Toward Lithological Mapping of Arabian Peninsula Using ASTER Multispectral Thermal Infrared Data

ASTER observes the thermal infrared (TIR; 7-14 mu m) spectral radiation from the Earth at five bands where the major terrestrial minerals exhibit characteristic spectral properties. The lithological and mineralogical indices for ASTER-TIR proposed by the author have been proved to be quite effective and robust in detecting silica, carbonate, sulfate and mafic-ultramafic minerals as well as delineating silicate rocks. High quality mapping results with the indices have been supplied in the scales of local to regional with the developed procedures for efficient selection of well-conditioning scenes in the vast and expanding archive of ASTER data for mosaicking. However, the procedures are not efficient enough for global mapping. On the other hand, the global emissivity dataset version 3 (GEDv3) are developed and recently supplied to the public by one of the ASTER data providers. In this study, the global map generated with applying the indices to the GEDv3 was shown. It is compared with the regional map covering a part of Arabian Peninsula produced with the procedures developed by the author. The result indicates the GED-based map revealing the rough trend of lithology and mineralogy on Earth, however, the quality is much lower compared to the regional map produced with the author's procedures.