Comparison of AVIRIS and Hyperion for Hyperspectral Mineral Mapping

1.0 Introduction The 0.4 to 2.5 μm spectral range provides abundant information about many important Earth-surface minerals (Clark et al., 1990). In particular, the 2.0 to 2.5 μm spectral range covers spectral features of hydroxyl-bearing minerals, sulfates, and carbonates common to many geologic units and hydrothermal alteration assemblages. Imaging Spectrometers, or “Hyperspectral” sensors provide the unique combination of both spatially contiguous spectra and spectrally contiguous images of the Earth's surface that allows spatial mapping of these minerals (Goetz et al., 1985). Airborne hyperspectral data have been available to researchers since the early 1980s and their use for mineral mapping is well established (Goetz et al., 1985; Kruse and Lefkoff, 1993; Boardman and Kruse, 1994; Boardman et al., 1995; Kruse, et al., 1999). Current airborne sensors provide high-spatial resolution (2-20m), high-spectral resolution (10-20nm), and high SNR (>500:1) data for a variety of scientific disciplines (Green et al., 2001; Kruse et al., 2000).