Interpretation of Multispectral Remote Sensor Data

The United States Army Engineer Waterways Experiment Station is engaged in a study to detect from ERTS-1 satellite data alterations to the absorption and scattering properties caused by the movement of suspended particles and solutes in selected areas of the Chesapeake Bay and to correlate the data to determine the feasibility of delineating flow patterns, flushing action of the estuary, and sediment and pollutant dispersion. Data processing techniques have been developed that permit automatic interpretation of data from any multispectral remote sensor with computer systems which have limited memory capacity and computing speed. The multispectral remote sensor is considered as a reflectance spectrophotometer. The data that define the spectral reflectance characteristics of a scene are scanned pixel by pixel. Each pixel whose spectral reflectance matches a reference spectrum is identified and the results are shown in a map. This paper describes the interpretation technique and presents as an example interpreted data from the ERTS-1.