Comparison of EO-1 Hyperion and airborne hyperspectral remote sensing data for geologic applications

Airborne hyperspectral data have been available to researchers since the early 1980s and their use for geologic applications is well established. The launch of NASA´s EO-1 Hyperion sensor in November 2000 marked the establishment of spaceborne hyperspectral capabilities. Hyperion is a satellite hyperspectral sensor covering the 0.4 to 2.5 micrometer spectral range with 242 spectral bands at approximately 10 nm spectral resolution and 30 m spatial resolution from a 705 km orbit. AIG and CSIRO, as members of the NASA EO-1 science validation team, have been involved in efforts to evaluate, validate, and demonstrate Hyperion´s utility for geologic applications. Comparison of airborne hyperspectral data to the Hyperion data establishes that Hyperion provides the ability to remotely map surface mineralogy, with the principal limitations being reduced spatial distinctions caused by the Hyperion 30 m spatial resolution (versus 2-20 m spatial resolution for the airborne sensors) and limited mapping of fine spectral detail based on lower signal-to-noise ratios (approximately 50:1 in the SWIR for Hyperion versus >500:1 for the airborne sensors). Initial results at selected Hyperion validation sites in the USA and Argentina establish that Hyperion is performing to specifications and that data from the SWIR spectrometer can be used to produce useful geologic (mineralogic) information.