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HYPERSPECTRAL REMOTE SENSING
OF VEGETATION
SECOND EDITION
VOLUME II

Hyperspectral Indices and

Image Classifications for
Agriculture and Vegetation
 Hyperspectral Remote Sensing of Vegetation
Second Edition

Volume I: Fundamentals, Sensor Systems, Spectral Libraries, and Data Mining

for ­Vegetation
Volume II: Hyperspectral Indices and Image Classifications for Agriculture
and Vegetation
Volume III: Biophysical and Biochemical Characterization and Plant Species Studies
Volume IV: Advanced Applications in Remote Sensing of Agricultural Crops and
­Natural Vegetation
HYPERSPECTRAL REMOTE SENSING
OF VEGETATION
SECOND EDITION
VOLUME II

Hyperspectral Indices and

Image Classifications for
Agriculture and Vegetation

Edited by
Prasad S. Thenkabail
John G. Lyon
Alfredo Huete
CRC Press
Taylor & Francis Group
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Boca Raton, FL 33487-2742

© 2019 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

CRC Press is an imprint of Taylor & Francis Group, an Informa business

No claim to original U.S. Government works

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 Dr. Prasad S. Thenkabail, Editor-in-Chief of these four volumes would
like to dedicate the four volumes to three of his professors at the
Ohio State University during his PhD days:

1. Late Prof. Andrew D. Ward, former professor of The Department of Food,

Agricultural, and Biological Engineering (FABE) at
The Ohio State University,
2. Prof. John G. Lyon, former professor of the Department
of Civil, Environmental and Geodetic Engineering
at the Ohio State University, and
3. Late Prof. Carolyn Merry, former Professor Emerita and former
Chair of the Department of Civil, Environmental and
Geodetic Engineering at the Ohio State University.
Contents
Foreword to the First Edition ............................................................................................................ix
Foreword to the Second Edition...................................................................................................... xiii
Preface............................................................................................................................................xvii
Acknowledgments............................................................................................................................xxi
Editors.............................................................................................................................................xxv
Contributors...................................................................................................................................xxix
Acronyms and Abbreviations..................................................................................................... xxxiii

SECTION I  Hyperspectral Vegetation Indices

Chapter 1 Hyperspectral Vegetation Indices.................................................................................3

Dar A. Roberts, Keely L. Roth, Erin B. Wetherley, Susan K. Meerdink,
and Ryan L. Perroy

Chapter 2 Derivative Hyperspectral Vegetation Indices in Characterizing Forest

Biophysical and Biochemical Quantities..................................................................... 27
Quan Wang, Jia Jin, Rei Sonobe, and Jing Ming Chen

SECTION II  H
 yperspectral Image Classification
Methods and Approaches

Chapter 3 Advances in Hyperspectral Image Classification Methods for Vegetation and

Agricultural Cropland Studies.................................................................................... 67
Edoardo Pasolli, Saurabh Prasad, Melba M. Crawford, and James C. Tilton

Chapter 4 Big Data Processing on Cloud Computing Architectures for Hyperspectral

Remote Sensing......................................................................................................... 105
Zebin Wu, Jin Sun, and Yi Zhang

SECTION III  H
 yperspectral Vegetation Index
Applications to Agriculture and Vegetation

Chapter 5 Noninvasive Quantification of Foliar Pigments: Principles and Implementation..... 135

Anatoly Gitelson and Alexei Solovchenko

vii
viii Contents

Chapter 6 Hyperspectral Remote Sensing of Leaf Nitrogen Concentration in Cereal Crops......... 163
Tao Cheng, Yan Zhu, Dong Li, Xia Yao, and Kai Zhou

Chapter 7 Optical Remote Sensing of Vegetation Water Content............................................. 183

Colombo Roberto, Busetto Lorenzo, Meroni Michele, Rossini Micol,
and Panigada Cinzia

Chapter 8 Estimation of Nitrogen Content in Herbaceous Plants Using Hyperspectral

Vegetation Indices..................................................................................................... 201
D. Stroppiana, F. Fava, M. Boschetti, and P. A. Brivio

Chapter 9 Hyperspectral Remote Sensing of Leaf Chlorophyll Content: From Leaf,

Canopy, to Landscape Scales.................................................................................... 227
Yongqin Zhang

SECTION IV Conclusions

Chapter 10 Fifty Years of Advances in Hyperspectral Remote Sensing of Agriculture and

Vegetation—Summary, Insights, and Highlights of Volume II: Hyperspectral
Indices and Image Classifications for Agriculture and Vegetation........................... 251
Prasad S. Thenkabail, John G. Lyon, and Alfredo Huete

Index............................................................................................................................................... 287
Foreword to the First Edition
The publication of this book, Hyperspectral Remote Sensing of Vegetation, marks a milestone in
the application of imaging spectrometry to study 70% of the Earth’s landmass which is vegetated.
This book shows not only the breadth of international involvement in the use of hyperspectral data
but also in the breadth of innovative application of mathematical techniques to extract information
from the image data.
Imaging spectrometry evolved from the combination of insights from the vast heterogeneity of
reflectance signatures from the Earth’s surface seen in the ERTS-1 (Landsat-1) 4-band images and
the field spectra that were acquired to help fully understand the causes of the signatures. It wasn’t
until 1979 when the first hybrid area-array detectors, mercury-cadmium-telluride on silicon CCD’s,
became available that it was possible to build an imaging spectrometer capable of operating at
wavelengths beyond 1.0 µm. The AIS (airborne imaging spectrometer), developed at NASA/JPL, had
only 32 cross-track pixels but that was enough for the geologists clamoring for this development to
see between the bushes to determine the mineralogy of the substrate. In those early years, vegetation
cover was just a nuisance!
In the early 1980s, spectroscopic analysis was driven by the interest to identify mineralogical
composition by exploiting absorptions found in the SWIR region from overtone and combination
bands of fundamental vibrations found in the mid-IR region beyond 3 µm and the electronic transitions
in transition elements appearing, primarily, short of 1.0 µm. The interests of the geologists had been
incorporated in the Landsat TM sensor in the form of the add-on, band 7 in the 2.2 µm region based
on field spectroscopic measurements. However, one band, even in combination with the other six, did
not meet the needs for mineral identification. A summary of mineralogical analyses is presented by
Vaughan et al. in this volume. A summary of the historical development of hyperspectral imaging
can be found in Goetz (2009).
At the time of the first major publication of the AIS results (Goetz et al., 1985), very little work
on vegetation analysis using imaging spectroscopy had been undertaken. The primary interest
was in identifying the relationship of the chlorophyll absorption red-edge to stress and substrate
composition that had been seen in airborne profiling and in field spectral reflectance measurements.
Most of the published literature concerned analyzing NDVI, which only required two spectral bands.
In the time leading up to the 1985 publication, we had only an inkling of the potential information
content in the hundreds of contiguous spectral bands that would be available to us with the advent
of AVIRIS (airborne visible and infrared imaging spectrometer). One of the authors, Jerry Solomon,
presciently added the term “hyperspectral” to the text of the paper to describe the “…multidimensional
character of the spectral data set,” or, in other words, the mathematically, over-determined nature
of hyperspectral data sets. The term hyperspectral as opposed to multispectral data moved into
the remote sensing vernacular and was additionally popularized by the military and intelligence
community.
In the early 1990s, as higher quality AVIRIS data became available, and the first analyses of
vegetation using statistical techniques borrowed from chemometrics, also known as NIRS analysis
used in the food and grain industry, were undertaken by John Aber and Mary Martin of the University
of New Hampshire. Here, nitrogen contents of tree canopies were predicted from reflectance spectra
by regression techniques using reference measurements from laboratory wet chemical analyses of
needle and leaf samples acquired by shooting down branches. At the same time, the remote sensing
community began to recognize the value of “too many” spectral bands and the concomitant wealth
of spatial information that was amenable to information extraction by statistical techniques. One of
them was Eyal Ben-Dor who pioneered soil analyses using hyperspectral imaging and who is one
of the contributors to this volume.

ix
x Foreword to the First Edition

As the quality of AVIRIS data grew, manifested in increasing SNR, an ever-increasing amount
of information could be extracted from the data. This quality was reflected in the increasing number
of nearly noiseless principal components that could be obtained from the data or, in other words,
its dimensionality. The explosive advances in desktop computing made possible the application of
image processing and statistical analyses that revolutionized the uses of hyperspectral imaging.
Joe Boardman and others at the University of Colorado developed what has become the ENVI
software package to make possible the routine analysis of hyperspectral image data using “unmixing
techniques” to derive the relative abundance of surface materials on a pixel-by-pixel basis.
Many of the analysis techniques discussed in this volume, such as band selection and various
indices, are rooted in principal components analysis. The eigenvector loadings or factors indicate
which spectral bands are the most heavily weighted allowing others to be discarded to reduce the
noise contribution. As sensors become better, more information will be extractable and fewer bands
will be discarded. This is the beauty of hyperspectral imaging, allowing the choice of the number
of eigenvectors to be used for a particular problem. Computing power has reached such a high level
that it is no longer necessary to choose a subset of bands just to minimize the computational time.
As regression techniques such as PLS (partial least squares) become increasingly adopted to relate
a particular vegetation parameter to reflectance spectra, it must be remembered that the quality of
the calibration model is a function of both the spectra and the reference measurement. With spectral
measurements of organic and inorganic compounds under laboratory conditions, we have found that
a poor model with a low coefficient of determination (r2) is most often associated with inaccurate
reference measurements, leading to the previously intuitive conclusion that “spectra don’t lie.”
Up to this point, AVIRIS has provided the bulk of high-quality hyperspectral image data but on
an infrequent basis. Although Hyperion has provided some time series data, there is no hyperspectral
imager yet in orbit that is capable of providing routine, high-quality images of the whole Earth on
a consistent basis. The hope is that in the next decade, HyspIRI will be providing VNIR and SWIR
hyperspectral images every 3 weeks and multispectral thermal data every week. This resource will
revolutionize the field of vegetation remote sensing since so much of the useful information is bound
up in the seasonal growth cycle. The combination of the spectral, spatial, and temporal dimensions
will be ripe for the application of statistical techniques and the results will be extraordinary.

