Integrating GIS and external tools for spatio-temporal analysis of time series of remote sensing data

Today’s Geographical Information Systems (GIS) generally focus on spatial analysis and data handling. In many geophysical disciplines (e.g. physical oceanography, meteorology and climatology) the subject of temporal analysis and data handling is equally important. Also, analysis methods employed in these disciplines are seldom directly available in existing GISs. This is also the case for the raster based GIS Idrisi. Idrisi, however, supports a temporal model that, despite its simplicity, is quite useful in a wide range of geophysical studies. In the following, we carry out trend analyses on two geophysical time series by integrating Idrisi with an existing tool, TASTE, and point out some strengths and weaknesses in the process of the integration. The first test run of TASTE/Idrisi was carried out on a 14 years time series of global atmospheric ozone measurements, showing strongly significant negative trends in large areas. The second test run was carried out on a 15 years time series of global sea surface temperature measurements, showing very significant positive trends, except south of Iceland and in the southern ocean. The combination of TASTE and Idrisi proved very convenient for the handling and analysis of the data sets.