Impact of LANDSAT MSS Sensor Differences on Change Detection Analysis

Change detection techniques were used to pinpoint differences in the multispectral band scanners on LANDSAT 2, 3, and 4 satellites. The method of analysis was to co-register 512 by 512 pixel subwindows for all data pairs followed by scattergram generation and analysis. In all cases, the LANDSAT-4 data were used as the base to which other images were registered. There appear to be no major problems preventing use of LANDSAT-4 MSS with previous MSS sensors for charge detection, provided the interference noise can be removed or minimized. This noise may result in detection of spurious changes, as well as affect other uses of the data, including image classification. Analysis of dark (water and forests), rather than light features will be most impacted because the noise will form a higher percentage of the total response at low DN values. Any data normalizations for change detection should be based upon the data, rather than solely upon calibration information. While the observed relative radiometric transfer function between LANDSAT 3 and 4 was approximately as predicted, there were still significant deviations. Normalizing based upon data content also can have the advantage of allowing simultaneous normalization of the atmosphere as well as the radiometry.