A Surface Reflectance Calibrated Landsat Mosaic (Circa. 2002) For The Arctic Network Of National Parks
ABR, Inc. Environmental Research and Services and Macander MJ. 2010. A Surface Reflectance Calibrated Landsat Mosaic (Circa. 2002) For The Arctic Network Of National Parks. Fairbanks, Alaska, USA
The Arctic Network (ARCN) of the National Park Service’s (NPS) Inventory andMonitoring Program (I&M) is developing a long-term monitoring program to assess ecologicalchanges in five parks in northwestern Alaska: Bering Land Bridge National Preserve (BELA),Cape Krusenstern National Monument (CAKR), Noatak National Preserve (NOAT), KobukValley National Park (KOVA) and Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve (GAAR). Aspart of this effort, a Landsat mosaic that includes all of the Arctic Network park units wasprepared. Most of the mosaic was covered by Landsat imagery acquired during a three weekperiod in late July and early August, 2002. Radiometric normalization was performed tominimize atmospheric effects, resulting in a mosaic with consistent and physically basedproperties. Two calibration approaches were evaluated (1) calibration to a target Landsat imageand (2) calibration to a surface reflectance. The final mosaic was calibrated to surfacereflectance, which improves the ability to perform spectral analyses over the full extent of themosaic, and provides a robust basis for change detection and other time series studies. Inaddition, a topographic normalization procedure was performed on the mosaic to reduce thetopographic effects of sun and terrain angles on the imagery. The deliverables include the mosaicproducts in digital format, coefficients and GIS layers necessary to produce the mosaic, andscripts used to automate the process.