Pat Chavez, Dave MacKinnon, Miguel Velasco, Stuart Sides, Deborah Soltesz (USGS, Flagstaff, AZ)
See also http://TerraWeb.wr.usgs.gov/projects/RSDust/
Types of Satellite Data Used and Their Resolutions
| Satellite | spatial resolution | spectral resolution | temporal resolution |
| GOES | 1 km | 1 visible | 15-30 mins |
| Landsat MSS | 75 m | 2 visible, 2 NIR | 2 weeks |
| Landsat | 30 m | 3 vis., 1 NIR, 2 mid-NIR | 2 weeks |
| WiFS | 200 m | 1 visible, 1 NIR | 5 days |
| SeaWiFS | 1 km | 1 UV, 2 blue, 4 green/red, 1 NIR | 1 day |
Three types of maps and images are produced:
1. Atmospheric dust (GOES). Windy, clear-day images and calm, clear-day images close in time (days apart) are spatially registered and radiometrically calibrated. Differences in the images, such as suspended dust, are highlighted as brightness changes. Dust can be confirmed on the basis of wind strength and direction, along with ground-based observations.
| Dust Detection | |
 (click for larger image- 80K) |
 (click for larger image- 80K) |
2. Vegetation change detection maps. (Landsat MSS; band 5, detects interannual and seasonal changes in desert vegetation more effectively than a vegetation index, such as NDVI). In the change image, dark tones represent areas that were more vegetated during the wet year and brighter tones represent areas that were more vegetated during the dry year.
| Wet Year | Dry Year | Difference |
 (click for larger image- 82K) |
 (click for larger image- 79K) |
 (click for larger image- 84K) |
3. Eolian erosion vulnerability maps. (WiFS and Landsat TM). Algorithm emphasizes in yellow tones those vulnerable areas with low vegetation density and high-reflectance soils.
U.S. Department of the Interior | U.S. Geological Survey
URL: http://esp.cr.usgs.gov/info/sw/rs/
Page Contact Information: ESP Web Team
Page Last Modified: Sun 22-Apr-2001 15:33:49 MDT