ALBERT

Description: Airborne Imaging Spectrometer data from Mono Lake, California, were studied in order to establish spectral radiance of test areas under solar illumination. The objective is to provide a method of atmospheric correction for major absorbers from the spectrometer data themselves. Crucial to the analysis is radiometric calibration of the instrument. Good agreement is found between calculated and measured radiances for uniform surface targets (beaches), but simulations of atmospheric properties with LOWTRAN lead to unreasonably low values of atmospheric precipitable water. Absorptions from carbon dioxide are not detected in the AIS data, but are strongly present in the LOWTRAN model. The apparent low contrast of all atmospheric absorption bands leads to a study of contamination from overlapping spectral orders in the AIS data. The suspected contamination is shown unambiguously to be present beyond approximately 1500 nm and consists of an extra radiance term including atmospheric bands from the delta/2 wavelength interval. A rigorous removal of the unwanted spectral contamination does not seem possible for any data taken in the rock mode. Rough estimates for tree-mode observations might be pieced together is a suitable after-the-fact radiometric claibration of the instrument can be formulated.

Description: The Space Shuttle Challenger was observed spectroscopically in two passes over Maui during the Spacelab 2 mission. Through most of one of the passes strong bands centered at 1.52 and 1.69 microns, tentatively identified as OH bands, were detected. The average luminosity of the Shuttle in the 1.45 to 1.75 micron range was roughly equal to that of a star of magnitude +5.5. The luminosity was much lower during part of the pass. Spectra from 0.65 to 2.4 microns were obtained during the second pass. These showed that most of the nonthermal emission is in the 1.2 to 2.2 micron range as would be expected for vibrationally excited OH.

Description: Airborne Imaging Spectrometer (AIS) data were collected 30 August 1985 from a desert shrub community in central Oregon. Spectra from artificial targets placed on the test site and from bare soil, big sagebrush (Artemesia tridentata wyomingensis), silver sagebrush (Artemesia cana bolander), and exposed volcanic rocks were studied. Spectral data from grating position 3 (tree mode) were selected from 25 ground positions for analysis by Principal Factor Analysis (PFA). In this grating position, as many as six factors were identified as significant in contributing to spectral structure. Channels 74 through 84 (tree mode) best characterized between-class differences. Other channels were identified as nondiscriminating and as associated with such errors as excessive atmospheric absorption and grating positin changes. The test site was relatively simple with the two species (A. tridentata and A. cana) representing nearly 95% of biomass and with only two mineral backgrounds, a montmorillonitic soil and volcanic rocks. If, as in this study, six factors of spectral structure can be extracted from a single grating position from data acquired over a simple vegetation community, then AIS data must be considered rich in information-gathering potential.

Description: Airborne Imaging Spectrometer (AIS) data were acquired over an area of freshwater wetlands in Central California on September 23, 1985. Plant samples were subsequently collected along the flight line with the goal of relating plant tissue chemistry to spectral reflectance in the near-infrared region. It was determined that a consistent relationship existed between spectral response and plant tissue chemistry. This was especially evident in the 1500 to 1700 nm region.

Description: Airborne Imaging Spectrometer (AIS) data were acquired in 1985 over the Bonanza Creek Experimental Forest, Alaska for the analysis of canopy characteristics including biochemistry. Concurrent with AIS overflights, foliage from fifteen coniferous and deciduous forest stands were analyzed for a variety of biochemical constituents including nitrogen, lignin, protein, and chlorophyll. Preliminary analysis of AIS spectra indicates that the wavelength region between 1450 to 1800 namometers (nm) displays distinct differences in spectral response for some of the forest stands. A flat field subtraction (forest stand spectra - flat field spectra) of the AIS spectra assisted in the interpretation of features of the spectra that are related to biology.

Description: Airborne Imaging Spectrometer (AIS) data were collected over the fossil hot spring deposit at Ivanhoe, Nevada in order to determine the surface distribution of NH4-bearing minerals. Laboratory studies show that NH4-bearing minerals have characteristic absorption features in the near-infrared (NIR). Ammonium-bearing feldspars and alunites were observed at the surface of Ivanhoe using a hand-held radiometer. However, first look analysis of the AIS images showed that the line was about 500 m east of its intended mark, and the vegetation cover was sufficiently dense to inhibit preliminary attempts at making relative reflectance images for detection of ammonium minerals.

Description: The Airborne Imaging Spectrometer (AIS) was flown over granitic, volcanic, and calc-silicate terrain around the Mary Kathleen Uranium Mine in Queensland, in a test of its mineralocial mapping capabilities. An analysis strategy and restoration and enhancement techniques were developed to process the 128 band AIS data. A preliminary analysis of one of three AIS flight lines shows that the data contains considerable spectral variation but that it is also contaminated by second-order leakage of radiation from the near-infrared region. This makes the recognition of expected spectral absorption shapes very difficult. The effect appears worst in terrains containing considerable vegetation. Techniques that try to predict this supplementary radiation coupled with the log residual analytical technique show that expected mineral absorption spectra can be derived. The techniques suggest that with additional refinement correction procedures, the Australian AIS data may be revised. Application of the log residual analysis method has proved very successful on the cuprite, Nevada data set, and for highlighting the alunite, linite, and SiOH mineralogy.

Description: The Singatse Range is composed of a series of 53 types of volcanic, plutonic, metamorphic, and sedimentary rocks. In addition the Jurassic plutonic rocks are also of economic interest for their copper mineralization which is contained in a porphyry dike swarm. The 1984 and 1985 flight results from the Airborne Imaging Spectrometer (AIS) instrument flown in the NASA/JPL C-130 aircraft are contrasted and compared. The 1984 data are less noisy than the 1985, in which many sets of vertical stripings from bad detectors can be seen. Significantly however, enough of the hydrothermal alteration patterns can be seen in each line at the mutual crossing points that one can say that the specific targets were detected in both year's flights. The spectra of both years are corrupted by the second-order effect from the grating, but 0-H bond absorption at essentially correct wavelengths for sericite and/or kaolinite can be seen.

Description: The surface mineralogy in and around Moses Rock diatreme, a kimberlite-bearing dike in SW Utah, was examined using internally calibrated Airborne Imaging Spectrometer (AIS) data. Distinct near-infrared absorption characteristics of clays, gypsum, and serpentine (a key marker for kinberlite concentration) allowed the surface units containing these components to be identified spatially and the relative abundance of each component measured. Within the dike itself, channels and dispersed components of kimberlite and blocks of country rocks were accurately determined.

Description: Analysis of Airborne Imaging Spectrometer (AIS) data acquired in Australia has revealed a number of operational problems. Horizontal striping in AIS imagery and spectral distortions due to order overlap were investigated. Horizontal striping, caused by grating position errors can be removed with little or no effect on spectral details. Order overlap remains a problem that seriously compromises identification of subtle mineral absorption features within AIS spectra. A spectrometric model of the AIS was developed to assist in identifying spurious spectral features, and will be used in efforts to restore the spectral integrity of the data.

Description: Spectral characteristics of semi-arid shrub communities were examined using Airborne Imaging Spectrometer (AIS) data collected in the tree mode on 23 May 1985. Mesic sites with relatively high vegetation density and distinct zonation patterns exhibited greater spectral signature variations than sites with more xeric shrub communities. Spectral signature patterns were not directly related to vegetation density or physiognomy, although spatial maps derived from an 8-channel maximum likelihood classification were supported by photo-interpreted surface features. In AIS data, the principal detected effect of shrub vegetation on the alluvial fans is to lower reflectance across the spectrum. These results are similar to those reported during a period of minimal physiological activity in autumn, indicating that shadows cast by vegetation canopies are an important element of soil-vegetation interaction under conditions of relatively low canopy cover.

Description: Airborne Imaging Spectrometer (AIS) data were acquired for several vegetation types within the humid temperate eastern United States. The spectral region covered, 0.9 to 2.1 microns, was little used in vegetation studies. A preliminary analysis of spectral curves suggests that variations between vegetation spectra may be useful for discriminating plant communities. Calibration and normalization procedures must be refined to compensate for cloud cover, detector and other system noise, and possible second-order effects.

