Antarctica is a unique and geographically remote environment. Field campaigns in the region encounter numerous challenges including the harsh polar climate, steep topography, and high infrastructure costs. Additionally, field campaigns are often limited in terms of spatial and temporal resolution, and particularly, the topographical challenges presented in the Antarctic mean that many areas
... [Show full abstract] remain inaccessible. For example, despite more than 50 years of geological mapping on the Antarctic Peninsula, there are still large gaps in coverage, owing to the difficulties in undertaking geological mapping in such an environment. Hyperspectral imaging may provide a solution to overcome the difficulties associated with field mapping in the Antarctic. The British Antarctic Survey and partners collected the first known airborne hyperspectral dataset in the Antarctic in February 2011. Multiple spectrometers were simultaneously deployed imaging the visible, shortwave and thermal infrared regions of the electromagnetic spectrum. Additional data was generated during a field campaign in January 2014, with the deployment of multiple ground spectrometers collecting data in coincident visible, shortwave and thermal infrared regions. In arid areas, such as polar or desert regions, sparsely developed vegetation cover can allow for detailed spatial mapping of mineral outcrops using a three step processing chain; (1) determine the number of endmembers in the image, (2) extract the endmembers and (3) determine the fractional abundance of the endmembers using spectral mixture analysis produce abundance maps. Here we present preliminary results of this processing chain applied to a target area to discriminate local igneous rocks (e.g. granite, granodiorite, dolerite) using hyperspectral thermal infrared data.
