Prevalence of the terrain reversal effect in satellite imagery

The terrain reversal effect is a perceptual phenomenon which causes an illusion in various 3D geographic visualizations where landforms appear inverted, e.g. we perceive valleys as ridges and vice versa. Given that such displays are important for spatio-visual analysis, this illusion can lead to critical mistakes in interpreting the terrain. However, it is currently undocumented how commonly this effect is experienced. In this paper, we study the prevalence of the terrain reversal effect in satellite imagery through a two-stage online user experiment. The experiment was conducted with the participation of a diverse and relatively large population (n = 535). Participants were asked to identify landforms (valley or ridge?) or judge a 3D spatial relationship (is A higher than B?). When the images were rotated by 180°, the results were reversed. In a control task with ‘illusion-free’ original images, people were successful in identifying landforms, yet a very strong illusion occurred when these images were rotated 180°. Our findings demonstrate that the illusion is acutely present; thus, we need a better understanding of the problem and its solutions. Additionally, the results caution us that in an interactive environment where people can rotate the display, we might be introducing a severe perceptual problem.     

利用基准色调的大范围卫星影像色彩一致性处理算法

由于季节、光照、大气条件等的不同,大范围卫星影像间色调差异较大,镶嵌后影像接边处存在明显"拼接缝"。针对此问题本文提出了一种卫星影像色彩一致性算法,以覆盖测区、色彩一致性较好的低分辨率卫星影像为基准色调底图,对测区内源影像进行自动的色彩校正。选取大范围、时相差异较大的高分一号卫星影像进行试验,经本文算法处理,影像镶嵌后整体视觉效果较好,接边处色彩过渡平滑,影像重叠区域各项统计指标良好,验证了该算法的有效性和可靠性。     

Classification of Satellite Images in Assessing Urban Land Use Change Using Scale Optimization in Object-Oriented Processes (A Case Study: Ardabil City,Iran)

By using satellite imagery, the recognition and evaluation of various phenomena and extraction of information necessary for the planning of land resources or other purposes are easily accomplished. The purpose of this study is to compare the efficiency of seven commonly used methods of monitored classification of satellite data to evaluate land use changes using TM and OLI Landsat, IRS, Spot5 and Quick Bird bands as well as different color combinations of these images to detect agricultural land, residential areas and aquatic areas using object-oriented processing. Digital processing of satellite images was carried out in 1998 and 2016 using advanced methods. Training samples were extracted in five user classes by eCognition software using segmentation scale optimization, different color combinations and coefficients of shape and compression. The appropriate segmentation scale for arable land, human complications and the blue areas were, respectively, 50, 8 and 10. Then each image was classified separately using seven methods and extracted samples, and efficiency of each classification method was obtained by calculating two general health and Kappa coefficients. The results show that the accuracy of each classification method and the neural network with a total accuracy of 94.475 and Kappa coefficient of 92.095 were selected as the most accurate classification method. These results show that the sampling of educational samples with proper precision of the classes in the images and dependency probability of each satellite images pixel can be useful in classifying group available in helpful area.     

Evaluation of the RPC Model for Ziyuan-3 Three-line Array Imagery

Ziyuan-3 (ZY-3) satellite is the first civilian stereo mapping satellite in China and was designed to achieve the 1: 50,000 scale mapping for land and ocean. Rigorous sensor model (RSM) is required to build the relationship between the three-dimensional (3D) object space and two-dimensional (2D) image space of ZY-3 satellite imagery. However, each satellite sensor has its own imaging system with different physical sensor models, which increase the difficulty of geometric integration of multi-source images with different sensor models. Therefore, it is critical to generate generic model, especially rational polynomial coefficients (RPCs) of optical imagery. Recently, relatively a few researches have been conducted on RPCs generation to ZY-3 satellite. This paper proposes an approach to evaluate the performance of RPCs generation from RSM of ZY-3 imagery. Three scenario experiments with different terrain features (such as ocean, hill, city and grassland) are designed and conducted to comprehensively evaluate the replacement accuracies of this approach and analyze the RPCs fitting error. All the experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method achieved the encouraging accuracy of better than 1.946E?04 pixel in both x-axis direction and y-axis direction, and it indicates that the RPCs are suitable for ZY-3 imagery and can be used as a replacement for the RSM of ZY-3 imagery.     

