output function
of the filter?

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Advanced Remote Sensing: Practical Handbook (July 2010)

School of Environmental Sciences


University of KwaZulu-Natal, Howard College/ Westville Campuses
Advanced Remote Sensing
Practicals 7, 8 & 9
Land Cover Map of Maputaland Area

You are employed as a remote sensing consultant for the department of local
government and housing. Your task is to create a land cover dataset for the
Maputaland area in KwaZulu-Natal. For this phase of the project a simple
classification is needed (level 1). You have acquired the following datasets:

1:250 000 land cover dataset created by the CSIR: Format Esri Shapefile (*.shp)

Landsat 7 scene: Path 167


Row 079
Date of Acquisition April 2002
Spheroid: Wgs84
Datum: Wgs84
Format: Erdas Imagine (*.img)

GPS points of the area Independent consultant surveyed the area and captured
these points

Using the datasets provided, create a land cover map for the Maputaland
area. Your report should include the following:

Supervised Classification
Forest coastal
Grassland
Shrub
Plantation - mature
Plantations - young
Reed swamp
Sand forest
Shrub land
Swamp forest
Woodland
Water - fresh, deep
Water - fresh, shallow
Farmlands commercial
Urban Areas Residential
Urban Areas Commercial

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Advanced Remote Sensing: Practical Handbook (July 2010)

2732 and 2832 Topographical maps are available from map library

Unsupervised Classification (15 classes)

Accuracy Assessment
Procedures and methods that were used to obtain your results (supervised,
unsupervised and error assessment)

How different is CSIR land cover from your Supervised Classification?


(Remember to substantiate your answer)

Suggest ways to improve your final land cover dataset.

31
Advanced Remote Sensing: Practical Handbook (July 2010)

School of Environmental Sciences


University of KwaZulu-Natal, Howard College/ Westville Campuses
Advanced Remote Sensing
Practical Session 10
Soil and Vegetation Optical Properties

1. Introduction

Optical properties of soils are related first to their mineral composition, since soils
result from the transformation of weathering products of rocks. A soil reflectance
spectrum is the superimposition of spectra of the soil mineral components. Like
minerals, soils have an increasing reflectance from the visible to the shortwave
infrared, with absorption bands around 1.4 m and 1.9 m related to the soil
moisture (Figure 1).

Figure 1. Spectral reflectance curves for Newtonia silt loam at various moisture
contents (after Bowers and Hanks, 1965)

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Advanced Remote Sensing: Practical Handbook (July 2010)

Another factor affecting optical properties of soils is soil moisture. Increasing soil
moisture leads to parallel curves of soil reflectance spectra (Figure 1). This
means that the soil moisture has an equal effect over the entire spectrum and
that the ratio between spectral bands, such as red and near-infrared bands, is
independent from soil moisture. Therefore, it is possible to define the "soil line"
concept, which is the line representing the relationship between red and near-
infrared soil reflectances (Figure 2).

Figure 2. Soil line for a silt-loam soil in Avignon-Montfavet (France) (after Baret,
1986)

The soil line is characteristic of the soil type and it is used to define some
vegetation indices (see below), which are able to correct plant canopy
reflectances from the effects of optical soil properties. The soil line is calculated
by the
least-square regression method and is expressed as follow:

(1)

where
redsoil = soil reflectance in the red band
nirsoil = soil reflectance in the near-infrared band
a,b = parameters of the soil line estimated by the least-square regression method

Other visible bands, such as the green or the blue ones, can be used instead of
the red ones. A third factor influencing soil optical properties is the content of
organic matter, which has a lower effect in the bands beyond 1.8 m. High organic
matter content can induce spectral interferences for band characteristics of some
minerals like Mn and Fe. This factor has an indirect spectral influence through its
effect on soil structure and on water retention capacity. The last factor, which can
affect soil optical properties, is the soil roughness related to its texture.

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Advanced Remote Sensing: Practical Handbook (July 2010)

Experimental results showed that the soil reflectance is increased with


decreasing particle size for a given type of soils. Indeed, coarse soil particles
give rough surface where the light is trapped. This change in the distribution of
light and shadow areas with surface roughness induces variations of soil
reflectances. We have to note that this factor is more important in the thermal
infrared and microwave spectral domains.

