Book Image

Learning Geospatial Analysis with Python

By : Joel Lawhead
Book Image

Learning Geospatial Analysis with Python

By: Joel Lawhead

Overview of this book

Geospatial Analysis is used in almost every field you can think of from medicine, to defense, to farming. This book will guide you gently into this exciting and complex field. It walks you through the building blocks of geospatial analysis and how to apply them to influence decision making using the latest Python software. Learning Geospatial Analysis with Python, 2nd Edition uses the expressive and powerful Python 3 programming language to guide you through geographic information systems, remote sensing, topography, and more, while providing a framework for you to approach geospatial analysis effectively, but on your own terms. We start by giving you a little background on the field, and a survey of the techniques and technology used. We then split the field into its component specialty areas: GIS, remote sensing, elevation data, advanced modeling, and real-time data. This book will teach you everything you need to know about, Geospatial Analysis from using a particular software package or API to using generic algorithms that can be applied. This book focuses on pure Python whenever possible to minimize compiling platform-dependent binaries, so that you don’t become bogged down in just getting ready to do analysis. This book will round out your technical library through handy recipes that will give you a good understanding of a field that supplements many a modern day human endeavors.
Table of Contents (17 chapters)
Learning Geospatial Analysis with Python Second Edition
Credits
About the Author
About the Reviewers
www.PacktPub.com
Preface
Index

Swapping image bands


Our eyes can see colors only in the visible spectrum as combinations of Red, Green, and Blue (RGB). Air- and space-borne sensors can collect wavelengths of the energy outside the visible spectrum. In order to view this data, we move images representing different wavelengths of light reflectance in and out of the RGB channels to make color images. These images often end up as bizarre and alien color combinations that can make visual analysis difficult. An example of a typical satellite image is seen in the following Landsat 7 satellite scene near the NASA Stennis Space Center in Mississippi along the Gulf of Mexico, which is a leading center for remote sensing and geospatial analysis in general:

Most of the vegetation appears red, and water appears almost black. This image is a type of false color image meaning that the color of the image is not based on RGB light. However, we can change the order of the bands or swap certain bands to create another type of false-color...