INT. J. REMOTE SENSING, VOL.

24,

NO.

20 22, 43114323

NOVEMBER,

2003,

Spectral indices for lithologic discrimination and mapping by using the ASTER SWIR bands
Y. YAMAGUCHI* and C. NAITO
Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Nagoya University, Furo-cho, Chikusa-ku, Nagoya 464-8602, Japan (Received 22 December 1999; in nal form 12 July 2000 ) Abstract. The Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reection Radiometer (ASTER) is a research facility instrument launched on NASAs Terra spacecraft in December 1999. Spectral indices, a kind of orthogonal transformation in the ve-dimensional space formed by the ve ASTER short-waveinfrared (SWIR) bands, were proposed for discrimination and mapping of surface rock types. These include Alunite Index, Kaolinite Index, Calcite Index, and Montmorillonite Index, and can be calculated by linear combination of reectance values of the ve SWIR bands. The transform coefcients were determined so as to direct transform axes to the average spectral pattern of the typical minerals. The spectral indices were applied to the simulated ASTER dataset of Cuprite, Nevada, USA after converting its digital numbers to surface reectance. The resultant spectral index images were useful for lithologic mapping and were easy to interpret geologically. An advantage of this method is that we can use the pre-determined transform coefcients, as long as image data are converted to surface reectance.

Introduction The Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reection Radiometer (ASTER) is a research facility instrument launched on NASAs Terra (originally called EOS AM-1) spacecraft in December 1999 (Yamaguchi et al. 1998, Fujisada et al. 1998). The ASTER instrument has three spectral bands in the visible and near-infrared (VNIR), six bands in the short-wave-infrared (SWIR), and ve bands in the thermal infrared (TIR) regions respectively (table 1, gure 1). The spectral bandpasses of the SWIR bands were selected for the purpose of surface mineralogical mapping. Band 4 is centred at the 1.65 mm region, and bands 5 to 9 target the characteristic absorption features of phyllosilicate and carbonate minerals in the 2.1 to 2.4 mm region. Many previous studies have proposed various approaches for discrimination and mapping of surface rock types by using multispectral data; for instance, band ratio, principal component analysis (PCA), multiband classication, etc. (e.g. Rowan et al. 1974, Chavez and Kwarteng 1989, Gillespie et al. 1986). A spectral index is one such approach to quantify multispectral sensor response patterns. The concept of the spectral index was initiated by Kauth and Thomas (1976), who
*Corresponding author; e-mail: yasushi@eps.nagoya-u.ac.jp
International Journal of Remote Sensing ISSN 0143-1161 print/ISSN 1366-5901 online # 2003 Taylor & Francis Ltd http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals DOI: 10.1080/01431160110070320

1.

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Table 1. Band no. 1 2 3N 3B 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14

Y. Yamaguchi and C. Naito

ASTER baseline performance requirements. Radiometric resolution NEDrf0.5% Absolute accuracy (s) f4% Spatial Quantization resolution levels 15 m 8 bits

Subsystem

Spectral range (mm) 0.520.60 0.630.69 0.780.86 0.780.86 1.6001.700 2.1452.185 2.1852.225 2.2352.285 2.2952.365 2.3602.430

VNIR

SWIR

NEDrf0.5% NEDrf1.3% NEDrf1.3% NEDrf1.3% NEDrf1.0% NEDrf1.3%

f4%

30 m

8 bits

TIR

8.1258.475 8.4758.825 8.9259.275 NEDTf0.3 K 10.2510.95 10.9511.65

f3 K(200240 K) f2 K(240270 K) f1 K(270340 K) f2 K(340370 K)

