On the Utility of Longwave-Infrared Spectral Imaging for Remote Botanical Identification

Abstract

A multi-year airborne field investigation of remote botanical species identification was conducted involving multiple curated botanical collections. The purpose of the study was to better constrain the observational conditions that most favor remote identification by longwave-infrared spectral imaging and assess the degree to which confidence metrics developed for remote chemical composition determination could be adapted to botanical species classification. Identification success was examined as a function of spatial resolution and viewing obliquity. A key aim was to articulate a procedure for validating inferred species identifications and evaluating the retrieval methodology’s performance for alleviating confusion between species exhibiting spectral similarity at the foliar scale. It was found that several confounding factors degrade confidence in the species identifications to levels that render the approach impractical in the general case. A number of taxa, predominantly evergreen, were nevertheless identified that are amenable to the technique and for which utility may be viable.

Image restoration techniques for space-based lightweight optically sparse aperture Earth-observation telescopes in the longwave infrared domain

“…1 Deeper into the electromagnetic spectrum, LWIR imaging systems with sufficiently high spectral and radiometric resolution are endowed with the capability of creating an extensive catalog for plant species. [2][3][4] as well as for discriminatory signatures amongst different types of man-made impervious and natural materials 5,6 as well as chemicals. 7 Therefore, coupling of high resolution near-simultaneous observations from the Visible and Short Wave Infrared domain (VSWIR) with those in the LWIR domain can lead to very comprehensive multi-modal imaging and monitoring of natural resources, remote-sensing, security and surveillance sectors.…”