Storytelling from Space: Tools/Resources
This list of resources is all about acquring and processing aerial imagery. It's generally broken up in three ways: how to go about this in Photoshop/GIMP, using command-line tools, or in GIS software, depending what's most comfortable to you. Often these tools can be used in conjunction with each other.
Note: formatting is a bit weird here. An identical, more legible version of this can be found here: http://bit.ly/mozfest-space
Acquiring Landsat & MODIS
Web Interface
USGS Earth Explorer - Browser and data access (create a login)
http://earthexplorer.usgs.gov/- Landsat archive
Many other products, like aerial/orthophotography
GLOVIS (Java/Firefox required)
http://glovis.usgs.gov/?popout=TRUE- Similar data different interface
NASA WorldView - Browser and data access
https://earthdata.nasa.gov/labs/worldview/NASA GIBS - MODIS tileserver https://wiki.earthdata.nasa.gov/display/GIBS/Global+Imagery+Browse+Services+%28GIBS%29+Home
Scripting
Landsatutil (Development Seed)
http://www.developmentseed.org/blog/2014/08/29/landsat-util/
https://github.com/developmentseed/landsat-utilFetch from Google Earth Engine
https://gist.github.com/briantjacobs/ab695cc15775df9570ed
Processing Landsat
Background
- Landsat 7/8 bands and combinations
http://blogs.esri.com/esri/arcgis/2013/07/24/band-combinations-for-landsat-8/
Photoshop
How To Make a True-Color Landsat 8 Image (Rob Simmon, NASA) http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/blogs/elegantfigures/2013/10/22/how-to-make-a-true-color-landsat-8-image/
Processing Landsat 8 (Tom Patterson, National Park Service)
http://www.shadedrelief.com/landsat8/introduction.htmlAvenza Geographic Imager - Expensive but excellent plugin. Allows you to much of what GDAL does (plus things it can't) and preserve geographic metadata. http://www.avenza.com/geographic-imager
Without Geographic Imager, you need GDAL tools if you want to preserve geographic metadata:
Dump metadata from a file before messing with it in Photoshop
listgeo -no_norm original.tif > original.geoAdd the metadata back after saving back out
geotifcp -g original.geo modified.tif modified_geotiff.tif
GIMP
- Merging bands into RGB in GIMP
http://edwardmjohnson.wordpress.com/using-landsat-imagery-in-gimp/ - Pansharpening in GIMP (translate from Portuguese!)
http://www.processamentodigital.com.br/2013/11/17/gimp-2-8-fusao-de-imagens-landsat-8-em-pseudo-cores-naturais/
Scripting
GDAL - Geospatial Data Abstraction Library & ImageMagick (command-line photoshop)
GDAL: ogr2ogr (for vector) and GDAL (for raster)
brew install gdal --enable-unsupported --with-postgresnote: "--enable-unsupported" allows you to install third party drivers, necessary for proprietary formats like MrSID and FileGDB. See this http://briantjacobs.com/mrsid-gdal-homebrew/
ImageMagick, aka
convertbrew install imagemagick
GDAL cheatsheet - Derek Watkins (NYTimes) ← see "Raster Operations" https://github.com/dwtkns/gdal-cheat-sheet
Processing Satellite Imagery (Mapbox) ← extra helpful https://www.mapbox.com/foundations/processing-satellite-imagery/
Dan's GDAL scripts
https://github.com/gina-alaska/dans-gdal-scriptsPansharpening Landsat 7 with Dan's scripts http://blog.remotesensing.io/2013/04/pansharpening-using-a-handy-gdal-tool/
Convert Landsat 8 GeoTIFF images into RGB pan-sharpened JPEGs.
https://gist.github.com/briantjacobs/48320e59954ee7ec5cd1Charlie Lloyd's (Mapbox) Rake Task https://gist.github.com/briantjacobs/0d3f9a62fc7ca115ee5b
Orfeo - More advanced. Do things like atmospheric correction and NDVI.