Description: Spectral reflectance properties of deciduous oak-hickory forests covering the eastern half of the Rolla Quadrangle were examined using Thematic Mapper (TM) data acquired in August and December, 1982 and Airborne Imaging Spectrometer (AIS) data acquired in August, 1985. For the TM data distinctly high relative reflectance values (greater than 0.3) in the near infrared (Band 4, 0.73 to 0.94 micrometers) correspond to regions characterized by xeric (dry) forests that overlie soils with low water retention capacities. These soils are derived primarily from rhyolites. More mesic forests characterized by lower TM band 4 relative reflectances are associated with soils of higher retention capacities derived predominately from non-cherty carbonates. The major factors affecting canopy reflectance appear to be the leaf area index (LAI) and leaf optical properties. The Suits canopy reflectance model predicts the relative reflectance values for the xeric canopies. The mesic canopy reflectance is less well matched and incorporation of canopy shadowing caused by the irregular nature of the mesic canopy may be necessary. Preliminary examination of high spectral resolution AIS data acquired in August of 1985 reveals no more information than found in the broad band TM data.

Description: Techniques using Munsell color transformations were developed for reducing 128 channels (or less) of Airborne Imaging Spectrometer (AIS) data to a single color-composite-image suitable for both visual interpretation and digital analysis. Using AIS data acquired in 1984 and 1985, limestone and dolomite roof pendants and sericite-illite and other clay minerals related to alteration were mapped in a quartz monzonite stock in the northern Grapevine Mountains of California and Nevada. Field studies and laboratory spectral measurements verify the mineralogical distributions mapped from the AIS data.

Description: Airborne Imaging Spectrometer (AIS) data, field and laboratory spectra and samples for X-ray diffraction analysis were collected in argillically altered Tertiary volcanic rocks in the Hot Creek Range, Nevada. From laboratory and field spectral measurements in the 2.0 to 2.4 micron range and using a spectroradiometer with a 4 nm sampling interval, the absorption band centers for kaolinite were loacted at 2.172 and 2.215 microns, for montmorillonite at 2.214 micron and for illite at 2.205. Based on these values and the criteria for resolution and separtion of spectral features, a spectral sampling interval of less than 4 nm is necessary to separate the clays. With an AIS spectral sampling interval of 9.3 nm, a spectral matching algorithm is more effective for separating kaolinite, montmorillonite, ad illite in Hot Creek Range than using the location of absorption minima alone.

Description: Airborne Imaging Spectrometer (AIS) data were collected over Virginia City, Nevada; an area of gold and silver mineralization with extensive surface exposures of altered volcanic rocks. The data were corrected for atmospheric effects by a flat-field method, and compared to library spectra of various alteration minerals using a spectral analysis program SPAM. Areas of strong clay alteration were identified on the AIS images that were mapped as kaolinitic, illitic, and sericitic alterations zones. Kaolinitic alteration is distinguishable in the 2.1 to 2.4 and 1.2 to 1.5 micrometer wavelength regions. Montmorillonite, illite, and sericite have absorption features similar to each other at 2.2 micrometer wavelength. Montnorillonite and illite also may be present in varying proportions within one Ground Instantaneous Field of View (GIFOV). In general AIS data is useful in identifying alteration zones that are associated with or lie above precious metal mineralization at Virginia City.

Description: Airborne Imaging Spectrometers (AIS) data collected in 1984 and 1985 showed pronounced striping in the vertical and horizontal directions. This striping reduced the signal to noise ratio so that features of the spectra of forest canopies were obscured or altered by noise. This noise was removed by application of a notch filter to the Fourier transform of the imagery in each waveband.

Description: Selective absorption of electromagnetic radiation by atmospheric gases and water vapor is an accepted fact in terrestrial remote sensing. Until recently, only a general knowledge of atmospheric effects was required for analysis of remote sensing data; however, with the advent of high spectral resolution imaging devices, detailed knowledge of atmospheric absorption bands has become increasingly important for accurate analysis. Detailed study of high spectral resolution aircraft data at the U.S. Geological Survey has disclosed narrow absorption features centered at approximately 2.17 and 2.20 micrometers not caused by surface mineralogy. Published atmospheric transmission spectra and atmospheric spectra derived using the LOWTRAN-5 computer model indicate that these absorption features are probably water vapor. Spectral modeling indicates that the effects of atmospheric absorption in this region are most pronounced in spectrally flat materials with only weak absorption bands. Without correction and detailed knowledge of the atmospheric effects, accurate mapping of surface mineralogy (particularly at low mineral concentrations) is not possible.

Description: The first field test of NASA's Global Positioning System (GPS) Geodetic Program took place in March of 1985. The principal objective of this test was the demonstration of the feasibility of the fiducial station approach to precise GPS-based geodesy and orbit determination. Other objectives included an assessment of the performance of the several GPS receiver types involved in these field tests and the testing of the GIPSY software for GPS data analysis. In this article, the GIPSY (GPS Inferred Positioning System) software system is described and baseline solutions are examined for consistency with independent measurements made using very long baseline interferometry.

Description: Imagery collected on July 11, 1981 from the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer aboard the NOAA-7 spacecraft was used in a four-channel (channels 1 to 4) classification study for forest, agriculture/grass, and urban categories. The class signatures composing these categories were compared using the transformed divergence algorithm. Separability in all instances was found to be dominated by emitted radiation more so by channel 3 (3.55 to 3.93 microns) than by channel 4 (10.5 to 11.3 microns). Laboratory spectra obtained for the 3.55 to 3.93-micron region showed that for leaves the transmission was virtually zero, and the reflectances on the leaves and soil investigated were about three percent. Thus, emitted radiation dominated reflected radiation as the mechanism responsible for class separability in this spectral region. The enhancement in the separability contributed by channel 3 over that of channel 4 resulted primarily from the temperature dependence of the Planck function, and to a lesser extent by the increased transmission within channel 3 relative to channel 4.

Description: A general theory based on the implicit mathematical determinacy, and a corresponding algorithm, are developed to derive topographic maps from radar images as photometric arrays. Starting from a control profile, the theory produces topography by an area integration of radar brightness, and the control profile is formed under the assumption that the terrain properties are locally cylindrical. The calibration curve for pixel brightness versus incidence-angle is also produced. In the operational algorithm, topography is produced as a set of independent line integrations down each of the parallel range lines of the image using the theory for control-profile formation. An adaptive technique was employed to process SEASAT images of sand dunes, and the present method is demonstrated with a Motorola image of Crazy Jug Point in the Grand Canyon.

Description: The use of remote sensing to discriminate, measure, and map forest damage is evaluated. TM spectal coverage, a helicopter-mounted radiometer, and ground-based surveys were utilized to examine the responses of the spruces and firs of Camels Hump Mountain, Vermont to stresses, such as pollution and trace metals. The basic spectral properties of vegetation are described. Forest damage at the site was estimated as 11.8-76.0 percent for the spruces and 19-43.8 percent for the balsam firs. Shifts in the spectra of the conifers in particular in the near IR region are analyzed, and variations in the mesophyll cell anatomy and pigment content of the spruces and firs are investigated. The relations between canopy moisture and damage is studied. The TM data are compared to aircraft data and found to be well correlated.

Description: Conventional enhancements for the color display of multispectral images are based on independent contrast modifications or 'stretches' of three input images. This approach is not effective if the image channels are highly correlated or if the image histograms are strongly bimodal or more complex. Any of several procedures that tend to 'stretch' color saturation while leaving hue unchanged may better utilize the full range of colors for the display of image information. Two conceptually different enhancements are discussed: the 'decorrelation stretch', based on principal-component (PC) analysis, and the 'stretch' of 'hue' - 'saturation' - intensity (HSI) transformed data. The PC transformation in scene-dependent, but the HSI transformation is invariant. Examples of images enhanced by conventional linear stretches, decorrelation stretch, and by stretches of HSI transformed data are compared. Schematic variation diagrams or two- and three-dimensional histograms are used to illustrate the 'decorrelation stretch' method and the effect of the different enhancements.

