AirMSPI Polarimetric Radiance Data from CalWater-2 Campaign

AirMSPI terrain-projected georegistered radiance data contains radiometric and polarimetric images from the CalWater-2 flight campaign in January-February 2015. The Level 1B2 product provides map-projected data across eight spectral bands from 355 to 935 nm, including radiance, solar/view geometry, and polarization parameters for three wavelengths. This dataset was collected by NASA's ER-2 aircraft using the AirMSPI instrument and resulted from a partnership between NASA, NOAA, DOE, NSF, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, and Colorado State University.

Use Cases

• Analyzing aerosol-cloud interactions by correlating radiance values across 8 spectral bands with cloud features.
• Studying atmospheric river properties using polarimetric parameters (Q, U, DOLP, AOLP) at 470, 660, and 865 nm.
• Validating satellite-derived atmospheric retrievals with high-altitude airborne radiance and geometry data (solar zenith, azimuth, view zenith, azimuth).
• Investigating surface reflectance properties under varying atmospheric conditions using terrain-projected radiance imagery.

Strengths

• Provides polarimetric data (Stokes parameters Q, U, DOLP, AOLP) for three specific wavelengths (470, 660, 865 nm), enabling analysis of light polarization.
• Contains a complete temporal record from a focused scientific campaign, with data acquired from January 20 through February 24, 2015.
• Includes data from eight distinct spectral bands (355, 380, 445, 470, 555, 660, 865, 935 nm), offering a multi-spectral perspective.

Limitations

• Key quantitative metadata (row count, file size, specific column names) is unavailable across all platform descriptions.
• There is a conflict in license information: one source lists 'other-license-specified' while others list it as unknown or None.
• Data is from a single, historical campaign period (early 2015) and is not updated.

Provenance

Source

NASA/LARC_ASDC, in partnership with NOAA, DOE, NSF, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, Colorado State University.

Collection Method

Acquired by the AirMSPI instrument aboard NASA's ER-2 high-altitude research aircraft during the CalWater-2 flight campaign.

Time Range

January 20, 2015 to February 24, 2015

Freshness

2026-03-13 18:43:02.715311

Geography

Offshore of California in the North Pacific, based out of Palmdale, CA.