Utilization of Resourcesat-1 data for improved crop discrimination

Subsequent to the launch of the state-of-art third generation Indian Remote Sensing satellite, Resourcesat-1, studies have been conducted to understand the capabilities of the on-board sensors for crop discrimination. The paper discusses the unique capabilities of the AWiFS, LISS-III and LISS-IV sensors in terms of their dimensionality, radiometry and spatial resolutions for crop discrimination and monitoring. The studies have indicated better crop discriminability especially using the short wave infrared data in 1.55–1.70 μm data among the spectrally confusing land cover classes, attributed to the relative differences of water contents. 10-bit radiometry of AWiFS data in four bands has been observed to be a better discriminant. Intrafield variability was very well captured by the LISS-IV data revealing the potential of data for applications like precision farming. The studies have revealed that potential of Resourcesat-1 data becoming the workhorse for several agricultural applications.     

Mapping a Specific Crop—A Temporal Approach for Sugarcane Ratoon

Mapping a specific crop using single date multi-spectral imagery remains a challenging task because vegetation spectral responses are considerably similar. The use of multi-temporal images helps to discriminate specific crops as the classifier can make use of the uniqueness in the temporal evolution of the spectral responses of the different vegetated classes. However, one major concern in multi-temporal studies is the selection of optimum dates for the discrimination of crops as the use of all available temporal dates can be counterproductive. In this study this concern was addressed by selecting the best 2, 3, 4… combinations dates. This was done by conducting a separability analysis between the spectral response of the class of interest (here, sugarcane-ratoon) and non-interest classes. For this analysis, we used time series LISS-III and AWiFS sensors data that were classified using Possibilistic c-Means (PCM). This fuzzy classifier can extract single class sub-pixel information. The end result of this study was the detection of best (optimum) temporal dates for discriminating a specific crop, sugarcane-ratoon. An accuracy of 92.8 % was achieved for extracting ratoon crop using AWiFS data whereas the optimum temporal LISS-III data provided a least entropy of 0.437. Such information can be used by agricultural department in selecting an optimum number of strategically placed temporal images in the crop growing season for discriminating the specific crop accurately.     

Evaluation and use of Resourcesat-I data for agricultural applications

Resourcesat-1 satellite offers a unique opportunity of simultaneous observations at three different spatial scales through LISS-IV, LISS-III^* (improved LISS-III) and AWiFS sensors from a common platform. The sensors have enhanced capabilities in terms of spectral, spatial and radiometric resolution as compared to earlier Indian Remote sensing Satellite sensors. This paper summarizes the results of various studies such as evaluation of sensor characteristics, inter-sensor comparison studies, derivation and validation of surface reflectance measurements, quantification of improvements due to Resourcesat-1 sensors, and their use for various agricultural applications. The studies presented in this paper demonstrate that suit of sensors onboard Resourcesat-1 satellite provides better prospects for several agricultural applications like crop identification, discrimination and crop inventory for some major Indian crops, than its predecessors on IRS satellites.     

Geometric and radiometric evaluation of Resouresat-1 sensors

Resourcesat-1, launched in October 2003, is the 10th in the series of Indian Remote Sensing satellites built by the Indian Space Research Organization. Resourcesat-1, also known as IRS-P6, provides continuity to applications developed using data from IRS-1C and IRS-1D satellites. It also offers newer applications owing to enhanced capabilities of the sensors. The satellite contains three different imaging sensors: LISS-IV, with a ground sampling distance (GSD) of 5.8 m; LISS-III, with a GSD of 23.5 m; and AWiFS, with a GSD of 56 m at nadir. This paper provides data quality evaluation of the Resourcesat-1 sensors in terms of geometric and radiometric qualities. It is found that the sensors onboard Resourcesat-1 spacecraft has met all the mission set specifications and will help to generate data products with the required image geolocation and radiometric quality.     

