i.band.library - GRASS manual
Author: GRASS Development Team
Description: i.band.library: Prints available semantic label information used for multispectral data.
Keywords: general, imagery, semantic label, image collections

## NAME

i.band.library - Prints available semantic label information used for multispectral data.

## KEYWORDS

general, imagery, semantic label, image collections

## SYNOPSIS

i.band.library
i.band.library --help
i.band.library [-e] [pattern=string] [operation=string] [--help] [--verbose] [--quiet] [--ui]

### Flags:

-e
  Print extended metadata information
--help
  Print usage summary
--verbose
  Verbose module output
--quiet
  Quiet module output
--ui
  Force launching GUI dialog

### Parameters:

pattern=string
  Semantic label search pattern (examples: L, S2, .*_2, S2_1)
operation=string
  Operation to be performed
  Options: print
  Default: print

## DESCRIPTION

i.band.library prints available band information of multispectral data defined by GRASS. The following multispectral sensors are supported by default (other band reference registry files can be added, see below):

Generic multispectral system:

- gen_r Visible red
- gen_g Visible green
- gen_b Visible blue
- gen_pan Visible panchromatic
- gen_nir Near infrared

Landsat-5:

- L5_1 Visible (Blue)
- L5_2 Visible (Green)
- L5_3 Visible (Red)
- L5_4 Near-Infrared
- L5_5 Short-wave infrared
- L5_6 Thermal
- L5_7 Short-wave infrared

Landsat-7:

- L7_1 Visible (Blue)
- L7_2 Visible (Green)
- L7_3 Visible (Red)
- L7_4 Near-Infrared
- L7_5 Near-Infrared
- L7_6 Thermal
- L7_7 Mid-Infrared
- L7_8 Panchromatic

Landsat-8:

- L8_1 Visible (Coastal/Aerosol)
- L8_2 Visible (Blue)
- L8_3 Visible (Green)
- L8_4 Visible (Red)
- L8_5 Near-Infrared
- L8_6 SWIR 1
- L8_7 SWIR 2
- L8_8 Panchromatic
- L8_9 Cirrus
- L8_10 TIRS 1
- L8_11 TIRS 1

Sentinel-2:

- S2_1 Visible (Coastal/Aerosol)
- S2_2 Visible (Blue)
- S2_3 Visible (Green)
- S2_4 Visible (Red)
- S2_5 Vegetation Red Edge 1
- S2_6 Vegetation Red Edge 2
- S2_7 Vegetation Red Edge 3
- S2_8 Near-Infrared
- S2_8A Narrow Near-Infrared
- S2_9 Water vapour
- S2_10 SWIR - Cirrus
- S2_11 SWIR 1
- S2_12 SWIR 2

Band references to be printed can be filtered by a search pattern (or fully defined band reference identifier) which can be specified by pattern option. For pattern syntax see Python regular expression operations documentation. By default, i.band.library prints all available band references.

Extended metadata (central wavelength, spatial resolution, etc.) is printed only when the -e flag is given.

## Band reference and semantic label relation

Band references are a special case (a subset) of semantic labels. Any string can be a semantic label but strings identifying specific remote sensing platform bands (=band references) can have additional metadata managed by i.band.library. Specific band reference can be assigned to a raster map as a semantic label by r.semantic.label or r.support modules.

## NOTES

Semantic label concept is supported by temporal GRASS modules, see t.register, t.rast.list, t.info and t.rast.mapcalc modules for examples.

### Image collections

Image collections are the common data type to reference time series of multi band data. It is used in many frameworks (see Google Earth Engine API for example) to address multi spectral satellite images series. GRASS supports a multi-band raster layer approach basically with the imagery group concept (i.group). A new semantic label concept is designed in order to support image collections in GRASS.

### Band reference registry files

Band reference information is stored in JSON files with a pre-defined internal data structure. A minimalistic example is shown below.

