Introduction to Protein Absorption Lines Index for Relative Assessment of Green Leaves Protein Content Using EO-1 Hyperion Datasets

The reflectance spectrum of green leaves is considerably affected by their biochemical and biophysical properties. It is possible to extract biochemical information from a continuous vegetation spectrum produced using hyperspectral sensors. The numerous absorption features present in the vegetation spectrum carry a considerable amount of information related to the content and the structure of the leaves and stems. In the present study, we tried to introduce a method for relative quantification of vegetation leaves protein contents using EO-1 Hyperion datasets through an innovative index named PALI (Protein Absorption Lines Index). The results of applying PALI to AVIRIS data also showed its robustness. However, applying PALI index for Hyperion images can only show the vegetation leaves protein contents of a pixel relative to its neighboring pixels and not absolute values. Nonetheless, it is assumed that absolute measurements will be possible if one can calibrate this index with field data.