ALCM: Automatic land cover mapping

It may be quite important for resource management people to extract single land cover class, at sub-pixel level from multi-spectral remote sensing images of different areas in single step processing. It has been observed, that neural network can be trained to extract single land cover class from multi-spectral remote sensing images, but they have problems in setting various parameters and slow during training stage. This paper present single land cover class water, extraction from mixed pixels present in multiple multi-spectral remote sensing data sets of same bands of AWiFS sensor of Resoursesat-1 (IRS-P6) satellite from different areas. In this work fuzzy logic-based algorithm, which is independent of statistical distribution assumption of data, has been studied at sub-pixel level to handle mixed pixels. It has been found; possibilistic c-means (PCM) algorithm takes the possibilistic view, that the membership of a feature vector in a class has nothing to do with its membership in other classes. Due to this, it was observed that PCM can extract only one class, from remote sensing multi-spectral data and it has produced 93.7% and 97.1% overall sub-pixel classification accuracy for two different data sets of different places using LISS-III (IRS-P6) reference data of same dates as of AWiFS data.     

比值法减少图像融合中光谱的扭曲

针对遥感图像融合Brovey变换法存在颜色失真的现象,提出了一种低通比值融合法。该融合方法首先对高几何分辨率的全色波段进行低通滤波,然后将低分辨率多光谱图像与全色波段图像相乘,再除以滤波后的全色波段图像,便得到融合图像。从辐照的角度证明了该低通比值融合法具备理论基础,并从目视评价、定量分析、分类精度证实了该低通比值融合法优于Brovey变换法。该低通比值融合法是一种能较好地保全低分辨率多光谱图像颜色的融合方法。     

混沌蜂群优化的NSST域多光谱与全色图像融合

为有效融合多光谱图像的光谱信息和全色图像的空间细节信息,提出了一种基于混沌蜂群优化和改进脉冲耦合神经网络(PCNN)的非下采样Shearlet变换(NSST)域图像融合方法。首先对多光谱图像进行Intensity-HueSaturation(IHS)变换,全色图像的直方图按照多光谱图像亮度分量的直方图进行匹配;然后分别对多光谱图像的亮度分量和新全色图像进行NSST变换,对低频分量使用改进加权融合算法进行融合,以互信息作为适应度函数,利用混沌蜂群算法找到最优加权系数。对高频分量采用改进脉冲耦合神经网络(PCNN)方法进行融合,再经NSST逆变换和IHS逆变换得到融合图像。本文方法在主观视觉效果和信息熵、光谱扭曲度等客观定量评价指标上优于基于IHS变换、基于非下采样Contourlet变换(NSCT)和非负矩阵分解(NMF)、基于NSCT和PCNN等5种融合方法。本文方法在提升图像空间分辨率的同时,有效地保留了光谱信息。     

基于小波包变换与IHS变换的遥感图像融合

针对多光谱图像与金色图像的融合，提出了基于IHS变换和小波包变换的遥感图像融合新方法。该方法首先对多光谱图像作IHS变换得到3个分量：亮度I、色度H和饱和度S；其次利用小波包变换融合方法融合多光谱图像的亮度分量与金色图像，并用融合后的图像替代多光谱图像的亮度分量；最后作IHS反变换得到新的多光谱图像。实验分析表明，新方法的性能优于IHS变换融合方法、小波变换融合方法和基于小波变换与IHS变换融合方法，在保留多光谱图像光谱信息的基础上，增强了融合图像的空间细节表现能力。     

Forest stock assessment using irs LISS III and pan merged data in Timli Forest range,Dehradun

This study demonstrates the use of high resolution IRS1C LISS-III and PAN merged data for growing stock assessment in Timli Forest Range, west of Dehradun. The merged data set was generated using principal component-based image fusion. The merged data had advantage of colour and high resolution from LISS-III and PAN respectively. It facilitated in differentiation and mapping of a number of forest categories in terms of type and density. The homogeneous forest strata were field inventoried for individual tree height and diameter using sample plots following two-phase sampling design. The plot inventory data was analysed to arrive at image level growing stock estimates. The study revealed that pure sal forest has maximum growing stock followed by sal mixed forest and miscellaneous forest. The study also shows good scope of high resolution data for growing stock assessment.     

