several Quickbird questions

[Carol S Mladinich <csmladinich@xxxxxxxx>]

I have several Quickbird questions:
      1. Is it recommended to atmospheric correct it, if so at what stage
would you do it? Is Atcor2/3 a special add on?
      2. The data I received though from the same path line is not color
balanced very well and the balancing in OE in mosaicing is not doing a very
good job.  Match was recommended to me but it wants to turn my data into
8-bit data. Is there a better way to color balance the imagery? I am
working with 3 separate path lines none of which match well.  Again I have
already orthorectified the data using the Toutin's model. Should I have
balanced the raw data?

My ultimate path is to use eCognition.
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks in advance.

Carol S. Mladinich
US. Geological Survey
Rocky Mountain Mapping Center
P.O. Box 25046  MS 516
Lakewood, CO 80225
303-202-4313 - voice
303-202-4354 - fax
csmladinich@xxxxxxxx