FORMOSAT-2, launched in May 2004, is a Taiwanese satellite developed by the National Space Organization (NSPO) of Taiwan. The Remote Sensing Instrument (RSI) is a high spatial- resolution optical sensor onboard FORMOSAT-2 with a 2 m spatial resolution in the panchromatic (PAN) band and a 8 m spatial resolution in four multispectral (MS) bands from the visible to near-infrared region. The RSI images acquired during the daytime can be used for land cover/use studies, natural and forestry resources, disaster prevention and rescue works. The main objectives of this work were to investigate the application of FORMOSAT-2 data in order to: (1) identify beach patterns; (2) correctly extract a sand spit boundary. Different pixel-based and object-based classification algorithms were applied to four FORMOSAT-2 scenes and the results were compared with the results already obtained in previous works. Analyzing the results obtained, is possible to conclude that the FORMOSAT-2 data are adequate to the correct identification of beach patterns and to an accurately extraction of the sand spit boundary (Douro river estuary, Porto, Portugal). The results obtained were compared with the results already achieved with IKONOS-2 images. In conclusion, this research has demonstrated that the FORMOSAT-2 data and image processing techniques employed are an effective methodology to identify beach patterns and to correctly extract sand spit boundaries. In the future more FORMOSAT-2 images will be processed and will be consider the use of pan sharped images and data mining algorithms.

Date Published: 14 October 2015
PDF: 10 pages
Proc. SPIE 9637, Remote Sensing for Agriculture, Ecosystems, and Hydrology XVII, 96371S (14 October 2015); doi: 10.1117/12.2194322

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 9637:
Remote Sensing for Agriculture, Ecosystems, and Hydrology XVII
Christopher M. U. Neale; Antonino Maltese, Editor(s)