Characterization and Retrieval of Snow and Urban Land Cover Parameters using Hyperspectral Imaging

Snow and urban land cover are important due to their role in hydrological management and utility, climate response, social aspects and economic viability, along with influencing the Earth’s environment at local, regional and global scale. Hyperspectral data enable identification, characterization and retrieval of these land-cover features based on physical and chemical properties of compositional materials. AVIRISNG hyperspectral airborne data, with synchronous ground observations using field spectroradiometer and collateral instruments, were collected over two widely varied land-cover types, viz. a relatively homogenous area covered by snow in the extreme cold environment of the Himalaya (Bhaga sub-basin, Himachal Pradesh), and a completely heterogeneous urban area of a metropolitan city (Ahmedabad, Gujarat).

AVIRIS-NG airborne data were analysed to understand the effect of terrain parameters such as slope and aspect on snow reflectance. Snow grain index using visible and near-infrared (VNIR) bands and absorption peak in the near-infrared (NIR) were used to retrieve grain size in parts of the Himalayan region. A radiative transfer model was used to understand the grain size variability and its effect on absorption peak in NIR. Continuum removal was performed for snow spectral observations obtained from airborne, modelled and field platforms to estimate band depth at 1030 nm. Grain size was observed to vary with altitude from 100 to 500 μm using AVIRIS-NG image. In the urban area, the data also separated pervious and impervious surface cover using spectral unmixing technique, identified several urban features over multispectral data such as buildings with red tiled roofs, metallic surfaces and tarpaulin sheets using the material spectral profiles. Two single-frame superresolution methods namely sparse regression and natural prior (SRP), and gradient profile prior (GPP) were applied on AVIRIS-NG data for the mixed environment around Kankaria Lake in the city of Ahmedabad, which revealed that SRP method was better than GPP, and affirmed by eight indices. Preliminary analysis of AVIRIS-NG imaging over snow-covered areas and densely populated cities indicated utility of future spaceborne hyperspectral missions, particularly for hydrological and climatological applications in such diverse environments.