Industrial plume detection in hyperspectral remote sensing data

Industrial and river outlet plumes are characterized by high concentrations of dissolved and suspended substances. The optical properties of these waters have been investigated in laboratory and in remotely sensed data in order to establish characteristics that could be used to locate and map discharges from paper and pulp industries. Water samples from the outlet of one paper-pulp industry in the investigated area around Norrsundet, Sweden, have been analysed in the laboratory. An increase in absorption by dissolved substances was found around 550 nm, compared to waters unaffected by industrial outlets. Airborne hyperspectral remote sensing data from the corresponding area have also been investigated and spectral differences between industrial and riverine outlets were found in the interval between 450 nm and 550 nm. The remotely sensed data have been used to create reference spectra for different types of water. These spectra served as input to the Spectral Angle Mapper (SAM) algorithm to classify additional remotely sensed data from the region in order to estimate the possibility of using these type of data for industrial plume detection.