90 m

12 bits

proposed four indices called Brightness, Greenness, Yellowness and Nonsuch using the four Landsat MSS bands. This method has been widely accepted as the Tasselled Cap transformation for assessing vegetation (Crist and Cicone 1984). Richardson and Wiegand (1977) developed a two-dimensional Perpendicular Vegetation Index (PVI) using two bands of the Landsat MSS. Jackson (1983) showed that these indices were special cases of a class of spectral indices, formed by linear combinations of n spectral bands, in n-dimensional space. A spectral index is similar to PCA in the sense that both are orthogonal transformations of multispectral data. A fundamental difference between these two methods is that the spectral indices dene the transform axes to represent specic spectral patterns of interest, while PCA determines the transform axes mathematically to maximize variance of multispectral data. PCA can also be used to reduce dimensionality of multispectral data without signicant information loss. Visual interpretation for discrimination and mapping of surface materials may be enhanced by a colour composite image of major principal components. However, physical meanings of colours in a PCA image are not clear in many cases, as a PCA result is scene dependent, i.e. transform coefcients change from scene to scene. In contrast, as spectral indices uses pre-determined transform coefcients, it is possible to know physical meanings of a transformed result to some degree (Crist and Cicone 1984). This means that it is easy to interpret resultant spectral index images from a geological point of view, if we use spectral indices for discrimination and mapping of surface rock types. Yamaguchi (1987) proposed spectral indices for lithologic discrimination by using the three SWIR bands of the Optical Sensor (OPS) of the Japanese Earth Resources Satellite (JERS-1) launched in 1992. This paper discusses a similar approach to develop spectral indices for lithologic mapping by the ve SWIR bands of ASTER. 2. Test site and data Cuprite in western Nevada, USA was selected as a test site because of the availability of an appropriate simulated ASTER dataset. This area has been a famous test site for evaluating mineralogical mapping capabilities of various

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Figure 1. Spectral bandpasses of the ASTER VNIR and SWIR, and the reectance spectra of typical minerals, rocks, and vegetation: (a) kaolinite, (b) montmorillonite, (c) alunite, (d) calcite, (e) andesite, (f) granite and (g) green leaves. Note that the SWIR bands 5 to 9 are targeting the characteristic absorption features of these minerals.

airborne and spaceborne remote sensors. Sections of the Tertiary volcanics in this area were intensively altered in mid- to late-Miocene times. The most highly altered rocks to the least altered are referred to as silicied, opalized, and argillized. Dominant minerals are quartz in the silicied areas, opal, alunite and kaolinite in the opalized areas, and kaolinite and montmorillonite in the argillized areas, respectively (Abrams et al. 1977, Hook and Rast 1990, Kruse et al. 1990, Abrams and Hook 1995, Resmini et al. 1996). A simulated ASTER dataset for the Cuprite area was produced from an Airborne Visible and Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (AVIRIS) dataset by the Earth Remote Sensing Data Analysis Center (ERSDAC) in Japan. The AVIRIS has 224 spectral bands in the 0.4 to 2.45 mm region with 20 m spatial resolution in this case. The AVIRIS data were spectrally resampled to the appropriate ASTER bands by using the ASTER band response functions. The ASTER maximum input radiance, quantization level, and gain factors were also considered to generate

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digital numbers (DNs) of the simulation dataset. Finally, the simulated data were spatially resampled to produce the appropriate pixel size; 15 m for the VNIR and 30 m for the SWIR. 3. Methods 3.1. Overview Spectral indices in n-space can be dened as values measured by projecting data points onto axes with appropriate unit vector directions. It is a kind of orthogonal transformation, and the transform axes are determined to represent specic spectral patterns (Jackson 1983). In general, the m-th spectral index in n-space (mfn) for the i-th pixel (mYi) can be given by the following formula:
m Yi ~m A1 X1i zm A2 X2i z zm An Xni

where n is the total number of the spectral bands, mAn is the transform coefcient of n-th band data for the m-th spectral index, and Xni is n-th band data of an i-th pixel. By using the ve ASTER SWIR bands in the 2 mm region (bands 5 to 9), the following ve spectral indices, from lower to higher orders, are proposed in this study: Brightness Index Alunite Index Kaolinite Index Calcite Index Montmorillonite Index

We can produce spectral index images by simply applying the transform coefcients to surface reectance datasets. Please note that there are two very important points in this method (gure 2). One is generation of the transform

Figure 2.

Data processing workow used in this study.

