New Generation Hyperspectral Data From DESIS Compared to High Spatial Resolution PlanetScope Data for Crop Type Classification

• Published in: IEEE journal of selected topics in applied earth observations and remote sensing Vol. 15; pp. 7846 - 7858
• Main Authors: Aneece, Itiya, Foley, Daniel, Thenkabail, Prasad, Oliphant, Adam, Teluguntla, Pardhasaradhi
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Piscataway IEEE 2022; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Accuracy; Classification; Crops; CubeSat; Data collection; Earth; Food and water security; Growing season; high spatial resolution remote sensing; Hyperspectral imaging; hyperspectral remote sensing; Image classification; Imaging spectrometers; International Space Station; Irrigation; machine learning; Precision farming; Resolution; Sensors; Spatial data; Spatial discrimination; Spatial resolution
• ISSN: 1939-1404; 2151-1535
• DOI: 10.1109/JSTARS.2022.3204223

Thoroughly investigating the characteristics of new generation hyperspectral and high spatial resolution spaceborne sensors will advance the study of agricultural crops. Therefore, we compared the performances of hyperspectral Deutsches Zentrum fur Luftund Raumfahrt- (DLR) Earth Sensing Imaging Spectrometer (DESIS) and high spatial resolution PlanetScope in classifying eight crop types in California's Central Valley during the 2020 growing season. The DESIS sensor onboard the International Space Station collects data at 235 hyperspectral narrowbands (HNB) each with 2.55 nm bandwidth from 400-1000 nm and 30 m spatial resolution. In contrast, PlanetScope Dove-R data have four multispectral broadbands (MBB) with 3-4 m spatial resolution. We obtained best classification accuracies using 14 DESIS HNB from the August 2020 image, with an overall accuracy of 85% and producer's and user's accuracies of 72-100% and 75-100%, respectively, for the eight crops. The best classification accuracies using PlanetScope data were obtained using an image mosaic pair from June and August 2020; this resulted in an overall accuracy of 79% and producer's and user's accuracies of 56-100% and 61-100%, respectively. Combining the best 14 DESIS HNB from August 2020 with the 4 PlanetScope MBB from August 2020 yielded an overall accuracy of 82% and producer's and user's accuracies of 65-100% and 60-94%, respectively. On one-to-one single date comparisons of DESIS versus PlanetScope data, the hyperspectral data always outperformed high spatial resolution data in crop type classification. Nevertheless, high spatial resolution data will remain invaluable in assessing within-field variability and crop biophysical/biochemical modeling in precision agriculture.