Optical properties of leaves are the same whatever the species. A green healthy
leaf has typical spectral features that differ in function of the three main optical
spectral domains (Figure 3).

Figure 3. Typical spectral response characteristics of green vegetation (after


Hoffer, 1978)

In the visible bands (400-700 nm), light absorption by leaf pigments dominates
the reflectance spectrum of the leaf and leads to generally lower reflectances
(15% maximum). There are two main absorption bands, in blue (450 nm) and in
red (670nm), due to the absorption of the two main leaf pigments: the chlorophyll
a and b which account for 65% of the total leaf pigments of superior plants.
These strong absorption bands induce a reflectance peak in the yellow-green
(550 nm) band. For this reason, chlorophyll is called the green pigment. Other
leaf pigments also have an important effect at the visible spectrum. For example,
the yellow to orange-red pigment, the carotene, has a strong absorption in the
350-500 nm range and is responsible for the color of some flowers and fruits as
well as of leaves without chlorophyll. The red and blue pigment, the xantophyll,
has a strong absorption in the 350-500 nm range and is responsible for the leaf
color in fall. In the near-infrared spectral domain (700-1300 nm), leaf structure
explains the optical properties. Leaf pigments and cellulose are transparent to

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Advanced Remote Sensing: Practical Handbook (July 2010)

near-infrared wavelengths and therefore leaf absorbance is very small (10%


maximum), but not the leaf reflectance and transmittance, which can reach 50%.
In this region, there is typically a reflectance plateau in the leaf spectrum. The
level of this plateau is dependant on the internal leaf structure as well as on the
space amount in the mesophyll that determines interfaces with different refraction
indices (air or water- cells). Leaf reflectance increases for more heterogeneous
cell shapes and contents as well as with increasing number of cell layers,
number of intercell spaces and cell size. This reflectance is therefore dependent
on the relative thickness of the mesophyll.

Near-infrared spectral region has two main spectral regions: (1) between 700 and
1100 nm, where the reflectance is high, except in two minor water-related
absorption bands (960 and 1100 nm) and (2) between 1100 and 1300 nm, which
corresponds to the transition between the high near-infrared reflectances and the
water-related absorption bands of the shortwave infrared. The last optical domain
is the shortwave infrared (1300 -2500 nm) characterized by the light absorption
by the leaf water. Because water strongly absorbs radiation in 1450, 1950 and
2500 nm, these wavelengths cannot be used for reflectance measurements. In
the other shortwave infrared wavelengths, reflectances increase when leaf liquid
water content decreases. For all the three main spectral domains, factors
affecting leaf optical properties are: internal or external structure, age, water
status, mineral stresses and, healthiness. All the effects of these factors are
detailed in Guyot (1989).

In order to minimize the effect, on the canopy radiometric response, of factors


like optical properties of the soil background, illumination and view geometries as
well as meteorological factors (wind, cloud), single-band reflectances are
combined into a vegetation index. An ideal vegetation index must be sensitive to
the plant canopy (the green part) and not to the soil. Also, it must be less affected
by the atmospheric effects, although the reflectance values used to compute
vegetation indices must ideally be radiometrically and atmospherically corrected.

At least fifty different vegetation indices exist. The most common used vegetation
indices are ratios of single-band or linear-combined reflectances. Rationing
allows removal of the disturbances affecting, in the same way, reflectances in
each band. Ratio-based vegetation indices can be computed from radiance
values instead of reflectance values, if radiances are measured in the same
irradiance conditions. Most of the ratio-based vegetation indices use, as spectral
bands, the red one, which is related to the chlorophyll light absorption (Figure 3)
and the near-infrared one, which is related to the green vegetation density,
because these bands contain more than 90% of the information on a plant
canopy. Also, in red and near-infrared bands, the contrast between vegetation
and soil is maximal. The first ratio-based vegetation index was the Reflectance
Ratio or Ratio Vegetation Index (RVI), which is computed as follow (Pearson and
Miller, 1972):

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(2)

where
nir = reflectance in the near-infrared band
red = reflectance in the red band

