Exercise: "Determining reflectances and spectral signatures with a field

spectrometer"

1. Introduction

Field measurements of position and thematics are a prerequisite for many interpretation studies.
To understand the relation between remote sensing images and thematic content also ground
reflectance can be of help. This exercise will be limited to the reflectance of solar radiation by
objects at the earth surface.
The aim of this exercise is to get a first experience with the measurement and interpretation of
spectral reflectances of soil, vegetation and water. Different objects have contrasting spectral
signatures. The exercise consists of analyzing the spectral data with a spreadsheet program
(Excel).

2. Why measuring ground reflectance?

Measurements of reflectance on the ground give a direct insight in the effects of surface
characteristics. This information is hardly affected by the atmosphere. It is very helpful for
an interpreter since from aerial or spaceborne remote sensing data the information has to be
translated first. Problems may arise due to:
scale of satellite images and aerial recordings in relation to the complexity of the terrain;
time difference between field visit and actual overflight;
atmospheric influence

In this exercise the main reason for measuring reflectance is to give insight in the surface
characteristics affecting the spectral curves.

Other reasons to measure reflectance can be:

establishing relations between reflectance and surface characteristics.
calculating reflectance from digital numbers (DN) of satellite/airborne data (or digitized
aerial photographs) using reference targets. In this way, without using corrections for
atmosphere, data can be calibrated. Use for such calibration a number of homogeneous
large fields of strongly different reflectance and perform per field at least 5-15
measurements close to time of overflight.
analyzing multitemporal remote sensing data. If the ground reflectance of different
fields at different dates is known, it can be concluded to which extent a change in
reflectance is due to a change of the surface itself or to external factors like atmosphere and
solar zenith angle.
revealing causes for a specific reflectance in pixels and mixels (=mixed pixels). This
leads to a more sound interpretation of the greytones and colours on an image.
calibrating results from models using reflectance as input.
detecting influence of artificial or not artificial changes of the surface. An example is
the measurement of the reflectance of a surface which is moistened and dries out
subsequentially. This information can be very helpful in analyzing remote sensing imagery
or other remote sensing data, with large differences in moisture content.
testing influence of external factors: e.g., different atmospheric conditions and solar
zenith angles.

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3. The Cropscan instrument

The Cropscan is a multispectral radiometer (MSR). The filters are selected such that the
instrument measures in the following wavelength bands or channels:

Centre
Channel Wavelength (m) Bandwidth (m) Colour
1 0.490 0.006 blue
2 0.550 0.007 green
3 0.670 0.009 red
4 0.700 0.010
5 0.740 0.011
6 0.780 0.012 NIR
7 0.870 0.013 NIR
8 1.090 0.011 NIR

The instrument measures both the incoming radiation (field of view 180) and the reflected
radiance (field of view 28) from the surface.

The reflectance percentage can be calculated by dividing the reflected radiance of the surface
by the incoming radiance for each of the 8 bands and multiplying it with a calibration factor,
specific for each band. The calibration factors can be determined before each measurement
sequence or a standard calibration file can be used. The calibration file is already present.

The system consists of a radiometer with 2 times 8 sensors, an A/D converter, and a computer
(a portable PC). In this computer software is available for registration of the data.

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4. EXERCISES

Ten different targets (objects, plots) have been measured with the Cropscan radiometer and 2
measurements have been done per object. The following objects have been measured:

plot id: object:

1 water
2 bare soil
3 pavement
4 short grass
5 long grass
6 yellow grass
7 clover
8 water+vegetation
9 red car
10 green car

A file with the results of the measurements can be opened through the IGI-website
(CROPSCAN.XLS) and locally stored.

There are many ways to analyze the data. We are using the program Excel, since it is
relatively easy to work with and easy to make graphs.

The following list gives an overview of the meaning of the data in the Excel sheet.

PLOT Plot numbers

SAMPLE The sample of a certain plot
HOUR Time of measurement (hours)
MINUTE Time of measurement (minutes)
DESC Short description of the plot with sample nr.
REFL_# Reflectance in band # (%)
In Rad_# Incoming radiation in band # (DN-value)
Out Rad_# Reflected radiation in band # (DN-value)
In row 2 the centre wavelength for each band is given (m)

Question 1
Compare both samples of each plot. What can you conclude on the repetitive measurements
per plot?
Have a look at the incoming radiation values. What can you conclude for the different spectral
bands and for the measurements on the different plots?

Question 2
Choose 1 sample per plot or calculate the average per plot.
Make a graph on the screen showing the spectral curves of the 10 plots.
Plot in the graph the wavelength on the x-axis and plot the reflectance on the y-axis.
If you are an experienced Excel user, use your own approach, else you can make this graph in
the following way.

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On how to make the graph:

First one selects the reflectance (percentage) values one wants to plot. For instance, click
on cell E2 keep the left mouse button pressed and drag it to position M22. One can also
select specific lines if one does not wish to plot all samples of every plot.

Click the Chart Wizard icon and choose in the Standard Types tab the Chart type.

XY (Scatter), click Chart sub-type and press the Next> button.

You have now a preview, data series must be set to Rows, press the Next> button.

Add appropriate chart title and axis titles and press the Next> button.

Select as a new sheet and press the Finish button.

Question 3
Describe the difference in general shape between bare soils and vegetation.

Question 4
Is vegetation or bare soil reflecting more in the green part of the spectrum ? Why is vegetation
green for human eyes ?

Question 5
What do you notice when comparing a green car with a red car ?

Question 6
Does the signature of "water+vegetation" resemble more the one of water, the one of
vegetation or both?

Question 7
At which wavelengths does the yellow grass differ most from the other grass objects?

Question 8
Which remote sensing information will give more information on differences between various
soils and crops: a true colour photo or a false colour photo, having information in the near-
infrared and not in the blue part of the spectrum.

Question 9
If you can select only two bands or centre wavelengths to discriminate between the different
objects, which two would you choose ?