What is Hyperspectral?

In the natural world, it is known to us geoscientists that materials absorb specific wavelengths of infrared radiation along the electromagnetic spectrum. In short, recent advances in understanding and sensor sensitivity means that we can record the reflectance/absorption of radiation by a material at thousands of narrow wavelength bands (2151 for the ASD Terraspec). In doing so, we are able to generate high-resolution reflectance spectra of materials that we can analyse in great detail.

Figure 1 – Example of stacked hull quotient reflectance spectra from my project, between 1200 and 2400 nm.

In exploration mineralogy, we are looking specifically at the short wave infrared (SWIR) region of the electromagnetic spectrum (1000-2500 nm), and the reflectance spectra of rock-forming minerals. This has particularly important implications for the evaluation of hydrothermal alteration mineralogy and as proxies for systematic variations in mineral chemistry. We can subsequently produce mineralogy maps and generate vector proxies towards mineralisation.

For my project, I was able to obtain a temporary license for The Spectral Geologist for automated raw data processing, visualisation, and parameter characterisation.