Module 8 Lab: Thermal & Multispectral Analysis

Multispectral image of Coastal Ecuador highlighting the
color contrast of several distinct features.

The portion of the map that I selected is an agricultural area of the river bank.  I chose this entire area because it was a diverse area, thus providing a good contrast of land features.  There is a freshwater river with a forested island, and on the main land is an agricultural area surrounded by an urban area.  The band combination that was selected appropriately highlights these different features.  Red was linked to Layer 4, Green was linked to Layer 2, and Blue was linked to layer 6 (Thermal IR).  Accordingly, the vegetated island (high NIR, low temp) appear bright red, the urban areas to the east (low NIR, high temp) appear bright blue, and the main river (low NIR, low temp) appears green.

         Further, shape and pattern are useful in identifying these features.  Agricultural lands are often regular polygons (rectangles, or otherwise straight-edged) and would be expected to appear more blue than red in my image, which is the case.  The river and forested island are obvious based on association.