Summer School on Remote Sensing & GIS organized by Institute of Space Technology

Introduction to Imagine Software and Image Data

ERDAS Imagine 2014

Description: In this lab, we will start using the ERDAS Imagine version 2014 image
processing software package to learn some basic operations. We will also become
familiar with the data to be used in future labs as well as gain experience using the USGS
browsers to download Landsat satellite imagery.

Google Chrome has been known to be incompatible with ERDAS help as well as the USGS Glovis site. Be prepared to
try use of other browsers such Firefox or Internet Explorer if you experience unexplained problems.

Avoid having spaces in any input paths or output path names including the file name itself- some tools will not
work properly if spaces are found. This has been known to affect ArcGIS products as well.
 Summer School on Remote Sensing & GIS organized by Institute of Space Technology

Introduction to Imagine Software and Course Data

Image Data

We will mainly use Landsat Enhanced Thematic Mapper (ETM+) data. The image used in
this lab is an entire Landsat "scene" of Islamabad. These ETM+ data are 30-meter spatial
resolution with six multispectral bands. Later in the lab you will download another image
from the USGS Glovis web site.

In addition to image data we will also use vector data in the form of shapefile.

Projection information: All of the image and vector data are projected into the Universal
Transverse Mercator projection using the following standard parameters: Projection: UTM
Units: meters Zone: 43 Datum: WGS84 Spheroid: WGS84

Image Processing Software

We will be using ERDAS Imagine image processing software. Image data tend to use a lot of
disk space. Please delete all "test" or temporary images you create. Before you end your
session, confirm that you really want to quit Imagine and answer "no" to the question
whether you want to print the LOG file, if the question appears.

Note: There is on-line help in Imagine. To access it click on the “?” icon in the upper
right of the ERDAS Imagine screen. For additional information, click on the Help
tab on the Ribbon bar.

Starting Imagine
You start Imagine by selecting
Start > All Programs > ERDAS IMAGINE 2014> ERDAS IMAGINE 2014.
Hint: You may also type
Imagine into the Search
Programs and Files box
from the Start Logo
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If you are having trouble, ask the lab instructor for help. Imagine will open with a screen
reminiscent of the Microsoft suite with the ribbon selector across the top of the screen. You
normally start Imagine in the ‘Home’ tab of the ribbon.

Imagine Display Procedures

You will notice that one 2D View is automatically created when Imagine loads. To start an
additional Viewer, click on the “Add Views” drop down in the “Home” tab of the ribbon
and select “Create new 2D View” (see figure to right). This will open a
second window on the Imagine desktop. If you right click 2D View #1 (or right
click anywhere inside its View), a Viewer menu bar pull-down menu will appear
which depicts some Imagine operations that can be performed in the View. As an example,
Open Raster Layer… will let you select a raster image to display. As is typical with most
windows applications, there are multiple ways to do many functions. You can also load a
new raster by clicking on the File Menu (in the upper left corner, see figure

to the right) and select Open > . Either option will give
you the raster dialog box below:

Note: All data used in the labs will be on IST-drive in the Summer School Folder. Navigation to
respective day, lecture and dataset folder.

Use the below dialog box to select the image and type of data display for the viewer. In the
Files of Type box, Image (*.img) is the system default file type. All the files in your directory

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with the extension specified under File Type will appear in the list of files. You can left-
hold the Files of Type dropdown to select a new default file type.

We will work mainly with IMG and SHP files. Use the file list to select the input file. We
will first work with the file:

stack.img. This file is in the dataset subfolder in the lecture 03 folder.

Left-click once on the file name to select that file. Now click the Raster Options tab. You
will see a dialog box like this: (Notice the OK button is clickable now)

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Notice that certain default parameters are automatically set when you select a file. If the
image to be displayed is a multilayer file (spectral data with more than one band), you can
choose any three bands to display in any order. Usually, Imagine will recognize the scanner
type (TM, SPOT, MSS, etc.) and default to display a standard composite. You can change the
bands displayed by using the up/down arrows next to the Layers to Colors: Red Green
and Blue channel displays. Note, these settings can easily be changed again once the image
is loaded.

Other default parameters can also be changed before displaying the image. For
example, change the following display options to get an image or a desired portion of
an image displayed at a different zoom ratio.

