Amazon Change Detection
Near Infrared Spectral Band
The NIR spectral band is a powerful tool when observing vegetation. The healthier the vegetation the brighter red it will reflect.
The European Space Agency, EAS, used Landsat-5 data from 1985 and compared it to 2016 Sentinel-2 data to depict deforestation near the northwestern Brazilian city of Rio Branco. EAS used false color images, which uncover an abundance of information by using the near-infrared spectral band.
40 Years of Land Cover Changes in Southeastern Amazon
The above image was created using PRODES data which can be accessed, here.
The five mosaics above are Landsat images. The analysts utilized the normalized difference vegetation index, NDVI, to distinguish between vegetated areas and soil. These images visualize the significant change, 2,070,607 ha, in land cover from 1973 to 2013. Urban areas increased from 573 ha to 13,822 ha. This change was attributed to expansion of agriculture.