Can you give me a specific example of how you’re using hyperspectral remote sensing?
BOB: One of the primary ways we’re using a hyperspectral remote sensing is in our studies of the effects of the wolf reintroduction on the riparian habitats. Those species that occupy the riparian habitats are using all those spectral channels. The high fidelity quality of the instrument to not just map willow, but to record its height and the changing amount of large, woody debris, and the decrease in the wet grasses or the increase of the marsh. All of these things interact, for example, they may account for more voles or more squirrels because the habitat has increased. Hyperspectral can even be used to identify individual species of plants as well as community types, whereas a camera with a reduced set of spectral bands can’t. In order to understand unexplained impacts to the food web, plants, mammals, insects, birds — we have to understand fully all the different habitat types they inhabit. And hyperspectral is a wonderful measurement instrument to identify all these different ha
