The use of variograms in remote sensing. I - Scene models and simulated images. II - Real digital images

Theoretical and empirical studies of variograms are presented. The sensitivity of variograms is studied through varyig parameters of scene models both in calculating explicit variograms and in simulating images. It is found that the heights of variograms are related to the proportion of an area covered by objects. It is shown that the range of influence of a variogram is related to the size of the objects in the scene and that the shape of the variogram becomes more rounded as the variance in the size distribution of objects increases. In the second part, empirically calculated variograms from real digital images are used to demonstrate these theoretical findings. These calculated variograms also show the periodicity in ground scenes and reveal anisotropy.