Regression-based synergy of optical, shortwave infrared and microwave remote sensing for monitoring the grain-size of intertidal sediments

A method is developed for monitoring the sediment grain-size of intertidal flats in the Westerschelde (southwest Netherlands), using information from both space-borne microwave (SAR) and optical/shortwave infrared remote sensing. Estimates of the backscattering coefficient were extracted from time-series of C-band ERS SAR imagery. Surface reflectance in the visible, near-infrared (VNIR) and shortwave infrared (SWIR) part of the electromagnetic spectrum, as well as spectral indices, were derived from matching multi-temporal Landsat TM imagery. In addition, surface reflectances were derived from a set of airborne multispectral (VNIR) CASI images, and hyperspectral (VNIR) measurements using a field spectroradiometer. The data were related to matching field measurements of surface characteristics, including sediment properties. Regression-based algorithms were developed to map the spatio-temporal distribution of mud content using (a) the C-band SAR backscattering coefficient, (b) surface reflectance in the green and SWIR, and (c) a combination of these, with corroborative field measurements. Mud content of the sediment has been successfully mapped by all three algorithms, but a combination of information from microwave and VNIR/SWIR provided best results. The algorithms were generally consistent in time, making them suitable for generating time-series and for monitoring. However, they should be validated and calibrated in order to be applicable to other intertidal areas.     

Extraction and Analysis of Hyperspectral Data and Characteristics from Pedicularis on Bayanbulak Grassland in Xinjiang

Through the field acquisition of three vegetation spectral datas,flowering Pedicularis,non flowering Pedicularis and common vegetation on Bayanbulak grassland,the first derivative,the two derivative and the reciprocal logarithm transformation were used to the smoothed and denoised data to analyze the difference sensitive bands of vegetation.The results showed that in visible light,non flowering Pedicularis and common vegetation showed the overall consistency,but the spectral curve of flowering Pedicularis showed a significant difference.In the red band and near infrared band at 750nm,non flowering Pedicularis reflectance increased significantly,and the three kinds of spectral reflectance showed significant differences.The reciprocal logarithmic transformation in the visible 580~680 nm band could be used to distinguish the Pedicularis as sensitive area.The spectral reflectance difference between the three at 655 nm was the most obvious.That solved the non flowering Pedicularis and common vegetation confusable problems.The improved normalized difference vegetation index by calculation,to further validate and showed the reciprocal logarithmic transformed values NDVI RLR could be distinguished the difference of flowering Pedicularis,non flowering Pedicularis and common vegetation.The extraction and analysis of hyperspectral data and characteristics from Pedicularis provided a theoretical basis for remote sensing monitoring of Pedicularis,and Remote sensing technology has great significance in Pedicularis resource survey and monitoring application.     

Canopy blockage and scattering effects on apparent soil spectral reflectance and its consequence in spectral mixture analysis of vegetated surfaces

Remote sensing technique has become the most efficient and common approach to estimate surface vegetation cover. Among various remote sensing algorithms, spectral mixture analysis (SMA) is the most common approach to obtain sub‐pixel surface coverage. In the SMA, spectral endmembers (the number of endmembers may vary), with invariant spectral reflectance across the whole image, are needed to conduct the mixture procedure. Although the nonlinear effect in quantifying vegetation spectral reflectance was noticed and sometimes addressed in the SMA analysis, the nonlinear effect in soil spectral reflectance is seldom discussed in the literature. In this paper, we investigate the effects of vegetation canopy on the inter‐canopy soil spectral reflectance via mathematical modelling and field measurements. We identify two mechanisms that lead to the difference between remotely sensed apparent soil spectral reflectance and actual soil spectral reflectance. One is a canopy blockage effect, leading to a reduced apparent soil spectral reflectance. The other is a canopy scattering effect, leading to an increased apparent soil spectral reflectance. Without correction, the first (second) mechanism causes an overestimated (underestimated) areal coverage of the low‐spectral‐reflectance endmember. The overall effect of canopy to soil, however, tends to overestimate fractional vegetation cover due to the relative significance of the canopy blockage effect, even though the two mechanisms vary with spectral wavelengths and spectral difference between different vegetation and soil. For the SMA of vegetated surface using multiple‐spectral remote sensing imagery (e.g., LandSat), it is recommended that infrared bands of low vegetation spectral reflectance (e.g. band 7) be first considered; if both visible and infrared bands are used, combination of bands 3, 4, and 5 is appropriate, while use of all six bands could overestimate fraction vegetation cover.     

