SeaDAS Help - SeaDAS Application

*Note: some of the SeaDAS 7.4 help pages have not yet been revised to match the current version so there can be some wording discrepancies as well as feature description differences. For the latest SeaDAS help, tutorials and release plans see https://seadas.gsfc.nasa.gov

This page contains brief descriptions of many of the most commonly used SeaDAS tools and concepts along with links to their respective pages. Additional help pages may be found in the tree selector located on the left-side of this help window.

Analysis Tools	These tools are used for statistics and statistical plotting.
Band Tools	These tools create new bands within a file. There are two type of bands; virtual and real. A virtual band is a derived band which is dependent through some algorithm or mathematical equation on the existence of other bands and/or masks. A real band has no dependencies.
Color Tools	These tools are use to add a color scheme to an image.
Data Processors	The tools allow users to process data between the various levels (i.e. Level 0 through Level 3).
File Tools	These tools deals with opening, saving, and closing files
Geo-Coding Tools	Used for attaching and detaching geo-coding.
Geometry Tools	The tools are used to create and manage geometries which are vector shapes on the image. Each geometry has it's associated mask.
GCP Tools	A ground control point is a marker for a certain geographical position within a geo-referenced image.
Image Analysis Tools	Analysis tools which process to produce files using cluster analysis, spectral unmixing or principle component analysis.
Info Tools	These tools show information.
Layer Tools	These tools are used to create layers, and to manipulate layers within the layer stack.
Location Tools	These tools are used to navigate around an image as well as view it's location.
Mask Tools	These tools are used to create masks.
Pin Tools	A pin is a marker for a certain geographical position within a geo-referenced image. Pins can be used to "freeze" the Pixel Info View and the Spectrum View to the selected pin in order to display the values of the pixel associated with the selected pin
Processing Tools	These tools take the currently selected file and process it to new file using the tools specific operations.
Time Series	These tools are used to product a time series.

Analysis Tools

	Correlative Plot Displays Correlative Plot for a selected band. Analysis -> Correlative Plot Toolbar: Analysis
	Histogram Plot Displays Histogram for a selected band. Analysis -> Histogram Plot Toolbar: Analysis
	Profile Plot Displays Profile Plot for a selected band. Analysis -> Profile Plot Toolbar: Analysis
	Scatter Plot Displays Scatter Plot for two selected bands. Analysis -> Scatter Plot Toolbar: Analysis
	Spectrum Plot Display spectra at the current pixel position and for pins. Analysis -> Spectrum Plot Toolbar: Analysis
	Statistics Displays Statistics for a selected band. Analysis -> Statistics Toolbar: Analysis

Band Tools

	DEM Bands Creates a DEM (Digital Elevation Model) band and optionally DEM-corrected lat/lon bands from a selected DEM. Tools -> DEM Bands
	Filtered Band Creates a filtered band from the currently selected band. Filtered bands are created by applying convolution or non-linear filters to the selected band. Filters are used to perform common image processing operations e.g. sharpening, blurring or edge enhancement. Tools -> Filtered Band Toolbar: Band Tools
	Math Band Create a new band using an arbitrary mathematical expression. The band maths tool is used to create new image sample values derived from existing bands, tie-point grids and flags. The source data can originate from all currently open and spatially compatible input products. The source data is combined by arbitrary mathematical expression to generate the target data. Tools -> Math Band Toolbar: Band Tools
	Real Band Computes a "real" band from a virtual or filtered band. Tools -> Real Band

Color Tools

Color Bar

View and/or Export the colorbar.

File -> Export Utilities -> Color Bar
Toolbar: Layers

Color Manager

Set the color palette of band image.

Tools -> Color Manager
Docked: left-side

RGB Image

Creates a 3-band composite image using red, green, and blue color palette.

View -> RGB Image

Data Processors

DataProcessing -> ...

File Tools

File Manager

Displays all loaded files in a tree view.

File -> File Manager
Docked: left-side

Geo-Coding

Attach Geo-Coding

The Pixel Geo-Coding can be used if the user has two bands filled with accurate latitude and longitude values for each pixel. These bands can be used to replace the current geo-coding associated with the product.

Tools -> Geo-Coding -> Attach Geo-Coding

Detach Geo-Coding

Detaches the current pixel geo-coding and restores the previous geo-coding

Tools -> Geo-Coding -> Detach Geo-Coding

Create Displacement Bands

This command adds 4 bands to the currently selected product. These four bands provide information about the accuracy of the geo-coding.

Tools -> Geo-Coding -> Create Displacement Bands

Geometry Tools

	Draw Rectangle Interactively draw a rectangle geometry on the selected image. Toolbar: Geometry
	Draw Ellipse Interactively draw an ellipse geometry on the selected image. Toolbar: Geometry
	Draw Polygon Interactively draw a polygon geometry on the selected image. Toolbar: Geometry
	Draw Line Interactively draw a line geometry on the selected image. Toolbar: Image Interactions (extras)
	Draw PolyLine Interactively draw a polyLine geometry on the selected image. Toolbar: Image Interactions (extras)
	New Geometry Container Create a new geometry data container for drawing lines and polygons. Layers -> Geometry Tools -> New Geometry Container Toolbar: Geometry
	New (Text-Based) Geometry Enter coordinates to create a geometry (well-known-text format). If the user desires to create a square region with bounding north-south-west-east coordinates the following web page can be useful to create the WKT string and then copy and paste. oceancolor.gsfc.nasa.gov/sdpscgi/public/geobox_converter.cgi Layers -> Geometry Tools -> New (Text-Based) Geometry Toolbar: Geometry
	Geometry Info Get the well-known-text (WKT) representation of a selected geometry. Info -> Geometry Info
	Export Geometry Export Geometry as Shapefile. File -> Vector Export -> Shapefile
	Import Shapefile Import geometry from ESRI Shapefile. File -> Vector Import -> Shapefile

GCP Tools

GCP Layer

Toggle GCP layer.

