6

8-Band Image Data Processing of the

Worldview-2 Satellite in a Wide
Area of Applications
Cristina Tarantino, Maria Adamo, Guido Pasquariello,
Francesco Lovergine, Palma Blonda and Valeria Tomaselli
National Council of Researches (CNR),
Italy

1. Introduction
Recent years have seen advances in remote sensing in many fields with applications at a
spatial scale which range from global to local. As a consequence, the need to observe the
Earth with more specialized and sophisticated sensors and data analysis techniques to
obtain more accurate information has increased. On the 8th October 2009 a new second next-
generation Worldview-2 satellite was launched by DigitalGlobe: it represents the latest
innovation among sensors for the acquisition of remote sensed imagery. It has an advanced
agility due to control moment gyros (like Worldview-1) and combines an average revisiting
time of 1.1 days around the globe with a large scale collection capacity. Moreover, it is also
the first commercial satellite able to provide panchromatic imagery at 46 cm of spatial
resolution and 8-band multispectral imagery at 1.84 m spatial resolution. In addition to the
standard panchromatic and multispectral BLUE, GREEN, RED and NEAR INFRARED
(NIR1) bands the Worldview-2 sensor has:
1. a shorter wavelength blue band, COASTAL, ranging from 400 to 450 nm, planned for
bathymetric studies, for water color analyses and substantially influenced by
atmospheric scattering;
2. a YELLOW band, ranging from 585 to 625 nm, significant for the “Yellowness” of
vegetation both on land and water;
3. a RED EDGE band, ranging from 705 to 745 nm, strategically centered at the onset of
the high reflectivity portion of vegetation response so potentially significant in the
measurement of plant health;
4. a longer wavelength NEAR INFRARED band (NIR2), ranging from 860 to 1040 nm,
partially overlapping the NIR1 band and sensitive to atmospheric water vapor
absorption.
In literature, many studies deal with the use of the add on bands of the Worldview-2
sensor with respect to the traditional bands of the most common commercial satellites
searching for new indexes in different application fields such as bathymetry [1], or
vegetation and agricultural purposes ([2], [3]). In [4] the authors analyze the high
correlation among some bands of the Worldview-2, like COASTAL and BLUE bands or

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NIR1 and NIR2 bands which could mean redundant and useless information associated
with some of the add on bands.
The aim of this work is the study of the performance of the whole spectral information
offered by the Worldview-2 sensor for the characterization and the classification of some
selected land cover targets. Three main land cover targets were recognized: "Water”, “Bare
lands” and “Vegetated lands”. The Worldview-2 image was, firstly, used for a finer
discrimination of different sub-classes on the ground belonging to the land cover targets
with the application of an unsupervised approach and the help of a certified CORINE-like
Land Use Map, at a 1:10.000 scale. A hyperspectral image acquired by the airborne MIVIS
sensor was used to analyze the spectral profiles characterizing each distinct sub-class. Then
a standard Maximum Likelihood classifier was applied to the Worldview-2 image with
different input configurations as below:
1. the 4 bands (R,G,B,NIR1) common to the standard commercial multispectral sensors at
very high spatial resolution;
2. the 4 bands R,G,B,NIR1 adding on, one at a time, the new bands;
3. the new complete configuration with 8 spectral bands.
The accuracy of the classification map was estimated using a set of test fields randomly
selected on the ground truth map.
ITT ENVI© and GRASS software were used to analyze and process data.