A correction technique for false topographic perception of remote-sensing images based on an inverse topographic correction technique

The false topographic perception phenomenon (FTPP) refers to the visual misperception in remote-sensing images that certain types of terrains are visually interpreted as other types in rugged lands, for example, valleys as ridges and troughs as peaks. For this reason, the FTPP can influence the visualization and interpretation of images to a great extent. To scrutinize this problem, the paper firstly reviews and tests the existing FTPP-correction techniques and identifies the inverse slope-matching technique as an effective approach to visually enhance remote-sensing images and retain the colour information. The paper then proposes an improved FTPP-correction procedure that incorporates other image-processing techniques (e.g. linear stretch, histogram matching, and flat-area replacement) to enhance the performance of this technique. A further evaluation of the proposed technique is conducted by applying the technique to various study areas and using different types of remote-sensing images. The result indicates the method is relatively robust and will be a significant extension to geovisual analytics in digital earth research.     

高分辨率卫星遥感影像姿态角系统误差检校

简要介绍高分辨率卫星遥感影像的严格几何处理模型,提出较为严密的影像姿态角系统误差检校模型。通过对SPOT-5、CBERS-02B两种卫星遥感影像的试验证实模型的正确性和方法的有效性。对影像姿态角系统误差进行补偿后,可明显提高卫星遥感影像对地目标定位的精度,且优于影像姿态角常差检校的效果,目标点平面定位精度达到了±(2～3)像素的水平。     

CBERS-02B卫星遥感影像的区域网平差

针对中巴资源一号卫星(CBERS-02B)卫星遥感影像姿态角误差较大的特点,提出了利用区域网平差方法提高其对地目标定位精度的策略和具体计算过程。首先对参与平差的每景影像选取4个地面控制点进行影像姿态角常差检校,然后采用与地形无关方案解求各自的RPC参数,最后选取带仿射变换项的有理函数模型(RFM)进行多重覆盖影像的区域网平差。对两个地区的0级CBERS-02B单条CCD立体影像对的区域网平差试验表明,对地目标定位的平面和高程精度均达到了±3个像元的水平,且高程精度明显优于平面精度。相对于常规的卫星遥感影像区域网平差方法,平面和高程精度均有明显提升,几乎达到国外同等高分辨率卫星遥感影像的几何定位精度。这说明中国卫星遥感影像亦具有较好的几何定位潜力,在区域网平差之前进行系统误差预改正是必要和可行的。     

Mapping trees in high resolution imagery across large areas using locally variable thresholds guided by medium resolution tree maps

Large area tree maps, important for environmental monitoring and natural resource management, are often based on medium resolution satellite imagery. These data have difficulty in detecting trees in fragmented woodlands, and have significant omission errors in modified agricultural areas. High resolution imagery can better detect these trees, however, as most high resolution imagery is not normalised it is difficult to automate a tree classification method over large areas. The method developed here used an existing medium resolution map derived from either Landsat or SPOT5 satellite imagery to guide the classification of the high resolution imagery. It selected a spatially-variable threshold on the green band, calculated based on the spatially-variable percentage of trees in the existing map of tree cover. The green band proved more consistent at classifying trees across different images than several common band combinations. The method was tested on 0.5 m resolution imagery from airborne digital sensor (ADS) imagery across New South Wales (NSW), Australia using both Landsat and SPOT5 derived tree maps to guide the threshold selection. Accuracy was assessed across 6 large image mosaics revealing a more accurate result when the more accurate tree map from SPOT5 imagery was used. The resulting maps achieved an overall accuracy with 95% confidence intervals of 93% (90–95%), while the overall accuracy of the previous SPOT5 tree map was 87% (86–89%). The method reduced omission errors by mapping more scattered trees, although it did increase commission errors caused by dark pixels from water, building shadows, topographic shadows, and some soils and crops. The method allows trees to be automatically mapped at 5 m resolution from high resolution imagery, provided a medium resolution tree map already exists.     

