ABSTRACT
A wide range of Earth observation satellites appropriate to monitoring urban areas now exists. Each produces data at a different spatial resolution and in different spectral wavebands (see Donnay et al., Chapter 1, this volume). For example, the familiar Thematic Mapper sensors on board the Landsat-serie of satellites generate data at a spatial resolution of 30m in six spectral wavebands spanning visible blue to shortwave-infrared wavelengths, and at 120m in a further spectral waveband located in the thermal infrared . The HRV (High Resolution Visible) sensors on board the SPOT-series of satellites, on the other hand, provide a single-channel panchromatic (P) image at 10m resolution and three multispectral images (XS 1, XS2 and XS3) at 20m re olution . Likewise, the Indian Remote Sensing satellite, IRS-1C, generates a panchromatic image at 5.8m, three multispectral images at 23.5m, a short-wave infrared image at 70.5m (LISS-3 instrument), and two further images at 188m (WiFS instrument).