- Pansharpening with Orfeo
- https://www.mapbox.com/blog/pansharpening-satellite-imagery-openstreetmap/
GIS
QGIS - Open Source alternative to ArcGIS
Install
``` brew tap homebrew/science
brew install qgis24 --with-grass7 --with-orfeo
May need: <https://xquartz.macosforge.org/landing
May also need:
sudo pip install psycop2
echo 'export PYTHONPATH=$PYTHONPATH:/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages' >> ~/.bash_profile
```
- QGIS 2.0: Composition Color RGB for Landsat-8 (translate from Portuguese) http://www.processamentodigital.com.br/2013/11/23/qgis-2-0-composicao-colorida-rgb-para-imagens-landsat-8/
Creating Web Imagery
GDAL2Tiles
http://www.gdal.org/gdal2tiles.htmlMapTiler http://www.maptiler.org/
TileMill
https://www.mapbox.com/tilemill/SimpleTiles / SimplerTiles (Ruby) http://propublica.github.io/simple-tiles/
http://propublica.github.io/simpler-tiles/
Storytelling Tools
JuxtaposeJS - Compare two images
http://juxtapose.knightlab.com/Leaflet (see tileLayer or imageOverlay)
http://leafletjs.com/Leaflet.Sync
https://github.com/turban/Leaflet.SyncGoogle Earth
https://www.google.com/earth/Google Earth Tutorial for GeoTiff
http://www.google.com/earth/outreach/tutorials/importgis.html
Storytelling from Space, In the wild
Losing Ground (ProPublica / The Lens)
http://projects.propublica.org/louisianaDisappering Mississppi Delta (SkyTruth)
http://blog.skytruth.org/2014/09/disappearing-mississippi-delta-1972-2014.htmlLong Swath
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/LDCMLongSwath/Long Swath Gigapan:
http://gigapan.com/gigapans/9741ab68dda60a8b05b9c1bfce147500NYTimes: A Rogue State Along Two Rivers
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/07/03/world/middleeast/syria-iraq-isis-rogue-state-along-two-rivers.htmlNYTimes: Assessing the Damage and Destruction in Gaza http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/08/03/world/middleeast/assessing-the-damage-and-destruction-in-gaza.html
NYTimes: ISIS in Maps and Photos http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/06/12/world/middleeast/the-iraq-isis-conflict-in-maps-photos-and-video.html
Monitoring Oil Reserves from Space
https://www.mapbox.com/blog/Monitoring-oil-reserves-from-space/Animated Gifs of Earth over time (Google Earth Engine) https://plus.google.com/b/106191537604091348855/photos/+GoogleEarth/albums/5875822979804092129
Hurricaine Sandy before/after
http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/news/weeklynews/nov12/ngs-sandy-imagery.htmlGoogle Earth Engine
https://earthengine.google.org/#intro
Misc Geospatial Tools
Web interface for CS2CS, quickly convert coordinates
http://cs2cs.mygeodata.eu/Find the EPSG from WKT from gdalinfo
http://www.prj2epsg.org/searchGeojson.io - Draw geographic things, get info and export
http://geojson.io/Noah Veltman's geotools - Easily get bounding boxes and such http://dev.noahveltman.com/geotools/
Bonus
Installing Open Source geographic software
https://github.com/nvkelso/geo-how-to/wiki/Installing-Open-Source-Geo-Software:-Mac-EditionCreating the Blue Marble
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/blogs/elegantfigures/2011/10/06/crafting-the-blue-marble/Rainbow planes
http://booktwo.org/notebook/rainbow-plane/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/stml/sets/72157637938061015/Carlton Complex Wildfire, Washington
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/view.php?id=84169
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2705138/Aerial-photos-true-scale-devastation-Washington-states-largest-wildfire-burned-nearly-400-square-miles-destroyed-150-homes.html





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