Sponsor
This work was supported by the NSF Office of Polar Programs Antarctic Earth Sciences division via award ANT-1343649 to JSL, AGF and W. Berry Lyons.
Published In
Antarctic Science
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
10-2014
Subjects
Soil moisture -- Measurement, Remote sensing, Soil salinity, Permafrost, Soil mapping, Antarctica -- Discovery & exploration
Abstract
Soil moisture is a spatially heterogeneous quantity in the McMurdo Dry Valleys of Antarctica that exerts a large influence on the biological community and on the thermal state of Dry Valleys permafrost. The goal of this project was to determine whether hyperspectral remote sensing techniques could be used to determine soil moisture conditions in the Dry Valleys. We measured the spectral reflectance factors of wetted soil samples from the Dry Valleys under natural light conditions and related diagnostic spectral features to surface layer soil moisture content. Diagnostic water absorption features in the spectra at 1.4 mu m and 1.9 mu m were present in all samples, including samples doped with high concentrations of chloride salts. The depth of the 1.4 mu m absorption is shown to increase linearly with increasing gravimetric water content. These results suggest that airborne hyperspectral imaging of the Dry Valleys could generate soil moisture maps of this environment over large spatial areas using non-invasive remote-sensing techniques.
DOI
10.1017/S0954102013000977
Persistent Identifier
http://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/22030
Citation Details
Levy, J., Nolin, A., Fountain, A., & Head, J. (2014). Hyperspectral measurements of wet, dry and saline soils from the McMurdo Dry Valleys: soil moisture properties from remote sensing. Antarctic Science, 26(5), 565-572. doi:10.1017/S0954102013000977
Description
Copyright 2014 Antarctic Science Ltd 2014. Reproduced with permission, made available after a 12 month embargo.