陡峭山区影像的半经验地形校正

本文提出一种新的半经验地形校正模型SCEDIL(Simple topographic Correction using Estimation of Diffuse Light),该模型通过结合DEM与光学影像数据寻找局部区域内完全光照和阴影的水平像元,并以光照、阴影水平像元的平均反射率值估算局部区域散射辐射比,提高了陡峭山区影像的地形校正精度。以高分一号卫星和Landsat ETM+影像为例,从目视判读和定量分析两个方面,比较分析该算法与传统半经验地形校正算法(C、SCS+C)的校正结果。结果表明:(1)对较为平坦的地形,SCEDIL和C、SCS+C校正都有较好的目视结果;对地面起伏较大的陡峭地形,C、SCS+C校正后,原阴影区域易呈现破碎化特征,SCEDIL校正后,原阴影区域过渡较为平滑。(2)SCEDIL校正后,各波段反射率的均值和标准差优于C、SCS+C校正,SCEDIL校正后,影像总分类精度与同类地物光谱信息均一性均优于C和SCS+C校正。SCEDIL半经验地形校正方法能有效地去除影像中的地形干扰,尤其对陡峭地形的校正效果,优于常规地形校正模型。     

The effect of atmospheric and topographic correction methods on land cover classification accuracy

Mapping of vegetation in mountain areas based on remote sensing is obstructed by atmospheric and topographic distortions. A variety of atmospheric and topographic correction methods has been proposed to minimize atmospheric and topographic effects and should in principle lead to a better land cover classification. Only a limited number of atmospheric and topographic combinations has been tested and the effect on class accuracy and on different illumination conditions is not yet researched extensively. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of coupled correction methods on land cover classification accuracy. Therefore, all combinations of three atmospheric (no atmospheric correction, dark object subtraction and correction based on transmittance functions) and five topographic corrections (no topographic correction, band ratioing, cosine correction, pixel-based Minnaert and pixel-based C-correction) were applied on two acquisitions (2009 and 2010) of a Landsat image in the Romanian Carpathian mountains. The accuracies of the fifteen resulting land cover maps were evaluated statistically based on two validation sets: a random validation set and a validation subset containing pixels present in the difference area between the uncorrected classification and one of the fourteen corrected classifications. New insights into the differences in classification accuracy were obtained. First, results showed that all corrected images resulted in higher overall classification accuracies than the uncorrected images. The highest accuracy for the full validation set was achieved after combination of an atmospheric correction based on transmittance functions and a pixel-based Minnaert topographic correction. Secondly, class accuracies of especially the coniferous and mixed forest classes were enhanced after correction. There was only a minor improvement for the other land cover classes (broadleaved forest, bare soil, grass and water). This was explained by the position of different land cover types in the landscape. Finally, coupled correction methods showed most efficient on weakly illuminated slopes. After correction, accuracies in the low illumination zone (cos β ≤ 0.65) were improved more than in the moderate and high illumination zones. Considering all results, best overall classification results were achieved after combination of the transmittance function correction with pixel-based Minnaert or pixel-based C-topographic correction. Furthermore, results of this bi-temporal study indicated that the topographic component had a higher influence on classification accuracy than the atmospheric component and that it is worthwhile to invest in both atmospheric and topographic corrections in a multi-temporal study.     

Development of a remotely sensed,historical land-cover change database for rural Chihuahua,Mexico

The purpose of this article is to describe the development of a remotely sensed, historical land-cover change database for the northwestern quarter of Chihuahua, Mexico, The database consists of multi-temporal land-cover classifications and change detection images. The database is developed to facilitate future investigations that examine urban–rural linkages as possible drivers of rural land-use and land-cover changes. To develop the needed land-cover change database, this study uses the North American Landsat Characterization (NALC) MSS triplicates because of their temporal depth and spatial breadth. Challenges exist, however, to effective classification and change detection using the NALC triplicates, including illumination differences across multiple scenes and periods caused by topographic and solar variations and the lack of ground reference data for historic periods. Therefore, creation of the database is a four step process. First, extensive pre-processing is performed to enhance comparability of multi-date images. Pre-processing includes topographic correction, mosaic creation and multi-date radiance normalization. Second, ancillary sources of land-cover data are combined with visual interpretations of enhanced images to define reference pixels used to classify the images using the maximum likelihood algorithm. Third, classification accuracy is assessed. Fourth, post-classification change detection is performed. Results indicate significant image improvements after pre-processing that permit very good overall classification (86.26% classified correctly) and change detection. To conclude, findings are presented that indicate significant changes to arid grasslands/shrublands and forest resources in mountainous regions.     

SCS+C地形辐射校正模型的应用分析研究

在对有森林覆盖的山区影像进行地形辐射校正时，基于太阳-冠层-传感器（SCS）几何关系的校正模型优于基于太阳-地形-传感器（STS）几何关系的模型。SCS校正模型解释了树木不依赖于地形、观测角和光照入射角而具有向地性生长的本质特性，但在某些地形区域，SCS与余弦校正同样存在过度校正的问题。为了解决这个问题，研究者在SCS校正模型中引入C校正系数来解释散射辐射项，提出了SCS+C校正模型。以北京密云Landsat 5影像为数据源，通过目视判别、直方图、定量的统计参数和地物光谱曲线对比等方法，对SCS+C校正模型与传统的余弦校正、C校正和SCS校正模型进行了对比。结果表明，4种方法均能在很大程度上消除地形阴影，更好地反映阴影区域的细节信息； 从总体的光谱特性保真程度来说，余弦和SCS校正都因过度校正问题表现较差，SCS+C校正最好，C校正次之。     

Illumination effects on the differenced Normalized Burn Ratio's optimality for assessing fire severity

The influence of illumination effects on the optimality of the dNBR (differenced Normalized Burn Ratio) was evaluated for the case of the 2007 Peloponnese (Greece) wildfires using a pre/post-fire Landsat TM (Thematic Mapper) image couple. Well-illuminated pixels (south and south-east facing slopes) exhibited more optimal displacements in the bi-spectral feature space than more shaded pixels (north and north-west exposed slopes). Moreover, pixels experiencing a small image-to-image difference in illumination obtained a higher optimality than pixels with a relatively large difference in illumination. To correct for illumination effects, the c-correction method and a modified c-correction technique were applied. The resulting median dNBR optimality of uncorrected, c-corrected and modified c-correction data was respectively 0.58, 0.60 and 0.71 (differences significant for p < 0.001). The original c-correction method improved the optimality of badly illuminated pixels while deteriorating the optimality of well-illuminated pixels. In contrast, the modified c-correction technique improved the optimality of all the pixels while retaining the prime characteristic of topographic correction techniques, i.e. detrending the illumination–reflectance relationship. For a minority of the data, for shaded pixels and/or pixels with a high image-to-image difference in illumination, the original c-correction outperformed the modified c-correction technique. In this study conducted in rugged terrain and with a bi-temporal image acquisition scheme that deviated up to two months from the ideal anniversary date scheme the modified c-correction technique resulted in a more reliable change detection.     

基于光流校正的复杂地形区多时相遥感影像配准

几何配准是影像后续处理的重要前提,是遥感信息处理领域研究的热点之一。复杂地形区多时相遥感影像的高精度配准一直是难以突破的难题,光流估计法通过逐像素位移增量解算为此提供了可行的解决思路,但光流法对地物变化异常敏感,经常导致计算的光流场及配准影像存在异常。为此,本文提出一种基于光流校正的复杂地形区多时相遥感影像配准方法,采用亮度和梯度双重约束获取光流场初值,在此基础上使用高斯拉普拉斯算子对异常光流进行检测,然后通过Delaunay三角形曲面插值对异常光流进行校正处理,从而得到各像素精准位移。实验表明,本文提出方法对存在地物变化的复杂地形区多时相遥感影像,可实现高保真、高精度的配准。     

A sun–crown–sensor model and adapted C-correction logic for topographic correction of high resolution forest imagery

