Description

The AIRMISR_SERC_2003 data were acquired during a flight over the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, Maryland, USA, target as part of the AirMISR deployments from the Wallops Flight Facility during the August 2003 campaign. This particular flight took place on August 20, 2003. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California provided the data. There was a total of one run during this flight. A run comprises data collected from nine view angles acquired on a fixed flight azimuth angle. Each data file from one run contains either: a) Level 1B1 Radiometric product from one of the 9 camera angles or b) Level 1B2 Georectified radiance product from one of the 9 camera angles. Browse images in PNG format are available for the Level 1B1 product and browse images in JPEG format are available for the Level 1B2 product. The Airborne Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (AirMISR) is an airborne instrument for obtaining multi-angle imagery similar to that of the satellite-borne Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR) instrument, which is designed to contribute to studies of the Earth's ecology and climate. AirMISR flies on the NASA ER-2 aircraft. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California built the instrument for NASA. Unlike the satellite-borne MISR instrument, which has nine cameras oriented at various angles, AirMISR uses a single camera in a pivoting gimbal mount. A data run by the ER-2 aircraft is divided into nine segments, each with the camera positioned to a MISR look angle. The gimbal rotates between successive segments, such that each segment acquires data over the same area on the ground as the previous segment. This process is repeated until all nine angles of the target area are collected. The swath width, which varies from 11 km in the nadir to 32 km at the most oblique angle, is governed by the camera's instantaneous field-of-view of 7 meters cross-track x 6 meters along-track in the nadir view and 21 meters x 55 meters at the most oblique angle. The along-track image length at each angle is dictated by the timing required to obtain overlap imagery at all angles, and varies from about 9 km in the nadir to 26 km at the most oblique angle. Thus, the nadir image dictates the area of overlap that is obtained from all nine angles. A complete flight run takes approximately 13 minutes. The 9 camera viewing angles are: 0 degrees or nadir 26.1 degrees, fore and aft 45.6 degrees, fore and aft 60.0 degrees, fore and aft 70.5 degrees, fore and aft. For each of the camera angles, images are obtained at 4 spectral bands. The spectral bands can be used to identify vegetation and aerosols, estimate surface reflectance and for ocean color studies. The center wavelengths of the 4 spectral bands are: 443 nanometers, blue 555 nanometers, green 670 nanometers, red 865 nanometers, near-infrared. Two types of AirMISR data products are available - the Level 1 Radiometric product (L1B1) and the Level 1 Georectified radiance product (L1B2). The Level 1 Radiometric product contains data that are scaled to convert the digital output of the cameras to radiances and are conditioned to remove instrument-dependent effects. Additionally, all radiances are adjusted to remove slight spectral sensitivity differences among the detector elements of each spectral band. These data have a 7-meter spatial resolution at nadir and around 30-meter at the most oblique 70.5 degree angles. The Level 1 Georectified radiance product contains the Level 1 radiometric product resampled to a 27.5 meter spatial resolution and mapped into a standard Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) map projection. Initially the data are registered to each camera angle and to the ground. This processing is necessary because the nine views of each point on the ground are not acquired simultaneously. Once the map grid center points are located in the AirMISR imagery through the process of georectification, a radiance value obtained from the surrounding AirMISR pixels is assigned to that map grid center. Bilinear interpolation is used as the basis for computing the new radiance. A UTM grid point falling somewhere in the image data will have up to 4 surrounding points. The bilinear interpolated value is obtained using the fractional distance of the interpolation point in the cross-track direction and the fractional distance in the along-track direction.

