ERDAS IMAGINE® Spectral Analysis™

♦ Overview of hyperspectral image processing tools

Based on the existing foundation of ERDAS IMAGINE image classification and display
tools, this task-oriented application enables the user to quickly and easily extract
information from hyperspectral imagery such as Hyperion, AVIRIS, etc.

Any user with access to hyperspectral imagery from which they wish to quickly extract
material mapping information with the minimum of user interaction (and without the need
for costly training in hyperspectral image processing theory) can benefit from the Spectral
Analysis tools available in IMAGINE Professional®.

The IMAGINE Spectral Analysis module introduces the concepts, data structures, and
image processing functionalities of the science of imaging spectrometry to the standard
ERDAS IMAGINE product. Several powerful analysis algorithms specific to hyperspectral
datasets have been implemented via a simple graphical user interface to produce specific
end products for analysis. In support of this, new importers and raster demand loaded
libraries (DLLs) have been developed to address specific hyperspectral sensors and to bring
spectral libraries into a native ERDAS IMAGINE Spectral Library structure. In addition,
specific industry-recognized preprocessing techniques have been simplified or automated to
provide a rational easy-to-use image preprocessing regimen, while retaining the rigorous
nature of the underlying algorithms.

An overriding concept of the software is ease of use with an easy-to-follow workflow and
intelligent data-derived defaults. This is based upon the philosophy that hyperspectral data
is going to be used by people other than experts in imaging spectrometry. Also, the imagery
is not necessarily best exploited by visual interpretation; the analyst wants derived data or
results.

Consequently the software workflow is designed around a set of tasks. These tasks
correspond to the analyst’s specific goals. The specific tasks implemented for the first
generation of the software are:

• Anomaly Detection,
• Target Detection,
• Material Mapping, and
• Material Identification.

The IMAGINE Spectral Analysis module is intended to address the needs of both the
remote sensing expert and the novice who simply wants a result extracted from a
hyperspectral data set. Each analyst may be looking for different specific materials
depending upon their interest, but the underlying theory of spectral analysis is, in most
cases, the same.

As well as guiding the analyst through the task process, the screen real-estate is closely
managed by using embedded tools. This avoids numerous pop-up dialogs cluttering and
confusing the computer screen and slowing the analysis process.

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 The Spectral Analysis tools bring hyperspectral image processing within the reach of any
remote sensing or GIS professional. One aspect of this is the wizard interface which can
step a user through the pre-processing steps necessary for completing the analysis of a
hyperspectral image.

¾ Sensor Many aspects of hyperspectral analysis depend upon there being a known relationship
Information between the band number in an image and the wavelength at which the DN values in that
band were captured. Without this information it becomes difficult, if not impossible, to
compare image-derived spectra with data contained in spectral libraries or derived from
other images.

Consequently a tool is provided to define the relationships between band number and
wavelength (and bandwidth), with tools available to quickly assign the sensor information
for standard sensor types such as Hyperion, AVIRIS, etc.

¾ Bad Bands Various factors can affect the quality of information contained in a particular image band.
These can range from the sensor itself, which may not adequately record information in
certain wavelengths, to atmospheric attenuation of the signal at particular wavelengths (such
as the wavelengths at which water vapor absorbs much of the solar radiation).

These bands should be excluded from processing since they will not only extend the amount
of time taken to process the image, but will also adversely affect the results.

The Spectral Analysis suite of pre-processing tools therefore includes a tool for quickly
identifying bad bands in an image and marking them as unsuitable for processing further
down the analysis chain.

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¾ Spectral Subset In a similar fashion to the identification and exclusion of bad bands, other bands
(wavelengths) may not contribute to the successful identification of specific materials that
an analyst is interested in and therefore should be excluded from further processing to speed
up analysis and to potentially improve results.

Therefore a pre-processing tool is provided which enables the analyst to view the absorption
features of the materials they will be analyzing. Areas where there are few absorption
features (and which therefore can’t be used to discriminate that material) may be excluded
from further processing.

¾ Spatial Subset Limiting your hyperspectral analysis to a subset of the overall image extent can improve
both processing times and accuracy. Consequently a geographical subset extent can be
defined to limit further processing.

¾ Atmospheric There are generally two reasons that imagery needs to be corrected for atmospheric effects.
Adjustment Firstly, so that the imagery can be compared to spectral library data (which is normally
recorded as reflectance). Secondly, if you wish to compare data between image scenes.

The Spectral analysis tools therefore include a dialog for atmospherically adjusting images.
Three techniques are built into the tool (Modified Flat Field, Empirical Line and Internal
Average Relative Reflectance), but these can be expanded to include other techniques.

This tool can be used to atmospherically adjust other types of imagery, not just
hyperspectral imagery.

