REMOTE SENSING FOR GEOLOGY AND MINERAL RESOURCES,
AN ASSESSMENT OF TOOLS FOR GEOSCIENTISTS IN THE FUTURE
A Review of ISPRS Working Group VII/4 Activities for the XVIII ISPRS Congress, Vienna, 1996
Dr. James V. Taranik, Chairman
Desert Research Institute
University and Community College System of Nevada
Las Vegas and Reno, Nevada, U.S.A.
Dr. Alvaro P. Crosta, Co-Chairman
University of Campinas
Campinas, Brazil
Commission VII, Working Group 4, ISPRS
KEY WORDS: Geology, Geophysics, Geobotany, Mineral, Petroleum, Exploration, Resources, Mapping,
Environmefital, Geographic, Mining, Multispectral, Hyperspectral, Thermal, Infrared, Radar, Interferometric SAR,
Multifrequency, Multipolarization, Stereometry, Digital Terrain, Information Systems, Data Processing, Data Analysis,
Geomorphology, Structure, Engineering, Gold, Porphyry, Copper, Silver, Molybdenum, Fluorite, Rare Earths, Earth
Resources Satellites.
ABSTRACT:
The U. S. Landsat program received a major setback in 1993 with the launch failure of Landsat-6. Currently Landsat-5
continues to acquire data and the U. S. Government has made a commitment to fly an Enhanced Thematic Mapper-Plus
on Landsat-7 in 1997. NASA is studying a Landsat-7 follow-on Millennium Mission which could fly a solid-state imager,
atmospheric correction bands and a hyperspectral imaging spectrometer. The French SPOT program continues to post
successes with the successful launch of SPOT-3 and approval of funding for SPOT-4 and SPOT-5. The Japanese JERS-1
program has successfully acquired both optical and synthetic aperture radar of much of the Earth's land surface. Several
commercial programs in the United States propose to acquire 1 meter to 3 meter spatial resolution data and 3 to 5 meter
global multispectral stereoscopic data. NASA recently selected TRW to provide a hyperspectral sensor with 384 spectral
bands at 30 meter spatial resolution. Hyperspectral imagers are being developed in the United States, Europe and Japan
that show promise for improving mineral and petroleum exploration. One such sensor, the Hyperspectral Digital Imaging
Collection Experiment (HYDICE) acquires 210 spectral bands in the visible and reflected infrared, with 3 meter spatial
resolution over a 2 kilometer swath from aircraft flight heights of 3000 meters. Multiband thermal emission mappers have
been developed for flight in aircraft which show great promise for geologic and mineral resources applications and Japan,
with the assistance of NASA, plans to fly a multiband thermal mapper (ASTER) by the end of the decade. The Japanese
JERS-1 program has acquired a world-wide data set of L-band synthetic aperture radar data. The United States and
Germany successfully flew Space Radar Laboratory-1 on the Shuttle in 1994 and acquired three frequency/four polarization
imaging radar data over 30 percent of the Earth's surface. The Canadian Radarsat program launched a C-band imager
in 1995. Interferometric SAR is a revolutionary breakthrough for geoscientists. 36 new earth resources satellites are
planned for launch in the next eight years. Computer technology has now rapidly evolved to place robust desktop
workstations and laptop computers easily within the reach of individual consulting geoscientists working in remote areas
ofthe world. Earth resources data are now being made available through the World Wide Web. Geoscientists should be
able to purchase georeferenced satellite data by the pixel in standardized formats, by the pixel and on CD-ROM within the
next decade. Airborne geophysical remote sensing (airborne magnetics, gravity and electromagnetics) are being
successfully analyzed in conjunction with aerospace remote sensing data, and ground geoscience information, using
geographic information systems technology for mineral exploration in poorly mapped, remote areas. Very low cost
processing and analysis software is now available to geoscientists.
1.0 INTRODUCTION global data sets, at high spatial and spectral resolutions,
over much, if not all of the Earth's land surface area. Such
The decade of the 1990's has been revolutionary in terms data will be rapidly furnished to geoscientists in the stable
ofthe introduction of new technology and the acceptance and easy to use form of optical disks and through global
of current technology for global geologic and mineral ^ data and information networks. Geoscientists will be able
resources investigations. Today, Landsat and SPOT to analyze such data in the most remote areas of the world
image data are routinely used by geoscientists as aerial using low cost, high efficiency portable computer systems.
photography was two decades ago. In many cases, SPOT This paper summarizes the state-of-the art of current
and Landsat data provide the mapping base for field ^ aerospace remote sensing technology during the decade
investigations and the Global Position System (GPS) is of the 1990's and it forecasts developments in remote
now routinely used to survey in field locations at 10 meter sensing technology for geological and mineral resources in
accuracy. In poorly mapped, remote areas, geographic the next century. This paper summarizes the findings of
information systems (GIS) and GPS are now used to co- Working Group VII/4 of Commission VII, ISPRS for the
register remote sensing and ground-based geoscience period 1992 to 1996. Working Group VII/4 members, who
information. The next century will see the acquisition of also contributed to this report, are listed in section 9.1.
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International Archives of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing. Vol. XXXI, Part B7. Vienna 1996
