An Exploratory Study on the Effects of Field Size and Field Boundary Pixels on Crop Spectral Signatures

Manuel Cardenas and George A. Hanuschak

No 329252, Economics Statistics and Cooperative Services (ESCS) Reports from United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service

Abstract: The LANDSAT data for the sample segments in a LANDSAT scene in each of California and Illinois was analyzed for the purpose of determining whether or not size of field and/or boundary pixels significantly influences the spectral signature of certain ground cover types. The data was divided into 4 field size classes: (1) less than 20 acres, (2) greater than or equal to 20 but less than 80 acres, (3) greater than or equal to 80, but less than 200 acres and (4) greater than or equal to 200 acres. The pixels for each field size class were combined and mean vectors and variance-covariance matrices were derived. Then concentration ellipses were plotted. Apparently the larger field sizes produce somewhat different signatures than the smaller ones. The smallest field size class (less than 20 acres) was subdivided into field size classes of (a) less than 10 acres and (b) greater than or equal to 10 acres, but less than 20 acres. The smaller field sizes tend to produce a more compact ellipse in California; not so in Illinois. These two smaller field size classes were also used to study the difference in signature, if any, produced by the inclusion and exclusion of boundary pixels. Not much difference was observed. Tables of descriptive statistics on the MSS bands by field size as well as concentration (90%) ellipses are presented.

Keywords: Crop Production/Industries; Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies; Research Methods/Statistical Methods (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 51
Date: 1978-06
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ags:uerscs:329252

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.329252

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