Rouse et al. (1974) improved this index and defined the Normalized Difference
Vegetation Index (NDVI) which is computed as follow:

(3)

where
nir = reflectance in the near-infrared band
red = reflectance in the red band

NDVI has the following value ranges:

Vegetation: 0 < NDVI 1


Soil: 0 NDVI 1
Water: -1 NDVI 1

Pinty and Verstraete (1992) showed that a better minimizing of the relative
influence of atmospheric effects is achieved by non-linearly combining single-
band reflectances into the vegetation index. They proposed the Global
Environment Vegetation Index, GEMI, calculated as follow:

(4)

with

nir = reflectance in the near-infrared band


red = reflectance in the red band

Because RVI and NDVI do not minimize well the soil optical effect on the canopy
reflectances, vegetation indices based on the soil line concept are also used.
Richardson and Wiegand (1977) proposed the Perpendicular Vegetation Index

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(PVI) which is defined as the orthogonal (perpendicular) distance between a


point representing the plant canopy (redveg., nirveg.) and the soil line (Figure 4).

Figure 4. Geometrical relationships between RVI, NDVI, PVI and TSAVI (after
Baret et al., 1989)

The intersection point between the soil line and the perpendicular is (red soil, nirsoil)
(Figure 4). In this figure, RVI is the slope of the line joining the origin (0,0) to the
vegetation point (redveg. , nirveg.). It is therefore equal to tan ( ) and NDVI is equal
to tan ( - 45). PVI is computed by:

(5)

where

redveg. = vegetation reflectance in the red band


nirveg. = vegetation reflectance in the near-infrared band
redsoil = soil reflectance in the red band
nirsoil = soil reflectance in the near-infrared band
= a * redsoil + b (a,b = parameters of the soil line)

PVI has the following value ranges:

Bare soil: PVI = 0 (whatever the soil surface status)


Water: PVI < 0
Vegetation: PVI > 0

Since nirsoil = a redsoil + b, PVI is also equal to:

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(6)

In this formula, PVI is explicitly a function of the soil line parameters (a and b)
that are less variables from one soil to another than soil reflectance
measurements.

PVI has been improved by Baret et al. (1989) and Baret and Guyot (1991) into
the Transformed Soil Adjusted Vegetation Index (TSAVI) which is computed as
follow:

(7)

where

redveg. = vegetation reflectance in the red band;


nirveg. = vegetation reflectance in the near-infrared band; a and b are the soil line
parameters;
X = 0.08 (to minimize soil effects)

TSAVI has the following value ranges:

Bare soil: TSAVI = 0 (whatever the soil surface status)


Higher LAI: TSAVI close to 0.7

For a=1 and b=0, TSAVI = NDVI. In Fig. 4, TSAVI is defined as tan(), where =
angle between the soil line and the line joining the point (red veg., nirveg.) to the
point S of the soil line which has X as abscissa.

All these commonly used vegetation indices have advantages and limits related
to experimental conditions for which they have been defined. The correlations
between themselves are low, as shown by Baret and Guyot (1991) through
theoretical simulations. Furthermore, defining the best vegetation index to be
used depends on the kind of sensors that are considered, because of the
difference in band types (wavelengths, widths, atmospheric effects) for each
sensor. It means that for example, NDVI defined from data acquired with the
NOAA-AVHRR sensor is different than NDVI defined using data acquired with
the LANDSAT-TM sensor, because of the difference between both sensors for
the red and near-infrared bands.

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2. References

Baret, F., 1986. Contribution au suivi radiomtrique de cultures de crales, Ph.D.


thesis, Universit de Paris-Sud,Orsay, n98, 182 p.

Baret, F., and G., Guyot, 1991. Potentials and limits of vegetation indices for LAI and
APAR assessment, Remote Sensing of Environment, 35: 161-173.

Baret, F., G., Guyot, and D.J., Major, 1989. TSAVI: a vegetation index which minimizes
soil brightness effects on LAI and APAR estimation. in Proceedings of the 12th
Canadian Symposium on Remote Sensing and IGARSS'89, Vancouver (Canada), 3:
1355-1358.

