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LANDSAT-4/5 image data quality analysis

A LANDSAT Thematic Mapper (TM) quality evaluation study was conducted to identify geometric and radiometric sensor errors in the post-launch environment. The study began with the launch of LANDSAT-4. Several error conditions were found, including band-to-band misregistration and detector-to detector radiometric calibration errors. Similar analysis was made for the LANDSAT-5 Thematic Mapper and compared with results for LANDSAT-4. Remaining band-to-band misregistration was found to be within tolerances and detector-to-detector calibration errors were not severe. More coherent noise signals were observed in TM-5 than in TM-4, although the amplitude was generally less. The scan direction differences observed in TM-4 were still evident in TM-5. The largest effect was in Band 4 where nearly a one digital count difference was observed. Resolution estimation was carried out using roads in TM-5 for the primary focal plane bands rather than field edges as in TM-4. Estimates using roads gave better resolution. Thermal IR band calibration studies were conducted and new nonlinear calibration procedures were defined for TM-5. The overall conclusion is that there are no first order errors in TM-5 and any remaining problems are second or third order.

Malaret, E.↗

Data Quality Challenges for Analysis Ready Data (ARD)

Data quality plays a critical role in research and applications. The Earth Science Information Partners (ESIP) Information Quality Cluster (IQC) defines four aspects of information quality: Science, Product, Stewardship, and Services. The ESIP IQC has become internationally recognized as an authoritative and responsive resource of information and guidance to data producers and distributors on how to implement data quality standards and best practices for their science data systems, datasets, and data/metadata dissemination services. In recent years, cloud computing environments have provided scale-up capabilities such as data archives and services, enabling interdisciplinary science and applications. More value-added products are expected from data service providers, including Analysis Ready Data (ARD). ARD refers to data that has been preprocessed into a form that allows immediate analysis by the end user, processed to a minimum set of requirements and provides interoperability over time and across multiple datasets. Once a dataset has been developed from its original form to produce ARD, what quality characteristics should the derived dataset or ARD possess? Also, is it safe to assume that the quality of the ARD is consistent with the quality of the source data, or are there special attributes to an ARD that would warrant a secondary, independent quality assessment? What provenance (also called “data lineage”) information needs to be included in ARD? It is important to answer these questions, especially given the ease of use of ARD, and the consequent temptation by users to trust ARD without understanding the limitations or possible variations in quality compared to the source data. In this presentation, we will discuss data quality challenges for ARD products and services and introduce IQC for participation.

data quality↗

A compilation and analysis of helicopter handling qualities data. Volume 2: Data analysis

A compilation and an analysis of helicopter handling qualities data are presented. Multiloop manual control methods are used to analyze the descriptive data, stability derivatives, and transfer functions for a six degrees of freedom, quasi static model. A compensatory loop structure is applied to coupled longitudinal, lateral and directional equations in such a way that key handling qualities features are examined directly.

Heffley, R. K.↗

Effects of temperature fluctuations of IUE data quality

Analysis of IUE calibration lamp images shows that variation in the temperature of the scientific instrument causes shifts in the location of the spectral format with respect to the reseau grid on the detector and in the location of the reseaux themselves. In high dispersion, a camera head amplifier temperature difference of 6C corresponds to a shift of 4 pixels in the spectral format for LWR and 2 pixels for SWP along the dispersion direction. Shifts perpendicular to the disperson (for the same temperature difference) are less than one pixel for both cameras. In low dispersion spectra, the shifts are similar but orthogonal to those described above with the larger motion lying in the direction perpendicular to the dispersion. In both dispersion modes, the observed shifts are apparently independent of wavelength. In high dispersion, the constant pixel shift mimics a constant velocity error.

