The acquisition and processing of voluminous spectral reflectance measurements of soils and powders for national datasets

The acquisition and collation of large numbers of spectral measurements of samples requires the strict adherence to set protocols to ensure the integrity of the data. Errors can occur in the measurement or processing that may not initially be detected and would require the time-consuming process of re-measuring of samples. This paper outlines the development of a national spectral library, and, the associated protocols for the systematic acquisition, quality control and processing of the spectral measurements of a collection of over 1300 soil and powders from across Australia using portable field spectroradiometers and laboratory Fourier transform infrared spectrometers. The processed spectra were uploaded to the CSIRO Data Access Portal, along with the metadata of the samples and measurements. These data are now publicly available as a national spectral library for the benefit of the research and user community.