Evaluation of a rule-based compositing technique for Landsat-5 TM and Landsat-7 ETM+ images

Image compositing is a multi-objective optimization process. Its goal is to produce a seamless cloud and artefact-free artificial image. This is achieved by aggregating image observations and by replacing poor and cloudy data with good observations from imagery acquired within the timeframe of interest. This compositing process aims to minimise the visual artefacts which could result from different radiometric properties, caused by atmospheric conditions, phenologic patterns and land cover changes. It has the following requirements: (1) image compositing must be cloud free, which requires the detection of clouds and shadows, and (2) the image composite must be seamless, minimizing artefacts and visible across inter image seams. This study proposes a new rule-based compositing technique (RBC) that combines the strengths of several existing methods. A quantitative and qualitative evaluation is made of the RBC technique by comparing it to the maximum NDVI (MaxNDVI), minimum red (MinRed) and maximum ratio (MaxRatio) compositing techniques. A total of 174 Landsat TM and ETM+ images, covering three study sites and three different timeframes for each site, are used in the evaluation. A new set of quantitative/qualitative evaluation techniques for compositing quality measurement was developed and showed that the RBC technique outperformed all other techniques, with MaxRatio, MaxNDVI, and MinRed techniques in order of performance from best to worst.     

Automatic and improved radiometric correction of Landsat imagery using reference values from MODIS surface reflectance images

Radiometric correction is a prerequisite for generating high-quality scientific data, making it possible to discriminate between product artefacts and real changes in Earth processes as well as accurately produce land cover maps and detect changes. This work contributes to the automatic generation of surface reflectance products for Landsat satellite series. Surface reflectances are generated by a new approach developed from a previous simplified radiometric (atmospheric + topographic) correction model. The proposed model keeps the core of the old model (incidence angles and cast-shadows through a digital elevation model [DEM], Earth–Sun distance, etc.) and adds new characteristics to enhance and automatize ground reflectance retrieval. The new model includes the following new features: (1) A fitting model based on reference values from pseudoinvariant areas that have been automatically extracted from existing reflectance products (Terra MODIS MOD09GA) that were selected also automatically by applying quality criteria that include a geostatistical pattern model. This guarantees the consistency of the internal and external series, making it unnecessary to provide extra atmospheric data for the acquisition date and time, dark objects or dense vegetation. (2) A spatial model for atmospheric optical depth that uses detailed DEM and MODTRAN simulations. (3) It is designed so that large time-series of images can be processed automatically to produce consistent Landsat surface reflectance time-series. (4) The approach can handle most images, acquired now or in the past, regardless of the processing system, with the exception of those with extremely high cloud coverage. The new methodology has been successfully applied to a series of near 300 images of the same area including MSS, TM and ETM+ imagery as well as to different formats and processing systems (LPGS and NLAPS from the USGS; CEOS from ESA) for different degrees of cloud coverage (up to 60%) and SLC-off. Reflectance products have been validated with some example applications: time series robustness (for a pixel in a pseudoinvariant area, deviations are only 1.04% on average along the series), spectral signatures generation (visually coherent with the MODIS ones, but more similar between dates), and classification (up to 4 percent points better than those obtained with the original manual method or the CDR products). In conclusion, this new approach, that could also be applied to other sensors with similar band configurations, offers a fully automatic and reasonably good procedure for the new era of long time-series of spatially detailed global remote sensing data.     

Mapping paddy rice planting area in rice-wetland coexistent areas through analysis of Landsat 8 OLI and MODIS images

Accurate and up-to-date information on the spatial distribution of paddy rice fields is necessary for the studies of trace gas emissions, water source management, and food security. The phenology-based paddy rice mapping algorithm, which identifies the unique flooding stage of paddy rice, has been widely used. However, identification and mapping of paddy rice in rice-wetland coexistent areas is still a challenging task. In this study, we found that the flooding/transplanting periods of paddy rice and natural wetlands were different. The natural wetlands flood earlier and have a shorter duration than paddy rice in the Panjin Plain, a temperate region in China. We used this asynchronous flooding stage to extract the paddy rice planting area from the rice-wetland coexistent area. MODIS Land Surface Temperature (LST) data was used to derive the temperature-defined plant growing season. Landsat 8 OLI imagery was used to detect the flooding signal and then paddy rice was extracted using the difference in flooding stages between paddy rice and natural wetlands. The resultant paddy rice map was evaluated with in-situ ground-truth data and Google Earth images. The estimated overall accuracy and Kappa coefficient were 95% and 0.90, respectively. The spatial pattern of OLI-derived paddy rice map agrees well with the paddy rice layer from the National Land Cover Dataset from 2010 (NLCD-2010). The differences between Rice_Landsat and Rice_NLCD are in the range of ±20% for most 1-km grid cell. The results of this study demonstrate the potential of the phenology-based paddy rice mapping algorithm, via integrating MODIS and Landsat 8 OLI images, to map paddy rice fields in complex landscapes of paddy rice and natural wetland in the temperate region.     

