There is ample collection of data produced from remote sensing and vary from the very high spatial resolution images (such as CartoSat, IKONOS and Quickbird), to regional datasets produced at regular intervals (e.g., LISS III, TM/ETM, SPOT), to lower spatial resolution (>250 m) images now produced daily across the entire Earth (e.g., MODIS). The temporal dynamics of the synoptic view of the earth’s surface by satellite assisted data capture has given us an important tool to study the variations in land use and land cover over a period of time. The changes in the land use and land cover manifested as a function of the changes either natural or manmade, have a bearing on the reflectance patterns of incidence radiation due to the changes in the vegetative cover, soil moisture or the various modifications of the earth’s surface. Unsupervised classification (calculated by software) is based on the software analysis of an image without the user provided sample classes. This involves grouping of pixels with common characteristics. The computer uses techniques to determine which pixels are related and groups them into classes.
Temporal dynamics in remote sensing help to study: