Special colour enhancement for three channels having similar radiances

A special enhancement algorithm is derived to colour separate ground-cover classes whose recorded wavelength distributions are similar but have significantly differing intensities. The special enhancement function is derived from considering the spectrum locus of a CIE 1931 (x,y) chromaticity diagram. By analogy with the relationship between the chromaticity co-ordinates and the channel radiance levels a function is derived that stretches the radiances to maximize the colour differences between such ground-cover classes. This Sinsusoidal Squeeze algorithm was applied to enhance the colour differentiation of Antarctic ice types as recorded by LANDSAT. A comparison between this special enhancement and the conventional colour composite results for Antarctic ice pack is presented. Field checks conducted during the 1980-81 Antarctic summer field season confirm our ability to delineate up to seven different types of ice by this technique. Additional applications of this special algorithm are believed to be forest class differentiation and bathymetric feature delineation.