Investigation of the Vegetation Effect on the Surveying and Mineral Exploration Using Hyperspectrsl Data

The presence of dry and green vegetation in pixels containing spectral information is essential in geological and mineralogical studies. Thus, retrieving sub-pixel information, including estimation of a mineral’s quantity in a single hyperspectral RS image pixel is very important. In this study, the vegetation corrected continuum depth (VCCD) method was trained and its results were validated using spectrometry, laboratory mineralogy, and Hyperion image to reduce the effect of vegetation on the estimation of minerals. The study was conducted in Oghlansar region located in northwestern Iran. SAVI and absorption depth (2102 μm) were used for the estimation of the green and dry vegetation, respectively. Meanwhile, the trained models do not have a high sensitivity to the presence of noise in the spectrum and vegetation type changes. The correction of continuum removed band depth (CRBD) analysis was possible up to 60% for maximum green vegetation cover threshold, 56-60% for dry vegetation, and 72-76% for both dry and green vegetation. Effect of noise and different vegetation types on model capability was examined and the result shows that VCCD is not highly sensitive to random noise and changes in vegetation types. After correction of the coefficients and confirmation of its efficiency, the model was used to correct CRBD and reduce the effect of vegetation on Hyperion image. In the estimation of kaolinite and muscovite, the presence of green and dry vegetation led to the underestimation of the minerals present in the study area. The results showed that VCCD was able to increase the prediction accuracy (R2) by 0.25 and 0.13 and reduce RMSE by 0.0108 and 0.125 for kaolinite and muscovite, respectively.