The impact of misregistration upon composited wide field of view satellite data and implications for change detection

Abstract
Composited wide field of view satellite data are used for many applications and increasingly for studies of global change. Although several compositing schemes have been suggested, all as- sume perfect geometric registration, which is not operationally fea- sible. In this study, models of the satellite imaging, geometric reg- istration, and compositing processes are used to investigate the im- pact of misregistration upon the position of high contrast edges found in composited satellite data. Simulations are performed with respect to the compositing of advanced very high resolution ra- diometer (AVHRR) and moderate resolution imaging spectrora- diometer (MODIS) data. Contrast edges are found to be system- atically shifted in maximum and minimum value composites. The degree of shifting increases with the number of orbits that are com- posited, the degree of misregistration and the view zenith angle. The implications of these findings upon the utility of composited satellite data for change detection are discussed. The shifts may systematically bias estimates of location and area when composited data are used. They may also cause small and/or fragmented fea- tures, which are evident in individual orbits to disappear in com- posited data, precluding the ability to map such features or to de- tect their occurrence under a change detection scheme.

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