Skip to main content
ARS Home » Research » Software » Download

Download
headline bar
AROP (1)
 

Welcome to the software download area! Please contact us if you have problems or questions.

Download Available


Current Version

AROP, Version 2.2.9

Overview

  Accurate geo-referencing information is a basic requirement for combining remote satellite imagery with other geographic information. To detect changes in time-series satellite images, it is extremely important for the images to be precisely co-registered and orthorectified, so that images acquired from different sensors and dates can be compared directly.
  Precise registration relates satellite images to the ground reference based on carefully selected ground control points between the image and corresponding ground objects. Co-registration matches two images based on the tie points in the images. Although most commercial remote sensing software packages provide precise registration or co-registration, the selection of control points or tie points needs to be done manually. This is a time-consuming process that is not feasible for a large amount of data processing. Even though some satellite data are precisely registered and orthorectified, mismatches of up to a few pixels are common in early data sources.
  The topographical variations of the earth•s surface and the satellite view zenith angle affect the pixel•s distance projected onto the satellite image. The distortion inherent in the image is determined by topographical elevation. For example, an off-nadir view of 5 degrees at a site with a terrain height of 1000 meters can cause displacement of 120 meters (about 4 Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) pixels). The orthorectification process is used to correct the pixel displacement caused by the topographical variations at the off-nadir viewing and to make the image orthographic, with every pixel in its correct location regardless of elevation and viewing direction.
  We developed an automated registration and orthorectification package (AROP) for Landsat and Landsat-like data processing. It uses precisely registered and orthorectified Landsat data (e.g., GeoCover or recently released free Landsat Level 1T data from the USGS EROS data center) as the base image to co-register and orthorectify the warp image and thus to make geo-referenced time-series images consistent in the geographic extent, spatial resolution, and projection. This package has been tested on the Landsat Multi-spectral Scanner (MSS), TM and Enhanced TM Plus (ETM+), Terra ASTER, CBERS CCD, and IRS-P6 AWiFS data.
  The development of the AROP package was supported by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Landsat Science Team project and the NASA EOS project. The package was initially developed at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (from September 2005 to June 2011). Previous version can be downloaded from the NASA GSFC Landsat Ecosystem Disturbance Adaptive Processing System (LEDAPS) web site. Further improvement and continuous maintenance are now being undertaken in the Hydrology and Remote Sensing Laboratory, Agricultural Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) by Dr. Feng Gao. 

Installation

(tested in Linux 64-bit system)


You will see an executable program named "ortho" under this directory.  Examples can be found from the sub-directory "tests".

Usage

Usage: ortho [-r|-o|-b|-v] <parameter_file>
       -r  do registration only
       -o  do orthorectification only (assume warp image has been registrated)
       -b  do both registration and othorectification (recommend for all L1G data)
       -v  verify image matching

Input parameter file defines the detailed information for base, warp and output image. The base image and the matching band from warp images will be used for the area-based tie point searching base on the tie point control file. Please check appendix A.1 and A.2 published in the Journal of Applied Remote Sensing by Gao et al. (2009) for descriptions of input parameter file and tie point control file. The updated input parameter file is provided in readme file under •doc• subdirectory.

Reference

Gao., F., Masek, J. G., Wolfe, R. F., An automated registration and orthorectification package for Landsat and Landsat-like data processing, Journal of Applied Remote Sensing, Vol.3, 033515, doi: 10.1117/1.3104620, 2009. (copyright SPIE JARS)

Unconditional Release

The package is now being released at no cost to the public for further development. ARS is releasing the AROP so that interested parties can use the software tool for their own needs and purposes. ARS does not foresee providing monetary or technical support to refine, adapt, or use this software tool, and provides no warranty for its use for any purpose. ARS does not reserve any rights or interests in the work that may be performed by others to refine or adapt it. ARS does reserve the right to continue its own refinement of the current version of the software package at a later date, should program needs require it.

 


Download Form

Please complete the form below to track the use of the service we are providing and to help improve our product.
OMB 0518 - 0032 (01/2025)
 
First Name   
Last Name   
Middle   
Email*   
Affiliation   
City   
State   
Country   
Reference   
Purpose   
Comments   
  

According to the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, an agency cannot conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to respond to, a collection of information unless it displays a valid OMB control number. The valid OMB control number for this information collection is 0518-0032. The time required to complete this information is estimated to vary from one to five minutes with an average of three minutes per response, including time for reviewing instructions, and completing and reviewing the collection of information. Send comments regarding this burden estimate or any other aspect of this collection of information, including suggestions for reducing this burden, to Department of Agriculture, Clearance Officer, OIRM, Room 404-W, Washington, DC 20250, and to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, Office of Management and Budget.