HYPERSPECTRAL DIGITAL IMAGE ANALYSIS AND GEOCHEMICAL ANALYSIS OF A RARE EARTH ELEMENTS MINERALIZED INTRUSIVE COMPLEX (FEN CARBONATITE COMPLEX IN TELEMARK REGION, NORWAY)

Today rare earth elements are of great interest for the global economy. They are of particular importance in modern technology, such as batteries, LCD displays and catalytic converters. Hyperspectral imagers, like the Earth Observing-1 Hyperion and the future environmental mapping and analysis program (EnMAP) bear a potential to identify rare earth element enriched zones in hardly accessible terrains on Earth. Moreover, it is a brilliant technology for monitoring exploration with regard to environmental pollution and protection of local communities. Hence, a fast and accurate geological prospection algorithm using highly spectrally resolved satellite and airborne images is necessary. Since a lot of competing absorptions (e.g. vegetation, iron oxides and atmospheric water) take place in the VNIR spectral range and the shape of rare earth element absorption bands are usually similar to the shape of noise, a detection of Rare Earth Elements is hampered.