Changes in surface reflectance from wildfires on the Australian continent measured by MODIS

Atmospherically corrected Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) data have been used to measure the changes in surface reflectance induced by fires. To account for observation geometry effects a kernel driven bi-directional reflectance factor model was applied. Whereas the blue, green, red and shortwave infrared bands show no consistent behaviour, the near-infrared bands almost always show a strong reduction in reflectance. An angular dependence of the change in reflectance was not found in this study. Different bio-geographical regions exhibit different spectral reflectance changes due to the different types of fuel being burnt (green/living versus dry/dead vegetation). This difference is also reflected in the seasonality of the green, red, near-infrared and shortwave infrared bands for the tropics. The conclusion of this study is that the near-infrared bands are the most suitable bands for an automatic burnt area mapping algorithm using optical, reflective remote sensing data. The results also suggest that satellite remote sensing might be able provide additional information about burning conditions which are strongly affecting greenhouse gas emissions.     

The role of atmospheric correction algorithms in the prediction of soil organic carbon from Hyperion data

In this study, the role of atmospheric correction algorithm in the prediction of soil organic carbon (SOC) from spaceborne hyperspectral sensor (Hyperion) visible near-infrared (vis-NIR, 400–2500 nm) data was analysed in fields located in two different geographical settings, viz. Karnataka in India and Narrabri in Australia. Atmospheric correction algorithms, (1) ATmospheric CORection (ATCOR), (2) Fast Line-of-sight Atmospheric Analysis of Spectral Hypercubes (FLAASH), (3) 6S, and (4) QUick Atmospheric Correction (QUAC), were employed for retrieving spectral reflectance from radiance image. The results showed that ATCOR corrected spectra coupled with partial least square regression prediction model, produced the best SOC prediction performances, irrespective of the study area. Comparing the results across study areas, Karnataka region gave lower prediction accuracy than Narrabri region. This may be explained due to difference in spatial arrangement of field conditions. A spectral similarity comparison of atmospherically corrected Hyperion spectra of soil samples with field-measured vis-NIR spectra was performed. Among the atmospheric correction algorithms, ATCOR corrected spectra found to capture the pattern in soil reflectance curve near 2200 nm. ATCOR’s finer spectral sampling distance in shortwave infrared wavelength region compared to other models may be the main reason for its better performance. This work would open up a great scope for accurate SOC mapping when future hyperspectral missions are realized.     

Effects of soil composition and mineralogy on remote sensing of crop residue cover

The management of crop residues (non-photosynthetic vegetation) in agricultural fields influences soil erosion and soil carbon sequestration. Remote sensing methods can efficiently assess crop residue cover and related tillage intensity over many fields in a region. Although the reflectance spectra of soils and crop residues are often similar in the visible, near infrared, and the lower part of the shortwave infrared (400-1900 nm) wavelength region, specific diagnostic chemical absorption features are evident in the upper shortwave infrared (1900-2500 nm) region. Two reflectance band height indices used for estimating residue cover are the Cellulose Absorption Index (CAI) and the Lignin-Cellulose Absorption (LCA) index, both of which use reflectances in the upper shortwave infrared (SWIR). Soil mineralogy and composition will affect soil spectral properties and may limit the usefulness of these spectral indices in certain areas. Our objectives were to (1) identify minerals and soil components with absorption features in the 2000 nm to 2400 nm wavelength region that would affect CAI and LCA and (2) assess their potential impact on remote sensing estimates of crop residue cover. Most common soil minerals had CAI values ≤ 0.5, whereas crop residues were always > 0.5, allowing for good contrast between soils and residues. However, a number of common soil minerals had LCA values > 0.5, and, in some cases, the mineral LCA values were greater than those of the crop residues, which could limit the effectiveness of LCA for residue cover estimation. The LCA of some dry residues and live corn canopies were similar in value, unlike CAI. Thus, the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) or similar method should be used to separate out green vegetation pixels. Mineral groups, such as garnets and chlorites, often have wide ranges of CAI and LCA values, and thus, mineralogical analyses often do not identify individual mineral species required for precise CAI estimation. However, these methods are still useful for identifying mineral soils requiring additional scrutiny. Future advanced multi- and hyperspectral remote sensing platforms should include CAI bands to allow for crop residue cover estimation.     

