Preprocessing

Digital Image processing of satellite images can be divided into:

 Pre-processing
Rectification and Restoration
Enhancement and Transformations
 Classification and Feature extraction

Preprocessing consists of:

Geometric correction: conversion of data to ground coordinates by

removal of distortions from sensor geometry

Radiometric Correction: removal of sensor or atmospheric 'noise',

to more accurately represent ground conditions:
to correct data loss, remove haze, enable mosaicking and comparison
Radiometric and geometric correction
Corrected image scene orientation ‘map’ Uncorrected data ‘path’
 Why is rectification needed
Raw remote sensing data contain distortions preventing overlay with map layers,
comparison between image scenes, and with no geographic coordinates

 To provide georeferencing

 To compare/overlay multiple images

 To merge with map layers

 To mosaic images

e.g. google maps / google earth

Path and rows
 Image distortions
In air photos, errors include:
topographic and radial displacement;

airplane tip, tilt and swing (roll, pitch and yaw).

These are less in satellite data due to altitude and stability.

The main source of geometric error in satellite data is satellite path orientation (non-polar)
 Sources of geometric error (main ones in bold)

a. Systematic distortions

Scan skew: ground swath is not normal to the polar axis – along with
the forward motion of the platform during mirror sweep

Mirror-scan Velocity and panoramic distortion: along-scan distortion (pixels at edge are slightly larger). This would be
greater for off-nadir sensors.

Earth rotation: earth rotates during scanning (offset of rows).... (122 pixels per Landsat scene)

b. Non-systematic distortions

Topography: requires a DEM, otherwise ~ 6 pixel offset in mountains

Altitude and attitude variations in satellite: these are minor
 Geocorrection

Rectification – assigning coordinates to (~6) known locations - GCPs

GCP = Ground Control Point

Resampling - resetting the pixels (rows and columns) to match the GCPs
 Rectification
Data pixels must be related to ground locations, e.g. in UTM coordinates

Two main methods:

- Image to image (to a geocorrected image)

.... to an uncorrected image would be 'registration' not rectification

-Image to vectors (to a digital file)....

(black arrows point to known locations

- coordinates from vectors or images)

Ortho-rectification = this process (since ~2000) enables the use of a DEM to

also take into account the topography
 New DN values are
Resampling methods assigned in 3 ways

a.Nearest Neighbour
Pixel in new grid gets
the value of closest
pixel from old grid –
retains original DNs

b. Bilinear Interpolation
New pixel gets a value
from the weighted
average of 4 (2 x 2)
nearest pixels;
smoother but ‘synthetic’

c. Cubic Convolution
(smoothest)
New pixel DNs are
computed from
weighting 16 (4 x 4)
surrounding DNs

http://www.geo-informatie.nl/courses/grs20306/course/Schedule/Geometric-correction-RS-new.pdf
 Resampling

http://www.geo-informatie.nl/courses/grs20306/course/Schedule/Geometric-correction-RS-new.pdf

Good rectification is required for image registration – no ‘movement between images

Central Coast Mountains, Landsat September 2003
 100 m retreat
Over 3 years

Central Coast Mountains, Landsat August 2006

Radiometric correction
 Radiometric correction
Radiometric correction is used to modify DN values to account for noise,
i.e. contributions to the DN that are a result of…

a. the intervening atmosphere

b. the sun-sensor geometry
c. the sensor itself

We may need to correct for the following reasons:

a. Variations within an image (speckle or striping)
b. between adjacent or overlapping images (for mosaicing)
c. between bands (for some multispectral techniques)
d. between image dates (temporal data) and sensors
 Atmospheric Interference - haze
Lower wavelengths are subject to haze, which falsely increases the DN value.
The simplest method is known as dark object subtraction which assumes there is a
pixel with a DN of 0 (if there were no haze), e.g. deep water in near infra-red. An
integer value is subtracted from all DNs so that this pixel becomes 0.

http://geology.wlu.edu/harbor/geol260/lecture_notes/Notes_rs_haze.html
 Atmospheric Interference: clouds
clouds affect all visible and IR bands, hiding features twice: once with the
cloud, once with its shadow. We CANNOT eliminate clouds, although we
might be able to assemble cloud-free parts of several overlapping scenes (if
illumination is similar), and correct for cloud shadows (advanced).

[Only in the microwave,

can energy penetrate
through clouds].
Advanced slide: Reflectance to Radiance Conversion

DN reflectance values can be converted to absolute radiance values.

This is useful when comparing the actual reflectance from different

sensors e.g. TM and SPOT, or TM versus ETM (Landsat 5 versus 7)

DN = aL + b where a= gain and b =n offset

The radiance value (L) can be calculated as: L = [Lmax -

Lmin]*DN/255 + Lmin

where Lmax and Lmin are known from the sensor calibration.

This will create 32 bit (decimal) values.

 Sensor Failure & Calibration
Sensor problems show as striping or missing lines of data:
Missing data due to sensor failure results in a line of DN values -
every 16th line for TM data .. As there are 16 sensors for each
band, scanning 16 lines at a time (or 6th line for MSS).

MSS 6 line banding – raw scan

TM data – 16 line banding

Sample DNs – shaded DNs are higher

MSS 6 line banding - georectified
 Landsat ETM+ scan line corrector (SLC) – failed May 31 2003
http://landsat.usgs.gov/products_slc_off_data_information.php

SLC compensates for forward

motion of the scanner during scan
 Canadian Arctic mosaic

See also google maps, lrdw.ca/imap etc..

 Northern Land Cover of

Canada – Circa 2000

http://ccrs.nrcan.gc.ca/optical/landcover2000_e.php
 More on Principal Components Analysis ….

100% Marilyn -> 100% Margaret

 PCA components

1. Brightness – overall average reflectance

2.

3.