Lecture 4

GIE-201
Introduction to RS and GIS
(02+01)

Instructor: Madiha Razzaq

Institute of Environmental Sciences and Engineering (IESE)

School of Civil and Environmental Engineering (SCEE)
National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST) Islamabad, Pakistan
 Learning Outcome
At the end of this lecture students will be able to understand
✓ Energy Interaction with target

✓ Types of interactions

✓ Concept of spectral reflectance curves

Oct 5 , 2022 GIE-201 Introduction to RS and GIS 2

 Elements of RS Process
1. Energy Source or Illumination
2. Radiation and the atmosphere
3. Interaction with the target
4. Recording of the energy by sensor
5. Transmission, reception and
processing
6. Interpretation and analysis
7. Application

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 Energy Interaction with Target
✓ Radiation from the sun, when incident upon the
earth’s surface is either
- reflected by the surface
- transmitted into the surface
- absorbed and emitted by the surface

✓ Upon interaction, EMR experiences changes in

- Magnitude
- Direction
- Wavelength
- Polarization and phase

✓ Changes in EMR detected by sensor give

The proportions of each will depend on the
- Spatial information (size, shape, orientation) wavelength of the energy ,the material and condition
- Spectral information (tone, color, spectral signature) of the feature and angle of illumination.

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 Spectral Bands
Remote sensors are sensitive to range of wavelengths called spectral bands not
just to one particular
✓ Reflective band (0.3 μm to 3 μm )
- radiation sensed by the sensor is that due to the EMR reflected by the earth’s surface
✓ Intermediate band (3 μm to 5.5 μm)
- Both reflection and self emissions
✓ Thermal infrared band (8 μm and 14 μm)
- Energy sensed for remote sensing is due to thermal emission from the earth’s surface
✓ Microwave band – the sensor is radar
- Active sensor: provides its own source
- Passive sensor: microwave radiometers

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 Reflection
✓ Reflection occurs when radiation "bounces" off the target
(non transparent) and redirected

✓ In RS, we are most interested in the reflected radiation

✓ The reflection intensity depends on

- surface refractive index: ratio of the speed of light in a
vacuum to that in a second medium of greater density.
- absorption coefficient: the ratio of the quantity of radiant
energy absorbed by a body to the total quantity of radiant
energy incident upon it
- the angles of incidence and reflection

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 Types of Reflection
- Specular reflection
• occurs when a surface is smooth and almost all of the energy is
directed away from the surface in a single direction

• Angle of incidence = Angle of reflection

• e.g., reflection from water surface, glass house roof, mirror, smooth Diffused Reflection
metal surface

- Diffuse reflection
• occurs when the surface is rough, and the energy is reflected
almost uniformly in all directions.

• e.g. grassy surface

Specular reflection
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 Types of Reflection (Cont.)
✓ Type of reflection depends upon surface roughness relative to incident
wavelength
✓ Diffuse reflection: if λ <<< particle size
- e.g., fine-grained sand would appear smooth to long wavelength microwaves
but would appear quite rough to the visible wavelengths.
Specular reflection
✓ Earth surface features lie somewhere between perfectly specular or
perfectly diffuse reflectors

Diffused Reflection
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 Types of Reflection (Cont.)

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 Reflectance
✓ Reflectance is expressed as relative brightness of a surface as measured for a
specific wavelength interval

Observed brightness
Reflectance =
Irradiance
✓ Dimensionless number (between 0 and 1), expressed as %
✓ In RS, brightness of surface is represented by reflectance not irradiance

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 Spectral Reflectance
Spectral reflectance [ρ(λ)], is the ratio of reflected energy to incident energy as a
function of wavelength
ρ(λ) = [ER(λ) / EI(λ)] x 100
Where,
- ρ(λ) = Spectral reflectance (reflectivity) at a particular wavelength.
- ER(λ) = Energy of wavelength reflected from object
- EI(λ) = Energy of wavelength incident upon the object

✓ Also known as albedo of the surface

✓ Responsible for color and tone in photographic image of an object

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 Spectral Reflectance Curves
✓ The plot between ρ(λ) and λ is called a
Spectral reflectance curve (SRC)
✓ The curve is unique for every object or
material type
✓ The spectral response patterns are
averaged to get a generalized form,
which is called generalized spectral
response pattern for the object
concerned

Reflectance curves for 3 earth surface features, healthy

vegetation, dry bare soil and clear lake water.

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 Spectral Signature
✓ Spectral signature is a term used for unique spectral response pattern, which is
characteristic of a terrain feature.
✓ The values of the spectral reflectance of objects averaged over different, well-defined
wavelength intervals comprise the spectral signature of the objects or features by which
they can be distinguished.

