INT. J.

REMOTE SENSING, 20 NOVEMBER, 2003,

VOL. 24, NO. 22, 4311–4323

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 final form 12 July 2000 )

Abstract. The Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radio-

meter (ASTER) is a research facility instrument launched on NASA’s Terra
spacecraft in December 1999. Spectral indices, a kind of orthogonal trans-
formation in the five-dimensional space formed by the five ASTER short-wave-
infrared (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
reflectance values of the five SWIR bands. The transform coefficients 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
reflectance. 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 coefficients, as long as image data
are converted to surface reflectance.

1. Introduction
The Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer
(ASTER) is a research facility instrument launched on NASA’s 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 five bands
in the thermal infrared (TIR) regions respectively (table 1, figure 1). The spectral
bandpasses of the SWIR bands were selected for the purpose of surface minera-
logical 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 classification, 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
4312 Y. Yamaguchi and C. Naito
Table 1. ASTER baseline performance requirements.

Band Spectral Radiometric Absolute Spatial Quantization

Subsystem no. range (mm) resolution accuracy (s) resolution levels
1 0.52–0.60
2 0.63–0.69 NEDrf0.5% f¡4% 15 m 8 bits
VNIR 3N 0.78–0.86
3B 0.78–0.86
4 1.600–1.700 NEDrf0.5%
5 2.145–2.185 NEDrf1.3%
SWIR 6 2.185–2.225 NEDrf1.3% f¡4% 30 m 8 bits
7 2.235–2.285 NEDrf1.3%
8 2.295–2.365 NEDrf1.0%
9 2.360–2.430 NEDrf1.3%
10 8.125–8.475 f3 K(200–240 K)
11 8.475–8.825 f2 K(240–270 K)
TIR 12 8.925–9.275 NEDTf0.3 K f1 K(270–340 K) 90 m 12 bits
13 10.25–10.95 f2 K(340–370 K)
14 10.95–11.65

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 define the transform axes to represent specific
spectral patterns of interest, while PCA determines the transform axes mathema-
tically to maximize variance of multispectral data. PCA can also be used to reduce
dimensionality of multispectral data without significant 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 coefficients change from scene to scene.
In contrast, as spectral indices uses pre-determined transform coefficients, 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 five 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
 Spectral indices for lithologic discrimination and mapping 4313

Figure 1. Spectral bandpasses of the ASTER VNIR and SWIR, and the reflectance 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 silicified, opalized, and argillized.
Dominant minerals are quartz in the silicified 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
4314 Y. Yamaguchi and C. Naito

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 defined 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 specific 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 ð1Þ
where n is the total number of the spectral bands, mAn is the transform coefficient 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 five ASTER SWIR bands in the 2 mm region (bands 5 to 9), the
following five 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
coefficients to surface reflectance datasets. Please note that there are two very
important points in this method (figure 2). One is generation of the transform

Figure 2. Data processing workflow used in this study.

 Spectral indices for lithologic discrimination and mapping 4315

coefficients for the spectral indices as discussed in §3.3 and §3.4, and the other is
reflectance conversion of the dataset before applying the coefficients as discussed in
§3.2. In summary, the transform coefficients of the first axis, Brightness Index, were
determined by PCA to indicate the average brightness of the five 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 (figure 3). The reflectance 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. Reflectance conversion

The DNs of the simulated ASTER dataset were converted to surface reflectance
by using two calibration targets: Stonewall Playa in the eastern part of the image as
a bright target with high reflectance and a Miocene basalt flow in the northern part
of the image as a dark target with low reflectance (figure 4). Spectral reflectance 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
reflectance. By using the linear regression coefficients between the image DNs and
the measured reflectance of the two calibration targets, the whole simulated ASTER
dataset was converted to surface reflectance.
Original DNs of Alunite Hills, three small hills located in the centre left of the
image (figure 4), had a spectral pattern in which band 8 was the highest among the
four SWIR bands in the 2 mm region (figure 5(a)). After reflectance conversion,
band 7 became higher than band 8 (figure 5(c)). This pattern is similar to a simulated
SWIR response from reflectance spectra of alunite (figure 5(b)). Thus, the authors
assumed that the reflectance calibration was performed correctly. The reflectance-

Figure 3. Simulated response patterns of the four typical minerals for the ASTER SWIR
bands.
4316 Y. Yamaguchi and C. Naito

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 (E–W) by
8.3 km (N–S) 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 reflectance spectrum of alunite, and (c) DNs
after reflectance conversion to surface reflectance by using ground targets.

calibrated ASTER simulation dataset was used for further processing in this study.
An ASTER surface reflectance dataset will be provided as an ASTER standard
data product (Yamaguchi et al. 1998), so that we will not need the reflectance
conversion in the future.

