Mapping vegetation types with the multiple spectral feature mapping algorithm in both emission and absorption

Vegetation covers a large portion of the Earth's land surface. Remotely sensing quantitative information from vegetation has proven difficult because in a broad sense, all vegetation is similar from a chemical viewpoint, and most healthy plants are green. Plant species are generally characterized by the leaf and flower or fruit morphology, not by remote sensing spectral signatures. But to the human eye, many plants show varying shades of green, so there is direct evidence for spectral differences between plant types. Quantifying these changes in a predictable manner has not been easy. The Clark spectral features mapping algorithm was applied to mapping spectral features in vegetation species.