✓ Help in identification of different kinds of crops, forests, minerals etc.

▪ Vegetated vs non vegetated areas

▪ Diseased vs healthy vegetation

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 Spectral Signature

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 Spectral Reflectance of Vegetation
✓ Vegetation may reflect up to 50% of incident light
✓ Chlorophyll strongly absorbs radiation in the red and blue λs but reflects at green λs

Leaves appear greenest in summers compared to autumn

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 Spectral Reflectance of Vegetation

✓ The amount of energy reflected for a

particular wavelength depends on
▪ Leaf pigmentation
▪ Leaf thickness and composition (cell
structure),
▪ The amount of water in the leaf tissue
o more water less reflectance
▪ Stage of crop???

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 Spectral Reflectance of Vegetation
✓ Reflectance characteristics of vegetation depend on the properties of the leaves, e.g.
- Orientation of leaf
- Structure of the leaf canopy

✓ From the reflected NIR, the density of the vegetation canopy can thus be interpreted.

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 Spectral Reflectance of Vegetation

Measurements in the IR region can be used to discriminate the tree or vegetation species
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 Spectral Reflectance of Vegetation

✓ Reflectance in NIR is highest

✓ Reflection depends upon
- Leaf Development
- Cell Structure

✓ Measuring and monitoring the NIR

reflectance indicates plant health condition
✓ Healthy leaves are excellent diffuse
reflectors of NIR

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 Spectral Reflectance of Water
✓ Water has comparatively low reflectance (10% of incident energy)
✓ The spectral responses vary with
- Wavelength of incident light
• Reflect energy in visible range and little in NIR
• Longer λs visible are more absorbed by water
- Physical condition of water
• Solid phase: good reflection at all visible λs
• Liquid phase: less reflection in visible portion
- Physical and chemical characteristics of water
• Turbid vs clear
Water looks blue or blue green

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 Spectral Reflectance of Water
✓ Turbid water achieves the highest reflectance.
✓ Water containing plants has a pronounced reflectance peak for green light because of the
chlorophyll of the plants.

Beyond 1.2 µm all energy is absorbed

a) Ocean water
b) Turbid water
c)Water with chlorophyll

Water may look darker if viewed at red or NIR λs. WHY???/

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 Spectral Reflectance of Bare Soil

✓ Factors influencing reflectance bare soil are

- Soil color
- Organic matter content
- Soil texture (proportion of sand, silt, and clay)
- Moisture content
- Presence of minerals
- Surface roughness

✓ These factors are complex, variable, and

interrelated.

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 Spectral Reflectance of Bare Soil
Soil Moisture and Texture
✓ Soil moisture content is strongly related to the
soil texture
λ
- Clay hold more water tightly than sand λ
s
s
✓ Soil moisture decreases reflectance
✓ Clay spectra: more prominent water absorption
λ
bands than sand spectra s
✓ In the absence of water coarse textured soils
appear darker than fine textured soils.

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 Spectral Reflectance of Bare Soil

The iron-dominated soil (e) has quite a different reflectance curve,

which can be explained by the iron absorption dominating at longer λs

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 How SRCs are Collected
✓ We can establish SRC for each material type of
interest
✓ Reflectance measurements can be carried out in a
laboratory or in the field using a field spectrometer.
✓ SRCs are typically collected for the optical part of
the EMS
✓ Storage of typical curves in 'spectral libraries’

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 Significance of SRCs
✓ Comparison of response patterns of different features at various wavelengths
enables us to distinguish between them
✓ SRC helps in selection of a particular wavelength band for RS data acquisition
✓ Same response of different targets
- Water and vegetation reflect similarly in visible but separable in IR

✓ Variable response of same target

- Time(e.g. "greenness" of leaves) and location

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 Transmission
✓ Transmission of radiation occurs when radiation passes through a substance
without significant attenuation.

Transmitted radiation
Transmittance (𝜏) =
Incident radiation

✓ During transmission, velocity and wavelength of the EMR

changes, whereas the frequency remains same.
✓ Water bodies can transmit significant amount of EMR
✓ Transmittance vary with incoming wavelength
- Plant leaves are opaque to visible radiations and
transmit energy in IR
Incident radiation may be completely
transmitted (left), or selectively
transmitted (right). The object on the
right would act as a. yellow ("minus
blue") filter, as it would transmit all
visible radiation except for blue light

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 Absorption
✓ Absorption (A) occurs when radiation (energy) is absorbed into the target

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