Landsat

C.D.G.
Natural Colors
Using Global Mapper 11
&
Photoshop CS3

Spring 2010
 2
Landsat natural color
Using Global Mapper 11
and Photoshop CS3

The main difficulty of producing a fairly natural color Landsat image is to keep the
high resolution (14.25m) of the panchromatic layer without distorting it on pixel level
by overlaying the lower (28.5m) resolution of the 3 visible layers of Red, Green, Blue.
The other difficulty is the natural skyhaze that distorts visible data according to the
specific atmospheric conditions of the given moment of the satellite shot.
And the last difficulty is the various differentiantions between the tiles, due to the
aforementioned factor.
I describe here a method that has given good results. -

C.D.G.
 3

a very basic knowledge of Global Mapper, Photoshop and GIS concepts is required

Collecting Data
pages 4-11

Processing Data
in Global Mapper
pages 12-19

Correcting colors
in Photoshop
pages 20-30
 4
http://landsat.usgs.gov/tools_latlong.php

we start our
search for
Landsat data by
heading to the
right tool

we select path
and row for our
Area of interest
(AoI)
 Obtaining the needed data (path) 5
ftp://ftp.glcf.umiacs.umd.edu/glcf/Landsat/WRS2/

we then head
for the actual
data site

we select
the path
 Obtaining the needed data (row) 6
ftp://ftp.glcf.umiacs.umd.edu/glcf/Landsat/WRS2/

we select
the row
 Obtaining the needed data (specifically) 7
ftp://ftp.glcf.umiacs.umd.edu/glcf/Landsat/WRS2/

we select :
ETM-Earthsat-
Orthorectified
or
ETM-Earthsat-
GLS2000
 Obtaining the needed data (file 1) 8
ftp://ftp.glcf.umiacs.umd.edu/glcf/Landsat/WRS2/

we select :
...80.tif.gz

it is the
panchromatic
high resolu-
tion file
 Obtaining the needed data (file 2) 9
ftp://ftp.glcf.umiacs.umd.edu/glcf/Landsat/WRS2/

we select :
...30.tif.gz

it is a black
& white file
which collects
the sensible in
red spectrum
 Obtaining the needed data (file 3) 10
ftp://ftp.glcf.umiacs.umd.edu/glcf/Landsat/WRS2/

we select :
...20.tif.gz

it is a black
& white file
which collects
the sensible in
green spectrum
 Obtaining the needed data (file 4) 11
ftp://ftp.glcf.umiacs.umd.edu/glcf/Landsat/WRS2/

we select :
...10.tif.gz

it is a black &
white file which
collects the
sensible in blue
spectrum
 12
in Global Mapper
Changing Projection (from UTM)

after opening
all the files in
Global Mapper:
we proceed
to the Tools >
Configure >
Projection
and change the
UTM projec-
tion to the
Geographic
(Latitude/Longi-
tude).
 13
in Global Mapper
Changing Projection (to Geographic)

we specify
our chosen
Geographic
Projection

[we change the

projection to
Geographic if
we have to deal
with a number
of different
zone files]
 14
in Global Mapper

we keep visible
all ...80.tif.gz
of our area of
interest

we set
RGP(0,0,0) as
transparent
color, as we
want to get rid
of the black
collar of the
tile(s)

[if we have more

than 1 tile, we
try to render
their color in-
tensity as close
as possible. This
is needed only
for the ...80
files]
 15
in Global Mapper

[we will
continue with
an example -a
small area- for
the rest of the
procedure]
 16
in Global Mapper

we create tile(s)
for our AoI
 17
in Global Mapper

in exporting
options, we
choose the
export bounds
to be cropped
to the selected
area(s)
 18
in Global Mapper

and we export
as e.g. 80.tif,
generating also
its tfw file
 19
in Global Mapper

we repeat the above steps

(hiding and showing accordingly)
3 more times for
...30.tif.gz,
...20.tif.gz
and ...10.tif.gz
saving as e.g. 30.tif, 20.tif and 10.tif

no need for tfw files here

 20
in Photoshop

we open in
Photoshop
80.tif, 30.tif,
20.tif and 10.tif

we select all
30.tif and copy
 21
in Photoshop

we create a new
but RGB file

we flatten image

we select the
red channel and
paste

we repeat
“select all, copy
and paste”
respectively in
green channel
for 20.tif and in
blue for 10.tif
 22
in Photoshop

we select the
RGB channel
 23
in Photoshop

we autolevel
colors
 24
in Photoshop

we resize the
image as the
image size of
80.tif and save it
as 321.tif
 25
in Photoshop

we select all
80.tif and copy

we paste the 80
layer setting its
blending mode
at luminosity
over the com-
posite 321 layer

we merge
visible layers
and save as
80.tif
 26
in Photoshop

we select Image
> Adjustments >
Match Color and
set as Source
Image the
321.tif
 27
in Photoshop

we adjust:
Brightness -20
Contrast +20
(or according to
our taste...)
 28
in Photoshop

last step is to
select (magic
wand) the sea
area and fill it
with a consis-
tent color

(it doesn’t look

so bad in our
example, but it
is a big problem
when working
with larger areas
and much worse
with many Land-
sat tiles)
 29
in Photoshop

we save as
80.tif
 30
Finished !

as we kept the
same name
(80.tif ) for our
file with its
relevant 80.tfw
file, it is still
georeferenced
(Geographic
Projection,
WGS84 Datum)
if opened in GM
 as an illustration of the results of the afore- 1 of 4 tiles:
mentioned process with a multi-tiled Landsat http://www.scribd.com/doc/29026342/
area, the links to the right point to 4 georefer- Crete-West-Landsat-7-ETM
enced pdf tiles for the island of Crete in Greece
derived out of 4 Landsat 7 GLS2000 tiles 2 of 4 tiles:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/29025501/
these pdf files may be opened in Acrobat Crete-East-Landsat-7-ETM
9 Pro Extended and extracted as JPEG2000
(jp2) image files, then imported back in Global
3 of 4 tiles:
Mapper 11 (georeferenced pdf of Acrobat are
http://www.scribd.com/doc/29026066/
not readable as such by GM)
Crete-East-Central-Landsat-7-ETM

exporting them as geopdf files via GM pro-

duced an undesired crosshair grid, hence they 4 of 4 tiles:
were initially exported from GM as JPEG2000 http://www.scribd.com/doc/29026859/
and imported in Acrobat 9 Crete-West-Central-Landsat-7-ETM
 a vision a dream

“All spatial data collected and/or pro-

cessed with public funds must be made
“...All spatial data collected with federal
available to the public at the cost of dis-
funds must be made available to the
tribution, without copyright restrictions.
public at the cost of distribution,
without copyright restrictions...”
Only spatial data unavailable through
private organizations may be considered
President of the USA Clinton, 1994
as of military interest and thus remain
unaccessible to the public
for the duration of the above provision”

C.D.G.
 Thanks to:

NASA University
Landsat of Maryland
Program
University
U.S. of California
Geological Survey San Diego
C.D.G.

Spring 2010