Image Restoration of Multi-date Landsat TM Imagery

PI: Dr. Lloyd P. Queen, Department of Forestry, University of Montana

Satellite data such as provided by the Landsat Thematic mapper offer real potential for monitoring synoptic conditions of the earth's surface. Increasingly, these data are being applied to biophysical assessments of resource condition in a multitemporal framework. The primary drawback to these types of applications is the error structure inherent in all multidate images. Types and sources of errors include varying viewing and earth/sun geometries, sensor calibration, and atmospheric effects such as attenuation, re-radiation, and scattering. The proposed research will undertake a two-step correction exercise designed to increase the signal-to-noise ratio of a two-date Landsat TM image pair. Both spatial and radiometric restoration techniques will be applied to the image pair. A series of descriptive statistics will then be used to quantify the sources and magnitudes of both internal and external error types. Kauth-Thomas vegetation indices will also be examined in both the raw input and transformed output domains to examine the propagation of errors into the major scene elements of soil, vegetation, and atmospheric effects. Outcomes from the work will be used as laboratory exercises in a new remote sensing curriculum being developed by the PI at the School of Forestry at the University of Montana. The proposed work complements a separate but related research project proposed for the same study site to the McIntire-Stennis program, and a currently funded NASA project that links remote sensing data distribution tasks to user audiences in the western U.S.

Contact Information

Mail: Dr. Lloyd P. Queen
School of Forestry
University of Montana
Missoula, MT 59812
E-mail: lpqueen@ntsg.umt.edu
Phone: (406) 243-2709
FAX: (406) 243-6656


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