ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an overview of past, current, and future hyperspectral missions to bodies in our solar system, including the Earth, focusing on spectral measurements of rocky surfaces. Earth is the only body in the solar system known to have vegetation, but it is not the only body to contain some prerequisites for vegetation, such as a mineral-rich surface and evidence of water. Minerals, soils, and rocks form the substrate upon which vegetation grows, and the composition of this substrate influences the remotely sensed spectra of vegetation. It is therefore natural to extend this book's discussion of hyperspectral remote sensing of vegetation to include hyperspectral remote sensing of inorganic components and related materials. Here, we present a summary of several planetary hyperspectral instruments, including their technical characteristics, techniques for calibration, and common approaches to data analysis. The section for each instrument includes one or more case studies describing important scientific findings that have resulted from analysis of that instrument's observations of solid bodies in our solar system. The chapter concludes with a discussion of mutual influences between terrestrial and planetary hyperspectral instrument design and data analysis.
