International Journal of Remote Sensing Applications Volume 3 Issue 4, December 2013

doi: 10.14355/ijrsa.2013.0304.09

www.ijrsa.org

Lithology Identification of the North Qilian

Belt by Surface Temperature and Spectral
Emissivity Information Derived from ASTER
TIR Data
Qin Yang, Xiangnan Liu*, Xuqing Li, Chao Ding, Fan Yang
School of Information Engineering, China university of Geoscience (Beijing), China, 100083
* liuxncugb@163.com
Abstract

help for alteration mineral mapping.

Lithology units have been identified in northern Qilian belt

by using Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and
Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) thermal infrared (TIR)L1B
data which contains both surface temperature and spectral
emissivity information. As mafic-to-untramafic units have
higher surface temperature than other geologic units, surface
temperature images were generated to identify the dolerite
and peridotite etc. Reference to analysis of thermal spectra
characteristics of geological units from JHU spectral library, a
new ASTER colored composite band ratio combination band
11/12: band 12/10: band 12/14 as R:G:B was applied
successfully to distinguish quartz-rich felsic units and
feldspathic rocks from the large meadow in the study area ,
with the band ratio and de-correlation techniques. To clarify
the geological boundaries and remove the vegetation effect
more effective, NDVI image and false color composite image
composed of band 3: band 2 : band 1 visible to near infrared
bands were also generated. The result indicated that
combination of TIR FCC image, VNIR FCC image,
temperature image and NDVI image for the study lithology
mapping works well and matches the field geological
mapping.

Recently, thermal infrared remote sensing was

generally applied in lithology identification and
mineral mapping, extraction and visual interpret of
TIR data has made significant improvement. Igneous
rock thermal infrared emissivity spectra with SiO2
composition content have a corresponding relationship
between each other (Salisbury et al., 1988). Silicate,
sulfate and abundance of carbonate minerals and
chemical properties is closely related to the thermal
infrared spectral characteristics. Therefore, the surface
of minerals including igneous rock, carbonate rock and
sulfate, clay magnesium iron silicate rocks can easily
be identified by thermal infrared multispectral scanner
(TIMS), and the remote sensing lithological mapping
using aerial thermal infrared spectrum has made some
progress (Kahle et al., 1983; Fu et al., 1998; Cudahy et
al., 1999; Cudahy et al., 2000). ASTER thermal infrared
is the first satellite thermal infrared multispectral
remote sensing system, and its rich spectrum, space
resolution and radiation are suitable for the geological
application. Ninomiya (Ninomiya et al., 2005) used
ASTER TIR data and the lithology index of arid to
identify the lithologic of semi-arid areas. (Rowan et al.,
2003; Rowan et al., 2005) used ASTER visible-near,
short-wave infrared and thermal infrared data
mapping in two research areas, and discussed the
applicability in lithologic mapping.

Keywords
ASTER; Thermal Infrared; Lithology identification; Temperature;
Emissivity information

Introduction
ASTER data can provide valuable information about
earth surface and is useful for lithology identifying
and mineral exploration. It obtains multispectral image
of earth not only visible to near infrared (VNIR; 3
bands with 15 m resolution) and shortwave infrared
(SWIR; 6 bands with 30 m resolution) spectral regions,
but it has 5 bands in thermal infrared (TIR) region with
90 m resolution. Its VNIR bands and SWIR bands
provide many kinds of alteration mineral identification
information and determine alteration intensity and

Concerning the current study, TIR data cannot be used

thoroughly in the lithology mapping area. As more
and more methods of separated temperature
information and emissivity information were proposed,
surface temperature can be effectively abstracted to
help identifying, for different rock types with different
features in the temperature image. In addition, the
research of geological mapping in Qinghai-Tibet
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International Journal of Remote Sensing Applications Volume 3 Issue 4, December 2013

Plateauand is not enough in current, for its high

altitude and hard exploration conditions. In this paper,
north Qilian, a part of Qinghai-Tibet Plateauand which
is rich in mineral resource was selected and a simple
and effective method to generate false color composite
images from TIR data has been proposed based on
surface
temperature and
spectral
emissivity
information. In particular, this method can be used to
identify mafic-to-ultramafic units and felsic units from
the plateau meadow, to remove the influence of
vegetation, water and snow.
Geology and Ore Deposits of Study Area
The study area located in north Qiliana part of the
Qinghai-tibet plateau(E9830-9920, N3820-3840).
The average elevation of the area is about 4 km and
most of the land covered by plateau and stunning peak
is annually snow-covered. Thus, its suitable for
geological mapping with remote sensing and June and
July is the best month.
The study area is also a mining district where copper,
chromite, erythrozincite and gold are mined. It mainly
contains many felsic units including quartz, potassium
feldspar, albite, etc. and mafic-ultramafic rocks
including olivine, gabbro, diabase and diabase etc.
Granit is also a host country rock in the study area.
Most of the ore deposits in the area are related to
mafic-ultramafic pand granitic magmatism. Felsic
granitic rocks are bound up with Au and Cu
mineralization and mafic-ultramafic units are common
host rocks for magmatic for magmatic platinum,
chromium, and nickel deposits. (Partington and
Williams, 2000; Naldrett, 2010).