遥感影像时—空融合的“点”—“线”—“面”质量评价

遥感影像时—空融合可集成多源数据高空间分辨率和高时间分辨率互补优势,生成时间连续的高空间分辨率影像,在遥感影像的动态监测与时序分析等方面具有重要应用价值.然而,现有多数研究往往基于单一数据产品对时—空融合算法进行评价,而在实际生产应用中,需要验证算法在多种遥感产品数据的融合表现;此外,目前研究大多基于“单点时刻”进行评...     

Exploiting IKONOS and Hyperion data fusion for automated road extraction

We present here the examples that show how fusing data from hyperspectral sensors with data from high spatial resolution sensors can enhance overall road detection accuracy. The fusion of hyperspectral and high spatial resolution data combines their superior respective spectral and spatial information. IKONOS (MSS) and Hyperion images were fused using the principal component analysis (PCA) method. The approach for road extraction integrates multiresolution segmentation and object oriented classification. Road extraction is done from an IKONOS (MSS) image and a Hyperion and IKONOS (MSS) merged image and comparisons are made depending on accuracy and quality measures such as completeness and correctness. This article also emphasises the types of roads which are giving better accuracy of extraction after fusion with hyperspectral image. This can vary because of types of material and condition of roads. The methodology was applied on roads of Dehradun, India.     

SIFT-FANN: An efficient framework for spatio-spectral fusion of satellite images

Image fusion techniques are widely used for remote sensing data. A special application is for using low resolution multi-spectral image with high resolution panchromatic image to obtain an image having both spectral and spatial information. Alignment of images to be fused is a step prior to image fusion. This is achieved by registering the images. This paper proposes the methods involving Fast Approximate Nearest Neighbor (FANN) for automatic registration of satellite image (reference image) prior to fusion of low spatial resolution multi-spectral QuickBird satellite image (sensed image) with high spatial resolution panchromatic QuickBird satellite image. In the registration steps, Scale Invariant Feature Transform (SIFT) is used to extract key points from both images. The keypoints are then matched using the automatic tuning algorithm, namely, FANN. This algorithm automatically selects the most appropriate indexing algorithm for the dataset. The indexed features are then matched using approximate nearest neighbor. Further, Random Sample Consensus (RanSAC) is used for further filtering to obtain only the inliers and co-register the images. The images are then fused using Intensity Hue Saturation (IHS) transform based technique to obtain a high spatial resolution multi-spectral image. The results show that the quality of fused images obtained using this algorithm is computationally efficient.     

Toward reduction of artifacts in fused images

Most fusion satellite image methodologies at pixel-level introduce false spatial details, i.e. artifacts, in the resulting fused images. In many cases, these artifacts appears because image fusion methods do not consider the differences in roughness or textural characteristics between different land covers. They only consider the digital values associated with single pixels. This effect increases as the spatial resolution image increases. To minimize this problem, we propose a new paradigm based on local measurements of the fractal dimension (FD). Fractal dimension maps (FDMs) are generated for each of the source images (panchromatic and each band of the multi-spectral images) with the box-counting algorithm and by applying a windowing process. The average of source image FDMs, previously indexed between 0 and 1, has been used for discrimination of different land covers present in satellite images. This paradigm has been applied through the fusion methodology based on the discrete wavelet transform (DWT), using the à trous algorithm (WAT). Two different scenes registered by optical sensors on board FORMOSAT-2 and IKONOS satellites were used to study the behaviour of the proposed methodology. The implementation of this approach, using the WAT method, allows adapting the fusion process to the roughness and shape of the regions present in the image to be fused. This improves the quality of the fused images and their classification results when compared with the original WAT method.     

