# Detecting Lithium (Li) Mineralizations from Space: Current Research and Future Perspectives
## 3 Future Perspectives
### Data Products Used for the Research
[98] compared the use of Sentinel-2, ASTER, and Hyperion in hydrothermally-altered mineral mapping associated with porphyry copper deposits. [PERSON] et al. [62] and [PERSON] et al. [63] already showed some potentialities and limitations of the use of Sentinel-2 in Li pegmatite identification. Overall, some of these works show that, on the contrary of what it was thought, Sentinel-2 might not be able to replace ASTER in the acquisition of data for geological applications, due to the lack of a TIR sensor. Until now there is no free or commercial product capable of responding to the necessities of geological mapping and exploration, so other solutions need to be explored. The potential of the combined use of multi- and hyperspectral satellite data in mineral exploration was already discussed by [PERSON] et al. [93]. In what concerns the compromise between spatial and spectral resolution, the answer may rely on commercial satellites such as WorldView-3. Launched in 2014 by DigitalGlobe, World-View-3 is a high-resolution multispectral sensor that measures reflected radiance in eight VNIR bands (at 1.24 m \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c c c c c} \hline \hline \multirow{2}{*}{**Sensor Name**} & \multicolumn{4}{c}{**Spectral Region (\(\upmu\)m)**} & \multirow{2}{*}{**Nr. of Bands**} & \multicolumn{3}{c}{**Spatial Resolution (m)**} \\ \cline{2-3}  & **VNIR** & **SWIR** & & **TIR** & **VNIR** & **SWIR** & **TIR** \\ \hline Landsat-8 OLI/TIRS & 0.43–0.88 & 1.57–2.29 & 10.60–12.51 & 11 & 30 & 30 & 100 \\ \hline ASTER & 0.52–0.86 & 1.60–2.43 & 8.13–10.95 & 14 & 15 & 30 & 90 \\ \hline \multirow{2}{*}{Sentinel-2 MSI} & A & 0.42–0.94 & 1.52–2.38 & \multirow{2}{*}{-} & \multirow{2}{*}{12} & \multirow{2}{*}{10} & \multirow{2}{*}{20} & \multirow{2}{*}{-} \\ \cline{2-3}  & B & 0.42–0.94 & 1.52–2.37 & & & & & \\ \hline WorldView-3 & 0.40–1.04 & 1.20–2.37 & - & 16 & 1.24 & 3.70 & - \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 2: Characteristics of sensors with potential for remote sensing of Li deposits [81; 88; 89; 81]. spatial resolution) and eight SWIR bands (at 3.70 m resolution) although SWIR data is resampled to a 7.5 m pixel size for commercial distribution [99] (Table 2; Figure 4). WorldView-3 also has a panchromatic band with 0.31 m of spatial resolution [99]. The swath width is 13.1 km. Despite lacking a TIR sensor, WorldView-3 has good potential for mineral mapping since its bandpasses are very similar to the ASTER VNIR-SWIR ones [4; 54]. Additionally, such high resolution can help to tackle the vegetation problems due to the sensors' ability to map between trees [4]. To overcome the remaining inherent difficulties of Li exploration, other types of remote sensing platforms should be considered. Nowadays, drone-borne hyperspectral sensors are a reality. In fact, such an approach is being used to quickly identifying target areas for Li exploration within the \"Lightweight Integrated Ground and Airborne Hyperspectral Topological Solution\" (LIGHTS) project [101]. However, this kind of data has one big limitation due to the high associated cost of mounting the equipment in the drone, of around 200,000 USD. Nonetheless, it is our opinion this kind of approach will be highly sought after in the future, once the drone and hyperspectral camera prices go down.