storytelling_from_space.md

Storytelling from Space: Tools/Resources

This list of resources is all about acquring and processing aerial imagery. It's generally broken up in three ways: how to go about this in Photoshop/GIMP, using command-line tools, or in GIS software, depending what's most comfortable to you. Often these tools can be used in conjunction with each other.

Acquiring Landsat & MODIS

Web Interface

• USGS Earth Explorer - Browser and data access (create a login)
  http://earthexplorer.usgs.gov/

  • Landsat archive

  • Many other products, like aerial/orthophotography

  • GLOVIS (Java/Firefox required)
    http://glovis.usgs.gov/?popout=TRUE

    • Similar data different interface

  • NASA WorldView - Browser and data access
    https://earthdata.nasa.gov/labs/worldview/

  • NASA GIBS - MODIS tileserver https://wiki.earthdata.nasa.gov/display/GIBS/Global+Imagery+Browse+Services+%28GIBS%29+Home

  • NASA Near-Real Time satellite data links https://earthdata.nasa.gov/data/near-real-time-data/rapid-response

  • Google Earth Engine https://earthengine.google.org/

  • Landsat 8 Acquisition Calendar https://landsat.usgs.gov/tools_L8_acquisition_calendar.php

Scripting

• Landsatutil (Development Seed)
  http://www.developmentseed.org/blog/2014/08/29/landsat-util/ https://github.com/developmentseed/landsat-util

• Fetch from Google Earth Engine
  https://gist.github.com/briantjacobs/ab695cc15775df9570ed

  • Landsat 8 data on AWS http://aws.amazon.com/public-data-sets/landsat/

  • Landsat data on Google Storage https://console.developers.google.com/storage/browser/earthengine-public/landsat/

Processing Landsat

Background

• Landsat 7/8 bands and combinations
  http://blogs.esri.com/esri/arcgis/2013/07/24/band-combinations-for-landsat-8/

Photoshop

• How To Make a True-Color Landsat 8 Image (Rob Simmon, NASA) http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/blogs/elegantfigures/2013/10/22/how-to-make-a-true-color-landsat-8-image/

• Processing Landsat 8 (Tom Patterson, National Park Service)
  http://www.shadedrelief.com/landsat8/introduction.html

• Avenza Geographic Imager - Expensive but excellent plugin. Allows you to much of what GDAL does (plus things it can't) and preserve geographic metadata. http://www.avenza.com/geographic-imager

• Without Geographic Imager, you need GDAL tools if you want to preserve geographic metadata:

  Dump metadata from a file before messing with it in Photoshop

  listgeo -no_norm original.tif > original.geo
  

  Add the metadata back after saving back out

  geotifcp -g original.geo modified.tif modified_geotiff.tif
  

GIMP

• Merging bands into RGB in GIMP
  http://edwardmjohnson.wordpress.com/using-landsat-imagery-in-gimp/
• Pansharpening in GIMP (translate from Portuguese!)
  http://www.processamentodigital.com.br/2013/11/17/gimp-2-8-fusao-de-imagens-landsat-8-em-pseudo-cores-naturais/

Scripting

GDAL - Geospatial Data Abstraction Library & ImageMagick (command-line photoshop)

• GDAL: ogr2ogr (for vector) and GDAL (for raster)

  brew install gdal --enable-unsupported --with-postgresql
  

  note: "--enable-unsupported" allows you to install third party drivers, necessary for proprietary formats like MrSID and FileGDB. See this http://briantjacobs.com/mrsid-gdal-homebrew/

• ImageMagick, aka convert

  brew install imagemagick
  

• GDAL cheatsheet - Derek Watkins (NYTimes) ← see "Raster Operations" https://github.com/dwtkns/gdal-cheat-sheet

• Processing Satellite Imagery (Mapbox) ← extra helpful https://www.mapbox.com/foundations/processing-satellite-imagery/

• Dan's GDAL scripts
  https://github.com/gina-alaska/dans-gdal-scripts

• Pansharpening Landsat 7 with Dan's scripts http://blog.remotesensing.io/2013/04/pansharpening-using-a-handy-gdal-tool/

• Convert Landsat 8 GeoTIFF images into RGB pan-sharpened JPEGs.
  https://gist.github.com/briantjacobs/48320e59954ee7ec5cd1

• Charlie Lloyd's (Mapbox) Rake Task https://gist.github.com/briantjacobs/0d3f9a62fc7ca115ee5b

Orfeo - More advanced. Do things like atmospheric correction and NDVI.

