USING ADVANCED IMAGE FUSION TECHNIQUES TO INCREASE THE USABILITY OF RAZAKSAT DATA FOR MAP UPDATING IN THE TROPICS

摘要

Razaksat is a high resolution Malaysian remote sensing satellite launched on 14th July 2009. It is a unique satellite system since it operated in a near-equatorial orbit with a low inclination angle of 9°. This enabled the satellite to cover the equatorial region 14 times a day, a pre-requisite to optimize the possibility of obtaining cloud-free data. In order to improve the usability of Razaksat imagery for map updating new methods of image fusion, such as the Ehlers fusion method, are applied prior to image interpretation and classification. The Ehlers technique has shown great potential in the past using Intensity Hue Saturation and Fast Fourier Transform to increase the spatial resolution of satellite imagery whilst maintaining the spectral resolution and quality of the data. The results are evaluated in two ways, namely visual interpretation and land use classification.