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coefcients for the spectral indices as discussed in 3.3 and 3.4, and the other is reectance conversion of the dataset before applying the coefcients as discussed in 3.2. In summary, the transform coefcients of the rst axis, Brightness Index, were determined by PCA to indicate the average brightness of the ve SWIR bands of the simulated ASTER dataset of Cuprite. The second and higher order axes were chosen to direct the response patterns of the four target minerals, which exhibit different diagnostic response patterns (gure 3). The reectance spectra used for calculation include alunite (11 samples), calcite (10 samples), kaolinite (22 samples), and montmorillonite (15 samples). The calculation processes were based upon Jackson (1983), which utilized the Gram-Schmidt orthogonalization method. 3.2. Reectance conversion The DNs of the simulated ASTER dataset were converted to surface reectance by using two calibration targets: Stonewall Playa in the eastern part of the image as a bright target with high reectance and a Miocene basalt ow in the northern part of the image as a dark target with low reectance (gure 4). Spectral reectance of the samples collected at these two targets was measured in the laboratory. An assumption was made that the recorded DNs are linearly related to the surface reectance. By using the linear regression coefcients between the image DNs and the measured reectance of the two calibration targets, the whole simulated ASTER dataset was converted to surface reectance. Original DNs of Alunite Hills, three small hills located in the centre left of the image (gure 4), had a spectral pattern in which band 8 was the highest among the four SWIR bands in the 2 mm region (gure 5(a)). After reectance conversion, band 7 became higher than band 8 (gure 5(c)). This pattern is similar to a simulated SWIR response from reectance spectra of alunite (gure 5(b)). Thus, the authors assumed that the reectance calibration was performed correctly. The reectance-

Figure 3.

Simulated response patterns of the four typical minerals for the ASTER SWIR bands.

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Figure 4. Alunite Index image of the simulated ASTER dataset of Cuprite, western Nevada, USA. Top of the image is north, and the imaged area is about 10 km (EW) by 8.3 km (NS) in size.

Figure 5. (a) Original DN values of the SWIR bands for Alunite Hills, (b) a simulated response of the SWIR bands from a reectance spectrum of alunite, and (c) DNs after reectance conversion to surface reectance by using ground targets.

calibrated ASTER simulation dataset was used for further processing in this study. An ASTER surface reectance dataset will be provided as an ASTER standard data product (Yamaguchi et al. 1998), so that we will not need the reectance conversion in the future. 3.3. Brightness Index The transform axis for the Brightness Index was determined by PCA applied to the reectance-calibrated ASTER simulation dataset. The rst principal component

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contains the most common information, which mainly relates to average albedo and topography. Thus a brightness image generally exhibits topography of the area. The brightness (1Yi) can be given by the following formula:
1 Yi ~0:446X1i z0:449X2i z0:453X3i z0:447X4i z0:441X5i

where X1i represents values of the rst spectral band of the i-th band (note that X1i is for the ASTER SWIR band 5, X2i for band 6, X3i for band 7, X4i for band 8, and X5i for band 9). The transform coefcients are also shown in tables 2 and 3. In this particular case, the brightness contains 99% of the total DN variance. In the near future when the actual ASTER data become available, we will be able to dene the transform coefcients more accurately based upon the real ASTER data products. However, the authors expect that the transform coefcients shown in this paper are not likely to be changed greatly by this improvement. 3.4. The second and higher spectral indices Jackson (1983) and Yamaguchi (1987) showed that the second and higher spectral indices were deviations of each data point from the brightness axis. The transform axes of the higher order indices are chosen to be perpendicular to the brightness, and thus should have little relationship to topography. As a result, the spectral indices of the higher orders can be used for lithologic discrimination and mapping by suppressing the topographic effect. The transform axis of the second index was dened by two conditions: (1) the axis must be perpendicular to the brightness axis, and (2) the axis must pass through the mean of the particular mineral response (mineral A in gure 6). There are two ways to determine the transform axes for the third and higher order spectral indices. The third index axis must be perpendicular to the brightness axis, but can be chosen as either non-orthogonal (mineral B in gure 6) or orthogonal (mineral B in gure 6) to the axis of the second spectral index (mineral A in gure 6). These two approaches have been tested in order to generate the
Table 2. Transform coefcients of the spectral indices for the ASTER SWIR bands for the case where the transform axes of these minerals are perpendicular to the brightness axis, but are not orthogonal to each other. Spectral index Brightness Alunite Kaolinite Calcite Montmorillonite Band 5 0.446 20.694 0.012 0.156 0.696 Band 6 0.449 20.219 20.763 0.522 0.069 Band 7 0.453 0.562 0.505 20.388 20.364 Band 8 0.447 0.389 0.372 20.647 0.185 Band 9 0.441 20.048 20.124 0.365 20.589