Description: The relation between the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and the herbaceous vegetation in Tamasane, Shakwe, and Masama in eastern Botswana is studied using 1983-1984 AVHRR data. The procedures for Landsat MSS interpolation of ground measurements and the data processing of the AVHRR data are described. The temporal sequence AVHRR global-area coverage (GAC) composite NDVI is examined. The AVHRR GAC composite NDVI and biomass and Landsat MSS interpolations of field measurements are analyzed and compared.

Description: Normalized difference vegetation index data obtained from polar-orbiting meteorological satellites were used to compare the growing or rainy seasons of 1984 and 1985 for the Sahelian zone of Africa. A substantial difference was found between these two years, with 1985 generally having higher normalized difference vegetation index values indicating higher levels of primary production in 1985 than in 1984. 1 km data were compared for Senegal, Mali, Niger and Sudan, and 7 km data were compared for sub-Saharan Africa. The qualitative comparison of these data suggests the use of similar data to assist in centralized monitoring of rangeland conditions, to identify areas of deficiencies in primary production and provide synoptic information in support of regional drought monitoring.

Description: Red and near-infrared satellite data from the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer sensor have been processed over several days and combined to produce spatially continuous cloud-free imagery over large areas with sufficient temporal resolution to study green-vegetation dynamics. The technique minimizes cloud contamination, reduces directional reflectance and off-nadir viewing effects, minimizes sun-angle and shadow effects, and minimizes aerosol and water-vapor effects. The improvement is highly dependent on the state of the atmosphere, surface-cover type, and the viewing and illumination geometry of the sun, target and sensor. An example from southern Africa showed an increase of 40 percent from individual image values tothe final composite image. Limitations associated with the technique are discussed, and recommendations are given to improve this approach.

Description: Leaf structure and function are shown to result in distinctive variations in the absorption and reflection of solar radiation from plant canopies. The leaf properties that determine the radiation-interception characteristics of plant canopies are directly linked to photosynthesis, stomatal resistance and evapotranspiration and can be inferred from measurements of reflected solar energy. The effects of off-nadir viewing and atmospheric constituents, coupled with the need to measure changing surface conditions, emphasize the need for multitemporal measurements of reflected radiation if primary production is to be estimated.

Description: A versatile multifunction package, POLYSITE, developed for Goddard's Land Analysis System, is described which simplifies the process of interactively selecting and correcting the sites used to study Landsat TM and MSS images. Image switching between the zoomed and nonzoomed image, color and shape cursor change and location display, and bit plane erase or color change, are global functions which are active at all times. Local functions possibly include manipulation of intensive study areas, new site definition, mensuration, and new image copying. The program is illustrated with the example of a full TM maser scene of metropolitan Washington, DC.

Description: The degree to which the GOES-VISSR infrared data can be used to infer area-averaged soil moisture is explored for a five-day case study period. Chosen variables are transformed and incorporated into a multiple linear regression. The actual observations, rather than a simplified model, are used to determine the relationship between soil moisture and GOES-IR radiance. It is shown that a depletion coefficient of 0.92 produces an index of ground truth which is best correlated with soil moisture as inferred from GOES thermal infrared data. When all individual daily soil estimates during the case study period are averaged at each point and compared to the average observed soil moisture, the data correlate at 0.85. This implies that the algorithm can distinguish at least four categories of soil moisture.

Description: The projections of leaf areas onto a horizontal plane and onto a vertical plane are examined for their utility in characterizing canopies for sunlight penetration (direct beam only) models. These projections exactly specify the penetration if the projections on the principal plane of the normals to the top surfaces of the leaves are in the same quadrant as the sun. Inferring the total leaf area from these projections (and therefore the penetration as a function of the total leaf area) is possible only with a large uncertainty (up to + or - 32 percent) because the projections are a specific measure of the total leaf area only if the leaf angle distribution is known. It is expected that this uncertainty could be reduced to more acceptable levels by making an approximate assessment of whether the zenith angle distribution is that of an extremophile canopy.

Description: Simultaneous co-located observations from two different orbits lead to several advantages (i.e., cross calibration of sensors and a wider range of solar-zenith and sensor look angles). The question was asked how many times per year (on the average) do the sub-satellite points of two satellites simultaneously come within D kilometers of each other? For the Space Station (altitude: 500 km, inclination: 28 deg) and a Sun synchronous satellite (altitude 705 km, inclination 98.21 deg) the answers are 16, 41 and 82 times per year for encounter distances D of 20, 50, and 100 km respectively. The relationship between encounters per year and distance D is linear. The answers were obtained in two ways: (1) a closed form statistical approach which led to a simple algebraic expression, and (2) a Monte Carlo type computer solution. The largest difference between the two solutions was less than 12 percent.

Description: The technology and applications of terrestrial remote sensing (RS) are discussed in reviews and reports. Topics examined include the future of the NASA earth-sciences program, NOAA plans for earth observations in the 1990s, space RS in France, international coordination of RS satellite programs, and applications of geocoded imagery. Consideration is given to spatial and tabular databases for order-three soil surveys, an AVHRR and Landsat regional inventory of irrigated agriculture, classification of wetlands, microwave radiometry of ocean surface winds and sea ice, and floodplain land-cover mapping with Thematic-Mapper data.

Description: The purpose of ISLSCP is to verify the use of satellite data for the estimation of land-surface properties. This is to be done through a series of field experiments using a combination of point measurements on the ground and areal measurements from aircraft overflights. In addition to validating satellite estimates of surface properties, approaches for obtaining areal averages of the radiation, moisture, and heat fluxes from remotely sensed data are to be studied. The procedure for doing this is to combine the surface point measurements of the fluxes with the aircraft areal observations using a surface-energy-balance model. This should make it possible to interpolate between the point estimates of these fluxes and calculate area-averaged quantities. The surface parameters to be estimated from aircraft observations include: surface radiation temperature, albedo, land-cover or vegetation index, and surface soil moisture.

Description: This paper presents preliminary results of C-band radar scatterometer measurements of forest canopies of southeastern forests in the vicinity of NASA/NSTL. The results are as follows: radar backscattering coefficients (BSCs) of deciduous forests are higher than those of coniferous forests at a large incidence angle by ranging measurement, the VV polarization BSCs obtain peak value at the first few meters from the canopy top and decrease rather quickly, while the HH polarization BSCs obtain peak value at longer distances from the canopy top and decrease rather slowly through the canopy; and tree canopies with higher attenuations have higher BSCs for all three polarizations, with VV polarization containing the largest differential (2.2 dB).

Description: An overview of several multivariate image processing techniques is presented, with emphasis on techniques based upon the principal component transformation (PCT). Multiimages in various formats have a multivariate pixel value, associated with each pixel location, which has been scaled and quantized into a gray level vector, and the bivariate of the extent to which two images are correlated. The PCT of a multiimage decorrelates the multiimage to reduce its dimensionality and reveal its intercomponent dependencies if some off-diagonal elements are not small, and for the purposes of display the principal component images must be postprocessed into multiimage format. The principal component analysis of a multiimage is a statistical analysis based upon the PCT whose primary application is to determine the intrinsic component dimensionality of the multiimage. Computational considerations are also discussed.

Description: Airborne-SAR, SIR-A, Seasat SAR, and Landsat TM images of the Savannah River Plant, a gently sloping area of South Carolina covered with diverse vegetation, are presented and briefly characterized. Preliminary results indicate that multiple-polarization images constructed from the airborne-SAR data give some indication of forest density and understory growth but do not permit discrimination between evergreen and deciduous forests. Heat-tolerant vegetation growing on sand bars in streams bearing thermal effluents from nuclear reactors on the site is found to have a distinguishing polarization signature.

