USE OF PC-ERDAS 
IN 
SATELLITE-MAPPING/GIS EDUCATION 
Oystein B. Dick 
Department of surveying 
Agricultural University of Norway 
WG VI/7 
ABSTRACT: 
In the Satellite-Mapping / Remote Sensing education at the Department of Surveying, 
Agricultural University of Norway, two PC-based ERDAS systems play an important role in 
the exercise programme. Training is given in: general handling of digital images,image 
enhancement (stretching, filtering, algebraic operations), supervised classification, combination 
of satellite data and digital elevation data, geometric correction, stereo photogrammetry, 
merging of data with different resolution, production of digital mosaics and clustering 
/unsupervised classification combined with field checking. The examples in the exercises are 
taken from Landsat MSS-, Landsat TM-, SPOT XS-, SPOT PA- and NOAA AVHRR-scenes. 
KEY WORDS: Education, Image Processing, Mapping, Remote Sensing, Training. 
Introduction. 
Already in the early seventies research activities related to 
geometric properties of Landsat images in photographic format 
took place at the Department of Surveying. It was not before 
1987/88 however, that formal education within this field in 
form of ordinary courses was started. During the last years two 
courses in Remote Sensing and satellite-mapping, SATK1 and 
SATK2, have been established. A third advanced course at 
graduate level, SATK3, is planned to start in 1993, In addition 
to the formal courses, education in form of graduate- and Dr. 
Scient.- thesis, spesial student projects and upgrading courses 
for external participants should also be mentioned. 
Digital image processing plays an important role in this 
educational activity. With funding from the "SATMAP"- 
programme under the Royal Norwegian Council for Industrial 
and Scientific Research the Department's first ERDAS-system 
was installed in 1987. Today the Department has two PC-based 
ERDAS-systems with some peripheral equipment, configured 
in the following way: 
ERDAS-I: 
PC: COMPAQ 386/20-130MB-VGA 
IP-board: 49 REVOLUTION 512x512x32 
RGB-monitor: MITSUBISHI 
ERDAS-II: 
PC: NOKIA 386/20-300MB-VGA 
IP-board: #9 REVOLUTION 512x512x32 
RGB-monitor: HITACHI 
Magtape-station: CIPHER 
382 
The following peripheral equipment is shared by the two 
systems: 
Printer: IBM PROPRINTER III 
Colour-plotter: TEKTRONIX 4696 
Digitizing table: CALCOMP 9100 
In the ERDAS software package following modules are 
included: 
CORE, IMAGE PROCESSING, RASTER GIS MODELING, 
TABLET DIGITIZING and HARD COPY. The Department has 
also SOFTWARE TOOLKIT, but this module has so far not 
been used. To transfer data from and to magnetic tapes, 
software delivered with the magtape-station is used. 
Courses and exercises. 
SATKI, "Satellite mapping 1", is an introductory course in 
remote sensing and satellite mapping with a duration of 13 
weeks in the fall term. This course includes 7 exercises and 3 
of these utilizes ERDAS. These 3 exercises are: 
Digital image processing. 
Supervised classification of multispectral 
satellite images. 
Satellite-mapping / Raster-GIS. 
The SATKI1 course is taken also by students from other 
disciplines than mapping sciences; as for example forestry and 
management of natural resources.