Processing and Classification of Remotely Sensed Data; Pattern Recognition;


This part of the Introduction, which has centered on principles and theory underlying the practice of remote sensing, closes with several guidelines on how data are processed into a variety of images that can be classified. This page is a preview of a more extended treatment in Section 1. The ability to extract information from the data and interpret this will depend not only on the capabilities of the sensors used but on how those data are then handled to convert the raw values into image displays that improve the products for analysis and applications. The key lies in the methods of image processing. The methods rely on obtaining good approximations of the aforementioned spectral response curves and tying this into the spatial context of objects and classes making up the scene.

In the sets of spectral curves shown below (made on site using a portable field spectrometer), it is clear that the spectral response for those vegetation types is distinct from common inorganic
materials. The reflectance for vegetation rises abruptly at about 0.7 µm, followed by a gradual drop at about 1.1 µm. The first (left or top) spectral signatures indicate a gradual rise in reflectance with increasing wavelengths for those particular common manmade materials on the ground. Concrete, being light-colored and bright, has a notably higher average than dark asphalt. The other materials fall in between. The shingles are probably bluish, in color as suggested by a rise in reflectance from about 0.4 to 0.5 µm and a flat response in the remainder of the visible (0.4 - 0.7 µm) light region. The second curves (on the right or bottom) indicate most vegetation types are very similar in response between 0.3 - 0.5 µm; show moderate variations in the 0.5 - 0.6 µm interval; and display maximum variability (hence optimum discrimination) in the 0.7 - 0.9 µm range.




Spectral Curve (A) Diagram: Non-vegetated Land Areas.




Spectral Curve (B): Vegetated Land Areas



As we shall see, most sensors on spacecraft cannot measure the spectral range(s) they monitor fast enough to produce a continuous spectral curve. Instead, they divide the spectral curves into intervals or bands - each consists of the continuous spectral curve, which varies in intensity (ordinate of the diagram plots) into a single value, the averaged intensity values over the spectral range present in the interval.


Making spectral measurements depends on the interactions between the incident radiation and the atomic and molecular structures of the material. These interactions lead to a reflected signal, which changes some as it returns through the atmosphere. Finally, the measurement depends on the nature of the detector system's response in the sensor. After testing the response of many materials, remote sensing experts can use spectral measurements to describe an object by its composition. In practice, we describe objects and features on Earth's surface more as classes than as materials per se. Consider, for instance, the material concrete. We us it in roadways, parking lots, swimming pools, buildings, and other structural units, each of which might be treated as a separate class. We can subdivide vegetation in a variety of ways: trees, crops, grasslands, lake bloom algae, etc. Finer subdivisions are permissible, by classifying trees as deciduous or
evergreen, or deciduous trees into oak, maple, hickory, poplar, etc.

Two additional properties help to distinguish these various classes, some of which have the same materials; namely, shape (geometric patterns) and use or context (sometimes including geographical locations). Thus, we may assign a feature composed of concrete to the classes 'streets' and 'parking lots,' depending on whether its shape is long and narrow or more square or

rectangular. Two features with nearly identical spectral signatures for vegetation, we may assign to the classes 'forest' and 'crops' depending on whether the area in the images has irregular or straight (often rectangular) boundaries.

The task of any remote sensing system is simply to detect radiation signals, determine their spectral character, derive appropriate signatures, and interrelate the spatial positions of the classes they represent. This ultimately leads to some type of interpretable display product, be it an image, a map, or a numerical data set, that mirrors the reality of the surface (or some atmospheric property[ies]) in terms of the nature and distribution of the features present in the field of view.


The determination of these classes requires that either hard copy, i.e., images, or numerical data
sets be available and capable of visual or automated analysis. This is the function of image processing techniques, a subject that will be treated in considerable detail in Section 1 in which a single scene is treated by various commonly used methods of display, enhancement, classification, and interpretation. On this page we will simply describe several of the principal operations that can be performed to show and improve an image. It should be worth your while to get a quick overview of image processing by accessing this good review on the Internet, at the
Canadian Soonet site.

Now to synopsize some of the basics described in that site and re-enforced in Section 1.

