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Image interpretation and analysis
Grundlagen Fernerkundung, Geo 123.1, FS 2014
Lecture 7a
Rogier de Jong
Michael Schaepman
Why are snow, foam, and clouds white?
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Why are snow, foam, and clouds white?
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Today’s topics
Book: Chapter 7, p. 482 – 623
Visualization and contrast
Spectral analysis
• Band combinations and indices
• Image transformation
Temporal analysis
• Change detection
Spatial analysis
• Filtering (high-pass and low-pass)
• Pixels and objects
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Visualization and contrast manipulation
• A sensor measures energy and has a certain dynamic range (DR)
• The lowest amount of energy that can be detected is recorded as 0
• The highest amount of energy that can be detected is recorded as 255
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Histogram stretching
DR sensor (0-255)
DR display (0-255)
DR sensor (60-158)
DR display (0-255)
Lillesand Fig. 7.13
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Histogram stretching
Lillesand Fig. 7.13
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Contrast
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Level slicing
• Discontinuous color mapping
• Subdividing the continuous range of values into discontinuous but
sequential groups (called bins or classes)
• Simplest way of making classes based on spectral values
0 – 10 aquamarine
11 – 50 sienna
51 – 100 dark green
101 – 255 color scale light
green to white
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Continuous color mapping
• 0-255 = 256 values
• 256 values = 28 = 8 bit
• 00 00 00 00 … 11 11 11 11
• Example: 01 10 01 01 =>
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Band combinations
Each spectral band represents a grey-scale image. Three of these bands
can be assigned to the display colors red (R), green (G) and blue (B) to
obtain a full-color image.
3 bands, 0-255 each = 24 bit ‘color depth’
(16.7 million colors)
blue green red
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True-color image
R
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Color-infrared image R
Red = Near IR (band 4)
Green = Red (band 3)
Blue = Green (band 2)
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False-color images using 7 Landsat bands
Landsat bands
1 0.45-0.52 µm Blue
2 0.52-0.60 µm Green
3 0.63-0.69 µm Red
4 0.76-0.90 µm Near IR
5 1.55-1.75 µm Mid-IR
6 10.40-12.50 µm Thermal IR
7 2.08-2.35 µm Mid-IR
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Spectral analysis
R,G,B = R,G,B
R,G,B = NIR,R,G
Lillesand Plate 3
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Spectral analysis
R,G,B = R,G,B
R,G,B = SWIR,NIR,G
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Band operations
Per-pixel mathematical operations and transformations, where equation
variables are represented by various spectral bands
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Simple band ratios
HOTSPOT" DARKSPOT"
• Minimize topographic effects on
spectral information."
• The DN ratio for a sunlit pixel is
nearly identical to the DN ratio
for a shadowed pixel."
"
Lillesand Fig. 7.25
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Maximizing spectral contrast
Color-infrared (CIR) images provide the best contrast for vegetation (lecture 2)
Why?
R = Near IR
G = Red
B = Green
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Vegetation in visible versus near infrared
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Maximizing spectral contrast
Green, dense For vegetation:" Brown or sparse
Red Infrared • Reflectance is highest in NIR Red Infrared
and lowest in RED"
• Both change if vegetation
changes (senescence animation
in previous lecture)"
• The ratio NIR / RED gives
therefore the highest contrast
and the best way to quantify
changes"
"
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Spectral index
• A mathematical combination of spectral regions (or bands) is known as a
spectral index.
• For vegetation, these indices represent ‘greenness’ in terms of
photosynthetic activity (not ‘greenness’ in terms of color)
• Many other spectral indices exist, for example for soils/geology (texture, iron
content, soil organic carbon), for snow and ice (grain size, contamination),
for water (chlorophyll content, dissolved organic matter) and for the
atmosphere (NO2 concentration, aerosols, ozone)
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Spectral index
RED “Color-mapped” INDEX
NIR 1
0
Southern France (Cabrieres, Languedoc)
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Data transformations
• Aim at reducing the spectral
redundancy (i.e. correlation
between spectral bands)
• Compress the information
content in fewer bands with
decreasing variance
• Common example: Principal
Component Analysis (PCA)
Lillesand Fig. 7.27
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Data transformations
• The resulting bands can be
used for visual interpretation or
as input for classification
Apex, true color PC1 PC2 PC3 PC25 PC50
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Temporal analysis
“Detecting changes is the first step towards assigning causes”
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Change detection
Example:
Mapping of forest /
plantation disturbances
(red = disturbed)
2002 2003
Google Earth, 2014 2004 2005
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Temporal change: Aral Sea
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Temporal change: Rondonia, Brazil 2000-2008
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Temporal change: Dubai
2002-2011
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Types of change
• Short-term change
e.g. weather events
• Cyclic change
e.g. seasonality
• Sustained change
e.g. urban expansion (Dubai)
• Multidirectional change
e.g. drought stress and recovery
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Change detection techniques
• Image differencing
Calculate the difference or the ratio of two remotely sensed images.