Spectral unmixing based spatiotemporal downscaling fusion approach

Time-series remote sensing data are important in monitoring land surface dynamics. Due to technical limitations, satellite sensors have a trade-off between temporal, spatial and spectral resolutions when acquiring remote sensing images. In order to obtain remote sensing images with high spatial resolution and high temporal frequency, spatiotemporal fusion methods have been developed. In this paper, we propose a Linear Spectral Unmixing-based Spatiotemporal Data Fusion Model (LSUSDFM) for spatial and temporal data fusion. In this model, the endmember abundance of the low-resolution image pixel is calculated based on that of the high-resolution image by the spectral mixture analysis. The endmember spectrum signals of low-resolution images are then calculated continuously within an optimized moving window. Subsequently, the fused image is reconstructed according to the endmember spectrum and its corresponding abundance map. A simulated dataset and real satellite images are used to test the fusion model, and the fusion results are compared with a current spectral unmixing based downscaling fusion model (SUDFM). Our experimental work shows that, compared to the SUDFM, the proposed LSUSDFM can achieve better quality and accuracy of fused images, especially in effectively eliminating the “plaque” phenomenon in the results by the SUDFM. The LSUSDFM has great potential in generating images with both high spatial resolution and high temporal frequency, as well as increasing the number of spectral bands of the high spatial resolution data.     

Fusion of IKONOS Satellite Imagery Using IHS Transform and Local Variation

The intensity-hue-saturation (IHS) technique is a well-known merging approach for its computational efficiency and spatial definition holding. However, it results in color distortion particularly for the remote sensing images of IKONOS and QuickBird as some other fusion methods, such as principal component analysis, and Brovey transform. Although wavelet-based image fusion approaches can provide a better tradeoff between spatial and spectral quality, the fused images with these methods often have a spatial resolution that is less than that of the IHS-based algorithm. A remote sensing image fusion algorithm based on IHS transform and local variation and its modified approach with low computational complexity are proposed. Visual effect and quantity evaluation results show that the proposed simple algorithm outperforms the conventional image fusion methods in the spectral domain with the spatial quality similar to that of the undecimated wavelet transform-based scheme. The proposed modified method can obtain the similar spatial resolution of the merged image with the IHS-based fusion algorithm and the better spectral quality in the green vegetation areas.      

Selection of IRS-P6 LISS-4 MO mode band for producing band-sharpened multispectral imagery

The recently launched IRS-P6 satellite has a unique capability of acquiring simultaneously multispectral data at three different spatial resolutions from three independent optical sensors (LISS-4, LISS-3 and AWIFS). Of these, the LISS-4 sensor can be operated in two modes: (i) multispectral (MX) mode covering a swath of 23 km and (ii) monochromatic (MO) mode covering a 70-km swath, both at a spatial resolution of 5 m. One of the important uses of the LISS-4 MO data is in realizing a 5 m band-sharpened multispectral image by merging it with the low-resolution LISS-3 MS image. Operationally anyone of the three LISS-4 bands can be chosen for the MO mode data acquisition. The performance of each band for producing band-sharpened MS images is evaluated, and the choice of the band based on the spatial and spectral characteristics of the merged data is suggested. The LISS-4 Red-band is found to be optimal. It provides band-sharpened imagery with spatial and spectral qualities very similar to the LISS-4 MX data products.     

