Toward Circumventing Collinearity Effect in Nonlinear Spectral Mixture Analysis by Using a Spectral Shape Measure

Nonlinear spectral mixture analysis (NSMA) is a widely used unmixing algorithm. It can fit the mixed spectra adequately, but collinearity effect among true and virtual endmembers will decrease the retrieval accuracies of endmember fractions. Use of linear spectral mixture analysis (LSMA) can effectively reduce the degree of collinearity in the NSMA. However, the inadequate modeling of mixed spectra in the LSMA will also yield retrieval errors, especially for the cases where the multiple scattering is not ignorable. In this study, a generalized spectral unmixing scheme based on a spectral shape measure, i.e. spectral information divergence (SID), was applied to overcome the limitations of the conventional NSMA and LSMA. Two simulation experiments were undertaken to test the performances of the SID, LSMA and NSMA in the mixture cases of treesoil, tree-concrete and tree-grass. Results demonstrated that the SID yielded higher accuracies than the LSMA for almost all the mixture cases in this study. On the other hand, performances of the SID method were comparable with the NSMA for the tree-soil and tree-grass mixture cases, but significantly better than the NSMA for the tree-concrete mixture case. All the results indicate that the SID method is fairly effective to circumvent collinearity effect within the NSMA, and compensate the inadequate modeling of mixed spectra within the LSMA.

Unsupervised linear spectral mixture analysis with AVIRIS data

A new algorithm for unsupervised hyperspectral data unmixing is investigated, which includes a modified minimum noise fraction （MNF） transformation and independent component analysis （ICA）. The modified MNF transformation is used to reduce noise and remove correlation between neighboring bands. Then the ICA is applied to unmix hyperspectral images, and independent endmembers are obtained from unmixed images by using post-processing which includes image segmentation based on statistical histograms and morphological operations. The experimental results demonstrate that this algorithm can identify endmembers resident in mixed pixels. Meanwhile, the results show the high computational efficiency of the modified MNF transformation. The time consumed by the modified method is almost one fifth of the traditional MNF transformation.

Mapping impervious surfaces with a hierarchical spectral mixture analysis incorporating endmember spatial distribution

Impervious surface mapping is essential for urban environmental studies.Spectral Mixture Analysis(SMA)and its extensions are widely employed in impervious surface estimation from medium-resolution images.For SMA,inappropriate endmember combinations and inadequate endmember classes have been recognized as the primary reasons for estimation errors.Meanwhile,the spectral-only SMA,without considering urban spatial distribution,fails to consider spectral variability in an adequate manner.The lack of endmember class diversity and their spatial variations lead to over/underestimation.To mitigate these issues,this study integrates a hierarchical strategy and spatially varied endmember spectra to map impervious surface abundance,taking Wuhan and Wuzhou as two study areas.Specifically,the piecewise convex multiple-model endmember detection algorithm is applied to automatically hierarch-ize images into three regions,and distinct endmember combinations are independently developed in each region.Then,spatially varied endmember spectra are synthesized through neighboring spectra using the distance-based weight.Comparative analysis indicates that the proposed method achieves better performance than Hierarchical SMA and Fixed Four-endmembers SMA in terms of MAE,SE,and RMSE.Further analysis suggests that the hierarch-ical strategy can expand endmember class types and considerably improve the performance for the study areas in general,specifically in less developed areas.Moreover,we find that spatially varied endmember spectra facilitate the reduction of heterogeneous surface material variations and achieve the improved performance in developed areas.

Detecting soil salinity with arid fraction integrated index and salinity index in feature space using Landsat TM imagery

Modeling soil salinity in an arid salt-affected ecosystem is a difficult task when using remote sensing data because of the complicated soil context （vegetation cover, moisture, surface roughness, and organic matter） and the weak spectral features of salinized soil. Therefore, an index such as the salinity index （SI） that only uses soil spectra may not detect soil salinity effectively and quantitatively. The use of vegetation reflectance as an indirect indicator can avoid limitations associated with the direct use of soil reflectance. The normalized difference vegetation index （NDVI）, as the most common vegetation index, was found to be responsive to salinity but may not be available for retrieving sparse vegetation due to its sensitivity to background soil in arid areas. Therefore, the arid fraction integrated index （AFⅡ） was created as supported by the spectral mixture analysis （SMA）, which is more appropriate for analyzing variations in vegetation cover （particularly halophytes） than NDVI in the study area. Using soil and vegetation separately for detecting salinity perhaps is not feasible. Then, we developed a new and operational model, the soil salinity detecting model （SDM） that combines AFⅡ and SI to quantitatively estimate the salt content in the surface soil. SDMs, including SDM1 and SDM2, were constructed through analyzing the spatial characteristics of soils with different salinization degree by integrating AFⅡ and SI using a scatterplot. The SDMs were then compared to the combined spectral response index （COSRI） from field measurements with respect to the soil salt content. The results indicate that the SDM values are highly correlated with soil salinity, in contrast to the performance of COSRI. Strong exponential relationships were observed between soil salinity and SDMs （R2〉0.86, RMSE〈6.86） compared to COSRI （R2=0.71, RMSE=16.21）. These results suggest that the feature space related to biophysical properties combined with AFII and SI can effectively provide information on soil salinity.