Layers -> GCP
Toolbar: Ground Control Points

GCP Manager

Manage ground control points.

Layers -> GCP Manager
Toolbar: Ground Control Points

GCP Placer

Places ground control points via mouse click onto image.

Toolbar: Ground Control Points

Image Analysis Tools

Cluster Analysis Overview

	EM Cluster Uses the Expectation Maximization (EM) cluster analysis algorithm Processing -> Image Analysis -> EM Cluster
	K-Means Cluster Uses the K-Means (KM) cluster analysis algorithm Processing -> Image Analysis -> K-Means Cluster
	Principle Component Principal Component Analysis (PCA) is typically used to develop a linear model for a set of data (e.g. face images) which can then be used to test for membership. PCA works by converting the set of data to a new basis that is a subspace of the original set. The subspace is selected to maximize information. Processing -> Image Analysis -> Principle Component
	Spectral Unmixing The spectral unmixing tool is used to decompose a reflectance (or corrected radiance) source spectrum into a set of given endmember spectra. The result of the unmixing is a measure of the membership of the individual endmember to the source spectrum. Processing -> Image Analysis -> Spectral Unmixing

Info Tools

	Band Info Display information for a selected band. Info -> Band Info
	Geo-Coding Info Display Geo-Coding for a selected band. Info -> Geo-Coding Info
	Pixel Info Displays detailed pixel information. Info -> Pixel Info Docked: right-side
	Tile Cache Diagnosis Info -> Tile Cache Diagnosis
	Vector Data Info Displays attributes of selected vector data features. Info -> Vector Data Info

Layer Tools

	Contour Layer Add contour lines. Layers -> Contour Toolbar: Layers
	Map Gridlines Layer Show/hide map gridlines layer for the selected image. Layers -> Map Gridlines Toolbar: Layers
	Layer Editor Edit layer properties (Grid Lines, No-Data, etc.). Layers -> Layer Editor Toolbar: Layers
	Layer Manager Manage view layer visibility and transparency. Layers -> Layer Manager Docked: left-side
	No-Data Layer Show no-data overlay for the selected image. Layers -> No-Data Toolbar: Layers
	World Map Layer Show World Map layer for the selected image. Layers -> World Map Toolbar: Layers

Location Tools

	Zoom Zooms in on an interactively drawn area of the image Toolbar: Image Interactions
	Select Enables interactive selecting of the image. Toolbar: Image Interactions
	Pan Enables interactive panning and zooming of the image. Toolbar: Image Interactions
	Range Finder Determine the distance between two points. Toolbar: Image Interactions (extras)
	Navigation Controls Tool window which allows zooming and panning of a selected image view. Enables cursor sync of multiple views. View -> Navigation Controls Docked: right-side
	World Map Location Displays selected file geographic boundaries on a world map. View -> World Map Location Docked: right-side

Mask Tools

	Bathymetry Mask & Elevation Add elevation, bathymetry, and topography bands and bathymetry mask. Layers -> Bathymetry & Elevation Toolbar: Masks
	Coastline, Land & Water Mask Add coastline, land and water masks Layers -> Coastline, Land & Water Toolbar: Masks
	Magic Wand create a ROI mask comprising pixels that are "similar" to a set of manually picked pixels. The similarity takes into account any number of bands or entire spectra. Toolbar: Masks
	Mask Manager Manage binary data masks and ROIs (regions of interest). Layers -> Mask Manager Docked: left-side
	Mask Area Computes the area of a selected mask. Info -> Mask Area

Pin Tools

Pin Layer

Toggle pin layer.

Layers -> Pin
Toolbar: Layers (Vector)

Pin Manager

Manage placement of pins.

Layers -> Pin Manager
Toolbar: Pin

Pin Placer

Places pins via mouse click onto image.

Toolbar: Pin

Processing Tools

	Collocate Creates a new file which is a collocation of two selected files. (useful for parameter comparisons, etc). The Collocation Tool allows to collocate two spatially overlapping products. Collocating two products implies that the pixel values of one product (the dependent) are resampled into the geographical raster of the other (the reference). Processing -> Collocate Toolbar: Processing
	Crop Creates a new file which is a spatially cropped copy of the selected file (default boundaries are the current view). Processing -> Crop Toolbar: Processing
	Flip Data Creates a new file which is a data flip to the selected file Processing -> Flip Data
	Mosaic Creates a new file which is a mosaic of multiple files. Processing -> Mosaic Toolbar: Processing
	Orthorectify Creates a new file which is an orthorectification of the selected file. Processing -> Orthorectify
	Reproject Creates a new file which is a reprojection of the selected file. Processing -> Reproject

Time Series

	New Time Series Creates new time series Processing -> Time Series -> New
	Time Series Graph The main analysis tool for the time dimension Processing -> Time Series -> Graph
	Time Series Manager Allows management of time series Processing -> Time Series -> Manager
	Time Series Matrix The matrix toolview acts like a magnifying glass: the user can show the pixel value of the pixel the mouse is currently over, together with its neighbouring pixel values. Processing -> Time Series -> Matrix
	Time Series Player The Time Series Player allows vividly visualising a time series by providing the control elements for navigating through a time series, either manually or automatically. Processing -> Time Series -> Player
	Export as KMZ Exports Time Series as KMZ-files which are supported by Google Earth File -> Export Utilities -> Time Series