Demonstrations of Video Processing of Image Data for Uranium Resource Assessments

摘要

Video processing of LANDSAT imagery was performed for nine areas in the western United States to demonstrate the applicability of such analyses for regional uranium resource assessment. The results of these tests, in areas of diverse geology, topography, and vegetation, were mixed. The best success was achieved in arid areas because vegetation cover is extremely limiting in any analysis dealing primarily with rocks and soils. Surface alteration patterns of large areal extent, involving transformation or redistribution of iron oxides, and reflectance contrasts were the only type of alteration consistently detected by video processing of LANDSAT imagery. Alteration often provided the only direct indication of mineralization. Other exploration guides, such as lithologic changes, can often be detected, even in heavily vegetated regions. Structural interpretation of the imagery proved far more successful than spectral analyses as an indicator of regions of possible uranium enrichment. (ERA citation 04:009743)