COURSES ARE FOR BEGINNERS: They Describe How to Start Process of Acquiring & Using GIS Software and Data from the Very Beginning
Free Courses (Follow to Use Free GIS Software & Satellite Imagery)
Courses were developed with QGIS Version 2.18 (which can be downloaded from this website); though we currrently recommend using Version 3.4 (which also can be downloaded from this website), it does vary somewhat from Version 2.18. Perhaps start with Version 2.18 then migrate to Version 3.4 once familiar with the software.
NO EXPERIENCE NECESSARY. The courses guide you step-by-step through the process of downloading and installing free QGIS software, as well as free satellite imagery, then progress to converting the imagery to surface reflectance and analyzing imagery. QGIS is the recommended free GIS software because it is quite capable and user-friendly. If you have other GIS software, such as ArcGIS, you can follow along with the concepts (however, the Landsat 8 Surface Reflectance Tutorial and Sentinel-2 Surface Reflectance Tutorial are designed for ArcGIS).
Courses are to be added on an ongoing basis in proper order. The goal of the courses is to make users proficient (at no cost and on their own schedule) applying free GIS software and data (including imagery, elevation data & more). The About Courses page has more background information.
1) Downloading and Installing Free GIS Software & Downloading Imagery.
A) Downloading and Installing Free QGIS software (Go to QGIS User Manual on this Website)
B) Downloading Free Landsat 8 & Sentinel-2 Imagery from this Website and Opening in QGIS
* The recommended method of adding free high resolution background imagery for QGIS 3.4, if you have sufficient internet speed, is to enable constant high resolution background imagery (Google or Bing). To add Google imagery while in QGIS: right-click on XYZ Tiles, then click New Connection, then name it Google Imagery (or whatever you prefer) and paste the following into the URL window: http://mt0.google.com/vt/lyrs=s&hl=en&x={x}&y={y}&z={z} . Now if you double click on Google Imagery, the imagery will appear (zoom in somewhere to see the high-resolution imagery). The URL for Bing Imagery is: http://ecn.t3.tiles.virtualearth.net/tiles/a{q}.jpeg?g=1 . The URL for OpenStreetMap (roads and more) is: https://a.tile.openstreetmap.org/{z}/{x}/{y}.png . If you do not have sufficient internent speed, see Course 1C:
C) Downloading Free High-Resolution Imagery from The National Map (USA) for a Base Layer in GIS (You can add base map imagery in QGIS through the "Open Layers" plugin if you have a sufficient internet speed, bypassing the need to download imagery).
2) Converting Landsat 8 & Sentinel-2 Imagery to Surface Reflectance by Image-Based Atmospheric Correction in Free QGIS. Calculating Certain Spectral Indices.
A) Converting Landsat 8 Imagery to Surface Reflectance in QGIS; necessary to calculate indices, such as NDVI, MSAVI2, and NDWI (this is the Landsat 8 SR Tutorial, and is customized for free QGIS users).
B) Converting Sentinel-2 Imagery to Surface Reflectance in QGIS; necessary to calculate indices, such as NDVI, MSAVI2, and NDWI (this is the Sentinel-2 SR Tutorial and is customized for free QGIS users).
C) Calculating Spectral Indices from Satellite Imagery; WDRI, NDVI (plant biomass and vigor), Red-Edge Ratio (grass chlorophyll and nitrogen content), NDWI (for plant water content), dNBR (burn area mapping), NDSI (snow mapping). It is important to complete Course 3A if applying imagery to vegetation.
3) Downloading and Using LiDAR-Based Elevation Rasters.
A) - Course 3A - Downloading and Using Free High Resolution Elevation Data in Free QGIS Software
You can now apply imagery to a useful extent to Course 2C: Calculating Spectral Indices, including vegetation, wildfire, snow, water/algae bloom, or any other topic of your choice. QGIS has many other features and tools to process imagery - we chose to show how to apply it in simple and useful ways so you can more easily start using data. However, you can access the QGIS User Guide or Training Manual to learn how to use QGIS in more detail.