2. The Worldview-2 data

The data set analyzed was a Worldview-2 image granted by DigitalGlobe over an area of
100 km2 chosen by the authors among the available archive acquisitions. The scene, acquired
on the 13th June 2010, includes the region known as the “Natural Oasis of Lago Salso”, an
area essentially wet and marshy, sited in the south-east of the Capitanata in the Apulia
Region, Italy. The Natural Oasis of Lago Salso is characterized by the presence of a wetland
of considerable importance (one of the most important in southern Italy) as a breeding and
step birds station. The area falls in the Natura 2000 network, found within the boundaries of
the Site of Community Interest (SCI) IT 9110005 “Zone umide della Capitanata” and of the
Special Protection Area (SPA) IT9110038 “Paludi presso il Golfo di Manfredonia”. The
Natural Oasis of Lago Salso falls also within the Gargano National Park. The Natural Oasis
has an extent of about 1040 ha and only 500 ha are wetland “sensu strictu”, the remaining
part is covered by cultivated or partially abandoned areas. Agricultural areas cover a wide
surface formerly occupied by coastal lagoons (until the 1950s) and subsequently buried and
used for agricultural purposes. SCI and SPA have an extent, respectively, of 14,109 ha and
14,437 ha. Water bodies are subject to fluctuations of water levels over the year, creating
ecological gradients due to the variation of salt rates and moisture in soil. Soil salinity
gradually increases with soil elevation, reaching a maximum just above mean high sea level
(MHSL). Above the MHSL, the salinity tends to decrease due to progressively less frequent
flooding. The zonation of the vegetation of salt marshes is typically associated with the
tolerance to these ecological gradients.
Figure 1 shows an RGB composition in the visible spectrum of the Worldview-2 image.

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8-Band Image Data Processing of the Worldview-2 Satellite in a Wide Area of Applications 139

Fig. 1. RGB composition in the visible spectrum of Worldview–2 image.

2.1 Preprocessing
The image was calibrated in order to produce the reflectance image and to obtain the
spectral profiles of some targets in the scene to compare with a previously acquired
hyperspectral data set. The processing includes the following steps:
1. transformation of digital numbers into the spectral radiance values at TOA (Top Of
Atmosphere). This first calibration step, known as absolute radiometric calibration,
consists of multiplying radiometrically corrected image pixels by the appropriate
absolute radiometric calibration factor to get band-integrated radiance (W/m2·sr) and
then dividing the result by the appropriate effective bandwidth to get spectral radiance
(W/m2·sr·μm). The absolute radiometric calibration factor and effective bandwidths are
delivered with the image and available in the image metadata files (extension .IMD);
2. transformation of TOA spectral radiance into TOA reflectance. TOA reflectance is
defined as the ratio of radiance reflected from a surface target to the solar irradiance
incident on the surface. It is obtained using the formula:

 L  , ,  

ES    cosS
2
dES
(1)

where θS is the Solar Zenith Angle, L is the spectral radiance for a defined pixel and
wavelength and Es is the mean solar spectral irradiance. The term dES is the earth-sun
distance in astronomical units as a function of the viewing day and time.
Reflectance values belong to the range [0, 1].

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3. Selection and characterization of targets

An existing certified CORINE-like land use map at 1:10000 scale [5] was considered as
ground truth. The map was produced in 2006. It originally showed a set of 40 land use
thematic classes: after a first screening only land cover classes were selected. An
unsupervised analysis was used to cluster the EO data into a certain number of spectrally
different signatures. To accomplish this task the “K-Means” algorithm was considered and
the 8 bands of the Worldview-2 image were used as input. After a few attempts, a number
of 20 unlabelled classes (with a maximum number of 50 iterations until the convergence and
1% as the change threshold to end the iterative process) were selected. Comparing the
clusters with the ground truth information resulted in the splitting/merging of certain
classes, for a total number of 18 land cover classes. As shown in Figure 2 where a
bathymetry map of the test site is represented, the 8 band segmented map reports 3
differentiated clusters in correspondence with the ground truth class labeled as “Sea”. These
three different signatures could be associated with different depth values of the sea.

Fig. 2. Bathymetric map (a) and 8-band segmented map (b).

The 18 selected classes, grouped into 4 main land cover targets of interest were “Water”,
“Bare lands”, “Vegetated lands” and “Artificial”, as shown in Table 1. The target “Artificial”
was eliminated due to its poor presence in the scene. A sample of each considered class is
shown in Figure 3.

