We collected a variety of data in support of our research activities.
Specifically, we collected six cloud-free TM scenes that were
acquired during the late spring/early summer in 2000 and 2010
from the USGS EROS Data Center (Table 1). Note that three TM
scenes (i.e., Path/Row 19/36, 19/37, and 18/37 of the Worldwide
Reference System 2 (WRS-2)) are needed in order to cover the
entire study area. The path 18 scene only covers less than 2% of the
study site (Fig. 2), and therefore the 7-day interval in acquisition
dates between adjacent paths of the Landsat system can be ignored.
Only the six reflective bands with 30 m resolution were used for
further data analysis while the thermal infrared band with coarse
spatial resolution of 120 m was excluded. In addition to the TM
images used for land classification, an accurately rectified 1997
Landsat TM image supplied by Space Imaging EOSAT was collected
as the reference image in geometric correction that will be discussed
later