无人机与卫星影像的叶面积指数遥感反演研究

针对卫星遥感影像获取的叶面积指数精度较低的问题,该文结合无人机低空航拍影像和卫星影像,基于最小二乘法建立了一种叶面积指数遥感反演方法,并与卫星影像像元二分模型进行了比较。结果表明:从单一植被类型到整体植被叶面积指数的反演,新方法均优于卫星影像的像元二分法,两者整体相对误差分别为27%和35%。4种植被类型中,草本植物对模型的反演精度影响较大,两者相对误差分别为32%和56%。使用该方法准确计算了长汀县相关区域叶面积指数分布,与他人结果一致。该方法提高了卫星遥感影像获取叶面积指数的精度,为大面积高精度估算区域植被提供了一种方法。     

The georeferencing of RASAT satellite imagery and some practical approaches to increase the georeferencing accuracy

RASAT Earth Observation Satellite is the second remote sensing satellite of The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK) Space Technologies Search Institute (TUBITAK Space). Generally, the first step to utilize the satellite imagery in GIS applications is the accurate geometric correction of the imagery. But, the geometric correction process of RASAT images is somewhat difficult due to insufficient orbit data and lack of satellite imagery processing software with RASAT model. Although the geolocation of RASAT images is investigated in some recent studies, subpixel accuracies cannot be achieved. In this study, different geometric correction methods and combination of them are tested with a more interactive workflow that uses the results of other approaches. Results show that these approaches can be used for the geometric correction of RASAT like pushbroom satellite images with insufficient orbit data and better geolocation accuracies can be achieved by different geometric correction approaches.     

单侧控制条件下SPOT5 HRG影像的定向试验

高分辨率卫星影像已经成为获取地理信息的重要数据源,而其定向是一项关键技术。本文利用单侧不同数量及分布的控制点对SPOT5 HRG影像进行了定向试验,探讨了在单侧控制条件下SPOT5 HRG影像的定向精度情况,为地面控制点获取较困难地区的影像定向提供了一条参考途径。     

Approximate approaches to geometric corrections of high resolution satellite imagery

The exploitation of different non-rigorous mathematical models as opposed to the satellite rigorous models is discussed for geometric corrections and topographic/thematic maps production of high-resolution satellite imagery (HRSI). Furthermore, this paper focuses on the effects of the number of GCPs and the terrain elevation difference within the area covered by the images on the obtained ground points accuracy. From the research, it is obviously found that non-rigorous orientation and triangulation models can be used successfully in most cases for 2D rectification and 3D ground points determination without a camera model or the satellite ephemeris data. In addition, the accuracy up to the sub-pixel level in plane and about one pixel in elevation can be achieved with a modest number of GCPs.     

高分辨率卫星影像几何精度真实性检验方法

以日本ALOS卫星为例,分析了线阵推扫式卫星影像成像特征,从理论上阐述利用严密成像几何模型建立卫星影像像点与物点之间的成像几何关系,并利用光束法区域网平差技术对影像几何精度进行真实性检验的方法。在实验部分,基于中国嵩山遥感几何定标场的参考数据,对ALOS卫星影像的几何精度进行了验证,获取了它的有控和无控的定位精度,并用解算的外方位元素建立立体模型,检测不同地形生成DEM精度。     

A multi-resolution satellite imagery approach for large area mapping of ericaceous shrubs in Northern Quebec, Canada

Invasive ericaceous shrubs (e.g. Kalmia angustifolia, Rhododendron groenlandicum, Vaccinium spp.) may reduce the regeneration and early growth of black spruce (Picea mariana) seedlings, the most economically important boreal tree species in Quebec. Our study focused, therefore, on developing a method for mapping ericaceous shrubs from satellite images. The method integrates very high resolution satellite imagery (IKONOS) to guide classifiers applied to medium resolution satellite imagery (Landsat-TM). An object-oriented image classification approach was applied using Definiens eCognition software. An independent ground survey revealed 80% accuracy at the very high spatial resolution. We found that the partial use (70%) of classified polygons derived from the IKONOS images were an effective way to guide classification algorithms applied to the Landsat-TM imagery. The results of this latter classification (78.4% overall accuracy) were assessed by the remaining portion (30%) of unused very high resolution classified polygons. We further validated our method (65.5% overall accuracy) by assessing the correspondence of an ericaceous cover classification scheme done with a Landsat-TM image and results of our ground survey using an independent set of 275 sample plots. Discrimination of ericaceous shrub cover from other land cover types was achieved with precision at both spatial resolutions with producer accuracies of 87.7% and 79.4% from IKONOS and Landsat, respectively. The method is weaker for areas with sparse cover of ericaceous shrubs or dense tree cover. Our method is adapted, therefore, for mapping the spatial distribution of ericaceous shrubs and is compatible with existing forest stand maps.     

