Bayesian analysis of spectral mixture data using Markov Chain Monte Carlo Methods

This paper presents an original method for the analysis of multicomponent spectral data sets. The proposed algorithm is based on Bayesian estimation theory and Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) methods. Resolving spectral mixture analysis aims at recovering the unknown component spectra and at assessing the concentrations of the underlying species in the mixtures. In addition to non-negativity constraint, further assumptions are generally needed to get a unique resolution. The proposed statistical approach assumes mutually independent spectra and accounts for the non-negativity and the sparsity of both the pure component spectra and the concentration profiles. Gamma distribution priors are used to translate all these information in a probabilistic framework. The estimation is performed using MCMC methods which lead to an unsupervised algorithm, whose performances are assessed in a simulation study with a synthetic data set.