Fourth Annual Earth Resources Program Review. Volume 2: University Programs
University research in data processing techniques to extract information on earth resources from remotely sensed areas - conference
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Glaciological and volcanological studies on the Wrangell Mountains, Alaska
The author has identified the following significant results. It appears feasible to monitor changes of the summit area on Mt. Wrangell. Data from cycles 1, 2, 3, and 4 over the Wrangell Mountains indicate that the deposition of new snow from storms and its later melting by volcanic heat can be detected. Snow can be removed from the areas on the summit only through melting by volcanic heat. The results of this process can be observed in the ERTS-1 images. Note that these results are based upon first-look analysis only. It is expected in the future to be able to increase the information extracted from the images by the use of enhancement techniques.
Benson, C. S.↗
Digital image processing for photo-reconnaissance applications
Digital image-processing techniques developed for processing pictures from NASA space vehicles are analyzed in terms of enhancement, quantitative restoration, and information extraction. Digital filtering, and the action of a high frequency filter in the real and Fourier domain are discussed along with color and brightness.
Billingsley, F. C.↗
ERIM progress report on use of ERTS-1 data: Summary report of work on ten tasks
The author has identified the following significant results. Several of the tasks have produced significant results which are summarized: (1) Absolute water depth can be calculated from a ratio of signals from bands MSS 4 and MSS 5. (2) A 13 category terrain feature classification map of Yellowstone National Park has been produced using supervised pattern recognition techniques. (3) ERTS-1 data has been shown to provide a detection and monitoring capability for a number of water quality problems associated with off-shore ocean dumping sites and inland lakes. (4) A corrected ratio of bands MSS-5 and MSS-7 signals has been formed. (5) A concise format has been devised for storing the ratio signatures of geologic rock and mineral materials determined from laboratory reflectance spectra. (6) Results of work in information extraction demonstrate: signal variability exists among ERTS-1 detectors in any one spectral band that will impact users doing quantitative analysis on successive ERTS-1 images; a newly developed computer-aided procedure for correlating ERTS-1 pixels to ground features; the strong influence of atmospheric effects in ERTS-1 data; and area estimation accuracies are better using the ERIM proportion estimation algorithm than for conventional recognition techniques.
Thomson, F. J.↗
Radiation balance mapping with multispectral scanner data.
Energy budget and radiation balance relationships have been measured from the ground by investigators in several disciplines. Airborne and spaceborne multispectral sensors provide a new measurement capability for large-area synoptic mapping of these quantities. Procedures for estimating and mapping total exitance and radiation balance from multispectral scanner data are discussed, and example maps for an agricultural application are presented. This information extraction technique is an extension of the usual recognition mapping performed with multispectral scanner data, and represents a first step in the quantitative interpretation and assessment of surface conditions with remote sensor data.
Malila, W. A.↗
Visualization of smoke stack plume
System consists of ultraviolet vidicon tube, interference and color filters, ultraviolet telephoto lens, monitor, and waveform analyzer to extract information from video scene, stack plume viewed against sky. System will view SO2 and any other element which absorbs light at wavelength used.
Exton, R. J.↗
Interactive analysis and evaluation of ERTS data for regional planning and urban development: A Los Angeles Basin case study
The progression endemic to the ERTS Data Use Experiment SR 124 in data quality, analysis sophistication and applications responsiveness is reviewed. The roles of the variety of ERTS products, including the supporting underflight aircraft imagery at various scales, are discussed in the context of this investigation. The versatility of interpretation techniques and outputs developed and implemented via the General Electric Multispectral Information Extraction Systems is described and exemplified by both system-expository and applications-explanatory products. The wide-ranging and in-depth applications studied in the course of this experiment can be characterized as community-oriented and agency-directed. In the former, generic category, which is primarily data-contextual, problems analyzed dealt with agricultural systems, surface water bodies, snow cover, brush fire burns, forestry, grass growth, parks - golf courses - cemeteries, dust storms, grading sites, geological features and coastal water structure. The ERTS MSS band selectivity and measurements thresholds were of primary interest here. The agency-directed application areas have been user-evaluational in nature. Beginning with overall urbanized regional analysis of land cover density-development intensity, residential areas were analyzed for ascertaining if housing types could be aggregated with any degree of reliability.
Raje, S.↗
Scene correction (precision techniques) of ERTS sensor data using digital image processing techniques
Techniques have been developed, implemented, and evaluated to process ERTS Return Beam Vidicon (RBV) and Multispectral Scanner (MSS) sensor data using digital image processing techniques. The RBV radiometry has been corrected to remove shading effects, and the MSS geometry and radiometry have been corrected to remove internal and external radiometric and geometric errors. The results achieved show that geometric mapping accuracy of about one picture element RMS and two picture elements (maximum) can be achieved by the use of nine ground control points. Radiometric correction of MSS and RBV sensor data has been performed to eliminate striping and shading effects to about one count accuracy. Image processing times on general purpose computers of the IBM 370/145 to 168 class are in the range of 29 to 3.2 minutes per MSS scene (4 bands). Photographic images of the fully corrected and annotated scenes have been generated from the processed data and have demonstrated excellent quality and information extraction potential.
Bernstein, R.↗
Investigation related to multispectral imaging systems
A summary of technical progress made during a five year research program directed toward the development of operational information systems based on multispectral sensing and the use of these systems in earth-resource survey applications is presented. Efforts were undertaken during this program to: (1) improve the basic understanding of the many facets of multispectral remote sensing, (2) develop methods for improving the accuracy of information generated by remote sensing systems, (3) improve the efficiency of data processing and information extraction techniques to enhance the cost-effectiveness of remote sensing systems, (4) investigate additional problems having potential remote sensing solutions, and (5) apply the existing and developing technology for specific users and document and transfer that technology to the remote sensing community.