Regions that differ from 0 (difference) or 1 (ratio) have changed.
• Post-classification comparison
Use same classification algorithm for two or more dates and detect
pixels that are assigned to a different class
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Change detection techniques
• Changed Vector Analysis
Calculate the vector between the
spectral response of a pixel at the
initial date versus following date(s).
Long vectors indicate large change.
• Composite image analysis
Apply a classification algorithm or a transformation on an image stack of
multiple dates. Pixels with similar changes show up in the same class.
Lillesand Fig. 7.59
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Change detection techniques
• Image regression
Regress spectral bands or indices
at date 1 versus date 2. Pixels that
deviate from the 1:1 line have
changed.
• Temporal regression
For time series, changes occurred if the regression coefficient of
observations against time is unequal to zero
Lillesand Fig. 7.61
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Image cube: ‘spectral’ profiles for one pixel
reflectance ~ wavelength
284 bands
(Apex)
288 bands
(Modis VI)
spectral index value ~ time
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Trend breaks
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Temporal regression: sustained and multidirectional
Herschel
5000
3000
Observation
Yt
1000
(one pixel)
1000
1000
Seasonality
St
500
β = 21.834 β = 12.617
800
p = 0.004 p = 0.367
se
l increa
600
Y = aX + b gradua fast
Changes decrease
Tt
400
stable
β = 6.680
200
p = 0.024
m = 234.773
1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010
Time (t)
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Mapping the change
Y = aX + b
Green increase (a > 0)
Red decrease (a < 0)
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Spatial analysis
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Spatial Image Filtering
• Filtering manipulates the image elements
• Filters are applied using kernels composed of size and weights
• Most common in image analysis: high-pass and low-pass filters
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High-pass filter (sharpening)
• Used to enhance high-frequency variations
• Disadvantage: enhances noise as well
• Kernel typically has high central value surrounded by 0 -1 0
(partially) negative weights; sum is 0 or higher -1 5 -1
0 -1 0
• Special case: Laplacian (2nd derivative) filter
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High-pass filter
3x3 kernel
14 28 13
0 -1 0
9 12 12
-1 5 -1 4
8 7 8 0 -1 0
(0*14) + (-1*28) + (0*13) + (-1*9) + (5*12) + (-1*12) + (0*8) + (-1*7) + (0*8) = 4
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Influence of kernel size
(High-pass filter)
• Radius 1, 10, 50 pixel(s)
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Low-pass filter (smoothing)
• Used to suppress high-frequency variation and noise
• Kernel with small positive values. Simplest case: all 1/9 1/9 1/9
values (1 / kernel size) and thus sum equals 1 1/9 1/9 1/9
• Kernel size (3x3, 5x5, …) determines degree of smoothing 1/9 1/9 1/9
• Special case: Gaussian filter (or “Gaussian blur”)
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Low-pass filter
14 28 13 3x3 kernel
1/9 1/9 1/9
9 12 12 1/9 1/9 1/9 12.33
1/9 1/9 1/9
8 7 8
(1/9*14) + (1/9*28) + (1/9*13) + (1/9*9) + (1/9*12) + (1/9*12) + (1/9*8) +
(1/9*7) + (1/9*8) = 12.33 OR 1/9 * (14+28+13+9+12+12+8+7+8) = 12.33
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Low-pass example: de-noise
noise
5%
low-pass
30%
50%
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Low-pass example: extract large objects
original image 15 x 15 low-pass “thresholding”
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High-pass and low-pass filters, overview
• High-pass 0 -1 0
-1 5 -1
0 -1 0
• Low-pass 1/9 1/9 1/9
1/9 1/9 1/9
1/9 1/9 1/9
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Pixels versus objects
• Statistical approaches
can be used to group
pixels based on spectral
similarity and on
neighborhood criteria
• These ‘segmentation’
techniques transform
per-pixel images into
discrete pixel groups
Lillesand Fig. 7.57
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Pixels versus objects
• Advantage:
Close to the human ability to
distinguish spatial relationships
• Disadvantage:
Models require scale and shape
parameters and therefore
strongly depend on user choices
• The segmented image can be
used for classification (lecture 12)
Lillesand Fig. 7.57
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To take home from this lecture
• Understand that the choice of analysis
technique depends on spectral, spatial
and temporal resolution
• Know which flavors of image-analysis
techniques exist without understanding
technical details
• Be able to select an approach given a
problem and to provide example
problems given an approach
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Thank you!
Next week: image classification
Grundlagen Fernerkundung, Geo 123.1, FS 2014
Lecture 7a
Rogier de Jong
Michael Schaepman
