Landsat Thematic Bands Web Mapping Application Enhancement
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09-22-2016 10:59 PM
by
JosephKerski
Not long ago, I described the Landsat Thematic Bands Web Mapping Application, an easy-to-use but powerful teaching and research tool. It is a web mapping application with global coverage, with mapping services updated daily with new Landsat 8 scenes and access to selected bands that allows the user to visualize agriculture, rock formations, vegetation health, and more. The Time tool allows for the examination of changes over years, over seasons, or before and after an event. The Identify tool gives a spectral profile about each scene. I have used this application dozens of times over the past year in remote sensing, geography, GIS, and other courses and workshops, and judging from the thousands of views that this blog has had, many others have done the same thing.
If that weren't all, our Esri development team has recently made the tool even better--one can now save a time sequence or a band combination as a permanent URL that can be shared with others. The flooding of 20 districts in August and September 2016 in Uttar Pradesh, India, for example, can be easily seen on this link that uses the application, with screenshots below.
Another example is the 2016 Fort McMurray wildfire in Alberta, Canada - the user can change the time to see the region's vegetation cover before and after fire, and the extent of the smoke during the fire. Or, you can analyze a different band combination, as is seen here.
To do this, open the application. Note that this application's URL has been updated over the one I referred to last year. Move to an area of interest. Select any one of the available thematic band renderers (such as agriculture, natural color, color infrared, and so on), or create your own band combination using build. Then, turn on "time" to see your area of interest at different periods using your band combination. Next, share this image with other people. Simply click on any one of the social platforms (Facebook or Twitter) in the upper right, which will create a short link that can be shared. When the person you send this link to opens it, the Landsat app will open in exactly the same state it was in before social platform tool was clicked. This makes it a very convenient teaching, presentation, and research tool. Give it a try!
If that weren't all, our Esri development team has recently made the tool even better--one can now save a time sequence or a band combination as a permanent URL that can be shared with others. The flooding of 20 districts in August and September 2016 in Uttar Pradesh, India, for example, can be easily seen on this link that uses the application, with screenshots below.
Another example is the 2016 Fort McMurray wildfire in Alberta, Canada - the user can change the time to see the region's vegetation cover before and after fire, and the extent of the smoke during the fire. Or, you can analyze a different band combination, as is seen here.
To do this, open the application. Note that this application's URL has been updated over the one I referred to last year. Move to an area of interest. Select any one of the available thematic band renderers (such as agriculture, natural color, color infrared, and so on), or create your own band combination using build. Then, turn on "time" to see your area of interest at different periods using your band combination. Next, share this image with other people. Simply click on any one of the social platforms (Facebook or Twitter) in the upper right, which will create a short link that can be shared. When the person you send this link to opens it, the Landsat app will open in exactly the same state it was in before social platform tool was clicked. This makes it a very convenient teaching, presentation, and research tool. Give it a try!
Landsat 8 Image for Allahabad India on 31 May 2016.
Landsat 8 Image for Allahabad India showing flooding on 19 August 2016.