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8-Band Image Data Processing of the Worldview-2 Satellite in a Wide Area of Applications 141

TRAINING TEST
TARGET N° Label pixels pixels
(TOT.21948) (TOT.26428)
1 SEA WATER 1 (deep) 1365 1270
2 SEA WATER 2 (medium deep) 938 1845
WATER 3 SEA WATER 3 (coastal) 2009 2067
4 RIVER WATER 1322 2012
5 MARSH WATER 1924 1991
ARABLE LAND WITHOUT VEGETATION 1 (dark
6 1224 1245
brown)
ARABLE LAND WITHOUT VEGETATION 2 (light
7 1104 1409
brown)
BARE LAND ARABLE LAND WITHOUT VEGETATION 3
8 1483 1646
(orange)
ARABLE LAND WITHOUT VEGETATION 4 (very
9 1316 1198
light brown)
10 SAND 857 730
ARABLE LAND WITH VEGETATION 1 (intense
11 1250 918
green)
12 VEGETATED MARSHY AREA 1 (dark green) 1272 537
VEGETATED 13 NOT ARBOREOUS VEGETATION 1031 3252
LAND 14 FORESTED AREA 561 1693
ARABLE LAND WITH VEGETATION 2 (light
15 1302 742
green)
16 VEGETATED MARSHY AREA 2 (less dark green) 1154 748
17 ARTIFICIAL STRUCTURES 984 1521
ARTIFICIAL
18 ARABLE LAND WITH SCREENING COVERS 852 1265

Table 1. Different land cover classes selected for supervised classification.

3.1 Analysis of the targets’ spectral profiles

The analysis of the targets’ spectral profiles was carried out by means of a dataset
composed by an MIVIS airborne system hyperspectral image, acquired on 25th May 2009
at 06:18 UTC. The selection of this image was possible because of the comparable period
of acquisition with respect to the Worldview-2 image. MIVIS (Multispectral Infrared and
Visible Imaging Spectrometer) is a hyperspectral sensor consisting of 4 spectrometers
which acquire radiation coming from the surface in the VNIR (20 bands between 0.411
and 0.819 μm), in the NIR (8 bands between 1.145 and 1.54 μm), in the MIR (64 bands
between 1.992 and 2.474 μm) and in the TIR (10 bands between 8.34 and 12.42 μm). The
result of the MIVIS images pre-processing step is an image with pixels given in radiance
values (μW/cm2·sr·nm). In order to compare Worldview-2 and MIVIS spectral profiles the
analysis was focused on the 20 bands of the VNIR spectrometer which match with the
Worldview-2 bands. Details of the VNIR MIVIS bands and comparison with the
Worldview-2 bands are shown in Table 2.

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142 Earth Observation

Fig. 3a. The different classes grouped in the target “Water”.

Fig. 3b. The different classes grouped in the target “Bare Land”.

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8-Band Image Data Processing of the Worldview-2 Satellite in a Wide Area of Applications 143

Fig. 3c. The different classes grouped in the target “Vegetated Land”.

MIVIS Worldview-2
Bands Centre (nm) FWHM (nm) Bands Lower Edge (nm) Upper Edge (nm)
1 441 20 COASTAL 400 450
2 460 20
3 480 20 BLUE 450 510
4 500 20
5 521 20
6 541 20
GREEN 510 580
7 561 20
8 581 20
9 601 20
YELLOW 585 625
10 621 20
11 641 20
12 661 20 RED 630 690
13 681 20
14 701 20
15 721 20 RED EDGE 705 745
16 740 20
17 760 20
18 779 20
NIR1 770 895
19 798 20
20 819 20
NIR2 860 1040

Table 2. MIVIS and Woldview-2 spectral details.

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Because of its flexible airborne platform for remote sensing, the MIVIS system is able to
acquire images with a good spatial resolution. The MIVIS acquisition used for this analysis
was made at a height of 1.5 Km so the spatial resolution is 3 m at nadir. In order to compare
MIVIS spectra with those produced by Worldview-2, the pixel values of MIVIS images were
also converted into reflectance.
Due to the unknown quality of the MIVIS data pre-processing calibration, the comparison
between the Worldview-2 and the MIVIS profiles has to be considered in terms of spectral
profile trends. In addition, no atmospheric correction was made to both the images [6]. As a
consequence, the consideration that the atmosphere contributes in a different way to the
reflectance measured by sensors, due to the different day of acquisition and the different
flight height of sensors, should be observed. In Figure 4, a subset of the MIVIS acquisition
corresponding to the Worldview-2 image is shown. Close to the right edge of the frame a
slight pattern of sunglint is visible. It is presumed that it influences the reflectance of the sea.
The spectral analysis was carried out by selecting regions which can be considered
representative of the 18 classes identified by the unsupervised analysis and the ground truth
map. A time interval of about one year between the MIVIS and Worldview-2 acquisitions
restricts the selection of target areas to regions not affected by significant changes between
the two dates. In fact there could be some arable lands where crops changed for agricultural
practices or were covered with screening covers. Moreover, it should be considered that the
two images were acquired in two different spring months corresponding to the different
phenological status of the same crop.

