City College of San Francisco—Earth Sciences Spring 2021

GEOG 1L—Physical Geography Laboratory

Duncan/Hess

MODULE 11
LANDFORM STUDY WITH REMOTE IMAGERY
Objective: To learn to interpret aerial imagery in the study of landforms.

Reference: Hess, Fourth California Edition of McKnight’s Physical Geography, 12th ed., pp. 41-46.

AERIAL PHOTOGRAPHS
Data or information gathered and recorded by an instrument that isn’t in physical contact with the object being studied
is broadly referred to as remote sensing. One of the first kinds of remote sensing used in geography came with aerial
photographs taken from airplanes, and such images remain valuable tools in landscape studies.
Although it might seem that photographs would be easier to interpret than maps, in many cases the opposite
is true. Maps show selected information and use symbols to distinguish different features that may look alike from
the air. On the other hand, photographs show “everything”—and that can make interpretation difficult. A number of
characteristics can be used to help us identify features shown in aerial photographs:
• Shape: The shapes of objects can offer clues to their nature. This is especially true of human-made features
such as airports and stadiums.
• Pattern: Look for regularities in the landscape. Evenly spaced lines or dots often show human-built features
such as cultivated fields or orchards. A perfectly straight line that cuts across the landscape may be a road or
canal, whereas a nearly straight line can be a natural feature such as a fault or a major joint in the rock
structure.
• Size: Judging the size of an object can be difficult. A
small house and a large apartment may look the same
from the air so you may need to use nearby objects,
such as parked automobiles, for scale.
• Shadows: In some cases shadows can reveal the
nature of objects that are otherwise hard to see—such
as a vertical cliff or a tall rock spire.
Shadows can also mislead us. For example,
“shaded relief” maps (such as Figure 11-1 to the
right) show the landscape as if the light source was
shining from the northwest, and so “shadows” appear
on the southeastern side of a mountain peak;
however, on aerial photographs, the actual shadows
cast by the Sun may appear on the northwest side of
a peak and this can produce an optical illusion that
makes a mountain peak look like a depression and a
valley like a high ridge!

Figure 11-1: Shaded relief topographic map of the

USGS Deer Peak, Montana, US Topo Quadrangle,
shown here reduced in size (original scale 1:24,000;
contour interval 40 feet).
• Texture: A coarse texture may show a jumble of boulders from a landslide, whereas a smoother texture may
indicate a deposit of smaller material such as sand; a forest consisting of large trees may look “bumpy,”
whereas grassland may appear much smoother.
• Tone and Color: In natural-color imagery, green can reveal vegetation, and shades of brown and tan
different types of surface rocks. Wet soils tend to be darker than dry soil; clear water tends to look darker than
muddy or turbulent water.
• Locational Context: Knowing something of the general location shown in an aerial photograph will help in
your analysis. In a volcanic area, a dark surface might represent a lava flow, whereas in another kind of
landscape, it might represent dense forest cover.

SATELLITE IMAGERY
Today, much of the remotely sensed imagery we see comes not from airplanes flying a few thousand feet above the
surface, but from the sensors of satellites orbiting hundreds of miles above Earth. In Lab Module 8, we looked at
weather satellite images; in this module, we introduce satellite imagery that is used to study surface features such as
vegetation, water, and landforms.
The most sophisticated satellites, such as the Landsat series launched by NASA and operated by the U.S.
Geological Survey, have multispectral scanners on board (Figure 11-2). These sensors scan Earth in a number of
different wavelength bands of electromagnetic radiation—for example, Landsat 8 has eleven bands capable of
generating natural color images as well as images in a range of infrared wavelengths (see textbook Table 2-1). By
processing and overlapping the wavelength bands in various ways, satellite imagery can discern a remarkable variety
of characteristics of the atmosphere and surface below. Depending on the purpose of the satellite imagery, the colors
you see may appear much as they would to our eyes, or they may be “false color” to emphasize features our eyes
alone cannot detect.

Figure 11-2: Natural color Landsat 8 image of the “Big Island” of Hawai‘i taken on March 28, 2016.
IMAGES & MAPS FOR MODULE 11 PROBLEMS
On the remaining pages of this reading handout, you’ll find a series of maps and images that you’ll use when
completing the problems for Module 11.

Figure 11-3: Top: Greasewood Spring, Arizona, Quadrangle (original scale 1:24,000; contour interval 20 ft.).
Bottom: Greasewood Spring, Arizona, US Topo Imagery (original scale 1:24,000).
Figure 11-4: Top: Bowknot Bend, Utah, Quadrangle (original scale 1:24,000; contour interval 40 ft.). Bottom: Bowknot
Bend, Utah, US Topo Imagery (original scale 1:24,000; 2011).
City College of San Francisco Name ______________________________________ Section _____
GEOG 1L/Physical Geography Laboratory
Duncan/Hess—Spring 2021 Score: _______________ / 25 points

MODULE 11 PROBLEMS— Landform Study With Remote Imagery

You may type in your answers directly on this document, or print out a hard copy and submit a PDF or JPEG
image of your hand-written answers.

Questions 1-2 are based on Figure 11-2, a natural color satellite image of the southern side of the “Big Island” of
Hawai‘i taken by Landsat 8. The dark streaks coming down in the upper right of the image are lava flows from the
active volcano of Mauna Loa. The ocean appears black in this image.

1. Notice that the lava flows don’t all appear the same. What might cause differences in the appearance of these
lava flows? (Note: All of the lava flows have cooled, so you’re not looking at molten lava anywhere.)

2. Notice the small cumulus clouds over the green areas just inland from the shore of the island. What can help
explain why these clouds appear where they do and not evenly over the entire island?

Questions 3-5 are based on Figure 11-3, the topographic map and color imagery of the southeast corner of the
Greasewood Spring, AZ, Quadrangle (1:24,000; contour interval 20 feet).

3. (a) Does this appear to be an arid or a humid environment?

(b) What do you see in the imagery that supports your answer?

4. What helps explain the different colors you see in the surface of this area?
5. (a) Was this aerial image taken in the morning or in the afternoon?

(b) What do you see that supports your answer?

Questions 6-10 are based on Figure 11-4, a topographic map and aerial imagery of a portion of the Bowknot
Bend, UT, Quadrangle (1:24,000; contour interval 40 ft.) showing the entrenched meanders of the Green River
near Canyonlands National Park, Utah.

6. Use the map to determine the elevation at the top of the half-circle-shaped hill (marked with arrow):

_____________ feet

7. Does the top of the half-circle-shaped hill appear to have a smooth or irregular surface?

8. How can different layers of rock be discerned from the aerial imagery?

9. What might explain why vegetation is found along the narrow wash extending to the southwest through
Horseshoe Canyon but nowhere else except along the main river?

10. In the aerial imagery, look at the half-circle-shaped hill. To some people, the hill looks like a depression
surrounded by a ridge—if it does to you, try looking at this image upside down and see if it looks the
same. What helps explain this optical illusion that some people see?