Thompson, R. W.↗

Calibration and Change Detection of [Alaska Satellite Facility] ASF/ERS-1 SAR Image Data

The results of a calibration analysis performed on ERS-1 synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images produced by the Alaska SAR facility (ASF) are presented, together with some preliminary results on change detection on the Alaskan north slope derived from the same images. Image quality, geometric and radiometric fidelity, and repeat pass radiometric stability have all been determined to be satisfactory. A calibration workstation has been designed and implemented for use in operational data quality analysis of ASF data products. Higher-level data analysis programs have been developed for interferometry, texture analysis, and change detection.

Fatland, Rob↗

Characterization of Landsat-4 MSS and TM digital image data

The launch of Landsat-4 in July 1982 represents a continuation in the remote sensing of earth resources. The 80-m spatial resolution provided by the Multispectral Scanner (MSS) on board the satellite is fine enough to resolve many natural features and land-use details in both rural and urban settings. The second sensor of the spacecraft, the Thematic Mapper (TM), introduces a new era of sensing with refined spatial resolution (30 m) and expanded spectral coverage (7 bands). This paper describes results from engineering studies of the characteristics of digital image data from the two Landsat-4 sensors. These studies form a part of the Landsat-4 Image Data Quality Analysis program (LIDQA). The image data were generally found to be of high quality and the TM provided several improvements over the MSS, in its spatial and spectral characteristics.

Malila, W. A.↗

Characterization of LANDSAT-4 MSS and TM digital image data

The launch of LANDSAT-4 in July 1982 represents a continuation in the remote sensing of earth resources. The 80-m spatial resolution provided by the Multispectral Scanner (MSS) on board the satellite is fine enough to resolve many natural features and land-use details in both rural and urban settings. The second sensor of the spacecraft, the Thematic Mapper (TM), introduce a new era of sensing with refined spatial resolution (30 m) and expanded spectral coverage (7 bands). This paper describes results from engineering studies of the characteristics of digital image data from the two LANDSAT-4 sensors are described. These studies form a part of the LANDSAT-4 Image Data Quality Analysis program (LIDQA). The image data were generally found to be of high quality and the TM provided several improvements over the MSS, in its spatial and spectral characteristics.

Malila, W. A.↗

Multi-station lunar laser ranging - An analysis of data quality and earth rotation results

The lunar laser ranging (LLR) results obtained from the MERIT period (Sept. 1983 through Oct. 1984) as well as from the post-MERIT period (Nov. 1, 1984 through Aug. 12, 1985) are presented. The ranging targets on the moon include the Apollo 11, 14, and 15 reflectors and a reflector on Lunokhod 2; the LLR network includes McDonald, Texas; CERGA, France; Haleakala, Hawaii; Orroral, Australia; and Crimea, USSR, stations. Data acquired with these systems are reported, and the data quality is assessed, with particular emphasis on recent ranges. During the MERIT period, sixty-five earth rotation values (UTO) were derived from LLR data, with the best accuracy being 0.25 msec; during the post-MERIT period, 115 determinations of UTO were calculated with the best inherent accuracy of about 0.1 msec. The results are compared with those from other techniques.

Dickey, J. O.↗

Recent data quality and earth science results from the Landsat thematic mapper

The results of the NASA Landsat Image Data Quality Analysis (LIDQA) program are reviewed. Landsat-4 and Landsat-5 TM data quality with regard to image geometry and radiometry are discussed. The results indicate that the TM provides excellent imagery that can be used in the form of satellite image maps meeting cartographic standards at scales of 1:100,000 or smaller. These data can be used to locate features or guide the revision or updating of maps for scales up to 1:24,000. The TM sensor is also providing data of good radiometric quality and stability, with radiometric uncertainties of 1 percent or smaller. The temperature dependence in the absolute radiometry is on the order of 1 to 5 percent of full scale. In terms of bidirectional reflectance estimated at the satellite, the error is estimated at under 6 percent and commonly 3 percent. Preliminary results also corroborate the utility of the TM data for geological or geographical studies.