Table 3. Transform coefcients of the spectral indices for the ASTER SWIR bands for the case where all the transform axes of these minerals are orthogonal to each other. Spectral index Brightness Alunite Kaolinite Calcite Montmorillonite Band 5 0.446 20.694 0.528 20.087 0.138 Band 6 0.449 20.219 20.795 20.212 0.284 Band 7 0.453 0.562 0.212 0.322 20.134 Band 8 0.447 0.389 0.174 20.659 0.499 Band 9 0.441 20.048 20.119 0.640 20.796

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Y. Yamaguchi and C. Naito

Figure 6.

A schematic diagram showing the relationship of the brightness axis and mineral axes for spectral indices.

higher order indices. If we employ the former method, the order of the mineral indices has no effects on the transform coefcients nor the index images. On the other hand, if we use the latter method, the order of choice of minerals for higher spectral indices is very important, and thus can greatly affect the resultant spectral index images. The authors tried several combinations, and found that selection of the second index next to the brightness strongly affects the result, but the order of the third and higher indices seems not so signicantly to affect the results. However, more systematic investigation is needed for clear criteria in this point of view. Alunite was chosen for the second index mineral, as alunite is not only an important mineral, but also it has a peculiar response pattern, with a high reectance in band 7, an intermediate one for band 8, and low for the other bands (gure 3). Kaolinite was selected for the third spectral index in this study, because kaolinite is the second most important mineral in this area, and also has diagnostic reectance patter (gure 3). As mentioned above, there are two ways to choose the Kaolinite Index axis, i.e. orthogonal to the brightness axis and non-orthogonal to the Alunite Index axis, or orthogonal to both the Brightness and Alunite Index axes (gure 7). The Calcite and Montmorillonite Indices are the fourth and fth, respectively.

Figure 7.

Relation of the transform axes of the spectral indices generated in this study.

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The transform coefcients for the case where the transform axes of these minerals are perpendicular to the Brightness Index axis, but are not orthogonal to each other, are shown in table 2. The transform coefcients for the case where all the transform axes for these minerals are orthogonal to each other are shown in table 3. The spectral index images were generated by simply applying these transform coefcients to the reectance-calibrated ASTER simulation dataset of Cuprite. Differences of the resultant spectral index images generated by these two different sets of transform coefcients are discussed in the following chapter. Results and discussion Based on the simulated ASTER dataset, the ve proposed mineral index images were produced. The two approaches for generation of the higher order indices were also tested. These spectral index images and a colour composite of indices were compared with the mineralogical mapping by previous workers (e.g. Abrams et al. 1977, Hook and Rast 1990). The Alunite Index image presents three bright patches in its centre left (gure 4). These correspond in fact to three mounds called the Alunite Hills with high concentration of alunite. In the north-east of the Alunite Hills, there are fans with moderately high Alunite Index values, and those fan deposits contain alunitebearing rocks. Therefore, we can conclude that the Alunite Index image shows distribution of alunite in this area, and also indicates relative concentration of alunite to some degree. Note that black and white small dots in the image are processing errors due to abnormal index values. The two approaches for generation of spectral indices were compared by using the two Kaolinite Index images (gure 8), which were generated by different sets of transform coefcients (tables 2 and 3). The upper image in gure 8 was generated by using the transform coefcients in table 2, that is, the Kaolinite Index axis nonorthogonal to the Alunite Index axis. The lower image was generated by using the transform coefcients in table 3, namely, the Kaolinite Index axis orthogonal to the Alunite Index axis. Distribution of kaolinite is less clear in the upper image than the lower image. The upper one seems to be inuenced by alunite distribution, as the response patterns of alunite and kaolinite are somewhat similar (gure 3). Band 7 responses of both alunite and kaolinite form a peak with downward slopes to band 6 to the left and bands 8 and 9 to the right. However, the spectral contrast of the kaolinite pattern is smaller than that of alunite, i.e. the reectance difference between the maximum and minimum is 11% for alunite and 8% for kaolinite, respectively (gure 3). As a result, the pixels including alunite are also strongly responding to the Kaolinite Index in this case. On the other hand, the lower image was generated by using the transform axis orthogonal to the Alunite Index axis, and the alunite areas do not respond to the Kaolinite Index. This is probably due to the reason that each of the two orthogonal axes only picks up a different part of a response pattern from the other one. The distribution of kaolinite in the lower image looks reasonable compared with the previous work by Abrams et al. (1977). Therefore, we can conclude that the spectral indices should be dened by transform axes orthogonal to each other in order to enhance spectral response patterns of different minerals. Specically, we should use the transform coefcient shown in table 3, not those shown in table 2. The transform coefcients for the Calcite and Montmorillonite Indices were 4.