Bowers, S.A., and R.J., Hanks, 1965. Reflection of radiant energy from soil, Soil
Science, 100:130-138.

Guyot, G., 1989. Signatures spectrales des surfaces naturelles,Collection Tldtection


satellitaire n5, Paradigme, 178 p.

Hoffer, R.M., 1978. Biological and physical considerations in applying computer-aided


analysis techniques to remote sensor data, in Remote Sensing: The Quantitative
Approach, P.H. Swain and S.M. Davis (Eds), McGraw-Hill Book Company, 227- 289.

Pearson, R.L., and L.D., Miller, 1972. Remote mapping of standing crop biomass for
estimation of the productivity of the short-grass Prairie, Pawnee National Grasslands,
Colorado. in Proc. of the 8th International Symposium on Remote Sensing of
Environment, ERIM, Ann Arbor, MI, 1357-1381.

Pinty, B., and M., Verstrate, 1992. GEMI: a non linear index to monitor global vegetation
from satellites. Vegetatio, 101:15-20.

Richardson, A.J., and C.L., Wiegand, 1977. Distinguishing vegetation from soil
background information, Photogrammetric Engineering and Remote Sensing, 43(2):
1541-1552.

Rouse, J. W., R. H., Haas, J. A., Shell, D.W., Deering and J.C., Harlan, 1974. Monitoring
the vernal advancement of retrogradation of natural vegetation. Final Report, Type III,
NASA/GSFC, Greenbelt, MD, 371 pp.

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Advanced Remote Sensing: Practical Handbook (July 2010)

Exercise # 1

Let us consider the following reflectances (in percent) measured on bare soil,
during a clear day (series I) and a cloudy day (series II), in the three SPOT-HRV
MLA wavebands (green (500-590 nm), red (620-680 nm) and near-infrared (790-
890 nm)).

Series I: Clear days

Object Green Red Near-infrared


Dry sandy soil 19.6 20.0 26.1
17.8 18.0 23.3
14.2 15.3 20.4
Half-wet soil 7.1 7.7 11.0
Brownish wet soil 9.5 10.8 15.8
Wet soil 3.3 3.1 7.7
6.5 6.5 8.3
Dark brown wet soil 6.7 7.1 11.9
(with high content of
organic matter
Gray wet soil 9.8 6.8 8.3

Series II: Cloudy days

Object Green Red Near-infrared


Wet soil 7.1 4.8 8.5
Sand 9.0 5.9 10.3
Gravel 10.2 4.3 7.4

1.1. Which bands are the most correlated? Verify using

(i) All the data and

(ii) Each data series.

In each case, present your results on the form of a correlation matrix. Draw the
scatter plot between the most correlated bands, by using data from both series
and define a possible method to distinguish between both data series.

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1.2. By calculating a relative reflectance difference between the most contrasted


cases, determine on which band the influence of the soil color is the less
important for series #1?

Determine on which band the influence of the soil type is the less important for
series #2? Use mean reflectance values for a given object, if necessary. In each
case, present your results in a table.

A relative reflectance difference between object A and B in the band i

is:

(8)

Where Ai = reflectance of the object A in the band i


Bi = reflectance of the object B in the band i

1.3. Calculate and draw the soil line, using

(i) All the data and

(ii) Each data series.

In each case, do wet and dry soils belong to the same line? Where are they
positioned on each line?

Exercise #2

Let us consider the following reflectances (in percent) measured on various


vegetated targets, during a clear day (series I) and a cloudy day (series II), in the
three SPOT-HRV MLA wavebands (green (500-590 nm), red (620-680 nm) and
near-infrared (790-890 nm)).

