An investigation into the use of the thermal wavelengths of the aster satellite borne sensor for dry vegetation identification

Since the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) was launched in 1999 the sensor has acquired an extensive coverage of the Earth's surface. The ASTER archive has great potential for a variety of regional and continental scale studies. ASTER is particularly useful for geological applications with a number of mineralogical groups being able to be identified. Although a number of mineral groups can be identified using ASTER it is not capable of detecting, using bands in the VNIR/SWIR regions, dry vegetation. For geological mapping in semi arid environments where dry vegetation cover is significant (such as much of inland and northern Australia) this can confound, if left uncorrected, the interpretation of mineral information products derived from ASTER. Ideally a method of detecting, unmixing or filtering the dry vegetation component from the mineral information products is required. In an attempt to address this issue this paper looks at the thermal wavelength regions covered by ASTER to assess whether dry vegetation can be identified using these wavelength ranges.