Abstract
Remote Sensing of the Earth's resources from space-based sensors has evolved in the past twenty years from a scientific experiment to a commonly used technological tool. The scientific applications and engineering aspects of remote sensing systems have been studied extensively. However, most of these studies have been aimed at understanding individual aspects of the remote sensing process while relatively few have studied their interrelations. A motivation for studying these interrelationships has arisen with the advent of highly sophisticated configurable sensors as part of the Earth Observing System (EOS) proposed by NASA for the 1990's. These instruments represent a tremendous advance in sensor technology with data gathered In nearly 200 spectral bands, and with the ability for scientists to specify many observational parameters. It will be increasingly necessary for users of remote sensing systems to understand the tradeoffs and interrelationships of system parameters. In this report, two approaches to investigating remote sensing systems are developed. In one approach, detailed models of the scene, the sensor, and the processing aspects of the system are implemented In a discrete simulation, This approach is useful in creating simulated images with desired characteristics for use in sensor or processing algorithm development. A less complete, but computationally simpler method based on a parametric model of the system is also developed. In this analytical model the various informational classes are parameterized by their spectral mean vector and covariance matrix. These Class statistics are modified by models for the atmosphere, the sensor, and processing algorithms and an estimate made of the resulting classification accuracy among the informational classes. Application of these models is made to the study of the proposed High Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (HIRIS).; The interrelationships among observational conditions, sensor effects, and processing choices are investigated with several interesting results. Reduced classification accuracy in hazy atmospheres is seen to be due not only to sensor noise, but also to the increased path radiance scattered from the surface. The effect of the atmosphere is also seen in its relationship to view angle. In clear atmospheres, increasing the zenith view angle is seen to result in an increase in classification accuracy due to the reduced scene variation as the ground size of image pixels is increased. However, in hazy atmospheres the reduced transmittance and increased path radiance counter this effect and result in decreased accuracy with increasing view angle. The relationship between the Signal-to:Noise Ratio (SNR) and classification accuracy is seen to depend in a complex manner on spatial parameters and feature selection. Higher SNR values are seen to hot always result in higher accuracies, and even in cases of low SNR feature sets chosen appropriately can lead to high accuracies.
Date of this Version
8-1-1989
Comments
PhD