AirMSPI SPEX-PR: Airborne Polarimetric Radiance Imagery for Atmospheric Studies

NASA's AirMSPI instrument collected radiometric and polarimetric images during the SPEX-PR flight campaign in February 2016. The dataset contains map-projected data at eight wavelengths from 355 to 935 nm, including radiance, geometry, and Stokes parameters for polarized bands. This release covers engineering flights and overflights of the Porter Ranch, California natural gas leak.

Use Cases

• Validate and calibrate other polarimetric instruments based on the multi-wavelength radiance and polarization data.
• Analyze atmospheric aerosol and cloud properties based on radiance and degree of linear polarization measurements.
• Study surface reflectance and atmospheric scattering using solar and view geometry parameters.
• Monitor and assess localized atmospheric events, such as gas leaks, using hyperspectral and polarimetric imagery.

Strengths

• Data includes polarimetric information (Stokes Q, U, DOLP, AOLP) at three specific wavelengths: 470, 660, and 865 nm.
• Contains radiometric images across eight distinct wavelengths from ultraviolet to near-infrared (355, 380, 445, 470, 555, 660, 865, 935 nm).
• Files are distributed in the standardized HDF-EOS-5 format for geospatial data.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count and dataset size are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Acquired by the Airborne Multiangle SpectroPolarimetric Imager (AirMSPI) instrument during ER-2 aircraft flights.

Time Range

February 2-5 and February 9, 2016

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03 13 06:24:23.358939; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Primarily over California, USA, including the Porter Ranch area and flights based out of Armstrong Flight Research Center in Palmdale.