遥感影像光谱信息处理的EXCEL实践教学

遥感影像数据的光谱信息分析与处理是目前遥感应用的热点之一。通过多年的遥感教学实践,依据PHI（Pushbroom Hyperspectral Imager）航空高光谱影像像元光谱维矢量数据,总结了基于EXCEL软件的高光谱影像地物光谱构建、光谱特征及其相关性分析、光谱微分计算、光谱向量相似性度量等光谱分析与信息识别的教学方法,以使学生在学习专业知识过程中增加实际工作经验与科研能力。     

那曲典型草地植被光谱特征分析

遥感是大尺度生态研究的重要工具之一,而地面植物群落特征与其光谱特征之间的关系是解译遥感影像的关键。地面实测数据由于其高空间分辨率和高光谱分辨率,能够准确反映地物光谱信息,可以用来指导卫星遥感解译工作,同时为遥感监测草地退化、草地模型建立等提供数据支持。选取西藏那曲地区的优势植被类型作为研究对象,利用ASD FieldSpec 3便携式光谱仪测定优势种的冠层光谱并进行比较,并取其中一种优势种测量其在不同覆盖度和不同生长期的光谱反射特点。研究结果表明:①不同植被群落冠层光谱具有特殊的光谱曲线,可见光波段光谱反射率依次是紫花针茅、小嵩草和藏北嵩草,近红外波段光谱反射率则依次是小嵩草、藏北嵩草和紫花针茅;红边位置可以识别藏北嵩草,但是不能区分小嵩草和紫花针茅;②不同覆盖度的小嵩草红边、“绿峰”位置不随覆盖度的变化而发生变化;连续统去除后得到吸收深度随覆盖度的增加而变大,吸收峰面积随覆盖度的增加而增加;③小嵩草衰退期内,在可见光波段和红边波段,冠层光谱反射率随着叶绿素含量的减少而下降,出现“红边蓝移,绿峰下降”的现象。     

Spectral discrimination of healthy and Ganoderma-infected oil palms from hyperspectral data

Although hyperspectral remote sensing has been used to study many agricultural phenomena such as crop stress and diseases, the potential use of this technique for detecting Ganoderma disease infestations and damage to oil palms under field conditions has not been explored to date. This research was conducted to investigate the feasibility of using a portable hyperspectral remote-sensing instrument to identify spectral differences between oil-palm leaves with and without Ganoderma infections. Reflectance spectra of samples representative of three classes of disease severity were collected. The most significant bands for spectral discrimination were selected from reflectance spectra and first derivatives of reflectance spectra. The significant wavelengths were identified using one-way analysis of variance. Then, a Jeffries–Matusita (JM) distance measurement was used to determine spectral separability between the classes. A maximum likelihood classifier method was used to classify the three classes based on the most significant wavelength spectral responses, and an error matrix was finally used to assess the accuracy of the classification.     

A sun glint correction method for hyperspectral imagery containing areas with non-negligible water leaving NIR signal

Present sun glint removal methods overcorrect data collected in very shallow (less than 2 m) waters if the sensors used do not have bands in far infrared part of the spectrum. The reason is assuming of zero water leaving signal at near infrared (NIR) wavelengths. This assumption is not valid in very shallow waters, but also in areas where aquatic vegetation reaches water surface and in case of phytoplankton blooms that reach very high biomass or form surface scum. We propose an alternative method that can be used for successful glint removal even if the sensor does not have spectral bands beyond 800 nm. The proposed method utilises the presence and depth of the oxygen absorption feature near 760 nm as an indicator of glint contamination. This method allows removing sun glint from hyperspectral imagery preserving shape and magnitude of reflectance spectra in the cases where the negligible water leaving NIR signal is not valid.     

Detecting the responses of Masson pine to acid stress using hyperspectral and multispectral remote sensing

In this study, we detected the spectrum and vegetation index responses of Masson pine to acid stress using ground-based hyperspectral radiometry and satellite-based multispectral remote sensing. From the hyperspectral detection, we found that the spectral reflectance of stressed Masson pine increased with increase in acidity in the visible region, while an opposite result was found in the near-infrared (NIR) region. The simulated normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) derived from hyperspectral data of Masson pine presented higher values under weaker acid stress in general. Similar results were observed by satellite-derived NDVI across four acidity gradient transects in subtropical China. Both annual average NDVI and inter-annual NDVI trends of Masson pine forest increased with increase in annual average precipitation acidity (pH), indicating that acid stress would inhibit the growth of Masson pine under certain environmental conditions. However, there are limitations and uncertainties in our present work, and the integration of long-term ground-based and satellite-based observations of vegetation growth and acidity deposition is urgently needed.     