Salomonson, Vincent V.↗

Analysis of ETMS Data Quality for Traffic Flow Management Decisions

The data needed for air traffic flow management decision support tools is provided by the Enhanced Traffic Management System (ETMS). This includes both the tools that are in current use and the ones being developed for future deployment. Since the quality of decision support provided by all these tools will be influenced by the quality of the input ETMS data, an assessment of ETMS data quality is needed. Motivated by this desire, ETMS data quality is examined in this paper in terms of the unavailability of flight plans, deviation from the filed flight plans, departure delays, altitude errors and track data drops. Although many of these data quality issues are not new, little is known about their extent. A goal of this paper is to document the magnitude of data quality issues supported by numerical analysis of ETMS data. Guided by this goal, ETMS data for a 24-hour period were processed to determine the number of aircraft with missing flight plan messages at any given instant of time. Results are presented for aircraft above 18,000 feet altitude and also at all altitudes. Since deviation from filed flight plan is also a major cause of trajectory-modeling errors, statistics of deviations are presented. Errors in proposed departure times and ETMS-generated vertical profiles are also shown. A method for conditioning the vertical profiles for improving demand prediction accuracy is described. Graphs of actual sector counts obtained using these vertical profiles are compared with those obtained using the Host data for sectors in the Fort Worth Center to demonstrate the benefit of preprocessing. Finally, results are presented to quantify the extent of data drops. A method for propagating track positions during ETMS data drops is also described.

Chatterji, Gano B.↗

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.↗

Interactive analysis and evaluation of ERTS data for regional planning and urban development: A Los Angeles Basin case study

The progression endemic to the ERTS Data Use Experiment SR 124 in data quality, analysis sophistication and applications responsiveness is reviewed. The roles of the variety of ERTS products, including the supporting underflight aircraft imagery at various scales, are discussed in the context of this investigation. The versatility of interpretation techniques and outputs developed and implemented via the General Electric Multispectral Information Extraction Systems is described and exemplified by both system-expository and applications-explanatory products. The wide-ranging and in-depth applications studied in the course of this experiment can be characterized as community-oriented and agency-directed. In the former, generic category, which is primarily data-contextual, problems analyzed dealt with agricultural systems, surface water bodies, snow cover, brush fire burns, forestry, grass growth, parks - golf courses - cemeteries, dust storms, grading sites, geological features and coastal water structure. The ERTS MSS band selectivity and measurements thresholds were of primary interest here. The agency-directed application areas have been user-evaluational in nature. Beginning with overall urbanized regional analysis of land cover density-development intensity, residential areas were analyzed for ascertaining if housing types could be aggregated with any degree of reliability.

Raje, S.↗

Comparative evaluations of the geodetic accuracy and cartographic potential of Landsat-4 and Landsat-5 Thematic Mapper image data

A Landsat Image Data Quality Analysis (LIDQA) Program is conducted by NASA. One part of this program forms studies which are being performed with the objective to evaluate the geometric fidelity of Landsat-4 and Landsat-5 Thematic Mapper (TM) data in computer tape (CCT-pt) formats. It is pointed out that the Landsat-4 and Landsat-5 systems provide image data of significantly better geometric fidelity than were obtained from the earlier Landsat missions. Attention is given to the factors which influence the geometric fidelity of the Landsat TM data, the study areas and data sets, the rectification procedures, the rectification of Landsat-4 TM data and comparisons of the Scrounge and the TM Image Processing System (TIPS), the rectification of system and scene corrected Landsat-5 data processed on TIPS, and the cartographic potential of TM data.

