A semiempirical method for analysis of the reflectance spectra of binary mineral mixtures

Abstract

A simple semiempirical method is presented for determination of the spectral reflectance of a powdered binary mineral mixture. This technique uses a two‐stream radiative transfer model (a modified Kubelka‐Munk model) on a particulate medium of isotropic scatterers. The particles are assumed to be much larger than the wavelength of light under consideration. This same method can be used to determine the relative proportion of components in a mixture for which the spectral reflectance is known. Binary mixtures of olivine, two pyroxenes, and magnetite are used to test this model. The theoretical and empirical results agree approximately within experimental errors.