Lithologic mapping with multispectral ASTER TIR and SWIR data

ASTER, launched in December, 1999, composed of three subsystems, each of which multispectrally observes the reflected or emitted radiation from the surface of the earth to space in VNIR (visible and near infrared), SWIR (shortwave infrared) and TIR (thermal infrared) wavelength regions, respectively. ASTER-VNIR has three spectral bands with a spatial resolution of 15m, and the one of which in near infrared has an along track stereo observation capability to produce high quality Digital Elevation Model (DEM). ASTER-SWIR has six spectral bands with a spatial resolution of 30m, which are mainly designed for discriminating altered minerals bearing hydroxyl. ASTER-TIR has five spectral bands with a spatial resolution of 90m, which presents us a powerful tool for identifying quartz and carbonate minerals as well as discriminating types of silicate rocks. The author have successfully developed a robust method for detecting quartzite and carbonate rocks as well as classifying type of igneous rocks with ASTER TIR radiance data without atmospheric corrections (Level-1B data). Here in this paper, a new vegetation index that stably works on Level-1B data is defined for masking vegetation pixels. Then, reflectance spectra of minerals in SWIR region measured in the laboratory are analyzed to define calcite index, OH-bearing altered minerals indices and alunite index for discriminating each mineral by ASTER-SWIR. The defined indices are applied to SWIR data of ASTER Level-1B radiance at the sensor data observing Cuprite area in Nevada, USA, and the discussions are made on the results by comparing the well-known geology of the area. Also, the result of calcite index is compared with the result of applying well-characterized carbonate index defined for ASTER-TIR to clarify the strong point of each index.