ASPRS

PE&RS December 1998

VOLUME 64, NUMBER 12
PHOTOGRAMMETRIC ENGINEERING & REMOTE SENSING
JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR PHOTOGRAMMETRY AND REMOTE SENSING

Peer Reviewed Articles

1165 Potential of High-Resolution Satellite Imagery for National Mapping Products
Rongxing Li

Abstract
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The potential of the upcoming high-resolution (1-m ground resolution) satellite imagery for national mapping products is discussed. An analysis of the capabilities of these high-resolution imaging systems and existing satellite imaging systems for the representation and extraction of elevation information, such as terrain relief displacement and parallaxes, is given. In-track and cross-track stereo mapping techniques using satellite pushbroom CCD linear arrays are described. A photogrammetric processing model considering such geometry is introduced. Based on an error estimation and analysis, it is concluded that, if the strict photogrammetric processing model and ground control points are employed, high-resolution satellite imagery can be used for the generation and update of national mapping products (7.5-minute quadrangles at a map scale of 1:24,000),including Digital Elevation Models (DEM], Digital Orthophoto Quadrants (DOQ), Digital Line Graph (DLG) databases, and Digital Shoreline (DSL) databases. 

1171 Wavelets for SAR Image Smoothing
Graham Horgan

Abstract
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Wavelets are an increasingly widely used tool in many applications of signal and image processing. This paper reviews the basic ideas of wavelets for representing the information in signals such as time series and images, and shows how wavelet shrinkage may be used to smooth these signals. This is illustrated by application to a synthetic aperture radar image. Some guidelines on using wavelet shrinkage are given.

1179 A New Algorithm for Surface Determination Based on Wavelets and its Practical Application
Jaan-Rong Tsay and Bernhard P. Wrobel

Abstract
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A new wavelets-based algorithm, FAST Vision (facets stereo vision). is presented for an automatic and simultaneous determination of an object surface and its ortho image. Two families of orthogonal and C1 -continuous (continuously differentiable) object gray-value models, called "S-D-model" and "S-model, " respectively, were developed from the basic concept of multiresolution spaces. Both models establish two families of very simple gradient operators and enable FAST Vision to do a very high resolution representation of an object surface and a fast solution of a very large system of normal equations. Test results using digitized aerial images at a scale of 1 :4000 show that FAST Vision is capable of a fast, highly resolved, reliable, and precise determination of an object surface in large windows and with rigorous error computations. The very high resolution of 2 by 2 pixels per height facet (0.12 by 0.12 m2 in these tests) was obtained with the S-model in practical tests. The precision of the determined object surface was ± 0.02 to 0.06 m, i.e., 0.2 to 0.6 pixels or 0.03 to 0.1% of the flying height above ground, when compared with the control data measured by an operator on a Wild AC3 analytical stereoplotter. These figures correspond well with the natural roughness of the Earth's surface in the chosen test area. 

1189 The Influence of Geographic Sampling Methods on Vegetation Map Accuracy Evaluation in a Swampy Environment
C.P. Lo and Lee J. Watson

Abstract
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The effectiveness of five sampling methods was evaluated empirically to determine the thematic accuracy of six-class vegetation maps of two study areas in the Okefenokee Swamp produced by computer-assisted supervised classification of Landsat TM data. An exhaustive survey of the two study areas permitted estimates of overall, user's, and producer's accuracies to be made by each sampling method. The spatial pattern of classification errors also examined with the aid of spatial autocorrelation analysis. By comparing Kappa coefficients of agreement among error matrices generated by the different sampling methods and by applying Chi-square tests, the stratified random sampling method was found to perform best for thematic accuracy evaluation in a swampy environment where vegetation exhibited a mixture of simple and complex spatial patterns. The higher spatial resolution of the image data employed to produce the vegetation map tended to cause stronger positive spatial autocorrelation in the resultant map error pattern. 

1201 Spectral Reflectance and Detection of Iron-Oxide Precipitates Associated with Acidic Mine Drainage
John E. Anderson and Eleanora I. Robbins

Abstract
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The objective of this study is to develop a repeatable technique to spectrally discriminate between acid and neutral streams based on the reflectance characteristics of acid and neutral iron precipitates. Field spectral measurements were conducted in situ on iron-oxide precipitates coating bottom substrates of an acidified stream (pH<4) in the Virginia Gold-Pyrite Belt. Spectra of two neutral (pH 6 and 7) streams, one with iron precipitates present, were also measured. Acid precipitates were found to have higher spectral reflectance than neutral precipitates in the 650- to 750-nm region. With regard to water quality, the acid stream possessed low pH and high specific conductance.

Guided by the field spectral data, a remote sensing technique using bandpass interference filters and a digital multispectral video system was used to detect mine drainage in two Virginia streams. Where acidic discharge was present, false-color composites showed precipitates having high reflectance in both the 650-nm and 750-nm wavebands. In contrast, neutral iron-rich streams were low in reflectance, and streams unimpaired by mine drainage had virtually no detectable reflectance.
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