NASA/JPL contract No. 960983: 1997-2000

Identification and Mapping of Expansive Clay Soils in the Western US: Using Field Spectrometry and AVIRIS Data

Goals

We propose to develop and implement a spectroscopic method to understand and map swelling soil potential along the Front Range of Colorado. The study means to correlate standard soil engineering tests with x-ray diffraction (XRD) mineralogy and reflectance spectroscopy to develop a field spectroscopic technique for in situ determination of swelling soil potential. This technique will then be expanded to the use of imaging spectrometer (hyperspectral) data to permit the development of a map of swelling soil potential along the 300 km long Front Range corridor.