PHOTOGRAMMETRIC ENGINEERING & REMOTE SENSING
August 2014
717
BOOK
REVIEW
Your opportunity to contribute to the ...
ASPRS Manual of Remote Sensing, 4
th
Edition
• Produced as a searchable, e-manual format
• Organized in 4 parts with 14 chapters
- Part 1: Systems
- Part 2: Data Management
- Part 3: Applications
- Part 4: Extra-terrestrial Space Science
• Expected availability by mid 2016
• Editorial Team:
- Stan Morain, Editor-in-Chief (
- Mike Renslow, Associate & Technical Editor (
)
- Amelia Budge, Asssociate & Design Editor (
)
Interested? Contribute your knowledge,
expertise and material by contacting chapter leads.
examined in depth. References have been listed throughout
each section of each individual chapter and a general index is
also supplied at the end of the book.
There are, however, a few issues that need to be addressed.
Since each chapter is written by different contributors, their
different styles prevent a coherent connection with the other
writers. Redundancy can be seen from one chapter to another
and references from previous chapters are ignored in other
chapters. Also, the adoption and dependency on the many
references weaken the overall value of the main contents of
the book. A few comments about specific issues, for instance:
(1) “The wavelet transform of a self-similar function computed
at different scales is also self-similar” (Chapter 4, pp.134)
and (self-similarity) “Their autocorrelation function remains
scale invariant” (Chapter 4, pp. 136), are neither proven nor
referenced to be explained clearly (2) some important aspects,
including the limitation of wavelet transforms, the singularity
aspect of fractals and the connection between wavelets and
fractals are not addressed sufficiently and, (3) the widely
applicable respects of wavelets and fractals in geomorphology
and remotely sensed image processing fields are missing.
Nevertheless, the book is a good reference for those who are
interested in the newer nonlinear techniques of wavelets and
fractals toward solving practical problems and making use of
related examples especially in earth system sciences.
to long term recorded geomagnetic data. Chapter 8 presents an
interesting example of an application of wavelet transform in
data reconstruction where the mathematical method is mostly
covered in chapter 2. As an example, monsoon rainfall data
reconstructed by a wavelet transform from speleothems using
different designed filters, not only is confirmed by the third
party multitaper analysis but also demonstrates useful hidden
signals. In addition to data reconstruction, wavelet-based
signal analysis including singularity detection (as analyzed in
chapter 4) is advocated as a widely adopted method in time-
frequency representation. Chapter 9 outlines the procedures
and methodologies of wavelet analysis, describing how this
analysis assessed the highly significant correlation of rainfall
data anomalies and tree-ring data non-stationary behavior.
One advanced topic of wavelet transform in solving partial
differential equations is disclosed in the last chapter with an
example of field modeling on phase transitions in the earth.
With the introduction of the phase transition format and the
comparison to the spectral implementation of phase field
models, the wavelet implementation method is formulated and
its results are analyzed.
Overall, the book is organized in such a way that the chapter
transitions allow for the reader to build upon each theme/topic
sequentially to showcase the strength of wavelet and fractal
method in multiscale data analysis. Despite of the complexity
of the mathematical background, each chapter is written
fluently with clear graphics and formulas. Examples are all