DOI

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Citation Styles for this Dataset

Resources and Documentation

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Earthdata Forum

DOWNLOAD SOFTWARE

AirMISR Version 3 Read Software Package - Direct File Download (.tar)

AirMISR L1B2/L2AS Coregistration Tool - Direct File Download (.tar)

MISR Paths Tool - Direct File Download (.kml)

AirMISR L1B2/L2AS Coregistration Tool IDL source code - Direct File Download (.pro)

AirMISR L1B2/L2AS Coregistration Tool IDL executable save file (use with the IDL Virtual Machine) - Direct File Download (.sav)

GET RELATED VISUALIZATION

ASDC List of MISR Imagery and Articles

AirMISR Campaign Imagery: AirMISR Browse Images from the SERC_2003 Field Campaign (Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, Maryland), August 20, 2003

GOTO WEB TOOL

Google Earth

PROJECT HOME PAGE

AirMISR project home page

MISR project home page

VIEW RELATED INFORMATION

ALGORITHM THEORETICAL BASIS DOCUMENT (ATBD)

• NASA EOS ATB Documents: MISR

ANOMALIES

• ASDC Terra Spacecraft Loss of Accurate Orbit Data Record

DATA CITATION POLICY

• How to cite ASDC data

GENERAL DOCUMENTATION

• ASDC Data and Information for AirMISR
• ASDC Data and Information for MISR
• Links to tools available through the ASDC
• MISR Observing Concept Fact Sheet
• Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR) Overview Fact Sheet

HOW-TO

• ASDC Documents for Using AirMISR Data

MICRO ARTICLE

• NASA Earth Observatory Article: "Fiery Temperament" By Michon Scott, May 14, 2002

PI DOCUMENTATION

• MISR Workshop Presentations, June 2002 - August 2010
• Obtaining MISR Data and Information, Presented by Jeff Walter Atmospheric Science Data Center - April 17, 2009 - Direct File Download (.ppt)

PRODUCT QUALITY ASSESSMENT

• Quality Summary: AirMISR SERC_2003

PRODUCT USAGE

• AirMISR Data Products Specifications, Rev. C, December 21, 2000
• Data Product Specification for MISR - Revision S, April 15, 2011
• MISR Science Data Product Guide - May 7, 2012

PUBLICATIONS

• Journal of Geophysical Research Article: "Aerosol properties derived from aircraft multiangle imaging over Monterey Bay" by Ralph Kahn, Pranab Banerjee, Duncan McDonald, and John Martonchik, June 16, 2001
• Journal of Geophysical Research Article: "Sensitivity of multiangle imaging to natural mixtures of aerosols over ocean" by Ralph Kahn, Pranab Banerjee, and Duncan McDonald, August 27, 2001
• MISR Peer-Reviewed Publications
• NASA Earth Observatory Article: Looking at the Moon to Better See Earth - Terra satellite performs a maneuver that allows all nine of MISR's cameras to capture images of the moon.
• NASA Earth Observatory Article: Squeezing Water from Rock - Survivors of the New Madrid earthquakes reported not only intense ground shaking and land movement, but also an unfamiliar phenomenon of water and sand spouting up through cracks in the Earth's surface.
• NASA Earth Observatory Article: Tracking Clouds - Tune in to the evening weather report on any given day, and you'll no doubt see satellite images of clouds.
• NASA Earthdata Content Delivery Network (CDN) Article: Aerosols over Australia - Researchers explore the links between atmospheric aerosols, climate change, and ultraviolet rays.
• NASA Earthdata Content Delivery Network (CDN) Article: Cloudy with a chance of Drizzle - By analyzing data from the MISR instrument, scientists discover that a unique type of cloud formation is much more prevalent than was previously believed.
• NASA Earthdata Content Delivery Network (CDN) Article: Following the World Trade Center plume - Remote sensing helps track the drift of harmful pollutants following the World Trade Center collapse.
• NASA Earthdata Content Delivery Network (CDN) Article: Smoke over Athens - The effects of forest fires show up in a multi-satellite view of pollution.
• NASA JPL Images: Tropical Storm Harvey over Texas - After making landfall as a Category 4 hurricane the day before, striking images are captured by MISR as the storm maintained a dangerous tropical storm status.
• NASA JPL Photojournal: New Images of Irma's Towering Clouds - MISR passes over Irma over the Dominican Republic as a Category 5 hurricane.

READ-ME

• AirMISR L1B2/L2AS Coregistration Tool Readme
• AirMISR Read Software Document Readme
• Readme Information about the AirMISR Data During a Flight over the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, Maryland on August 20, 2003

USER'S GUIDE

• Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer Project Handbook
• Overview of MISR Data at the ASDC, 2023

Keywords

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