Canopy shadowing mediated by topography is an important source of radiometric distortion on remote sensing images of rugged terrain. Topographic correction based on the sun–canopy–sensor (SCS) model significantly improved over those based on the sun–terrain–sensor (STS) model for surfaces with high forest canopy cover, because the SCS model considers and preserves the geotropic nature of trees. The SCS model accounts for sub-pixel canopy shadowing effects and normalizes the sunlit canopy area within a pixel. However, it does not account for mutual shadowing between neighboring pixels. Pixel-to-pixel shadowing is especially apparent for fine resolution satellite images in which individual tree crowns are resolved. This paper proposes a new topographic correction model: the sun–crown–sensor (SCnS) model based on high-resolution satellite imagery (IKONOS) and high-precision LiDAR digital elevation model. An improvement on the C-correction logic with a radiance partitioning method to address the effects of diffuse irradiance is also introduced (SCnS + C). In addition, we incorporate a weighting variable, based on pixel shadow fraction, on the direct and diffuse radiance portions to enhance the retrieval of at-sensor radiance and reflectance of highly shadowed tree pixels and form another variety of SCnS model (SCnS + W). Model evaluation with IKONOS test data showed that the new SCnS model outperformed the STS and SCS models in quantifying the correlation between terrain-regulated illumination factor and at-sensor radiance. Our adapted C-correction logic based on the sun–crown–sensor geometry and radiance partitioning better represented the general additive effects of diffuse radiation than C parameters derived from the STS or SCS models. The weighting factor W_t also significantly enhanced correction results by reducing within-class standard deviation and balancing the mean pixel radiance between sunlit and shaded slopes. We analyzed these improvements with model comparison on the red and near infrared bands. The advantages of SCnS + C and SCnS + W on both bands are expected to facilitate forest classification and change detection applications.     

Updating land cover automatically based on change detection using satellite images: case study of national forests in Southern California

Observing dynamic change patterns and higher-order complexities from remotely sensed images is warranted, but the main challenges include image inconsistency, plant phenological differences, weather variations, and difficulties of incorporating natural conditions into automatic image processing. In this study, we proposed a new algorithm and demonstrated it by producing 2002–2008 and 2010 land-cover maps in heterogeneous Southern California based on an existing 2009 land-cover map. The new algorithm improves the baseline land-cover map quality by discarding potential bad land-cover pixels and dividing each land-cover type into several subclasses. Time series Landsat images were used to detect changed and unchanged areas between baseline year and target year t. Subsequently, for each individual year t, each pixel that was identified as unchanged inherited the baseline classification. Otherwise, each pixel in the changed areas was classified by a similar surrogate majority classifier. The demonstration results in Southern California showed that the land-cover temporal pattern captured the observed successional stages of the ecosystem very well. The accuracy assessment had an overall classification accuracies ranging from 81% to 86% and overall kappa coefficients ranging from 0.79 to 0.83.     

马尾松毛虫危害区植被指数时序变化特征研究

本文介绍了利用虫害年度的多时相NOAA-AVHRR图像数据计算监测区归一化差植被指数（NDVI）,结合收集到的监测区的马尾松毛虫害历史资料来进行森林病虫害监测和预报的研究成果。从统计编制的分区NDVI时间序列变化曲线的对比来看,虫害区与非虫害区NDVI曲线具有一定的时序变化特征,对监测虫害有一定作用,也显示了NOAA-AVHRR资料在森林病虫害监测预报方面有一定应用前景。     

Assessment of different topographic correction methods in ALOS AVNIR-2 data over a forest area

Abstract

Because the removal of topographic effects is one the most important pre-processing steps when extracting information from satellite images in digital Earth applications, the problem of differential terrain illumination on satellite imagery has been investigated for at least 20 years. As there is no superior topographic correction method applicable to all areas and all images, a comparison of topographic normalization methods in different regions and images is necessary. In this study, common topographic correction methods were applied on an ALOS AVNIR-2 image of a rugged forest area, and the results were evaluated through different criteria. The results show that the simple correction methods [Cosine, Sun-Canopy-sensor (SCS), and Minnaert correction] are inefficient in exceptionally rough forests. Among the improved correction methods (SCS+C, modified Minnaert, and pixel-based Minnaert), the best result was achieved using a pixel-based Minnaert approach in which a separate correction factor in various slope angles is used. Thus, this method should be considered for topographic correction, especially in forests with severe topography.     