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Figure 8. Upper: Kaolinite Index image whose transform axis is not orthogonal to the Alunite Index axis. Lower: Kaolinite Index image whose transform axis is orthogonal to the Alunite Index axis.

determined as fourth and fth axes respectively. We can recognize a large area with high Calcite Index values in the south-west part of the Calcite Index image (gure 9), and it coincides well with the limestone-dominant area in the existing geological map. On the other hand, the opalized and argillized areas with high concentration of alunite and kaolinite do not respond to the Calcite Index. Namely, carbonate minerals which have absorption features at 2.35 mm can be distinguished from hydrothermal alteration zones containing clay minerals, which have

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Figure 9.

Upper: Calcite Index image. Lower: Montmorillonite Index image.

absorption at 2.2 mm. There is Stonewall Playa in the eastern edge of the image, where the Montmorillonite Index is relatively high (gure 9). It is also consistent with the eld evidence that the playa material contains montmorillonite or other clay minerals that include molecular water in their structure. Finally, a colour composite image was generated by assigning the three spectral indices to three colour primitives, red, green, and blue, respectively (gure 10). It is evident that the mineral distributions are clearly shown by different colours, while the topographic effect is suppressed. This colour image is particularly useful for geologic interpretation and mapping of the test area.

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Figure 10. A colour composite image generated by assigning the Alunite Index to red, the Calcite Index to green, and the Kaolinite Index to blue, respectively.

5.

Conclusions Transform coefcients of the spectral indices for the ASTER SWIR bands were determined by using both the simulated ASTER dataset of Cuprite and the ASTER SWIR response patterns simulated from reectance spectra of typical minerals. We can generate a spectral index image by simply applying the transform coefcients to reectance-calibrated ASTER data. It was proven by the simulated ASTER dataset of Cuprite that the spectral index images were useful for lithologic mapping and were easy to interpret geologically. An advantage of this method is that we can use the pre-determined transform coefcients. In other words, data processing for spectral indices is not scene dependent, as long as image data are converted to surface reectance. It can also greatly reduce the processing effort required. It is planned that surface reectance will be provided as an ASTER standard data product to the general user community on a non-discriminatory basis (Yamaguchi et al. 1998). Therefore, we do not need to worry about conversion of ASTER DNs to surface reectance including atmospheric correction, since an atmospherically corrected ASTER surface reectance data product can be obtained routinely. We can simply apply the transform coefcients to the ASTER surface reectance dataset to get a quick image depicting the surface mineral distribution. The spectral indices proposed in this paper should be a candidate to be used as a standard processing method for ASTER data. Acknowledgments The authors would like to express sincere thanks to Earth Remote Sensing Data Analysis Center (ERSDAC) for providing the simulated ASTER dataset, and to Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) for providing the AVIRIS data of Cuprite. They are

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also grateful to the ASTER Science Team members for their useful discussions and comments. References
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