Evaluating the sensitivity of clay content prediction to atmospheric effects and degradation of image spatial resolution using Hyperspectral VNIR/SWIR imagery

Visible, near-infrared and short wave infrared (VNIR/SWIR, 0.4–2.5μm) hyperspectral satellite imaging is one of the most promising tools for topsoil property mapping for the following reasons: i) it is derived from a laboratory technique that has been demonstrated to be a good alternative to costly physical and chemical laboratory soil analysis for estimating a large range of soil properties; ii) it can benefit from the increasing number of methodologies developed for VNIR/SWIR hyperspectral airborne imaging; and iii) it provides a synoptic view of the study area. Despite the significant potential of VNIR/SWIR hyperspectral airborne data for topsoil property mapping, the transposition to satellite data must be evaluated. The objective of this study was to test the sensitivity of clay content prediction to atmospheric effects and to degradation of spatial resolution. This study may offer an initial analysis of the potential of future hyperspectral satellite sensors, such as the HYPerspectral X Imagery (HYPXIM), the Spaceborne Hyperspectral Applicative Land and Ocean Mission (SHALOM), the PRecursore IperSpettrale della Missione Applicativa (PRISMA), the Environmental Mapping and Analysis Program (EnMAP) and the Hyperspectral Infrared Imager (HyspIRI), for soil applications. This study employed VNIR/SWIR AISA-DUAL airborne data acquired in a Mediterranean region over a large area (300km2) with an initial spatial resolution of 5m. These hyperspectral airborne data were simulated at the top of the atmosphere and aggregated at six spatial resolutions (10, 15, 20, 30, 60 and 90m) to correlate with the future hyperspectral satellite sensors. The predicted clay content maps were obtained using the partial least squares regression (PLSR) method. The large area of the studied region allows analysis of different pedological patterns of soil composition and spatial structures. Our results showed the following: (i) when a correct compensation of atmosphere effects was performed, only slight differences were detected between clay maps retrieved from the airborne imagery and those from spaceborne imagery (both at 5m of spatial resolution); (ii) the PLSR models, built from data with 5 to 30m spatial resolutions, performed well, and allowed clay mapping, although variations in clay content related to short scale succession of parent material was imperfectly captured beyond 15m of spatial resolution; (iii) the PLSR models built from data with 60 and 90m spatial resolutions were inaccurate, and did not enable clay mapping; and (iv) the two latter results could be explained by the combination of a small short-scale clay content variability and small field sizes observed in the study area. Therefore, in the Mediterranean and under the spectral specifications of the AISA-DUAL airborne sensor, most of the future hyperspectral satellite sensors (four of the five sensors examined in this study) will be potentially useful for clay content mapping.