CHAART Sensor Evaluation: Resolution Comparison, 1

Sensor Evaluation: Resolution Comparison, 1 - 30 m

This page shows image examples derived from a 1-m ARTIS image south of Carmel, California and is the first half of a spatial resolution comparison using 1 - 1000 m imagery. The second half covers 30 - 1000 m imagery. In the color-infrared band combination, healthy vegetation appears red, turbid water is blue, and roads are cyan.

This is a 1-m spatial resolution image, viewed at a magnification of 2x. Some interesting features in this image are: trees with long shadows directed toward the upper right, two vehicles in the lower right, field rows in the upper right, and rectangular house roofs in the lower left. The road in the lower right is California Highway 1, and this area is Southeast of Carmel.

A larger region of the same 1-m image at normal magnification, shows a number of patterns in the fields, a pattern of roads, driveways, and houses. One of the houses along the left edge is yellow: a terra-cotta roof in color-infrared.

Same 1-m image as above but as a simulated panchromatic image. The vehicles can still be seen, but some of the patterns in the fields have faded. Some of the houses are dark shapes, and are similar to the surrounding trees.

At 2-m resolution the field patterns are still visible, but the rows are less distinct. The houses and trees are also blending into rows and clusters.

This 5-m image covers a larger area than the one above, and now includes the beach, a strip of ocean, a small woods, clouds can be seen in the upper middle and an urban or industrial region in the upper right. More residential road patterns can also be seen and several streams lead to the ocean. The trees within the woods have a textured pattern of crowns and shadows. The patterns in the agricultural fields are still visible. Individual houses can no longer be seen, but they are a speckled border next to the roads.

At 10-m resolution, many of the features visible at 5-m resolution can still be seen, but not as clearly. Agricultural field patterns are difficult to see and the woods is a reddish-dark patch with some variation within it.

At 30-m resolution the full 1-m image has been reduced to postage-stamp size. Few definite observations can be made: the clouds can be seen in the upper middle, there is an urban feature in the upper right, a field is in the middle, and there is water in the lower left.

Back to the CHAART Sensor Evaluation Resolution Comparison page.