Radiometric Corrections of Topographically Induced Effects on Landsat Tm Data in Alpine Terrain

Four radiometric correction methods for the reduction of slope-aspect effects in a Landsat TM data set are tested in a mountainous test site with regard to their physical soundness, their influence on a forest classification as well as on the visual appearance of the scene. Excellent ground reference information and a fine resolution DEM allowed a precise assessment of the applicability of the methods under investigation. The results of the study presented here demonstrate the weakness of the classical cosine correction method for the radiometric correction in rugged terrain. The statistical, Minnaert and C-correction approaches however yielded an improvement of the forest classification and an impressive reduction of the visual topography effect. 1current address: NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory MS 169 315, 4800 Oak Grove Drive Pasadena, CA 91109 USA [email protected]