# Adding Imagery {% hint style="warning" %} ​[Link ](https://nercacuk-my.sharepoint.com/:f:/g/personal/aliska_bas_ac_uk/EijY60HQIN1NugdrP92KYKkB-3Sk9-c8-tVB7Q3PKpig2w?e=M51Lrm)to download data for this section {% endhint %} ### Optical medium-resolution imagery Imagery is usually supplied by MAGIC as an RGB synthesis. Add a satellite image to the map and style it. 1. Drag image file `LC09_L1GT_220108_2024-04-07_BGRNIR.tif` into the project. This is a Landsat-9 medium-resolution image (30m/pixel), it has 4 spectral bands (1: Blue; 2: Green; 3: Red, 4: Near Infra Red) and 16-bit depth pixels. 2. Go to Image **Properties** and then to the **Symbology** tab. To create a true-color composite, set for Red Band 3, for Green - Band 2, and for Blue - Band 1. Click OK. In general, this creates an acceptable image representation.

Image Symbology

3. Zoom into Rothera Point, it may seem dark. For this case, use the following stretch method. Go to layer **Properties - Symbology**. Expand **Min/Max Value Settings** section. Change Statistics extent from **Whole Raster** to **Current** extent. \ \ ![](/files/W3ixeRk0Ge57m9QSeDOV)
What has just happened? An image could be represented as a [histogram ](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image_histogram)- a graph showing distribution of pixels with different brightness within an image. Brightness is just a pixel value: low values correspond to dark pixels (rock, shadows, water), high values - to bright pixels (snow, clouds). At the histogram of the Landsat image of Rothera first group of peaks (about 5000 - 6000) indicates water, and the second group (around 9000) - snow and clouds. When new image added to map view, QGIS by default stretches the histogram between 2 and 98 percentiles of the histogram, cutting out the most bright and dark pixels. This usually works well with cloud/snow/water-free images. In this case, the default style leaves point of interest in darkness. But it is possible to recalculate the histogram just for the visible area and adjust the histogram to it.
4. Some sensors have a Panchromatic band (of broad spectral range, usually from blue to yellow or red, band with higher resolution), which allows for enhancing image resolution and preserving original colors. To compare the original and enhanced (pan-sharped) images, add the file `LC09_L1GT_220108_2024-04-07_BGRNIR_PSH.tif` to the map. Apply the same symbology as in **step 3**. Compare the level of detail. \ ![](/files/OJKazhSUdk32dyHq2et7)![](/files/8BYcNMr7eKaSp8AjtjM1) ### Optical high-resolution imagery 5. Low- and medium resolution images are crucial for sea-ice, snow coverage assessment, and monitoring matters. But, for studying an area in more detail, high-resolution and very-high resolution data is needed. Add `WV2_2020-02-16_RGB.tif` image to the map view. ### SAR low-resolution imagery 6. Add `S1A_IW_GRDH_1SSH_20240409T082739_0494_S_1.8bit.jp2` image to map view. This is a Sentinel-1 image captured in HH-polarization 2 days after the Landsat image above. Snow-covered surfaces, dry soil, man-made objects, and thick ice usually look bright on SAR images, while water, thin ice, and wet soil - are much darker. SAR usually acquires images from a low angle, this creates shadows in mountain areas, as no signal back-scattered from them. You may also notice the Foreshortening and Layover effects.Compare this image with the more recent one `S1A_IW_GRDH_1SSH_20240807T082737_E354_S_1.8bit.jp2`. --- # Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question. Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter: ``` GET https://guides.geospatial.bas.ac.uk/ops_training/qgis-for-operations/imagery.md?ask= ``` The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language. The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation. Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.