Physical Basis of Remote Sensing

 Soil reflectance
 Most important factors
 Moisture content
 Organic matter content

 Other factors
 Particle size (surface)
 Iron oxide content
 Mineralogy
 Structure

GEO424 – Advanced Remote Sensing

 Physical Basis of Remote Sensing
 Soil is unconsolidated material at the surface of the
Earth that serves as a natural medium for
growing plants. Plant roots reside within this
material and extract water and nutrients.
 Soil is the weathered material between the Earth’s
surface and the bedrock below the surface to a
maximum depth of approximately 200 cm (NRCS).
 Soil is a mixture of inorganic mineral particles and
organic matter of varying size and composition.
Solids make up about 50 percent of the soil volume.
Pores containing air and/or water occupy the
remaining volume.

GEO424 – Advanced Remote Sensing

 Physical Basis of Remote Sensing
Soil Profile
Materials
leached
OUT

Materials
moved
IN

Jensen, 2000

GEO424 – Advanced Remote Sensing

 Physical Basis of Remote Sensing
Soil Texture

Jensen, 2000

GEO424 – Advanced Remote Sensing

 Physical Basis of Remote Sensing
 Soil reflectance: #1 control: moisture content

GEO424 – Advanced Remote Sensing

Physical Basis of Remote Sensing

GEO424 – Advanced Remote Sensing

 Physical Basis of Remote Sensing
 Soil reflectance: peaks in the NIR or SWIR
 Which parts of the EMR spectrum would
easily separate most soils from vegetation?

GEO424 – Advanced Remote Sensing

 Physical Basis of Remote Sensing
 Soil reflectance: #1 control: moisture content
 Total reflectance from dry soil is a
function of specular reflectance and
volume reflectance.
 As soil moisture increases, soil
particles may be encapsulated
with a thin film of capillary water
and the interstitial spaces may
also fill with water. The greater the
amount of water in the soil, the
greater the absorption of incident
energy and the lower the soil
reflectance becomes.
Jensen, 2000

GEO424 – Advanced Remote Sensing

 Physical Basis of Remote Sensing
 Soil reflectance: #2 control: organic matter content
Mineral Soils

OM content

Vis NIR SWIR

GEO424 – Advanced Remote Sensing

 Physical Basis of Remote Sensing

Muck

3 - 8 % OM

2 - 6 % OM

1 – 3 % OM

GEO424 – Advanced Remote Sensing

 Physical Basis of Remote Sensing
 Soil reflectance: #2 control: organic matter content

Jensen, 2000

GEO424 – Advanced Remote Sensing

 Physical Basis of Remote Sensing
 Soil reflectance: #2 control: organic matter content

GEO424 – Advanced Remote Sensing

 Physical Basis of Remote Sensing
 Histosol reflectance: peaks in the SWIR if dry
(decomposition states)

Fibric

Hemic

USDA
Sapric

Soil
Taxonomy
Fibric

Hemic

Sapric

GEO424 – Advanced Remote Sensing

 Physical Basis of Remote Sensing
 Particle size vs. soil reflectance
Lab
experiment data

But, the covariates of moisture and OM

content usually REVERSE this relationship
(i.e., sand brighter; clay and silt darker)

GEO424 – Advanced Remote Sensing

 Physical Basis of Remote Sensing
 Iron oxide in soil
Iron oxide in soil causes
increased reflectance of red light
(0.6 - 0.7 mm) and decreased
reflectance of the near-infrared
(0.85 - 0.90 mm – iron oxide
absorption feature)

Jensen, 2000

GEO424 – Advanced Remote Sensing

 Physical Basis of Remote Sensing
 Parent Material
 Spectral response of mineralogy
varies
 SWIR often useful

 e.g., San Francisco Mts., Great

Basin, UT:
 Sedimentary rocks
 Igneous intrusions
 Mixed basin fill

 Principle component analysis

(PCA) of Landsat bands 1-5, 7:
 Igneous intrusion (andesite) in
quartzite
 Influence of andesite on
composition of alluvium

GEO424 – Advanced Remote Sensing

 Physical Basis of Remote Sensing
 Water reflectance – multiple sources

GEO424 – Advanced Remote Sensing

Physical Basis of Remote Sensing

GEO424 – Advanced Remote Sensing

 Physical Basis of Remote Sensing
 Water reflectance – multiple sources
a. upward scattering by inorganic
suspended material
b. upward scattering from water
molecules
c. absorption by dissolved
organic material (DOM)
d. bottom reflectance
e. upward scattering from
phytoplankton (algae)