3.3. Brightness Index

The transform axis for the Brightness Index was determined by PCA applied to
the reflectance-calibrated ASTER simulation dataset. The first principal component
 Spectral indices for lithologic discrimination and mapping 4317

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 ð2Þ
where X1i represents values of the first 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 coefficients 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 define the
transform coefficients more accurately based upon the real ASTER data products.
However, the authors expect that the transform coefficients 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 defined 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 figure 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 figure 6) or
orthogonal (mineral B’ in figure 6) to the axis of the second spectral index (mineral
A in figure 6). These two approaches have been tested in order to generate the

Table 2. Transform coefficients 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 Band 5 Band 6 Band 7 Band 8 Band 9

Brightness 0.446 0.449 0.453 0.447 0.441

Alunite 20.694 20.219 0.562 0.389 20.048
Kaolinite 0.012 20.763 0.505 0.372 20.124
Calcite 0.156 0.522 20.388 20.647 0.365
Montmorillonite 0.696 0.069 20.364 0.185 20.589

Table 3. Transform coefficients 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 Band 5 Band 6 Band 7 Band 8 Band 9

Brightness 0.446 0.449 0.453 0.447 0.441

Alunite 20.694 20.219 0.562 0.389 20.048
Kaolinite 0.528 20.795 0.212 0.174 20.119
Calcite 20.087 20.212 0.322 20.659 0.640
Montmorillonite 0.138 0.284 20.134 0.499 20.796
4318 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 coefficients 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 significantly 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 reflectance in band 7, an
intermediate one for band 8, and low for the other bands (figure 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 reflectance patter (figure 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 (figure 7). The Calcite and Montmorillonite
Indices are the fourth and fifth, respectively.

Figure 7. Relation of the transform axes of the spectral indices generated in this study.
 Spectral indices for lithologic discrimination and mapping 4319

The transform coefficients 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 coefficients 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 coefficients to the reflectance-calibrated ASTER simulation dataset of
Cuprite. Differences of the resultant spectral index images generated by these
two different sets of transform coefficients are discussed in the following
chapter.

4. Results and discussion

Based on the simulated ASTER dataset, the five 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 (figure 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 alunite-
bearing 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 (figure 8), which were generated by different sets of
transform coefficients (tables 2 and 3). The upper image in figure 8 was generated by
using the transform coefficients in table 2, that is, the Kaolinite Index axis non-
orthogonal to the Alunite Index axis. The lower image was generated by using the
transform coefficients 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 influenced by alunite distribution, as
the response patterns of alunite and kaolinite are somewhat similar (figure 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 reflectance difference
between the maximum and minimum is 11% for alunite and 8% for kaolinite,
respectively (figure 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 defined by transform axes orthogonal to each other in order to
enhance spectral response patterns of different minerals. Specifically, we should use
the transform coefficient shown in table 3, not those shown in table 2.
The transform coefficients for the Calcite and Montmorillonite Indices were
4320 Y. Yamaguchi and C. Naito

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 fifth axes respectively. We can recognize a large area with
high Calcite Index values in the south-west part of the Calcite Index image
(figure 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
 Spectral indices for lithologic discrimination and mapping 4321

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 (figure 9). It is also consistent
with the field 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 (figure 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.
4322 Y. Yamaguchi and C. Naito

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 coefficients 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 reflectance spectra of typical minerals. We
can generate a spectral index image by simply applying the transform coefficients to
reflectance-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
coefficients. In other words, data processing for spectral indices is not scene dependent,
as long as image data are converted to surface reflectance. It can also greatly reduce the
processing effort required. It is planned that surface reflectance 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 reflectance including atmospheric correction, since an
atmospherically corrected ASTER surface reflectance data product can be obtained
routinely. We can simply apply the transform coefficients to the ASTER surface
reflectance 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
 Spectral indices for lithologic discrimination and mapping 4323

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

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