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Alexander, R.

Lins, H. F., Jr.

English

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URBAN AND REGIONAL LAND USE 'ANALYSIS: 1. 0CARETS AND CENSUS CITIES EXPERIMENT PACKAGE c
SKYLAB/EREP INVESTIGATION NO. 469
NASA Order No. T-5290 B
(E75-10100) uRBAN AND REGIONAL LAND USE N75-15118
ANALYSIS: CARETS AND CENSUS CITIES
EXPERIMENT PACKAGE Monthly Progress Report
(Geological Survey, Reston, Va.) 4 p HC Unclas$3.25 CSCL 08B G3/43 00100
MONTHLY PROGRESS REPORT
"'Made available under NASA sponsorship
in the interest of early and wide dis.
semination of Earth Resources Survey
Program information ahl ,i, iQ ,aiity
Harry F. Lins, Jr. for any use made ther oil"
U.S. Geological Survey
Geography Prograin
Reston, Virginia 22092
December 27, 1974
Principal Investigator NASA Technical Monitor
Robert Alexander John T. Wheeler
U.S. Geological Survey Technology Utilization OfficerReston, Virginia 22092 NASA-Manned Spacecraft Center
Houston, Texas 77058
https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=19750007046 2020-03-23T01:30:16+00:00Z
Monthly Progress Report: December 20, 1974
Investigation No. 469
a. Overall status, including problem areas and significant progress
to data:
a.l. CARETS--Land use analysis: No change
a.2. CARETS--Land use climatology: S.ince the last reporting period
data from the S-192 system has, at long last, begun to arrive. To
date we have received the S055-4 false color image of band 13 and the
S051-3 tapes. A "quick-look," qualitative evaluation of the false
color image was performed. At first glance the scene did not appear
to contain very much information. However, under. magnification
considerable detail became evident. Eight colors describe the scene.
In order of increasing temperatures they are black, blue, green, red,
cyan, magenta, yellow, and white. The following table presents apparent
color/land use associations for thermal band, SL3, August 5, 1973.
PCM Counts
Color Low High Apparent Associated Land Use
White 156 255 - primarily associated with urban areas
- prevalent in agricultural regions
Yellow 151 155 - primarily associated with agricultural
land
- prevalent along the urban-rural fringe
- distributed throughout the Chesapeake
Bay with considerable concentrations
In the Patapsco River (Sparrows
Point-Rivera Beach), Magothy River
and the Potomac River
- found to a lesser extent in forested
regions
Magenta 146 150 - primary color of the Chesapeake Bay
- some association with forested areas
Cyan 141 145 - distributed throughout Chesapeake Bay
- associated with clouds or perhaps cloud
shadows
- associated with forests, especially
along ridge lines
Red 136 140 - appears to be a part of clouds or the
ground beneath or through the clouds
- cloud shadow
Green 131 135 - associated with thin, partially trans-
parent clouds
PCM Counts
Color - Low Hich Apparent Associated Land Use
Blue. 126 130 
- part of cloud structure
- seems to be associated with
clouds thin enough to permit
identification of the color of
the ground below, but not thin
enough to determine the land use
below
Black 0 125 
- associated entirely with clouds
and contrails
The land use associations presented above were derived from comparison
of the false color scene to S-190A and S-190B photos obtained simultane-
ously on the 5th of August 1973 S/L3 pass. In spite of the general
association of false-color renditions (PCM counts) of the thermal data
with generalized water and land cover types, the image displays a greatdeal of intermixture of color values within each known major cover type.Whether this "graininess" represents a true rendition of the micro-
structure of ground temperature or a large noise factor remains to bedetermined; advice on how to estimate noise levels in the S-192 data is
sought from the knowledgeable NASA engineers.
More importantly now, however, has been the arrival of the computer-
compatible tapes. Several options for reading the tapes are beinginvestigated and at the present time it appears most'likely that we
will utilize the computer center here at the Survey's Nationsl Center.Earth Satellite Corporation, another Skylab investigator in the Washington
area has developed a software package for reading and manipulating thetapes, which would be available on either a rental or purchase basis.
The purchase of the software could be made either with or without thedocumentation. At this writing,. we are considering which data processing
option to pursue.
One problem, discovered during the screening of the S055-4 image, wasthat Loch Raven Reservoir, the ground calibration site, was just out-
side the field-of-view of the scanner. Apparently the actual ground
track and swath location differed slightly from pre-mission information.
We therefore have no calibration data. However, the possibility existsthat temperature data were acquired within the sensor's FOV on August
5 by other investigators, not directly associated with the Skylabproject. This possibility is being investigated at the present time.If no data are found to exist there are still a couple of options avail-
able. One would be to use Pease's calibration method based on a gray
body model utilizing radiosonde data. Another would be to take the
data collected at Loch Raven and to correlate it with one of the other
reservoirs within the sensor's FOV, after running a few temperature
correlations between the two water bodies.
2
assumption
a.3. Census Cities: No change.
b. Recommendations concerninq decision and/or actions required to
ensure attainment of tne experiment's scientific obiectives: Upon
examination of the S055-4 data it was realized that the distribution of
PCM count intervals was such that intraurban thermal discrimination
was lost. It would be helpful to have more temperature discrimination
capability for intraurban land uses. In consideration of this fact we
would like to investigate the possibilities of obtaining a similar
false color scene consisting of different PCM count intervals. The
recommended constituent breakdown would be as follows:
PCM counts
Color. Low High
White 171 255
Yellow 166 170
Magenta 161 165
Cyan 156 160
Red 151 155
Green 146 160
Blue 141 145
Black 0 140
This option should provide much greater intraurban thermal discrimination.
c. Expected accomplishments during the next report periods: It now
appears that analysis of the tape data should begin by next report
period. The only problem which may retard some of the work is the loss
of the surface calibration data. However, as stated before alternatives
have been formulated which sould provide adequate data.
d. Significant results and their relationship to practical applications
or ooperational problems: No change.
e. Summary outlook for the remaining effort to be performed: No change.
f. Travel summary and plans: None.
Approved:
Robert H. Alexander
Principal Investigator
Skylab/EREP Investigation No. 469
3


Urban and regional land use analysis: CARETS and census cities experiment package

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