Series I: Clear days

Object Green Red Near-infrared


Yellowish-green 7.5 6.7 42.5
grass
Green grass 5.7 4.6 44.7
Pine needles on 10.1 11.4 39.3
grass

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Beech leaves in fall 8.8 12.5 38.0


on grass
Yellow grass 11.75 13.15 40.7
Yellow leaves on 7.0 5.35 60.5
95% grass
Yellow leaves on 12.3 14.5 53.5
50% grass
Water 4.7 4.2 3.05
3.1 2.1 1.80

Series II: Cloudy days

Object Green Red Near-infrared


Yellowish-green 8.2 7.2 43.1
grass
Green grass 6.1 4.2 41.6
Pine needles on 8.3 7.5 34.8
grass
Beech leaves in fall 7.5 10.0 34.7
on grass
Yellow leaves on 15.4 19.6 48.4
grass 15.6 18.1 47.0
10.0 11.4 36.0
Water 5.5 3.5 3.7
6.0 3.6 3.5

2.1. Verify which bands are the most correlated

(i) For each data series and

(ii) For both series together.

In each case, present your results on the form of a correlation matrix. In each
case, do not use data acquired on water, because we are looking for
correlations related to vegetated targets.

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Try to explain the difference with the results of Question 1.1 of Exercise#1. Draw
the scatter plot between the most correlated bands, by using both data series
together.

2.2. Add the data of Exercise#1. Let us consider all these data as typical
spectral signatures of classes (water, vegetation, soil ...). Which 2D-scatterplot
cannot be used to discriminate these classes?

2.3. Calculate the following vegetation indices (RVI, NDVI, GEMI, PVI, and
TSAVI) for each object and each series. For PVI and TSAVI, use adequate soil
line parameters with regard to the series number. Present your results in a table
(one per series). For each series, which index is the best to distinguish
vegetation from soil-type objects, vegetation from water-type objects as well as
water from soil-type objects? You may use relative difference between mean
values of vegetation indices to solve this question. Present your results in a table
(one per series).

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Advanced Remote Sensing: Practical Handbook (July 2010)

School of Environmental Sciences


University of KwaZulu-Natal, Howard College/ Westville Cmpuses
Advanced Remote Sensing
Practical 11

PRINCIPAL COMPONENT ANALYSIS

Introduction
Principal Components Analysis is an image transformation technique that is used for a
variety of purposes in Remote Sensing and GIS, including data compression and
change analysis. In this exercise we will explore the nature of the Principal Components
transformation and its application in data compression. By doing so, we will also be able
to gain an appreciation for the fundamental information content of the different bands
associated with a multi-spectral image.

The spectral bands of a multi-spectral image most commonly do not contain completely
independent information. More likely, there will be some degree of correlation between
bands, indicating that they share elements of information in common. To illustrate this,
consider the example in Figure 1.

Figure 1 depicts the reflectance levels for a set of pixels by plotting their positions in
what is commonly called band space (in this case, for an image with two spectral
bands). Each of the axes represents reflectance in the spectral band indicated. Each
image pixel can thus be plotted in this space by placing its location at the intersection of
its reflectance level on each band. As can be noted, there is a significant amount of
correlation between the bands (i.e., if a pixel has a high reflectance on Band 1, it is likely
also to have a high reflectance on Band 2).

Since the bands in Figure 1 are correlated they do not each carry independent
information. The fact that you have a good chance of being able to predict the
reflectance of a pixel on one band from the reflectance on the other confirms this -- there

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is some degree of redundancy in the information they carry. It is this redundancy that
Principal Components seeks to remove when it is used for the purpose of data
compression. By removing redundant data, we are left with the same information, but
with smaller volumes of data. Unfortunately, the process is not so clear cut. Unless they
are perfectly correlated, some independent information will always exist in each band.
Thus removing data after transforming to remove redundancy always implies some loss
of information. However, as we shall see in this exercise, the information we typically
reject in order to achieve data compression is often inconsequential or indeed, even
undesirable.

The Principal Components transformation is a linear transformation that is closely


related to Factor Analysis. Its structure can be described as a weighted linear
combination -- i.e., it produces a new set of bands (called components) by multiplying
each of the bands in the original image by a weight, and adding the results (see note 1)

e.g. C = w1B1 + w2B2 + w3B3 .... wnBn

The weights in the transformations are collectively known as the eigenvectors. For any
given number of original bands, an equal number of transformation equations can be
produced, thus yielding an equivalent number of component images.

Perhaps the easiest way to understand the result of the Principal Components
transformation is to think of the process as a mathematical determination of a new set of
axes in band space such that the resulting images are :

1. uncorrelated with one another; and


2. ordered in terms of their explanatory power.