Dr. Alexander F. H. Goetz PhD

Former Chairman and Chief Scientist
ASD Inc.
2555 55th St. #100
Boulder, CO 80301, USA
303-444-6522 ext. 108
Fax 303-444-6825
www.asdi.com

REFERENCES
Goetz, A. F. H., 2009, Three decades of hyperspectral imaging of the Earth: A personal view, Remote Sensing
of Environment, 113, S5–S16.
Goetz, A.F.H., G. Vane, J. Solomon and B.N. Rock, 1985, Imaging spectrometry for Earth remote sensing,
Science, 228, 1147–1153.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
Dr. Goetz is one of the pioneers in hyperspectral remote sensing and certainly needs no introduction.
Dr. Goetz started his career working on spectroscopic reflectance and emittance studies of the Moon
and Mars. He was a principal investigator of Apollo-8 and Apollo-12 multispectral photography
Foreword to the First Edition xi

studies. Later, he turned his attention to remote sensing of Planet Earth working in collaboration
with Dr. Gene Shoemaker to map geology of Coconino County (Arizona) using Landsat-1 data and
went on to be an investigator in further Landsat, Skylab, Shuttle, and EO-1 missions. At NASA/JPL
he pioneered field spectral measurements and initiated the development of hyperspectral imaging.
He spent 21 years on the faculty of the University of Colorado, Boulder, and retired in 2006 as an
Emeritus Professor of Geological Sciences and an Emeritus Director of Center for the Study of Earth
from Space. Since then, he has been Chairman and Chief Scientist of ASD Inc. a company that has
provided more than 850 research laboratories in over 60 countries with field spectrometers. Dr. Goetz
is now retired. His foreword was written for the first edition and I have retained it in consultation
with him to get a good perspective on the development of hyperspectral remote sensing.
Foreword to the Second Edition
The publication of the four-volume set, Hyperspectral Remote Sensing of Vegetation, second edition,
is a landmark effort in providing an important, valuable, and timely contribution that summarizes
the state of spectroscopy-based understanding of the Earth’s terrestrial and near shore environments.
Imaging spectroscopy has had 35 years of development in data processing and analysis methods.
Today’s researchers are eager to use data produced by hyperspectral imagers and address important
scientific issues from agricultural management to global environmental stewardship. The field
started with development of the Jet Propulsion Lab’s Airborne Imaging Spectrometer in 1983 that
measured across the reflected solar infrared spectrum with 128 spectral bands. This technology was
quickly followed in 1987 by the more capable Advanced Visible Infrared Imaging Spectrometer
(AVIRIS), which has flown continuously since this time (albeit with multiple upgrades). It has 224
spectral bands covering the 400–2500 nm range with 10 nm wavelength bands and represents the
“gold standard” of this technology. In the years since then, progress toward a hyperspectral satellite
has been disappointingly slow. Nonetheless, important and significant progress in understanding how
to analyze and understand spectral data has been achieved, with researchers focused on developing
the concepts, analytical methods, and spectroscopic understanding, as described throughout these
four volumes. Much of the work up to the present has been based on theoretical analysis or from
experimental studies at the leaf level from spectrometer measurements and at the canopy level from
airborne hyperspectral imagers.
Although a few hyperspectral satellites have operated over various periods in the 2000s, none
have provided systematic continuous coverage required for global mapping and time series analysis.
An EnMap document compiled the past and near-term future hyperspectral satellites and those
on International Space Station missions (EnMap and GRSS Technical Committee 2017). Of the
hyperspectral imagers that have been flown, the European Space Agency’s CHRIS (Compact High
Resolution Imaging Spectrometer) instrument on the PROBA-1 (Project for On-Board Autonomy)
satellite and the Hyperion sensor on the NASA technology demonstrator, Earth Observing-1 platform
(terminated in 2017). Each has operated for 17 years and have received the most attention from the
science community. Both collect a limited number of images per day, and have low data quality
relative to today’s capability, but both have open data availability. Other hyperspectral satellites with
more limited access and duration include missions from China, Russia, India, and the United States.
We are at a threshold in the availability of hyperspectral imagery. There are many hyperspectral
missions planned for launch in the next 5 years from China, Italy, Germany, India, Japan, Israel,
and the United States, some with open data access. The analysis of the data volumes from this
proliferation of hyperspectral imagers requires a comprehensive reference resource for professionals
and students to turn to in order to understand and correctly and efficiently use these data. This
four-volume set is unique in compiling in-depth understanding of calibration, visualization, and
analysis of data from hyperspectral sensors. The interest in this technology is now widespread, thus,
applications of hyperspectral imaging cross many disciplines, which are truly international, as is
evident by the list of authors of the chapters in these volumes, and the number of countries planning
to operate a hyperspectral satellite. At least some of the hyperspectral satellites announced and
expected to be launched in this decade (such as the HyspIRI-like satellite approved for development
by NASA with a launch in the 2023 period) will provide high-fidelity narrow-wavelength bands,
covering the full reflected solar spectrum, at moderate (30 m pixels) to high spatial resolution. These
instruments will have greater radiometric range, better SNR, pointing accuracy, and reflectance
calibration than past instruments, and will collect data from many countries and parts of the world
that have not previously been available. Together, these satellites will produce an unprecedented flow
of information about the physiological functioning (net primary production, evapotranspiration, and
even direct measurements related to respiration), biochemical characteristics (from spectral indices

xiii
xiv Foreword to the Second Edition

and from radiative transfer first principle methods), and direct measurements of the distributions of
plant and soil biodiversity of the terrestrial and coastal environments of the Earth.
This four-volume set presents an unprecedented range and scope of information on hyperspectral
data analysis and applications written by leading authors in the field. Topics range from sensor
characteristics from ground-based platforms to satellites, methods of data analysis to characterize
plant functional properties related to exchange of gases CO2, H2O, O2, and biochemistry for
pigments, N cycle, and other molecules. How these data are used in applications range from precision
agriculture to global change research. Because the hundreds of bands in the full spectrum includes
information to drive detection of these properties, the data is useful at scales from field applications
to global studies.
Volume I has three sections and starts with an introduction to hyperspectral sensor systems.
Section II focuses on sensor characteristics from ground-based platforms to satellites, and how these
data are used in global change research, particularly in relation to agricultural crop monitoring and
health of natural vegetation. Section III provides five chapters that deal with the concept of spectral
libraries to identify crops and spectral traits, and for phenotyping for plant breeding. It addresses the
development of spectral libraries, especially for agricultural crops and one for soils.
Volume II expands on the first volume, focusing on use of hyperspectral indices and image
classification. The volume begins with an explanation of how narrow-band hyperspectral indices are
determined, often from individual spectral absorption bands but also from correlation matrices and
from derivative spectra. These are followed by chapters on statistical approaches to image classification
and a chapter on methods for dealing with “big data.” The last half of this volume provides five
chapters focused on use of vegetation indices for quantifying and characterizing photosynthetic
pigments, leaf nitrogen concentrations or contents, and foliar water content measurements. These
chapters are particularly focused on applications for agriculture, although a chapter addresses more
heterogeneous forest conditions and how these patterns relate to monitoring health and production.
The first half of Volume III focuses on biophysical and biochemical characterization of vegetation
properties that are derived from hyperspectral data. Topics include ecophysiological functioning
and biomass estimates of crops and grasses, indicators of photosynthetic efficiency, and stress
detection. The chapter addresses biophysical characteristics across different spatial scales while
another chapter examines spectral and spatial methods for retrieving biochemical and biophysical
properties of crops. The chapters in the second half of this volume are focused on identification and
discrimination of species from hyperspectral data and use of these methods for rapid phenotyping of
plant breeding trials. Lastly, two chapters evaluate tree species identification, and another provides
examples of mapping invasive species.
Volume IV focuses on six areas of advanced applications in agricultural crops. The first considers
detection of plant stressors including nitrogen deficiency and excess heavy metals and crop disease
detection in precision farming. The second addresses global patterns of crop water productivity and
quantifying litter and invasive species in arid ecosystems. Phenological patterns are examined while
others focus on multitemporal data for mapping patterns of phenology. The third area is focused on
applications of land cover mapping in different forest, wetland, and urban applications. The fourth
topic addresses hyperspectral measurements of wildfires, and the fifth evaluates use of continuity
vegetation index data in global change applications. And lastly, the sixth area examines use of
hyperspectral data to understand the geologic surfaces of other planets.

Susan L. Ustin
Professor and Vice Chair, Dept. Land, Air and Water Resources
Associate Director, John Muir Institute
University of California
Davis California, USA
Foreword to the Second Edition xv

REFERENCE
EnMap Ground Segment Team and GSIS GRSS Technical committee, December, 2017. Spaceborne Imaging
Spectroscopy Mission Compilation. DLR Space Administration and the German Federal Ministry of
Economic Affairs and Technology. http://www.enmap.org/sites/default/files/pdf/Hyperspectral_EO_
Missions_2017_12_21_FINAL4.pdf

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
Dr. Susan L. Ustin is currently a Distinguished Professor of Environmental and Resource Sciences
in the Department of Land, Air, and Water Resources, University of California Davis, Associate
Director of the John Muir Institute, and is Head of the Center for Spatial Technologies and Remote
Sensing (CSTARS) at the same university. She was trained as a plant physiological ecologist but
began working with hyperspectral imagery as a post-doc in 1983 with JPL’s AIS program. She
became one of the early adopters of hyperspectral remote sensing which has now extended over her
entire academic career. She was a pioneer in the development of vegetation analysis using imaging
spectrometery, and is an expert on ecological applications of this data. She has served on numerous
NASA, NSF, DOE, and the National Research Council committees related to spectroscopy and
remote sensing. Among recognitions for her work, she is a Fellow of the American Geophysical
Union and received an honorary doctorate from the University of Zurich. She has published more
than 200 scientific papers related to ecological remote sensing and has worked with most of the
Earth-observing U.S. airborne and spaceborne systems.
Preface
This seminal book on Hyperspectral Remote Sensing of Vegetation (Second Edition, 4 Volume Set),
published by Taylor and Francis Inc.\CRC Press is an outcome of over 2 years of effort by the editors
and authors. In 2011, the first edition of Hyperspectral Remote Sensing of Vegetation was published.
The book became a standard reference on hyperspectral remote sensing of vegetation amongst the
remote sensing community across the world. This need and resulting popularity demanded a second
edition with more recent as well as more comprehensive coverage of the subject. Many advances
have taken place since the first edition. Further, the first edition was limited in scope in the sense
it covered some very important topics and missed equally important topics (e.g., hyperspectral
library of agricultural crops, hyperspectral pre-processing steps and algorithms, and many others).
As a result, a second edition that brings us up-to-date advances in hyperspectral remote sensing of
vegetation was required. Equally important was the need to make the book more comprehensive,
covering an array of subjects not covered in the first edition. So, my coeditors and myself did a
careful research on what should go into the second edition. Quickly, the scope of the second edition
expanded resulting in an increasing number of chapters. All of this led to developing the seminal
book: Hyperspectral Remote Sensing of Vegetation, Second Edition, 4 Volume Set. The four volumes
are:

Volume I: Fundamentals, Sensor Systems, Spectral Libraries, and Data Mining for ­Vegetation
Volume II: Hyperspectral Indices and Image Classifications for Agriculture and Vegetation
Volume III: Biophysical and Biochemical Characterization and Plant Species Studies
Volume IV: Advanced Applications in Remote Sensing of Agricultural Crops and N ­ atural
Vegetation

The goal of the book was to bring in one place collective knowledge of the last 50 years of
advances in hyperspectral remote sensing of vegetation with a target audience of wide spectrum
of scientific community, students, and professional application practitioners. The book documents
knowledge advances made in applying hyperspectral remote sensing technology in the study of
terrestrial vegetation that include agricultural crops, forests, rangelands, and wetlands. This is a very
practical offering about a complex subject that is rapidly advancing its knowledge-base. In a very
practical way, the book demonstrates the experience, utility, methods, and models used in studying
terrestrial vegetation using hyperspectral data. The four volumes, with a total of 48 chapters, are
divided into distinct themes.

• Volume I: There are 14 chapters focusing on hyperspectral instruments, spectral

libraries, and methods and approaches of data handling. The chapters extensively address
various preprocessing steps and data mining issues such as the Hughes phenomenon and
overcoming the “curse of high dimensionality” of hyperspectral data. Developing spectral
libraries of crops, vegetation, and soils with data gathered from hyperspectral data from
various platforms (ground-based, airborne, spaceborne), study of spectral traits of crops,
and proximal sensing at field for phenotyping are extensively discussed. Strengths and
limitations of hyperspectral data of agricultural crops and vegetation acquired from different
platforms are discussed. It is evident from these chapters that the hyperspectral data provides
opportunities for great advances in study of agricultural crops and vegetation. However, it
is also clear from these chapters that hyperspectral data should not be treated as panacea
to every limitation of multispectral broadband data such as from Landsat or Sentinel series
of satellites. The hundreds or thousands of hyperspectral narrowbands (HNBs) as well as
carefully selected hyperspectral vegetation indices (HVIs) will help us make significant

xvii
xviii Preface

advances in characterizing, modeling, mapping, and monitoring vegetation biophysical,

biochemical, and structural quantities. However, it is also important to properly understand
hyperspectral data and eliminate redundant bands that exist for every application and to
optimize computing as well as human resources to enable seamless and efficient handling
enormous volumes of hyperspectral data. Special emphasis is also put on preprocessing and
processing of Earth Observing-1 (EO-1) Hyperion, the first publicly available hyperspectral
data from space. These methods, approaches, and algorithms, and protocols set the stage for
upcoming satellite hyperspectral sensors such as NASA’s HyspIRI and Germany’s EnMAP.
• Volume II: There are 10 chapters focusing on hyperspectral vegetation indices (HVIs) and
image classification methods and techniques. The HVIs are of several types such as: (i) two-
band derived, (ii) multi-band-derived, and (iii) derivative indices derived. The strength
of the HVIs lies in the fact that specific indices can be derived for specific biophysical,
biochemical, and plant structural quantities. For example, you have carotenoid HVI,
anthocyanin HVI, moisture or water HVI, lignin HVI, cellulose HVI, biomass or LAI or
other biophysical HVIs, red-edge based HVIs, and so on. Further, since these are narrowband
indices, they are better targeted and centered at specific sensitive wavelength portions of the
spectrum. The strengths and limitations of HVIs in a wide array of applications such as leaf
nitrogen content (LNC), vegetation water content, nitrogen content in vegetation, leaf and
plant pigments, anthocyanin’s, carotenoids, and chlorophyll are thoroughly studied. Image
classification using hyperspectral data provides great strengths in deriving more classes
(e.g., crop species within a crop as opposed to just crop types) and increasing classification
accuracies. In earlier years and decades, hyperspectral data classification and analysis was
a challenge due to computing and data handling issues. However, with the availability of
machine learning algorithms on cloud computing (e.g., Google Earth Engine) platforms,
these challenges have been overcome in the last 2–3 years. Pixel-based supervised machine
learning algorithms like the random forest, and support vector machines as well as object-
based algorithms like the recursive hierarchical segmentation, and numerous others
methods (e.g., unsupervised approaches) are extensively discussed. The ability to process
petabyte volume data of the planet takes us to a new level of sophistication and makes use
of data such as from hyperspectral sensors feasible over large areas. The cloud computing
architecture involved with handling massively large petabyte-scale data volumes are
presented and discussed.
• Volume III: There are 11 chapters focusing on biophysical and biochemical characterization
and plant species studies. A number of chapters in this volume are focused on separating
and discriminating agricultural crops and vegetation of various types or species using
hyperspectral data. Plant species discrimination and classification to separate them are the
focus of study using vegetation such as forests, invasive species in different ecosystems, and
agricultural crops. Performance of hyperspectral narrowbands (HNBs) and hyperspectral
vegetation indices (HVIs) when compared with multispectral broadbands (MBBs) and
multispectral broadband vegetation indices (BVIs) are presented and discussed. The
vegetation and agricultural crops are studied at various scales, and their vegetation
functional properties diagnosed. The value of digital surface models in study of plant traits
as complementary\supplementary to hyperspectral data has been highlighted. Hyperspectral
bio-indicators to study photosynthetic efficiency and vegetation stress are presented and
discussed. Studies are conducted using hyperspectral data across wavelengths (e.g., visible,
near-infrared, shortwave-infrared, mid-infrared, and thermal-infrared).
• Volume IV: There are 15 chapters focusing on specific advanced applications of
hyperspectral data in study of agricultural crops and natural vegetation. Specific agricultural
crop applications include crop management practices, crop stress, crop disease, nitrogen
application, and presence of heavy metals in soils and related stress factors. These studies
discuss biophysical and biochemical quantities modeled and mapped for precision farming,
Preface xix

hyperspectral narrowbands (HNBs), and hyperspectral vegetation indices (HVIs) involved

in assessing nitrogen in plants, and the study of the impact of heavy metals on crop health
and stress. Vegetation functional studies using hyperspectral data presented and discussed
include crop water use (actual evapotranspiration), net primary productivity (NPP), gross
primary productivity (GPP), phenological applications, and light use efficiency (LUE).
Specific applications discussed under vegetation functional studies using hyperspectral
data include agricultural crop classifications, machine learning, forest management studies,
pasture studies, and wetland studies. Applications in fire assessment, modeling, and mapping
using hyperspectral data in the optical and thermal portions of the spectrum are presented
and discussed. Hyperspectral data in global change studies as well as in outer planet studies
have also been discussed. Much of the outer planet remote sensing is conducted using
imaging spectrometer and hence the data preprocessing and processing methods of Earth
and that of outer planets have much in common and needs further examination.

The chapters are written by leading experts in the global arena with each chapter: (a) focusing on
specific applications, (b) reviewing existing “state-of-art” knowledge, (c) highlighting the advances
made, and (d) providing guidance for appropriate use of hyperspectral data in study of vegetation and
its numerous applications such as crop yield modeling, crop biophysical and biochemical property
characterization, and crop moisture assessment.
The four-volume book is specifically targeted on hyperspectral remote sensing as applied to
terrestrial vegetation applications. This is a big market area that includes agricultural croplands,
study of crop moisture, forests, and numerous applications such as droughts, crop stress, crop
productivity, and water productivity. To the knowledge of the editors, there is no comparable book,
source, and/or organization that can bring this body of knowledge together in one place, making
this a “must buy” for professionals. This is clearly a unique contribution whose time is now. The
book highlights include:

1. Best global expertise on hyperspectral remote sensing of vegetation, agricultural crops, crop
water use, plant species detection, crop productivity and water productivity mapping, and
modeling;
2. Clear articulation of methods to conduct the work. Very practical;
3. Comprehensive review of the existing technology and clear guidance on how best to use
hyperspectral data for various applications;
4. Case studies from a variety of continents with their own subtle requirements; and
5. Complete solutions from methods to applications inventory and modeling.

Hyperspectral narrowband spectral data, as discussed in various chapters of this book, are
fast emerging as practical most advanced solutions in modeling and mapping vegetation. Recent
research has demonstrated the advances and great value made by hyperspectral data, as discussed
in various chapters in: (a) quantifying agricultural crops as to their biophysical and harvest yield
characteristics, (b) modeling forest canopy biochemical properties, (c) establishing plant and soil
moisture conditions, (d) detecting crop stress and disease, (e) mapping leaf chlorophyll content as
it influences crop production, (f) identifying plants affected by contaminants such as arsenic, and
(g) demonstrating sensitivity to plant nitrogen content, and (h) invasive species mapping. The ability
to significantly better quantify, model, and map plant chemical, physical, and water properties is well
established and has great utility.
Even though these accomplishments and capabilities have been reported in various places, the
need for a collective “knowledge bank” that links these various advances in one place is missing.
Further, most scientific papers address specific aspects of research, failing to provide a comprehensive
assessment of advances that have been made nor how the professional can bring those advances
to their work. For example, deep scientific journals report practical applications of hyperspectral
xx Preface

narrowbands yet one has to canvass the literature broadly to obtain the pertinent facts. Since several
papers report this, there is a need to synthesize these findings so that the reader gets the correct
picture of the best wavebands for their practical applications. Also, studies do differ in exact methods
most suited for detecting parameters such as crop moisture variability, chlorophyll content, and stress
levels. The professional needs this sort of synthesis and detail to adopt best practices for their own
work.
In years and decades past, use of hyperspectral data had its challenges especially in handling large
data volumes. That limitation is now overcome through cloud-computing, machine learning, deep
learning, artificial intelligence, and advances in knowledge in processing and applying hyperspectral
data.
This book can be used by anyone interested in hyperspectral remote sensing that includes
advanced research and applications, such as graduate students, undergraduates, professors, practicing
professionals, policy makers, governments, and research organizations.

Dr. Prasad S. Thenkabail, PhD

Editor-in-Chief
Hyperspectral Remote Sensing of Vegetation, Second Edition, Four Volume Set
Acknowledgments
This four-volume Hyperspectral Remote Sensing of Vegetation book (second edition) was made
possible by sterling contributions from leading professionals from around the world in the area of
hyperspectral remote sensing of vegetation and agricultural crops. As you will see from list of authors
and coauthors, we have an assembly of “who is who” in hyperspectral remote sensing of vegetation
who have contributed to this book. They wrote insightful chapters, that are an outcome of years of
careful research and dedication, to make the book appealing to a broad section of readers dealing
with remote sensing. My gratitude goes to (mentioned in no particular order; names of lead authors
of the chapters are shown in bold): Drs. Fred Ortenberg (Technion–Israel Institute of Technology,
Israel), Jiaguo Qi (Michigan State University, USA), Angela Lausch (Helmholtz Centre for
Environmental Research, Leipzig, Germany), Andries B. Potgieter (University of Queensland,
Australia), Muhammad Al-Amin Hoque (University of Queensland, Australia), Andreas Hueni
(University of Zurich, Switzerland), Eyal Ben-Dor (Tel Aviv University, Israel), Itiya Aneece (United
States Geological Survey, USA), Sreekala Bajwa (University of Arkansas, USA), Antonio Plaza
(University of Extremadura, Spain), Jessica J. Mitchell (Appalachian State University, USA), Dar
Roberts (University of California at Santa Barbara, USA), Quan Wang (Shizuoka University, Japan),
Edoardo Pasolli (University of Trento, Italy), (Nanjing University of Science and Technology,
China), Anatoly Gitelson (University of Nebraska- Lincoln, USA), Tao Cheng (Nanjing Agricultural
University, China), Roberto Colombo (University of Milan-Bicocca, Italy), Daniela Stroppiana
(Institute for Electromagnetic Sensing of the Environment, Italy), Yongqin Zhang (Delta State
University, USA), Yoshio Inoue (National Institute for Agro-Environmental Sciences, Japan), Yafit
Cohen (Institute of Agricultural Engineering, Israel), Helge Aasen (Institute of Agricultural Sciences,
ETH Zurich), Elizabeth M. Middleton (NASA, USA), Yongqin Zhang (University of Toronto,
Canada), Yan Zhu (Nanjing Agricultural University, China), Lênio Soares Galvão (Instituto
Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais [INPE], Brazil), Matthew L. Clark (Sonoma State University,
USA), Matheus Pinheiro Ferreira (University of Paraná, Curitiba, Brazil), Ruiliang Pu (University
of South Florida, USA), Scott C. Chapman (CSIRO, Australia), Haibo Yao (Mississippi State
University, USA), Jianlong Li (Nanjing University, China), Terry Slonecker (USGS, USA), Tobias
Landmann (International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology, Kenya), Michael Marshall
(University of Twente, Netherlands), Pamela Nagler (USGS, USA), Alfredo Huete (University of
Technology Sydney, Australia), Prem Chandra Pandey (Banaras Hindu University, India), Valerie
Thomas (Virginia Tech., USA), Izaya Numata (South Dakota State University, USA), Elijah W.
Ramsey III (USGS, USA), Sander Veraverbeke (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and University of
California, Irvine), Tomoaki Miura (University of Hawaii, USA), R. G. Vaughan (U.S. Geological
Survey, USA), Victor Alchanatis (Agricultural research Organization, Volcani Center, Israel), Dr.
Narumon Wiangwang (Royal Thai Government, Thailand), Pedro J. Leitão (Humboldt University of
Berlin, Department of Geography, Berlin, Germany), James Watson (University of Queensland,
Australia), Barbara George-Jaeggli (ETH Zuerich, Switzerland), Gregory McLean (University of
Queensland, Australia), Mark Eldridge (University of Queensland, Australia), Scott C. Chapman
(University of Queensland, Australia), Kenneth Laws (University of Queensland, Australia), Jack
Christopher (University of Queensland, Australia), Karine Chenu (University of Queensland,
Australia), Andrew Borrell (University of Queensland, Australia), Graeme L. Hammer (University
of Queensland, Australia), David R. Jordan (University of Queensland, Australia), Stuart Phinn
(University of Queensland, Australia), Lola Suarez (University of Melbourne, Australia), Laurie A.
Chisholm (University of Wollongong, Australia), Alex Held (CSIRO, Australia), S. Chabrillant (GFZ
German Research Center for Geosciences, Germany), José A. M. Demattê (University of São Paulo,
Brazil), Yu Zhang (North Dakota State University, USA), Ali Shirzadifar (North Dakota State
University, USA), Nancy F. Glenn (Boise State University, USA), Kyla M. Dahlin (Michigan State

xxi
xxii Acknowledgments

University, USA), Nayani Ilangakoon (Boise State University, USA), Hamid Dashti (Boise State
University, USA), Megan C. Maloney (Appalachian State University, USA), Subodh Kulkarni
(University of Arkansas, USA), Javier Plaza (University of Extremadura, Spain), Gabriel
Martin (University of Extremadura, Spain), Segio Sánchez (University of Extremadura, Spain), Wei
Wang (Nanjing Agricultural University, China), Xia Yao (Nanjing Agricultural University, China),
Busetto Lorenzo (Università Milano-Bicocca), Meroni Michele (Università Milano-Bicocca), Rossini
Micol (Università Milano-Bicocca), Panigada Cinzia (Università Milano-Bicocca), F. Fava (Università
degli Studi di Sassari, Italy), M. Boschetti (Institute for Electromagnetic Sensing of the Environment,
Italy), P. A. Brivio (Institute for Electromagnetic Sensing of the Environment, Italy), K. Fred
Huemmrich (University of Maryland, Baltimore County, USA), Yen-Ben Cheng (Earth Resources
Technology, Inc., USA), Hank A. Margolis (Centre d’Études de la Forêt, Canada), Yafit Cohen
(Agricultural research Organization, Volcani Center, Israel), Kelly Roth (University of California at
Santa Barbara, USA), Ryan Perroy (University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, USA), Ms. Wei Wang
(Nanjing Agricultural University, China), Dr. Xia Yao (Nanjing Agricultural University, China),
Keely L. Roth (University of California, Santa Barbara, USA), Erin B. Wetherley (University of
California at Santa Barbara, USA), Susan K. Meerdink (University of California at Santa Barbara,
USA), Ryan L. Perroy (University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, USA), B. B. Marithi Sridhar (Bowling
Green University, USA), Aaryan Dyami Olsson (Northern Arizona University, USA), Willem Van
Leeuwen (University of Arizona, USA), Edward Glenn (University of Arizona, USA), José Carlos
Neves Epiphanio (Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais [INPE], Brazil), Fábio Marcelo Breunig
(Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais [INPE], Brazil), Antônio Roberto Formaggio (Instituto
Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais [INPE], Brazil), Amina Rangoonwala (IAP World Services,
Lafayette, LA), Cheryl Li (Nanjing University, China), Deghua Zhao (Nanjing University, China),
Chengcheng Gang (Nanjing University, China), Lie Tang (Mississippi State University, USA), Lei
Tian (Mississippi State University, USA), Robert Brown (Mississippi State University, USA), Deepak
Bhatnagar (Mississippi State University, USA), Thomas Cleveland (Mississippi State University,
USA), Hiroki Yoshioka (Aichi Prefectural University, Japan), T. N. Titus (U.S. Geological Survey,
USA), J. R. Johnson (U.S. Geological Survey, USA), J. J. Hagerty (U.S. Geological Survey, USA), L.
Gaddis (U.S. Geological Survey, USA), L. A. Soderblom (U.S. Geological Survey, USA), and P.
Geissler (U.S. Geological Survey, USA), Jua Jin (Shizuoka University, Japan), Rei Sonobe (Shizuoka
University, Japan), Jin Ming Chen (Shizuoka University, Japan), Saurabh Prasad (University of
Houston, USA), Melba M. Crawford (Purdue University, USA), James C. Tilton (NASA Goddard
Space Flight Center, USA), Jin Sun (Nanjing University of Science and Technology, China), Yi Zhang
(Nanjing University of Science and Technology, China), Alexei Solovchenko (Moscow State
University, Moscow), Yan Zhu, (Nanjing Agricultural University, China), Dong Li (Nanjing
Agricultural University, China), Kai Zhou (Nanjing Agricultural University, China), Roshanak
Darvishzadeh (University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands), Andrew Skidmore (University of
Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands), Victor Alchanatis (Institute of Agricultural Engineering, The
Netherlands), Georg Bareth (University of Cologne, Germany), Qingyuan Zhang (Universities Space
Research Association, USA), Petya K. E. Campbell (University of Maryland Baltimore County,
USA), and David R. Landis (Global Science & Technology, Inc., USA), José Carlos Neves Epiphanio
(Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais [INPE], Brazil), Fábio Marcelo Breunig (Universidade
Federal de Santa Maria [UFSM], Brazil), and Antônio Roberto Formaggio (Instituto Nacional de
Pesquisas Espaciais [INPE], Brazil), Cibele Hummel do Amaral (Federal University of Viçosa, in
Brazil), Gaia Vaglio Laurin (Tuscia University, Italy), Raymond Kokaly (U.S. Geological Survey,
USA), Carlos Roberto de Souza Filho (University of Ouro Preto, Brazil), Yosio Edemir Shimabukuro
(Federal Rural University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), Bangyou Zheng (CSIRO, Australia), Wei Guo
(The University of Tokyo, Japan), Frederic Baret (INRA, France), Shouyang Liu (INRA, France),
Simon Madec (INRA, France), Benoit Solan (ARVALIS, France), Barbara George-Jaeggli (University
of Queensland, Australia), Graeme L. Hammer (University of Queensland, Australia), David R.
Jordan (University of Queensland, Australia), Yanbo Huang (USDA, USA), Lie Tang (Iowa State
Acknowledgments xxiii

University, USA), Lei Tian (University of Illinois. USA), Deepak Bhatnagar (USDA, USA), Thomas
E. Cleveland (USDA, USA), Dehua ZHAO (Nanjing University, USA), Hannes Feilhauer (University
of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany), Miaogen Shen (Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese
Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China), Jin Chen (College of Remote Sensing Science and Engineering,
Faculty of Geographical Science, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China), Suresh Raina
(International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology, Kenya and Pollination services, India),
Danny Foley (Northern Arizona University, USA), Cai Xueliang (UNESCO-IHE, Netherlands),
Trent Biggs (San Diego State University, USA), Werapong Koedsin (Prince of Songkla University,
Thailand), Jin Wu (University of Hong Kong, China), Kiril Manevski (Aarhus University, Denmark),
Prashant K. Srivastava (Banaras Hindu University, India), George P. Petropoulos (Technical
University of Crete, Greece), Philip Dennison (University of Utah, USA), Ioannis Gitas (University
of Thessaloniki, Greece), Glynn Hulley (NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of
Technology, USA), Olga Kalashnikova, (NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of
Technology, USA), Thomas Katagis (University of Thessaloniki, Greece), Le Kuai (University of
California, USA), Ran Meng (Brookhaven National Laboratory, USA), Natasha Stavros (California
Institute of Technology, USA).
Hiroki Yoshioka (Aichi Prefectural University, Japan), My two coeditors, Professor John G.
Lyon and Professor Alfredo Huete, have made outstanding contribution to this four-volume
Hyperspectral Remote Sensing of Vegetation book (second edition). Their knowledge of hyperspectral
remote sensing is enormous. Vastness and depth of their understanding of remote sensing in general
and hyperspectral remote sensing in particular made my job that much easier. I have learnt a lot
from them and continue to do so. Both of them edited some or all of the 48 chapters of the book
and also helped structure chapters for a flawless reading. They also significantly contributed to the
synthesis chapter of each volume. I am indebted to their insights, guidance, support, motivation, and
encouragement throughout the book project.
My coeditors and myself are grateful to Dr. Alexander F. H. Goetz and Prof. Susan L. Ustin
for writing the foreword for the book. Please refer to their biographical sketch under the respective
foreword written by these two leaders of Hyperspectral Remote Sensing.
Both the forewords are a must read to anyone studying this four-volume Hyperspectral Remote
Sensing of Vegetation book (second edition). They are written by two giants who have made immense
contribution to the subject and I highly recommend that the readers read them.
I am blessed to have had the support and encouragement (professional and personal) of my
U.S. Geological Survey and other colleagues. In particular, I would like to mention Mr. Edwin
Pfeifer (late), Dr. Susan Benjamin, Dr. Dennis Dye, and Mr. Larry Gaffney. Special thanks to
Dr. Terrence Slonecker, Dr. Michael Marshall, Dr. Isabella Mariotto, and Dr. Itiya Aneece who
have worked closely with me on hyperspectral research over the years. Special thanks are also due
to Dr. Pardhasaradhi Teluguntla, Mr. Adam Oliphant, and Dr. Muralikrishna Gumma who have
contributed to my various research efforts and have helped me during this book project directly or
indirectly. I am grateful to Prof. Ronald B. Smith, professor at Yale University who was instrumental
in supporting my early hyperspectral research at the Yale Center for Earth Observation (YCEO),
Yale University. Opportunities and guidance I received in my early years of remote sensing from
Prof. Andrew D. Ward, professor at the Ohio State University, Prof. John G. Lyon, former professor
at the Ohio State University, and Mr. Thiruvengadachari, former Scientist at the National Remote
Sensing Center (NRSC), Indian Space Research Organization, India, is gratefully acknowledged.
My wife (Sharmila Prasad) and daughter (Spandana Thenkabail) are two great pillars of my life.
I am always indebted to their patience, support, and love.
Finally, kindly bear with me for sharing a personal story. When I started editing the first edition
in the year 2010, I was diagnosed with colon cancer. I was not even sure what the future was and
how long I would be here. I edited much of the first edition soon after the colon cancer surgery and
during and after the 6 months of chemotherapy—one way of keeping my mind off the negative
thoughts. When you are hit by such news, there is nothing one can do, but to be positive, trust your
xxiv Acknowledgments

