Image Analysis for ArcGIS Workshop

Satellite images and aerial photographs have become extremely important tools for studying and managing the environment. They provide a broad view of a region, giving you the ability to "see" over that next ridge or mountain, or across a border. Many satellites acquire multispectral images. This means they capture data for a scene at several sections of the electro-magnetic spectrum, many outside of the visible range of light. These data can be used to identify vegetation type and health, soil moisture, surface geology, and other landcover. Also there is an archive of images spanning approximately 35 years, making it possible to study changes over time.

ArcGIS can be used to display satellite images, along with other GIS data, to make dramatic maps and interesting background images to visually enhance your projects. However, by itself this program is not good at processing images to produce new data. The Spatial Analyst extension to ArcGIS is very good at analyzing and processing many types of raster data, such as soil or rainfall maps, but was not designed to process satellite images. This is where the Image Analysis extension to ArcGIS can be very useful.

The Image Analysis extension to ArcGIS has been specifically designed to process and analyze aerial photographs and satellite images. It has tools to import industry standard satellite image formats and apply various contrast stretching techniques to visually enhance these images. By combining various bands of multispectral satellite images, using unique contrast enhancements, you can often reveal a great deal of information that is not normally visible in a scene.

Rectification tools allow you to align images to a map coordinate system so that the data can be overlaid with existing projected data. Adjacent images can then be mosaicked into a single scene.
Indexes can be applied one or more layers of an image to create new data layers.
Classification tools can create landcover maps, quickly identifying areas of forest cover, agricultural fields, or urban build up. This allows for the rapid indetification and quantification of change over time.
These new layers of data can then be saved as shapefiles for further use in your research.

The Center for Earth Observation has developed a workshop to process satellite images using the ArcGIS Image Analysis extension. The goal of this workshop is to show you how to extract information from satellite images and aerial photographs using Image Analysis. A series of short lectures will provide a basic introduction to the concepts of remote sensing. Each lecture will be followed by lab exercises using images at the Center. This workshop will next be offered in three Wednesday sessions lasting approximately two hours each, beginning on 24 September 2008. Prior registration is required.

Future workshops will be scheduled as requested/required. Anyone interested in attending a future workshop should contact Larry Bonneau to discuss your specific goals and schedule.