42nd Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (2011) 2743.pdf THE EFFECT OF WEATHERING AND OUTCROP VARIABILITY ON THERMAL INFRARED MULTISPECTRAL REMOTE SENSING DATA: A COMPARATIVE STUDY IN GILA BEND, AZ. J-F. Smekens1 and P. R. Christensen1, 1School of Earth and Space Exploration, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ (contact:
[email protected]) Introduction: Thermal Infrared spectroscopy We adopted a systematic approach, sampling vari- (TIR) constitutes a powerful diagnostic tool for com- ous outcrops within each unit, and sampling all the positional analysis of geological materials on planetary different types of rock fragments present on each out- surfaces. The quantitative mineralogy of a sample can crop in an effort to accurately recreate the TIR signa- be determined from laboratory spectra using a linear ture of individual pixels in the remote sensing data. deconvolution process [1]. The same approach can be The laboratory spectra were degraded to TIMS and applied to remote sensing data but the method is se- ASTER resolutions (Figure 2) and combined in various verely hindered in the case of multispectral data, as the ways to be used as end-members in a deconvolution of number of end members that can be used in the decon- the scenes. Three sets of end-members were used: (1) volution is limited to the number of bands available. the fresh surfaces of individual rock samples, (2) Although numerous studies have been conducted to variably weathered surfaces of each rock unit (fresh, characterize the effect of weathering on TIR laboratory varnished, heavily weathered, etc.), (3) ‘outcrop’ spec- spectra [2,3,4], the quantification of that effect on re- tra reconstructed from the individual constituents motely sensed data is still poorly understood, and iden- found in the outcrop, weighted with their areal abun- tification of alteration products from orbital data re- dances mains a challenge to this day.