doctors, be thankful to support and love of the family, and have firm belief in the higher spiritual
being (whatever your beliefs are). I am so very grateful to some extraordinary people who helped
me through this difficult life event: Dr. Parvasthu Ramanujam (surgeon), Dr. Paramjeet K. Bangar
(Oncologist), Dr. Harnath Sigh (my primary doctor), Dr. Ram Krishna (Orthopedic Surgeon and
family friend), three great nurses (Ms. Irene, Becky, Maryam) at Banner Boswell Hospital (Sun
City, Arizona, USA), courage-love-patience-prayers from my wife, daughter, and several family
members, friends, and colleagues, and support from numerous others that I have not named here.
During this phase, I learnt a lot about cancer and it gave me an enlightened perspective of life. My
prayers were answered by the higher power. I learnt a great deal about life—good and bad. I pray
for all those with cancer and other patients that diseases one day will become history or, in the least,
always curable without suffering and pain. Now, after 8 years, I am fully free of colon cancer and
was able to edit the four-volume Hyperspectral Remote Sensing of Vegetation book (second edition)
without the pain and suffering that I went through when editing the first edition. What a blessing.
These blessings help us give back in our own little ways. To realize that it is indeed profound to see
the beautiful sunrise every day, the day go by with every little event (each with a story of their own),
see the beauty of the sunset, look up to the infinite universe and imagine on its many wonders, and
just to breathe fresh air every day and enjoy the breeze. These are all many wonders of life that we
need to enjoy, cherish, and contemplate.

Dr. Prasad S. Thenkabail, PhD

Editor-in-Chief
Hyperspectral Remote Sensing of Vegetation
Editors
Prasad S. Thenkabail, Research Geographer-15, U.S. Geological
Survey (USGS), is a world-recognized expert in remote sensing
science with multiple major contributions in the field sustained over
more than 30 years. He obtained his PhD from the Ohio State
University in 1992 and has over 140+ peer-reviewed scientific
publications, mostly in major international journals.
Dr. Thenkabail has conducted pioneering research in the area
of hyperspectral remote sensing of vegetation and in that of global
croplands and their water use in the context of food security. In
hyperspectral remote sensing he has done cutting-edge research
with wide implications in advancing remote sensing science in
application to agriculture and vegetation. This body of work led
to more than ten peer-reviewed research publications with high
impact. For example, a single paper [1] has received 1000+ citations
as at the time of writing (October 4, 2018). Numerous other papers, book chapters, and books (as
we will learn below) are also related to this work, with two other papers [2,3] having 350+ to 425+
citations each.
In studies of global croplands in the context of food and water security, he has led the release
of the world’s first Landsat 30-m derived global cropland extent product. This work demonstrates
a “paradigm shift” in how remote sensing science is conducted. The product can be viewed in full
resolution at the web location www.croplands.org. The data is already widely used worldwide and
is downloadable from the NASA\USGS LP DAAC site [4]. There are numerous major publication
in this area (e.g. [5,6]).
Dr. Thenkabail’s contributions to series of leading edited books on remote sensing science places
him as a world leader in remote sensing science advances. He edited three-volume Remote Sensing
Handbook published by Taylor and Francis, with 82 chapters and more than 2000 pages, widely
considered a “magnus opus” standard reference for students, scholars, practitioners, and major experts
in remote sensing science. Links to these volumes along with endorsements from leading global
remote sensing scientists can be found at the location give in note [7]. He has recently completed
editing Hyperspectral Remote Sensing of Vegetation published by Taylor and Francis in four volumes
with 50 chapters. This is the second edition is a follow-up on the earlier single-volume Hyperspectral
Remote Sensing of Vegetation [8]. He has also edited a book on Remote Sensing of Global Croplands
for Food Security (Taylor and Francis) [9]. These books are widely used and widely referenced in
institutions worldwide.
Dr. Thenkabail’s service to remote sensing community is second to none. He is currently an
editor-in-chief of the Remote Sensing open access journal published by MDPI; an associate editor
of the journal Photogrammetric Engineering and Remote Sensing (PERS) of the American Society
of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ASPRS); and an editorial advisory board member of the
International Society of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ISPRS) Journal of Photogrammetry
and Remote Sensing. Earlier, he served on the editorial board of Remote Sensing of Environment for
many years (2007–2017). As an editor-in-chief of the open access Remote Sensing MDPI journal
from 2013 to date he has been instrumental in providing leadership for an online publication that did
not even have a impact factor when he took over but is now one of the five leading remote sensing
international journals, with an impact factor of 3.244.
Dr. Thenkabail has led remote sensing programs in three international organizations: International
Water Management Institute (IWMI), 2003–2008; International Center for Integrated Mountain
Development (ICIMOD), 1995–1997; and International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA),

xxv
xxvi Editors

1992–1995. He has worked in more than 25+ countries on several continents, including East Asia
(China), S-E Asia (Cambodia, Indonesia, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam), Middle East (Israel, Syria),
North America (United States, Canada), South America (Brazil), Central Asia (Uzbekistan), South
Asia (Bangladesh, India, Nepal, and Sri Lanka), West Africa (Republic of Benin, Burkina Faso,
Cameroon, Central African Republic, Cote d’Ivoire, Gambia, Ghana, Mali, Nigeria, Senegal, and
Togo), and Southern Africa (Mozambique, South Africa). During this period he has made major
contributions and written seminal papers on remote sensing of agriculture, water resources, inland
valley wetlands, global irrigated and rain-fed croplands, characterization of African rainforests and
savannas, and drought monitoring systems.
The quality of Dr. Thenkabail’s research is evidenced in the many awards, which include, in
2015, the American Society of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ASPRS) ERDAS award for
best scientific paper in remote sensing (Marshall and Thenkabail); in 2008, the ASPRS President’s
Award for practical papers, second place (Thenkabail and coauthors); and in 1994, the ASPRS
Autometric Award for outstanding paper (Thenkabail and coauthors). His team was recognized by
the Environmental System Research Institute (ESRI) for “special achievement in GIS” (SAG award)
for their Indian Ocean tsunami work. The USGS and NASA selected him to be on the Landsat
Science Team for a period of five years (2007–2011).
Dr. Thenkabail is regularly invited as keynote speaker or invited speaker at major international
conferences and at other important national and international forums every year. He has been
principal investigator and/or has had lead roles of many pathfinding projects, including the ∼5 million
over five years (2014–2018) for the global food security support analysis data in the 30-m (GFSAD)
project (https://geography.wr.usgs.gov/science/croplands/) funded by NASA MEaSUREs (Making
Earth System Data Records for Use in Research Environments), and projects such as Sustain and
Manage America’s Resources for Tomorrow (waterSMART) and characterization of Eco-Regions
in Africa (CERA).

REFERENCES
1. Thenkabail, P.S., Smith, R.B., and De-Pauw, E. 2000b. Hyperspectral vegetation indices for determining
agricultural crop characteristics. Remote Sensing of Environment, 71:158–182.
2. Thenkabail, P.S., Enclona, E.A., Ashton, M.S., Legg, C., and Jean De Dieu, M. 2004. Hyperion,
IKONOS, ALI, and ETM+ sensors in the study of African rainforests. Remote Sensing of
Environment, 90:23–43.
3. Thenkabail, P.S., Enclona, E.A., Ashton, M.S., and Van Der Meer, V. 2004. Accuracy assessments
of hyperspectral waveband performance for vegetation analysis applications. Remote Sensing of
Environment, 91(2–3):354–376.
4. https://lpdaac.usgs.gov/about/news_archive/release_gfsad_30_meter_cropland_extent_products
5. Thenkabail, P.S. 2012. Guest Editor for Global Croplands Special Issue. Photogrammetric Engineering
and Remote Sensing, 78(8).
6. Thenkabail, P.S., Knox, J.W., Ozdogan, M., Gumma, M.K., Congalton, R.G., Wu, Z., Milesi, C., Finkral,
A., Marshall, M., Mariotto, I., You, S. Giri, C. and Nagler, P. 2012. Assessing future risks to agricultural
productivity, water resources and food security: how can remote sensing help? Photogrammetric
Engineering and Remote Sensing, August 2012 Special Issue on Global Croplands: Highlight Article.
78(8):773–782. IP-035587.
7. https://www.crcpress.com / Remote-Sensing-Handbook---Three-Volume-Set/Thenkabail/p/
book/9781482218015
8. https://www.crcpress.com/Hyperspectral-Remote-Sensing-of-Vegetation/Thenkabail-Lyon/p/
book/9781439845370
9. ht t p s: //w w w.c r c p r e ss.c om / Remo t e - Sen si ng- of- Globa l- Cr opla nd s -fo r- Fo o d - Se cu r it y/
Thenkabail-Lyon-Turral-Biradar/p/book/9781138116559
Editors xxvii

John G. Lyon, educated at Reed College in Portland, OR and the University

of Michigan in Ann Arbor, has conducted scientific and engineering research
and carried out administrative functions throughout his career. He was
formerly the Senior Physical Scientist (ST) in the US Environmental Protection
Agency’s Office of Research and Development (ORD) and Office of the
Science Advisor in Washington, DC, where he co-led work on the Group on
Earth Observations and the USGEO subcommittee of the Committee on
Environment and Natural Resources and research on geospatial issues in the
agency. For approximately eight years, he was director of ORD’s Environmental
Sciences Division, which conducted research on remote sensing and
geographical information system (GIS) technologies as applied to environmental
issues including landscape characterization and ecology, as well as analytical
chemistry of hazardous wastes, sediments, and ground water. He previously
served as professor of civil engineering and natural resources at Ohio State University (1981–1999).
Professor Lyon’s own research has led to authorship or editorship of a number of books on wetlands,
watershed, and environmental applications of GIS, and accuracy assessment of remote sensor
technologies.

