Reflectance spectra and optical depth of some sandy soils

Melvin B. Satterwhite; C. Scott Allen

doi:10.1117/12.603663

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1 June 2005 Reflectance spectra and optical depth of some sandy soils

Melvin B. Satterwhite; C. Scott Allen

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Proceedings Volume 5806, Algorithms and Technologies for Multispectral, Hyperspectral, and Ultraspectral Imagery XI; (2005) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.603663
Event: Defense and Security, 2005, Orlando, Florida, United States

Abstract

Soil surface materials often originate from different sources and are spectrally variable. Their presence will alter soil spectral features and mask the nature of the underlying soil surface horizon. The upper-most, thin, granular layer determines a soil sample's spectra. This study's objective was to characterize the optical depth of some sandy soils and their relationship to spectral reflectance from 0.35-2.50mm. The reflectance-optical depth relationships were determined for four, air-dried, granular, sieved samples, with particle sizes of 1.0-2.0, 0.5-1.0, 0.25-0.5, 0.125-0.25, 0.075-0.125, or <0.075mm. Each particle size separate has convergent reflectance spectra associated with an optical depth that ranged from 0.2 to 8.1mm. The optical depth was greater for larger sized particles than for smaller sized particles. Normalizing the sample depth by the mean particle diameter of each sieve fraction found the optical depth-spectral feature relationships were determined by a layer of granular materials that was 5-8 particles thick. Three non-sieved, well-graded composite soils were also evaluated and their optical depths ranged from 1.4 to 3.9mm. These non-sieved composite soils include a medium fused-silica sand, a medium calcareous sand, and a medium gypsum sand.

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Melvin B. Satterwhite and C. Scott Allen "Reflectance spectra and optical depth of some sandy soils", Proc. SPIE 5806, Algorithms and Technologies for Multispectral, Hyperspectral, and Ultraspectral Imagery XI, (1 June 2005); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.603663