An Introduction to Hyperspectral Imaging Technology
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An Introduction to Hyperspectral Imaging Technology Table of Contents 1.0 Introduction .......................................................................................................................................... 1 2.0 Electromagnetic Radiation ................................................................................................................ 1 2.1 The Electromagnetic Spectrum ........................................................................................................ 3 2.2 Electromagnetic Interactions with Matter ................................................................................... 4 3.0 Spectroscopy ........................................................................................................................................ 7 3.1 Refraction and the Prism ................................................................................................................... 7 3.2 Measuring the Spectrum .................................................................................................................... 8 3.3 Reflectance and Spectral Signatures ............................................................................................ 10 3.4 Reflectance and Reflection .............................................................................................................. 12 4.0 Remote Sensing ................................................................................................................................. 13 4.1 Overview .............................................................................................................................................. 14 4.2 Illumination and Atmospheric Scattering .................................................................................. 14 4.3 Atmospheric Absorption .................................................................................................................. 16 4.4 Reflection .............................................................................................................................................. 18 4.5 Atmospheric Absorption and Scattering .................................................................................... 19 4.6 Sensor Effects ...................................................................................................................................... 20 4.7 Spectral Signatures in the Field ..................................................................................................... 21 4.8 General Environmental Effects ...................................................................................................... 27 4.9 Changing Reflectance ........................................................................................................................ 31 4.10 Summary ............................................................................................................................................... 31 5.0 Hyperspectral Imagery (HIS) ........................................................................................................... 31 6.0 High Resolution Imagery (HRI) ....................................................................................................... 36 7.0 Viewing a Target ................................................................................................................................ 37 8.0 Current Applications of Hyperspectral Imagery ......................................................................... 38 9.0 Summary ............................................................................................................................................. 41 Page ii This document is not export controlled. Use or disclosure of this information is subject to the restrictions on the Title Page of this document. Copyright 2014 Exelis Inc. All Right Reserved An Introduction to Hyperspectral Imaging Technology 1.0 Introduction This document is provided by Exelis to introduce hyperspectral imaging (HSI) technology. Some present-day applications of HSI technology are discussed. Before getting into the HSI technology, we need to address some of its underlying concepts. In the next few sections, we will lead up to HSI by covering the following topics: Electromagnetic Radiation The Electromagnetic Spectrum Electromagnetic Radiation Interactions with Matter Spectroscopy Remote Sensing After reading this primer you should understand fundamentally how HSI technology works. 2.0 Electromagnetic Radiation Electromagnetic radiation (EMR) is energy in the form of electromagnetic waves. Electromagnetic waves get their name from a physical interaction between an electric field and a magnetic field that creates the wave. The most familiar form of EMR is visible light. However, electromagnetic radiation consists of much more than just visible light. X-rays, gamma rays, microwaves, and radio waves are all EMR. The characteristic that distinguishes different electromagnetic waves is the wavelength. Wavelength is just what it appears to be: the length of a wave. Electromagnetic waves oscillate in a pattern that continuously and exactly repeats itself, as shown in Figure 1. The wavelength is the distance traveled by the wave before its oscillation pattern repeats. This is also shown in the figure. Page 1 This document is not export controlled. Use or disclosure of this information is subject to the restrictions on the Title Page of this document. Copyright 2014 Exelis Inc. All Right Reserved An Introduction to Hyperspectral Imaging Technology One Wavelength Figure 1. Electromagnetic Wave Form and Wavelength The frequency of an electromagnetic wave is the number of times its oscillation pattern repeats each second. Frequency is stated in terms of cycles per second, where one cycle is one repetition of the up-and-down wave pattern. The unit of frequency is the hertz. One hertz is equal to one cycle per second. Hertz is abbreviated Hz, but often has an extra letter to indicate multipliers of 1000. For example, one thousand hertz is written “1,000 Hz” or as “1 kHz,” where the letter k indicates 1000. Common prefixes are listed below in Table 1. Table 1. Frequency Notation Multiplier Prefix Frequency 1,000 (103) k kilohertz, kHz 1,000,000 (106) M megahertz, MHz 1,000,000,000 (109) G gigahertz, GHz Since all electromagnetic waves travel at a constant speed—the speed of light1—longer electromagnetic waves oscillate slower than shorter electromagnetic waves. In fact, the product of frequency and wavelength is speed: Frequency x Wavelength Speed From the equation above, it’s easy to see that, since speed does not change, as the frequency increases the wavelength decreases, and vice versa. We will limit our discussions of electromagnetic radiation characteristics mostly to wavelengths. 1 The speed of light in a vacuum is about 186,000 miles per second (about 300,000 km per second). Light slows a bit in air, but certainly not enough to concern us. Page 2 This document is not export controlled. Use or disclosure of this information is subject to the restrictions on the Title Page of this document. Copyright 2014 Exelis Inc. All Right Reserved An Introduction to Hyperspectral Imaging Technology The unit of wavelength is the meter (m). Electromagnetic wavelengths also have common prefixes to denote multipliers of 1000. These are listed below in Table 2. Table 2. Wavelength Notation Multiplier PrefixWavelength 0.001 (10-3) m millimeter, mm 0.000 001 (10-6) μ micrometer, μm 0.000 000 (10-9) n nanometer, nm 001 The wavelengths we are concerned with are all in the nanometer (nm) range. One nanometer is one billionth of a meter. To help put this in perspective, there are 25.4 million nanometers in an inch. 2.1 The Electromagnetic Spectrum Electromagnetic wavelengths vary from very, very short (gamma rays) to very, very long (radio waves). Gamma ray wavelengths are so short that physicists refer to their energy instead of their wavelength. For example, the wavelength of a high-energy gamma ray is a few ten-thousandths of a nanometer (about one hundred trillionths of an inch). On the other hand, long radio waves have wavelengths of tens of kilometers! The corresponding frequencies are about one million million gigahertz (1021 Hz) for the high-energy gamma ray down to about 100 kilohertz (105 Hz) for the long radio wave. That’s quite a difference! The entire family of electromagnetic radiation, with all its different wavelengths, is called the electromagnetic spectrum. The electromagnetic spectrum is broken down into named ranges. You’ve probably heard some or all the names already, but you may not have known where they fit in the electromagnetic spectrum. The electromagnetic spectrum is illustrated below in Figure 2. Keep in mind that the spectrum does not end at 10-14 meters or at 104 meters. However, unless you are a particle physicist or an astrophysicist, these values represent reasonable end points for most purposes. Page 3 This document is not export controlled. Use or disclosure of this information is subject to the restrictions on the Title Page of this document. Copyright 2014 Exelis Inc. All Right Reserved An Introduction to Hyperspectral Imaging Technology The Electromagnetic Spectrum (Wavelengths in Meters) et e e ol d av av a vi re w tw m ay tra ra cro or m -r Ul nf i M h M Ga X I M F TV S A 10-14 10-12 10-10 10-8 10-6 10-4 10-2 1102 104 400 nm Visible Light 700 nm Figure 2. The Electromagnetic Spectrum The visible portion of the electromagnetic spectrum