ESTIMATION OF LAND AND OCEAN PARAMETERS
USING AVHRR AND MOS DATA

Sudipa Roy
April, 1999

Visible and infrared remote sensing are successfully being used for monitoring numerous
parameters of the Earth, ocean and atmosphere. India in 1996 launched the IRS-P3 satellite,which carries on-board the Modular Optoelectronic Scanner. MOS with a total of 18 channels with wavelength ranging from 400-1010 nm and 1600 nm, has been designed primarily for remote sensing of the ocean-atmosphere system. India with a long coastline has much use of ocean colour data. In India, this data has not been explored except by the Department of Space. Using MOS-B data, estimation of ocean colour parameters such as chlorophyll, suspended sediments, yellow substance,diffuse attenuation coefficient, atmospheric water vapour, vegetation signature has been done. The study area chosen is the western coast of India. MOS-C data have been used to discriminate snow and cloud in the snow covered Himalayan region. Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) on-board NOAA series of satellites has been used for regional and global vegetation coverage since 1978. Vegetation indices and temperature data from AVHRR have been analysed for vegetation stress monitoring. Brightness temperature maps have been prepared over Indian land and oceanic region for the three main climatic seasons , summer, rainy and winter. The results discussed in the present thesis show potentiality of IRS-P3 MOS data and NOAA-AVHRR data in the monitoring and mapping of land, ocean and snow covered region.