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.