Urban Shadow Detection and Classification Using Hyperspectral Image

Shadow is an inevitable problem in high-resolution remote sensing images. There are need and significance in extracting information from shadow-covered areas, such as in land-cover mapping. Although the illumination energy of shadow pixels is low, hyperspectral image can provides rich enough band information to differentiate various urban targets/materials and to classify them. This study firstly analyzes the spectra difference between shadow and non-shadow classes so as to detect shadow-pixel. To classify the shadow pixels, Spectral Angle Mapper (SAM) method was adopted to classify urban land-cover mapping, because it can reduce the influence resulted from different illumination intensity. Then, training samples were collected among different classes from the shadow pixels, and their Jeffries–Matusita (J–M) distance were computed to validate the spectral separability among classes, with the square distances of J–M among classes all bigger than 1.9. Finally, Maximum Likelihood Classifier (MLC) and Support Vector Machine (SVM) classifier were used to classify all the shadow pixels as different land-cover types. The results showed MLC and SVM outperform the SAM in classifying similar classes. The classification result in SVM was validated to find having conformity with ground truth.     

Effect of topographic correction on forest change detection using spectral trend analysis of Landsat pixel-based composites

Pixel-based image compositing enables production of large-area surface reflectance images that are largely devoid of clouds, cloud shadows, or haze. Change detection with spectral trend analysis uses a dense time series of images, such as pixel-based composites, to quantify the year, amount, and magnitude of landscape changes. Topographically-related shadows found in mountainous terrain may confound trend-based forest change detection approaches. In this study, we evaluate the impact of topographic correction on trend-based forest change detection outcomes by comparing the amount and location of changes identified on an image composite with and without a topographic correction. Moreover, we evaluated two different approaches to topographic correction that are relevant to pixel-based image composites: the first corrects each pixel according to the day of year (DOY) the pixel was acquired, whilst the second corrects all pixels to a single reference date (August 1st), which was also the target date for generating the pixel-based image composite. Our results indicate that a greater area of change is detected when no topographic correction is applied to the image composite, however, the difference in change area detected between no correction and either the DOY or the August 1st correction is minor and less than 1% (0.54–0.85%). The spatial correspondence of these different approaches is 96.2% for the DOY correction and 97.7% for the August 1st correction. The largest differences between the correction processes occur in valleys (0.71–1.14%), upper slopes (0.71–1.09%), and ridges (0.73–1.09%). While additional tests under different conditions and in other environments are encouraged, our results indicate that topographic correction may not be justified in change detection routines computing spectral trends from pixel-based composites.     

Comparison of the Landsat Surface Reflectance Climate Data Record (CDR) and manually atmospherically corrected data in a semi-arid European study area

This study contributes to the quality assessment of atmospherically corrected Landsat surface reflectance data that are routinely generated by the Landsat Ecosystem Disturbance Adaptive Processing System (LEDAPS). This dataset, named Landsat Surface Reflectance Climate Data Record (Landsat CDR), is available at global scale and offers unprecedented opportunities to land monitoring and management services that require atmospherically corrected Earth observation (EO) data. Our assessment is based on the comparison of the Landsat CDR data against a set of Landsat and DEIMOS-1 images processed to a high degree of accuracy using an industry-standard atmospheric correction algorithm (ATCOR-2). The software package has been used for many years and its correction procedures can be considered consolidated and well-established. The dataset of Landsat and DEIMOS-1 images was acquired over a semi-arid agricultural area located in Lower Austria and was independently corrected by using a manual fine-tuning of ATCOR-2 parameters to reach the highest possible accuracy. Results show a very good correspondence of the surface reflectance in each of the six reflective spectral channels as well as for the NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index). An additional comparison against a NDVI time series from MODIS revealed also a good correspondence. Coefficients of determination (R²) between the two multi-year and multi-seasonal Landsat/DEIMOS datasets range between 0.91 (blue band) and 0.98 (nIR, SWIR-1 and SWIR-2). The results obtained for our semi-arid test site in Austria confirm previous findings and suggest that automatic atmospheric procedures, such as the one implemented by LEDAPS are accurate enough to be used in land monitoring services that require consistent multi-temporal surface reflectance data.     