Fig. 4. MIVIS image acquired on 25th May 2009 at 06:18UTC.

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8-Band Image Data Processing of the Worldview-2 Satellite in a Wide Area of Applications 145

In Figure 5, Worldview-2 (top) and MIVIS (bottom) water target spectral profiles are shown.
As it can be noticed for all the target profiles, there is an atmospheric contribution to the
Worldview-2 reflectance. In particular, in the range of shorter wavelengths of the COASTAL
and the BLUE bands, the Rayleigh scattering is the prevailing contribution while for the
longer wavelengths, like the NIR2 band, the water vapor absorption is dominant. The
gaseous absorption results as visible also for the MIVIS profiles. It can be noted that:
- “Sea Water 1”, “Sea Water 2” and “Sea Water 3” correspond to: deep water (far from
the coast), intermediate deep water and coastal water, respectively. The Worldview-2
reflectance profiles, which tend to converge at shorter wavelengths due to atmospheric
effects, show increasing reflectance values for sea regions closer to the coast due to the
increasing contribution of suspended sediments [7];
- this behavior is not evident in MIVIS spectral profiles because of the presence of a slight
sunglint contribution which implies an increase of reflectance values in the eastern part
of the image. This portion of the image corresponds to a sea region with a high and
intermediate depth. The presence of glint is also evident when considering the spectral
profiles which show the typical solar irradiance trend;

Fig. 5. Worldview-2 (top) and MIVIS (bottom) spectral profiles of water classes.

- “Sea Water 3” and “River Water” MIVIS spectral profiles are characterized by
particulate material and/or a land-derived yellow substance which can influence the
reflectance [8];
- with regard to the “Marsh Water” classified regions, they are relative to a series of
waterbodies alternating with different kinds of vegetated areas belonging to the Natural
Oasis of Lago Salso (Figure 6). Specifically, it encompasses three waterbodies with depths
ranging from 50 to 170 cm, depending on the seasonal level and the regional operational
necessities which are fed by a small river. This class shows a spectral profile which starts
to be strongly affected by the bottom vegetation contribution.

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146 Earth Observation

Fig. 6. Natural Oasis of Lago Salso.

In Figure 7, Worldview-2 (top) and MIVIS (bottom) spectral profiles for vegetated land
regions are shown. MIVIS spectral profiles of the six vegetated land classes show the typical
vegetation trend. The absorption of chlorophyll in the BLUE and the RED regions of the
spectrum can be observed. A peak at the GREEN region which gives rise to the green color
of vegetation was noted. In the NIR the reflectance is much higher than that in the visible
band due to the cellular structure in the leaves. The slope of the spectrum profile between
RED and NIR is characteristic of the vegetation species and gives information about plant
health [9]. Spectral profiles also show a reduction in band 20 (Table 1) due to atmospheric
absorption. Analyzing MIVIS spectra some considerations about vegetated land classes can
be made. The class labeled as “Arable Land with Vegetation 2” shows a reduced increase of
reflectance in the wavelength range between RED and NIR and a peak of reflectance in
correspondence with the GREEN range which is less evident with respect to the other
profiles. Considering the particular color of the regions and the presence of an almost
regular texture, it is possible that this class is related to arable fields covered by a thick net
typical of local agricultural practices.
Classes labeled as “Vegetated Marshy Areas 1” and “Vegetated Marshy Areas 2” are relative
to different kinds of vegetation characterizing the “Natural Oasis of Lago Salso” (Figure 6).
The Worldview-2 profiles, due to atmospheric effects, do not show the typical trend of
vegetation spectra in the visible range. The absorption peak in the BLUE range is suppressed
by the Rayleigh scattering contribution which decreases with an increase in wavelength. On
the contrary, the range of the spectrum from RED to NIR1 can be useful for vegetation
characterization and, except for a few differences (which could be explained considering the
time interval between the two acquisitions) MIVIS and Worldview-2 spectral profiles are
sufficiently in agreement. The class labeled as “Forested Area “is mainly composed of the
Siponto pine forest (Figure 8) sited in a coastal area on the Manfredonia Gulf. The spectral
profile obtained by MIVIS and confirmed by Worldview-2 shows a low reflectance in the
NIR spectral range which is correlated to lower vegetation LAI [10].
In Figure 9, Worldview-2 (top) and MIVIS (bottom) spectral profiles for bare land regions
are shown. In this case the trend of MIVIS spectral profiles are in agreement with the
Worldview-2 ones; although, the better spectral resolution of MIVIS is able to acquire finer
spectral signatures for every class.