ASTER和TM/ETM+遥感数据融合监测土地覆盖变化

在人们纷纷选择IKONOS、QUICKBIRD、SPOT-5等高分辨率影像监测土地利用/覆盖变化之际,以北京海淀区为例,尝试采用Brovey变换和主成分分析(PCA)法融合ASTER、TM/ETM+中等分辨率影像,充分利用ASTER、TM/ETM+数据的多光谱和较高空间分辨率特性,挖掘其在土地覆盖变化监测中的潜力,为大规模监测土地利用/覆盖变化提供科学参考。研究将2003年ASTER多光谱3N、2、1波段与1999年ETM+PAN波段进行Brovey变换;1992年TM543与1999年ETM+PAN波段进行PCA融合,快速发现土地覆盖变化信息。经验证,变化发现精度达92.50%,符合项目精度要求。试验表明:在缺乏高分辨率影像的地区,选择价格相对便宜的AS-TER和TM/ETM+数据,采用Brovey变换和主成分分析(PCA)法进行融合,可有效监测土地覆盖变化,节约动态监测成本,二者具有很大的应用价值,值得推广。     

基于经验模态分解的高分辨率影像融合

文章提出基于经验模态分解（Emp iricalMode Decomposition,EMD）的特征层影像融合模型。对多光谱波段影像进行IHS变换获得强度影像,采用行列分解实现一维经验模态分解的二维拓展,并用于分离高分辨波段影像与强度影像的细节特征信息,对高分辨率波段影像的高频与强度影像波段的低频进行重构获得融合后的强度影像,再通过IHS反变换获得融合影像。文章介绍了经验模态分解的基本原理,定义了经验模态分解的多尺度分解与合成结构,提出融合模型的技术路线。选择UICKB IRD影像的全色波段与多光谱波段进行融合实验,根据典型行（列）的EMD分析,确定经验模量的取舍尺度,按提出的融合路线获得融合影像,并与小波融合,IHS融合,Brovey融合模型获得的影像进行视觉及量化比较。选择信息熵、标准差指标对融合影像的空间细节信息进行评价,同时选择平均灰度值、相关系数、偏差指数评价融合影像的光谱扭曲程度,结果表明本融合模型最优。     

基于支持向量机的SPIN－2影像与SPOT－4多光谱影像融合研究

遥感影像融合是解决多源海量数据富集表示的有效途径之一。针对高分辨率遥感数据SPIN-2(2m)与多光谱遥感数据SPOT-4(20m)的影像融合，提出了基于支持向量机(SVM)的遥感影像融合的新方法。建立了基于SVM的遥感影像融合模型，并进行了分类融合实验，实验效果较好。最后给出了分类融合评价。结果表明，支持向量机可用于遥感影像融合，且分类融合精度较高。     

Estimation of Wheat/Rice Residue Burning Areas in Major Districts of Haryana,India, Using Remote Sensing Data

Haryana has emerged as an important state for Rice & Wheat production in India contributing significantly in the central pool. Mechanized combine harvesting technologies, which have become common in Rice Wheat System (RWS) in India, leave behind large quantities of straw in the field for open burning of residue. Besides causing pollution, the burning kills the useful micro flora of the soil causing soil degradation. There is no field survey (Girdawari) data available with the Government for the areas where stubble burning is taking place. The present paper describes the methodology and results of wheat and rice residue burning areas for three districts of Haryana namely Kaithal, Kurukshetra and Karnal for the year 2010 using complete enumeration approach of multi-date IRS-P6 AWiFS and LISS-III data. In season ground truth was collected using hand held GPS and used to identify area of burnt wheat/rice residues, associated crops and land features. After geo-referencing the satellite images, district images were masked-out and multi-date image data stacks were created. Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) of each date was generated and used at the time of classification along with other spectral bands. The non-agricultural classes in the image included: forest, wasteland, water bodies, urban/settlement and permanent vegetation etc. The vector of these non-agriculture classes were extracted from the land use, imported and mask was generated. During the classification non-agriculture area was excluded by using mask of these classes. From this the agricultural area could be separated out. The area was estimated by computing pixels under the classified image mask. In season multi-date AWiFS data along with available single-date LISS-III data between third week of April to last week of May are found to be useful for estimation of wheat residue burning areas estimation. The data between second week of October to last week of November is useful for estimation of rice residue burning areas estimation at district level.