1. the multispectral behaviour of the surface to be analysed;
2. the characteristics of the measuring system.
The data acquisition system only very seldom is fit thus as to measure the
spectral properties in an optimum way. This leads to factors which combine
high loadings of different surface properties in one factor and therefore
can only very difficultly be interpreted. The solutions, in general obtained,
are not the optimum ones for the analysis of causal interrelationships,
demonstrated by the behaviour in the spectral bands: More evident features
can be extracted by a rotation of the coordinate system. General procedures
and methods, such as orthogonal and obligue rotation, exist. In many cases,
it is not obvious by which optimizing principle the rotation is guided. As
it is also possible to rotate the coordinate system by a visual rotation
method, a few guide lines are listed here for orientation:
1. The rotation should be maintained thus, that at least one factor
loading of absolute low value (or the value zero) exists in each factor.
2. For pairs of factors the loadings of some variables should be high in
one factor and low in the other factor.
3. There should be only a small number of variables of non-zero factor
loadings in a pair of factors.
As already has been pointed out, the rotation of the coordinate system leads
to more easily interpretable factor loadings. For some case studies such a
rotation is not necessary, as the clustering is around the principal axis of
the first two factors. Sometimes the result of a rotation does not lead to an
obvious improvement of the interpretability, so that the general question
arises, if rotation is really a method to obtain reproducible results. One
explanation for such a behaviour could be the above mentioned fact, that the
measuring system is not fit to the problem to be measured, and therefore only
secondary indicators of a physical effect are obtained. More investigations
have to be made under this aspect.