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8-Band Image Data Processing of the Worldview-2 Satellite in a Wide Area of Applications 147

Fig. 7. Worldview-2 (top) and MIVIS (bottom) spectral profiles of vegetated land classes.

Fig. 8. Siponto Pine Forest.

It can be noted that “Arable Land without Vegetation 1”, “Arable Land without Vegetation
2” and “Arable Land without Vegetation 3” are characterized by a spectral signature similar
in shape but with an increasing average reflectance. This can be explained considering that
the reflectance level decreases for soil with increasing moisture [11] and so the different
targets could be associated with different moisture content. “Sand”, instead, shows a
spectral profile which differs from the other ones probably due to the extremely different
composition of the soil.

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Fig. 9. Worldview-2 (top) and MIVIS (bottom) spectral profiles of Bare Land classes.

4. Processing, results and discussion

For the supervised analysis, the standard statistic “Maximum Likelihood” (ML) algorithm
was considered. The 18 classes of table 1, recognized on the scene with the guide of the
segmentation step and better characterized with the help of MIVIS data, were selected.
Randomly selected training (TR) and test (TE) sets were used respectively to train the
algorithm and to assess the accuracy of the produced maps. For the accuracy of all the
classes, the Overall Accuracy percentage (OA%) (i.e. number of correctly classified pixels
divided by the total of pixels) with the estimation of the relative confidence interval with a
significance of 95% [12] as computed. For the accuracy of each class, the Mapping Accuracy
percentage (MA%), [13], [14], was computed. It is defined as:

MA%   100
pixelscorrectlyclassified
pixelscorrectlyclassified  pixelsomission  pixelscommission
(2)

where:
pixelsomission is the number of pixels assigned to other classes along the row of the confusion
matrix relevant to the class considered;
pixelscommission is the number of pixels assigned to other classes along the column of the
confusion matrix relevant to the class considered.
According to [15], many input configurations to the classifier were tested considering,
firstly, the standard 4 spectral bands of the image and then adding a fifth band among the 4
add on bands of Worldview-2 in order to analyze the specific contribution of each band.

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8-Band Image Data Processing of the Worldview-2 Satellite in a Wide Area of Applications 149

Finally all the 8 band contributions were considered. The results obtained for all the classes
with different input bands to the supervised classifier are shown in table 3.

Input Configuration OA_TR% ±δ_TR% OA_TE% ±δ_TE%

4 BANDS 98.63 0.15 75.31 0.52
5 BANDS WITH COASTAL 99.60 0.08 78.09 0.50
5 BANDS WITH YELLOW 98.62 0.15 77.96 0.50
5 BANDS WITH RED EDGE 98.87 0.14 79.00 0.49
5 BANDS WITH NIR2 98.94 0.13 78.92 0.49
8 BANDS 99.71* 0.07 85.50* 0.42

Table 3. Results in the supervised classification.

In training and testing, with an increase in the number of the bands there is an increase in
the OA% because more information was added as input to the classifier to improve
discrimination among classes. Observing the generalization ability, in testing, an
improvement of 10% was achieved with the use of 8 bands with respect to 4 bands. The
asterisk indicates the best value.
The same analysis was carried out for each target (“Water”-“Bare land”-“Vegetated land”)
in order to evaluate the contribution that each of the add on 4 bands could give to
characterize the specific target. A finer detailed discrimination among the classes is
expected. For the target “Water” the MA% in testing in the different input configurations to
the classifier are shown in Table 4.