Landsat TM数据不同辐射校正方法对土地覆盖遥感分类的影响

本文主要是探索Landsat TM数据不同辐射校正方法对土地覆盖遥感分类的影响。介绍了使用的3种不同辐射校正方法(ATCOR3、FLAASH以及查找表)和两种分类算法。在分类实验部分,根据样本的地理坐标在3景校正影像中分别采集训练样本并训练各自的分类器,并交叉用于其他辐射校正影像的土地覆盖遥感分类。实验结果表明:(1)用于分类器训练的样本采集自待分类影像时的分类精度明显高于采集自其他影像的分类精度;(2)3种辐射校正影像的分类结果存在差异,其中使用ATCOR3和FLAASH方法校正后影像的分类结果有更相近的精度;(3)辐射校正对分类类别的影响不同,其中对森林类型影响最大,对裸地等其他类别影响相对较小。     

The effect of atmospheric and topographic correction on pixel-based image composites: Improved forest cover detection in mountain environments

Quantification of forest cover is essential as a tool to stimulate forest management and conservation. Image compositing techniques that sample the most suited pixel from multi-temporal image acquisitions, provide an important tool for forest cover detection as they provide alternatives for missing data due to cloud cover and data discontinuities. At present, however, it is not clear to which extent forest cover detection based on compositing can be improved if the source imagery is firstly corrected for topographic distortions on a pixel-basis. In this study, the results of a pixel compositing algorithm with and without preprocessing topographic correction are compared for a study area covering 9 Landsat footprints in the Romanian Carpathians based on two different classifiers: Maximum Likelihood (ML) and Support Vector Machine (SVM). Results show that classifier selection has a stronger impact on the classification accuracy than topographic correction. Finally, application of the optimal method (SVM classifier with topographic correction) on the Romanian Carpathian Ecoregion between 1985, 1995 and 2010 shows a steady greening due to more afforestation than deforestation.     

A time-integrated MODIS burn severity assessment using the multi-temporal differenced normalized burn ratio (dNBRMT)

Burn severity is an important parameter in post-fire management. It incorporates both the direct fire impact (vegetation depletion) and ecosystem responses (vegetation regeneration). From a remote sensing perspective, burn severity is traditionally estimated using Landsat's differenced normalized burn ratio (dNBR). In this case study of the large 2007 Peloponnese (Greece) wildfires, Landsat dNBR estimates correlated reasonably well with Geo composite burn index (GeoCBI) field data of severity (R² = 0.56). The usage of Landsat imagery is, however, restricted by cloud cover and image-to-image normalization constraints. Therefore a multi-temporal burn severity approach based on coarse spatial, high temporal resolution moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer (MODIS) imagery is presented in this study. The multi-temporal dNBR (dNBR_MT) is defined as the 1-year integrated difference between burned pixels and their unique control pixels. These control pixels were selected based on time series similarity and spatial context and reflect how burned pixels would have behaved in the case no fire had occurred. Linear regression between downsampled Landsat dNBR and dNBR_MT estimates resulted in a moderate-high coefficient of determination R² = 0.54. dNBR_MT estimates are indicative for the change in vegetation productivity due to the fire. This change is considerably higher for forests than for more sparsely vegetated areas like shrub lands. Although Landsat dNBR is superior for spatial detail, MODIS-derived dNBR_MT estimates present a valuable alternative for burn severity mapping at continental to global scale without image availability constraints. This is beneficial to compare trends in burn severity across regions and time. Moreover, thanks to MODIS's repeated temporal sampling, the dNBR_MT accounts for both first- and second-order fire effects.     

