UNIT IV

DATA RECEPTION
AND
DATA PRODUCTS
 DATA FORMATS
 In single band sensor, it contains many CCD elements
arranged in an array.
 Reflected EMR from each ground cell falls on individual
CCD element.
 Electrical signals are produced in the CCD elements
proportionate to the amount of incident energy which are
recorded on board in the satellite and transmitted to the
ground using suitable communication system.
 A sensor with ‘n’ CCD elements as detectors will generate
image data for n pixels.
 Detector corresponding to each pixel gives an output voltage
proportional to the energy falling on it.
 DATA FORMATS(CONTD…)
 By suitable electronics, the output voltage is digitized with
required bits, saturation radiance level settings etc.
 Thus we have a string of binary data of ‘n’ words corresponding
to ‘n’ pixels.
 In addition, one could add auxiliary information related to
spacecraft or payloads like temperature of critical subsystems,
orbit and attitude data etc. This could form one line of data to be
transmitted.
 To find out the start of the line unique word(sync word) is used
at the beginning of each line data.
 The length and pattern of unique word is chosen such that it does
not mimic the image data.
 DATA FORMATS(CONTD…)
 Thus one frame of telemetry data represents one cross track
image and successive frames of telemetry data produce image
lines.
 At the receiving end, if the position of unique word is located,
then it is possible to separate the video information and auxiliary
data.
 If there is more than one band(multi spectral sensor), then the
additional bands can be suitably included(formatted) in the
telemetry frame.
 Each line of video information of n words placed one below the
other making a two dimensional array gives a digital image.
 RASTER DATA AND VECTOR DATA
 Raster and vector are the two basic data structures for storing and manipulating
images and graphics data on a computer.
 Major RS, GIS and CAD software packages available today are primarily based on
one of the two structures, either raster based or vector based.
 Raster images come in the form of individual pixels.
 Vector data comes in the form of points and lines that are geometrically and
mathematically associated. Points are stored using the coordinates, for example, a
two-dimensional point is stored as (x, y). Lines are stored as a series of point pairs,
where each pair represents a straight line segment, for example, (x1, y1) and (x2,
y2) indicating a line from (x1, y1) to (x2, y2).
 In general, vector data structure produces smaller file size than raster image
because a raster image needs space for all pixels while only point coordinates are
stored in vector representation.
 Vector data is easier than raster data to handle on a computer because it has fewer
data items and it is more flexible to be adjusted for different scale.
 Topology among graphical objects or items are much easier to be represented using
vector form, since a commonly shared edge can be easily defined according to its
left and right side polygons. On the other hand, this is almost impossible or very
difficult to do with pixels.
 GROUND SEGMENT ORGANISATION

The ground segment organisation of remote sensing

system is divided into three categories.
 Spacecraft control centre(SCC)
 Data acquisition station
 Data processing, product generation and
distribution centre
 TASKS OF SPACECRAFT CONTROL CENTRE

 To monitor various parameters/subsystems of

satellite by analysing the telemetry data
 Keeping the satellite in good health by
scheduling necessary commands
 Orbit determination and correction
 Scheduling payload description as per user
needs
 TASKS OF DATA ACQUISITION STATION

 Receives RF signal from the satellite,

demodulates it and records the base band on
suitable recorders.
 Images of any one band frame of any selected
camera data can be displayed on a quick look
display which provides qualitative idea of the
payload performance.
 TASKS OF DATA PROCESSING, PRODUCT GENERATION AND
DISTRIBUTION CENTRE

 Transferring the raw data to the computer for data correction and
formatting
 Data product quality checking
 Recording the data in required medium (photographic or digital)
 To supply data products to users, in response to their requests
 Providing facilities for browsing available data products and archiving
 The centre enables the user to select the area of interest for product
generation, based on factors such as cloud cover over the scene,
percentage of cloud cover and data quality.
 The catalogues of all acquired data are maintained and updated.
 The raw data are archived by this centre to cater to any future back-dated
requests.
 DATA PRODUCT GENERATION
 The raw data received at the ground station has a
number of errors produced due to sensor itself,
platform, intervening atmosphere and the data
transmission and reception system.
 The geometric and radiometric properties of
images are affected by these errors.
 The data products are produced after correcting
for geometric and radiometric errors.
SOURCES OF ERRORS IN RECEIVED DATA

will be discussed in
Unit V
 REFERENCING SCHEME
 The sensors produce a continuous strip of imagery along the satellite
track of a width defined by sensor parameters and orbit height.
 Such a long strip of data is difficult to handle for processing. Mostly
the user may not require such a long strip at all. Their area of interest
may be limited.
 For the convenience of users, each satellite path around the earth is
numbered and each path is also divided into many scenes. The scenes
in each path are also numbered which are called as row numbers.
 By specifying path and row numbers, one can order the data
corresponding to a particular geographic location.
 By specifying the lat-long values of opposite corners of a
rectangle/square ground area also, one can order the data.
 By specifying the lat-long values of a centre of a circular area and
radius, one can order the data.
 DATA PRODUCTS OUTPUT MEDIUM

