Data
Power of hyperspectral imaging:
easy-to-interpret seafloor maps
The image below is a top-down view of the seafloor, which reflects what we would normally observe with our naked eyes. Without expert knowledge, this image is impossible to interpret. By adding hyperspectral layers, we make the seafloor interpretable to anyone; we make the 'invisibe' seafloor visible. Below, the seafloor section is displayed in three distinct ways:
- Normal image - how we see the seafloor with our naked eye
- Hyperspectral overlay 1 - 96% of the image is red, indicating the reef is strongly degraded
- Hyperspectral overlay 2 - specific feature of interest is highlighted in yellow/red
Hovering your mouse over the image below will show you the different hyperspectral data that is recorded for each pixel, which is subsequently shown in the graph below this image. This hyperspectral data is used to create the hyperspectral overlays 1 and 2, to visualize the seafloor in a new/different way (e.g., visualise areas of interest). The data presented in this example has been collected by planblue and the University of Guam, USA, as part of the NASA EPSCoR and GEOCORE programs.