Set View Extent allows you to specify the upper left and lower right coordinates of the
portion of the image you want to display. When Set View Extent and Fit to Frame are off,
you can enter a zoom by ratio (enlargement or reduction) for the data (the default is 1,
meaning every pixel of the image is displayed in one picture element of the Viewer). When
the image is reduced, the magnification factor is less than 1.000, and when the image is
enlarged, the magnification is greater than 1.000.

If you are adding a layer to a view that already has other raster layers to it and you want to
maintain those layers in the view, be sure to check off the Clear Display.

Left-click on the OK button to display the image (which will automatically close the Open
Raster Layer dialog box). You should see a false color infra-red image near Cannon Falls,
MN.
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TIP: If you would like to change the Clear Display ‘default’ setting, go to File > Preferences.
Navigate to the Viewing > Viewer category in the left pane. In the right pane, check off the
‘Clear Display’ option:

Other Imagine Viewer Functions

1. Magnifying a portion of an image which is already being displayed

Left click in the Imagine View in which you would like to add a magnifier. In the Table of
Contents (TOC) on the left-hand side of the Imagine desktop, that image name should be
highlighted.

Make sure the “Home”

tab is selected in the
ribbon and click on
the
magnifier icon:

(
The Drop down to the right of the magnifier
sets its mode, a common behavior for many of
 Summer School on Remote Sensing & GIS organized by Institute of Space Technology

the tools in Imagine. Select the In-View Magnifier. The ‘In View Magnifier’ will create a
magnifier bubble with slightly distorted edges will appear in the View. You can left click
hold and drag this magnifying bubble around your image. Right clicking on the Inset in the
table of contents will let you set a higher or lower zoom level for the bubble. Try right
clicking on a part of the image that is not in the bubble and change the zoom options. You
will notice that the zoom level is changed both for the image and the bubble. Notice the red
colored corners that are on either side of the bubble. You can increase or decrease the
bubble size by clicking on one of these and dragging it in the desired direction. To turn the
bubble off, simply click again on the In View Magnifier choice in the magnifier icon in the
ribbon bar. The magnifier icon has other settings beside In View Magnifier. Take some time
to explore them. The ‘New Inset Viewer’ choice by the magnifier will create a slightly
different magnifier. The choice will create an Inset layer name in the table of contents
where you can control zoom levels. To close this Inset, right click on the layer and at the
bottom of the menu, choose Close Inset.

2. Inquire Cursor

The Inquire cursor dialog box gives information about individual pixels by using a cursor
which is displayed as a cross-hair in the Viewer window. An image must be
displayed and selected in the View before you can request an inquire cursor.
Left-click on the Inquire Cursor box (not the down arrow, see figure to the
right) under the “Home” tab in the ribbon. The View window which is under inquiry will be
listed in the Inquire Cursor dialog title bar when it opens.
 Summer School on Remote Sensing & GIS organized by Institute of Space Technology

To move the cursor (cross hairs indicated by the yellow arrow above), you can either left-
hold the intersection of the cross-hairs and drag it to the desired location, or enter the
desired coordinates in the Inquire Cursor dialog box, or use the 4-way "nudgers" (arrows)
at the bottom of the Inquire Cursor dialog box to move the cursor in any direction. The
inquire cursor dialog box shows a lot of information about that particular point, including
the coordinates related to where the cursor is positioned, the digital numbers for the three
bands selected to be displayed (“File Pixel”), and the RGB values being displayed by your
monitor (“LUT Value”). To close the cursor, simply click on Close.

Accessing Global Image Information

By "Global" information, we mean information related to the entire image as opposed to

any particular pixel location. Be sure to have the “Home” tab selected in the ribbon and
click on the “I” icon on the “Metadata” button (see figure to the right). The Image Metadata
dialog box (below) will be displayed: The set of tools in "Image Metadata" allows you to
view, edit, and print most of the information of an image file (.img file). Caution: the
information in this dialog should not be modified in this class, except as directed in
subsequent exercises, because Imagine uses this information as input data.
 Summer School on Remote Sensing & GIS organized by Institute of Space Technology

Information is displayed for a default data layer (layer #1, i.e., band #1). You can change
the layer number to get the information for a different data layer if your data is
multiband data, despite what the image is being displayed as in the viewer.

Note that layer numbering is sequential in an IMG file and may not coincide with band
numbers for a sensor (e.g., an IMG file may contain TM bands 2, 3, and 4 which, in the
file, would be layers 1, 2, and 3, respectively).

In the image information dialog box you can see the statistics related to the selected
band. These statistics pertain to the entire image. For example, the "mean" refers to the
mean of all the pixel values in the image for the given band.