Description: Images of forested low-relief terrain in the Amazon basin of Brazil, obtained with airborne imaging radar in the Radambrasil project, are compared with SIR-A and Landsat MSS band-7 images to evaluate their usefulness in constructing geologic maps. Sample images are shown, and it is found that Radam images are more useful in distinguishing drainage patterns and mapping the region distribution of stream channels due to their relatively low depression angles (less than 25 deg as opposed to 43-37 deg for SIR-A), but that SIR-A images give superior discrimination of alluvial forest, where trees stand in water, due to the higher reflectivity of branches and water at the SIR-A wavelength (23.5 cm as opposed to 3 cm for Radam). Alluvial forest is also identified by Landsat band 7.

Description: Forest canopies over different sedimentary lithologies of valleys and ridges are composed of different dominant species and have significantly different reflectance and emittance. In a botanical survey of eighty-seven forest sites, sedimentary lithologies were found to differ in the species which dominate the forest canopy. Sandstone sites had abundant chestnut oak (Quercus prinus), black oak (Q. velutina), and northern red oak (Q. rubra). On shale sites chestnut oak, white oak (Q. alba), northern red oak and red pine (Pinus resinosa) were dominant. Limestone sites had a variable species composition with the most common species, northern red oak, white oak, and black locust (Robinia pseudocacia) accounting for only 30 percent of the total trees. Thematic Mapper Simulator (TMS) data obtained during the growing season were analyzed to determine if sandstones, shales, and limestones could be distinguished on the basis of forest-canopy reflectance. The observations compared in the analysis were means of the eight TMS bands for 10 x 10-pixel test sites selected from areas with complete canopy closure. In August imagery the three lithologies were separable based on differences in TMS band 3 (630-690 nm) and band 8 (10.4-12.5 microns).

Description: The use of remote-sensing data on forest leaf flush to identify areas with anomalously high soil heavy-metal concentrations is demonstrated using airborne Thematic Mapper Simulator (TMS) leaf-area-index data obtained over two sites in Virginia in spring 1983 and 1984. Mean-reflectance differences, especially in the 760-900-nm and 630-690-nm bands, corresponding to delayed leaf flush are found to be good indicators of higher heavy-metal concentration. Airborne and ground-based canopy-temperature measurements are also shown to be significantly higher in high-heavy-metal areas than in control areas.

Description: This paper continues a study on the accuracy of geological mapping using Landsat Thematic Mapper data (Short, 1984). In June 1976, both the White Mountain alteration zone and the Waterpocket Fold sedimentary rock sites in Utah were surveyed by the Bendix 24-band scanner on a NASA NC-130B aircraft. Mid-June 1984 TM data for these two sites have been processed like the 1976 data to test the quality of simulation of TM data. Principal-components (PC) color composite images for White Mountain show close correspondence to the Bendix PC images. At this site carbonate strata are uniquely discriminated in both Bendix and TM composites that use an inverted PC 3 image. Alunite/kaolinite and hematite/limonite alteration zones developed on volcanic flows are also sharply separated, but iron oxide and silicified zones are less so. The accuracy of rock-units mapping at the Waterpocket Fold site by supervised classification of the June TM data is significantly better, reaching 70 percent in the best case, than for January 1983 data for that site.

Description: A geobotanical investigation based on the detection of premature leaf senescence was conducted in an area of predominantly chalcocite mineralization of the Keweenaw Peninsula in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. Spectrophotometric measurements indicated that the region from 600 to 700 nm captures the rise in red reflectance characteristic of senescent leaves. Observations at other wavelengths do not distinguish between senescent and green leaves as clearly and unequivocably as observations at these wavelengths. Small format black and white aerial photographs filtered for the red band (600 to 700 nm) and Thematic Mapper Simulator imagery were collected during the period of fall senescence in the study area. Soil samples were collected from two areas identified by leaf senescence and from two additional sites where the leaf canopy was still green. Geochemical analysis revealed that the sites characterized by premature leaf senescence had a significantly higher median soil copper concentration than the other two areas.

Description: Airborne Imaging Spectrometer (AIS) data were analyzed to deduce plant density and species composition in three semi-arid shrub-dominated communities of Owens Valley, CA, occurring on either a sand, granite alluvium, or basalt substrate. The high-spectral resolution AIS data were related to spectra obtained with field portable spectrometers, which in turn were related to plant and soil characteristics of the communities. Many of the dominant species have unique spectral features which permit their identification in AIS pixel images. The canopy-induced shadow may be a major factor influencing substrate spectral properties during fall and winter, because of low sun angles. Moreover, changes in spectral signatures following dormancy and leaf senescence tend to decrease contrasts between the plant community and the geologic substrate, also suggesting that fall and winter are a difficult time of year for spectral analyses.

Description: A preliminary interpretation of structure and lithology from selected Shuttle Imaging Radar-B (SIR-B) images of Borneo, collected in October 1984, is presented. The SIR-B images, obtained at depression angles that ranged from 40 to 50 deg, were interpreted by using the approaches suggested by Sabins (1983). On the basis of radar signatures, six terrain categories; coastal and alluvial plains, and carbonate, clastic, volcanic, and melange, rocks, were defined in east, central, and south Kalimantan, and in the Malaysian state of Sarawak.

Description: Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) data collected in the late summer, fall, and winter of 1982 over forested bedrocks in southeastern Missouri were used in conjunction with forest surveys, field work, aerial photographs, and laboratory analyses to evaluate multispectral and seasonal information from visible and reflected IR data. The forested bedrock included granites, rhyolites, carbonates, and sandstones. High reflectance in band 4 (760-900 nm) in the summer scene corresponds to regions of xeric forest type. The fact that the xeric regions tend to develop flat-topped canopies, as opposed to irregular canopy surfaces of the wetter mesic areas, may partially control the TM response in bands 4, 5 (155-175 nm) and 7 (208-235 nm). The xeric regions correlated with soils having poor water retention capabilities, such as rhyolites and certain carbonate rocks with nonporous residum layers. An opposite relationship between xeric and mesic forest biomass was noted, if the commonly used TM band ratio 4/3 was used as a surrogate biomass measure. The high band 4 response over xeric forests gives anomalously high biomass estimates.

Description: State of the art applications of remote sensing in geological exploration programs are discussed along with research and development activities aimed at increasing the future capabilities of this technology for exploration geology. The topics considered include: technical issues in the state of the art; regional exploration models; remote sensing applications for hydrocarbon exploration; commercialization of remote sensing satellites; and data integration. Also addressed are: remote sensing applications for mineral exploration; geobotanical and environmental remote sensing; image processing techniques and applications; advanced sensors, radar, and airborne systems; and engineering, logistics, and marine applications.

Description: Multiple incidence angle SIR-B data of the Cordon la Grasa region of the Chubut Province of Argentina are used to discriminate various forest types by their relative brightness versus incidence angle signatures. The region consists of several species of Nothofagas which change in canopy structure with elevation, slope, and exposure. In general, the factors that appear to impact the radar response most are canopy structure, density, and ground cover (presence or absence of dead trunks and branches in particular). The results of this work indicate that (1) different forest species, and structures of a single species, may be discriminated using multiple incidence angle radar imagery and (2) it is essential to consider the variation in backscatter due to incidence angle when analyzing the comparing data collected at varying frequencies and polarizations.

Description: The images obtained by the Shuttle Imaging Radar (SIR)-A and -B systems over the southwestern Egypt and northwestern Sudan were coregistered with the Landsat images and the existing maps to aid in extrapolations of the buried paleodrainages ('radar rivers'), first discovered by SIR-A. Field observations explain the radar responses of three types of radar rivers, RR-1 (broad, aggraded valleys filled with alluvium), RR-2 (braided channels inset in the RR-1 valleys), and RR-3 (narrow, long, bedrock-incised channels). A generalized model of the radar rivers, based on field studies and regional geologic relations, shows inferred changes in river regimen since the large valleys were established during the later Paleogene-early Neogene. It is suggested that a former Trans-African master stream system may have flowed from headwaters in the Red Sea Hills southwestward across North Africa, discharging into the Atlantic at the Paleo-Niger delta, prior to the Neogene domal uplifts and building of volcanic edifices across the paths of these ancient watercourses.