• Pansharpening with Orfeo
• https://www.mapbox.com/blog/pansharpening-satellite-imagery-openstreetmap/

GIS

QGIS - Open Source alternative to ArcGIS

• Install

  brew tap homebrew/science   
  brew install qgis24 --with-grass7 --with-orfeo  
  # May need: <https://xquartz.macosforge.org/landing
  # May also need:    
  sudo pip install psycop2    
  echo 'export PYTHONPATH=$PYTHONPATH:/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages' >> ~/.bash_profile
  

• QGIS 2.0: Composition Color RGB for Landsat-8 (translate from Portuguese) http://www.processamentodigital.com.br/2013/11/23/qgis-2-0-composicao-colorida-rgb-para-imagens-landsat-8/

Creating Web Imagery

• GDAL2Tiles
  http://www.gdal.org/gdal2tiles.html

• MapTiler http://www.maptiler.org/

• TileMill
  https://www.mapbox.com/tilemill/

• SimpleTiles / SimplerTiles (Ruby) http://propublica.github.io/simple-tiles/ http://propublica.github.io/simpler-tiles/

Storytelling Tools

• JuxtaposeJS - Compare two images
  http://juxtapose.knightlab.com/

• Leaflet (see tileLayer or imageOverlay)
  http://leafletjs.com/

• Leaflet.Sync
  https://github.com/turban/Leaflet.Sync

• Google Earth
  https://www.google.com/earth/

• Google Earth Tutorial for GeoTiff
  http://www.google.com/earth/outreach/tutorials/importgis.html

Storytelling from Space, In the wild

• Losing Ground (ProPublica / The Lens)
  http://projects.propublica.org/louisiana

• Disappering Mississppi Delta (SkyTruth)
  http://blog.skytruth.org/2014/09/disappearing-mississippi-delta-1972-2014.html

• Long Swath
  http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/LDCMLongSwath/

• Long Swath Gigapan:
  http://gigapan.com/gigapans/9741ab68dda60a8b05b9c1bfce147500

• NYTimes: A Rogue State Along Two Rivers
  http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/07/03/world/middleeast/syria-iraq-isis-rogue-state-along-two-rivers.html

• NYTimes: Assessing the Damage and Destruction in Gaza http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/08/03/world/middleeast/assessing-the-damage-and-destruction-in-gaza.html

• NYTimes: ISIS in Maps and Photos http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/06/12/world/middleeast/the-iraq-isis-conflict-in-maps-photos-and-video.html

• Monitoring Oil Reserves from Space
  https://www.mapbox.com/blog/Monitoring-oil-reserves-from-space/

• Animated Gifs of Earth over time (Google Earth Engine) https://plus.google.com/b/106191537604091348855/photos/+GoogleEarth/albums/5875822979804092129

• Hurricaine Sandy before/after
  http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/news/weeklynews/nov12/ngs-sandy-imagery.html

• The Continuing Crisis in Northern Iraq http://blog.amnestyusa.org/middle-east/moving-on-from-the-mountain-the-continuing-crisis-in-northern-iraq/

• Counting Whales from Space http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0088655

• Using Repeat Satellite Imagery to Track Tank Movements http://sciience.tumblr.com/post/111780500452/using-repeat-satellite-imagery-to-track-tank

• Gaza: X-ray of a disaster http://www.letemps.ch/interactive/2014/gaza-radiographie/

• Google Earth Engine
  https://earthengine.google.org/#intro

Misc Geospatial Tools

• Web interface for CS2CS, quickly convert coordinates
  http://cs2cs.mygeodata.eu/

• Find the EPSG from WKT from gdalinfo
  http://www.prj2epsg.org/search

• Geojson.io - Draw geographic things, get info and export
  http://geojson.io/

• Noah Veltman's geotools - Easily get bounding boxes and such http://dev.noahveltman.com/geotools/

Bonus

• USGS land cover classification data

  • 1992-2011: http://www.mrlc.gov/finddata.php
  • 70's: http://pubs.usgs.gov/ds/2006/240/

• Installing Open Source geographic software
  https://github.com/nvkelso/geo-how-to/wiki/Installing-Open-Source-Geo-Software:-Mac-Edition

• Creating the Blue Marble
  http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/blogs/elegantfigures/2011/10/06/crafting-the-blue-marble/

• Rainbow planes
  http://booktwo.org/notebook/rainbow-plane/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/stml/sets/72157637938061015/

• Global Forest Change from Lndsat and MODIS http://www.globalforestwatch.org/ http://earthenginepartners.appspot.com/science-2013-global-forest/download_v1.1.html

• Carlton Complex Wildfire, Washington
  http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/view.php?id=84169 http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2705138/Aerial-photos-true-scale-devastation-Washington-states-largest-wildfire-burned-nearly-400-square-miles-destroyed-150-homes.html

Great selection !

This a interactive piece of journalism i made for Le Temps, a Swiss Newspaper, on Gaza. Perhaps it may interest you...http://www.letemps.ch/interactive/2014/gaza-radiographie/

Wow. Great work. Thanks for posting.