The Spectral Characteristics Viewer allows users to determine which satellite bands are best suited for their research application.
How to use the Spectral Characteristics Viewer
- Click on the “Bands/Spectra/Convolve” button and select the bands from the available satellite instrument(s) to view how they measure the intensity of the wavelengths (colors) of light (also known as Relative Spectral Response -RSR).
- From the “Spectra” tab select from minerals, vegetation, water or coating-rocks to plot their spectral response alongside the bands from the satellite instrument(s).
- Click “Close” to view the spectral characteristics results.
To capture spectral characteristics results please use system and web browser print functions.
- Landsat 8 OLI
- Landsat 8 TIRS (not currently displayed in viewer)
- Landsat 7 ETM+
- Landsat 5 TM
- Landsat 4 TM
- Landsat 5 MSS
- Landsat 4 MSS
- Earth Observing-1 (EO-1) Advanced Land Imager (ALI) (Ref: http://www.eoc.csiro.au/hswww/oz_pi/specresp.htm)
- Terra Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) (Ref: https://asterweb.jpl.nasa.gov/characteristics.asp)
- Terra Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) (Ref: https://mcst.gsfc.nasa.gov/calibration/parameters)
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SENTINEL-2A (also available in the Sentinel 2 Document Library)
Spectra: The USGS Spectroscopy Lab contains the spectra source information available in this viewer.
Convolve: While the full process of convolve is to simulate how a satellite sensor detects a surface feature in each spectral band, in this current viewer version, the Convolve function displays only the full width at half maximum values (FWHM) for the selected satellite bands; full convolve functionality will be included in a future update of this viewer.