Regional Characterisation of Soils from Ground, Air and Space

<p>The Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources has recently launched a project to characterise soils and soil patterns using smart sets of newly developed and existing technologies on regional scales. The focus lies on the combination of airborne geophysical tools like gamma ray spectrometry and remote sensing techniques such as VIS-NIR-SWIR-LWIR hyperspectral and thermal infrared imagery. In order to calibrate the measurements all given methods will be implemented on ground and on soil samples in the laboratory. Additionally, geochemical, mineralogical and physical investigations well established in soil sciences will be incorporated. The aim is to map and evaluate the physical properties acquired from drones, helicopter and satellites. Using statistical methods and means of artificial intelligence areas of homogeneous physical soil properties will be determined.  The resulting areas will be compared to soil classification maps and the distribution of soil substrates. Self organising map systems will be used for correlation of homogeneous areas and later interpretation. Major care will be taken to reduce effects from varying soil moisture and surface vegetation. The presentation will focus on ground based, airborne and space platforms and their instrumentation and current developments. Apart from off-road vehicles at least three different sets of drones will be used for detailed surveying, implementing newly developed gamma ray sensing systems, hyperspectral and thermal infrared cameras. The BGR helicopter will be equipped with a high-end gamma spectrometer and imaging hyperspectral sensors. We envisage using future hyperspectral EnMAP data to evaluate it against the helicopter results and further up- and downscaling strategies.</p>