Further investigations into the use of linear and nonlinear mixing models for hyperspectral image analysis

This paper presents the latest results of a series of experiments designed to identify situations in which linear and nonlinear mixing models are expected to occur. It continues to investigate the possibility that there may be naturally occurring situations in which the typically used linear mixture model may not provide the most accurate spectrum. It has already been shown that for specific situations, in binary mixing cases, the nonlinear mixing model can produce more accurate endmember abundance estimates. These results are extended to include ternary and quaternary mixtures, as well as hyperspectral imagery collected over Cuprite, Nevada. In order to test these hypothesis, laboratory endmember and mixture data are collected in various scenarios for analysis. As shown in experiments, ternary and quaternary mixtures are more complicated than binary mixtures and the nonlinear mixing is more likely to occur in ternary and quaternary mixtures than in binary mixtures.