Abstract
Almost all conventional linear spectral unmixing techniques are based on the principle of least squares. The global mean digital number (DN) of an end‐member is taken as the representative (i.e. contributory) DN for the end‐member. This paper sets out to prove that the notion is a fallacy, and will always lead to negative percentages, super‐positive percentages and non‐100% sum of percentages if the unmixed pixel is not composed of, to within some tolerance, the global mean DNs only. Three sets of spectral end‐members (two, three and four spectral end‐members) are generated from Landsat ETM+ data. Practical percentages (between 0% and 100% and totalling 100%) of the end‐members are returned by pixels in which the local mean DNs of the spectral end‐members do not differ from the global mean DNs by, on average, 4.
Published Version
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