The Use of a Twelve ‐ Band Digital Video System As a Remote Sensing Research Tool

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to present multispectral imagery acquired with a twelve‐band airborne digital video imagery system (ADVIS) to demonstrate its potential use as a research tool for ascertaining spectral bands and/or band combinations to better characterize and assess natural resources. The ADVIS is capable of sequentially generating four real‐time TlF‐formatted digital false color composite images that can be readily displayed immediately after the flight mission in order to evaluate which composite image(s) provides better differences among land‐use cover types in scenes of interest. The imagery, however, needs to be registered for image processing and analysis. Emphasis is addressed to image comparisons of a visible false green color composite to a conventional color composite. The false green color imagery showed better differences among land use cover types than the conventional color imagery. The image comparison results showed that there are other visible spectral bands or band combinations superior to the typical band combination of conventional color imagery for enhancing differences among land cover features of scenes. The ADVIS has potential use for ascertaining optimal band(s) or band combination(s) for distinguishing, characterizing and/or detecting problems of natural resources.