Final Rainier Images and Final Hood Images

This week:

Last week I posted the image gallery for Mt. Hood of the possible years that I would like to take imagery from. Because two paths cross Hood I had more choices. Here are my choices for the best images for both mountains. Please feel free to look at the updated galleries if you don’t agree with my choice. There are 7 instances where I still need to look for a better date from Landsat 4 but the other 43 dates look pretty good and I’ll double check with SNOTEL to make sure there is no snow on the ground then.

HOOD

1984 - 7/28 - I’m going to look at Landsat 4 for a different date.

1985 - 8/16 - This is a good one but will again look at Landsat 4 for a different date

1986 - 9/11

1987 - 9/30

1988 - 10/2

1989 - 10/14

1990 - 9/22

1991 - 10/20

1992 - 10/6 looks best because of some clouds in 10/13

1993 - 9/23

1994 - 9/26

1995 - 9/13

1996 - 10/8

1997 - 9/2

1998 - 9/28

1999 - 10/17 Landsat 5 looks best but can also use 10/2 Landsat 7

2000 - 10/4 Landsat 7

2001 - 9/20 Landsat 5 because 9/29 looks like snow on the top

2002 - 10/9 Landsat 5

2003 - 9/26 Landsat 5

2004 - 10/17 Landsat 5

2005 - 9/24 Landsat 5

2006 - 10/13 Landsat 5

2007 - 9/21 Landsat 5

2008 - 9/16 Landsat 5

RAINIER

1984 - 8/4 - Going to look at Landsat 4 for a better date.

1985 - 8/23 - Again, going to look at Landsat 4 for a better date.

1986 - 9/11

1987 - 9/30

*1988 - 8/31 (last week of August but cloudless and you said was ok)

1989 - 9/19

1990 - 9/22

1991 - 10/11

*1992 - 8/26 Because you said last week of August was ok.

1993 - 8/29 - Because you said last week of August was ok.

*1994 - 7/31 I’m going to look at Landsat 4... if not we might be in trouble for this year.

1995 - 9/20

1996 - 10/8

*1997 - 8/8 - Going to look at Landsat 4 for a better date and less clouds.

1998 - 9/28

1999 - 9/7 Landsat 7

2000 - 9/25 Landsat 7

2001 - 9/20 Landsat 5

2002 - 9/23 Landsat 5

2003 - 9/26 Landsat 5

2004 - 10/14 Landsat 5

*2005 - 8/14 Landsat 5 Will look at L4 for a different date but would prefer to use this date to avoid combining L7 SLC off dates for only this year.

2006 - 9/2 Landsat 5

2007 - 9/21 Landsat 5

2008 - 10-25 Landsat 5

The Hood gallery can be found by clicking the rotating photos in the lower right frame. HERE is a quick link again to the Rainier Gallery.

Next week:

Confirm with Snotel all the dates are good and start running all the images through ENVI preprocessing. In producing JPEG images of all the years I went through and cropped all the images to just the area around the volcanoes. Unfortunately now ENVI won’t let me run the cropped images through the initial TM processing (an error about band identification comes up) so I have to “preprocess” the raw Band 4 and Band 5 whole images again into a subset area using one of the ones I did recently for each month. Not difficult at all, just a step I thought I could have avoided that will add a little time to each image. Would you suggest I also do the 6S correction on the original band images before I subset them? Oh, btw, Landsat 5 metadata appears to have much clearer “acquisition times” then does Landsat 7, just another reason to use it rather then the slc-off images.

Questions:

I guess my biggest question I have now is the role that Sky is playing in all project? I only heard of him a few weeks ago and only know him as a “programmer” who usually speaks in a language in emails I can hardly understand, but seems like a nice guy nonetheless. I’m just wondering what his role is because he’s inquiring about atmosphere correction and glacier outlines etc. Is he doing what I’m doing, just using different software, and if so is it because you are worried my method might not work? I’m just a little bit confused I guess and hope you still have confidence in the work I am doing. I let him know that the band ratio images I sent him were preliminary work I did primarily for classes while I was fine-tuning my processing techniques. For instance, the band ratio from 2007 is using two years with the SLC off whereas I know plan to use a Landsat 5 image to avoid that. Are these just so he can make some eye candy images for the project or are they going to be used towards actual results, and if so how are we going to coordinate what I pick for a brightness value for “non-debris ice” with Sky and should I consider him a partner in my research. I guess I’m just looking for some clarity as to what is going on and what my role in this now bigger project is.

Hopefully the red white and blue text will remind you of this country... :) Emily and I tried to climb Three Fingered Jack on Labor Day but she was clinging to the rock on all fours when we got the ridge in fright of the exposure so I roped her up and we descended... I’ll have to leave that one for next fall. Cheers :)