Analysing and correcting the differences between multi-source and multi-scale spatial remote sensing observations

PLoS One. 2014 Nov 18;9(11):e111642. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0111642. eCollection 2014.

Abstract

Differences exist among analysis results of agriculture monitoring and crop production based on remote sensing observations, which are obtained at different spatial scales from multiple remote sensors in same time period, and processed by same algorithms, models or methods. These differences can be mainly quantitatively described from three aspects, i.e. multiple remote sensing observations, crop parameters estimation models, and spatial scale effects of surface parameters. Our research proposed a new method to analyse and correct the differences between multi-source and multi-scale spatial remote sensing surface reflectance datasets, aiming to provide references for further studies in agricultural application with multiple remotely sensed observations from different sources. The new method was constructed on the basis of physical and mathematical properties of multi-source and multi-scale reflectance datasets. Theories of statistics were involved to extract statistical characteristics of multiple surface reflectance datasets, and further quantitatively analyse spatial variations of these characteristics at multiple spatial scales. Then, taking the surface reflectance at small spatial scale as the baseline data, theories of Gaussian distribution were selected for multiple surface reflectance datasets correction based on the above obtained physical characteristics and mathematical distribution properties, and their spatial variations. This proposed method was verified by two sets of multiple satellite images, which were obtained in two experimental fields located in Inner Mongolia and Beijing, China with different degrees of homogeneity of underlying surfaces. Experimental results indicate that differences of surface reflectance datasets at multiple spatial scales could be effectively corrected over non-homogeneous underlying surfaces, which provide database for further multi-source and multi-scale crop growth monitoring and yield prediction, and their corresponding consistency analysis evaluation.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Agriculture / methods
  • Algorithms*
  • Remote Sensing Technology / methods
  • Remote Sensing Technology / standards*
  • Signal-To-Noise Ratio

Grants and funding

This research was supported by the National Key Basic Research and Development Program of China (Project No. 2011CB311806), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Project No. 40901173 and 41071228), the Beijing Natural Science Foundation (Project No. 4141001), the Natural Science Foundation of China (Project No. 41271345), the Beijing Municipal Talents Training Funded Project (Project No. 2012D002020000007), the Special Funds for Technology innovation capacity building sponsored by the Beijing Academy of Agriculture and Forestry Sciences (Project No. KJCX20140417), and the Open Funds of State Key Laboratory of Remote Sensing Science, jointly sponsored by the Institute of Remote Sensing Applications of Chinese Academy of Sciences and Beijing Normal University (Project No. OFSLRSS201308). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.