Improvement of Urban Impervious Surface Estimation in Shanghai Using Landsat7 ETM+ Data

This paper explores the potential to improve the impervious surface estimation accuracy using a multi-stage approach on the basis of vegetation-impervious surface-soil (V-I-S) model. In the first stage of Spectral Mixture Analysis (SMA) process, pixel purity index, a quantitative index for defining endmember quality, and a 3-dimensional endmember selection method were applied to refining endmembers. In the second stage, instead of obtaining impervious surface fraction by adding high and low albedo fractions directly, a linear regression model was built between impervious surface and high/low albedo using a random sampling method. The urban impervious surface distribution in the urban central area of Shanghai was predicted by the linear regression model. Estimation accuracy of spectral mixture analysis and impervious surface fraction were assessed using root mean square (RMS) and color aerial photography respectively. In comparison with three different research methods, this improved estimation method has a higher overall accuracy than traditional Linear Spectral Mixture Analysis (LSMA) method and the normalized SMA model both in root mean square error (RMSE) and standard error (SE). However, the model has a tendency to overestimate the impervious surface distribution.

Carbon uptake and change in net primary productivity of oasis-desert ecosystem in arid western China with remote sensing technique

Arid and semi-arid ecosystems exhibit a spatially complex biogeophysical structure. According to arid western special climate-vegetation characters, the fractional cover of photosynthetic vegetation （PV）, non-photosynthetic vegetation （NPV）, bare soil and water are unmixed, using the remote sensing spectral mixture analysis. We try the method to unmix the canopy funation structure of arid land cover in order to avoid the differentiation of regional vegetation system and the disturbance of environmental background. We developed a modified production efficiency model NPP-PEM appropriate for the arid area at regional scale based on the concept of radiation use efficiency. This model refer to the GLO-PEM and CASA model was driven with remotely sensed observations, and calculates not just the conversion efficiency of absorbed photosynthetically active radiation but also the carbon fluxes that determine net primary productivity （NPP）. We apply and validate the model in the Kaxger and Yarkant river basins in arid western China. The NPP of the study area in 1992 and 1998 was estimated based on the NPP-PEM model. The results show that the improved PEM model, considering the photosynthetical activation of heterogeneous functional vegetation, is in good agreement with field measurements and the existing literature. An accurate agreement （R2= 0.85, P〈0.001） between the estimates and the ground-based measurement was obtained. The spatial distribution of mountain-oasis-desert ecosystem shows an obvious heterogeneous carbon uptake. The results are applicable to arid ecosystem studies ranging from characterizing carbon cycle, carbon flux over arid areas to monitoring change in mountain-oasis-desert productivity, stress and management.

Definition of water exchange zone between the Bohai Sea and Yellow Sea and the effect of winter gale on it

The marine dynamic environment of the Bohai Sea and the Yellow Sea in the winter of 2006 is simulated by the Regional Ocean Modelling System（ROMS） marine numerical model. Using the simulated temperature and salinity, the water exchange zone between the Bohai Sea and Yellow Sea is defined through the Spectral Mixture Model（SMM）. The influence of winter gales on the water exchange is also discussed. It is found that the Yellow Sea water masses in winter are distributed in a ＂tongue＂ shape in the Bohai Strait region, the water exchange zone presents a zonal distribution along the margin of the ＂tongue＂, with a tendency of running from northwest to southeast, and the water exchange is intensified at the tip of the ＂tongue＂. Besides, the coastal area in the northernmost Yellow Sea does not participate in the water exchange between the Bohai Sea and Yellow Sea. The result shows that the winter gale events play a role in enhancing the water exchange. It is specifically shown by the facts： the Yellow Sea warm current is enhanced to intrude the Bohai Sea by the gale process; the water exchange zone extends into the Bohai Sea; the water exchange belt in the southern part becomes wider; the mixture zone of river runoff with the Bohai Sea water upon its entry is enlarged and shifts northwards. Within two days after the gale process, the exchange zone retreats toward the Yellow Sea and the exchange zone resulted from the Huanghe River（Yellow River） runoff also shrinks back shoreward.