Spectral analyses of sabkha sediments with implications for remote sensing on Mars

Abstract

Spectroscopic investigations of surface mineral components, expected to exist on the surface of Mars, using multiple spectral ranges and techniques, are vital to obtain the ground truth information or reference data for Mars exploration missions. This paper presents visible, near-infrared, thermal infrared reflectance and thermal infrared transmission spectra, as well as X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscope/energy dispersive X-ray analyses of salt crusts and sediments interleaved with cyanobacterial materials from a coastal zone of the United Arab Emirates, where sabkhas exist. The samples obtained from sabkhas were characterized because they contain minerals requiring the water for formation and they provide a possible environment for some of the earliest organisms on Earth. The surface minerals identified include gypsum, calcite, halite, aragonite and dolomite. These sediments were found to be mixed with each other and intermingled with an algal mat, which consisted of cyanobacteria. If such materials formed in similar environments on Mars, their identification would be important for understanding the geobiological conditions of the planet and the potential habitability for life.

Wavelets Based Simulation and Visualization Approach for Unmixing of Hyperspectral Data

“…where is a nitely supported sequence and is called a high pass filter of the system. Dene the wavelet system (11) where…”

“…This binary system is also an adequate analogue of the martian salts and its salty regolith. For more details about the endmember extraction and unmixing, we refere to [8][9][10][11][12][13][14][18][19][20][21].…”

Lithology, mineral assemblages and microbial fingerprints of the evaporite-carbonate sediments of the coastal sabkha of Abu Dhabi and their extraterrestrial implications

“…The same sediments have been studied hitherto using Raman spectroscopy (Edwards et al 2006;Howari 2006). Three types of halotrophic extremophiles were identified in the sabkha samples, two of which are subsurface and the third is a surface benthic mat.…”