沉积岩石信息的热红外多光谱遥感探测及有效性评价

在对热红外多光谱（ＴＩＭＳ）遥感的探测机理及其图像专题信息提取方法的综合分析基础上，以不同沉积岩石的化学成分，矿物组成，结构，反射和发射光谱特征的实验室分析温度测试结果为依据，对不同沉积岩石的热红外多光谱遥感成像机制进行了探讨，并对比分析了不同沉积岩石ＴＩＭＳ图像和ＴＭ图像的识别效果。     

浅析遥感光谱特征参量的原理及基本方法

概述了导数光谱、红边参数、光谱吸收特征以及光谱反射特征等遥感光谱特征参量的原理及基本方法,总结和分析了这些参量在植被领域中的应用动态,提出了遥感技术存在的问题及其应用展望,遥感光谱特征参量能够为植被理化信息的提取提供强有力的工具。     

Canopy spectral invariants for remote sensing and model applications

The concept of canopy spectral invariants expresses the observation that simple algebraic combinations of leaf and canopy spectral transmittance and reflectance become wavelength independent and determine a small set of canopy structure specific variables. This set includes the canopy interceptance, the recollision and the escape probabilities. These variables specify an accurate relationship between the spectral response of a vegetation canopy to the incident solar radiation at the leaf and the canopy scale and allow for a simple and accurate parameterization for the partitioning of the incoming radiation into canopy transmission, reflection and absorption at any wavelength in the solar spectrum. This paper presents a solid theoretical basis for spectral invariant relationships reported in literature with an emphasis on their accuracies in describing the shortwave radiative properties of the three-dimensional vegetation canopies. The analysis of data on leaf and canopy spectral transmittance and reflectance collected during the international field campaign in Flakaliden, Sweden, June 25-July 4, 2002 supports the proposed theory. The results presented here are essential to both modeling and remote sensing communities because they allow the separation of the structural and radiometric components of the measured/modeled signal. The canopy spectral invariants offer a simple and accurate parameterization for the shortwave radiation block in many global models of climate, hydrology, biogeochemistry, and ecology. In remote sensing applications, the information content of hyperspectral data can be fully exploited if the wavelength-independent variables can be retrieved, for they can be more directly related to structural characteristics of the three-dimensional vegetation canopy.     

Identifying optimal spectral bands from in situ measurements of Great Lakes coastal wetlands using second-derivative analysis

Extensive, in situ, reflectance spectra (i.e., 252 bands) were acquired for the dominant botanical and substrate classes within Prentiss Bay and Horseshoe Bay, Lake Huron. These spectral radiance measurements were transformed into relative percent reflectance and then resampled to emulate the band configurations of the airborne, hyperspectral imagery that was also acquired of the sites. Second-derivative analysis was applied to these transformed spectra in order to identify which spectral bands were the most botanically explanative (i.e., optimal) for the differentiation of coastal wetland vegetation in the Great Lakes.This research identified 8 optimal bands in the visible-NIR wavelength region (in order of decreasing importance: 685.5, 731.5, 939.9, 514.9, 812.3, 835.5, 823.9 and 560.1 nm) that appear to contain the majority of the coastal wetland information content of the full spectral resolution, 48-band, hyperspectral signatures. A reduction of band number without significant information loss is important because it makes it practical to utilize small pixels without fear of sacrificing the ability to differentiate the botanical communities.     

Synthesis of mixed pixel hyperspectral signatures

The general method of analysing mixed pixel spectral response is to decompose the actual spectra into several pure spectral components representing the signatures of the endmembers. This work suggests a reverse engineering of standardizing the mixed pixel spectrum for a certain spatial distribution of endmembers by synthesizing spectral signatures with varying proportions of standard spectral library data and matching them with the experimentally obtained mixed pixel signature. The idea is demonstrated with hyperspectral ultraviolet–visible–near-infrared (UV–vis–NIR) reflectance measurements on laboratory-generated model mixed pixels consisting of different endmember surfaces: concrete, soil, brick and vegetation and hyperspectral signatures derived from Hyperion satellite images consisting of concrete, soil and vegetation in different proportions. The experimental reflectance values were compared with the computationally generated spectral variations assuming linear mixing of pure spectral signatures. Good matching in the nature of spectral variation was obtained in most cases. It is hoped that using the present concept, hyperspectral signatures of mixed pixels can be synthesized from the available spectral libraries and matched with those obtained from satellite images, even with fewer bands. Thus enhancing the computational job in the laboratory can moderate the keen requirement of high accuracy of remote-sensor and band resolution, thereby reducing data volume and transmission bandwidth.     

