Iraqi National Journal of Earth Sciences

Abstract

To investigate the health of vegetation and soil purity in some areas south- western Mosul city, multi spectral remote sensing and Analytical Spectral Device (ASD) field spectrometer were used. Landsat ETM+ image was used to identify tonal spectral anomaly after correct it spectrally by using ENVI’s FLAASH method. A combination of False color composite image (FCC) based on the spectral characteristics of vegetation and soils was selected. This combination consists of (Band7-Red, Band4-Green, Band1-Blue) and also used to express the subtle grey tones as color variations and then some of anomalous reflectivity zones were extracted. Field spectral measurements were applied to determine the spectral reflectance anomaly of vegetation and soils. The spectral measurements of the samples were made in spectral analysis laboratory at (Remote Sensing Center- Mosul University) on a number of samples with a full-range of ASD spectrometer (i. e. 350m to 2500m), both on and off the anomalous spectral zones in order to compare the spectral changes between them. The results confirmed to the existing these reflectance zones by determination an increase in the reflectance at the chlorophyll absorption as well as a shift in the position of the red edge. The results also have indicated that the anomalous relationship between the occurrence of hydrocarbon seepages and anomaly reflectance zones. In this context, the migration of hydrocarbons has a predominantly structural control, related to the listric fault and accompanying fractures..