轨道约束的资源三号标准景影像区域网平差

考虑到同轨道拍摄的长条带卫星影像具有相同的误差分布特性,针对资源三号的标准景影像产品,提出了基于轨道约束的卫星影像区域网平差方法。首先,根据同轨相邻影像的偏移量计算轨道影像坐标系下的像点坐标;其次,通过同轨每景影像的RFM重新生成轨道影像的RFM,同时生成补偿格网;然后,根据基于像方仿射变换的RFM对轨道影像进行区域网平差;最后,利用求得的轨道影像的仿射变换参数重新计算原始单景影像的仿射变换参数。利用不同地区资源三号测绘卫星影像数据的试验表明,基于轨道约束的卫星影像区域网平差（以下简称轨道平差）在稀疏控制条件下,其精度明显好于单景影像平差的精度。在6控情况下,太行山试验区达到平面2.504m高程3.117m,在渭南试验区达到了平面4.061m高程2.895m。试验结果证明了轨道平差的有效性和可行性。     

高分五号可见短波红外高光谱影像在轨几何定标及精度验证

高分五号可见短波红外高光谱相机(AHSI)作为一颗具有高光谱分辨率的对地观测载荷,对复杂地物具有精确的探测与分类能力,高精度的几何定标对于卫星影像应用至关重要。本文采用了基于探元指向角的几何定标模型,分步解算内外定标参数,并选取多景影像进行实验验证。结果表明:通过严格的在轨几何定标,可见短波红外高光谱影像在无控制点的条件下,平面定位精度优于60 m (2个像素),内部精度优于0.5个像素,波段配准精度优于0.3个像素。     

Using Stereo Satellite Imagery for Topographic and Transportation Applications: An Accuracy Assessment

The launch of the Very High Resolution (VHR) sensor satellites has paved the way for further exploitation of the capabilities of satellite stereo imaging for many applications. The objective of this paper is to evaluate the level of accuracy that can be achieved by using stereo satellite images for different applications involving significantly different types of terrain. Three mathematical models for satellite sensor modeling are used: Rational Function Model (RFM), 3D polynomial model, and 3D affine model. Three stereo pairs of image datasets are tested from different satellites for different areas: (a) Indian Remote Sensing (IRS)-1D stereo images for topographic mapping and digital terrain elevation modeling for an area in Egypt; (b) IKONOS stereo images for highway alignments extraction in Toronto, Canada; and (c) IKONOS stereo images for topographic mapping and geometric parameter extraction for highway alignments in Hong Kong, China. The accuracy was evaluated by comparing the results of the data extracted using stereo satellite images and those extracted from conventional techniques, including Global Positioning System, field measurements, and aerial photogrammetry. The accuracy of the extracted features was found to be within a pixel-level. The results of this paper should be of interest to professionals from different disciplines exploring the use and accuracy of satellite stereo images for topographic and transportation applications.     

结合特征分量构建和面向对象方法提取高分辨率卫星影像阴影

针对高分辨率卫星影像,提出一种特征分量构建与面向对象结合的阴影提取方法。分析遥感阴影光谱特性,构建彩色不变特征C3、亮度特征I、主成分第一特征量PC1以及蓝色波段和近红外波段归一化比率特征RATIOb_nir,增强阴影信息。采用线性变换将几个特征分量Digital Number(DN)值归一化到相同范围,对这几个分量进行综合分析。以I和PC1分量为输入对影像进行多尺度分割,建立包括波段均值、标准差、最大差异等特征的规则集,实现面向对象的阴影信息提取。选取20幅QuickBird影像为例进行阴影提取实验,平均总体精度为97%,平均用户精度为96%,平均Kappa系数为0.94。实验结果表明,相对传统基于像素信息提取方法,本文方法提取阴影斑块完整,无破碎图斑;相对基于原始光谱的面向对象方法,本文方法提取精度更高。     

国产高分辨率遥感卫星影像自动云检测

云检测一直是卫星影像处理的难题,特别是混有地物光谱特性的薄云长期成为影像产品生产的阻碍。本文所介绍的国产高分辨率遥感卫星影像自动云检测方法能够有效克服这一难题。首先采用改进的颜色转换模型,将影像由RGB转换至HIS颜色空间,利用影像强度信息与饱和度信息生成基底图,并使用影像近红外与色调信息对其进行优化,生成修正图。然后利用直方图均衡化与双边滤波结合带限定条件的Otsu阈值分割提取纹理信息,并对修正图进行误差剔除生成云种子图。最后以HIS颜色空间的强度信息为向导,结合云种子图进行云精确提取。与不同自动、人工交互式云检测方法相比,总体精度提高了10%左右,并且能够较好地提升云检测效率。