USGS Spectroscopy Lab

Yellowstone National Park

http://speclab.cr.usgs.gov/national.parks/national.parks.html

• Surficial mineralogy,
• Vegetation studies,
• Research on specific ecosystems, including the grizzly bear habitat.

Raymond F. Kokaly measures the spectrum of a kaolinite hot spring. The kaolinite composition was identifed by AVIRIS Tricorder mapping and verified in the field. Photo by Roger N. Clark. Click on image for larger, 173K jpeg image.

The current study and status
(Flight line map, 80k gif)
(larger Flight line map, 205k gif):

• AVIRIS data from 1996
• Coverage:
  • Specific locations in the park, includes (along with some of our results we will be reporting on):
    • Mammoth Hot Springs area (carbonates terraces mapped, vegetation species mapping)
    • Norris Geyser Basin (hydrothermal systems mapped)
    • Upper and Lower Geyser Basins (hydrothermal systems and biotics mapped)
    • Old Faithful area (hydrothermal systems and biotics mapped, including active systems and older partly eroded inactive systems)
    • Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone (hydrothermal systems mapped--the canyon cuts a cross-seection into the hydrothermal zonation)
    • Mount Washburn (Whitebark Pine mapped for grizzly bear habitat)
    • Lamar Valley (vegetation species mapping)
• AVIRIS data from 1997
• Coverage:
  • Specific locations in the park, including:
    • Mammoth area
    • Norris Geyser
    • Old Faithful
    • Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone
    • Lamar Velley
    • Yellowstone Lake
• Low altitude AVIRIS data from 1998
• Coverage:
  • >Specific locations in the park, including:
    • Old Faithful (data calibrated, mapped and used in our August field checking).
    • others but sensor had problems
• Low altitude AVIRIS data from summer 1999
• Coverage:
  • >Specific locations in the park (details to be made; see JPL AVIRIS data facility for now)
    • Old Faithful
• AVIRIS calibration to surface reflectance complete (8/97).
• Initial Tricorder mapping underway,
• Initial field checking complete (Sept, 1997).
• Additional field checking complete (Summer 1998, Oct, 1998, Aug 1999).
• ER-2 high altitude IR photography acquired, and digital scanning (3.7-meter/pixel spatial resolution) for all AVIRIS flight lines still to be done. Full resolution images will be ~45 MBytes each. (See examples under our Arches N.P. page.)
• Revised Tricorder mapping partially complete and products will continue to be produced over the coming months.

Completed Papers:

• Mapping the Biology and Mineralogy of Yellowstone National Park using Imaging Spectroscopy, presented at the January 1998 AVIRIS workshop.
• Paper for Yellowstone Conference submitted fall 1999, and will be online after acceptance.

Project/Task Leader: Roger N. Clark rclark@speclab.cr.usgs.gov

Project team:

• Raymond F. Kokaly (Vegetation studies lead)
• Eric Livo (Initial surficial mineralogy of hot springs lead)
• Gregg A. Swayze (Initial surficial mineralogy of canyon lead)
• Roger N. Clark

National Park Service: Visit the Parks Home Page

Yellowstone National Park (NPS)

Phone, email and regular mail addresses of spectroscopy lab personnel for further information.

U.S. Geological Survey, a bureau of the U.S. Department of the Interior
This page URL= http://speclab.cr.usgs.gov/national.parks/Yellowstone/yellowstone.html
This page is maintained by: Dr. Roger N. Clark rclark@speclab.cr.usgs.gov
Last modified January 8, 2000.