Remote hyperspectral imagery as a support to archaeological prospection

Cavalli, Rosa Maria; Colosi, Francesca; Palombo, Angelo; Pignatti, Stefano; Poscolieri, M.

doi:10.1016/j.culher.2007.03.003

Cited by 71 publications

(61 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…The potential of airborne and spaceborne imaging spectrometers has long been exploited to monitor the Earth's surface and atmosphere and to provide valuable information for the better understanding of a large number of environmental processes (e.g., [3,4]). Those applications include, for example, vegetation monitoring and ecology (e.g., [5][6][7][8][9][10][11]), geology and soils (e.g., [12][13][14][15][16][17]), coastal and inland waters (e.g., [18][19][20][21]), mapping of snow properties [22,23] and archaeological prospection [24,25].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The EnMAP Spaceborne Imaging Spectroscopy Mission for Earth Observation

et al. 2015

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Imaging spectroscopy, also known as hyperspectral remote sensing, is based on the characterization of Earth surface materials and processes through spectrally-resolved measurements of the light interacting with matter. The potential of imaging spectroscopy for Earth remote sensing has been demonstrated since the 1980s. However, most of the developments and applications in imaging spectroscopy have largely relied on airborne spectrometers, as the amount and quality of space-based imaging spectroscopy data remain relatively low to date. The upcoming Environmental Mapping and Analysis Program (EnMAP) German imaging spectroscopy mission is intended to fill this gap. An overview of the main characteristics and current status of the mission is provided in this contribution. The core payload of EnMAP consists of a dual-spectrometer instrument measuring in the optical spectral range between 420 and 2450 nm with a spectral sampling distance varying between 5 and 12 nm and a reference signal-to-noise ratio of 400:1 in the visible and near-infrared and 180:1 in the shortwave-infrared parts of the spectrum. EnMAP images will cover a 30 km-wide area in the across-track direction with a ground sampling distance of 30 m. An across-track tilted observation capability will enable a target revisit time of up to four days at the Equator and better at high latitudes. EnMAP will contribute to the development and exploitation of spaceborne imaging spectroscopy applications by making high-quality data freely available to scientific users worldwide.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The EnMAP Spaceborne Imaging Spectroscopy Mission for Earth Observation

et al. 2015

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“…The technological improvements of satellite sensors, both in terms of spatial as well as spectral resolution, achieved within the last years, can provide archaeologists with further information regarding the landscape, assisting them to better understand and interpret large archaeological areas [5][6][7]. The exposure of buried archaeological features based on image processing techniques is considered a key parameter for landscape studies, while several researchers have already applied and detected hidden remains mainly through the identification of crop marks [8][9][10][11][12][13].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Study of the Variations of Archaeological Marks at Neolithic Site of Lucera, Italy Using High-Resolution Multispectral Datasets

et al. 2016

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Satellite images have been systematically explored by archaeologists to detect crop marks, which are considered as a proxy for the identification of buried archaeological remains. Even though several existing algorithms are frequently applied, such as histogram enhancements and vegetation indices, the detection of crop marks still remains a difficult task, while the final interpretation results can be very poor. This paper aims to present some of the current difficulties of "remote sensing archaeology" in terms of detection and interpretation of crop marks due to the crops' phenological variations. At the same time, the presented work seeks to evaluate the recently proposed linear equations for the enhancement of crop marks, initially developed for the eastern Mediterranean region. These linear equations re-project the initial n-space spectral into a new 3D orthogonal space determined by three components: a crop mark component, a vegetation component, and a soil component. For the aims of this study, the Lucera archaeological site (southern Italy), where several Neolithic trenches have been identified, was selected. QuickBird and GeoEye high-resolution satellite images were analysed, indicating that vegetation indices may mismatch some crop marks depending on the phenological stage of the vegetation cultivated in the area of the archaeological site. On the contrary, ratios from linear equations were able to spot these crop marks even in shadow areas, indicating that improvements and developments of novel methodologies and equations based on remote sensing datasets can further assist archaeological research.

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“…In archaeology, AIS is considered to have a huge potential for airborne prospection, because it is assumed to overcome the deficits of conventional and multispectral imagery and enhance the visibility of soil color differences and plant stress. Several studies have demonstrated the advantage of this imaging technique (e.g., [25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35]). …”

Section: Introduction-airborne Imaging Spectroscopy and Archaeologicamentioning

confidence: 99%

ARCTIS — A MATLAB® Toolbox for Archaeological Imaging Spectroscopy

et al. 2014

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Imaging spectroscopy acquires imagery in hundreds or more narrow contiguous spectral bands. This offers unprecedented information for archaeological research. To extract the maximum of useful archaeological information from it, however, a number of problems have to be solved. Major problems relate to data redundancy and the visualization of the large amount of data. This makes data mining approaches necessary, as well as efficient data visualization tools. Additional problems relate to data quality. Indeed, the upwelling electromagnetic radiation is recorded in small spectral bands that are only about ten nanometers wide. The signal received by the sensor is, thus quite low compared to sensor noise and possible atmospheric perturbations. The often small, instantaneous field of view (IFOV)-essential for archaeologically relevant imaging spectrometer datasets-further limits the useful signal stemming from the ground. The combination of both effects makes radiometric smoothing techniques mandatory. The present study details the functionality of a MATLAB ® -based toolbox, called ARCTIS (ARChaeological Toolbox for Imaging Spectroscopy), for filtering, enhancing, analyzing, and visualizing imaging spectrometer datasets. The toolbox addresses the above-mentioned problems. Its 8618Graphical User Interface (GUI) is designed to allow non-experts in remote sensing to extract a wealth of information from imaging spectroscopy for archaeological research. ARCTIS will be released under creative commons license, free of charge, via website (http://luftbildarchiv.univie.ac.at).

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Remote hyperspectral imagery as a support to archaeological prospection

Cited by 71 publications

References 20 publications

The EnMAP Spaceborne Imaging Spectroscopy Mission for Earth Observation

The EnMAP Spaceborne Imaging Spectroscopy Mission for Earth Observation

Study of the Variations of Archaeological Marks at Neolithic Site of Lucera, Italy Using High-Resolution Multispectral Datasets

ARCTIS — A MATLAB® Toolbox for Archaeological Imaging Spectroscopy

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