The Q-mode factor analysis

• Find the minimum number of end-members which could be considered as building blocks of the objects,
• Specify the compositions of the factors in relation to the constituents,
• Describe each object in terms of end-members, which means the decomposition of objects into their end-member components.

The mathematical model is the following :

With N The number of different pixels inside the satellite image, p the number of channels, and k the number of factors.

After the Q-mode factor analysis we obtain a factor score matrix F and a factor loading matrix A.

The Q-mode factor analysis is following by a Varimax rotation