SPECTRAL DETECTION OF INORGANIC CARBON CONTENT ALONG A SEMI-ARID TO HYPER-ARID CLIMATIC GRADIENT IN THE JUDEAN DESERT (ISRAEL)

Along a hypsometric rainfall gradient from Jerusalem covering the semi-arid and arid climate and extending to the east to the hyper-arid area at the Dead Sea rift soil samples have been collected and analysed for different chemical parameters. In addition to soil chemical laboratory analysis the spectral reflectance of the soil samples has been measured in the range of 0.35 and 2.5 µm. These reflectance measurements have been normalised to derive individual absorption features employing a convex-hull function, and the spectra were used to calculate colour parameters