Comparison of Target Detection Performance for Radiance and Reflectance Domain in VNIR Hyperspectral Images

Abstract

In this paper, the hyperspectral detection of targets in visible-near infrared (VNIR) images is studied. The change of radiance domain signatures in images taken in different locations, time and altitudes are analyzed. A new radiance domain detection scheme for VNIR images under 1000 m altitude is proposed. The analysis shows that the radiance domain signatures of each target, that are collected from an image taken at 10 m altitude, can be effectively used for pure pixel target detection in other VNIR images taken at altitudes between 10 - 1000 m. The proposed approach is tested using several target types and on images taken at different altitudes and environmental conditions. Our results show that target detection in radiance domain provides a cheaper, easier and effective alternative to reflectance domain, in VNIR images.