光谱特征扩展的时间序列Landsat数据地表覆盖分类

时间序列遥感影像常用于地表覆盖监测及其变化监测。然而,利用时序遥感数据—尤其是中分辨率遥感数据监测地表覆盖变化,其方法基本是先对多期影像分别进行监督分类然后对比分类结果。由于这种方法需要对每期遥感影像单独选择分类训练样本,而对于历史影像,常常难以获得可靠的样本数据。本文基于遥感数据定量化处理,尝试利用光谱特征扩展方法对时间序列Landsat数据进行分类:首先,结合一种新的大气校正方法和相对辐射归一化方法,对时间序列Landsat数据进行定量化处理,以消除各期影像之间的辐射差异,获得地表反射率数据。然后,论文选择一期易于获得分类训练样本的反射率数据作为"参考影像",并结合样本数据提取不同地表覆盖类型的光谱特征。最后,将"参考影像"中提取的地物光谱特征,扩展到所有时间序列反射率数据进行分类。论文利用青藏高原玛多地区的5景Landsat数据对本文的方法进行了验证,结果显示:基于光谱特征扩展的分类方法,可有效对定量化处理后的Landsat数据进行分类,分类总体精度为88.35%—94.25%,分类结果和传统的单景监督分类结果具有较好的一致性。此外,研究也发现,"参考影像"和待分类图像获取时间的季相差异会影响其分类的精度。     

多元变化检测的相对辐射校正方法研究

基于多元变化检测的相对辐射校正方法通过阈值获取校正点,该方法的校正结果优于传统人工参与的校正方法。文章对方法中阈值选择以及自然景观特征等影响因素做了进一步研究,选择北京市平原区和山区的各2期TM影像作为数据源,运用均方根误差和变异系数2个统计特征参数比较和评价校正结果,结果表明:基于多元变化检测的相对辐射校正方法获得的结果有利于后续数据分析;不同阈值获得的校正结果没有明显差异;不同自然景观特征对该方法影响程度不同。     

An approach to the radiometric aerotriangulation of photogrammetric images

Harnessing the radiometric information provided by photogrammetric flights could be useful in increasing the thematic applications of aerial images. The aim of this paper is to improve relative and absolute homogenization in aerial images by applying atmospheric correction and treatment of bidirectional effects. We propose combining remote sensing methodologies based on radiative transfer models and photogrammetry models, taking into account the three-dimensional geometry of the images (external orientation and Digital Elevation Model). The photogrammetric flight was done with a Z/I Digital Mapping Camera (DMC) with a Ground Sample Distance (GSD) of 45 cm. Spectral field data were acquired by defining radiometric control points in order to apply atmospheric correction models, obtaining calibration parameters from the camera and surface reflectance images. Kernel-driven models were applied to correct the anisotropy caused by the bidirectional reflectance distribution function (BRDF) of surfaces viewed under large observation angles with constant illumination, using the overlapping area between images and the establishment of radiometric tie points. Two case studies were used: 8-bit images with applied Lookup Tables (LUTs) resulting from the conventional photogrammetric workflow for BRDF studies and original 12-bit images (Low Resolution Color, LRC) for the correction of atmospheric and bidirectional effects. The proposed methodology shows promising results in the different phases of the process. The geometric kernel that shows the best performance is the Lidense kernel. The homogenization factor in 8-bit images ranged from 6% to 25% relative to the range of digital numbers (0–255), and from 18% to 35% relative to levels of reflectance (0–100) in the 12-bit images, representing a relative improvement of approximately 1–30%, depending on the band analyzed.     

An improved topographic correction model based on Minnaert

The uneven distribution of solar radiation due to topographic relief can significantly change the correlation between reflectance and other features such as biomass in rugged terrain regions. In this article, we use the transfer theory to improve the Minnaert approach. After comparing topographic correction methods for Landsat 8 Operational Land Imager (OLI) and EO-1 Advanced Land Imager (ALI) imagery acquired from the mountainous region in Beijing, China, we used visual inspection, statistical analysis, and correlation analysis to evaluate the algorithms and performance of the proposed Minnaert-E approach. The results indicate that corrections based on non-Lambertian methods have better performance than those based on the Lambertian assumption. The correction performances can be ranked as the Minnaert-E, followed by the Minnaert and the SCS+C corrections, and, finally, the C-HuangWei correction, which performed the worst. We found that the Minnaert-E approach can effectively weaken the influence of terrain relief on pixels and restore the true reflectance of the pixels in the relief area. Further analysis indicates that the Minnaert-E has a better effect on image processing where the slope gradient is restricted to less than 10° or between 30° and 43°.