Publications

A working conference was held in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, 12-14 November, 1980 dealing with Landsat classification Accuracy Assessment Procedures. Thirteen formal presentations were made on three general topics: (1) sampling procedures, (2) statistical analysis techniques, and (3) examples of projects which included accuracy assessment and the associated costs, logistical problems, and...

Scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey's Earth Resources Observation systems (EROS) Data Center have recently completed two land-cover mapping projects in which digital terrain data were used to refine Landsat classification results. Digital ter rain data were incorporated into the Landsat classification process using two different procedures that required developing decision criteria...

No abstract available.

A method for estimating the reflectance of ground sites from satellite radiance data is proposed and tested. The method uses the known ground reflectance from several sites and satellite data gathered over a wide range of solar zenith angles. The method was tested on each of 10 different Landsat images using 10 small sites in the Walker Lake, Nevada area. Plots of raw Landsat digital...

Improving arid land quality requires an understanding of the original state of the land and its relationship to wind, water, and plant regimes, as well as understanding of interactions within the present ecosystem. Chinese scientists and local residents have made significant advances in improving arid environments in gobi and sandy deserts and in less arid sandy lands. Wind patterns are...

Landsat digital images are commonly analyzed by using the digital numbers for each pixel recorded on a computer-compatible magnetic tape. Although this procedure may be satisfactory when only a single, internally consistent image is used, the procedure may produce incorrect results if more than one image is used for analysis as in mosaics or temporal overlays. The digital numbers for...

No abstract available.

Honey mesquite kill and suppression, vegetation response, and changes in grazing use and capacity were evaluated following brush control in north-central Texas. Tree grubbing was most effective for eliminating honey mesquite, but because of soil and plant damage the treatment did not increase grazing capacity or improve range condition compared to nontreated rangeland. Aerial application...

For decades Federal and State agencies have been collecting aerial photographs of various film types and scales over parts of the United States. More recently, worldwide Earth resources data acquired by orbiting satellites have inundated the remote sensing community. Determining the types of remotely sensed data that are publicly available can be confusing to the land-resource manager...

Characteristics of tropospheric desert aerosols are derived by comparing nadir spectral reflectivities computed from the radiative transfer models with reflectivities measured from Landsat. Over the ocean, reflectivities are compared, but over land the comparison is carried out by determining the ratios of the nadir reflectivity of the surface-atmosphere system over heavy aerosol...

A quantitative accuracy assessment was performed for the vegetation classification map produced as part of the Arizona Vegetation Resource Inventory (AVRI) project. This project was a cooperative effort between the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the Earth Resources Observation Systems (EROS) Data Center. The objective of the accuracy assessment was to estimate (with a precision of...

Tertiary and Quaternary nonmarine, petroleum-bearing sedimentary rocks in the Qaidam basin of remote western China have been extensively deformed by compressive forces. These forces created many folds which are current targets of Chinese exploration programs. Manual techniques of image analysis and interpretation were applied to computer-enhanced Landsat images of the western part of the...