基于数学形态滤波的植被光谱去噪方法研究

光谱维噪声使地物光谱扭曲或变形,中心波长偏移,影响地物信息提取和地表参量反演的精度。对光谱维噪声进行滤波处理,有利于改善遥感数据定量应用的效果。由于数学形态滤波的原理简单且较易实现,被应用到植被光谱以及有机化合物光谱的研究中。运用数学形态滤波对地面实测小麦光谱去噪,一方面对滤波后的光谱进行噪声和波形相似度的直观分析,另一方面通过植被指数反演小麦理化参量进行定量应用评价。结果表明,与传统Savitzky-Golay滤波相比,在可见-近红外波段范围内,数学形态滤波去噪后的光谱能够保持可见—近红外波段原始光谱的固有特征,叶面积指数和叶绿素的反演精度比去噪前有小幅提升,主要原因是实测光谱在该谱段范围的噪声影响很小;在短波红外波段范围内,数学形态滤波能有效去除短波红外大尺度噪声,提高叶片含水量的反演精度。而传统Savitzky-Golay滤波只能削弱短波红外大尺度噪声。广义形态滤波去噪后植被指数和叶片含水量之间的R2最高可达0.5130(去噪前0.3753),叶片含水量的反演值与实测值之间的R2最高可达0.4221(去噪前0.3097),RMSE为0.0243(去噪前0.0318),优于传统Savitzky-Golay滤波。     

Simulation of hyperspectral and directional radiance images using coupled biophysical and atmospheric radiative transfer models

Future remote sensing satellite missions exploring the earth will feature advanced hyperspectral and directional optical imaging instruments. Given the complex nature of the data to be expected from these missions, a thorough preparation for them is essential and this can be accomplished by realistic simulation of the imagery data, years before the actual launch. Based on given spectral and directional capabilities of the instrument, and in combination with biophysical land surface properties obtained from existing imagery, the spectral and directional responses of several types of vegetation and bare soil have been simulated pixel by pixel using the radiative transfer models PROSPECT (for hyperspectral leaf reflectance and transmittance), GeoSAIL (for two-layer canopy bidirectional spectral reflectance), and MODTRAN4 (for atmospheric hyperspectral and directional effects). In this way, one obtains realistically simulated hyperspectral and directional top-of-atmosphere spectral radiance images, with all major effects included, such as heterogeneity of the landscape, non-Lambertian reflectance of the land surface, the atmospheric adjacency effect, and the limited spatial resolution of the instrument. The output of the image simulations can be used to demonstrate the capabilities of future earth observation missions. In addition, instrument specifications and image acquisition strategies might be optimized on the basis of simulated image analysis results, and new advanced data assimilation procedures could be validated with realistic inputs under controlled circumstances. This paper describes the applied methodology, the study area with the input images, the set-up of the actual image simulations, and discusses the final results obtained.     

Detection of stressed oil palms from an airborne sensor using optimized spectral indices

Existing vegetation indices and red-edge techniques have been widely used for the assessment of vegetation status and vegetation health from remote-sensing instruments. This study proposed and applied optimized Airborne Imaging Spectrometer for Applications (AISA) airborne hyperspectral indices in assessing and mapping stressed oil palm trees. Six vegetation indices, four red-edge techniques, a standard supervised classifier and three optimized AISA spectral indices were compared in mapping diseased oil palms using AISA airborne hyperspectral imagery. The optimized AISA spectral indices algorithms used newly defined reflectance values at wavelength locations of 734 nm (near-infrared (NIR)) and 616 nm (red). The selection of these two bands was based on laboratory statistical analysis using field spectroradiometer reflectance data. These two bands were then applied to the AISA airborne hyperspectral imagery using the three optimized algorithms for AISA data. The newly formulated AISA hyperspectral indices were D2 = R ₆₁₆/R ₇₃₄, normalized difference vegetation index a (NDVIa)?=?(R ₇₃₄ – R ₆₁₆)/(R ₇₃₄?+?R ₆₁₆) and transformed vegetation index a (TVIa)?=?((NDVIa?+?0.5)/(abs (NDVIa?+?0.5))?×?[abs (NDVIa?+?0.5)]^1/2. The classification results from the optimized AISA hyperspectral indices were compared with the other techniques and the optimized AISA spectral indices obtained the highest overall accuracy. D2 and NDVIa obtained 86% of overall accuracy followed by TVIa with 84% of overall accuracy.