Land cover feature extraction from Corona spy satellite images during the Cold War - 1968

Abstract

For 25 years the Corona reconnaissance satellite mission has been declassified, making available an unprecedented historic archive of very high spatial resolution panchromatic images acquired during the cold war era. During the same time, Bulgaria has observed a decreasing and ageing population and a slow agricultural productivity. In this study, we attempt to map the settlements around the city of Plovdiv, Bulgaria based on textural analysis of a Corona image acquired in 1968. We compare the results with information derived from recent Sentinel-2B and Landsat-8 images. We discuss on the discerning capability of the Corona image in mapping settlements and the potential usability of textural analysis in the context of land use and land cover mapping of historical images. Overall, we present the textural analysis of an image from one of the first satellite missions and report on the potential for feature extraction from such primitive satellite products.