Astrogeology Research Program

In cooperation with U.S. Agency for International Development

U.S. Geological Survey
Open-File Report 2006-1345
Version 1.0

Calibrated Landsat ETM+ Mosaics of Afghanistan

By Philip A. Davis

2006

Satellite image of Afghanistan

In 2005, the U.S. Agency for International Development and the U.S. Trade and Development Agency contracted with the U.S. Geological Survey to perform assessments of the natural resources within Afghanistan. The assessments concentrate on the resources that are related to the economic development of that country. Therefore, assessments were initiated in oil and gas, coal, mineral resources, water resources, and earthquake hazards. All of these assessments require geologic, structural, and topographic information throughout the country at a finer scale and better accuracy than that provided by the existing maps, which were published in the 1970s by the Russians and Germans. The very rugged terrain in Afghanistan, the large scale of these assessments, and the terrorist threat in Afghanistan indicated that the best approach to provide the preliminary assessments was to use remotely sensed, satellite image data, although this may also apply to subsequent phases of the assessments. Therefore, the first step in the assessment process was to produce satellite image mosaics of Afghanistan that would be useful for these assessments. This report discusses the production and characteristics of the fundamental satellite image databases produced for these assessments, which are calibrated image mosaics of all six Landsat nonthermal (reflected) bands.

Download this report as an 18-page PDF file (of2006-1345.pdf; 1.3 MB)

For questions about the content of this report, contact Philip Davis

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