Wavelength Selection for Estimating Soil Organic Matter Contents Through the Radiative Transfer Model

Abstract

Considering that large quantities of soil hyperspectral data include the redundancy and overlap of spectral information, the technology of selecting feature wavelength can effectively solve these problems, and improve the accuracy and stability of the soil organic matter (SOM) content retrieval model. Traditional methods of wavelength selection mainly attempt to establish the empirical relationship between reflectance and SOM contents, and the performance is directly related to the quality and representativeness of the “training data”. This study first distinguished the sensitive wavelength interval of SOM through the sensitivity analysis (SA) of the SOM to soil reflectance in radiative transfer model. Then sensitive wavelength points of SOM were ascertained using the successive projection algorithm (SPA): 468, 476, 496, 599, 775 and 900nm. Results show that SOM content can be estimated with high accuracy (root-mean-square error of prediction (RMSEP) <; 0.234%, coeficient of determination (R2) > 82.9%) by adopting the selected six wavelengths. Especially at 599nm, the accuracy of SOM content estimation is the highest (RMSEP: 0.176%, R2: 90.4%). Compared with traditional empirical wavelength selection methods, the wavelength selection based on the SA-SPA with the SOM radiative transfer model improves the generalizability and accuracy of the result. The research provides theoretical basis and technical support for the remote sensing retrieval of SOM, the development of rapid spectral instruments, and the bands setting of sensor instrument.

Keywords

• Wavelength selection
• soil organic matter
• SOM radiative transfer model
• SA-SPA