REMOTE SENSING

(GSS612/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)
- Some fraction (up to 100%) of the radiation penetrates into certain surface
materials such as water/cloud .
- If the material is transparent and thin in one dimension, normally passes
through, generally with some dilumination.
Absorptance (α)
- Some radiation is absorbed through electron or moleculer reactions within the
medium.
- A portion of this energy is then re-emitted.
- Usually at longer wavelengths, and some of it remains and heats the target
Reflectance (r)

- Some radiation (commonly 100%) reflects (moves away from the target) and
scatters away from the target at various angles.
- Depending on the surface roughness and the angle of incidence of the rays.

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 a function of the surface
roughness of the object.

are flat/smooth surfaces that

manifest mirror like reflections
Specular
reflectors
where the angle of reflection
equals the angle of the incidence
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

The configuration of spectral

reflectance curves gives the
insight into the spectral
characteristic of an object

and

has strong influence on the

choice of wavelength regions
in which remote sensing data
are acquired for a particular
applications.
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.
Chlorophyll absorbs energy in wavelength bands 0.45 and 0.67
m

Vegetation appears green

Very high absorption in blue and red by plant leaves

High reflectance of green energy

 Con’t.
At 0.7 m (NIR), the
reflectance of vegetation
increases dramatically -
referred to as the red edge

in the range of 0.7 –

1.3 m, plant leaf
reflects 40 – 50%
energy incident upon it

most of remaining
energy is transmitted
since absorption is
minimal (about 5%).
 Con’t.
Chlorophyll is the major pigment.
Absorbs in the red but not much in the
Why do green
leaves
Related to structure of chloroplasts
appear
green? i- Contains parallel layers of grana &
two intergrana
reasons:
ii- Chlorophyll stored in the grana

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:

Most important is that multiple refractions occur at

i. the interfaces of cell walls and the intercellular
spaces in the mesophyll.

ii. Causes light to bounce, so a good portion of it gets

bounced towards the sensor.

Other components, especially cellular crystals and

iii. proteins reflect small amount of NIR light (about 8%
total)
 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

Chlorophyll primarily
a. absorbs light in the violet to
blue and red wavelengths.

Green light is not readily

absorbed and is reflected
b. thus giving the leaf a green
color appearance. 

The internal cell wall

structure of the mesophyll
c. causes high reflectance of
near infrared radiation.

Chlorophyll is transparent
d. to near infrared radiation.
 The leaf already reflects 40
The main reasons – 60% of the incident NIR
that leaves reflect so energy from the spongy
mesophyll
much NIR energy
are: The remaining 45 – 50%
of the energy penetrates
(i.e. transmitted through
the leaf and 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.

Soil moisture content

(proportion of sand,
Factors Soil texture silt and clay)
affecting
soil Soil surface roughness
reflectance
Presence of iron oxide

Organic matter content

 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

Well drained
type Relatively
Soil Eg: Coarse,
moisture (Low high
sandy soils
moisture reflectance
content is
content)
strongly Poor drained
related to type Relatively
the soil Eg: Fine-
(High low
texture: textured soils
moisture reflectance
content)
 Con’t.

Surface roughness
Other factors that
reduce soil Content of organic matter
reflectance are
Presence of iron oxide
(also at least decrease visible
wavelenght)
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:
The reflectance from a water body can stem from an
interaction with the water’s surface (specular reflection)

with material suspended in the water

and/or with the bottom of the depression containing the

water body.
 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 and therefore

the turbidity of water changes reflectance-
(because of the presence of changes
organic or inorganic materials), dramatically.
 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:

increase water reflectance in green

decrease water reflectance in blue

. 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.
 Assignment 1
 Refer to the 1st slide @ Video of the disaster,
1. Explain the benefits of remote sensing in monitoring
the phenomenon?
2. How the reflectance in remote sensing can describes
the changes happen in the disaster scene?
(Your answer should be based on your understanding)