Radiometer (ASTER) thermal infrared data with five

spectral bands and a spatial resolution of 90 m. ASTER
L1B data is utilized to create false color composite
(FCC) image in order to identify geological units and
generated surface temperature image to provide more
information. NDVI images were also generated by
VNIR data to clarify the effect of vegetation.
Thermal Spectra Characteristics of Felsic and
Mafic-To-Ultramafic
Quartz and unaltered igneous rocks with prominent
spectral features are in TIR region due to SiOSi
stretching vibrations. Minerals spectral graph was
obtained from ASU spectral library hosted by the Mars
Space Flight Facility at Arizona State University which
provides thermal infrared spectra of variety of
materials including minerals, rocks, soils, etc. As
shown in Fig2, felsic including quartz and albite shows
the minimum spectral emissivity in ASTER bands 10
and 12, resulting in higher emissivity in band 11 than
ones in bands 10 and 12. In addition,
mafic-to-ultramafic units as augite have a very strong
absorption at around 8.6 l m (ASTER band 11), and as
a result, it exhibits lower emissivity in band 11 than in
bands 10 and 12, similar tendency to felsic. But olivine
has lower emissivity in bands 13 and 14 and higher
emissivity in the band 10, showing obvious differences
with quartz.

FIG. 2 LABORATORY EMISSIVITY SPECTRA OF QUARTZ,

AUGITE, OLIVINE, AUGITE AND WATER ICE of HIGH
LATITUDE, FROM ASU SPECTRAL LIBRARY.

FIR FCC Image

FIG . 1 TECTONIC OF STUDY AREA, MODIFIED BY THE GRAPH
FROM ALAN (ALAN, 2006)

TIR Images for Geological Interpretation

The data mainly used in this study is Advanced
Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection

236

To enhance the spectral differences between the

geological units, the Band Ratio techniques were
respectively used to process the TIR L1B data before
the bands were combined for FCC image. Based on the
spectral emissivity property of quartz, band 11/12 was
selected which is high in quartz and low in K-feldspar
and gypsum. While based on the spectral emissivity

International Journal of Remote Sensing Applications Volume 3 Issue 4, December 2013

property of olivine, band 12/14 is chosen to enhance

the mafic-to-ultramafic units. In the band12/14 image,
vegetation shows high value but not brighter than
olivine. In this study area, main vegetation is meadow
with scattered small grass which covered most of the
area. Therefore, separating the meadow is significant
in the data processing. Grass shows high emissivity
and less volatile tendency in the spectral graph, and
refers to the result of the experiment many times that
band 12/10 works well. In the result, the red, green and
blue(R:G:B)are
respectively
assigned
to
be
band11/12:band12/10:band12/14(Fig.3(a)).

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decorrelation stretch is necessary to eliminate or

weaken the correlation between these bands. As
shown in Fig.2, the FCC image is composed of spectral
bands with decorrelation stretch which have a stronger
color contract and show different geological units
more clear.
Comparison with a geological map, the blue regions
match peridotite units and purple regions match
amphibolite. Pink regions match felsic units, whereas
lake and water show similar color too. Green region
matches vegetation obviously.
NDVI Images
To clarify the effect of vegetation on the TIR images,
NDVI images are generated from the VNIR bands of
ASTER L1B reflectance data. The NDVI computed by
(band3 - band2)/(band3 + band2) (Yue,YM etc.,2013) is
utilized. The bright regions with high NDVI values
indicate vegetation (Fig.4). The NDVI image indicates
that most of study area has sparse vegetation and quite
fit in with FCC image above. Dense vegetation exists
along the stream in the valley and gets scattered
gradually with the increasing height. Low-albedo
regions appear white in the NDVI image.