Description: Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) images from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Shuttle Imaging Radar-B mission were used to analyze the effects of radar incidence angle on information content and vegetation penetration. Three SAR data sets using incidence angles of 26, 46, and 58 deg were acquired over the mangrove jungles of Southern Bangladesh. The data sets were digitally processed using 3 x 3, 7 x 7, and 11 x 11 spatial filters and geometrically registered to a multisource-multilevel-corraborative data base consisting of Landsat data, forest map data, and in situ acquired forest enumeration and topographic information. Analyses revealed that significant vegetation 'penetration' was found at all angles, and that tree and canopy structural morphology may exert an influence on this phenomenon.

Description: An experiment was conducted from an L-band SAR aboard Space Shuttle Challenger in October 1984 to study the microwave backscatter dependence on soil moisture, surface roughness, and vegetation cover. The results based on the analyses of an image obtained at 21-deg incidence angle show a positive correlatlion between scattering coefficient and soil moisture content, with a sensitivity comparable to that derived from the ground radar measurements reported by Ulaby et al. (1978). The surface roughness strongly affects the microwave backscatter. A factor of two change in the standard deviation of surface roughness height gives a corresponding change of about 8 dB in the scattering coefficient. The microwave backscatter also depends on the vegetation types. Under the dry soil conditions, the scattering coefficient is observed to change from about -24 dB for an alfalfa or lettuce field to about -17 dB for a mature corn field. These results suggest that observations with a SAR system of multiple frequencies and polarizations are required to unravel the effects of soil moisture, surface roughness, and vegetation cover.

Description: During the SIR-B mission in October 1984, a significant number of overlapping synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images of various ground areas was collected. This has offered the first opportunity to perform stereo analyses on images from space that cover large ground areas to determine elevation information. This paper presents the preliminary results of an investigation to obtain elevation data from stereo pairs of SIR-B images. First, the accuracy with which elevation information can be derived from SIR-B image pairs is evaluated theoretically. It is shown that elevation accuracy is a function of the slant range resolution, the incidence angles with which the stereo pair is obtained, the accuracies in spacecraft state estimation, and determination of corresponding pixels in the stereo pair. Next, a hierarchical method is developed to match the corresponding pixels. This method involves iterative removal of local distortions and correlations of pairs of local neighborhoods in the two images. Since it is necessary to perform the matching at every pixel in the image, it is very computationally intensive. Therefore, it has been implemented on the Massively Parallel Processor (MPP) at the Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC). The MPP's speed permits two iterations of this technique to operate on a pair of 512 x 512 images within 7 s. Results of applying this algorithm of SIR-B images of Mount Shasta, CA, are shown. The matching algorithm performs well in regions of the image with significant features. An approximate elevation image derived from the matching process corresponds to published topographic map data, except for certain obvious discontinuities.

Description: On October 5, 1984, the second Shuttle Imaging Radar (SIR-B) was launched into orbit aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger. SIR-B is part of an evolutionary radar program designed to progressively develop a multifrequency, multipolarization synthetic aperture radar with a variable earth-imaging geometry. The SIR-B instrument is an upgraded version of SIR-A, with the additional capability of tilting the antenna mechanically to acquire imagery at variable incidence angles ranging from 15 to 60 deg. The variable look angle capability provided a means of acquiring multiple incidence angle imagery over specific targets on successive days of the mission. These data are being used to classify surface features by their backscatter signatures as a function of incidence angle and for topographic mapping. In addition to the antenna tilt capability, a digital data-handling system was added to increase the dynamic range, the resolution was improved by a factor of two over SIR-A, and a calibration subsystem was added to improve the radiometric accuracy of the data. The mission had a number of problems, including loss of the primary digital data path between the Shuttle and the ground. In spite of these problems, approximately 20 percent of the planned digital data were collected over the 8-day Shuttle mission corresponding to an areal coverage of about 6.4 million sq km.

Description: This article describes a separability measure for class discrimination. This measure is based on the Fisher information measure for estimating the mixing proportion of two classes. The Fisher information measure not only provides a means to assess quantitatively the information content in the features for separating classes, but also gives the lower bound for the variance of any unbiased estimate of the mixing proportion based on observations of the features. Unlike most commonly used separability measures, this measure is not dependent on the form of the probability distribution of the features and does not imply a specific estimation procedure. This is important because the probability distribution function that describes the data for a given class does not have simple analytic forms, such as a Gaussian. Results of applying this measure to compare the information content provided by three Landsat-derived feature vectors for the purpose of separating small grains from other crops are presented.

Description: The use of Suits' (1972a, b) digital radiative transfer model to simulate the effect of nonLambertian canopy reflectance on off-nadir observations of vegetation is discussed. Canopy reflectances of cord grass are calculated using the radiative transfer model, field radiometric measurements, and airborne multispectral scanner data. The effects of varying view angles on canopy reflectance are analyzed and compared. The comparison reveals that the model is effective in simulating the sense and magnitude of reflectance change due to variable angles of observations; however, the model does not reproduce the observed dependence of nadir canopy reflectance on solar zenith angle. It is concluded that the radiative transfer model is applicable for predicting the variation in canopy reflectance due to changing view zenith angles.

Description: The missions of the German Modular Optoelectronic Multispectral Scanner (MOMS) aboard two STS flights demonstrated the feasibility of a novel concept with regard to both technical and scientific objectives. On account of the successful missions, a cooperation was agreed between the German Federal Minister for Research nad Technology and NASA for comparing MOMS observations with the more familiar operational Landsat-TM data over selected test sites, as a means of obtaining some relative measure of performance. This paper summarizes the results obtained and presents the MOMS-02, a further experimental representative of the MOMS program aiming at the realization of an operational system for the mid-nineties.

Description: This study evaluates the potential of measuring/mapping forest decline in spruce-fir forests using airborne NS-001 TMS data. Using field instruments, it was found that ratios of 1.65/1.23 and 1.65/0.83-micron reflectance discriminated between spruce samples of low and high-damage sites. Using TMS data, band ratios were found to be strongly correlated with ground-based measurements of forest damage. Ratio colo-density slice images using these band ratios, and images using 0.56 and 1.65-micron bands with either of these band ratios in a false-color composite, provide accurate means of detecting, quantifying and mapping levels of forest decline.

Description: Reflectance variations of a stressed cotton canopy were conducted in the presence of a fan-generated air stream to investigate the effects of air movement and the resulting temperature changes on remotely-sensed data. The initial drop in reflectance after application of the air stream was found to be greatest in the morning because leaf turgor was at a maximum, enabling leaves on the windward side of the canopy to assume surprisingly stable vertical positions. By afternoon, a reduction in leaf turgor was responsible for less stem displacement and consequently a reduction in light-trapping capability. However, reflectance oscillations were greater because the leaves had become sufficiently limp to flutter at the edges and about the petioles exposing both adaxial and abaxial surfaces to the incident light.

Description: Bidirectional reflectance to nadir in the reflective TM bands and the 1.15-1.3-micron band was measured in the laboratory as moisture content was varied in ten soils. Stronger absorption by water in TM5 and TM7 was expected to cause ratios of other bands to TM5 and TM7 to increase with water content, but in most cases these ratios were constant or decreased at low to intermediate water content and increased only at high moisture levels. Because these ratios were found to decrease as illumination elevation angle decreased, it was suggested that increased roughness resulting from the methods of moistening and mixing the soil may have tended to counteract the expected ratio increases.

Description: The weekly global vegetation index (GVI) derived from the NOAA AVHRR instrument has been analyzed for the 1982-1985 period over a wide range of vegetation formations of Asia. Temporal development curves of the index are presented for environments ranging from the desert of central Asia to the tropical forest of Borneo. The paper shows that, despite the coarse resolution of the GVI product, a large set of useful information on ecosystem dynamics and cropping practices can be consistently derived from time series of such data. In addition, it is shown that the impact of the 1982-1983 El Nino Southern Oscillation-related drought can be detected in the GVI data through an analysis of anomalies in the development of selected vegetation formations. The relevance of such analysis for global vegetation monitoring and change detection is then underlined.

