Hyperspectral remote sensing for coal-bed methane exploration

Based on the theory of coal-bed methane(CBM) geology, the micro-seeps of hydrocarbon cause geochemical alterations in rocks and soil. In this study, the hyperspectral instrument, Hyperion, was used to detect the alterations and hydrocarbons on the land surface of CBM reservoirs. Our study area is in the Qinshui Basin, China. Utilizing Hyperion datasets, the endmember spectra of specific minerals were extracted and the carbonate was mapped by the Spectral Angle Mapper (SAM) algorithm and the hydrocarbons in soil were detected by the Normalized Hydrocarbon Index (NHI). Because the vegetation endmembers in this study can produce similar absorption feature at 1730nm, the distribution of the vegetation was obtained by SAM. The results show that the carbonate and hydrocarbons concentrated in Jincheng Coal Mining Area. This approach, using the hyperspectral datasets, is advantageous for CBM exploration.