Spatial analysis of Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) data at Global Area Coverage (GAC) and High Resolution Picture Transmission (HRPT) resolution shows that structural information is detectable across a range of scales and that different biomes exhibit different detectable spatial characteristics. The spatial patterns observed in GAC and HRPT data are similar at coarse resolutions. Differences between the two are observed where point phenomena occur, and where scene objects are generally linear. The undersampling in GAC data generation can cause artificial contiguity and artificial disunity to appear in the image of any scene. The spatial structure observed in GAC image data must therefore be considered unreliable, at least at the scale of the GAC AVHRR resolution-cell size. However, the use of the spatial domain in studies of surface phenomena operating at scales greater than that of the resolution-cell size are unlikely to be limited by the undersampling effects. Indeed, the spatial temporal evolution of structure in AVHRR images may provide important indicators of regional environmental change.