A weighted linear spectral mixture analysis approach to address endmember variability in agricultural production systems

Abstract

The least squares error (LSE) technique is frequently used to estimate abundance fractions in linear spectral mixture analysis (LSMA). The LSE is typically equally weighted for all wavebands, assuming equally important effects. This is, however, not always the case and therefore traditional LSMA often results in suboptimal fraction estimates. This study presents a weighted LSMA approach that prioritises wavebands with minor or no negative effects on fraction estimates. Synthetic mixed pixel spectra compiled from in situ measured spectra of bare soil, citrus tree and weed canopies were used for validation. The results show markedly improved fraction estimates obtained for the weighted approach, with a mean absolute gain of 0.24 in R ² and a mean absolute reduction in fraction abundance error of 0.06.

Acknowledgements

Funding support for this project has been provided by the Institute for the Promotion of Innovation through Science and Technology in Flanders (IWT‐Vlaanderen).