Hydrocarbon micro-seepage detection from airborne hyper-spectral images by plant stress spectra based on the PROSPECT model

Hydrocarbon micro-seepage can result in vegetation spectral anomalies. Early detection of spectral anomalies in plants stressed by hydrocarbon micro-seepage could help reveal oil and gas resources. In this study, the origin of plant spectral anomalies affected by hydrocarbon micro-seepage was measured using indoor simulation experiments. We analyzed wheat samples grown in a simulated hydrocarbon micro-seepage environment in a laboratory setting. The leaf mesophyll structure (N) values of plants in oil and gas micro-seepage regions were measured according to the content of measured biochemical parameters and spectra simulated by PROSPECT, a model for extracting hydrocarbon micro-seepage information from hyper-spectral images based on plant stress spectra. Spectral reflectance was simulated with N, chlorophyll content (C_ab), water content (C_w) and dry matter content (C_m). Multivariate regression equations were established using varying gasoline volume as the dependent variable and spectral feature parameters exhibiting a high rate of change as the independent variables. We derived a regression equation with the highest correlation coefficient and applied it to airborne hyper-spectral data (CASI/SASI) in Qingyang Oilfield, where extracted information regarding hydrocarbon micro-seepage was matched with known oil-producing wells.