Alfredo Huete leads the Ecosystem Dynamics Health and Resilience

research program within the Climate Change Cluster (C3) at the
University of Technology Sydney, Australia. His main research
interest is in using remote sensing to study and analyze vegetation
processes, health, and functioning, and he uses satellite data to
observe land surface responses and interactions with climate, land
use activities, and extreme events. He has more than 200 peer-
reviewed journal articles, including publication in such prestigious
journals as Science and Nature. He has over 25 years’ experience
working on NASA and JAXA mission teams, including the NASA-
EOS MODIS Science Team, the EO-1 Hyperion Team, the JAXA
GCOM-SGLI Science Team, and the NPOESS-VIIRS advisory
group. Some of his past research involved the development of the
soil-adjusted vegetation index (SAVI) and the enhanced vegetation index (EVI), which became
operational satellite products on MODIS and VIIRS sensors. He has also studied tropical forest
phenology and Amazon forest greening in the dry season, and his work was featured in a National
Geographic television special entitled “The Big Picture.” Currently, he is involved with the Australian
Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network (TERN), helping to produce national operational phenology
products; as well as the AusPollen network, which couples satellite sensing to better understand and
predict pollen phenology from allergenic grasses and trees.
Another random document with
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adjutant were already transferred to new regiments, and their places
were not yet filled. The three months of the enlistment expired a few
days after the battle.
In the fall of 1861, the old artillery company of this town was
reorganized, and Captain Richard Barrett received a commission in
March, 1862, from the state, as its commander. This company,
chiefly recruited here, was later embodied in the Forty-seventh
Regiment, Massachusetts Volunteers, enlisted as nine months’ men,
and sent to New Orleans, where they were employed in guard duty
during their term of service. Captain Humphrey H. Buttrick, lieutenant
in this regiment, as he had been already lieutenant in Captain
Prescott’s company in 1861, went out again in August, 1864, a
captain in the Fifty-ninth Massachusetts, and saw hard service in the
Ninth Corps, under General Burnside. The regiment being formed of
veterans, and in fields requiring great activity and exposure, suffered
extraordinary losses; Captain Buttrick and one other officer being the
only officers in it who were neither killed, wounded nor captured.[190]
In August, 1862, on the new requisition for troops, when it was
becoming difficult to meet the draft,—mainly through the personal
example and influence of Mr. Sylvester Lovejoy, twelve men,
including himself, were enlisted for three years, and, being soon after
enrolled in the Fortieth Massachusetts, went to the war; and a very
good account has been heard, not only of the regiment, but of the
talents and virtues of these men.
After the return of the three months’ company to Concord, in 1861,
Captain Prescott raised a new company of volunteers, and Captain
Bowers another. Each of these companies included recruits from this
town, and they formed part of the Thirty-second Regiment of
Massachusetts Volunteers. Enlisting for three years, and remaining
to the end of the war, these troops saw every variety of hard service
which the war offered, and, though suffering at first some
disadvantage from change of commanders, and from severe losses,
they grew at last, under the command of Colonel Prescott, to an
excellent reputation, attested by the names of the thirty battles they
were authorized to inscribe on their flag, and by the important
position usually assigned them in the field.
 I have found many notes of their rough experience in the march
and in the field. In McClellan’s retreat in the Peninsula, in July, 1862,
“it is all our men can do to draw their feet out of the mud. We
marched one mile through mud, without exaggeration, one foot
deep,—a good deal of the way over my boots, and with short rations;
on one day nothing but liver, blackberries, and pennyroyal tea.”—“At
Fredericksburg we lay eleven hours in one spot without moving,
except to rise and fire.” The next note is, “cracker for a day and a
half,—but all right.” Another day, “had not left the ranks for thirty
hours, and the nights were broken by frequent alarms. How would
Concord people,” he asks, “like to pass the night on the battle-field,
and hear the dying cry for help, and not be able to go to them?” But
the regiment did good service at Harrison’s Landing, and at
Antietam, under Colonel Parker; and at Fredericksburg, in
December, Lieutenant-Colonel Prescott loudly expressed his
satisfaction at his comrades, now and then particularizing names:
“Bowers, Shepard and Lauriat are as brave as lions.”[191]
At the battle of Gettysburg, in July, 1863, the brigade of which the
Thirty-second Regiment formed a part, was in line of battle seventy-
two hours, and suffered severely. Colonel Prescott’s regiment went
in with two hundred and ten men, nineteen officers. On the second of
July they had to cross the famous wheat-field, under fire from the
rebels in front and on both flanks. Seventy men were killed or
wounded out of seven companies. Here Francis Buttrick, whose
manly beauty all of us remember,[192] and Sergeant Appleton, an
excellent soldier, were fatally wounded. The Colonel was hit by three
bullets. “I feel,” he writes, “I have much to be thankful for that my life
is spared, although I would willingly die to have the regiment do as
well as they have done. Our colors had several holes made, and
were badly torn. One bullet hit the staff which the bearer had in his
hand. The color-bearer is brave as a lion; he will go anywhere you
say, and no questions asked; his name is Marshall Davis.” The
Colonel took evident pleasure in the fact that he could account for all
his men. There were so many killed, so many wounded,—but no
missing. For that word “missing” was apt to mean skulking. Another
incident: “A friend of Lieutenant Barrow complains that we did not
treat his body with respect, inasmuch as we did not send it home. I
think we were very fortunate to save it at all, for in ten minutes after
he was killed the rebels occupied the ground, and we had to carry
him and all our wounded nearly two miles in blankets. There was no
place nearer than Baltimore where we could have got a coffin, and I
suppose it was eighty miles there. We laid him in two double
blankets, and then sent off a long distance and got boards off a barn
to make the best coffin we could, and gave him burial.”
After Gettysburg, Colonel Prescott remarks that our regiment is
highly complimented. When Colonel Gurney, of the Ninth, came to
him the next day to tell him that “folks are just beginning to
appreciate the Thirty-second Regiment: it always was a good
regiment, and people are just beginning to find it out;” Colonel
Prescott notes in his journal,—“Pity they have not found it out before
it was all gone. We have a hundred and seventy-seven guns this
morning.”
Let me add an extract from the official report of the brigade
commander: “Word was sent by General Barnes, that, when we
retired, we should fall back under cover of the woods. This order was
communicated to Colonel Prescott, whose regiment was then under
the hottest fire. Understanding it to be a peremptory order to retire
then, he replied, ‘I don’t want to retire; I am not ready to retire; I can
hold this place;’ and he made good his assertion. Being informed
that he misunderstood the order, which was only to inform him how
to retire when it became necessary, he was satisfied, and he and his
command held their ground manfully.” It was said that Colonel
Prescott’s reply, when reported, pleased the Acting-Brigadier-
General Sweitzer mightily.
After Gettysburg, the Thirty-second Regiment saw hard service at
Rappahannock Station; and at Baltimore, in Virginia, where they
were drawn up in battle order for ten days successively: crossing the
Rapidan, and suffering from such extreme cold, a few days later, at
Mine Run, that the men were compelled to break rank and run in
circles to keep themselves from being frozen. On the third of
December, they went into winter quarters.
 I must not follow the multiplied details that make the hard work of
the next year. But the campaign in the Wilderness surpassed all their
worst experience hitherto of the soldier’s life. On the third of May,
they crossed the Rapidan for the fifth time. On the twelfth, at Laurel
Hill, the regiment had twenty-one killed and seventy-five wounded,
including five officers. “The regiment has been in the front and centre
since the battle begun, eight and a half days ago, and is now
building breastworks on the Fredericksburg road. This has been the
hardest fight the world ever knew. I think the loss of our army will be
forty thousand. Every day, for the last eight days, there has been a
terrible battle the whole length of the line. One day they drove us; but
it has been regular bull-dog fighting.” On the twenty-first, they had
been, for seventeen days and nights, under arms without rest. On
the twenty-third, they crossed the North Anna, and achieved a great
success. On the thirtieth, we learn, “Our regiment has never been in
the second line since we crossed the Rapidan, on the third.” On the
night of the thirtieth,—“The hardest day we ever had. We have been
in the first line twenty-six days, and fighting every day but two; whilst
your newspapers talk of the inactivity of the Army of the Potomac. If
those writers could be here and fight all day, and sleep in the
trenches, and be called up several times in the night by picket-firing,
they would not call it inactive.” June fourth is marked in the diary as
“An awful day;—two hundred men lost to the command;” and not
until the fifth of June comes at last a respite for a short space, during
which the men drew shoes and socks, and the officers were able to
send to the wagons and procure a change of clothes, for the first
time in five weeks.
But from these incessant labors there was now to be rest for one
head,—the honored and beloved commander of the regiment. On
the sixteenth of June, they crossed the James River, and marched to
within three miles of Petersburg. Early in the morning of the
eighteenth they went to the front, formed line of battle, and were
ordered to take the Norfolk and Petersburg Railroad from the rebels.
In this charge, Colonel George L. Prescott was mortally wounded.
After driving the enemy from the railroad, crossing it, and climbing
the farther bank to continue the charge, he was struck, in front of his
command, by a musket-ball which entered his breast near the heart.
He was carried off the field to the division hospital, and died on the
following morning. On his death-bed, he received the needless
assurances of his general that “he had done more than all his
duty,”—needless to a conscience so faithful and unspotted. One of
his townsmen and comrades, a sergeant in his regiment, writing to
his own family, uses these words: “He was one of the few men who
fight for principle. He did not fight for glory, honor, nor money, but
because he thought it his duty. These are not my feelings only, but of
the whole regiment.”
On the first of January, 1865, the Thirty-second Regiment made
itself comfortable in log huts, a mile south of our rear line of works
before Petersburg. On the fourth of February, sudden orders came to
move next morning at daylight. At Dabney’s Mills, in a sharp fight,
they lost seventy-four in killed, wounded and missing. Here Major
Shepard was taken prisoner. The lines were held until the tenth, with
more than usual suffering from snow and hail and intense cold,
added to the annoyance of the artillery fire. On the first of April, the
regiment connected with Sheridan’s cavalry, near the Five Forks,
and took an important part in that battle which opened Petersburg
and Richmond, and forced the surrender of Lee. On the ninth, they
marched in support of the cavalry, and were advancing in a grand
charge, when the white flag of General Lee appeared. The brigade
of which the Thirty-second Regiment formed part was detailed to
receive the formal surrender of the rebel arms. The homeward
march began on the thirteenth, and the regiment was mustered out
in the field, at Washington, on the twenty-eighth of June, and arrived
in Boston on the first of July.
Fellow citizens: The obelisk records only the names of the dead.
There is something partial in this distribution of honor. Those who
went through those dreadful fields and returned not deserve much
more than all the honor we can pay. But those also who went
through the same fields, and returned alive, put just as much at
hazard as those who died, and, in other countries, would wear
distinctive badges of honor as long as they lived. I hope the disuse of
such medals or badges in this country only signifies that everybody
knows these men, and carries their deeds in such lively
remembrance that they require no badge or reminder. I am sure I
need not bespeak your gratitude to these fellow citizens and
neighbors of ours. I hope they will be content with the laurels of one
war.
But let me, in behalf of this assembly, speak directly to you, our
defenders, and say, that it is easy to see that if danger should ever
threaten the homes which you guard, the knowledge of your
presence will be a wall of fire for their protection. Brave men! you will
hardly be called to see again fields as terrible as those you have
already trampled with your victories.
There are people who can hardly read the names on yonder
bronze tablet, the mist so gathers in their eyes. Three of the names
are of sons of one family.[193] A gloom gathers on this assembly,
composed as it is of kindred men and women, for, in many houses,
the dearest and noblest is gone from their hearth-stone. Yet it is
tinged with light from heaven. A duty so severe has been
discharged, and with such immense results of good, lifting private
sacrifice to the sublime, that, though the cannon volleys have a
sound of funeral echoes, they can yet hear through them the
benedictions of their country and mankind.

