Calibrated hyperspectral reflectance data

Corescan© Hyperspectral Core Imager Mark III (HCI-III) system data were acquired for hand samples, and subsequent billets made from the hand samples, collected during the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) 2014, 2015, and 2016 field seasons in the Nabesna area of the eastern Alaska Range. This area contains exposed porphyry deposits and hand samples were collected throughout the region in support of the HyMap imaging spectrometer survey (https://doi.org/10.5066/F7DN435W) (Kokaly and others, 2017a). The HCI-III system consists of three different components. The first is an imaging spectrometer which collects reflectance data with a spatial resolution of approximately 500 nanometers (nm) for 514 spectral channels covering the 450-2,500 nm wavelength range of the electromagnetic spectrum (Martini and others, 2017). The second is a spectrally calibrated RGB camera that collects high resolution imagery of the samples with a 50 micrometer (μm) pixel size. The third component is a three-dimensional (3D) laser profiler that measures sample texture, surface features and shape with a vertical resolution of 20 μm (Martini and others, 2017). A total of 63 hand samples and four billets were analyzed using the HCI-III system in three scans. The imaging spectrometer raw data were collected with an average bandpass of approximately 6 nm across the Short Wave Infrared (SWIR) but smoothing functions applied by Corescan during the conversion of raw data to reflectance result in a relative bandpass of approximately 13 nm in the data delivered to the USGS. Wavelength evaluations of the imaging spectrometer data revealed that the supplied wavelength values should be shifted and, thus, adjustments were made to the wavelength positions (Kokaly and others, 2017b). The wavelength and bandpass evaluation results are provided in the 'Calibration' section of this data release and were used to adjust the Corescan reflectance data. The calibrated Corescan data were combined into a reflectance data cube mosaic and are described and provided in this section.