I took great efforts in the short time available to me today to understand what the histograms of Cirrus Band 9 images are telling me; by identifying the specific parts of the scene and looking for patterns in the histograms. I took a look at three scenes, one fully covered with clouds one partially covered and one clear scene. Sincerely, -- Jordan D. Ulmer South Dakota State University Image Processing Lab http://iplab2out.sdstate.edu/

1. Cirrus
Three Stages of Cloud Cover
Landsat 8, OLI
Brookings ROI (P029/R029)
Jordan D. Ulmer
20th March, 2014

2. Focus And Intent
• Present Purpose:
• To characterize the Cirrus band, and evaluate
its effective cloud detection abilities relative to
TIRS, in combination with RGB.
• Future Intent:
• To understand the uses and limitations of
Cirrus.
• To improve upon the current techniques and
develop more veracious and versatile
algorithms for cloud detection and correction.

3. 2013 Imagery
No Cloud Cover

4. Landsat 8, OLI – Brookings ROI (P029/R029)
(289)No clouds
October16 2013 17:13 UTC RGB

5. Landsat 8, OLI – Brookings ROI (P029/R029)
(289)No clouds
October16 2013 17:13 UTC Cirrus

6. Landsat 8, OLI – Brookings ROI (P029/R029)
(177)A Good Example of What RGB Can Do too…
June 26 2013 17:13 UTC RGB Bands(4,3,2)
This peak
is the dark
current of
the
Landsat 8
detector
array at
this
specific
time and
over
brookings
This peak
is present
in all the
histograms
, is it also a
property
of the
instrument
?

7. 2013 Imagery
Some Cloud Cover

8. Landsat 8, OLI – Brookings ROI (P029/R029)
(177)A Good Example of What Cirrus Can Do
June 26 2013 17:13 UTC Cirrus Band-9
Dave Says:
1. 27-Jun-13
1. Formos
at
2. 17:13:31
3. ? (Good
from Sat
view)
2. 28-Jun-13
1. Formos
at
2. 17:13:57
3. Fair+
3. 28-Jun-13
1. QB
2. 16:37:11
3. Fair+
Cirrus Says:
1. Splattere
d with
dense
clouds
high
above
the
earth’s
surface

9. Landsat 8, OLI – Brookings ROI (P029/R029)
(177)A Good Example of What RGB Can Do too…
June 26 2013 17:13 UTC RGB Bands(4,3,2)
Dave Says:
1. 27-Jun-13
1. Formos
at
2. 17:13:31
3. ? (Good
from Sat
view)
2. 28-Jun-13
1. Formos
at
2. 17:13:57
3. Fair+
3. 28-Jun-13
1. QB
2. 16:37:11
3. Fair+
RGB Says:
1. Same as
Cirrus
with
more
cumulou
s clouds

10. Landsat 8, OLI – Brookings ROI (P029/R029)
(177)A Good Example of What Cirrus Can Do
June 26 2013 17:13 UTC Cirrus

11. Landsat 8, OLI – Brookings ROI (P029/R029)
(177)A Good Example of What RGB Can Do too…
June 26 2013 17:13 UTC RGB Bands(4,3,2)

12. Landsat 8, OLI – Brookings ROI (P029/R029)
(177)A Good Example of What RGB Can Do too…
June 26 2013 17:13 UTC RGB Bands(4,3,2)
The dark current
has a wider
spread and
extends further
below 5000 DN
Real Clouds

13. 2014 Imagery
Full Cloud Cover

14. Landsat 8, OLI – Brookings ROI (P029/R029)
(068-14)Whispy Clouds
March 9 2013 17:12 UTC RGB Bands(4,3,2)

15. Landsat 8, OLI – Brookings ROI (P029/R029)
(068-14)Whispy Clouds
March 9 2013 17:12 UTC RGB Bands(4,3,2)
Different
domain,
but similar
peaks as
the partly
cloudy
scene ~
6000 DN –
9000 DN
The count of the noise
peak increased
There whole scene is
cloudy so there are a
greater number of
higher ~8000
DN counts
This DN
Signiture
must be
due to the
NON data
filler pixels