Remote Sensing in an ArcMap Environment

Tutorial eBook Remote Sensing in an ArcMap Environment

Introduction to this Manual

This manual, and associated videos, introduce users of ArcGIS to image analysis capabilities, now available in ESRI’s ArcGIS 10.X versions. The user does not need prior knowledge of ArcGIS as we provide a review ArcMap and ArcCatalog basics, although prior knowledge of ArcGIS is helpful.
This manual is an introduction; it is not a comprehensive user’s manual for image analysis or for use of ArcGIS.
It expands student access to remote sensing analysis by introducing students to use of ArcGIS’ image analysis capabilities, thereby facilitating access to software with the ability to extract information from remotely sensed imagery. This manual does not cover remote sensing fundamentals and users of the manual should refer to remote sensing textbooks, such as suggested in the list of potential references below. Further, users of this manual should remain aware of the distinctions between GIS analysis and the practice of remote sensing, which often use similar software, but require mastery of much different knowledge bases. 

These tutorials are designed to be completed in sequence as each tutorial builds on knowledge acquired from preceding tutorials. The first six tutorials introduce the user to ArcGIS, and later tutorials assume that readers have knowledge of these basics. These six introductory tutorials do not include information on how to download and unzip basic GIS files but users may use any point, line or polygon vector files and any elevation raster file to complete these tutorials. 

If you have a working knowledge of ArcGIS, you can start with Tutorial 7. However, if your knowledge of ArcGIS does not include at least version 10.0, you will need to review these first six tutorials. 

If you are familiar with Landsat scenes, GloVis and EarthExplorer, you can skip tutorials 7 – 9. Even if you are familiar with Landsat scenes and downloading the scenes from the web, you will need to complete Tutorial 11 – Displaying Landsat Imagery — so, you will have an understanding of using Landsat Imagery in ArcMap. 

Tutorials 7 – 16, and 18 – 20 use a single Landsat scene which covers part of central and western Virginia. Tutorial 17 - Change Detection --uses Landsat scenes from Pakistan, so can be completed independently if you already know how to use GloVis or EarthExplorer. 

Tutorials 11 - 13 must be completed before doing Tutorials 18 – 20. Additionally, we highly recommend that you complete Tutorials 14 – 16 before doing Tutorials 17 – 20, as we discuss the different tools used in the ArcMap image analysis window and these tools will be extremely valuable when performing change detection and image classification. You must complete Tutorials 18 and/or 19 before Tutorial 20 Accuracy Assessment.

 While our main purpose is to focus upon use of Landsat imagery in ArcGIS, these tutorials do introduce techniques that prepare you to complete similar analyses using images from other sources, including IKONOS, Geoeye, AVHRR, PALSAR, Quickbird, and SPOT, (For a complete listing, see ArcGIS 10.x help). Landsat imagery is used here because it is free, and readily available for most of the earth’s land surface area.

These tutorials, and associated videos, merely serve as an introduction to using ArcGIS 10.X in remote sensing analyses. These tutorials do not cover all the tools and methods available within ArcGIS. ArcGIS on-line help provides additional information on other tools and functions available.
These tutorials should not substitute for remote sensing textbooks, which present the concepts and context that support application of the techniques covered here. Here we introduce some of the basic remote sensing concepts to assist students in their understanding of tools within ArcMap and their effects on the Landsat scene. We encourage students to use these tutorials in the context of a more complete program to cover the information and concepts that support the applications presented here.

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