Shadow detection in Antarctica using Landsat8 satellite images

Shadows present in optical remote sensing images  will influence land surface information
 extraction and analysis. Such shadows are there sultofups and downs in the terrain and cannot be ignored
 especially in Antarctica located in high latitude with rather low solar elevation.Referring to existing shadow
 detection studies, the reflectance characteristics of shadows in Landsat8 images were analyzed for building a
new  method. DN values were converted to Topof Atmosphere (TOA) reflectance, and shadow detection index
R51  were defined using band1 Coastal/Aerosol(0.43~0.45μm) and band5  NIR(0.85~0.88μm); the
threshold due to statistical analysis of trainings amples was used for different iating shadow pixels with snow,
 blue ice and exposed rocks. Several images in different regions of Antarctica were used for accuracy assessment
 and the results suggested this method could be used for shadowd etection of Landsat8 images in Antarctica with
 high accuracy. Inaddition,this method were applied for 1127  Landsat8 images of the  whole Antarctica
continent, and the extraction shadow areas were nearly 15000km2, most of which existed in rock areas and
 large glaciers regions.