Day 9

Today my group started out taking spectroscopy reading with Mike. We took 10 readings from two different WiliWili plants in different states of leaf on/leaf off. This means that leaves on the same plant can be anywhere from dark green to yellow. These different readings are necessary because in order to properly create a spectral signature an average must be calculated for the entire plant. This field work is very dependent on weather conditions including the intensity of the sun which can affect the reflectivity of the plant leaves. Because of this the technician must be careful not cast their shadow on the leaf being examined. The shadow would create a false reading. It was also raining intermittently throughout the morning causing us to take shelter and impeding the amount of work we got done. We then took a hike to the heiau by the coast and planned our analysis for tomorrow. We also took Trimble points on several different types of vegetation. We began to develop our “data dictionary”. This exercise was a great way to begin developing vegetation group’s data process. At lunch we got to sit by the ocean and watch the waves roll in. all of us waded in the shallows. Tomorrow I am going to wear my bathing suite! We tired to fly the kite to obtain data on the quarry but the winds were to variable to safely use this method of remote sensing.