The earth observing one (EO-1) Hyperion and Advanced land imager sensors for use in tundra classification studies within the Upper Kuparuk river basin, Alaska

UNCG Author/Contributor (non-UNCG co-authors, if there are any, appear on document)
Mary B. Hall-Brown, Lecturer (Creator)
Institution
The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG )
Web Site: http://library.uncg.edu/
Advisor
Roy Stine

Abstract: The heterogeneity of Arctic vegetation can make land cover classification very difficult when using medium to small resolution imagery (Schneider et al., 2009; Muller et al., 1999). Using high radiometric and spatial resolution imagery, such as the SPOT 5 and IKONOS satellites, have helped arctic land cover classification accuracies rise into the 80 and 90 percentiles (Allard, 2003; Stine et al., 2010; Muller et al., 1999). However, those increases usually come at a high price. High resolution imagery is very expensive and can often add tens of thousands of dollars onto the cost of the research. The EO-1 satellite launched in 2002 carries two sensors that have high spectral and/or high spatial resolutions and can be an acceptable compromise between the resolution versus cost issues. The Hyperion is a hyperspectral sensor with the capability of collecting 242 spectral bands of information. The Advanced Land Imager (ALI) is an advanced multispectral sensor whose spatial resolution can be sharpened to 10 meters. This dissertation compares the accuracies of arctic land cover classifications produced by the Hyperion and ALI sensors to the classification accuracies produced by the Systeme Pour l' Observation de le Terre (SPOT), the Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) and the Landsat Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+) sensors. Hyperion and ALI images from August 2004 were collected over the Upper Kuparuk River Basin, Alaska. Image processing included the stepwise discriminant analysis of pixels that were positively classified from coinciding ground control points, geometric and radiometric correction, and principle component analysis. Finally, stratified random sampling was used to perform accuracy assessments on satellite derived land cover classifications. Accuracy was estimated from an error matrix (confusion matrix) that provided the overall, producer's and user's accuracies. This research found that while the Hyperion sensor produced classification accuracies that were equivalent to the TM and ETM+ sensor (approximately 78%), the Hyperion could not obtain the accuracy of the SPOT 5 HRV sensor. However, the land cover classifications derived from the ALI sensor exceeded most classification accuracies derived from the TM and ETM+ sensors and were even comparable to most SPOT 5 HRV classifications (87%). With the deactivation of the Landsat series satellites, the monitoring of remote locations such as in the Arctic on an uninterrupted basis throughout the world is in jeopardy. The utilization of the Hyperion and ALI sensors are a way to keep that endeavor operational. By keeping the ALI sensor active at all times, uninterrupted observation of the entire Earth can be accomplished. Keeping the Hyperion sensor as a "tasked" sensor can provide scientists with additional imagery and options for their studies without overburdening storage issues.

Additional Information

Publication
Dissertation
Language: English
Date: 2012
Keywords
ALI, Arctic, Classification, Hyperion, Tundra
Subjects
Artificial satellites in remote sensing
Environmental monitoring $x Remote sensing
Land cover $z Alaska $z Kuparuk River Watershed

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