Challenge 1 Solved

We challenged our IDCube community members to find the fire within the smoke-filled mountains of Tucson, Arizona. Scientists and enthusiasts searched through thousands of wavelengths to uncover the fire. The winning wavelengths are…

2300 nm, 1200 nm, 1400 nm

So how did we get there? Before we go there, let’s talk a bit about the satellite. The Hyperion instrument on the Earth Observing-1 (EO-1) satellite was used to take these hyperspectral images. The pushbroom hyperspectral imager, Hyperion, collects 220 unique spectral channels ranging from 0.357 to 2.576 micrometers with a 10-nm bandwidth and a spatial resolution of 30 meters for all bands. On July 3rd, 2003, Hyperion took the following images. These images have been cropped and processed using our IDCube software.

2003 Mt. Lemmon Fire near Tucson, Arizona

This picture was captured with a Hyperion instrument on the Earth Observing-1 (EO-1) satellite on July 3rd, 2003. Pictured here from left to right is the same image visualized three different ways in the visible range, near infrared range, and short-wave infrared range.

However, we would not be inquisitive scientists if we did not question the validity of what we observed. Is the red really a fire? Or is it an artifact seen in the SWIR? To check this, we decided to look at data obtained from June 6, 2002 — one year before the fire. These images below have been cropped and processed with our IDCube software.

2002 Mt. Lemmon near

Tucson, Arizona

This picture was captured with a Hyperion instrument on the Earth Observing-1 (EO-1) satellite on June 6th, 2002. Pictured here from left to right is the same image visualized three different ways in the visible range, near infrared range, and short-wave infrared range.

When we compare these images, we can see that the cloudy white/blue texture seen in the 2003 images in VIS and NIR are not seen in the respective images in 2002. From this, we can say with a fair degree of confidence that the texture is, in fact, smoke, and the red is the fire location.

We have also put together a step by step video tutorial which brings you through how we get these images.

Thanks for stopping by our new blog. Please feel free to reach out to us by chat or email us at info@hspeq.com. See you next time!