Post on 20-Jan-2016
An Overview of Satellite Imagery
ARSET - AQ
Applied Remote SEnsing Training – Air Quality
A project of NASA Applied Sciences
Originally presented as part of:NASA ARSET- AQ On-line Short Course
Week 3 PresentationMay 23, 2012
Session 3 – Outline
1. What are true and false color images?2.What can we learn from images?3. A tour of useful image archives.4. Assignment #3
RGB Images
Red, Green and Bluecorrespond to the three color receptorsin the human eye.
These 3 colors are alsothe basis for all colordisplay technologiesfrom LCD sub-pixelsto television color “guns”.
Remote Sensing of Radiation
Earth-observing satellite remote sensing instruments typically make observations at many discrete wavelengths or wavelength bands.
36 wavelength bands covering the wavelength range 405 nm (blue) to 14.385 μm (infrared)
Terra
MODIS
MODIS Reflected Solar Bands
250 M
500 M
MODIS Thermal Bands
RGB Images and Remote Sensing Instruments
“True Color Image”To simulate what the human eye seeswe load the red, greenand blue satellite bandsinto the correspondingdisplay channels.
We can create an image by selecting any three bands and load them into the “Red”“Green” and “Blue” displaychannels.
R = 0.66 µmG = 0.55 µmB = 0.47 µm
0 = 36°
True Color Image
A MODIS “True Color Image”will use MODIS visible wavelength bands1-4-3
True Color Image from VIIRS
What can we learn from true color imagery?
(Possible) Identification of land, ocean and atmosphere features
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What can we learn from true color imagery?
(Possible) Identification of land, ocean and atmosphere features
Dust over the Sahara
17 February 2008, Aqua Images courtesy of Yuval Ben-Ami
Plume’s area ~55,600 km2 = ~4.5 × area of Maryland
18 February 2008, Aqua
19 February 2008, Aqua
Geographic extent and transport of aerosols
Sahara dust Wildfire smoke
Urban-IndustrialPollution? Smoke from
Alaska wildfires
Feature Identification is more reliable when a clear source can be seen in the image.
ImagescourtesyofPhil Russell
The color of dust or smoke can tell us something about chemical properties.
Doing More with Satellite Imagery
In visible imagery water is dark because it absorbs most of the energy.
Clouds are white because most of the incoming energy is reflected
Pollution is hazy depending upon its absorptive properties
If we understand the physics of how particular wavelengths interact withobjects in the world we can create images to emphasize what we want to see
R = 1.6 µmG = 1.2 µmB = 2.1 µm
False Color Images
“False Color Image”To enhance particularfeatures we want to seein an image we loadbands into thered, green and bluedisplay channelswhich do not correspondto the visible red, green,and blue wavelengths.
Volcanic Ash
• R:0.645 um, G : 0.858um, B : 0.469 um (All channels equalized)
Volcanic Ash
• R:0.645 um, G : 0.858um, B : 11.03 um (All channels equalized, B channel also flipped)
Using False Color Images toIdentify aerosol types
Dust
Smoke
from Y. Kaufman
Both dust andsmoke interactwith the shorterwavelengthsreflecting lightback to the sensor.
Spectral optical properties of aerosol
Dust
Smoke
from Y. Kaufman
Dust particles interact with thelonger infraredwavelengthsbut not the smaller smoke particles which remain invisible.
Spectral optical properties of aerosol
Dust
Smoke
from Y. Kaufman
The distinctionof aerosol typesis madepossible by:
1.The wide spectral range of the MODIS sensor.
2.Understanding how light interacts with the particles, gases and surfaces it interacts with.
Visible (RGB=0.66m, 0.55m, 0.46m) SWIR (RGB=1.64m, 1.24m, 2.13m)
Spectral Images vs Color Maps
True Color Image False Color Image
AFRI=(0.86-2.1/2)/(0.86-2.1/2)NDVI=(0.86-0.66)/(0.86-0.66)
Color MapsValues are assigned colors according to the scale below each image.
Spectral information is used to detect chlorophyll. High values indicate more vegetation.
Landsat True and False Color Animation
http://landsat.gsfc.nasa.gov/education/resources/L7_sanfran_onionskin.mov
MODIS Rapid Response Sitehttp://earthdata.nasa.gov/data/near-real-time-data/rapid-response
MODIS-Atmos Sitehttp://modis-atmos.gsfc.nasa.gov/IMAGES/index.html
NASA’s Visible Earthhttp://visibleearth.nasa.gov
NASA’s Earth Observatoryhttp://earthobservatory.nasa.gov
NASA Earth Observations (NEO) http://neo.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov
MODIS Todayhttp://ge.ssec.wisc.edu/modis-today/
A Brief Tour of Some Useful Image Archives
MODIS Rapid Response Sitehttp://lance.nasa.gov/imagery/rapid-response
• MODIS only image archive which is easy to search.
• Quick posting of new MODIS images.
• Links to data used to generate MODIS images.
• Collections of images by region and by association with ground based instruments
NASA’s Visible Earthhttp://visibleearth.nasa.gov
• A tremendous archive of images and animations from and about many sensors.
• Search results can be too large to browse through unless many conditions are added to the search.
NASA’s Earth Observatoryhttp://earthobservatory.nasa.gov
• Site designed for outreach and education.
• Images and stories of Earth Science phenomena are linked.
• Subscriptions to newsletters to keep track of recent stories and Natural Hazards.
NASA Earth Observations (NEO)http://neo.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov
• Site designed for outreach and education.
• Can explore several remote sensing products with an easy to use interface.
• The ability to quickly produce high quality graphic images from the site.
• The ability to quickly create products that can be mapped onto Google Earth.
The site includes a searchablearchive of “Image of the Day”
Site #2NASA’s Earth Observatory
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/
NASA’s Earth Observatory is intended to be an educational site for the general public with an interest in Earth Science.
• Feature articles explaining Earth Science issues andphenomena
•The site includes a searchablearchive of “Image of the Day”
A simple search using “fires” “california”returns 63 pages of results.
You can use the drop down menu to choose a section of the site to search to reduce the number of results.
Site sections include:• Image of the day• Features• Natural Hazards• News• Blogs
You can browse the archive by broad topic categories
You can browse within a topic by subtopic
or by date.
Natural Hazards Section
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Subscribe/
One very nice feature of this siteis the option to subscribe to any ofseveral e-mail news letters.
For example, if you wanted to keeptrack of the most recent news on volcanic eruptions, you would subscribe to the NaturalHazards Daily
Sample Update e-mail
from the Natural Hazard
mailing list
GLIDER Software
• GLIDER is a comprehensive tool for image analysis, classification and data mining.
• Explore the various aspects of GLIDER • More importantly, it’s free!• http://miningsolutions.itsc.uah.edu/glider/
Imagery Links
MODIS Rapid Response Sitehttp://earthdata.nasa.gov/data/near-real-time-data/rapid-response
NASA’s Visible Earthhttp://visibleearth.nasa.gov
NASA’s Earth Observatoryhttp://earthobservatory.nasa.gov
NASA Earth Observations (NEO)http://neo.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov
MODIS- Atmos (MODIS Atmosphere Product Reference Site)http://modis-atmos.gsfc.nasa.gov/IMAGES/index.html
•Tutorial on constructing RBG images.http://www.zamg.ac.at/eumetrain/CAL_Modules/CALRGB/rgb1_2.htm
•GLIDER Toolhttp://www.ssec.wisc.edu/hydra/