# Imaging spectroscopy retrieval
*methodologies*

Base sensing method for spaceborne imaging spectrometers: acquires per-pixel spectral fingerprints across contiguous VNIR-SWIR bands, producing a spectral cube from which material composition, vegetation biochemistry, or land-cover classes are retrieved. Spectral-library-matching and supervised-tree-ensemble-classification build on this base retrieval.

## Specifications
- **family**: Imaging spectroscopy
- **requirements envelope**: {"kind":"spectral","spectral_range_nm":{"min":400,"max":2500},"bands_min":100,"calibration_tier_min":"reflectance","snr_min":100,"daylight_required":true,"cloud_tolerant":false}
- **entity type**: methodology
- **last verified date**: 2026-05-22
- **verified by**: sw
- **claim status**: unclaimed
- **attributes**: {"family":"Imaging spectroscopy","summary":"Base sensing method for spaceborne imaging spectrometers: acquires per-pixel spectral fingerprints across contiguous VNIR-SWIR bands, producing a spectral cube from which material composition, vegetation biochemistry, or land-cover classes are retrieved. Spectral-library-matching and supervised-tree-ensemble-classification build on this base retrieval.","requirements_envelope":"{\"kind\":\"spectral\",\"spectral_range_nm\":{\"min\":400,\"max\":2500},\"bands_min\":100,\"calibration_tier_min\":\"reflectance\",\"snr_min\":100,\"daylight_required\":true,\"cloud_tolerant\":false}"}
- **technology**: optical-spectral-sensing

## Editorial
Imaging spectrometers (EnMAP, HyperScout-H, EMIT, DESIS, PRISMA) sample contiguous VNIR-SWIR spectral ranges at high spectral resolution, yielding a per-pixel spectrum. The base retrieval step produces atmospherically corrected surface reflectance cubes. Analysis methods (spectral-library-matching, supervised-tree-ensemble-classification, spectral-unmixing) apply on top of this cube product. [Wikipedia: Hyperspectral imaging](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperspectral_imaging)

## Sources
- [wikipedia] | Wikipedia: Hyperspectral imaging | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperspectral_imaging | tier=community | accessed=2026-05-22

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Source: https://eo-atlas.org/methodologies/hyperspectral-classification
Maintainer: SpectraWorks B.V. (CC-BY 4.0)