1. Photoproduct(Black and white, TCC, FCC)

- Paper print
- Positive film transparency
2. Digital product
- Super Structure format
- Fast format
- GeoTIFF
- HDF
 PHOTOPRODUCTS
 The photoproduct is supplied either as paper
print or as positive film transparency.
 Paper prints are very convenient to carry
during field checks, ground truth collection
etc.
 Positive transparency can be magnified to any
suitable scale.
 The photoproduct contains number of
annotations helpful to the user.
 PHOTOPRODUCTS(CONTD…)
Some of the annotations in the photoproduct include the following.
 Satellite details
 Projection type
 Lat/Long values
 Resampling technique used
 Date of acquisition with time
 Path/row details
 Sensor sub-scene details
 Quadrant number
 Look angle information
 Generation – ID, place and date of generation with time
 Agency generating the product
 Type of enhancement used
 Colours assigned for FCC
Detailed annotation information can be read from the catalog of a particular data product.
 TYPES OF DATA ARRANGEMENT/LAYOUT
IN DIGITAL PRODUCT

(i) Band Sequential(BSQ) Format:

Data in one band for the whole scene is written continuously, followed by
second band and so on. Separate file is written for each band.
(ii) Band Interleaved by Line(BIL) Format:
First lines in all the bands will be written continuously as first record, second
lines in all the bands will be written continuously as second record and so on.
(iii) Band Interleaved Pixel(BIP) Format:
First pixels in all the bands will be written continuously as first pixel group,
second pixels in all the bands will be written continuously as second pixel
group and so on.
 DIGITAL DATA FILE FORMATS
Digital products are supplied mainly in the following four
file formats:-
(i) LGSOWG(Landsat Ground Station Operations
Working Group) or Super Structure format
(ii) Fast format
(iii) GeoTIFF (Geographic Tagged Image File Format)
(iv) HDF (Hierarchical Data Format)
 SUPER STRUCTURE FORMAT
This data file format consists of five files.
(i) Volume directory file:-
 This is the first file of the media containing
data product.
 This gives information about all subsequent
files present in the medium, such as, number of
bands, arrangement of bands, total number of
files and how many are present in the current
medium, information about the processing
station, software version used to process etc.
 SUPER STRUCTURE FORMAT(CONTD…)
(ii) Leader file:-
 This is composed of a file descriptor record and three
types of data records such as header, ancillary and
annotation.
 Header contains information related to mission(sensor
and processing parameters, image corner coordinates).
 Ancillary records contain information related to
ephemeris(position of satellite in the space at a given
time), attitude(orientation of satellite), GCP’s for
geometric correction, radiometric calibration data etc.
 SUPER STRUCTURE FORMAT(CONTD…)
(iii)Image file:-
 This is composed of a file descriptor record giving information
about band number, bite per pixel etc. and image data records.
 Image data records contain video data in BSQ or BIL format.
(iv) Trailer file:-
 The trailer file follows the image data file.
 This is composed of a file descriptor record describing what is
in the trailer file and one trailer record for each band.
(v) Null volume directory file:-
 This is the last file of the media containing data product.
 It defines a non-existent(empty) logical volume.
 The file contains a volume descriptor record.
 FAST FORMAT
 This is a comprehensive digital data format suitable for Level 2
products.
 It consists of header file and image files.
 The header file contains three records.
 The first record in header file is the administrative record which
gives information about the product, scene and the data specifically
required to read the imagery. In order to retrieve the image data, it is
necessary to read entries in the administrative record.
 The second record in header file is the radiometric record which
contains the coefficients needed to convert the scene digital values
into at-satellite spectral radiance.
 The third record in header file is the geometric record which contain
the scene geographic location(lat/long).
 In image files, images are written in BSQ format.
 GEOTIFF FORMAT
 This is the file format tagged with all map
projection information along with geographic
tie points(latitude/longitude).
 This is a platform independent format which is
used by a wide range of GIS and Image
Processing Packages.
 HDF
 Hierarchical Data Format (HDF) is a set of file formats
designed to store and organize large amounts of data.
 It supports a proliferation(large number) of different data models,
including multidimensional arrays, raster images and tables.
 HDF is supported by many commercial and non-commercial
software platforms, including Java, MATLAB, Python, Julia etc.
 The freely available HDF distribution consists of the library,
command-line utilities, test suite source, Java interface and the
Java-based HDF Viewer.
 One HDF file can hold a mix of related objects which can be
accessed as a group or as individual objects.