EVALUATION OF THE THERMAL INFRARED SATELLITE IMAGES APPLIANCE FOR VEGETATION INTERPRETATION (CASE STUDY OF BERING AND KUNASHIR ISLANDS)

Abstract

Thermal infrared satellite images are a promising source of information about geographic objects; many of their interpretive features have not been fully examined yet. In this paper we study the possibility of revealing the vegetation cover and certain vegetation communities using thermal infrared satellite images acquired by resource satellites-images characterized by spatial resolution of 30-150 m. These images allow us to study geosystems at the regional level, where the significant part of geographical research is focused. As the study areas selected two sites on Kunashir Island (caldera of the Golovnin volcano and Rogachiov and Gemmerling capes environs and one site on Bering Island (Buyan river valley and its watershed). The area is characterized by high heterogeneity of vegetation cover; in addition, an important factor in this choice was a large number of geobotanical descriptions made up by employees and trainees of the Kurilsky and S.V. Marakov Komandorsky nature reserves. In total, there were processed 37 satellite images that were grouped into multispectral files. The results of interpretation of multispectral images with a thermal infrared channel and without it have been compared. As a result, the work showed a high efficiency of using thermal infrared images to reveal some vegetation communities, particularly dwarf pine brushwood and floodplain willow shrub.

Keywords

• thermal infrared images
• Landsat
• geographical interpretation of satellite images
• Kunashir island
• Bering island