APPENDIX
In the above Address I have been compelled to suppress more
details of personal interest than I have used. But I do not like to omit
the testimony to the character of the Commander of the Thirty-
second Massachusetts Regiment, given in the following letter by one
of his soldiers:—

Near Petersburg, Virginia, June 20, 1864.

Dear Father:
With feelings of deep regret, I inform you that Colonel
Prescott, our brave and lamented leader, is no more. He was
shot through the body, near the heart, on the eighteenth day
of June, and died the following morning. On the morning of
the eighteenth, our division was not in line. Reveille was at an
early hour, and before long we were moving to the front. Soon
we passed the ground where the Ninth Corps drove the
enemy from their fortified lines, and came upon and formed
our line in rear of Crawford’s Division. In front of us, and one
mile distant, the Rebels’ lines of works could be seen.
Between us and them, and in a deep gulley, was the Norfolk
and Petersburg Railroad. Soon the order came for us to take
the railroad from the enemy, whose advance then held it. Four
regiments of our brigade were to head the charge; so the 32d
Massachusetts, 62d, 91st and 155th Pennsylvania regiments,
under command of Colonel Gregory, moved forward in good
order, the enemy keeping up a steady fire all the time. All
went well till we reached the road. The Rebels left when they
saw us advance, and, when we reached the road, they were
running away. But here our troubles began. The banks, on
each side of the road, were about thirty feet high, and, being
stiff clay, were nearly perpendicular. We got down well
enough, because we got started, and were rolled to the
bottom, a confused pile of Yanks. Now to climb the other side!
It was impossible to get up by climbing, for the side of it was
like the side of a house. By dint of getting on each other’s
shoulders and making holes for our feet with bayonets, a few
of us got up; reaching our guns down to the others, we all
finally got over. Meanwhile, a storm of bullets was rained
upon us. Through it all, Colonel Prescott was cool and
collected, encouraging the men to do their best. After we were
almost all across, he moved out in front of the line, and called
the men out to him, saying, “Come on, men; form our line
here.” The color-bearer stepped towards him, when a bullet
struck the Colonel, passed through him, and wounded the
color-bearer, Sergeant Giles of Company G. Calmly the
Colonel turned, and said, “I am wounded; some one help me
off.” A sergeant of Company B, and one of the 21st
Pennsylvania, helped him off. This man told me, last night, all
that the Colonel said, while going off. He was afraid we would
be driven back, and wanted these men to stick by him. He
said, “I die for my country.” He seemed to be conscious that
death was near to him, and said the wound was near his
heart; wanted the sergeant of Company B to write to his
family, and tell them all about him. He will write to Mrs.
Prescott, probably; but if they do not hear from some one an
account of his death, I wish you would show this to Mrs.
Prescott. He died in the division hospital, night before last,
and his remains will probably be sent to Concord. We lament
his loss in the regiment very much. He was like a father to us,
—always counselling us to be firm in the path of duty, and
setting the example himself. I think a more moral man, or one
more likely to enter the kingdom of heaven, cannot be found
in the Army of the Potomac. No man ever heard him swear, or
saw him use liquor, since we were in the service. I wish there
was some way for the regiment to pay some tribute to his
memory. But the folks at home must do this for the present.
The Thirty-second Regiment has lost its leader, and calls on
the people of Concord to console the afflicted family of the
brave departed, by showing their esteem for him in some
manner. He was one of the few men who fight for principle,—
pure principle. He did not fight for glory, honor nor money but
because he thought it his duty. These are not my feelings
only, but of the whole regiment. I want you to show this to
every one, so they can see what we thought of the Colonel,
and how he died in front of his regiment. God bless and
comfort his poor family. Perhaps people think soldiers have
no feeling, but it is not so. We feel deep anxiety for the
families of all our dear comrades.
Charles Bartlett,
Sergeant Company G, 32d Mass. Vols.[194]
 XVIII
EDITORS’ ADDRESS

MASSACHUSETTS QUARTERLY REVIEW,

DECEMBER, 1847

The old men studied magic in the flowers,

And human fortunes in astronomy,
And an omnipotence in chemistry,
Preferring things to names, for these were men,
Were unitarians of the united world,
And, wheresoever their clear eye-beams fell,
They caught the footsteps of the Same. Our eyes
Are armed, but we are strangers to the stars,
And strangers to the mystic beast and bird,
And strangers to the plant and to the mine.
The injured elements say, ‘Not in us;’
And night and day, ocean and continent,
Fire, plant and mineral say, ‘Not in us;’
And haughtily return us stare for stare.
For we invade them impiously for gain;
We devastate them unreligiously,
And coldly ask their pottage, not their love.
Therefore they shove us from them, yield to us
Only what to our griping toil is due;
But the sweet affluence of love and song,
The rich results of the divine consents
Of man and earth, of world beloved and loved,
The nectar and ambrosia are withheld.
 EDITORS’ ADDRESS
The American people are fast opening their own destiny. The
material basis is of such extent that no folly of man can quite subvert
it; for the territory is a considerable fraction of the planet, and the
population neither loath nor inexpert to use their advantages. Add,
that this energetic race derive an unprecedented material power
from the new arts, from the expansions effected by public schools,
cheap postage and a cheap press, from the telescope, the telegraph,
the railroad, steamship, steam-ferry, steam-mill; from domestic
architecture, chemical agriculture, from ventilation, from ice, ether,
caoutchouc, and innumerable inventions and manufactures.
A scholar who has been reading of the fabulous magnificence of
Assyria and Persia, of Rome and Constantinople, leaves his library
and takes his seat in a railroad-car, where he is importuned by
newsboys with journals still wet from Liverpool and Havre, with
telegraphic despatches not yet fifty minutes old from Buffalo and
Cincinnati. At the screams of the steam-whistle, the train quits city
and suburbs, darts away into the interior, drops every man at his
estate as it whirls along, and shows our traveller what tens of
thousands of powerful and weaponed men, science-armed and
society-armed, sit at large in this ample region, obscure from their
numbers and the extent of the domain. He reflects on the power
which each of these plain republicans can employ; how far these
chains of intercourse and travel reach, interlock and ramify; what
levers, what pumps, what exhaustive analyses are applied to Nature
for the benefit of masses of men. Then he exclaims, What a negro-
fine royalty is that of Jamschid and Solomon! What a substantial
sovereignty does my townsman possess! A man who has a hundred
dollars to dispose of—a hundred dollars over his bread—is rich
beyond the dreams of the Cæsars.
Keep our eyes as long as we can on this picture, we cannot stave
off the ulterior question,—the famous question of Cineas to Pyrrhus,
[195]—the where to of all this power and population, these surveys
and inventions, this taxing and tabulating, mill-privilege, roads, and
mines. The aspect this country presents is a certain maniacal
activity, an immense apparatus of cunning machinery which turns
out, at last, some Nuremberg toys. Has it generated, as great
interests do, any intellectual power? Where are the works of the
imagination—the surest test of a national genius? At least as far as
the purpose and genius of America is yet reported in any book, it is a
sterility and no genius.
One would say there is nothing colossal in the country but its
geography and its material activities; that the moral and intellectual
effects are not on the same scale with the trade and production.
There is no speech heard but that of auctioneers, newsboys, and the
caucus. Where is the great breath of the New World, the voice of
aboriginal nations opening new eras with hymns of lofty cheer? Our
books and fine arts are imitations; there is a fatal incuriosity and
disinclination in our educated men to new studies and the
interrogation of Nature. We have taste, critical talent, good
professors, good commentators, but a lack of male energy. What
more serious calamity can befall a people than a constitutional
dulness and limitation? The moral influence of the intellect is
wanting. We hearken in vain for any profound voice speaking to the
American heart, cheering timid good men, animating the youth,
consoling the defeated, and intelligently announcing duties which
clothe life with joy, and endear the face of land and sea to men.[196]
It is a poor consideration that the country wit is precocious, and, as
we say, practical; that political interests on so broad a scale as ours
are administered by little men with some saucy village talent, by deft
partisans, good cipherers; strict economists, quite empty of all
superstition.
Conceding these unfavorable appearances, it would yet be a poor
pedantry to read the fates of this country from these narrow data. On
the contrary, we are persuaded that moral and material values are
always commensurate. Every material organization exists to a moral
end, which makes the reason of its existence. Here are no books,
but who can see the continent with its inland and surrounding
waters, its temperate climates, its west-wind breathing vigor through
all the year, its confluence of races so favorable to the highest
energy, and the infinite glut of their production, without putting new
queries to Destiny as to the purpose for which this muster of nations
and this sudden creation of enormous values is made?
This is equally the view of science and of patriotism. We hesitate
to employ a word so much abused as patriotism, whose true sense
is almost the reverse of its popular sense. We have no sympathy
with that boyish egotism, hoarse with cheering for one side, for one
state, for one town: the right patriotism consists in the delight which
springs from contributing our peculiar and legitimate advantages to
the benefit of humanity. Every foot of soil has its proper quality; the
grape on two sides of the same fence has new flavors; and so every
acre on the globe, every family of men, every point of climate, has its
distinguishing virtues. Certainly then this country does not lie here in
the sun causeless; and though it may not be easy to define its
influence, men feel already its emancipating quality in the careless
self-reliance of the manners, in the freedom of thought, in the direct
roads by which grievances are reached and redressed, and even in
the reckless and sinister politics, not less than in purer expressions.
Bad as it is, this freedom leads onward and upward,—to a Columbia
of thought and art, which is the last and endless end of Columbus’s
adventure.
Lovers of our country, but not always approvers of the public
counsels, we should certainly be glad to give good advice in politics.
We have not been able to escape our national and endemic habit,
and to be liberated from interest in the elections and in public affairs.
Nor have we cared to disfranchise ourselves. We are more solicitous
than others to make our politics clear and healthful, as we believe
politics to be nowise accidental or exceptional, but subject to the
same laws with trees, earths and acids. We see that reckless and
destructive fury which characterizes the lower classes of American
society, and which is pampered by hundreds of profligate presses.
The young intriguers who drive in bar-rooms and town-meetings the
trade of politics, sagacious only to seize the victorious side, have put
the country into the position of an overgrown bully, and
Massachusetts finds no heart or head to give weight and efficacy to
her contrary judgment. In hours when it seemed only to need one
just word from a man of honor to have vindicated the rights of
millions, and to have given a true direction to the first steps of a
nation, we have seen the best understandings of New England, the
trusted leaders of her counsels, constituting a snivelling and
despised opposition, clapped on the back by comfortable capitalists
from all sections, and persuaded to say, We are too old to stand for
what is called a New England sentiment any longer. Rely on us for
commercial representatives, but for questions of ethics,—who knows
what markets may be opened? We are not well, we are not in our
seats, when justice and humanity are to be spoken for.
We have a bad war, many victories, each of which converts the
country into an immense chanticleer; and a very insincere political
opposition.[197] The country needs to be extricated from its delirium
at once. Public affairs are chained in the same law with private; the
retributions of armed states are not less sure and signal than those
which come to private felons. The facility of majorities is no
protection from the natural sequence of their own acts. Men reason
badly, but Nature and Destiny are logical.[198]
But, whilst we should think our pains well bestowed if we could
cure the infatuation of statesmen, and should be sincerely pleased if
we could give a direction to the Federal politics, we are far from
believing politics the primal interest of men. On the contrary, we hold
that the laws and governors cannot possess a commanding interest
for any but vacant or fanatical people; for the reason that this is
simply a formal and superficial interest; and men of a solid genius
are only interested in substantial things.
The State, like the individual, should rest on an ideal basis. Not
only man but Nature is injured by the imputation that man exists only
to be fattened with bread, but he lives in such connection with
Thought and Fact that his bread is surely involved as one element
thereof, but is not its end and aim. So the insight which commands
the laws and conditions of the true polity precludes forever all
interest in the squabbles of parties. As soon as men have tasted the
enjoyment of learning, friendship and virtue, for which the State
exists, the prizes of office appear polluted, and their followers
outcasts.
 A journal that would meet the real wants of this time must have a
courage and power sufficient to solve the problems which the great
groping society around us, stupid with perplexity, is dumbly
exploring. Let it now show its astuteness by dodging each difficult
question and arguing diffusely every point on which men are long
ago unanimous. Can it front this matter of Socialism, to which the
names of Owen and Fourier have attached, and dispose of that
question? Will it cope with the allied questions of Government,
Nonresistance, and all that belongs under that category? Will it
measure itself with the chapter on Slavery, in some sort the special
enigma of the time, as it has provoked against it a sort of inspiration
and enthusiasm singular in modern history? There are literary and
philosophical reputations to settle. The name of Swedenborg has in
this very time acquired new honors, and the current year has
witnessed the appearance, in their first English translation, of his
manuscripts. Here is an unsettled account in the book of Fame; a
nebula to dim eyes, but which great telescopes may yet resolve into
a magnificent system. Here is the standing problem of Natural
Science, and the merits of her great interpreters to be determined;
the encyclopædical Humboldt, and the intrepid generalizations
collected by the author of the Vestiges of Creation. Here is the
balance to be adjusted between the exact French school of Cuvier,
and the genial catholic theorists, Geoffroy St.-Hilaire, Goethe, Davy
and Agassiz. Will it venture into the thin and difficult air of that school
where the secrets of structure are discussed under the topics of
mesmerism and the twilights of demonology?
What will easily seem to many a far higher question than any other
is that which respects the embodying of the Conscience of the
period. Is the age we live in unfriendly to the highest powers; to that
blending of the affections with the poetic faculty which has
distinguished the Religious Ages? We have a better opinion of the
economy of Nature than to fear that those varying phases which
humanity presents ever leave out any of the grand springs of human
action. Mankind for the moment seem to be in search of a religion.
The Jewish cultus is declining; the Divine, or, as some will say, the
truly Human, hovers, now seen, now unseen, before us. This period
of peace, this hour when the jangle of contending churches is
hushing or hushed, will seem only the more propitious to those who
believe that man need not fear the want of religion, because they
know his religious constitution,—that he must rest on the moral and
religious sentiments, as the motion of bodies rests on geometry. In
the rapid decay of what was called religion, timid and unthinking
people fancy a decay of the hope of man. But the moral and religious
sentiments meet us everywhere, alike in markets as in churches. A
God starts up behind cotton bales also. The conscience of man is
regenerated as is the atmosphere, so that society cannot be
debauched. The health which we call Virtue is an equipoise which
easily redresses itself, and resembles those rocking stones which a
child’s finger can move, and a weight of many hundred tons cannot
overthrow.
With these convictions, a few friends of good letters have thought
fit to associate themselves for the conduct of a new journal. We have
obeyed the custom and convenience of the time in adopting this form
of a Review, as a mould into which all metal most easily runs. But
the form shall not be suffered to be an impediment. The name might
convey the impression of a book of criticism, and that nothing is to
be found here which was not written expressly for the Review; but
good readers know that inspired pages are not written to fill a space,
but for inevitable utterance; and to such our journal is freely and
solicitously open, even though everything else be excluded. We
entreat the aid of every lover of truth and right, and let these
principles entreat for us. We rely on the talents and industry of good
men known to us, but much more on the magnetism of truth, which is
multiplying and educating advocates for itself and friends for us. We
rely on the truth for and against ourselves.
 XIX
ADDRESS TO KOSSUTH