Description: A November 1982 Landsat-4 TM scene and March and September 1984 airborne L-band radar data for a brackish-wetland area of the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge (near Chesapeake Bay) are analyzed to monitor changes in vegetation and water area. The accuracy of level-I classification of the TM image is found to be 81 percent, but that of the few level-II/III classes for which ground truth was available is only 53 percent. The value of radar images for discriminating water areas obscured by vegetation and estimating plant heights is indicated.

Description: Preliminary results are discussed from an investigation into the effects of the solar zenith angle on the surface reflectances of cloud types being categorized in the International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project. The analysis is based on AVHRR channel one data at 0.6 micron over the period July 1983-July 1984. Subsatellite scenes of eight geographically separated targets distinguished by their predominant vegetation type were examined pixel-by-pixel. Attempts were made to discover any spatial variability index in each pixel to classify pixels representing clouds by the recorded brightness temperature.

Description: A procedure is presented to discriminate and characterize regions of uniform image texture. The procedure utilizes textural features consisting of pixel-by-pixel estimates of the relative emphases of annular regions of the Fourier transform. The utility and derivation of the features are described through presentation of a theoretical justification of the concept followed by a heuristic extension to a real environment. Two examples are provided that validate the technique on synthetic images and demonstrate its applicability to the discrimination of geologic texture in a radar image of a tropical vegetated area.

Description: This paper discusses the effects of non-Lambertian reflection from a homogeneous surface on remote sensing of the surface reflectance and vegetation index from a satellite. Remote measurement of the surface characteristics is perturbed by atmospheric scattering of sun light. This scattering tends to smooth the angular dependence of non-Lambertian surface reflectances, an effect that is not present in the case of Lambertian surfaces. This effect is calculated to test the validity of a Lambertian assumption used in remote sensing. For the three types of vegetations considered in this study, the assumption of Lambertian surface can be used satisfactorily in the derivation of surface reflectance from remotely measured radiance for a view angle outside the backscattering region. Within the backscattering region, however, the use of the assumption can result in a considerable error in the derived surface reflectance. Accuracy also deteriorates with increasing solar zenith angle. The angular distribution of the surface reflectance derived from remote measurements is smoother than that at the surface. The effect of surface non-Lambertianity on remote sensing of vegetation index is very weak. Since the effect is similiar in the visible and near infrared part of the solar spectrum for the vegetations treated in this study, it is canceled in deriving the vegetation index. The effect of the diffuse skylight on surface reflectance measurements at ground level is also discussed.

Description: Similarities and/or dissimilarities in radiance characteristics were studied among barley (Hordeum vulgare L.), oats (Avena fatua L.), spring and winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.), and short-grass prairie vegetation. The site was a Williams loam soil (fine-loamy mixed, Typic Argiborolls) near Sidney, Montana. Radiances were measured with a truck-mounted radiometer. The radiometer was equipped with four wavelength bands: 0.45 to 0.52, 0.52 to 0.60, 0.63 to 0.69, and 0.76 to 0.90 micron. Airborne scanner measurements were made at an altitude of 600 m four times during the season under clear sky conditions. The airborne scanner was equipped with the same four bands as the truck-mounted radiometer plus the following: 1.00 to 1.30, 1.55 to 1.75, 2.08 to 2.35, and 10.4 to 12.5 microns. Comparisons using individual wave bands, the near IR/red, (0.76 to 0.90 micron)/(0.63 to 0.69 micron) ratio and the normalized difference vegetation index, ND = (IR - red)/(IR + red), showed that only during limited times during the growing season were some of the small grains distinguishable from one another and from native rangeland vegetation. There was a common relation for all small grains between leaf area index and green leaf phytomass and between leaf area index or green leaf phytomass and the IR/red ratio.

Description: A canopy-reflectance (CR) model for row-planted vegetation is presented. Its use of an estimation of important biophysical variables like leaf-area index (LAI) and average leaf angle (ALA) from bidirectional CR data is discussed. Using field-measured CR data for a partially covered soybean canopy, it is shown that one can accurately estimate LAI, ALA and extent of percentage of ground cover from CR data.

Description: Analysis of Thermal Infrared Multispectral Scanner data collected over H. J. Andrews experimental forest in western Oregon indicated that aspect and slope gradient had a greater effect on the thermal emission of younger reforested clearcuts than of older stands. Older forest stands (older than 25 years) with greater amounts of green biomass and closed canopies, had lower effective radiant temperatures than younger, less dense stands. Aspect and slope had little effect on the effective radiant temperature of these older stands. Canopy temperature recorded at approximately 1:30 pm local time July 29, 1983 were nearly equal to maximum daily air temperature recorded at eight reference stands. The investigation provided some insights into the utility of the thermal sensor for detecting surface temperature differences related to forest composition and green biomass amounts in mountain terrain.

Description: Satellite remote sensing provides unique opportunities for observing ice-covered terrain. Passive-microwave data give information on snow extent on land, sea-ice extent and type, and zones of summer melting on the polar ice sheets, with the potential for estimating snow-accumulation rates on these ice sheets. All weather, high-resolution imagery of sea ice is obtained using synthetic aperture radars, and ice-movement vectors can be deduced by comparing sequential images of the same region. Radar-altimetry data provide highly detailed information on ice-sheet topography, with the potential for deducing thickening/thinning rates from repeat surveys. The coastline of Antarctica can be mapped accurately using altimetry data, and the size and spatial distribution of icebergs can be monitored. Altimetry data also distinguish open ocean from pack ice and they give an indication of sea-ice characteristics.

Description: Aspects of volume scattering and emission theory are discussed, taking into account a weakly scattering medium, the Born approximation, first-order renormalization, the radiative transfer method, and the matrix-doubling method. Other topics explored are related to scatterometers and probing systems, the passive microwave sensing of the atmosphere, the passive microwave sensing of the ocean, the passive microwave sensing of land, the active microwave sensing of land, and radar remote sensing applications. Attention is given to inversion techniques, atmospheric attenuation and emission, a temperature profile retrieval from ground-based observations, mapping rainfall rates, the apparent temperature of the sea, the emission behavior of bare soil surfaces, the emission behavior of vegetation canopies, the emission behavior of snow, wind-vector radar scatterometry, radar measurements of sea ice, and the back-scattering behavior of cultural vegetation canopies.

Description: A hand-held radiometer with AVHRR bands 1 and 2 was used to measure the directional reflectance distributions for both a hardwood and a pine forest canopy from a helicopter platform; canopy characteristics were also measured on the ground. The reflectance distributions obtained are compared with the scattering behavior of agricultural and natural grassland canopies. In addition, the Kimes (1983) three-dimensional radiative transfer model is used to document the unique radiant transfers that occur in forest canopies in virtue of their geometric structure. Both the measurements and the model calculations show that dense forest canopy scattering is similar to that for crops and grasslands. Attention is given to the effects of sparse forest canopies.

Description: The Airborne Imaging Spectrometer (AIS) is a high spectral resolution (9.6-nm-wide bands between 0.9 and 2.4 microns) instrument. Analysis of AIS data revealed significant differences in characteristics of the spectral radiance curves of four types of wetland vegetation canopies (trees, broadleaf herbaceous, Spartina alterniflora, and S. patens/Distichlis spicata) in Delaware, enabling them to be distinguished. The single most useful spectral region was that between 1.40 and 1.90 microns. Differences in radiance values at various wavelengths between samples of the same vegetation type could potentially be used to estimate biomass. Thus, high spectral resolution spectrometry appears to have significant value for remote sensing studies of wetland vegetation.

