NIIRS ESTIMATION USING THE GENERAL IMAGE-QUALITY EQUATION FOR MONITORING IMAGE DEGRADATION

Generally, the quality of satellite images is expressed by GSD (Ground Sample Distance), MTF (Modulation Transfer Function) and SNR (Signal to Noise Ratio). However, these factors are technology-oriented and do not explain interpretability of satellite images. We need a standardized index which shows standard of interpretability. In this study, we estimated NIIRS (National Imagery Interpretability Rating Scale) through the GIQE (General Image Quality Equation) which is able to judge image interpretability with the standardized index. Traditionally, NIIRS has been determined manually by specialized image analysts. We used the GIQE in order to reduce inefficiency and high costs cause by manual interpretation and to produce accurate NIIRS. For monitoring image degradation, we estimated GIQE physical parameters from image analysis and carried out time series analysis about the quality of the KOMPSAT-1 images. On all of the tests, we were able to identify the image degradation due to the changing time. This indicates that NIIRS derived from GIQE will be used for image degradation indicator.