SEA SEA
SEA WATER 2 RIVER MARSH
Input Configuration WATER 1 WATER 3
(medium deep) WATER WATER
(deep) (coastal)
4 BANDS 83.33 66.84 70.27 55.81 81.86
5 BANDS WITH
80.41 66.39 72.48 65.53* 83.92
COASTAL
5 BANDS WITH
86.68 84.97* 90.11* 59.01 81.81
YELLOW
5 BANDS WITH RED
96.28 77.83 76.87 62.80 84.13
EDGE
5 BANDS WITH NIR2 99.52* 72.47 63.35 59.00 93.51*
8 BANDS 100** 91.70** 90.63** 82.88** 99.04**

Table 4. MA% in test for the classes belonged to the target Water.

The best MA% value is obtained with the use of 8 bands, as indicated with a double asterisk,
with an average improvement of 20% with respect to the use of only 4 bands. Analyzing the
contribution of each add on band to the single class, it emerged that (the best value due to
the add on bands has been marked with a single asterisk):
 the discrimination of “Sea Water 1” (deep) and “Marsh Water” is improved by the NIR2
band. “Marsh Water” is water with the presence of vegetation under and over the
surface and this could explain the role of NIR2;

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 the discrimination of “Sea Water2 ” (medium deep) and “Sea Water 3” (coastal) is
improved by the YELLOW band that appears to be able to recognize water with


hanging deposits;
the discrimination of “River Water”, substantially muddy water, is improved by the
COASTAL band which appears able to recognize a mixture of water and mud.
For the target “Bare land”, the MA% in testing in the different input configurations to the
classifier are shown in Table 5.

ARABLE LAND ARABLE LAND ARABLE LAND ARABLE LAND

Input WITHOUT WITHOUT WITHOUT WITHOUT
SAND
Configuration VEGETATION 1 VEGETATION 2 VEGETATION 3 VEGETATION 4
(dark brown) (light brown) (orange) (very light brown)
4 BANDS 80.84 38.62 48.72 55.20 39.10
5 BANDS
WITH 75.05 38.08 49.48 58.74 41.40*
COASTAL
5 BANDS
WITH 81.31* 50.53* 48.51 56.31 39.07
YELLOW
5 BANDS
WITH RED 78.71 49.78 55.96* 60.28 40.71
EDGE
5 BANDS
80.55 50.17 55.99* 65.01** 39.16
WITH NIR2
8 BANDS 86.15** 57.67** 61.17** 64.10 44.24**

Table 5. MA% in test for the classes belonged to the target Bare Land.

For all the different spectral signatures, the best MA% value is obtained with the use of 8
bands, as indicated with a double asterisk, with an average improvement of 10% with respect
to the use of only 4 bands. The class “Arable Land without Vegetation 4” is an exception which
can be justified by a high misclassification with the class “Arable Land without Vegetation 3”.
Analyzing the contribution of each add on band to the single class, it emerged that (the best
value due to the add on bands has been marked with a single asterisk):
 the discrimination of “Arable Land without Vegetation 1" (dark brown) and “Arable


Land without Vegetation 2" (light brown) is improved by the YELLOW band;
the discrimination of “Arable Land without Vegetation 3” (orange) is improved by the
NIR2 band and by the RED EDGE, whereas “Arable Land without Vegetation 4” (very


light brown) is improved only by the NIR2 band;
the discrimination of “Sand” is improved by the COASTAL band.
The different spectral profiles could be explained by the different pedological composition
of soil or its different water content. For the “Vegetated land” target, the MA% test
classification values obtained with different input bands are shown in Table 6.
The best MA% value is obtained with 8 bands, as evidenced by a double asterisk in the
table, with an average improvement of about 3% for “Forested Area” and “Vegetated

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8-Band Image Data Processing of the Worldview-2 Satellite in a Wide Area of Applications 151

Marshy Areas” and of about 30% for “Arable Land with Vegetation 1” and “Arable Land
with Vegetation 2” with respect to the use of only 4 bands. For each class, the best result
obtained by a specific band is evidenced by a single asterisk in the table.

