Abstract

“Hyperspectral” is a relatively new descriptor for measurement techniques historically used by the atmospheric remote sensing communities. As opposed to “multi-spectral” sensing, which includes any instrument with a finite number of specific channels, filters, or bands, hyperspectral implies employing enough (usually contiguous) channels to provide redundant information on both the characteristics of the surface and the atmosphere when the instrument is configured for nadir viewing. This definition (Alex Goetz, Univ. of Colorado, private communication) can be contrasted with others, such as ‘any instrument with better than 4 cm^-1 resolution.” This latter definition can be inadequate in the infrared spectral range because many overlapping molecular systems will not be sufficiently discriminated at such ‘narrow’ resolution. However, the 4 cm^-1 resolution is often much more than adequate in the visible, when typical resolutions of 10 nm (e.g. AVIRIS, Green et al., 1996) at 600 nm corresponds to a frequency resolution of over 200 cm^-1.

© 1997 Optical Society of America