Processing Landsat 5 TM through COSI-Corr software can better quantify the migration mode and speed of sand dunes. This way can also provide specific guidance and suggestions for the implementation of sand prevention and control projects. At present, few studies on the error source analysis and timing inversion of Landsat 5 TM migration field are available. This work takes the northwestern part of the Mu Us Sand Land as the study area to obtain the dune migration time series and annual average velocity field from 1991 to 2000. Results show that the main errors of the Landsat 5 TM migration field are the orbit error, the attitude angle error, and the miscorrelated noise. After the error is eliminated, the accuracy has been increased by 23%—34%, 4%—20%, and 2%—5% successively, and it can be increased by 13%—14% after inversion by the least square method. The monitoring results show that the sand dunes in the northwest of the Mu Us Sandy Land continued to advance to the southeast from 1991 to 2000, and the maximum speed could exceed 6 m/yr. However, under the action of the northwest-southeast wind, periodic back-and-forth movement occurred along the northwest-southeast direction. The study area has a velocity of 0—1 m/year accounting for 63.9%, and the velocity of more than 3 m/a is only 4.2%. The error elimination and time sequence inversion of Landsat 5 TM can effectively improve the accuracy of the migration field, which results in a more accurate and reliable time sequence. Different from previous studies, the error elimination and time sequence inversion of the dune migration field can reflect the actual wind energy environment on the dune surface in more detail.

Landsat 5 TM;COSI-Corr;error analysis;dune migration;Mu Us sandy