DEVELOPMENT OF TECHNIQUES FOR

CORRECTION OF ARTEFACTS IN
REMOTE SENSING IMAGES
CE – 204
“ENGINEERING SURVEY”
REMOTE SENSING TECHNIQUES
1. Active sensors
2. Passive sensors
ACTIVE SENSORS
1. LiDAR
2. Radar
3. InSAR
4. PSInSAR
5. SAR
6. SRT
7. SqueeSAR
PASSIVE SENSORS
1. Aerial Photography
2. FLIR
3. Geodetic Survey
4. Hyperspectral Imaging
5. Long-Wave Infrared
6. Multispectral Imaging
7. Near Infrared Surveys
8. Oblique Aerial & Ground Visible Band & Thermographic Imaging
9. Radiometrics
10.SWIR
SOURCES OF ERRORS BY OPTICAL SENSING
DEVICES
1. Irradiance Variation
2. Sensor Calibration error
3. Sensor radiometric resolution
4. Sensor drift
5. Signal digitization
6. Atmospheric attenuation
7. Atmospheric path radiance
CONCEPT OF IMAGE DISTORTION AND
CORRECTION
• Image Distortions Any kind of errors present in remote sensing images are
known as image distortions. Any remote sensing images acquired from
either spaceborne or airborne platforms are susceptible to a variety of
distortions. These distortions occur due to data recording procedure, shape
and rotation of the Earth and environmental conditions prevailing at the
time of data acquisition
• Distortions occurring in remote sensing images can be categorised into two
types:
• radiometric distortions
• geometric distortions.
• Sensors record the intensity of electromagnetic radiation (EMR) as digital
numbers (DNs). These DNs are specific to the sensor and conditions under
which they were measured.
The recorded values get distorted due to one or more of the following factors:
• sensor ageing
• random malfunctioning of the sensor elements
• atmospheric interference at the time of image acquisition and • topographic
effects.
The above factors affect radiometry (variation in the pixel intensities) of the
images and resultant distortions are known as radiometric distortions.
• the distance, area, direction and shape properties vary across an image, thus
these errors are known as geometric errors/distortions
There are several factors causing geometric distortions such as:
• Earth’s rotation
• Earth’s curvature
• satellite platform instability and
• instrument error.
IMAGE CORRECTIONS
• Raw remote sensing images always contain significant amount of
distortions, therefore, they cannot be used directly for further image
analysis. The image correction involves image operations which normally
precedes manipulation and analysis of image data to extract specific
information. The primary aim of image correction operations is to correct
distorted image data to create a more accurate representation of the original
scene. Image corrections are also known as a preprocessing of remotely
sensed images
• Radiometric correction attempts to improve the accuracy of
measurements made by remote sensors pertaining to the spectral reflectance
or emittance or back-scatter from the objects on the Earth surface.
• Geometric correction is the process of correcting geometric distortions
and assigning the properties of a map to an image.

Both of these corrections are made prior to actual use of remote sensing data
in resource management, environmental monitoring and change detection
applications by application scientists
CORRECTION OF RADIOMETRIC
ERRORS
• Correction of radiometric errors requires knowledge about EMR principles
and the interactions that take place during data acquisition process. The
radiometric correction can benefit from the terrain information such as
slope and aspect and advanced information like bi-directional reflectance
distribution function (BRDF) characteristics of the scene
Radiometric correction, or radiometric calibration, is a procedure meant to
correctly estimate the target reflectance from the measured incoming
radiation
The radiometric calibration includes the following steps: –
Sensor normalization
• correcting the data for Sensor Irregularities (sensor noise)
• Converting the data so they accurately represent the reflected or emitted
radiation measured by the sensor.
DN to at-sensor radiance conversion
GEOMETRIC CORRECTION
• Geometric correction is the process of correction of raw remotely sensed data for errors of
skew, rotation and perspective.
• Rectification is the process of alignment of an image to a map (map projection system). In
many cases, the image must also be oriented so that the north direction corresponds to the top of
the image. It is also known as georeferencing.
• Registration is the process of alignment of one image to another image of the same area not
necessarily involving a map coordinate system.
• Geocoding is a special case of rectification that includes geographical registration or coding of
pixels in an image. Geocoded data are images that have been rectified to a particular map
projection and pixel size. The use of standard pixel sizes and coordinates permits convenient
overlaying of images from different sensors and maps in a GIS.
• Orthorectification is the process of pixel-by-pixel correction of an image for topographic
distortion. Every pixel in an orthorectified image appears to view the Earth from directly above,
i.e., the image is in an orthographic projection.
It is essential to remove geometric errors because non-removal of geometric
distortions in an image may not be able to:
• relate features of the image to field data
• compare two images taken at different times and carry out change analysis
• obtain accurate estimates of the area of different regions in the image and
• relate, compare and integrate the image with any other spatial data.
IMAGE PROCESSING
It is enhancing an image or extracting information or features from an image
Computerized routines for information extraction (eg, pattern recognition,
classification) from remotely sensed images to obtain categories of
information about specific features.

IMAGE ENHANCEMENT
Image Enhancement: Improving the interpretability of the image by
increasing apparent contrast among various features.
– Contrast manipulation: Gray-level thresholding, level slicing, and contrast
stretching. – Spatial feature manipulation: Spatial filtering, edge
enhancement, and Fourier analysis.
ENHANCEMENT
To make image easier for visual interpretation Enhancements are used. The
advantage of digital imagery is that it allows us to manipulate the digital pixel
values in an image. Although radiometric corrections for illumination,
atmospheric influences, and sensor characteristics may be done prior to
distribution of data to the user, the image may still not be optimized for
visual interpretation. Image Enhancement methods are of four types
(i) Radiometric Enhancement
(ii) Spatial Enhancement
(iii) Spectral Enhancement
(iv) Geometric Enhancement
APPLICATIONS
• The main applications of remote sensing includes Agriculture, Forestry, Geology, Hydrology,
Sea ice, land cover Mapping, Oceans and Coastal
REMOTE SENSING IMAGE ANALYSIS TOOLS
• GRASS Geographic Resources Analysis Support System (GRASS) is used to perform (i)
Image Classification (ii) Radiometric Corrections (iii) Principle Component Analysis
(iv) Edge Detection (v) 3D analysis (vi) Geo-statistical analysis (v) Filtering options.
Another important feature of GRASS is the LiDAR processing and analysis.
• PolSARPro This software mainly handles SAR data (TerraSARX, ALOS-PALSAR,
ENVISAT-ASAR and RADARSAT-2). PolSARPro is used to perform (i)
Conversion (ii) Importing (iii) Decompositions (iv) Filtering (v) InSAR processing and
calibration. Another important feature of this software is the graph processing framework
and provides automate workflow
• ArcGIS is a Geographic Information System (GIS) for working with maps and
geographic information. ArcGIS is used to perform (i) Mapping (ii) Analyzing mapped
information (iii) Compiling geographic data (iv)Managing geographic information in a
database (v) compiling geographic data
• QGIS: Quantum GIS QGIS is open source GIS software available for free. QGIS is used to
perform (i) Analyze spatial data (ii) Visualize Spatial data (iii) Interpret and understand
spatial data (iv) Map algebra (v) Hydrologic modeling (vi) Surface interpolation and slope
analysis.
• ERDAS IMAGINE is a raster-based software package. It is designed mainly to extract
information from imagery. ERDAS IMAGINE is used to perform (i) Image Ortho-rectification
(ii) Re-projection (iii) classification and interpretation (iv) Mosaicking. The important feature
is, it provides user to to analyze image data and present it in formats ranging from printed
maps to 3D models.