    {
        "Sentinel2": {
            "description": "The Sentinel-2 A/B bands",
            "shortcut": "S2",
            "instruments": "MultiSpectral Instrument (MSI) optical and infrared",
            "launched": "23 June 2015 (A); 07 March 2017 (B)",
            "source": "https://sentinel.esa.int/web/sentinel/missions/sentinel-2",
            "bands": {
                "1": {
                    "Sentinel 2A" : {
                        "central wavelength (nm)": 443.9,
                        "bandwidth (nm)": 27
                    },
                    "Sentinel 2B" : {
                        "central wavelength (nm)": 442.3,
                        "bandwidth (nm)": 45
                    },
                    "spatial resolution (meters)": 60,
                    "tag": "Visible (Coastal/Aerosol)"
                },
                "2": {
                    "Sentinel 2A" : {
                        "central wavelength (nm)": 496.6,
                        "bandwidth (nm)": 98
                    },
                    "Sentinel 2B" : {
                        "central wavelength (nm)": 492.1,
                        "bandwidth (nm)": 98
                    },
                    "spatial resolution (meters)": 10,
                    "tag": "Visible (Blue)"
                }
            }
        }
    }

Each series starts with an unique identifier ("Sentinel2" in example above). Required attributes are only two: a `shortcut` and `bands`. Note that a shortcut must be unique in all band reference registry files. Number of other attributes is not defined or even limited (in example above only `description` and `instruments` attributes are defined). List of bands is defined by a `bands` attribute. Each band is defined by an identifier ("1", "2" in example above). List of attributes describing each band is not pre-defined or limited. In example above each band is described by a `central wavelength (nm)`, `bandwidth (nm)`, and a `tag`.

Band reference identifier defined by pattern option is given by a shortcut in order to print band reference information for whole series or by specific shortcut_band identifier.

System-defined registry files are located in GRASS installation directory (`$GISBASE/etc/i.band.library`). Note that currently i.band.library allows managing only system-defined registry files. Support for user-defined registry files is planned to be implemented, see KNOWN ISSUES section for details.

## EXAMPLES

### Print all available band references

    i.band.library

    S2_1 Visible (Coastal/Aerosol)
    S2_2 Visible (Blue)
    ...
    L7_1 Visible (Blue)
    L7_2 Visible (Green)
    ...
    L8_1 Visible (Coastal/Aerosol)
    L8_2 Visible (Blue)
    ...

The module prints band reference and related tag if defined.

### Filter band references by a shortcut

Only band identifiers related to Sentinel-2 satellite will be printed.

    i.band.library pattern=S2

    S2_1 Visible (Coastal/Aerosol)
    ...
    S2_12 SWIR 2

### Filter band references by a regular expression

Print all available 2nd bands:

    i.band.library pattern=.*_2

    S2_2 Visible (Blue)
    L7_2 Visible (Green)
    L8_2 Visible (Blue)
    ...

### Print extended metadata for specified band identifier

Extended metadata related to the first band of Sentinel-2 satellite will be printed.

    i.band.library -e pattern=S2_1

    description: The Sentinel-2 A/B bands
    shortcut: S2
    instruments: MultiSpectral Instrument (MSI) optical and infrared
    launched: 23 June 2015 (A); 07 March 2017 (B)
    source: https://sentinel.esa.int/web/sentinel/missions/sentinel-2
        band: 1
            Sentinel 2A:
                    central wavelength (nm): 443.9
                    bandwidth (nm): 27
            Sentinel 2B:
                    central wavelength (nm): 442.3
                    bandwidth (nm): 45
            spatial resolution (meters): 60
            tag: Visible (Coastal/Aerosol)

## KNOWN ISSUES

i.band.library has currently very limited functionality. Only system-defined band references are supported. The final implementation will support managing (add, modify, delete) user-defined band references.

Only very limited number of band references is currently defined, namely Sentinel-2, Landsat7, and Landsat8 satellites. This will be improved in the near future.

## REFERENCES

- Google Earth Engine API

## SEE ALSO

r.semantic.label, r.info

## AUTHORS

Martin Landa
Development sponsored by mundialis GmbH & Co. KG (for the openEO EU H2020 grant 776242)

## SOURCE CODE

Available at: i.band.library source code (history)

Latest change: Friday Aug 08 09:39:19 2025 in commit: ed72c71d8580e872cd6fd345c84a15c324764465

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