GEO424 – Advanced Remote Sensing

 Physical Basis of Remote Sensing
 Inherent Optical Properties of water
 Scattering (bλ)
 radiance at a given
wavelength whose path has
been altered by particles or
molecules
 Absorption (aλ)
 radiance at a given wavelength (λ) taken in by
matter, raising it to a higher energy state
 Attenuation (cλ)
 sum of absorption and scattering

GEO424 – Advanced Remote Sensing

 Physical Basis of Remote Sensing
 Spectral partitioning by deep, clear water

GEO424 – Advanced Remote Sensing

 Physical Basis of Remote Sensing
 Water transmittance – peaks in the blue-green

GEO424 – Advanced Remote Sensing

 Physical Basis of Remote Sensing
 Absorption in the Water System

GEO424 – Advanced Remote Sensing

 Physical Basis of Remote Sensing
 Bottom reflectance

Clear water
over bright
sand substrate

GEO424 – Advanced Remote Sensing

 Physical Basis of Remote Sensing
 Water turbidity vs. volume reflectance
14 1000 mg/l
Sediment derived 600
from silty soil
12 with low % 400 Lodhi et al., 1997
organic matter

10
200
Percent Reflectance

100
6 6 Lodhi et al., 1997
Sediment derived
from clayey soil
with high % 1000 mg/l

Percent Reflectance
4 50 mg/l 4
organic matter
200
100
2 clear water 2 400
50 mg/l
clear
water
0 0
0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9
Wavelength (µm) Wavelength (µm)

GEO424 – Advanced Remote Sensing

 Physical Basis of Remote Sensing
 Chlorophyll absorption

GEO424 – Advanced Remote Sensing

 Physical Basis of Remote Sensing
 Case 1 vs. Case 2 water - classification

Prieur, L. and Sathyendranath, S. (1981). An optical classification of coastal and oceanic waters
based on the specific spectral absorption curves of phytoplankton pigments, dissolved organic matter,
and other particulate materials. Limnol. Oceanogr. 26: 671-689.
GEO424 – Advanced Remote Sensing
 Physical Basis of Remote Sensing
 Case 1 vs. Case 2 water
 Case 1 water is found in the open ocean, far from land.
It is nearly as transparent as glass and is a deep azure-
blue color. In Case 1 waters, all of the optical properties
are determined by the concentration of phytoplankton
and its associated chlorophyll, but these are usually
low.
 Case 2 waters are turbid. They can be muddy-brown
near the mouth of rivers or coffee-black. Case 2 waters
can also be verdant green when loaded with
chlorophyll and mixed with a little mud from the sea
bottom, such as found in a coastal upwelling zone.

GEO424 – Advanced Remote Sensing

 Physical Basis of Remote Sensing
 Chlorophyll vs. CDOM
 Colored dissolved organic matter (CDOM) is
the optically measurable component of the
dissolved organic matter in water.
 Also known as yellow substance or gelbstoffe,
CDOM occurs naturally in aquatic
environments primarily as a result of tannins
released from decaying detritus.

GEO424 – Advanced Remote Sensing

 Physical Basis of Remote Sensing
 Chlorophyll vs. CDOM
 CDOM most strongly absorbs short wavelength light
ranging from ultraviolet to blue, whereas pure water
absorbs longer wavelength red light.
 Non-turbid water with little or no CDOM appears blue.
As CDOM concentration increases the color of water
will change from blue to green to yellow-green to
brown.

GEO424 – Advanced Remote Sensing

 Physical Basis of Remote Sensing
 Chlorophyll vs. CDOM
 CDOM interferes with the use of spectrometers
to remotely estimate phytoplankton population
distribution.
 Chlorophyll in water is a key indicator of
phytoplankton activity. However, CDOM and
chlorophyll both absorb in the same spectral
range, so it is difficult to differentiate between
the two.

GEO424 – Advanced Remote Sensing

 Physical Basis of Remote Sensing
 Case 1 vs. Case 2 water

GEO424 – Advanced Remote Sensing

 Physical Basis of Remote Sensing
 Chlorophyll vs. water volume reflectance
Global chlorophyll-a (g/m3) derived from SeaWiFS imagery obtained from
September 3, 1997 through December 31, 1997

g/m3

GEO424 – Advanced Remote Sensing

GEO424 – Advanced Remote Sensing
 Physical Basis of Remote Sensing
 Snow and clouds reflectance

GEO424 – Advanced Remote Sensing

 Physical Basis of Remote Sensing
 Snow reflectance
 Influence of snowmelt and metamorphism

GEO424 – Advanced Remote Sensing

 Physical Basis of Remote Sensing
 Snow and ice reflectance

GEO424 – Advanced Remote Sensing

 Physical Basis of Remote Sensing
 Different reflectance curves

LKC Fig. 1.9

GEO424 – Advanced Remote Sensing