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Continental-Scale Mapping of Adelie Penguin Colonies from Landsat ImageryBreeding distribution of the Adlie penguin, Pygoscelis adeliae, was surveyed with Landsat-7 Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+) data in an area covering approximately 330 of longitude along the coastline of Antarctica.An algorithm was designed to minimize radiometric noise and to retrieve Adlie penguin colony location and spatial extent from the ETM+data. In all, 9143 individual pixels were classified as belonging to an Adlie penguin colony class out of the entire dataset of 195 ETM+ scenes, where the dimension of each pixel is 30 m by 30 m,and each scene is approximately 180 km by 180 km. Pixel clustering identified a total of 187 individual Adlie penguin colonies, ranging in size from a single pixel (900 sq m) to a maximum of 875 pixels (0.788 sq km). Colony retrievals have a very low error of commission, on the order of 1% or less, and the error of omission was estimated to be 3% to 4% by population based on comparisons with direct observations from surveys across east Antarctica. Thus, the Landsat retrievals successfully located Adlie penguin colonies that accounted for 96 to 97% of the regional population used as ground truth. Geographic coordinates and the spatial extent of each colony retrieved from the Landsat data are available publically. Regional analysis found several areas where the Landsat retrievals suggest populations that are significantly larger than published estimates. Six Adlie penguin colonies were found that are believed to be previously unreported in the literature.
Document ID
20170004577
Acquisition Source
Goddard Space Flight Center
Document Type
Reprint (Version printed in journal)
Authors
Schwaller, Mathew R.
(NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD United States)
Southwell, Colin
(Australian Antarctic Div. Kingston Tasmania, Australia)
Emmerson, Louise
(Australian Antarctic Div. Kingston Tasmania, Australia)
Date Acquired
May 15, 2017
Publication Date
September 11, 2013
Publication Information
Publication: Remote Sensing of Environment
Publisher: Elsevier Inc.
Volume: 139
ISSN: 0034-4257
e-ISSN: 1879-0704
Subject Category
Meteorology And Climatology
Earth Resources And Remote Sensing
Report/Patent Number
GSFC-E-DAA-TN26810
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Other
Keywords
radiometric noise
spatial extent
clustering

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