Comparative assessment of ASTER image and ETM+ fusion image for agricultural applications

ASTER has 3 bands of 15 m spatial resolution in the visible and near-infrared wavelength regions. These three bands have the same spectral zones as Landsat7 ETM+ multispectral bands. We compared the performance of the ASTER image with that of the ETM fusion image from 4 key aspects in order to accelerate its application for agriculture monitoring. These 4 key aspects are geometric correction, typical surface features identification, land target area measurement, image classification and interpretation. The results show that the ASTER image can be geometrically corrected with high accuracy, is better than the ETM+ fusion image for typical surface features identification, records the small land targets in detail, can be more suitable for recognition by eye, can be used for measuring land target area with high accuracy, and has the same good performance as the ETM image for image classification and interpretation. ASTER shows great potential for the applications of agricultural monitoring.