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HyTools manuscript guidance

How to describe the relationship

HyTools is important prior software for hyperspectral correction and I/O. The SpectralBridge paper should distinguish five facts: both projects use published topographic and BRDF methods; selected SpectralBridge incidence, Ross/Li kernel, NEON-reader, ENVI-writer, and legacy-resampling code has HyTools implementation lineage; SpectralBridge adds distinct restart-safe orchestration, sensor harmonization/translation, drone and bulk workflows, compact statistics, product contracts, and QA/provenance infrastructure; the supported pipeline no longer requires HyTools at runtime; and removal of that dependency does not remove the obligation to credit HyTools.

Do not describe SpectralBridge as containing “no HyTools code” or as an entirely independent reimplementation. Use “does not require HyTools as a runtime dependency” for the narrower and accurate engineering claim. Cite the original scientific literature for SCS+C and Ross/Li methods, and cite HyTools as the implementation source where the component-level audit records adaptation.

Suggested Methods/Software paragraph

SpectralBridge provides restart-safe, file-based workflows for NEON, drone, cross-sensor translation, bulk analysis, and quality assessment. Its supported pipeline does not require HyTools at runtime, but selected correction, NEON HDF5, ENVI, and legacy resampling components were adapted from or informed by HyTools and remain explicitly attributed. The SCS+C topographic correction follows Soenen et al. (2005), while Ross/Li BRDF kernels follow the cited kernel literature; where the HyTools implementation informed SpectralBridge's implementation, both the scientific source and HyTools are credited. SpectralBridge's distinct contributions include its restart-safe artifact contracts, sensor harmonization and empirical translation workflows, separate drone and bulk-analysis systems, compact hierarchical statistics, and integrated QA and provenance outputs.

Adjust the list of contributions to match the manuscript's actual evaluated scope. Do not claim algorithmic novelty for standard SCS+C, Ross, Li, NDVI, or Gaussian-response methods.

Suggested acknowledgement

We acknowledge the HyTools developers—Adam Chlus, Zhiwei Ye, Philip Townsend, and the other contributors named by the HyTools project—for prior hyperspectral processing software and for implementation foundations adapted in SpectralBridge.

Citations to include

  • Cite the HyTools software/repository using its preferred citation metadata at the version actually discussed in the manuscript.
  • Cite Soenen, Peddle, and Coburn (2005), DOI 10.1109/TGRS.2005.852480, for SCS+C.
  • Cite Wanner, Li, and Strahler (1995), DOI 10.1029/95JD02371, and Lucht, Schaaf, and Strahler (2000), DOI 10.1109/36.841980, for the Ross/Li kernel family, adding the more specific references appropriate to the exact kernels discussed.
  • Cite the released SpectralBridge version and archive/DOI used for the paper.

See the repository-root HyTools provenance audit for the audited versions, component classifications, Git-history evidence, limitations, and packaging status. This guidance is scholarly wording, not a legal assessment.