Linear deconvolution applied to ASTER imagery of terrestrial dune analog sites

Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflec-tion (ASTER) radiometer onboard NASA’s Terra satellite has nearly complete global coverage in the 8 – 14 µm thermal infrared (TIR) atmospheric window and is the highest resolution sensor providing TIR emissivity data at 90-m spatial resolution and five multispectral bands. ASTER imagery enables mapping of spatial variations in the distribution of mineral abundances across terrestrial dune fields. We compared simulated ASTER emissivity spectra derived from higher resolution laboratory measurements, with those simulated for various higher and lower resolution multispectral and hyperspectral sensors. Linear deconvolution was then applied to simulated ASTER as well as seven other convoluted laboratory spectral measurements of eight samples that we collected from seven different dune fields throughout the Western United States and Alaska: (1) Algodones, CA; (2) Big Dune, NV; (3) Bruneau, ID; (4) Great Kobuk Sand Dunes (GKSD), AK; (5) Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve (GSDNPP), CO; (6) Sunset Crater, AZ; and (7) White Sands National Monument, NM. We evaluate the utility of each of these seven dune fields as potential Martian aeolian analog sites by comparing their compositional similarities and differ-ences between morphologically similar dune land-forms found on Mars.