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Assessment of the impact of Landsat 7 Scan Line Corrector data gaps on Sungai Pulai Estuary seagrass mapping

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Abstract

The data gaps in the Landsat 7 Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+) Scan Line Corrector (SLC)-off imagery as a result of SLC failure are well recognized. The degradation introduced by their use in scientific applications is concerning to Landsat users. SLC-off data gaps cause problems in many applications of ETM+ images, but no literature reported the problem in seagrass mapping. To investigate the impact of SLC-off data loss on the seagrass information extraction, two types of data were compared: (a) data with interpolation after the SLC anomaly, termed the “Interpolation ON (ION)”, and (b) the data without interpolation, termed the “Interpolation OFF (IOFF)” image, for the Sungai Pulai estuary seagrass meadows of Malaysia. Additionally, the random shifting of SLC-off stripes was tested by swipe analysis of SLC-off image pairs. Overall, the SLC-off scene analysis suggests that a gradual increase of data gaps from the central part toward the edge may cause a cumulative error of 2 % based on an object’s distance from the nadir path. The random shifting of SLC-off stripes may be completely invisible if a single SLC-off stripe passes over a targeted small seagrass meadow such as the Tanjung Adang Laut shoal, which has a spatial extent of 11.07 ha. The data gaps eventually lead to misinterpretations and produce erroneous seagrass distribution maps. The co-existence of SLC-off stripes and their random shifting phenomenon have caused non-overlapping regions between SLC-off scenes acquired on different dates. Future research should develop suitable methods for gap-filling and resolve aquatic remote sensing mapping issues by using knowledge from the present research.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the ScienceFund under Grant [project code: 04-01-04-SF1171] from the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MOSTI), Malaysia. This research was also a collaboration with the Asian Core program of Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) and Establishment of research and education network on Coastal Marine Science in South East Asia. The authors would like to thank the Editor and three anonymous reviewers, whose constructive comments and inputs significantly improved the article.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Animal Science and Fishery, Faculty of Agriculture and Food Sciences, Universiti Putra Malaysia Bintulu Sarawak Campus, Bintulu, 97008, Sarawak, Malaysia

    Mohammad Shawkat Hossain

  2. Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM, Serdang, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia

    Japar Sidik Bujang

  3. Department of Aquaculture, Faculty of Agriculture, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM, Serdang, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia

    Muta Harah Zakaria

  4. Institute of Bioscience, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM, Serdang, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia

    Muta Harah Zakaria

  5. Institute of Geospatial Science & Technology (INSTeG), Faculty of Geoinformation & Real Estate, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 UTM, Johor Bahru, Sarawak, Malaysia

    Mazlan Hashim

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  1. Mohammad Shawkat Hossain
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  2. Japar Sidik Bujang
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Correspondence to Mohammad Shawkat Hossain.

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Hossain, M.S., Bujang, J.S., Zakaria, M.H. et al. Assessment of the impact of Landsat 7 Scan Line Corrector data gaps on Sungai Pulai Estuary seagrass mapping. Appl Geomat 7, 189–202 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12518-015-0162-3

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