Description: Digitized agricultural field boundary taken in the United States and Canada during the LACIE and AgRISTARS programs, in 1977 through 1980, were used to construct histograms showing the distributions of field area, width, and length for crops for which there were data for 700 or more fields per state. The observed distributions of area and width for fields of 10 crops grown in 13 states of the United States and Canada were compared with best-fit inverse Gaussian distributions and with log-normal distributions. For 28 distributions of area and 16 distributions of width there was found to be a probability of greater than .01 of their being inverse Gaussian. There were 10 distributions of area for which there was probability of greater than .005 of their being log-normal. Distributions of area and width stratified by state and crop type appear to be unique. The inverse Gaussian, which represents a wide range of statistical distributions from skewed to almost symmetrical, can provide a useful model for distributions of field area.

Description: An algorithm has been developed which reduces the effects of (deconvolves) instrument-induced spatial crosstalk in satellite image data by several orders of magnitude where highly precise radiometry is required. The algorithm is based upon radiance transfer ratios which are defined as the fractional bilateral exchange of energy betwen pixels A and B.

Description: The canopy reflectance (CR) model for row-planted vegetation proposed earlier has been tested for soybean canopies in three different stages of growth and for corn canopies at early and full growth stages. The model fits the field-measured bidirectional CR data quite well. It is shown that, by inverting this model, one could estimate the leaf area index as well as the percentage of ground cover quite accurately from measured canopy reflectances.

Description: Temporal variation in earth-atmosphere system reflectance in the 0.5-1.1 micron waveband was determined from Landsat MSS data for an area of arid rangeland in south-central New Mexico. Data were extracted from eight MSS scenes for the period 1973-1983, with four scenes from 1976. Maximum potential change between the extremes of rangeland degradation status was estimated to provide a benchmark for assessing the significance of the observed variations. Reflectance standardized for differences in sensor radiometric response by the Environmental Research Institute of Michigan coefficients increased significantly from 1973 to 1983, but standardization by Landsat Data Users Handbook coefficients resulted in little long-term change. Short-term (less than 1 year) variation was significant relative to maximum potential change. A sequence of three Landsat-2 scenes within one year showed a decrease in reflectance with increasing solar zenith angle. The effect of zenith angle on shading of the soil surface by plants was estimated and found to be about the same magnitude as the observed within-year variation in reflectance with solar zenith angle.

Description: A ground-based system to generate digital SAR image products has been developed and implemented in support of the SIR-B mission. This system is designed to achieve the maximum throughput while meeting strict image fidelity criteria. Its capabilities include: automated radiometric and geometric correction of the output imagery; high-precision absolute location without tiepoint registration; filtering of the raw data to remove spurious signals from alien radars; and automated catologing to maintain a full set of radar and image production facility in support of the SIR-B science investigators routinely produces over 80 image frames per week.

Description: Receivers buried in the Nevada desert were used with the Shuttle Imaging Radar to measure microwave attenuation as a function of soil moisture in situ. Results agree closely with laboratory measurements of attenuation and suggest that penetration of tens of centimeters in desert soils is common for L-band (1.2-GHz) radar.

Description: Results from analysis of a data set of simultaneous measurements of Thematic Mapper band reflectance and leaf area index are presented. The measurements were made over pure stands of Aspen in the Superior National Forest of northern Minnesota. The analysis indicates that the reflectance may be sensitive to the leaf area index of the Aspen early in the season. The sensitivity disappears as the season progresses. Based on the results of model calculations, an explanation for the observed relationship is developed. The model calculations indicate that the sensitivity of the reflectance to the Aspen overstory depends on the amount of understory present.

Description: A hierarchical procedure for developing a leaf area index (LAI) map of deciduous boreal forests is studied. The collection of spectral reflectance data from the Boundary Waters Canoe area in Minnesota using helicopter-, high-altitude aircraft-, and Landsat-mounted spectral sensors is described. The relationship between LAI and biomass and the reflectance ratio is analyzed. The sensitivity of canopy reflectance in the visible and infrared to the LAI of the canopy for various boreal forest species is evaluated. The data reveal that Landsat data are useful for producing LAI maps of deciduous forest areas and the maps provide data which clarifies the function of vegetation in the global carbon cycle models.

Description: By means of a pair of boresighted and synchronized cameras fitted with orthogonally oriented polarizing filters and carried aboard the Space Shuttle, a large number of polarized images of the earth's surface have been obtained from orbital altitude. Selected pairs of images, both in color and in black and white, have been digitized and computer processed to yield analogous images in each of the three Stokes parameters necessary for characterizing the state of linear polarization of the emergent light. Many of the images show surface properties more distinctly in degree and plane of polarization than in simple intensity alone. However, the maximum information content as well as noise suppression and minimization of atmospheric interference, is achieved by proper combinations of the Stokes parameters. It is believed that these are the first, and certainly the most extensive, set of polarized images of the earth ever obtained from space.

Description: Common rock-forming minerals have thermal infrared spectral features that are measured in the laboratory to infer composition. An airborne Daedalus scanner (TIMS) that collects six channels of thermal infrared radiance data (8 to 12 microns), may be used to measure these same features for rock identification. Previously, false-color composite pictures made from channels 1, 3, and 5 and emittance spectra for small areas on these images were used to make lithologic maps. Central wavelength, standard deviation, and amplitude of normal curves regressed on the emittance spectra are related to compositional information for crystalline igneous silicate rocks. As expected, the central wavelength varies systematically with silica content and with modal quartz content. Standard deviation is less sensitive to compositional changes, but large values may result from mixed admixture of vegetation. Compression of the six TIMS channels to three image channels made from the regressed parameters may be effective in improving geologic mapping from TIMS data, and these synthetic images may form a basis for the remote assessment of rock composition.

Description: The Thermal Infrared Multispectral Scanner (TIMS) images consist of six channels of data acquired in bands between 8 and 12 microns, thus they contain information about both temperature and emittance. Scene temperatures are controlled by reflectivity of the surface, but also by its geometry with respect to the Sun, time of day, and other factors unrelated to composition. Emittance is dependent upon composition alone. Thus the photointerpreter may wish to enhance emittance information selectively. Because thermal emittances in real scenes vary but little, image data tend to be highly correlated along channels. Special image processing is required to make this information available for the photointerpreter. Processing includes noise removal, construction of model emittance images, and construction of false-color pictures enhanced by decorrelation techniques.

Description: Image degradation of airborne SAR imagery caused by phase errors introduced in the received signal by aircraft motion is discussed. Mechanical motion has a small bandwidth and does not affect the range signal, where the total echo time is typically 60 microsec. However, since the aperture length can be several seconds, the synthesized azimuth signal can have significant errors of which phase noise is the most important. An inertial navigation system can be used to compensate for these errors when processing the images. Calculations to evaluate how much improvement results from compensation are outlined.

Description: Snow microstructure, measured by plane section analysis, and snow wetness, measured by the dilution method, are used to calculate input parameters for a microwave emission model that uses the radiative transfer method. The scattering and absorbing properties are calculated by Mie theory. The effects of different equivalent sphere conversions, adjustments for near-field interference, and different snow wetness characterizations are compared for various snow conditions. The concentric shell geometry of liquid water in snow yields higher emissivities and better model results than the separate-sphere configuration for liquid water contents greater than 0.05, while at lower liquid water contents the separate-sphere treatment gives better results.

Description: The PEDITOR image processing system was created to be readily transferable from one type of computer system to another. While nearly identical in function and operation to its predecessor, EDITOR, PEDITOR employs additional techniques which greatly enhance its portability. These cover system structure and processing. In order to confirm the portability of the software system, two different types of computer systems running greatly differing operating systems were used as target machines. A DEC-20 computer running the TOPS-20 operating system and using a Pascal Compiler was utilized for initial code development. The remaining programmers used a Motorola Corporation 68000-based Forward Technology FT-3000 supermicrocomputer running the UNIX-based XENIX operating system and using the Silicon Valley Software Pascal compiler and the XENIX C compiler for their initial code development.

