Detection of Military Underground Structures through the Remote Sensing Investigation of Phenological Cycle of Crops

Abstract

This paper aims to explore how field spectroscopy is essential for remote sensing studies for the detection and monitoring of various features such military underground structures in Cyprus. A SVC-HR1024 field spectroradiometer was used and in-band reflectances were determined for medium resolution Landsat-7 ETM satellite sensor, in order to study possible differences of the spectral signature of vegetation throughout the phenological cycle of plant growth. In this study, two test areas were identified, analyzed and modelled: 1) Military Structure Area (MSA) where underground structure exists, and 2) Reference Area (RA) where underground military structure does not exist. The Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) was applied to Landsat-7 ETM and Sentinel-2 satellite images in order to identify the presence or absence of underground structures in the study area.