AirMSPI SPEX-PR Airborne Radiance and Polarimetry Imagery

AirMSPI Level 1B2 data provides ellipsoid-projected, georegistered radiometric and polarimetric images from the SPEX-PR flight campaign. The product contains radiance, time, and angular data across 8 wavelengths from 355 to 935 nm, with full Stokes parameters for polarized bands. NASA's LARC_ASDC released this data, which captures targets from engineering flights and a specific gas leak overflight in February 2016.

Use Cases

• Retrieve aerosol optical depth by analyzing radiance values at 355, 380, 445, 470, 555, 660, 865, and 935 nm wavelengths.
• Characterize surface properties and cloud microphysics using the degree of linear polarization (DOLP) and angle of linear polarization (AOLP) features at 470, 660, and 865 nm.
• Perform 3D atmospheric scene reconstruction by fusing radiance data with solar zenith, solar azimuth, view zenith, and view azimuth angular columns.
• Validate satellite sensor performance by comparing AirMSPI's Stokes parameters Q and U against other polarimeter measurements.
• Monitor localized gas plume dispersion by analyzing temporal and spectral radiance changes from the Porter Ranch overflight data.

Strengths

• Contains polarimetric data (Stokes Q, U, DOLP, AOLP) for three spectral bands (470, 660, 865 nm).
• Provides georegistered, map-projected imagery across 8 distinct wavelengths from ultraviolet to near-infrared.
• Data is associated with a specific, documented flight campaign (SPEX-PR) from February 2-9, 2016.

Limitations

• Spatial coverage is limited to specific flight paths over California during a short campaign.
• Data volume, row count, and specific sample size per target are not documented.
• The dataset's temporal relevance may be limited for studying current atmospheric conditions, as it is from 2016.

Provenance

Source

NASA LARC_ASDC (Langley Research Center, Atmospheric Science Data Center).

Collection Method

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

Time Range

February 2-9, 2016.

Freshness

Single release from 2016-02-09; no update frequency stated.

Geography

Flight paths based out of Armstrong Flight Research Center, Palmdale, CA, including overflights of Porter Ranch, California.