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https://github.com/anu-wald/remote-sensing-workshops

2017 workshop content for http://wenfo.org/wald/advanced-remote-sensing
https://github.com/anu-wald/remote-sensing-workshops

python-3-6 remote-sensing teaching-materials

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2017 workshop content for http://wenfo.org/wald/advanced-remote-sensing

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# remote-sensing-workshops



Python tutorials for [ENVS3109](http://programsandcourses.anu.edu.au/course/ENVS3019)

(other content online [here](http://wenfo.org/wald/advanced-remote-sensing))



In each workshop, you work through that week's exploratory analysis

using Python in an interactive [Jupyter Notebook](https://jupyter.org/).

After an introduction to Python, each week will demonstrate a technique you

can use to analyse remote sensing data with an example dataset.



Topic | Techniques | Data

--- | --- | ---

Introduction to Python | syntax and basic usage (see 'software carpentary' below for more) | N/A

Image analysis | file formats, loading data, colour scales, combining bands, indices | MODIS composite imagery

Change Detection | thresholds, difference between images, selecting data, means and variance, OPeNDAP | LandSat NDVI - 2003 fires

Trend Analysis | 'data cubes', reduction to timeseries, time-dim summaries, uneven spacing, plots | Vegetation indicies (VOD)

Correlation Analysis | more OPeNDAP, statistics in one, two, and three dimensions | soil moisture, soil exposure

Combining Vector and Gridded Data | selecting subsets, vector data, reporting | global streamflow model



Depending on student interest, a number of optional workshops may be organised to cover important tools for writing software (version control with Git, intro to software testing), general data analysis and graphing (how to ditch Excel), and how to use and contribute to open-source projects (plus: what is open source anyway?).



## Useful links



- [Anaconda](https://continuum.io/downloads) is like Python, but larger: it comes with many scientific packages built-in and makes it far easier to install others.  If you want to use Python for science, you should install the latest version of Anaconda - it's available for every operating system and entirely free.



- [Software Carpentry](https://software-carpentry.org/lessons/) provide excellent introductions to programming for scientists.  You can read the material online, or attend a workshop at many scientific conferences.



- [*Think Python* 2nd ed.](http://greenteapress.com/wp/think-python-2e/) is the best introductory Python textbook I've found.  And it's entirely free.



- [GitHub](https://github.com/) provides free hosting and collaboration tools, making it the world's largest repository of open source software.  With an account, you can manage your own work using Git - and read the source of or contribute to any of the tools we'll use, from this document to Python itself.



- The Jupyter project has an [incredible list of notable Notebooks](https://github.com/jupyter/jupyter/wiki/A-gallery-of-interesting-Jupyter-Notebooks) which you can read online or download and run for yourself.  The [Python for Geosciences](https://github.com/koldunovn/python_for_geosciences) and [Earthpy](http://earthpy.org/) collections are particularly relevant (in that order).



## Using Jupyter Notebooks



Instead of the (many) useful and powerful features, this section just describes how to get the notebooks in this directory running.



- Have Anaconda installed on the computer.  (If you're in an ANU computer lab, it should be)

- Open a terminal.  On Windows, you can open a terminal in any folder by opening it in the file explorer, clicking the address bar, and typing `cmd` and enter.

- If you have installed Anaconda at home, type `activate remote-sensing` (on Windows),

  or `source activate remote-sensing` (on OSX or Linux), in the terminal to activate the environment.

- In the terminal, type `jupyter notebook` and the notebook homepage will open, and you can navigate to the notebook you want.  Alternatively, type `jupyter notebook ` to open it directly.  Note that pressing the tab key completes a partial filename, so you can just type `jupyter notebook 1` to open the first notebook.

- To run a cell in the notebook, press shift-enter when the cell is highlighted.



Note that after the first workshop (intro to Python), you will need to follow the install instructions below.



### *A brief digression on scientific software*



Programming languages and tools are generally classified on a (subjective) spectrum:



- at a low level, you give detailed instructions and think like a computer

- at a medium level, you give instructions in a more natural language (which someone else implemented below)

- at a high level, you simply declare what you want and it happens (thanks to someone else below)



The tradeoff is computer performance (low-level) against human performance (high-level) - and with the speed of modern computers you should generally use the highest-level tools available.

Installing existing software avoids the need to reinvent decades of useful functionality.



In Python, the best way to install scientific packages is the `conda` install tool in [Anaconda](https://www.continuum.io/downloads).  Anaconda just like a Python, but bigger - because it's got many science tools by default.



Since we're using some specialist tools for geospatial data, we'll use `conda` to create a new environment with everything we need (installing too many Python pacakges into one environment leads to [dependency hell](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dependency_hell)).

Unfortunately the ANU lab computers have an old version of Anaconda that cannot install some packages without admin permissions on Windows, so skip to the next section in class - but follow these instructions at home!



First, check whether the `remote-sensing` environment already exists by opening a terminal (windows key, then type "cmd" and enter) and running the following command:



    conda env list



If `remote-sensing` isn't in the list, run the following command (remember you can right-click and paste a command):



    conda config --append channels conda-forge

    conda create --yes --name remote-sensing xarray netcdf4 numpy pandas bottleneck seaborn dask scipy jupyter



### Running the notebooks on ANU lab computers



The ANU infocommons computers *do* have Anaconda installed, which is great.

Unfortunately they are using an old and buggy version of the `conda` tool for

creating and managing environments, so we can't use per-user installs.

We will therefore use the more generic Python tool `pip`, which has much weaker

checks for compatibility.  You should use the instructions above at home,

but this works in the labs:



    pip install --user xarray

    pip install --user netcdf4

    pip install --user seaborn



The installed version of `pip` is *also* out of date, but you can safely ignore the request to update it.

You will get a "kernel not found" warning when opening the notebook, because the `remote-sensing` environment is missing -

just click "continue" to use the root environment ("Python 3" kernel) and it will work.