R. S. A. T.

Thermal Map Mosaic

The following thermal map mosaic illustrates the surface temperature characteristics in Washington, D.C., Sacramento, CA., the New York City region, and Atlanta, GA. The images were produced by merging LANDSAT band 6 thermal data with higher resolution base map data. The base map data was selected according to the size of the area to be covered.

The full size image is loading further down the page.

Smaller areas require a higher reolution base map to better depict the features on the ground such as buildings and roads. A base map resolution with 1 meter pixels, such as that produced from a scanned aerial photograph or the CARTERRA data from SpaceImaging, is ideal for mapping at the urban scale.

Medium size areas can utilize a base map produced from India's IRS-1C Pan data with its 5.8 meter resolution or SPOT's Panchromatic data with its 10 meter resoluiton. The level of detail afforded by these satellite sensors works well at scales greater than 1 : 24,000 ( 1 inch = 2,000 feet or ~ 1/3 mile ).

Larger areas providing an analysis of regional conditions are adequately portrayed using LANDSAT's multispectral 30 meter resolution. Other satellite sources for this level of detail include SPOT's 20 meter multispectral data and India's LISS-3 multispectral data.

In the following mosaic the individual images were produced from a combination of LANDSAT's thermal band and the following base map data:

Upper left image: aerial photography
Upper right image: LANDSAT visible bands 3,2,1
Center image: SPOT panchromatic
Center right image: LANDSAT visible bands 3,2,1
Lower left image: LANDSAT visible bands 3,2,1
Lower right image: SPOT panchromatic

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Thermal Map Mosaic

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