DATE: Environmental Remote Sensing [EVT571] 1

UNIVERSITI TEKNOLOGI MARA

TOTAL MARKS:

PRACTICAL 4
OBJECTIVE:

To remove the path radiance using Dark Object Subtraction technique

LEARNING OUTCOMES:

Able to:
1. Identify dark pixel in the image
2. Remove path radiance
3. Examine before and after correction of atmospheric effect

STEP:

In the lecture, you learn about the interactions between EMR and atmospheric constituent. The
radiance includes two parts: one from the target (which is what we want), the other one is from
the path (path radiance, which is what we do not want). The process to remove the path
radiance is called atmospheric correction. There are two types of atmospheric corrections: (1)
absolute atmospheric correction: radiative transfer-based atmospheric correction and empirical
line calibration and (2) relative radiometric correction: Dark Object Subtraction (DOS) and
multiple-data image normalization using regression. In this lab, we will do a simple DOS
correction.

Figure 1: The earth’s spectral reflectance is the actual properties of selected target

Copyright March 2015: Arnis Asmat (PhD) UiTM Shah Alam

 Environmental Remote Sensing [EVT571] 2
UNIVERSITI TEKNOLOGI MARA

The principal of DOS includes:

(1) Find the darkest object in the image;

(2) Assume that its spectral reflectance should be all zero (target radiance);
(3) The measured values above zero are assumed to be the atmospheric noise (or path
radiance) and uniformly distributed on the image area;
(4) Subtract the path radiance from each pixel radiance of the image, and then we
should get a relatively atmospheric free image. Usually these dark objects are water
bodies (see below figure 1, the fresh water has very low reflectance, meaning water
absorbing most of light, especially after 0.75 µm).

A: Find dark target in the image

1. Open image file at Geomatica FOCUS using PCI software.

2. Click the Add layer wizard > select greyscale > load band 1
3. To display numeric values that correspond to selected target in the image. Click at
the toolbar > the numeric values will appear (Figure 2).
4. Move your cursor randomly on your image and you will observe the values is also
change.

Figure 2: Numeric values from Toolbar

5. To check minimum value you can display from histogram and use this as a benchmark as
a comparison of dark target that you will derive later.
6. From the Layer menu, select Histogram > Multi histogram display > click at the peak
value > Histogram with statistic will appear.
7. In this practical you need to find your own dark target. In finding the dark target from
the image, you can select water body or vegetation, shadow, cloud or anything that
appear very dark in the image.

Assoc. Prof. Dr Arnis Asmat (Copyright March 2015)

 Environmental Remote Sensing [EVT571] 3
UNIVERSITI TEKNOLOGI MARA

8. From the statistic, the lowest value is stated and write this value for further steps.

B: Path radiance subtraction

1. To subtract the path radiance. From the Tools menu, select EASI Modeling.
2. Input file > choose the image as given.
3. In the EASI Modeling dialog box, enter the following model:

%i= (%band-Lmin)

Where;

%i = empty channel for output (you can create more than one)
%band = input channel
Lmin= minimum numeric values

Figure 3: EASI modelling interface

4. After insert the complete equation > Click Run.

5. The model will be executed and the results were saved to output channel in the image
file and displayed in the Focus view area.
6. Close the image.
7. To open your atmospheric-free image, Open the image > click Add layer wizard > Select
greyscale > choose output band.
8. To see changes of numeric values, Click the Layer menu, select Histogram > Multi
histogram display > click at the peak value > Histogram with statistic appear.

Copyright: Arnis Asmat (PhD) UiTM Shah Alam

 Environmental Remote Sensing [EVT571] 2
UNIVERSITI TEKNOLOGI MARA

9. Repeat Step 1-6 (A and B) on your different waveband of your image as an input. To see
changes repeat at Step 8.

C: To analyze the differences on non-corrected and corrected image using numeric values

1. To show the difference of your numeric values before and after corrected. Choose
averaged 3 X 3 pixel’s window of features for water, vegetation/forest, urban, coastal
for each band using original (non-corrected) and atmospheric-free (corrected) image
(please be aware that the pixel extracted in this steps is not a dark pixel that used for
dark target in Part A).
2. Plot the values using Excel to show the difference.

Practical Highlights:

1. You should be able to understand the effect of path radiance contain in the remotely
sensed data.

2. Justify the chosen dark target in band 1.

3. Observe the features that possible give the lowest numeric values

4. You should be able to reasoning of retrieving dark object or target from the image in
removing the path radiance.

5. Analyze your result before and after the noise removing process.

6. Observe any specific features or your image and state if there is any difference after the
noise removed.

Assoc. Prof. Dr Arnis Asmat (Copyright March 2015)