Spectal Characteristics of Dry-Vegetation Cover Types Observed by Hyperspectral Data

Spectal Characteristics of Dry-Vegetation Cover Types Observed by Hyperspectral Data

Because of the phenological variation of vegetation growth in temperate region, it is often difficult to accurately assess the surface conditions of agricultural croplands, grasslands, and disturbed forests by multi-spectral remote sensor data. In particular, the spectral similarity between soil and dry vegetation has been a primary problem to correctly appraise the surface conditions during the non-growing seasons in temperature region. This study analyzes the spectral characteristics of the mixture of dry vegetation and soil. The reflectance spectra were obtained from laboratory spectroradiometer measurement (GER-2600) and from EO-1 Hyperion image data. The reflectance spectra of several samples having different level of dry vegetation fractions show similar pattern from both lab measurement and hyperspectral image. Red-edge near 700nm and shortwave IR near 2,200nm are more sensitive to the fraction of dry vegetation. The use of hyperspectral data would allow us for better separation between bare soils and other surfaces covered by dry vegetation during the leaf-off season.