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¾ Minimum Noise The bands in a hyperspectral data set have differing noise levels (signal to noise ratio, or
Fraction S/N). It may be desirable to filter or remove those bands that contribute most to noise. When
the bands of a hyperspectral data set have differing amounts of noise, a standard principal
components (PC) transform will not produce components with a steadily increasing noise
level. This makes it difficult to select a cutoff point.

To achieve a component’s data set that does have increasing noise (decreasing S/N), a
modified PC transform, termed the Minimum Noise Fraction (MNF) has been developed
and is implemented in one of the Spectral Analysis pre-processing steps through an
integrated graphical user interface. This interface enables the user to easily view and
identify the noise cutoff and define noise processing options.

The MNF transform produces a set of principal component images ordered in terms of
decreasing signal quality. By performing an inverse MNF transform utilizing only the
significant images and/or filtering the less good image layers, a full image cube can be
reproduced in which the noise has a gaussian distribution and unit variance ("white noise").

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¾ Spectral The pre-processing steps can be performed as stand-alone functions, or can be stepped
Analysis Tasks through as part of a wizard in advance of performing one of the standard information-
extraction Tasks.

The Tasks are pre-defined standard analyses commonly applied to hyperspectral imagery.
By determining what type of information the user wishes to extract from the hyperspectral
imagery, the Task wizards enable a rapid throughput of data and extraction of results
without the user needing to be an expert in the theory or application of hyperspectral
analysis.

The Tasks are covered more fully below:

¾ Anomaly This Task is used to identify pixels in a hyperspectral image that may contain anomalous
Detection Task materials. This can be summarized as the user wishing to know “is there anything unusual in
this scene?”

Examples might be vehicles in an uninhabited area or a hydrothermal outcrop in a shale

deposit.

This is the simplest Task to run, since the user does not have to provide any apriori
information (apart from the name of the hyperspectral image), such as a material of interest.
However it is then down to the user to determine what materials the anomalous pixels might
consist of, a job for which the Material Identification Task is useful.

¾ Target Detection This tool searches an input image for a specific material or materials, termed the “target”,
Task that is suspected to be present in (very) low concentration. The output is a gray-scale
(similarity) or binary (thresholded) anomaly mask for each input target spectrum.

The “target” material can be selected from a library of known materials (a Spectral Library),
such as the USGS, JPL and ASTER libraries, or be a scene-derived spectrum.

Examples could be searching for the spectrum of a known man-made material or a mineral
type.

¾ Material This Task searches an input image for the presence of a specific material or materials based
Mapping Task on an input spectrum for each material of interest. The material may again exist in low
concentrations, but may be present in a large number of pixels within the scene.

The output is a gray-scale map image for each input material where each pixel of the output
image is an estimate of the percentage of the material of interest in the corresponding pixel
of the input image.

Examples might be surface mineral deposits or sparse vegetation, or any other material that
is widely distributed throughout the scene.

¾ Material This Task is theoretically the opposite of Target Detection or Material Mapping. Rather than
Identification selecting a known material from a library and using the software to identify the locations in
Task the scene where this material is present, the user instead points to a pixel (or pixels) in the
image and the software determines from a list of potential spectra which materials are most
likely to be present in those pixels.

Unlike the other Tasks, this Task cannot be accessed via a Wizard since it requires user

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 interaction with an image (i.e. selecting the pixels that are to be analyzed). Instead, this Task
is accessed (along with more advanced versions of the above functionality) through the
Spectral Analysis Workstation.

¾ Spectral The Spectral Analysis Workstation is a multi-pane work space in which you have access to
Analysis all the tools and functionalities mentioned above, as well as viewers for interactively
Workstation analyzing hyperspectral imagery, spectral signatures, and other data displays.

The image being analyzed in the Workstation appears in up to three views (the main view,
an overview view of the whole image extent, and a zoom view showing magnified detail of
a specific location). Analysis results are also displayed in these geographically linked
windows and standard image exploitation tools, such as Swipe and Blend, are available for
comparing results against original data.

Other conveniences include R, G, B color gun selection bars in the Spectral Profile view,
which enable the user to quickly and easily chose the color band combination desired to
highlight particular spectrum features.

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 All pre-processing steps, as well as the Task-based analysis functions are available through
the Spectral Analysis Workstation interface, with extra options being made available over
what the wizards provide.

All the tools are embedded into a single Window in order to carefully manage the screen
real estate to ensure that the tools required are always at the user’s fingertips.

The Workstation also provides access to the underlying techniques used in the Task
workflows described above so that an analyst can mix and match techniques for classifying
hyperspectral imagery or determining the location of materials of interest. Some of the
techniques provided include:

ƒ Orthogonal Subspace Projection (OSP)

ƒ Spectral Angle Mapper (SAM)
ƒ Spectral Correlation Mapper (SCM)
ƒ Atmospheric Adjustment techniques
ƒ Minimum Noise Fraction
ƒ Constrained Energy Minimization (CEM)

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