A multilevel multispectral data set analysis in the visible and infrared wavelength regions

Skylab multispectral scanner data, digitized Skylab color infrared (IR) photography, digitized Skylab black and white multiband photography, and Earth Resources Technology Satellite (ERTS) multi-spectral scanner data collected within a 24-h time period over an area in south-central Indiana near Bloomington on June 9 and 10, 1973, were compared in a machine-aided land use analysis of the area. The overall classification performance results, obtained with nine land use classes, were 87-percent correct classification using the "best" 4 channels of the Skylab multispectral scanner, 80 percent for the channels on the Skylab multispectral scanner which are spectrally comparable to the ERTS multispectral scanner, 88 percent for the ERTS multispectral scanner, 83 percent for the digitized color IR photography, and 76 percent for the digitized black and white multiband photography. The results indicate that the Skylab multispectral scanner may yield even higher classification accuracies when a noise filtered multispectral scanner data set becomes available in the near future.