Introduction to Remote Sensing

For this lab, the first step is to create a Lab 5 folder on the Desktop or on the C:\ drive on
your computer. From the Lab 5 folder in Files, download the “Images.zip” file and unzip
all of the images into your Lab 5 folder. There are three images, but you will see if you
look at your folder in Documents, My Documents, or My Computer that they are made
up of another file (rrd). Once you have the images unzipped, open ArcMap and go to the
Add (+) icon and add the images or you can drag and drop them from Catalog. If all the
files are not in the folder, ArcGIS will not be able to recognize the file type.

The second step is to download the Rasterintro.pdf, which is an introductory “remote

sensing” pdf file. Remotely sensed data are rapidly becoming a very important
component for GIS projects. Raster data, whether they are scanned maps, USGS
topographic maps, aerial photos or remotely sensed imagery can be a very important
aspect of a GIS project. Please view the Remote Sensing PowerPoint and using the notes
answer the following questions.

1. What is the difference between a spatial resolution of 30m and 10m. List some of the
advantages and disadvantages of each.

2. In ArcMAP add the image slc_msp.img from the folder where you saved the images.
How many bands does the image have? What is the pixel or cell size (spatial resolution)?
What is the coordinate system (spatial reference)?

3. Go the following web site:

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/
There are many images to look at, if you click on any image, a short news summary
about the image will come up. You will also find other links within the text. Pick three
that interest you and summarize what you are seeing in the imagery. List the sensor and
other specifics about the methodology that seem important.

4.
Referring to the above spectral plots, which region of the spectrum (stated in wavelength
interval) shows the greatest reflectance for a) grasslands;
b) pinewoods; c) red sand; d) silty water.

5. Below is a graph of the electromagnetic spectrum. Answer the following questions:

a. What do we mean by atmospheric transmission windows and where are they located?
b. What is occurring in the opaque part of the graph?
6. Examine the following graphic and explain as much as you can about what is
occurring.

7. Open ArcMap and add the following image – slc_msp.img. The msp refers to
“multispectral” meaning the sensor that collected the data is collecting in more than one
band. Refer to the chapter in the text and the pdf. for this lab.

This is an image of downtown SLC and is comprised of 4 bands. If you right click on the
image, go down to Properties and in the Layer Properties box you will see several tabs.
Click on Source and you will see the rows and columns that make up the image, the
number of bands, format, pixel size, etc. Click on OK and that will close the Properties.

Look at the Table of Contents in the left hand side of Data View and you will see three
bands represented by the primary colors, Red, Green and Blue. Depending on how you
designate the color by band number, you will see different information displayed in the
image. By default you have layers 1, 2, and 3 in the color “guns” Red, Green and Blue.
This will give you a true color image. If you double click in the color boxes next to the
color names, you can change the bands displayed.

Double click on the Red box and change that to band 4, double click on the Green box
and change that to band 3 and double click on the Blue box and change that to Band 2.
You now see the vegetation in red and the impervious surfaces in their true color. This is
referred to as NDVI – which translates to Normalized Difference Vegetation Indices. We
will look at this in more detail in the next lab.
Now add the slc_pan2.img without removing the slc_msp.img and you will notice a lot
more detail. The pan image is a panchromatic that is one band with much more detail, the
pixel size is 3 – 4 times larger in scale (smaller in number).

Questions
1. Based on the projection and coordinate numbers in the lower right, check the
properties of each image and tell me what the cell size is and what the units are.
2. Zoom into any area in the images and click the check box on and off of the
slc_pan2.img and tell me what you are seeing.
3. An example of merging these two data types (multispectral and panchromatic) is
mentioned in the pdf, what is the advantage of this process?
4. Open a Blank Map (Go up to File and click on New – select Blank Map) and do
not save what you have been working with unless you want to and add the
quickbird.img. Make the layers 4,3,2 and tell what the cell size is and send me a
screen grab of the image on the screen. Describe to me the detail you are seeing
and compare this to the other two images of SLC.

Now open a blank map again and add the hyperspectral.img. A window will pop up
telling you the image is missing spatial reference, this is OK, it will allow the image to be
displayed but not projected – it would need to be “georeferenced” which we will go
through in a later lab.
A hyperspectral image may have up to over one hundred bands, where they gather
information within different segments of the electromagnetic spectrum. They are used for
very detailed analysis of the environment and it takes a lot of image processing and
interpreter’s knowledge to know what you are seeing or able to extract from the data.
This image was given to me by a colleague who is a geologist and they were doing a
detailed geologic analysis somewhere in Nevada. What you see in the upper right is a
settling pond of some sort and I believe has algae growing on the surface. By default it
will read up in the bands 1, 2, 3 – change these to the following combinations:
Red – 12
Green – 29
Blue - 42

Red – 11
Green – 35
Blue - 13

Red – 20
Green – 12
Blue – 5

1. Describe to me what you see and what it might possibly mean to an image
analyst.
2. Tell me the cell size and number of bands the image has.