The starting point is to point out that radiances (from the ground and intervening atmosphere) measured by the sensors (from hand held digital cameras to distant orbiting satellites) vary in intensity. Thus reflected light at some wavelength, or span of wavelengths (spectral region), can range from very low values (dark) because few photons are received to very light (high reflectances
representing much more photons). Each level of radiance can be assigned a quantitative value (commonly as a fraction of 1 or as a percentage of the total radiance that can be handled by the sensor's range. The values are restated as digital numbers (DNs) that consist of equal increments over a range (commonly from 0 to 255; from minimum to maximum measured radiance). A DN is assigned to some level of "gray" (from all black to all white, and shades of gray in between). When the pixel array acquired by the sensor is processed to show each pixel in its proper relative position and then the DN for the pixel is given a gray tone, a standard black and white image
results.


The simplest manipulation of these DNs is to increase or decrease the range of DNs present and assign this new range the gray levels available within the range limit. This is called contrast stretching. We show several examples here, using a Landsat subscene from the area around Harrisburg, PA that will be examined in detail in the Exam that closes Section 1.



See below for identification of each depiction.


The upper left panel is a "raw" (unstretched) rendition of Landsat MSS band 5. A linear stretch appears in the upper right and a non-linear (departure from a straight line plot of increasing DN values) in the lower left. A special stretch known as Piecewise Linear is shown in the lower right.


Another essential ingredient in most remote sensing images is color. While variations in black and white imagery can be very informative, and were the norm in the earlier aerial photographs, the number of different gray tones that the eye can separate is limited to about 20-30 steps (out of a maximum of ~200) on a contrast scale. On the other hand, the eye can distinguish 20,000 or more color tints, so we can discern small but often important variations within the target materials or classes can be discerned. Liberal use of color in the illustrations found throughout the tutorial takes advantage of this capability; unlike most textbooks, in which color is restricted owing to costs. For a comprehensive review of how the human eye functions to perceive gray and color levels, consult Chapter 2 in Drury, S.A., Image Interpretation in Geology, 1987, Allen & Unwin.


Any three bands (each covering a spectral range or interval) from a multispectral set, either unstretched or stretched, can be combined using optical display devices, photographic methods, or computer-generated imagery to produce a color composite (simple color version in natural [same as reality] colors, or quasi-natural, or false color). Here is the Harrisburg scene in conventional false color (vegetation will appear red because the band used displays vegetation in light [bright] tones):



False color Landsat subscene around Harrisburg, PA.

New kinds of images can be produced by making special data sets using computer processing programs. For example, one can divide the DNs of one band by those of another at each corresponding pixel site. This produces a band ratio image. Shown here is Landsat MSS bsnd 7 divided by band 4, giving a new set of numbers that cluster around 1; these numbers are then expanded by a stretching program and assigned gray levels. In this scene, growing vegetation is shown in nearly white tones.


7/4 ratio image of the Harrisburg subscene.

Data from the several bands that are set up from spectral data in the visible and Near-IR tend to
be varyingly correlated for some classes. This correlation can be minimized by a reprocessing technique known as Principal Components Analysis. New PCA bands are produced, each containing some information not found in the others. This image shows the first 4 components of a
PCA product for Harrisburg; the upper left (Component 1) contains much more decorrelated information than the last image at the lower right (Component 4).


Principal Component images 1 through 4 for the Harrisburg subscene.
New color images can be made from sets of three band ratios or three Principal Components. The color patterns will be different from natural or false color versions. Interpretation can be conducted either by visual means, using the viewer's experience, and/or aided by automated interpretation programs, such as the many available in computer-based Pattern Recognition (see below on this page).


A chief use of remote sensing data is in classifying the myriad of features in a scene (usually presented as an image) into meaningful categories or classes. The image then becomes a thematic map (the theme is selectable, e.g., land use; geology; vegetation types; rainfall). In Section 1 of the Tutorial we explain how to interpret an image using an aerial or space image to derive a thematic map. This is done by creating an unsupervised classification when features
are separated solely on their spectral properties and a supervised classification when we use some prior or acquired knowledge of the classes in a scene in setting up training sites to estimate and identify the spectral characteristics of each class. A supervised classification of the Harrisburg subscene shows the distribution of the named (identified) classes, as these were established by the investigator who knew their nature, and found represetatives of each class at one or more training sites:


Supervised classification of the Harrisburg subscene.