ARABLE ARABLE VEGETATED

VEGETATED
LAND WITH LAND WITH MARSHY NOT
Input MARSHY FORESTED
VEGETATION VEGETATION AREA 2 ARBOREOUS
Configuration AREA 1 AREA
1 2 (less dark VEGETATION
(dark green)
(intense green) (light green) green)
4 BANDS 70.91 55.20 93.69 90.42 60.50 93.50
5 BANDS
WITH 75.89 86.48* 95.89* 92.90* 74.88* 95.80*
COASTAL
5 BANDS
WITH 74.07 53.30 95.20 92.49 60.97 94.69
YELLOW
5 BANDS
WITH RED 85.25* 56.90 95.20 92.96 68.27 95.64*
EDGE
5 BANDS
75.02 60.96 92.86 90.79 69.68 94.88
WITH NIR2
8 BANDS 92.08** 89.83** 96.93** 95.38** 90.84** 97.02**

Table 6. MA% in test for the classes belonged to the target Vegetated Land.

5. Conclusions
This paper describes the experimental activity aimed at the exploitation of the new
Worldview-2 sensor with respect to the effectiveness of the new add on COASTAL,
YELLOW, RED EDGE and NIR2 bands. Firstly, an unsupervised analysis for data spectral
clustering was applied to discriminate among the different spectral signatures, then a
supervised image classification produced a land cover map. Standard/commercial tools
were used. In the first step the clusters in the spectral domain were interpreted with the help
of a detailed ground truth map and compared with a hyperspectral data set. This analysis
showed that the 8-band sensor is extremely useful to better discriminate different spectral
sub-signatures corresponding to the same land cover category. This means that the major
capability of the new sensor resides in the capacity of investigating the “ground” diversity
underlying the apparent homogeneity of conventional land cover/land use map
categorization. From the supervised classification, it was possible to detect changes in the
bathymetry for the “Sea Water” classes by using the COASTAL band; moreover, the lowest
wavelength band appears to be significant for the recognition of mixed patterns of water
and terrain. The YELLOW band appears significant to detect the presence of hanging
deposits or to elicit terrain composition, as characterized by a certain degree of
“yellowness”. Finally, the RED EDGE and the NIR2 bands seem useful for a better
discrimination of ground sites characterized by a mixing of water and vegetation. The
increase in thematic accuracy was 10%, passing from the “traditional” 4-band to the new 8-
band sensor.

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6. Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the project “Flight Risks Mitigation and Nowcasting at
Airports” (RIVONA) funded by the Apulia Region, POFESR 2007-2013.
The authors want to thank DigitalGlobe for having offered the opportunity to analyze
images from the newest Worldview-2 sensor.
Special acknowledgements to Planetek Italia s.r.l. for supplying the MIVIS data set.

7. References
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imagery in the highly turbid waters of Singapore’s south islands: A comparative
study, DigitalGlobe 8-Band Research Challenge 2010, Available from:
http://www.digitalglobe.com/downloads/8bc/8band_Challenge_TMSI.pdf.
[2] Ozdemir, I.; Karnieli, A. (2011), Predicting forest structural parameters using the image
texture derived from WorldView-2 multispectral imagery in a dryland forest,
Israel, Int. Journal of Appl. Earth Observation and Geoinformation, Volume 13, Issue 5,
Pages 701-710.
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www.intechopen.com
 Earth Observation
Edited by Dr. Rustam Rustamov

ISBN 978-953-307-973-8
Hard cover, 254 pages
Publisher InTech
Published online 27, January, 2012
Published in print edition January, 2012

Today, space technology is used as an excellent instrument for Earth observation applications. Data is
collected using satellites and other available platforms for remote sensing. Remote sensing data collection
detects a wide range of electromagnetic energy which is emitting, transmitting, or reflecting from the Earth's
surface. Appropriate detection systems are needed to implement further data processing. Space technology
has been found to be a successful application for studying climate change, as current and past data can be
dynamically compared. This book presents different aspects of climate change and discusses space
technology applications.

How to reference
In order to correctly reference this scholarly work, feel free to copy and paste the following:

Cristina Tarantino, Maria Adamo, Guido Pasquariello, Francesco Lovergine, Palma Blonda and Valeria
Tomaselli (2012). 8-Band Image Data Processing of the Worldview-2 Satellite in a Wide Area of Applications,
Earth Observation, Dr. Rustam Rustamov (Ed.), ISBN: 978-953-307-973-8, InTech, Available from:
http://www.intechopen.com/books/earth-observation/8-band-image-data-processing-of-the-worldview-2-
satellite-in-a-wide-area-of-applications

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