5
CHANGE DETECTION USING
VEGETATION INDICES AND
MULTIPLATFORM SATELLITE
IMAGERY AT MULTIPLE TEMPORAL
AND SPATIAL SCALES
EDWARD P. GLENN, PAMELA L. NAGLER, AND ALFREDO R. HUETE
5.1 INTRODUCTION
Scale has different meanings in different disciplines. In ecology scale can refer either
to the spatial or temporal extent of observations and models or to the resolution (grain
size) of the observations or models (van Gardingen et al., 1997). In satellite remote
sensing studies spatial scale refers either to the area covered by an image (i.e., extent
of coverage) or the resolution of the individual image elements (pixels) (Woodcock
and Strahler, 1987). On the other hand, temporal scale is largely determined by the
return frequency of a particular satellite, which determines how closely spaced in time
images of the same area can be acquired.
Spatial and temporal resolution are often inversely related. For example, the
geostationary Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES) have
continuous coverage of most of the Western Hemisphere, but at low resolution
(1–8 km) (De Pondeca et al., 2011). Sun-synchronous satellites such as Terra and
Aqua (Tziziki et al., 2012) or the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer
(AVHRR) series (Reed et al., 1994) have near-daily revisit intervals but also relatively
coarse spatial resolution (250 m to 1 km), while the higher resolution Landsat (30-m)
satellites have a 16-day return period, and for land applications the effective time
81
Scale Issues in Remote Sensing, First Edition. Edited by Qihao Weng.
Ó 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Published 2014 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
CHANGE DETECTION USING
VEGETATION INDICES AND
MULTIPLATFORM SATELLITE
IMAGERY AT MULTIPLE TEMPORAL
AND SPATIAL SCALES
EDWARD P. GLENN, PAMELA L. NAGLER, AND ALFREDO R. HUETE
5.1 INTRODUCTION
Scale has different meanings in different disciplines. In ecology scale can refer either
to the spatial or temporal extent of observations and models or to the resolution (grain
size) of the observations or models (van Gardingen et al., 1997). In satellite remote
sensing studies spatial scale refers either to the area covered by an image (i.e., extent
of coverage) or the resolution of the individual image elements (pixels) (Woodcock
and Strahler, 1987). On the other hand, temporal scale is largely determined by the
return frequency of a particular satellite, which determines how closely spaced in time
images of the same area can be acquired.
Spatial and temporal resolution are often inversely related. For example, the
geostationary Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES) have
continuous coverage of most of the Western Hemisphere, but at low resolution
(1–8 km) (De Pondeca et al., 2011). Sun-synchronous satellites such as Terra and
Aqua (Tziziki et al., 2012) or the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer
(AVHRR) series (Reed et al., 1994) have near-daily revisit intervals but also relatively
coarse spatial resolution (250 m to 1 km), while the higher resolution Landsat (30-m)
satellites have a 16-day return period, and for land applications the effective time
81
Scale Issues in Remote Sensing, First Edition. Edited by Qihao Weng.
Ó 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Published 2014 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.