REMOTE SENSING

(GLS612/SUG656/SUG556)

LECTURE 4:
SPECTRAL RESPONSE PATTERN
(SURFACE INTERACTION)
Before and After
Disaster
 Light interaction with a surface

What really happens as light interacts with a surface?

 Surface interactions

3 types of interaction:

Reflection

Absorption

Transmission
 Interrelationship among these 3
energy interaction as:

EI (λ)=ER (λ)+EA (λ)+ET

(λ)
Where:
EI (λ)= incident energy
ER (λ)= reflected energy
EA (λ)= absorbed energy
ET (λ)= transmitted energy
With all energy components being function of a
wavelength λ.
Upon striking the land or ocean surface and atmosphere targets, such
as air, moisture and clouds, the incoming radiation (irradiance Φ)
partitions into three models of energy –interaction response:
Transmittance
(T)

Absorptance (α)

Reflectance (r)

These three parameters are dimensionless numbers (between 0 and 1) but are
commonly expressed as percentages.
Surface Interactions (cont.)
 Wavelength dependency

Wavelength dependency

- means that even within a given feature type, the

proportion of reflected, absorbed, and transmitted
energy will vary at different wavelengths.

Therefore:
Two features may be distinguishable in one spectral range
and very different in another wavelength band
 Law of Reflection

The geometric manner in which an object reflects

energy is also an important consideration.
This factor is primarily aSpecular
function of the surface
reflectors
roughness of the object.

where the angle of

reflection equals the
angle of the incidence

are flat/smooth
surfaces that manifest
mirror like reflections
Diffuse (or Lambertion) reflectors are rough surfaces that
reflect uniformly in all directions.
Light incident upon a rough and a smooth surface.

A dry asphalt When wet, water fill in the

roadway diffuse crevices, resulting in specular
incident light reflection and a glare
Specular reflection

The water (if calm)

provides for the
specular reflection
of light from the
subject of the
photograph.
 Spectral Signature

and
Spectral reflectance of various
Earth materials
 Properties of light important in
remote sensing

- Scattered by atmosphere
- Illuminates material in shadow not see
in longer wavelengths
- Best water penetration for clear water
- Water penetration for clear water
- Contrast between clear and turbid water
- Discrimination of oil and water due t surface
tension effect
- Reflectance peak of vegetation in Visible region
- Internal leaf tissues strongly reflective (decrease as moisture stress
increase)
- Shoreline mapping
- Biomass content
- Reflectance of camo point almost equal to leaves
- Difference in spectra of some evergreen and deciduous vegetation
- Discrimination of oil on water.
- Moisture content of soil and vegetation
- Limited cloud penetration
- Contrast between vegetation types

- Solar reflectance from specular metal roof buildings

- Chlorophyll absorption band for vegetation
discrimination
- Limited water penetration (8 m)
- Reflectance of high IR reflecting paint different from
leaves
- Carotene and xanthophylls reflectance (dead foliage)
- Heat emission and stream reflectance over smoke stack
and fire
- Smoke penetration
- Daytime reflectance emitted heat and nighttime heat
-Thermal analysis
- Some vegetation density and cover type
- Thermal inertia = Diurnal and seasonal
Spectral reflectance of vegetation
Spectral reflectance curves for healthy green vegetation
almost always manifest the ‘peak-and-valley’
configuration.
 Con’t.
At 0.7 m (NIR), the
reflectance of vegetation
increases dramatically -
referred to as the red edge

in the range of most of remaining

energy is
0.7 – 1.3 m,
transmitted since
plant leaf reflects
absorption is
40 – 50% energy minimal (about
incident upon it 5%).
 Con’t.
Why do leaves
appear green? two
reasons:

Related to structure
of chloroplasts i- Contains parallel layers of grana & intergrana

ii- Chlorophyll stored in the grana

Chlorophyll is the major
pigment. Absorbs in the red
but not much in the green

iii- Grana 500 – 600 nm long, same wavelength as

green light

iv- When light encounters objects with a length

similar to the wavelength, light is scattered
 Spectral reflectance of green leaves (cont.)

Near Infrared
50 – 80% of light reflected
A lot travel through the leaf and has the opportunity
to interact with lower leaves due to:

i.
ii.
iii.
 Con’t.

Although the epidermis is fairly transparent, it has

been observed that quite a bit of the reflected NIR
exits out of open stomata.
Therefore, it is advantageous to image a scene
when the stomas are open
Interaction Between Plants and EMR

a.

b.

c.

d.
The main reasons that leaves reflect so much NIR energy are:

The leaf already reflects 40 – 60% of The remaining 45 – 50% of the energy
the incident NIR energy from the penetrates (i.e. transmitted through the leaf and
spongy mesophyll can be reflected once again by leaves below it.
What
What happen
happens when
when plant
a plantdie?
dies?