A new spectral index for the extraction of built-up land features from Landsat 8 satellite imagery

Abstract

Extracting built-up areas from remote sensing data like Landsat 8 satellite is a challenge. We have investigated it by proposing a new index referred as built-up land features extraction index (BLFEI). The BLFEI index takes advantage of its simplicity and good separability between the four major component of urban system, namely built-up, barren, vegetation and water. The histogram overlap method and the spectral discrimination index (SDI) are used to study separability. BLFEI index uses the two bands of infrared shortwaves, the red and green bands of the visible spectrum. OLI imagery of Algiers, Algeria, was used to extract built-up areas through BLFEI and some new previously developed built-up indices used for comparison. The water areas are masked out leading to Otsu’s thresholding algorithm to automatically find the optimal value for extracting built-up land from waterless regions. BLFEI, the new index improved the separability by 25% and the accuracy by 5%.     

利用Sentinel-2A多光谱成像仪与Landsat8陆地成像仪影像进行普陀山岛植被分类效果比较

卫星遥感技术可用于海岛资源调查。Sentinel-2A与Landsat 8两颗卫星都可免费提供空间分辨率较高的多光谱遥感影像,在海岛调查中的应用潜力较大。本文以浙江舟山普陀山岛为例开展了针对这两种影像在海岛植被分类中的应用效果的研究,分别利用Sentinel-2A多光谱成像仪（MSI）和Landsat 8陆地成像仪（OLI）影像基于最大似然法分类获得了该岛阔叶林、针阔混交林、针叶林、灌丛、草丛等植被及其他地物的分布情况,并进行了精度检验,结果表明MSI的总体分类精度略高于OLI。     

Potential of Landsat-8 and Sentinel-2A composite for land use land cover analysis

Abstract

This study proposes the development of a multi-sensor, multi-spectral composite from Landsat-8 and Sentinel-2A imagery referred to as ‘LSC’ for land use land cover (LULC) characterisation and compared with respect to the hyperspectral imagery of the EO1: Hyperion sensor. A three-stage evaluation was implemented based on the similarity observed in the spectral response, supervised classification results and endmember abundance information obtained using linear spectral unmixing. The study was conducted for two areas located around Dhundi and Rohtak in Himachal Pradesh and Haryana, respectively. According to the analysis of the spectral reflectance curves, the spectral response of the LSC is capable of identifying major LULC classes. The kappa accuracy of 0.85 and 0.66 was observed for the classification results from LSC and Hyperion data for Dhundi and Rohtak datasets, respectively. The coefficient of determination was found to be above 0.9 for the LULC classes in both the datasets as compared to Hyperion, indicating a good agreement. Thus, these three-stage results indicated the significant potential of a composite derived from freely available multi-sensor multi-spectral imagery as an alternative to hyperspectral imagery for LULC studies.     

Using Sentinel-1A DInSAR interferometry and Landsat 8 data for monitoring water level changes in two lakes in Crete,Greece

Differential Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (DInSAR) methodology has been successfully employed to detect water level changes and produce corresponding water level variation maps. In this study, Agia and Kournas lakes, located in Western Crete, Greece, were used as pilot areas to monitor water level change with means of SAR interferometry and auxiliary Earth Observation (EO) data. The water level variation was monitored for the period 2015–2016, using Sentinel-1A imageries and corresponding stage water level data. Landsat 8 data were additionally used to study vegetation regime and surface water extent and how these parameters affect interferograms performance. The results highlighted the fact that the combination of SAR backscattering intensity and unwrapped phase can provide additional insight into hydrological studies. The overall analysis of both interferometric characteristics and backscattering mechanism denoted their potential in enhancing the reliability of the water-level retrieval scheme and optimizing the capture of hydrological patterns spatial distribution.     

Landsat 8地表温度反演及验证—以黑河流域为例

地表温度是区域和全球尺度地表物理过程的一个重要参数,目前已有的地表温度产品空间分辨率较低,缺乏高空间分辨率的地表温度产品。Landsat系列卫星提供了大量免费的高空间分辨率遥感数据,然而对应的高空间分辨率地表温度产品还未见到,为了获取长时间序列的高空间分辨率地表温度数据,针对Landsat 8 TIRS数据提出了一个物理单通道地表温度反演算法。该算法首先利用ASTER全球地表发射率产品(ASTER GED)结合Landsat 8地表反射率产品计算Landsat 8影像的地表发射率,然后利用快速辐射传输模型RTTOV结合MERRA大气廓线数据对热红外影像进行大气校正,最后利用物理单通道地表温度反演算法得到地表温度。利用黑河流域HiWATER试验2013年—2015年15个站点的实测地表温度数据对本文方法和普适性单通道算法进行了验证,同时对验证站点的空间异质性进行了分析。结果表明,本文方法和普适性单通道算法估算的地表温度整体精度均较高,能够获取高精度、高空间分辨率的地表温度数据,可以服务于城市热岛效应、地表蒸散发估算等相关研究。     