Nalepka, R. F.↗
Multispectral scanner data applications evaluation. Volume 1: User applications study
A six-month systems study of earth resource surveys from satellites was conducted and is reported. SKYLAB S-192 multispectral scanner (MSS) data were used as a baseline to aid in evaluating the characteristics of future systems using satellite MSS sensors. The study took the viewpoint that overall system (sensor and processing) characteristics and parameter values should be determined largely by user requirements for automatic information extraction performance in quasi-operational earth resources surveys, the other major factor being hardware limitations imposed by state-of-the-art technology and cost. The objective was to use actual aircraft and spacecraft MSS data to outline parametrically the trade-offs between user performance requirements and hardware performance and limitations so as to allow subsequent evaluation of compromises which must be made in deciding what system(s) to build.
Thomson, F. J.↗
Estimating proportions of objects from multispectral scanner data
Progress is reported in developing and testing methods of estimating, from multispectral scanner data, proportions of target classes in a scene when there are a significiant number of boundary pixels. Procedures were developed to exploit: (1) prior information concerning the number of object classes normally occurring in a pixel, and (2) spectral information extracted from signals of adjoining pixels. Two algorithms, LIMMIX and nine-point mixtures, are described along with supporting processing techniques. An important by-product of the procedures, in contrast to the previous method, is that they are often appropriate when the number of spectral bands is small. Preliminary tests on LANDSAT data sets, where target classes were (1) lakes and ponds, and (2) agricultural crops were encouraging.
Horwitz, H. M.↗
Three-dimensional time dependent computation of turbulent flow
The three-dimensional, primitive equations of motion are solved numerically for the case of isotropic box turbulence and the distortion of homogeneous turbulence by irrotational plane strain at large Reynolds numbers. A Gaussian filter is applied to governing equations to define the large scale field. This gives rise to additional second order computed scale stresses (Leonard stresses). The residual stresses are simulated through an eddy viscosity. Uniform grids are used, with a fourth order differencing scheme in space and a second order Adams-Bashforth predictor for explicit time stepping. The results are compared to the experiments and statistical information extracted from the computer generated data.
Kwak, D.↗
Application of earth resources technology satellite data to urban and regional planning: Test site, County of Los Angeles
The author has identified the following significant results. The County of Los Angeles photointerpreted ERTS film products to define problems of interest, coordinated ground truth over the complex test site including interfaces with secondary users as well as participated in on-line analyses of the GE multispectral information extraction systems. Interactive machine analyses were carried out, developing techniques and procedures as well as evaluating the outputs for community and regional planning. Extensive aircraft underflight coverage was provided that was valuable both in inputs preparation and outputs evaluation of the machine-aided analyses. One of the nonstandard ERTS images led to the discovery of a major new fault lineament on the northern slope of the Santa Monica Mountains.
Raje, S.↗
A boundary finding algorithm and its applications
An algorithm for locating gray level and/or texture edges in digitized pictures is presented. The algorithm is based on the concept of hypothesis testing. The digitized picture is first subdivided into subsets of picture elements, e.g., 2 x 2 arrays. The algorithm then compares the first- and second-order statistics of adjacent subsets; adjacent subsets having similar first- and/or second-order statistics are merged into blobs. By continuing this process, the entire picture is segmented into blobs such that the picture elements within each blob have similar characteristics. The boundaries between the blobs comprise the boundaries. The algorithm always generates closed boundaries. The algorithm was developed for multispectral imagery of the earth's surface. Application of this algorithm to various image processing techniques such as efficient coding, information extraction (terrain classification), and pattern recognition (feature selection) are included.
Gupta, J. N.↗
Ratio techniques for geochemical remote sensing
The present work discusses spectral ratio methods for extracting information on the composition of minerals and rocks from 0.4-14-micron multispectral scanner data. Ratio images and automatic recognition maps based on spectral ratios have the advantages of covering nearly all wavelength regions of important geochemical information, being relatively insensitive to atmospheric and solar illumination variations, and having definable limits of accuracy concerning the capability of discriminating between important geochemical targets and background materials.
Vincent, R. K.↗
NASA plans for future earth resources missions
Development activities underway to improve LANDSAT sensors and observing systems are reported. Data cover high resolution imagery of surface temperatures for improving crop and other vegetation and soil classifications, and heat capacity mapping for recording surface temperatures at hours of maximum and minimum heating. Automatic identification and classification methods designed to extract information such as crop and forage acreages, amounts of water run-off, and types of land use directly from the satellite observations were also studied. A number of applications verification tests were conducted, particularly in the areas of crop and land use inventory and water run-off prediction, to demonstrate the direct transfer of space acquired information to end users.
Nordberg, W.↗
Satellite on-board processing for earth resources data
The feasibility was investigated of an on-board earth resources data processor launched during the 1980-1990 time frame. Projected user applications were studied to define the data formats and the information extraction algorithms that the processor must execute. Based on these constraints, and the constraints imposed by the available technology, on-board processor systems were designed and their feasibility evaluated. Conclusions and recommendations are given.
Bodenheimer, R. E.↗
Applications payloads
The future purposes to which the Space Shuttle will or can be put are examined. In addition to the use of the Space Shuttle as a launch/deployment system, the low-gravity environment of the Space Shuttle will be used to conduct important experiments in material processing and cloud microphysics studies. Other purposes include the development of pollution and hydrologic sensors, and of sets of earth-viewing instruments with which to cross correlate data and speed up information extraction. Much attention is given to the flight hardware.
Mathews, C. W.↗