Schueler, C. F. | Engineering Papers

NASA NTRS1987

Remote sensing technology and applications

Electro-optical imaging sensors form the principal devices that are typically used to obtain images of earth from satellite platforms, and substantial improvements in optics, electro-optical detection devices, cooling subsystems and composite structures have enabled the high quality performance exhibited by the current instrumentation. This paper reviews the fundamentals of system design for imaging sensors such as the Thematic Mapper on board Landsat, points out the key areas of current R&D, and briefly alludes to some important applications.

Schueler, C. F.↗

NASA NTRS1985

Landsat image data quality studies

Preliminary results of the Landsat-4 Image Data Quality Analysis (LIDQA) program to characterize the data obtained using the Thematic Mapper (TM) instrument on board the Landsat-4 and Landsat-5 satellites are reported. TM design specifications were compared to the obtained data with respect to four criteria, including spatial resolution; geometric fidelity; information content; and image relativity to Multispectral Scanner (MSS) data. The overall performance of the TM was rated excellent despite minor instabilities and radiometric anomalies in the data. Spatial performance of the TM exceeded design specifications in terms of both image sharpness and geometric accuracy, and the image utility of the TM data was at least twice as high as MSS data. The separability of alfalfa and sugar beet fields in a TM image is demonstrated.

Schueler, C. F.↗