Improved k-means and spectral matching for hyperspectral mineral mapping

Mineral mapping is an important step for the development and utilization of mineral resources. The emergence of remote sensing technology, especially hyperspectral imagery, has paved a new approach to geological mapping. The k-means clustering algorithm is a classical approach to classifying hyperspectral imagery, but the influence of mixed pixels and noise mean that it usually has poor mineral mapping accuracy. In this study, the mapping accuracy of the k-means algorithm was improved in three ways: similarity measurement methods that are insensitive to dimensions are used instead of the Euclidean distance for clustering; the spectral absorption features of minerals are enhanced; and the mineral mapping results are combined as the number of cluster centers (K) is incremented from 1. The improved algorithm is used with combined spectral matching to match the clustering results with a spectral library. A case study on Cuprite, Nevada, demonstrated that the improved k-means algorithm can identify most minerals with the kappa value of over 0.8, which is 46% and 15% higher than the traditional k-means and spectral matching technology. New mineral types are more likely to be found with increasing K. When K is much greater than the number of mineral types, the accuracy is improved, and the mineral mapping results are independent of the similarity measurement method. The improved k-means algorithm can also effectively remove speckle noise from the mineral mapping results and be used to identify other objects.