Mineral group mapping

Identifying diagnostic spectral features in the ASTER data and creating suitable band ratios based on
those spectral features enables the extraction of information about mineral groups from ASTER Level IB
data. Table 2 lists those band combinations that have been used with some success to map mineral
groups. These band combinations can be simple band ratios or relative absorption band depth (RBD)
images. Appendices 10 and 11 provide details for creating band ratios and RBD images in ENVI.
RBD images are used to distinguish particular diagnostic absorption features known to occur for a specific
mineral. This method requires data calibrated to radiance, not reflectance. In this technique, bands near an
absorption feature shoulder are summed and then divided by the band near the absorption feature
minimum. Thus, RBD images correspond to a local continuum correction (Hull Quotient) reducing any
radiance variations that may be related to topographic slope and brightness differences