DESCRIPTION

i.pca is an image processing program based on the algorithm provided by Vali (1990), that processes n (n >= 2) input raster map layers and produces n output raster map layers containing the principal components of the input data in decreasing order of variance ("contrast"). The output raster map layers are assigned names with .1, .2, ... .n suffixes. The numbers used as suffix correspond to percent importance with .1 being the scores of the principal component with the highest importance.

The current geographic region definition and MASK settings are respected when reading the input raster map layers. When the rescale option is used, the output files are rescaled to fit the min,max range.

The order of the input bands does not matter for the output maps (PC scores), but does matter for the vectors (loadings), since each loading refers to a specific input band.

If the output is not rescaled (rescale=0,0, the output raster maps will be of type DCELL, otherwise the output raster maps will be of type CELL.

By default, the values of the input raster maps are centered for each map separately with x - mean. With -n, the input raster maps are normalized for each map separately with (x - mean) / stddev. Normalizing is highly recommended when the input raster maps have different units, e.g. represent different environmental parameters.

The -f flag, together with the percent option, can be used to remove noise from input bands. Input bands will be recalculated from a subset of the principal components (inverse PCA). The subset is selected by using only the most important (highest eigenvalue) principal components which explain together percent percent variance observed in the input bands.

NOTES

Richards (1986) gives a good example of the application of principal components analysis (pca) to a time series of LANDSAT images of a burned region in Australia.

Eigenvalue and eigenvector information is stored in the output maps' history files. View with r.info.

EXAMPLE

Using Landsat imagery in the North Carolina sample dataset: 
g.region rast=lsat7_2002_10 -p
i.pca in=lsat7_2002_10,lsat7_2002_20,lsat7_2002_30,lsat7_2002_40,lsat7_2002_50,lsat7_2002_70 \
    out=lsat7_2002_pca

r.info -h lsat7_2002_pca.1
   Eigen values, (vectors), and [percent importance]:
   PC1   4334.35 ( 0.2824, 0.3342, 0.5092,-0.0087, 0.5264, 0.5217) [83.04%]
   PC2    588.31 ( 0.2541, 0.1885, 0.2923,-0.7428,-0.5110,-0.0403) [11.27%]
   PC3    239.22 ( 0.3801, 0.3819, 0.2681, 0.6238,-0.4000,-0.2980) [ 4.58%]
   PC4     32.85 ( 0.1752,-0.0191,-0.4053, 0.1593,-0.4435, 0.7632) [ 0.63%]
   PC5     20.73 (-0.6170,-0.2514, 0.6059, 0.1734,-0.3235, 0.2330) [ 0.40%]
   PC6      4.08 (-0.5475, 0.8021,-0.2282,-0.0607,-0.0208, 0.0252) [ 0.08%]

SEE ALSO

Richards, John A., Remote Sensing Digital Image Analysis, Springer-Verlag, 1986.

Vali, Ali R., Personal communication, Space Research Center, University of Texas, Austin, 1990.

i.cca, g.gui.iclass, i.fft, i.ifft, m.eigensystem, r.covar, r.mapcalc

Principal Components Analysis article (GRASS Wiki)

AUTHOR

David Satnik, GIS Laboratory

Major modifications for GRASS 4.1 were made by
Olga Waupotitsch and Michael Shapiro, U.S.Army Construction Engineering Research Laboratory

Rewritten for GRASS 6.x and major modifications by
Brad Douglas

Last changed: $Date$