HYPERGIX - A USER-FRIENDLY, OPEN-SOURCE HYPERSPECTRAL IMAGERY APPLICATION

This paper describes the design and development of HyperGix, a desktop application for downloading, viewing, and processing hyperspectral data. HyperGix's graphical interface was implemented using Python and is designed to be user-friendly and intuitive to use without much instruction necessary. The software presently consists of three main modules-the Image Viewer, the Spectra Manager, and the USGS Search modules. In the Image Viewer, the user can browse their hyperspectral image library, examine the spectra of any pixel in the image, assign pixels to material classes such as 'Water' or 'Vegetation', and perform Principal Component Analysis and automatic spectra classification using a spectral angle mapping. The Spectra Manager module allows the user to create custom material classes of their own and examine the spectra of pixels assigned to each class. Finally, the USGS Search module provides an easy search engine to query the United States Geological Survey's vast repository of Hyperion satellite sensor images and download them for analysis in the application. HyperGix is open-source and still in development. Compared to other current free / open-source solutions, the platform provides a full workflow, from data search to processing, is easy to use and expand, making it a valuable tool for citizen science projects and overall lowering the barriers of access to both data and methods in hyperspectral imagery.