Hyperspectral Imagery for Antarctic Moss Health Assessment

Antarctic Specially Protected Area 135 and Robinson Ridge sites contain airborne hyperspectral image data for estimating moss chlorophyll and density. The dataset includes 162 spectral bands from 361 to 961 nm with a 5.0 cm spatial resolution, collected via UAS in 2013. It was produced by the Australian Antarctic Data Centre for verifying remote sensing products with ground observations from permanent quadrats.

Use Cases

• Estimate chlorophyll content and leaf density of Antarctic moss species from 162-band hyperspectral reflectance values.
• Train predictive algorithms using laboratory spectral and biochemical measurements from moss samples collected in 1999 and 2013.
• Verify UAS-derived reflectance maps with ground measurements from an ASD HandHeld-2 spectroradiometer on rocks and moss patches.
• Analyze spatial patterns of moss vigour across georeferenced orthophotos in the WGS84 UTM zone 49 South coordinate system.

Strengths

• High spatial resolution of 5.0 cm per pixel from UAS flights 11 m above ground.
• Radiometrically standardized data across 162 spectral bands with bandwidths from 4.75 to 5.25 nm.
• Georeferenced using 50 artificial ground control points and 1 cm resolution digital surface models.

Limitations

• Limited geographic scope to two specific Antarctic research sites.
• Sample size for accuracy assessment is small, using only 6 rocks and 9 moss patches.
• Data is temporally stale, with primary collection ending in 2013.

Provenance

Source

Australian Antarctic Data Centre (AU_AADC) via NASA Earthdata.

Collection Method

Airborne data acquired with a Headwall Photonics Micro-Hyperspec VNIR scanner mounted on a multirotor UAS, supplemented by ground spectroradiometer measurements.

Time Range

Primary data collection in 2013, with reference samples from 1999 and long-term quadrat monitoring since 2003.

Freshness

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Geography

Antarctic Specially Protected Area 135 (ASPA) and Robinson Ridge near the Casey polar station.