Description: Airborne imaging spectrometer (AIS) data were studied to establish absolute instrumental calibration and to provide atmospheric corrections. Good agreement is found between calculated and measured radiances for uniform surface targets (beaches), but simulations of atmospheric properties with LOWTRAN lead to unreasonably low values of atmospheric precipitable water. Absorptions from CO2 are not detected in the AIS data, but are strongly present in the LOWTRAN model. The apparent low contrast of all atmospheric absorption bands leads to a study of contamination from overlapping spectral orders in the AIS data. The suspected contamination is shown unambiguously to be present beyond 1500 nm. The magnitude remains uncertain. Spectral band filling at 1400 nm cannot be accounted for by order mixing because of the 800 nm blocking filter used. Rough corrections for short wavelength mode observations might be possible if an after-the-fact radiometric calibration of the instrument can be developed.

Description: Active and passive microwave data collected during the 1984 summer Marginal Ice Zone Experiment in the Fram Strait (MIZEX 84) are used to compare ice concentration estimates derived from synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data to those obtained from passive microwave imagery at several frequencies. The comparison is carried out to evaluate SAR performance against the more established passive microwave technique, and to investigate discrepancies in terms of how ice surface conditions, imaging geometry, and choice of algorithm parameters affect each sensor. Active and passive estimates of ice concentration agree on average to within 12%. Estimates from the multichannel passive microwave data show best agreement with the SAR estimates because the multichannel algorithm effectively accounts for the range in ice floe brightness temperatures observed in the MIZ.

Description: The exploitation of natural gas resources to supply energy demands has resulted in the need to engineer pipelines and plants capable of handling extremely high pressures and throughputs. Consequently, more attention has been directed to evaluating the consequences of releases of material whether accidental or deliberate in nature. An important aspect of assessing the consequences of a release is an understanding of how gas disperses in the atmosphere over a wide range of release and atmospheric conditions. The most cost effective way of providing such information is through the development and use of reliable theoretical prediction methods. The need for some form of remote sensing device was identified. The various possibilities studied led to the conclusion that LIDAR (Light Detection And Ranging) offered the most suitable method. The system designed and built is described, and its recent use in monitoring operational ventings from a high pressure transmission system is discussed.

Description: The Pilot Land Data System (PLDS) is a multi-institutional effort directed towards solving the data access and management needs of scientists studying the land surface. Some of the hardware and software, which are now available, are reviewed.

Description: The architecture and working of a recently implemented knowledge-based geographic information system (KBGIS-2) that was designed to satisfy several general criteria for the geographic information system are described. The system has four major functions that include query-answering, learning, and editing. The main query finds constrained locations for spatial objects that are describable in a predicate-calculus based spatial objects language. The main search procedures include a family of constraint-satisfaction procedures that use a spatial object knowledge base to search efficiently for complex spatial objects in large, multilayered spatial data bases. These data bases are represented in quadtree form. The search strategy is designed to reduce the computational cost of search in the average case. The learning capabilities of the system include the addition of new locations of complex spatial objects to the knowledge base as queries are answered, and the ability to learn inductively definitions of new spatial objects from examples. The new definitions are added to the knowledge base by the system. The system is currently performing all its designated tasks successfully, although currently implemented on inadequate hardware. Future reports will detail the performance characteristics of the system, and various new extensions are planned in order to enhance the power of KBGIS-2.

Description: Remote sensing uses a wide variety of techniques and methods. Resulting data are analyzed by man and machine, using both analog and digital technology. The newest and most important initiatives in the U. S. civilian space program currently revolve around the space station complex, which includes the core station as well as co-orbiting and polar satellite platforms. This proposed suite of platforms and support systems offers a unique potential for facilitating long term, multidisciplinary scientific investigations on a truly global scale. Unlike previous generations of satellites, designed for relatively limited constituencies, the space station offers the potential to provide an integrated source of information which recognizes the scientific interest in investigating the dynamic coupling between the oceans, land surface, and atmosphere. Earth scientist already face problems that are truly global in extent. Problems such as the global carbon balance, regional deforestation, and desertification require new approaches, which combine multidisciplinary, multinational research teams, employing advanced technologies to produce a type, quantity, and quality of data not previously available. The challenge before the international scientific community is to continue to develop both the infrastructure and expertise to, on the one hand, develop the science and technology of remote sensing, while on the other hand, develop an integrated understanding of global life support systems, and work toward a quantiative science of the biosphere.

Description: The anisotropic array of detectors to be used in the Burst and Transient Experiment (BATSE) for locating gamma ray burst sources is examined with respect to its ability to locate those sources by means of the relative response of its eight detectors. It was shown that the energy-dependent attenuation effects of the aluminum window covering each detector has a significant effect on source location determinations. Location formulas were derived as a function of detector counts and gamma ray energies in the range 50 to 150 keV. Deviation formulas were derived and serve to indicate the location error that would be cuased by ignoring the influence of the passive absorber.

Description: Mapping of the Earth from space stations can be approached in two areas. One is to collect gravity data for defining topographic datum using Earth's gravity field in terms of spherical harmonics. The other is to search and explore techniques of mapping topography using either optical or radar images with or without reference to ground central points. Without ground control points, an integrated camera system can be designed. With ground control points, the position of the space station (camera station) can be precisely determined at any instant. Therefore, terrestrial topography can be precisely mapped either by conventional photogrammetric methods or by current digital technology of image correlation. For the mapping experiment, it is proposed to establish four ground points either in North America or Africa (including the Sahara desert). If this experiment should be successfully accomplished, it may also be applied to the defense charting systems.

Description: The characteristics of the shuttle-borne Large Format Camera are listed. The LFC focal plane format was 23 by 46 cm, double the usual size, thereby acquiring approximately double the ground area. Forward motion compensation was employed. With the stable platform (shuttle) it was possible to use the slow exposure, high resolution, Kodak aerial films; 3414 and 3412 black and white, SO-242 color, and SO-131 aerochrome infrared. The camera was designed to maintain stability during varying temperature extremes of space.

Description: The radiometric calibration accuracy of the Shuttle Imaging Radar (SIR-C) sensor is discussed. The analysis includes the antenna, RF electronics, the digital data handling system, the platform attitude control, attitude determination accuracy, and orbit effects. The radiometric distortion of the image products by the ground processing system used for the image formation is also considered. Since the SIR-C system is a dual-frequency quad-polarized system (i.e., 8 channels), the amplitude and phase error is considered over all possible operating modes and environments for absolute and relative (long-term and short-term) calibration within a channel and across channels.

Description: Image processing methods and software used to animate nonimaging remotely sensed data on cloud cover are described. Three FORTRAN programs were written in the VICAR2/TAE image processing domain to perform 3D perspective rendering, to interactively select parameters controlling the projection, and to interpolate parameter sets for animation images between key frames. Operation of the 3D programs and transferring the images to film is automated using executive control language and custom hardware to link the computer and camera.

Description: Imaging spectrometry for the remote sensing of the Earth is introduced. Reflected solar energy from the surface is dispersed in a spectrometer and used to form up to 200 registered spectral images. Each pixel has associated with it sufficient information for the reconstruction of a complete reflectance spectrum. The technique allows the diagnostic narrow band spectral features that are characteristic of many surface materials to be used to identify those materials. These spectral features are typically 20 to 40 nm wide; spectral imaging systems which acquire data in contiguous 10 nm bands therefore have sufficient resolution for direct identification of those materials with diagnostic spectral bands.

Description: Remote sensing systems were used to monitor forest decline damage suspected of being due to air pollution. Field activities and aircraft overflights were centered on montane spruce/fir forest sites. Using aircraft data acquired with the Thematic Mapper Simulator (TMS) and LANDSAT Thematic Mapper (TM) during the growing season, extensive areas of forest decline damage were accurately mapped. Seven levels of decline damage are discrininated and mapped and the levels of discriminated damage agree well (rsq-0.94) with visual assessment conducted on the ground. New areas of high damage were discovered. A band ratio (TM5/TM4) is most useful in discriminating and quantifying the various levels of forest decline damage.