This is illustrated in Figure 1 in which Component 1 (CI) is oriented along the axis of
largest variation. Component 2 (CII) will be, by definition, perpendicular to Component 1.
Note this it is oriented in the direction of lesser variation. Because there were two input
bands, there may also be two output components, and these components describe all of
the information inherent in the original set (indeed, it is possible to reverse the
transformation and thereby reconstruct the original band set).

Given this form of output, we can now see how data compression can be achieved. As a
result of the transformation, redundancy in the data has already been removed (to test
this, see if you feel you can predict the value on Component 2 given its value on
Component 1). However, we still have the same amount of data (we started with two
bands and end up with two). To achieve data compression we will have to get rid of one
of more of the new component images. In this simple example, consider what would
happen if you were to get rid of Component 2 and keep only Component 1. Since
Component 1 explains the major element of variation, most pixels would be meaningfully
related to each other (i.e., be distinguishable from one another with roughly the same
relative difference). If it is known, for example, that Component 1 contains 90% of the
original information then we will have kept 90% of the information while retaining only
half of the original data.

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The procedure just described may seem risky since we achieve data compression at the
cost of some information loss. However, as will be seen in the next example, the
decision about how to balance these two is often not difficult.

The Data Set

The data to be used for this exercise consist of seven bands of Landsat TM data for a
location just to the west of Worcester Massachusetts in the USA. The images are
intentionally small (just 72 columns by 86 rows) in order to allow the effects on individual
pixels to be seen. The date of the image in September 10, 1987, just at the end of the
summer season. The area is largely covered by deciduous forest, with distinctive stands
of conifers (largely red and white pine) planted in the vicinity of reservoirs to reduce the
input of tanins from deciduous species and thereby enhance the visual quality of the
water supply. A small residential area is located to the north of the image.

Procedure

1. Use the display system of your software to examine the image named H87TM4 as a
grey level image. If you undertake any contrast stretching, use either a linear or a linear
with saturation contrast procedure.

The near-infrared band is often the most informative band from a multi-spectral set. The
water body farthest to the west and that farthest south are reasonably deep reservoirs
while the other lakes are shallow ponds. To the north of the image is a small residential
area. Otherwise the area is predominantly forested. To the north of both reservoirs can
be found distinctive conifer plantations (also a small one to the immediate west of the
southern reservoir). Because of their needle leaf structure these conifers (largely white
and red pine) appear darker on this band than the more prevalent deciduous trees.

2. Now examine all of the other bands in this set using a similar display procedure. The
names for the bands range from H87TM1 for TM Band 1 to H87TM7 for TM band 7. If
your system permits it, display them simultaneously on the screen.

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Question 1

Comparing the seven bands to each other, visually estimate the two pairs of images that
appear to be the most alike. Then visually estimate the two pairs of images that appear
to be the most dissimilar. Which images are these? Overall, does it appear that there is
much redundancy? Make a very rough guess about what proportion of the data in these
seven bands that is truly unique (see note 2) (don't worry about making an incorrect or
imprecise guess)

3 Now run your software's Principal Components Analysis routine. If you are given a
choice between Standardized and Unstandardized, choose Unstandardized. Indicate
that you wish create 7 component images and when required, specify the names of the
input bands: H87TM1 through H87TM7. You may be offered options for scaling of these

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output images -- simply choose whatever defaults are offered. Then print out any tabular
results or summary statistics it produces.

Your software should offer several tables of information about the transformation
undertaken. These might include:

A variance/covariance matrix. This is of no interest to us here.


A correlation matrix. This is of considerable interest in that it indicates the degree
to which the original bands were intercorrelated (and thus indicates the degree of
redundancy in the data).

