Radiometric Aspects Of

Remotely Sensed Data

Compiled by: Oluwafemi Opaleye
Contents
Introduction
Pre-processing
Radiometric errors
System/Sensor corrections
Atmospheric corrections
!re-!rocessing
Pre-processing consist oI those operations that
prepare data Ior subsequent analysis which
attempts to compensate Ior systematic errors.
The digital imageries are subiected to several
corrections such as geometric, radiometric and
atmospheric, though all these correction might not
be necessarily be applied in all cases.
The errors are mostly systematic and are being
corrected beIore the images reach the users.
Pre-processing reIers to those operations that are
preliminary to the main analysis.
The operations may involve removal oI unwanted
and distracting elements such as image noise.
Removal oI these eIIects Irom the digital data are
said to be 'restored to their correct or original
condition.
Though attempts to correct data, may also
introduce errors.
Many remote sensing datasets contain high-
quality, accurate data. UnIortunately, sometimes
error (or noise) is introduced into the remote
sensor data by:
the environment (e.g., atmospheric scattering,
cloud),
systematic malIunction oI the remote sensing
system (e.g., an uncalibrated detector creates
striping)
mage Quality
The Pixel values / DN oI remotely sensed images are
oI valuable importance to researchers Irom diIIerent
Iields.
In the absence oI an atmosphere, the electromagnetic
radiation leaving the ground will reach the orbiting
sensor practically unaltered in any wavelength
i.e. what is recorded by the satellite directly
corresponds to the radiance leaving the target on
Earth in the wavelength range under consideration.
The raw image as received Irom the satellite has
quite a number oI deIects suIIered at the time oI
acquisition.
Many oI these deIects, iI not all, have to, be
removed or corrected Ior beIore the image is
subiected to Iurther processing Ior diIIerent
applications.
Nowadays these corrections are typically executed
(iI required) at the satellite data receiving stations
or image-processing centres, beIore reaching the
Iinal user.
It is the corrected (i.e. pre-processed) image which
is commercialized to diverse users.
Image pre-processing (Image Restoration) thus
lays emphasis on 7,/42097..4770.9438 and
042097.97,381472,943.
Radiometric Correction:
removal oI sensor or atmospheric 'noise',
to accurately represent ground conditions:
to correct data loss,
remove haze, enable mosaicking and comparison.
Radiometric correction is used to modiIy DN
values in order to account Ior sensor malIunctions
or to adiust the values to compensate Ior
atmospheric degradation.
Obiective is to recover the 'true radiance /DN
value oI the acquired image.
Radiometric Corrections are carried out when
an image data recorded by the sensors contain
errors in the measured brightness values oI the
pixels.
These errors are reIer to as radiometric errors
and can result Irom:
nstruments used to record the data :
mechanical, electronical or communication Iailure.
2 rom the effect of the atmosphere:
interaction oI EM energy with atmospheric
constituents.
Radiometric Corrections
Sometimes detectors are not precisely equivalent in
their output characteristics, and their output
changes gradually over time.
Sometimes when the emitted or reIlected electro-
magnetic energy is observed by a sensor on board
an aircraIt or a spacecraIt, the observed energy
does not coincide with the energy emitted or
reIlected Irom the same obiect observed Irom a
short distance.
This is sometimes due to atmospheric conditions
such as Iog or aerosols, sensor's response etc.
which inIluence the observed energy.
This might cause a decrease in image contrast.
By subtracting the lowest reIlectance value Irom
all the radiometric values in the data set, the
'error is reduced/eliminated.
This process is called Haze Removal.
Sources of Radiometric Error
Detectors/ Sensor !roblems
The response to electromagnetic signal by the
detectors varies as a Iunction oI the signals
wavelength (spectral sensitivity), so also the detectors
have the smallest energy they can detect below which
nothing can be detected (photoelectric sensitivity).
Further, the detectors do not perIorm equally
neither are they all active at any given time.
Any detector is subiect to random Iluctuations
caused by electronic or structural deIects in its
design, Iabrication or power supply.
Errors also occur when a detector malIunctions
permanently or temporary. Due to:
changes with time
rise in temperature
Failure
Atmospheric Effects
The gases oI the atmosphere absorb EME at
speciIic wavelengths called absorption bands.
Wavelengths shorter than 0.33m are completely
absorbed by the ozone (0
3
) layer in the upper
atmosphere.
Clouds consist oI aerosol-sized particles oI liquid
water (water droplets) that absorb and scatter
electromagnetic radiation (EMR) at wavelengths
shorter than 0.3cm (3.0 x 1033m).
Only radiation oI microwave and longer
wavelengths are capable oI penetrating clouds
without being scattered, reIlected or absorbed.
The eIIect that the atmosphere has on ground
signal will depend on the degree oI atmospheric
absorption, scatter and emission at the time and
geographical location (i.e. place) oI sensing.
Radiometric distortion can be oI two types:
- The relative distribution oI brightness value
over an image in a given band can be diIIerent
to that in the ground scene.
- the relative brightness oI a single pixel Irom
band to band can be distorted compared with
spectral reIlectance character oI the
corresponding region on the ground.
Effects of Radiometric Errors
oise
To some extent, electronic or structural deIects
produce a signal even in the absence oI any
radiation energy.
This is noise and it generally appears as
speckles/patches or snowy appearance on an
image oI an otherwise uniIorm surIace.
Image noise is any unwanted disturbance in image
data that due to limitations in the sensing and data
recording process.
Example
A noise can be detected by mutually comparing
neighbouring pixel values.
II the diIIerence between a given pixel value and
its surrounding values exceeds an analyst
speciIied threshold the pixel is assumed to contain
noise.
Solution for oise Error
Filtering oI random noise through the use oI Iilter
kernel oI various sizes.
The noisy pixel value can then be replaced by the
average oI its neighbouring values. Moving
window 3 x 3, 5 x 5, 7x7 or 9x9 pixel are
typically used in such procedures.
ine-Dropouts
It occurs when detector receives sudden high
radiance, creating a line or partial line oI data
with meaningless/spurious DN.
This can occur when a detector malIunctions
permanently or temporarily.
Line dropouts are usually corrected either by
replacing the deIective line by a duplicate oI
preceding or subsequent line, or taking average oI
the two.
Dropped lines (correction
Dropped lines (correction
Landsat ETM, Ior example has 16 detectors in
all its bands, a loss oI one oI the detector would
result in every 16
th
scan line being a string oI
zeros that would plot as a black line on the image
%he mage after correction and the D values
Dropped lines (comparison
Line striping is Iar more common than the line
dropouts. It occurs due to variations and driIt in the
response oI detectors.
Striping occurs iI a detector goes out oI adiustment
Although the detectors Ior all satellite sensors are
careIully calibrated and matched beIore the launch
oI the satellite, with time the response oI some
detectors may driIt to higher or lower levels.
As a result, every scan line recorded by that
detector is brighter or darker than the other lines.
ine Striping
It is important to understand that a valid data are
present in the deIective lines, but these must be
corrected to match the overall scene.
Some remote sensing soItware have Modeler
(algorithms) to eliminate striping.
Among these algorithms are simple along-line
convolution, high-pass Iiltering, and Iorward
and reverse principal component
transIormations (Crippen, 1989a).
Note that the de-striped image would look
similar to the original image.