## 4 Results
### The Fusion of the Selected Sentinel-2 MSI and Landsat-8 Components
Figure 9: (**a**) PC3 of the stretched Sentinel-2 MSI data showing brighter and medium-toned granite and darker vegetation; (**b**) PC3 of the raw Sentinel-2 MSI data showing granite as medium-toned and vegetation in brighter pixels; (**c**) PC4 of the raw Sentinel-2 MSI data showing granite as brighter and medium-toned and vegetation in darker pixels. Marble is shown in brighter pixels in all these components. Figure 10: (**a**) Weighted false-color composite (FCC) image from selected FPCS components (stretched Sentinel-2 MSI data (PC3), raw Landsat (PC4), and stretched Landsat data (PC3) weights were 1.5, 0.375, and 1.25, respectively). Granite occurrences were observed at P1 (72\({}^{\circ}\)20\({}^{\prime}\)31\({}^{\prime\prime}\) E, 34\({}^{\circ}\)20\({}^{\prime}\)26\({}^{\prime\prime}\) N). DV was observed at P2 (72\({}^{\circ}\)20\({}^{\prime}\)50\({}^{\prime\prime}\) E, 34\({}^{\circ}\)20\({}^{\prime}\)21\({}^{\prime\prime}\) N), and low vegetation (LV) was observed at P3 (72\({}^{\circ}\)21\({}^{\prime}\)7\({}^{\prime\prime}\) E, 34\({}^{\circ}\)20\({}^{\prime}\)12\({}^{\prime\prime}\) N). While granite was easily discernible in non-vegetated areas at P4 (72\({}^{\circ}\)24\({}^{\prime}\)29.5\({}^{\prime\prime}\) E, 34\({}^{\circ}\)17\({}^{\prime}\)47\({}^{\prime\prime}\) N) and P5 (72\({}^{\circ}\)24\({}^{\prime}\)17\({}^{\prime\prime}\) E, 34\({}^{\circ}\)17\({}^{\prime}\)51\({}^{\prime\prime}\) N), and marble outcrops were observed at P6 (72\({}^{\circ}\)28\({}^{\prime}\)7\({}^{\prime\prime}\) E, 34\({}^{\circ}\)17\({}^{\prime}\)36\({}^{\prime\prime}\) N) and P7 (72\({}^{\circ}\)28\({}^{\prime}\)10\({}^{\prime\prime}\), 34\({}^{\circ}\)17\({}^{\prime}\)37\({}^{\prime\prime}\) N); (**b**) FCC image of PC4, PC5, and PC6 of PCA applied to the stacked raw bands of all the three datasets; (c) FCC image of PC1, PC2, and PC3 of PCA applied to the stacked stretched bands of all the three datasets. Furthermore, information on granite mining leases was acquired from the Directorate General of Mines and Minerals (DGMM) of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province in Pakistan (Table 5) and the field validation of the area under study to traverse the target regions using the existing geological map [38]. The field features such as the color, texture, mineralogy, and weathering grade of rocks were correlated with the maps generated via the RS techniques discussed above. Dense to mild vegetation was indicated in a pink to the red gradient (as shown in Figure 10a), which correlated with the vegetation intensity on the rocks exposures (as shown in Figure 11). The magnified views of the final map presented in Figure 10a, with the details of the study area is shown in Figure 12. Detailed petrographic and textural examination characterized the rocks such as granites and marble (Figure 13), supporting the RS analytical results. Figure 11: (**a**) Binarized normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) of >0.50% showing pixels with higher vegetation cover in black color; (**b**) low vegetation region (72°21′48′′ E, 34°19′44′′ N); (**c**) medium vegetation region (72°21′8′′ E, 34°20′13′′ N). Figure 12: Zoomed-in areas of the study region showing MMLs and granite leases (ML-1–ML4) amongst low vegetated (LV) regions.