Influence of the 17 April 2006 Asian dust storm on Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer data for land cover identification

摘要

China suffers from some of the most harmful dust storms. Dust storms occur every year in China and have significant effects on remote sensing of land surface. This study addresses the effect of dust storms on Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) imagery for land cover identification. Results from supervised classification of two MODIS data sets acquired before and during a dust storm of April 2006 are compared, and the mechanism responsible for such effects is analyzed. An index called influence intensity was proposed to quantify the effect of dust storms on different MODIS bands for land cover identification. Results from this study indicate that dust storms modified spectral characteristics of land cover types and resulted in decreased spectral contrast among land cover types. Out of 10 MODIS bands used in this study, dust storm yielded the most significant effect on MODIS bands 3, 18, and 19 for land cover identification. Conversely, MODIS bands 4, 5 and 6 were affected to a low degree.