DETERMINATION OF SOIL CHARACTERISTICS FROM THEMATIC MAPPER DATA OF A CROPPED ORGANIC-INORGANIC SOIL LANDSCAPE

Methods of determining soil characteristics from thematic mapper (TM) data were investigated at a site in southern Wisconsin. These methods utilized the soil-sensitive spectral region of TM. Agreement between wetness class and the April and September classifications, with absolute radiance and raw ratio transformation was 65.1, 61.3, 64.0, and 64.7%. When organic matter content was used instead of wetness class, the agreement ratio with TM was 74.0, 73.9, 68.4, and 66.0%. The April image correlated better with the soil map than the September image. The soil brightness image contributed most to classification accuracy, and can be used for manual soil interpretation.