COR MATRIX h87tm1 h87tm2 h87tm3 h87tm4 h87tm5 h87tm6 h87tm7

h87tm1 1.000000 0.865584 0.896827 0.212218 0.528601 0.668724 0.727225

h87tm2 0.865584 1.000000 0.907277 0.448274 0.732874 0.629802 0.855495

h87tm3 0.896827 0.907277 1.000000 0.215375 0.598823 0.690495 0.814087

h87tm4 0.212218 0.448274 0.215375 1.000000 0.827869 0.078081 0.565691

h87tm5 0.528601 0.732874 0.598823 0.827869 1.000000 0.403770 0.896793

h87tm6 0.668724 0.629802 0.690495 0.078081 0.403770 1.000000 0.604335

h87tm7 0.727225 0.855495 0.814087 0.565691 0.896793 0.604335 1.000000

a set of eigenvalues along with the percentage of variance explained by each


component. We are only interested in the percent variance explained. However,
it is worth noting that these values are derived from the eigenvalues.

COMPONENT C1 C2 C3 C4 C5 C6 C7

% var. 86.53 11.16 1.51 0.37 0.17 0.17 0.07

eigenval. 890.14 114.83 15.53 3.85 1.79 1.78 0.76

the eigenvectors (i.e., the transformation coefficients). We will not use these.
a table of component loadings. The loadings express the degree of correlation
between each component and each of the original bands. These will be useful.

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LOADING C1 C2 C3 C4 C5 C6 C7

h87tm1 0.366946 0.722886 0.531826 -0.089418 -0.212893 -0.047863 -0.000219

h87tm2 0.599055 0.638897 0.369463 -0.084987 0.166828 -0.034201 -0.238578

h87tm3 0.398372 0.801506 0.372870 -0.090066 0.176656 -0.037718 0.104731

h87tm4 0.972001 -0.231374 0.041073 0.001944 0.001635 0.004109 0.001197

h87tm5 0.935887 0.333748 -0.110188 -0.001728 -0.005435 -0.022295 -0.000563

h87tm6 0.226973 0.680047 0.329322 0.638006 0.015140 -0.036257 -0.000659

h87tm7 0.734338 0.646630 0.011719 0.000000 -0.006569 0.207079 -0.000684

Question 2

Using the correlation matrix, what pair of original bands were the most correlated?
Which ones were the least correlated? Compare these to your original guesses in Q1.

Question 3

Using the loadings chart, which of the original bands is most correlated with Component
1? What is the level of correlation?

4. Use your display system to bring the image for Component 1 onto the screen (again
as a grey level image with only a simple linear contrast stretch). Then bring up the image
you identified in Q3 in a similar fashion for comparison. Notice that they look almost
identical.

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Question 4

What is the percentage of variance explained by Component 1?

Question 5

Using the loadings chart, which of the original bands is most correlated with Component
2? What is the level of correlation?

5. Use your display system to bring the image for Component 2 onto the screen (again
as a grey level image with only a simple linear contrast stretch). Then bring up the image
you identified in 1.Q5 in a similar fashion for comparison.

Question 6

What is the percentage of variance explained by Component 2? What is the combined


percentage of variance explained by Components 1 and 2? Since percent of variance
can be equated with information (in an Information Theoretic sense), what proportion of
information resides in the remaining 5 components?

6 Let's now jump to the other end of the sequence. Use your display system to bring the
image for Component 7 onto the screen (again as a grey level image with only a simple
linear contrast stretch).

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Question 7

How would you describe the pattern you see on the screen? Would you describe this as
information? What proportion of variance (i.e., information) does this component
describe?
This is a fascinating image! Notice that there are some elements which appear to have a
somewhat systematic horizontal pattern. This image most probably represents a
combination of system noise and atmospheric interference. Clearly there is little here
that we might wish to save. Thus discarding the band entirely would not only be of little
concern, but would in fact most likely be considered a benefit (since we are discarding
noise). The percentage of variance explained by this component is indicative of
information only in an Information Theoretic sense, where information is equated with
variation. However, this is not meaningful information. Therefore we can discard it
without concern.

7 Now use your display system to bring the images for Components 6, 5, 4 and 3 onto
the screen (again as a grey level image with only a simple linear contrast stretch).

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Question 8

What is the percent variance explained by each of these images? Moving from the
component which explains the least to that which explains the most, at what point do you
start to see evidence of real geographic features?

