Documente Academic
Documente Profesional
Documente Cultură
File Tab
Contents
Viewer
File Tab: Through this button you can access common commands related to opening and saving files, as
well as session configuration options.
Quick Access Toolbar: Icons for a few of the most common commands.
Ribbon: The ribbon is organized into seven major tabs, and is the primary interface for accessing
IMAGINE commands.
Contents: Shows the list of open view screens and the data currently being displayed.
Viewer: The window for viewing files. It is possible to open multiple viewer files in a single IMAGINE
session.
Take note of the Files of type bar at the bottom of the window. Right now that bar is set to IMAGINE
Image (*.img). This is IMAGINEs native file format, and it will be the most common format used in
exercises for this course. However, there are dozens if not hundreds of formats used in satellite image
analysis. Click on the Files of type bar for a quick sampling of the various data formats (including raster
and vector formats) that IMAGINE can read. This is only a small subset of the many formats you might
encounter when downloading your own data for research. Most formats that dont appear in the Open
File dialog can be accessed using IMAGINE import tools.
Be sure to return the Files of type selection to IMAGINE Image (*.img), and then navigate to
C:/exercise/Exercise1. Open the file P15R3320100123.img. If IMAGINE asks whether you want to
create pyramid layers for this file, answer Yes. Pyramid layers are a tool to accelerate graphical
processing.
Once you have opened your image, click on the Fit to Frame icon in the Ribbon. If you dont see this
icon, check to make sure that the Home tab of the Ribbon is highlighted.
Q1: Where in the world are you?
Navigate your way around the image. You can use the Extent tools under the Home tab on the Ribbon
to pan and zoom around. While youre doing this, try to identify the following features:
The Washington Monument
Baltimore Inner Harbor
BWI and Dulles airports
3
Number of Layers: your image has 7 layers, as is standard for a Landsat TM image. These layers
correspond to the seven Landsat TM spectral bands: B1=0.45-0.52 m (blue), B2=0.52-0.60 m
(green), B3=0.63-0.69 m (red), B4=0.76-0.90 m (near infrared (NIR)), B5=1.55-1.75 m (midIR), B6=10.4-12.5 m (Thermal IR), B7=2.08-2.35 m (mid-IR)
Data type: this is Unsigned 8-bit integer data. This means that all data values will fall in the
range of 0-255 (28=256 possible values). 8-bit data is common for satellite images, but youll see
a number of other data types in this class.
Map and Projection Info: The native projection for Landsat TM images is Universal Transverse
Mercator (UTM). Your image is located in UTM Zone 18 North. Standard units for UTM
coordinates are meters: The Y coordinate is meters from the equator and the X coordinate is
meters from the Zone 18 reference meridian. This means that your pixel size is also given in
meters. 30 m is the nominal resolution of Landsat TM pixels. There are at least two caveats to
keep in mind about the 30 m figure: (1) it does not apply to the Thermal IR band, which has a
true resolution of 120 m, even if your image is distributed as 30 m grid cells, and (2) distortions
at the edge of the image mean that the true resolution can be somewhat lower (i.e., more
meters per pixel) than the reported 30 m estimate.
4
6. Thermal data
As described above, Landsat bands 1-4 contain visible and NIR data (sometimes collectively referred to
as VNIR), and bands 5 and 7 contain relatively short wavelength mid-IR data. As such, these bands
provide information on Earths reflection of solar radiation. Band 6, on the other hand, is in the Thermal
IR range, so it captures information on Earths emitted radiation. One of the most common applications
of thermal data is to derive estimates of radiometric temperature. This requires some processing of the
raw data, which is beyond the scope of this introductory exercise. We have performed this processing
for the Landsat scene that you are currently viewing. To open the temperature image:
Return the Ribbon to the Home tab. Click the Add Views icon and select Display Two Views.
A second window will appear in your viewer screen.
Open a new raster data layer. Navigate to C:/exercise/Exercise1 and highlight the file named
landsat_tr_P33R1520100123.img. When this file is highlighted, click on the Raster Options tab
in your open file dialog. Note that IMAGINE will, by default, load this file as a grayscale image.
This is appropriate, as you only have one band of data to display. Keep in mind that you always
6
Click OK to load the image into your new viewer, and click Fit to Frame.
Q9: What information does this image provide about the features you are viewing? What kinds of
features are dark, and why are they dark? What features are bright, and why are they bright?
Click on the Link Views icon in the Ribbon. You will see a box appear around your thermal image. This
box shows you the relationship between the area you are viewing in your thermal image and the area
displayed in the other viewer. This can be very helpful when looking at multiple data sources for a
common geographic area.
Next, select the Inquire tool from the left side of the Ribbon. A crosshairs will appear on both of your
viewers. Using the pointer tool, drag the crosshairs around the thermal image. Pixel values will appear
in the Inquire window.
Q10: What is the meaning of these values? What are the units?
There are a number of interesting features in this thermal image, but lets focus on one rather subtle
point. In your Inquire window, switch from Map coordinates to Lat/Lon. In your thermal image
viewer, drag the inquire crosshairs to 38 27 30 N, 76 26 30 W. Use the magnifying glass tools to
zoom in to this area. You might want to zoom your multispectral image to the area as well.
Q11: Do you notice anything unusual in the thermal image at this location? Describe the feature. Can
you explain it? [If youre unfamiliar with Maryland, you might take a moment to open Google Earth
from the desktop and zoom in to this location in order to answer this question]
Close your thermal image viewer.
7. Other Imagery
The National Agricultural Imagery Program
Some of the highest resolution imagery available is acquired by aerial photography rather than satellite.
The National Agricultural Imagery Program (NAIP) has collected multispectral imagery at 1.0 m
resolution for much of the United States.
Activate the Open Image dialog. Navigate to C:/exercise/Exercise1, and change the Files of
Type selector to TIFF, and choose the file named 32015853.tif.
On the Raster Options tab, make sure that the Clear Display box is unchecked.
Click OK to load the file, build pyramids if necessary, and then Fit to Frame.
7
In the Home tab of the Ribbon, click Add Views and select Create New 2D View.
Q12: Where in the world are you? Name some of the notable geographic features in this image
(mountains, rivers, water bodies). Google Earth can help, as can the World Atlases available in the
lab.
Q13: Can you guess why this image looks red? What kind of spectral data do you think is in MODIS
Band 2, which youve associated with the red gun?
Q14: What is the spatial resolution of this image? In what units? You can use the Metdata icon under
the Home tab of the Ribbon to find out.
A note on Q14: weve reprojected this image for ease of viewing, so the resolution you record is true for
the reprojected data, but it is not in the units of the native MODIS projection.
The Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection and Radiometer (ASTER)
ASTER is another widely used satellite sensor. It provides detailed spectral data in the VNIR, Mid-IR and
Thermal portions of the electromagnetic spectrum at a resolution of 15-90m, depending on wavelength.
Q15: Where are you? Name some significant features in the image.
Q16: What is the image resolution and projection?
Q17: For Landsat TM, a 321-RGB was a true color image. Is this the case for ASTER? What kind of
spectral combination do you think that youre looking at? What is its Landsat equivalent?
A note on the IMAGINE help menu: The Help tab on the IMAGINE Ribbon will guide you to a number of
help resources. These can be very handy, but they can also be a bit confusing: the IMAGINE interface
recently went through a total makeover, so some of the Help resources refer to menus and buttons that
no longer exist. The online help resource, accessed from a button at the bottom of the File Tab is
(sometimes) more current.
9