一种简单快速的Delaunay三角网逐块生成算法

分块式生成Delaunay三角网是加快构网速度的一个基本思路。已有的分治算法和其他分块合并算法能使平均时间复杂度接近线性,但算法复杂,编程难度大,且容易产生计算误差导致的错误。本文作者曾提出过一种基于三角网扩张法的逐块归并算法,它也是一种快速算法,但在算法中需要增加避免错误的判断规则,使程序变得较复杂。本文中的逐块生成法是对逐块归并法的改进,它继承了逐块归并法高效的优势,而且减少了判断规则,步骤更加简单。     

一种改进的融合不同尺度特征的遥感影像道路提取新方法

针对高分辨率遥感影像中细小道路纹理特征不明显、信息提取困难的问题,本文提出并实现了一种融合不同尺度特征的深度学习道路提取新方法。首先引入CoT模块构建残差网络,以充分利用局部与全局上下文信息提取不同尺度道路特征;然后构建特征金字塔注意力模块,融合不同层级道路特征信息;最后使用全局注意力上采样模块结合全局背景对道路细节进行恢复。试验结果表明,该方法的召回率、交并比均优于已有方法,能够较完整准确地提取遥感影像中的道路信息,提升道路提取效率。     

A method for monthly mapping of wet and dry snow using Sentinel-1 and MODIS: Application to a Himalayan river basin

Satellite Remote Sensing, with both optical and SAR instruments, can provide distributed observations of snow cover over extended and inaccessible areas. Both instruments are complementary, but there have been limited attempts at combining their measurements. We describe a novel approach to produce monthly maps of dry and wet snow areas through application of data fusion techniques to MODIS fractional snow cover and Sentinel-1 wet snow mask, facilitated by Google Earth Engine. The method is demonstrated in a 55,000 km² river basin in the Indian Himalayan region over a period of ∼2.5 years, although it can be applied to any areas of the world where Sentinel-1 data are routinely available. The typical underestimation of wet snow area by SAR is corrected using a digital elevation model to estimate the average melting altitude. We also present an empirical model to derive the fractional cover of wet snow from Sentinel-1. Finally, we demonstrate that Sentinel-1 effectively complements MODIS as it highlights a snowmelt phase which occurs with a decrease in snow depth but no/little decrease in snowpack area. Further developments are now needed to incorporate these high resolution observations of snow areas as inputs to hydrological models for better runoff analysis and improved management of water resources and flood risk.     

Application of Landsat-8 and ASTER satellite remote sensing data for porphyry copper exploration: a case study from Shahr-e-Babak,Kerman, south of Iran

Abstract

The Shahr-e-Babak region located in the Kerman metallogenic belt is one of the high potential segments of Urumieh–Dokhtar magmatic arc for porphyry copper and epithermal gold mineralization in the south of Iran. This high potential zone encompasses several porphyry copper deposits under exploitation, development and exploration stages. The aim of this study is to evaluate Landsat-8 data and comparison with the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer data-sets for mapping hydrothermal alteration zones related to Cenozoic magmatic intrusions in Shahr-e-Babak region. Previous studies have proven the robust application of ASTER in lithological mapping and mineral exploration; nonetheless, the Landsat-8 data have high capability to map and detect hydrothermal alteration zones associated with porphyry copper and epithermal gold mineralization. In this investigation, several band combinations and multiplications, developed selective principal component analysis and image transformations were developed for discriminating hydrothermal alteration zones associated with porphyry copper mineralization using Landsat-8 data.     

Evaluating and comparing Sentinel 2A and Landsat-8 Operational Land Imager (OLI) spectral indices for estimating fire severity in a Mediterranean pine ecosystem of Greece

The main purpose of this study is to explore the relationship between three field-based fire severity indices (Composite Burn Index-CBI, Geometrically structure CBI, weighted CBI) and spectral indices derived from Sentinel 2A and Landsat-8 OLI imagery on a recent large fire in Thasos, Greece. We employed remotely sensed indices previously used from the remote sensing fire community (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Normalized Burn Ratio (NBR), differenced NDVI, differenced NBR, relative differenced NBR, Relativized Burn Ratio) and seven Sentinel 2A-specific indices considering the availability of spectral information recorded in the red-edge spectral region. The statistical correlation indicated a slightly stronger relationship between the differenced NBR and the GeoCBI for both Sentinel 2A (r = 0.872) and Landsat-8 OLI (r = 0.845) imagery. Predictive local thresholds of dNBR values showed slightly higher classification accuracy for Sentinel 2A (73.33%) than Landsat-8 OLI (71.11%), suggesting the adequacy of Sentinel 2A for forest fire severity assessment and mapping in Mediterranean pine ecosystems. The evaluation of the classification thresholds calculated in this study over other fires with similar pre-fire conditions could contribute in the operational mapping and reconstruction of the historical patterns of fire severity over the Eastern Mediterranean region.