Question 9

For purposes for data compression, one wishes to minimize the loss of geographically
meaningful information which maximizing the amount of data reduced. Which
components do you feel should be kept, and which ones should be rejected?

Question 10

Given your choices in Q9, what proportion of the data have you kept (i.e., what
proportion of the original number of bands). What is the proportion of variation (i.e.,
information) retained?

Observations

As we have seen in this exercise, multi-spectral images often possess a significant


amount of redundancy in the data carried by each band. The Principal Components
transform allows us to remove this redundancy, and thereby to select an informationally-
rich subset of the components produced -- an effective means of data compression.

During the course of this exercise, we have also observed several other important
points. First, we saw that one band (the near-infrared) carried an enormous amount of
the geographically meaningful information inherent to this data set. This will not always
be the case, but is commonly so in vegetated landscapes (since leaf structure
differences show up in this wavelength region most, and the contrast of vegetation with
water and non-vegetated surfaces is strong). It is for this reason that the near-infrared
channel is often a good one to examine if you are only able to view a single band.

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Next in importance was the red wavelength band. Again, this is a result of the fact that
the landscape examined here is highly vegetated. The red band is frequently called a
chlorophyll absorption band since it is in this area of the electromagnetic spectrum that
energy is absorbed most by chlorophyll for the purpose of photosynthesis.

We also noted that Components 1 and 2 carried almost 98% of all the information in the
component set. Since these are most heavily correlated with TM bands 4 and 3
respectively, we can safely assume that in vegetated landscapes, these two bands will
carry most of the geographically meaningful information. You can begin to see why
counterparts of these two wavelength bands are found in SPOT multi-spectral imagery.

Finally, we noted that the PCA procedure was very effective in feeding out the noise in
the image. Since the transformation can be reversed, this would suggest that we should
be able to do so without these elements by simply forcing the reverse coefficients for the
components concerned to zero before transformation. Also, note that it is this tendency
to order information elements into meaningful groups that underlies the use of PCA in
such areas as Change and Time Series Analysis.

Credits
This exercise was written by Ron Eastman at Clark University. The data were provided
by EOSAT Corporation.

References
The Principal Components transform is described in many Remote Sensing texts.
However, for an excellent intermediate-level discussion, you may wish to consult:

Jenson, J.R., (1986) Introductory Digital Image Processing: A Remote Sensing


Perspective, (Prentice Hall: Englewood Cliffs, NJ).

For a more detailed account illustrating the mathematics of the transformation process,
consult:

Richards, J.A., (1986) Remote Sensing Digital Image Processing: An Introduction,


(Springer-Verlag: Berlin).

For examples of the use of Principal Components for Change and Time Series Analysis,
see:

Lodwick, G.D., (1979) "Measuring Ecological Changes in Multitemporal Landsat Data


Using Principal Components", Proceedings, 13th International Symposium on Remote
Sensing of the Environment, Vol. 2, 1131-1141.

Eastman, J.R., and Fulk, M., (1993) "Long Sequence Time Series Evaluation using
Standardized Principal Components", Photogrammetric Engineering and Remote
Sensing, 59, 8, 1307-1312.

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Note 1.
Technically, this logic describes what is known as Unstandardized Principal Components
(also known as the Karhunen-Loeve or Hotelling Transform). There is second variant
known as Standardized Principal Components in which the input data are effectively
converted into standard scores (by subtracting the mean and dividing the result by the
standard deviation) before transformation.

Note 2.
If you have trouble with this question, consider a case with four bands in which two
appear almost identical and a third is quite similar, while the fourth is completely
different. The image that looks completely different clearly carries new information and
thus might be given a weight of 1. Only one of the virtually identical pair carries full
information. Therefore give one of them a weight of 1 and the other a weight of 0.1.
Finally, the image which likes fairly similar to the virtually identical pair only carries a
limited amount of new information (say 25%). Therefore give it a weight of 0.25. Adding
the weights one gets 1 + 1 + 0.1 + 0.25 = 2.35. Since there are four bands of data, this
constitutes only 2.35 / 4 = 0.59. Very roughly, then, we might estimate that only 60% of
the data offer unique information.

Appendix

An illustration of Band Spaces for Landsat TM (Different study area)

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