Gao J. Digital Analysis of Remotely Sensed Imagery

McGraw-Hill, 2009. — 689 p.
This book differs from existing books of a similar topic in three areas. First, unlike those books written by engineers for engineering students, this book does not lean heavily toward image processing algorithms. Wherever necessary, mathematical formulas behind certain processing are provided to ensure a solid theoretical understanding. Nevertheless, the reader is left with the discretion to decide on the level of comprehension. Those who are mathematically challenged may wish to skip the mathematical equations. Instead, they can concentrate on the examples provided and on the interpretation of processed output. In this way the fundamental concepts in image analysis are not lost. Second, the book features the geometric component of digital image analysis, a topic that is treated rather superficially or in a fragmented manner by authors with little background in geography, prominently. Finally, this book captures the most recent developments in image analysis comprehensively. Tremendous progress has been made in analyzing remotely sensed data more accurately and with greater ease. This book about digital image analysis is a timely reflection of these recent changes and trends in the field. This book is best used as a textbook for a course in digital image analysis. The targeted readership of the book is upper-level undergraduate students and lower-level postgraduate students. Ideally, they should have had a fundamental remote sensing course in their curriculum already. Otherwise, they need to spend more time than other students in the class to familiarize themselves with the content of the first few chapters. No assumption is made about their mathematical background, even though it is a great advantage to understand matrix operations in order to comprehend certain analyses better. Besides, this book is a great reference for those practitioners, resources managers, and consultants engaged in analysis of geospatial data, especially those who need to derive information about the Earth from airborne or spaceborne remote sensing materials.