Mapping Ungulate Habitats in Yellowstone National Park with Airborne Hyperspectral Data

Mapping vegetation habitats of ungulates (e.g., bison, elk, and deer) is critical to the development of efficient wildlife management and monitoring practices in Yellowstone National Park. Image endmembers were chosen using the ENVI minimum noise fraction, pixel purity index, N-dimensional visualizer approach. The spectral angle mapper algorithm was used to classify the image. This process was applied to low altitude AVIRIS and Probe-1 hyperspectral imagery of the Lamar River/Soda Butte Creek confluence to map several ungulate habitats (e.g., grasses, sedge, sage, aspen, willow, and cottonwood. The results are being compared to field measurements and large-scale color infrared aerial photography to assess mapping accuracy. The use of AVIRIS and Probe-1 data enabled the examination of hyperspectral data collected at different spatial and spectral resolutions.