The Effect Of Soil Moisture On Reflectance Characteristics Of Salt Crusts

In the.Western Desert of Egypt small lakes are studied by means of remote sensing techniques in order to determine groundwater losses by evaporation. A'part of the research focussed at identifi~ cation of areas where changes in groundwater level have occurred: besides .it aimed at finding a combination of LANDSAT TM bands that is most suitable for mapping wet soils in (semi-)ar'id areas. LANDSAT B/W transparencies in a negative format were used in a colour additive viewing system. The colour composite of bands 3 (green), 4 (blue) and 7 (red) is described and interpreted. Digital processing of LANDSAT TM CCT resulted in spectral absorptance patterns of various soil types that could be used for indicating the relative height in the terrain.