Orthogonal Equations of Multi-Spectral Satellite Imagery for the Identification of Un-Excavated Archaeological Sites

Remote Sensing

Athos Agapiou²  Dimitrios D. Alexakis²  Apostolos Sarris¹ 

[1] Laboratory of Geophysical-Satellite Remote Sensing & Archaeoenvironment, Institute for Mediterranean Studies, Foundation for Research & Technology-Hellas (F.O.R.T.H.), Nik. Foka 130, Rethymno, 74100 Crete, Greece; E-Mail:;Remote Sensing and Geo-Environment Laboratory, Department of Civil Engineering and Geomatics, Cyprus University of Technology, Saripolou 2-8, 3603 Limassol, Cyprus; E-Mails:

关键词: spectral enhancement;    remote sensing archaeology;    ground spectroscopy;    crop marks;   

DOI  :  10.3390/rs5126560

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

This paper aims to introduce new linear orthogonal equations for different satellite data derived from QuickBird; IKONOS; WorldView-2; GeoEye-1, ASTER; Landsat 4 TM and Landsat 7 ETM+ sensors, in order to enhance the exposure of crop marks. The latest are of significant value for the detection of buried archaeological features using remote sensing techniques. The proposed transformations, re-projects the initial VNIR bands of the satellite image, into a new 3D coordinate system where the first component is the so called “crop mark”, the second component “vegetation” and the third component “soil”. For the purpose of this study, a large ground spectral signature database has been explored and analyzed separately for each different satellite image. The narrow band reflectance has been re-calculated using the Relative Spectral Response filters of each sensor, and then a PCA analysis was carried out. Subsequently, the first three PCA components were rotated in order to enhance the detection of crop marks. Finally, all proposed transformations have been successfully evaluated in different existing archaeological sites and some interesting crop marks have been exposed.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2013 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland