A STATE-WIDE LANDSAT DATA BASE AS A SOURCE
OF LAND RESOURCE INFORMATION FOR PENNSYLVANIA
Brian J. Turner
Associate Professor of Forest Management
Co-Director, Office for Remote Sensing of Earth Resources
George M. Baumer
Systems Analyst
Office for Remote Sensing of Earth Resources
Institute for Research on Land and Water Resources
The Pennsylvania State University
University Park, PA 16802
ABSTRACT
The Office for Remote Sensing of Earth Resources (ORSER) at The Penn
sylvania State University has recently installed a mosaicked Landsat
data base for the State of Pennsylvania on the University's IBM 370/3081.
The mosaic of raw data is a selection of 1976 to 1979 minimum-cloud
summer scenes. The initial data base was put together at the Jet Pro
pulsion Laboratory (JPL) using the VICAR software package, but ORSER
now has the capability of doing this. The data are registered to UTM
coordinates and have been resampled to 57-meter square pixels. ORSER
programmers have developed a unique way of formatting and storing the
data for efficient retrieval, and a user-friendly conversational front-
end for accessing the data base by county, forest district, UTM coordi
nates, or a statewide grid system. The requested data are retrieved
and converted to the ORSER format for subsequent analysis. In coopera
tion with NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center personnel, a forest-nonforest
binary mask has been developed from, and registered to, the data base.
This will be used to aid classification of gypsy moth defoliation lev
els from new Landsat data also registered to the data base. A new way
of extracting information from the Landsat data base and incorporating
it into existing geographic information systems has also been developed
by ORSER associates. Additional uses for the data base are constantly
arising. It is expected that it will form a major source of land-use
and land-resource data in the state over the next several years.
1. INTRODUCTION
The Office for Remote Sensing of Earth Resources (ORSER) at The Penn
sylvania State University (PSU) has recently installed a mosaicked
Landsat data base for the State of Pennsylvania at the University's
Computation Center. The initial motivation for the construction of the
mosaic was to provide a base of undefoliated forest data to assist in
state-wide mapping of gypsy moth defoliation. The secondary rationale
was to make available to a variety of potential users, geometrically-
correct, Landsat data accessible by political, jurisdictional or arbi
trary boundaries.
2. DATA SELECTION AND MAP PROJECTION
Scenes chosen for inclusion in the mosaic had to meet the following
criteria, related to the accurate classification of the predominantly
hardwood forests of the state: 1) they should be essentially cloud-
free; 2) they should be of leaf-on conditions, i.e., approximately May
