While our eyes only detect a fraction of all light available, satellite sensors can actually capture – and send back – much more information. This information is relayed back to us in a format quite different from the photographs we are used to. For each band, satellites capture the spectral reflectance of the area within a specific narrow band of the light spectrum. Data captured along specific bands of the spectrum is available through EarthCache. The bands available vary based on the sensor which captured the data.
Skywatch Band Ordering
EarthCache delivers a standardized product which orders all optical bands the same way which may be different than the order in the original source product. EarthCache orders the bands in Red, Green, Blue, Infra-Red order. You can obtain this ordering in the metadata.json file in your API results.
Available Outputs:
API Output ID: a8fc3dde-a3e8-11e7-9793-ae4260ee3b4b
A true colour image with red, green and blue bands. The result will return a PNG true-colour image, as well as a GeoTIFF containing all bands.
API Output ID: 1f0db8b2-b4d4-11e7-a775-a6fe70ce62b1
A false colour urban composite image is a combination of short wave infrared 1 (SWIR1), short wave infrared 2 (SWIR2), and red bands. It is often used to track urban sprawl and identify areas at risk of flooding.
API Output ID: 154311a8-582a-11e7-b30d-7291b81e23e3
A false colour infrared composite image is a combination of near-infrared, red, and green bands. It is often used to track vegetation health or help identify different types of soil and minerals.
API Output ID: c31c1bea-a4be-11e7-8650-3ae5c7149ea7
A file that contains all bands captured by the sensor. This includes red, blue, green, near-infrared, as well as panchromatic, short-wave infrared, red edge, and thermal bands when available. The result will return a PNG true-colour image, as well as a GeoTIFF containing all bands in Skywatch Band Ordering.
An improved vegetation index, optimized for better performance on canopy vegetation.
API Output ID: 3cab2e68-b4d4-11e7-a775-a6fe70ce62b1Second Modified Soil Adjusted Vegetation Index (MSAVI2) developed by Qi et al. (1994) is a radiometric index using the near-infrared and red bands. MSAVI2 images are often used to look at vegetation cover, biomass and to determine leaf area index. They can also be used as an input layer for mapping land cover or vegetation classesAPI Output ID: 154311a8-582a-11e7-b30d-7291b81e23e1Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) images is a ratio image of the near-infrared, and red bands. NDVI images can be used to measure biomass, assess plant health and stress levels, quantify forest supply, and monitor plant growth. By combining NDVI data with precipitation data, it is also possible to identify at-risk areas for drought.API Output ID: 59a6c7d6-c8a5-11e7-bf5c-a24e57c3cdd2Normalized Difference Water Index (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normalized_difference_water_index) API Output ID: ga23d8a2-8f3d-481c-b7ef-9fa02839aab0
A file that contains bands captured in the near-infrared part of the light spectrum (between 0.75–1.4 µm – varying by sensor). This is useful to highlight different features on the ground such as rock, bare soil, vegetation, burned ground, snow, sediment-rich water, etc. which have different reflectance properties in each band, called a 'spectral signature'.
API Output ID: cfcb7d93-8d53-482b-88bd-808bb45940e2
A file that contains bands captured in the visible part of the light spectrum. This file does not discriminate between colours and the resulting image will be in black and white. Panchromatic files are often used to digitally sharpen images created by assembling other bands as the panchromatic sensor captures the ground at a finer resolution than some other sensors.
API Output ID: rgbn-a3e8-11e7-9793-ae4260ee3b4b
A true colour image that also contains the near-infrared band. The result will return a PNG true-colour image, as well as a GeoTIFF containing all bands.
API Output ID: SAR-010-e58e-4fad-9f27-31abf952160dSAR Terrain Corrected Sigma0API Output ID: SAR-018-fe30-11e8-81b3-da121bd73b52SAR Terrain Flattened Gamma0API Output ID: defgecd4-li66-49df-e9b0-33f90g9c2ne4A true colour image is a combination of red, green, blue, and near-infrared bands. The results have been pansharpened where possible. The SkyWatch Beta cloud detection algorithm is run instead of the vendor supplied mask. API Output ID: b94d5312-bfe0-11e7-841e-1a18f7631a00
A file that contains a band captured along the thermal infrared portion of the light spectrum. This result is currently only available for Landsat-8. You can find more information about TIRS here.