AT CONCORD, MAY 11, 1852

God said, I am tired of kings,

I suffer them no more;
Up to my ear the morning brings
The outrage of the poor.

My angel,—his name is Freedom,—

Choose him to be your king;
He shall cut pathways east and west,
And fend you with his wing.

ADDRESS TO KOSSUTH
Sir,—The fatigue of your many public visits, in such unbroken
succession as may compare with the toils of a campaign, forbid us to
detain you long. The people of this town share with their countrymen
the admiration of valor and perseverance; they, like their
compatriots, have been hungry to see the man whose extraordinary
eloquence is seconded by the splendor and the solidity of his
actions. But, as it is the privilege of the people of this town to keep a
hallowed mound which has a place in the story of the country; as
Concord is one of the monuments of freedom; we knew beforehand
that you could not go by us; you could not take all your steps in the
pilgrimage of American liberty, until you had seen with your eyes the
ruins of the bridge where a handful of brave farmers opened our
Revolution. Therefore, we sat and waited for you.
And now, Sir, we are heartily glad to see you, at last, in these
fields. We set no more value than you do on cheers and huzzas. But
we think that the graves of our heroes around us throb to-day to a
footstep that sounded like their own:—

“The mighty tread

Brings from the dust the sound of liberty.”[199]

Sir, we have watched with attention your progress through the

land, and the varying feeling with which you have been received, and
the unvarying tone and countenance which you have maintained.
We wish to discriminate in our regard. We wish to reserve our honor
for actions of the noblest strain. We please ourselves that in you we
meet one whose temper was long since tried in the fire, and made
equal to all events; a man so truly in love with the greatest future,
that he cannot be diverted to any less.
It is our republican doctrine, too, that the wide variety of opinions is
an advantage. I believe I may say of the people of this country at
large, that their sympathy is more worth, because it stands the test of
party. It is not a blind wave; it is a living soul contending with living
souls. It is, in every expression, antagonized. No opinion will pass
but must stand the tug of war. As you see, the love you win is worth
something; for it has been argued through; its foundation searched; it
has proved sound and whole; it may be avowed; it will last, and it will
draw all opinion to itself.
We have seen, with great pleasure, that there is nothing accidental
in your attitude. We have seen that you are organically in that cause
you plead. The man of Freedom, you are also the man of Fate. You
do not elect, but you are elected by God and your genius to the task.
We do not, therefore, affect to thank you. We only see in you the
angel of freedom, crossing sea and land; crossing parties,
nationalities, private interests and self-esteems; dividing populations
where you go, and drawing to your part only the good. We are afraid
that you are growing popular, Sir; you may be called to the dangers
of prosperity. But, hitherto, you have had in all centuries and in all
parties only the men of heart. I do not know but you will have the
million yet. Then, may your strength be equal to your day. But
remember, Sir, that everything great and excellent in the world is in
minorities.[200]
Far be from us, Sir, any tone of patronage; we ought rather to ask
yours. We know the austere condition of liberty—that it must be
reconquered over and over again; yea, day by day; that it is a state
of war; that it is always slipping from those who boast it to those who
fight for it: and you, the foremost soldier of freedom in this age,—it is
for us to crave your judgment; who are we that we should dictate to
you? You have won your own. We only affirm it. This country of
workingmen greets in you a worker. This republic greets in you a
republican. We only say, ‘Well done, good and faithful.’—You have
earned your own nobility at home. We admit you ad eundem (as they
say at College). We admit you to the same degree, without new trial.
We suspend all rules before so paramount a merit. You may well sit
a doctor in the college of liberty. You have achieved your right to
interpret our Washington. And I speak the sense not only of every
generous American, but the law of mind, when I say that it is not
those who live idly in the city called after his name, but those who, all
over the world, think and act like him, who can claim to explain the
sentiment of Washington.
Sir, whatever obstruction from selfishness, indifference, or from
property (which always sympathizes with possession) you may
encounter, we congratulate you that you have known how to convert
calamities into powers, exile into a campaign, present defeat into
lasting victory. For this new crusade which you preach to willing and
to unwilling ears in America is a seed of armed men. You have got
your story told in every palace and log hut and prairie camp,
throughout this continent. And, as the shores of Europe and America
approach every month, and their politics will one day mingle, when
the crisis arrives it will find us all instructed beforehand in the rights
and wrongs of Hungary, and parties already to her freedom.
 XX
WOMAN

A LECTURE READ BEFORE THE WOMAN’S

RIGHTS CONVENTION, BOSTON, SEPTEMBER
20, 1855

The politics are base,

The letters do not cheer,
And ’tis far in the deeps of history,
The voice that speaketh clear.

Yet there in the parlor sits

Some figure in noble guise,—
Our Angel in a stranger’s form;
Or Woman’s pleading eyes.

“Lo, when the Lord made North and South,

And sun and moon ordained he,
Forth bringing each by word of mouth
In order of its dignity,
Did man from the crude clay express
By sequence, and, all else decreed,
He formed the woman; nor might less
Than Sabbath such a work succeed.”

Coventry Patmore.
 WOMAN
Among those movements which seem to be, now and then,
endemic in the public mind,—perhaps we should say, sporadic,—
rather than the single inspiration of one mind, is that which has urged
on society the benefits of action having for its object a benefit to the
position of Woman. And none is more seriously interesting to every
healthful and thoughtful mind.
In that race which is now predominant over all the other races of
men, it was a cherished belief that women had an oracular nature.
They are more delicate than men,—delicate as iodine to light,—and
thus more impressionable. They are the best index of the coming
hour. I share this belief. I think their words are to be weighed; but it is
their inconsiderate word,—according to the rule, ‘take their first
advice, not the second:’ as Coleridge was wont to apply to a lady for
her judgment in questions of taste, and accept it; but when she
added—“I think so, because—” “Pardon me, madam,” he said,
“leave me to find out the reasons for myself.” In this sense, as more
delicate mercuries of the imponderable and immaterial influences,
what they say and think is the shadow of coming events. Their very
dolls are indicative. Among our Norse ancestors, Frigga was
worshipped as the goddess of women. “Weirdes all,” said the Edda,
“Frigga knoweth, though she telleth them never.” That is to say, all
wisdoms Woman knows; though she takes them for granted, and
does not explain them as discoveries, like the understanding of man.
Men remark figure: women always catch the expression. They
inspire by a look, and pass with us not so much by what they say or
do, as by their presence. They learn so fast and convey the result so
fast as to outrun the logic of their slow brother and make his
acquisitions poor.[201] ’Tis their mood and tone that is important.
Does their mind misgive them, or are they firm and cheerful? ’Tis a
true report that things are going ill or well. And any remarkable
opinion or movement shared by woman will be the first sign of
revolution.
Plato said, Women are the same as men in faculty, only less in
degree. But the general voice of mankind has agreed that they have