We mention another topic that is integral to effective interpretation and classification. This is often cited as reference or ancillary data but is more commonly known as ground truth. Under this heading are various categories: maps and databases, test sites, field and laboratory measurements, and most importantly actual onsite visits to the areas being studied by remote sensing. This last has two main facets: 1) to identify what is there in terms of classes or materials so as to set up training sites for classification, and 2) to revisit parts of a classified image area to verify the accuracy of identification in places not visited.

Another important topic -

Pattern Recognition (PR)- will be looked at briefly on this page but will not (at this time) be further covered in the Tutorial (it is out of the areas of expertise of the writer [NMS] who is negotiating with Goddard's Code 935 to have them prepare a Section or Subsection overviewing the subject). Pattern Recognition is closely related (allied) to Remote Sensing and warrants treatment in more detail. The writer searched more than 800 entries on the Internet but could not find a comprehensive or even adequate summary of the basic principles. Two sites that offer some insight are 1) Delft (Holland) group, which provides a synoptic paragraph on the field, and 2)
McGill University, which contains an impressive list of the scope of topics one should be familiar with to understand and practically use Pattern Recognition methodologies. Elsewhere on the Net this very general definition of PR was found:


Techniques for classifying a set of objects into a number of distinct classes by considering similarities of objects belonging to the same class and the dissimilarities of objects belonging to different classes

Pattern Recognition (sometimes referred alternately as "Machine Learning" or "Data Mining") uses spectral, spatial, contextual, or acoustic inputs to extract specific information from visual or sonic data sets. You are probably most familiar with the Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technique that reads a pattern of straight lines of different thicknesses called the bar code:




Example of a bar code pattern.


An optical scanner reads the set of lines and searches a data base for this exact pattern. A computer program compares patterns, locates this one, and ties it into a database that contain information relevant to this specific pattern (in a grocery store, for example, this would be the current price of the product on which the bar code has been included on, say, the package).



Other examples encountered in today's technological environment include 1) security control relying on identification of an individual by recognizing a finger or hand print, or by matching a scan of the eye to a database that includes only those previously scanned and added to the base; 2) voice recognition used to perform tasks on an automated telephone call routing (alternative: push
telephone button number to reach a department or service); 3) sophisticated military techniques that allow targets to be sought out and recognized by an onboard processor on a missile or "smart bomb"; 4) handwriting analysis and cryptography; 5) a feature recognition program that facilitates identification of fossils in rocks by analyzing shape and size and comparing to a data bank containing a collection of fossil images of known geometric parameters; 6) classifying features, objects, and distribution patterns in a photo or equivalent image, as discussed above.

Pattern Recognition is a major application field for various aspects of Artificial Intelligence and Expert Systems, Neural Networks, and Information Processing/Signal Processing (all outside the scope of coverage in this Tutorial) as well as statistical programs for decision-making (e.g., Bayesian Decision Theory). It has a definite place in remote sensing, particularly because of its effectiveness in geospatial analysis; however, it is ignored (insofar as the term Pattern Recognition per seis concerned) in most textbooks on Remote Sensing. The mutual bond between RS and PR is the common objective of Classification. Pattern Recognition also plays an important role in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) (Section 15).


All these processing and classifying activities are done to lead to some sorts of end results or "bottom lines". The purpose is to gain new information, derive applications, and make action decisions. For example, a Geographic Information System program will utilize a variety of data that may be gathered and processed simply to answer a question like: "Where is the best place in a region of interest to locate (site) a new electric power plant?" Both machine (usually computers) and humans are customarily involved in seeking the answer.

It is almost self-evident that the primary interpreter(s) will be one person or a group of humans. These must have a suitable knowledge base and adequate experience in evaluating data, solving problems, and making decisions. Where remote sensing and pattern recognition are among the "tools" used in the process, the interpreter must also be familiar with the principles and procedures underlying these technologies and some solid expertise in selecting the right data inputs, processing the data, and deriving understandable outputs in order to reach satisfactory interpretations and consequent decisions. But, with the computer age it has also become possible to have software and display programs that conduct some - perhaps the majority - of the interpretations. Yet these automated end results must ultimately be evaluated by qualified people. As the field of Artificial Intelligence develops and decision rules become more sophisticated, a greater proportion of the interpretation and evaluation can be carried out by the computer programs chosen to yield the desired information. But at some stage the human mind must interact directly.
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