Welch, R.↗

UH-60A Airloads Flight Test Program: Data Counter 9017

Aeromechanics Branch interns at Ames Research Center have been directly contributing to the data quality analysis and reporting of the UH-60A Airloads Flight Test Program for many years. In chronological order (together with the semester and year): Caroline Edwards (Summer 2011); Joni DeGuzman and Carson Turner (Fall 2011); Eric Fritz (Spring 2012); Connor Beierle (Fall 2012); Christopher Olinger (Spring and Summer 2013); Needa Lin, Anatole Levkoff, Maxwell Loebig, Jose Orejel, Megan Prout, and Albert Sue (Summer 2014); Jared Archey (Fall 2014); Alexander Crone (Summer 2015); Jeffrey Diament, Austin Djang, and Jessica Swan (Summer 2016); Makenzie Allen (Summer 2017); Colin Lauzon (Fall 2017); Eric Gilkey (Spring 2018); and Nicholas Masso (Summer 2019). These interns have spent their internships reviewing flight logs, extracting the data out of TRENDS, formatting the data into spreadsheets, writing code to automate the process, and plotting results. Without their efforts, much of the work would be unfinished. The authors appreciate the achievements of the UH-60A Airloads Working Group during its 20-year lifetime, as well the contributions of Randy Peterson, Tom Norman, and William Warmbrodt to the data processing and assistance with the report preparation. Lastly, this report is dedicated to William Bousman for his efforts preceding, during, and subsequent to the UH-60A Airloads Flight Test Program.

Kufeld, Robert M.↗

Investigation of the Potential Saturation of Information from Global Navigation Satellite System Radio Occultation Observations with an Observing System Simulation Experiment

The potential impact of large numbers of Global Navigation Satellite System radio occultation (GNSS-RO) observations on numerical weather prediction is investigated using a global observing system simulation experiment (OSSE). The hybrid four-dimensional ensemble variational Gridpoint Statistical Interpolation (GSI) data assimilation system and Global Earth Observing System (GEOS) model are used to ingest up to 100,000 GNSS-RO soundings per day in addition to the current suite of conventional and radiance data. Analysis quality, forecast skill, and forecast sensitivity to observation impact are examined with differing quantities of additional GNSS-RO profiles. It is found that saturation of information from additional RO soundings has not been reached with 100,000 soundings per day. There are some indications of suboptimal performance of the GSI in handling GNSS-RO observations particularly in the middle and lower tropospheric extratropics.

GNSS-RO↗

Landsat Thematic Mapper image-derived MTF

The Landsat Image Data Quality Analysis (LIDQA) Program conducted by NASA has the objective to quantify the performance of the Thematic Mapper (TM) on the Landsat-4 and Landsat-5 spacecraft. The interest in the spatial resolution performance of the TM is partly related to the decrease of the instantaneous field of view (IFOV) from 80 m for the MSS to 30 m for the TM. Studies related to the preflight line spread function (LSF), square wave response (SWR), and theoretical component modeling of the TM system modulation transfer function (MTF) have been conducted. However, the need remains to estimate the MTF of the complete system. The present paper is concerned with investigations related to this task. Attention is given to three approaches for measuring the MTF of the TM system from imagery.

Schowengerdt, R. A.↗

Study of Spectral/Radiometric Characteristics of the Thematic Mapper for Land Use Applications

An investigation conducted in support of the LANDSAT 4/5 Image Data Quality Analysis (LIDQA) Program is discussed. Results of engineering analyses of radiometric, spatial, spectral, and geometric properties of the Thematic Mapper systems are summarized; major emphasis is placed on the radiometric analysis. Details of the analyses are presented in appendices, which contain three of the eight technical papers produced during this investigation; these three, together, describe the major activities and results of the investigation.

Malila, W. A.↗

Study of spectral/radiometric characteristics of the Thematic Mapper for land use applications: Objectives, accomplishments, conclusions, and recommendations

The objectives of this investigation are to quantify the performance of the Thematic Mapper, as manifested by the quality of its image data, in order to suggest improvements in data production and to assess the effects of the data quality on its utility for land resources applications. Analyses of radiometric, spatial, spectral, and geometric effects, with primary emphasis on radiometric effects are included. This effort is part of the LANDSAT 4/5 Image Data Quality Analysis (LIDQA) program sponsored by the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.

Malila, W. A.↗