A total of seven cloud free landsat enhanced thematic mapper (ETM+) satellite images were used, one used at the high peak of growing season (July 2008) to identify the management zones through deriving NDVI and six others acquired on May 28, June 13, June 29, July 15, July 31 and August 16, 2009 were used to generate ETc maps for summer maize single hybrid 10 (S.H.10) in the 2009 growing season.Digital image processing for Landsat ETM+ satellite images with spatial resolutions of 28.50m acquired years 2008 and 2009 was executed using ENVI 4.7 software (ITT, 2009). Digital
image processing included gap-filling of ETM+ SLC-off images in which all missing image pixels in the original SLC-off image have been replaced with estimated values based on histogram-matched scenes. Data were calibrated to radiance using the inputs of image
type, acquisition date and time. Images were stretched using linear
2%, smoothly filtered, and their histograms were matched according
to Lillesand and Kiefer (2007).
Images were atmospherically corrected using FLAASH module
(ITT, 2009). Satellite images were rectified (radiometrically and
geometrically). Reflectance bands (red and near infrared) and radiance
ones (thermal infrared) of ETM+ images were used to derive
different surface parameters such as NDVI, surface albedo, surface
emissivity and surface temperature. The bands and sensor characteristics
of Landsat 7 ETM+ are presented in Table 1.