Industry Solutions

Hyperspectral Imaging for Coastal Waters

Hyperspectral Imaging (HSI) splits the visible and infrared light spectrum into many narrow, adjacent imaging bands. The sensor, generally mounted on light aircraft, takes images from contiguous regions of the spectrum. Since different substances reflect the various wavelengths differently, HSI analysis can be used to identify benthic habitats such as live coral, sand, and algae.

Airborne hyperspectral imaging is an emerging technology for classifying benthic habitats in coastal zones. Hyperspectral imaging can be used to monitor oceanic and coastal zone regions for everything from oil spills and pulp mill effluent to schools of fish and coastal zone water flow. It has been particularly successful in classifying tropical habitats including coral reefs, sea grass, microalgae, unconsolidated sediments, uncolonized hard bottom areas, and encrusting algae.

Synthetic Aperture Radar for Environmental Monitoring

Synthetic Aperture Radar maps are helpful to scientists studying phenomena such as in this example, snow wetness and snow water equivalent in the snow pack. Across the globe, over major portions of the middle and high latitudes, and at high elevations in the tropical latitudes, snow and alpine glaciers are the largest contributors to runoff in rivers and to groundwater recharge. Snow hydrologists are using radar in an attempt to estimate both the quantity of water held by seasonal snow packs and the timing of snow melt. Snow and ice also play important roles in regional climates; understanding the processes in seasonal snow cover is also important for studies of the chemical balance of alpine drainage basins. SAR is a powerful tool because it is sensitive to most snow pack conditions and is less influenced by weather conditions than other remote sensing instruments.