(a)

(b)
FIG. 3(a) TIR FCC IMAGE COMPOSITED OFBAND 11/12: BAND
12/10: BAND 12/14 (b) TIR FCC IMAGE COMPOSITED OF BAND
14: BAND 12: BAND 10;

Compared with the FCC image (Fig. 3(b)) composed of

band 14: band 12: band 10 (Hatem Aboelkhair etc.,
2010), color contract is increased in the image
generated after band ratio. However, for adjacent
ASTER TIR bans are highly correlated with each others,
and these bands with band ratio processing also have a
strong correlation between each other. For this reason,

FIG. 4 NDVI IMAGE COMPUTED BY NVIR BANDS

(BAND3-BAND2)/(BAND3+BAND2)

Surface Temperature Image

In this study, a surface temperature image was
generated by ASTER TIR L1B data, not the standard
product derived from TIR L2 data. Therefore, we
preprocessed the L1B data, including radiometric
calibration and atmospheric correction. After that,
temperature and emissivity were separated by a
authority
algorithm
called
TES
(Emissivity/
Temperature separation) model to inverse surface
temperature (Fig. 6). Compared with the FCC images,

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International Journal of Remote Sensing Applications Volume 3 Issue 4, December 2013

temperature image indicates that different geological

units show different features in the TIR temperature
image. The mafic-to-ultramafic units have higher
surface temperatures than the other geological units.
Taros study indicated that temperature dominates
over spectral emissivity information in band 13 and 14
(Taro Yajima and Yasushi Yamaguchi, 2013), and just
right mafic-to-untramafic units have high digital value
in band 13 and 14. Therefore, the results of the FCC
image and temperature image matches well. In the
contrast, felsic units appear dark in color. The darkest
color matches with lakes and water drainage areas.

Fig.6 obtained by respectively assigning R:G:B to

band3:band2:band1, because the resolution of this
image is higher than that of TIR FCC image.
Discussion and Conclusion

FIG. 7 RESULT of GEOLOGICAL MAPPING of THE STUDY AREA

FIG. 5 FIR SURFACE TEMPERATURE IMAGE WHICH

SEPARATED WITH EMISSIVITY INFORMATION

FIG. 6 NVIR FCC IMAGE COMPOSITED OF BAND 3: BAND 2:

BAND 1.

VNIR FCC Image

The TIR FCC images and mineral index images are
highly affected by the vegetation and land use of the
surface. Some of the study areas are mix of rock, soil,
and vegetation, and it is not clear how to distinguish
the boundary by means of the TIR data. To clarify the
geological boundaries, VNIR FCC image is applied in
238

Accurate and advanced interpret ion is expected to be

carried out by combination with TIR FCC image,
NDVI image, surface temperature image and VNIR
FCC image (Fig. 7). Mafic-to-ultramafic units exhibit
quite bright in the temperature image and blue in the
TIR FCC image, indicating that mafic-to-ultramafic
rocks have a high correlation with temperature and
temperature dominates the spectral information
emissivity, as expected. Felsic units exhibit dark in the
temperature image and reddish or pink in the TIR FCC
image, whereas lake and water area have similar
features and obscure discriminating felsic units from
the surface materials. In this study area, as granite is
rich in quartz and anorthose, its digital value falls
between quartz and mafic-to-ultramafic units. Alkali
granite exhibits light blue and syenite exhibits purple
in the FCC image with different proportion of quartz
and feldspar. It is worth mentioning that lake and
water areas are darker than felsic units, as water has
the high albedo and low temperature. To remove the
effect of the water and snow, the high resolution VNIR
FCC image can provide more detail information to
interpret water bodies. In the study area, most of rivers
are all in the valley and along river bank vegetation is
dense. For the study area being high and cold,
meadow is the main surface material and key
interpretation unit. From the NDVI image, we can
acquire the boundaries of the meadow and it is
indicated that some light green region fails to match
the meadow in the FIR FCC image.

International Journal of Remote Sensing Applications Volume 3 Issue 4, December 2013

In conclusion, combination with surface temperature

image and TIR FCC image showed better results for
mapping mafic-unmatrafic units like dolerite, olivine
etc. NDVI and VNIR images also showed better effect
on clarifying the boundaries of meadow and bareness
rocks. As a result, combination of TIR FCC image,
VNIR FCC image, temperature image and NDVI
image for high altitude region lithology mapping
works well and matches the field geological mapping.
The result will be useful for mineral resource
prediction.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENT

and

We thank China university of Geoscience(Beijing)

geology investigation institute for their providing of
geological data. This study was conducted on the project
of Qinghai chaidamu peripheral metallogenic belt and
its adjacent area of geology and mineral resources
investigation and evaluation (1212011121188), hosted
by China university of Geoscience (Beijing) geology
investigation institute.

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