Remote Sensing Retrieval of Substrate Bearing Strength from Hyperspectral Imagery at the Virginia Coast Reserve (VCR´07) Multi-Sensor Campaign

In September 2007, NRL, in partnership with multiple institutions, undertook a combined airborne multi-sensor remote sensing campaign and in situ validation effort. The experiment took place at the Virginia coast reserve (VCR´07), an NSF funded long term ecological research site (LTER) on the Eastern shore of Virginia [10]. The study area comprised an 1880 km² region consisting of barrier islands, shallow water lagoons, and mainland marsh systems. This paper describes the results of a subset of experiments conducted during the campaign to demonstrate the retrieval of soil bearing strength directly from hyperspectral remote sensing on the VCR barrier islands.