Vicarious Calibration-based Robust Spectrum Measurement for Spectral Libraries Using a Hyperspectral Imaging System

The aim of this study is to develop a protocol for obtaining spectral signals that are robust to varying lighting conditions, which are often found in the Polar regions, for creating a spectral library specific to those regions. Because hyperspectral image (HSI)-derived spectra are collected on the same scale as images, they can be directly associated with image data. However, it is challenging to find precise and robust spectra that can be used for a spectral library from images taken under different lighting conditions. Hence, this study proposes a new radiometric calibration protocol that incorporates radiometric targets with a traditional vicarious calibration approach to solve issues in image-based spectrum measurements. HSIs obtained by the proposed method under different illumination levels are visually uniform and do not include any artifacts such as stripes or random noise. The extracted spectra capture spectral characteristics such as reflectance curve shapes and absorption features better than those that have not been calibrated. The results are also validated quantitatively. The calibrated spectra are shown to be very robust to varying lighting conditions and hence are suitable for a spectral library specific to the Polar regions.