Can spectral reflectance

detect the changes in
plant life cycle?
 Spectral reflectance of
Vegetation, soil, and water
 Soil curve

Soil curve considerably less “peak & valley” variation

in reflectance
That is the factors that influence soil reflectance act
over less specific spectral bands.

(proportion of sand,
silt and clay)
 Con’t.
These factors are complex, variable and interrelated
The presence of moisture in soil will decrease its
reflectance.
As with vegetation, this effect is greatest in the
water absorption band at about 1.4, 1.9, and 2.7 µm
Soil moisture content is strongly related to the soil texture:

Well drained type Poor drained type

(Low moisture content) (High moisture content)
 Con’t.
Other factors that
reduce soil
reflectance are

Presence of iron oxide

(also at least decrease
visible wavelenght)

Content of Surface
organic matter roughness
Soil water content: The spectral
response of soil is affected by water
content (moisture content). The
reflectance of dry soil is more than
wet soil. As the amount of water is
soil increases the reflectance
decreases and vice versa. The curve
shows two water absorption bands at
1.4 and 1.9 μm.
Soil organic matter: Soil organic
matter is dark and its presence will
decrease the reflectance up to an
organic matter content of around 4
-5%. When the organic matter content
of the soil is greater than 5%, the soil
is ‘black’ and any further increase in
organic matter will have little effect
on reflectance.

Soil texture: The look and feel of a

soil is referred to as soil texture and is
determined by the size and type of
particles that make up the soil. Fine
soils give higher reflectance than
coarser soils. For example silt gives
higher reflectance than sand.
 Water curve
 Water provides a semi-transparent medium for the electromagnetic
radiation. Thus the electromagnetic radiations get reflected, transmitted
or absorbed in water.
 The spectral responses vary with the wavelength of the radiation and
the physical and chemical characteristics of the water. Spectral
reflectance of water varies with its physical condition.
 In the solid phase (ice or snow) water give good reflection at all visible
wavelengths. On the other hand, reflection in the visible region is poor
in case of water in liquid stage.
 Water in the liquid form shows high reflectance in the visible region
between 0.4μm and 0.6μm. Wavelengths beyond 0.7μm are
completely absorbed. Thus clear water appears in darker tone in the
NIR image.
 Water curve

For water, energy absorption at NIR wavelengths &

beyond
In short, water absorb energy in these wavelength
Locating/delineating water bodies in remote sensing
data are done most easily in NIR because this
absorption property
However , various conditions of water bodies
manifest themselves primarily in visible
wavelengths.
The energy-matter interactions at these
wavelengths are very complex and depend on a
number of interrelated factors.
 Cont’
Eg:
 Cont’
Clear water absorb relatively little energy having
wavelength less than about 0.6 µm
High transmittance typifies these wavelength with a
maximum in the blue-green portion of the spectrum.

However, as
the turbidity of water changes (because of and therefore reflectance-changes
the presence of organic or inorganic dramatically.
materials),
 Cont’
Eg: water containing large quantities of suspended
sediments resulting from soil erosion.
For affected area:
normally have much higher
visible reflectance

For other clear waters in the

same geographic area:
low visible reflectance
 Cont’
Eg: the reflectance of water changes with the
chlorophyll concentration involved.
Increase chlorophyll in water tend to:

. These changes have been used to monitor the

presence and estimate the concentration of algae
via remote sensing data.
 Example
The algorithm equation
model used for
Chlorophyll A parameter
is based on Karaoui et
al., (2018) which is:

0.0023*B03 – 0.0084*
B04 + 0.010*B05 –
0.0036*B06 + 0.903
Total Suspended Solid:
-1037.79 – [74.63 x (Blue (B2) / NIR (B5))] –
[8.86 x (Green (B3) / NIR (B5))] + [517.91 x
(Red (B4) / NIR (B5))] – [799.23 x (NIR (B5) /
Blue (B2))] + [127.76 x (NIR (B5) / Green
(B3))] + [1100.92 x (NIR (B5) / Red (B4))]
(2.1)
 Variation in the spectral reflectance in the visible
region can be used to differentiate shallow and
deep waters, clear and turbid waters, as well as
rough and smooth water bodies.
 Reflectance in the NIR range is generally used for
delineating the water bodies and also to study the
algal boom and phytoplankton concentration in
water.