Use View > Histogram from the Image Metadata window menu bar to view the histogram for
the current data layer whose information is displayed in the Image Info dialog box. You can also
select the Histogram tab in the Image Metadata viewer or by clicking on

Explore other band information about the stack.img image file. The histogram gives
additional detail beyond the global statistics. It shows the spread and shape of the how the
pixel values are distributed over all of the possible values for that particular band. The x-
axis represents the digital number and the y-axis shows how many pixels in the image
have that particular digital number.

Explore the layers of this image and use the histogram to see how the digital number
values of one band might or might not overlap with another band. This analysis is essential
in classification of imagery, which will be discussed at a later date. If you are having
trouble understanding the information contained in the histograms, please ask the lab
instructor for assistance.
 Summer School on Remote Sensing & GIS organized by Institute of Space Technology

Some things to try...

1. Layer Info

Use Metadata utility to obtain mean and standard deviation for bands 1 - 6 from the
26_29_dak_sub.img file. Close the Image Metadata view by clicking File > Close or
clicking on the large X in the upper right of the window.

2. Display different false color composites

If you already have the image loaded in to the viewer, navigate to the “Multispectral” tab on
the ribbon. In the ‘Bands’ category the bands displayed by each layer (display channel) can
be changed.

Try some of these common composites:

a. Standard false color composite (4,3,2) [from top to bottom]

(for Landsat 8 this will be 5,4,3 because of the new violet band 1)

b. True color composite (3,2,1)

c. False color composite (4,5,3)

Be prepared to briefly discuss at least one of the composites which you display.
Factors to consider include: what bands were used (and in which display channel),
the appearance of specific ground features in each composite (e.g. what color is
vegetation?), or whether the composite appears to enhance any particular
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feature.

3. Vector Layers

With the stack.img image open in a viewer, select File > Open > Vector Layer. Open the
Shapefile called islamabad.shp in the same folder as the imagery. Click on this file and click
Ok (make sure "Clear Display" under the Vector Options tab is NOT ON, otherwise it will
close your raster layer and only open the vector layer.

When the vector file opens, select the “Styles” tab on the ribbon bar and click on
the Viewing Properties choice.

This will give you the following Dialog Box:

Left-click on the small button to the right of the "Polygon" “All” Radio button.

This will give you an options box. Check off the box for the
solid color and choose Yellow for outline.

You should see yellow lines displayed over your image. Close
the "Properties" box.
 Summer School on Remote Sensing & GIS organized by Institute of Space Technology

Now we will remove vector coverage. In the Table of Contents for the view, right click
on the vector layer and select Remove Layer. You will be asked if you want to save your
symbology change, select No.
 Summer School on Remote Sensing & GIS organized by Institute of Space Technology

The Help System

There are several ways to get help with ERDAS Imagine. We will take a look at a few
approaches. To access the online help, select Help tab.

The first choice is to click on the

This will display the general help interface that allows quick links to common help items
as well as a contents oriented navigation area with full searching.

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Spend some time with this interface. As an example, use the help to determine what
pyramid layers do. Use the Common Workflows guide to read about creating a
shoebox, which conceptually is like a ArcGIS map document (mxd).

You WILL need help with ERDAS Imagine. Take some time to understand the help system
by browsing the Help on Help section in the content! Also examine the IMAGINE Ribbon
Workspace entries in the IMAGINE Interface content.

The Field Guide contains background information on what ERDAS is actually doing to the
data when you select various features. It can often times help you better understand a
topic covered in your text, but is really not meant to be a ‘How To’ guide that shows you
what buttons to click.

New since Imagine 2010, and most helpful, is the “Help” tab on the ribbon bar. It has been
slightly reconfigured in Imagine 2016. Click on the Help tab and your screen should look
something like this:

Enter a search string here and click on the spyglasses; get results here

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Let’s try another search on the term ‘vector’. Once you enter a search string your screen
will look like this:

In this case, the system found 45 results, The first set of results will be displayed when you
click on the arrow next to page 1 of 5.and the ‘Next’ button will display the next set of ten.
Click on the appropriate result to view the help. Alternatively, you can hover over each
result to get a summary of where the suggested tool is located in the ribbon bar. This
feature is extremely helpful when getting to know the software and the ins-and-outs of
where all of the tools are located. You also can easily access any of the tour guides or field
guides by clicking on the appropriate book ellipse above and on the left.