BOREAS RSS-19: CASI Radiance and Reflectance Images of Boreal Forest
Updated 3mo ago
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Available on 2 platforms
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Description
NASA's BOREAS RSS-19 team collected Compact Airborne Spectrographic Imager (CASI) data from a Chieftain Navaho aircraft in 1996. The dataset contains at-sensor radiance and at-ground modeled reflectance images, captured over 15 days between 18-July and 01-August near Thompson, Manitoba, and Prince Albert, Saskatchewan. Its primary scientific objectives were to study canopy bidirectional reflectance, canopy biochemistry, spatial variability, and photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) spectral albedo.
Use Cases
Modeling canopy bidirectional reflectance based on multi-angle airborne imagery.
Estimating canopy biochemistry (e.g., chlorophyll, nitrogen) from spectral reflectance data.
Analyzing spatial variability of vegetation properties across boreal forest flux tower sites.
Calculating upwelling and downwelling PAR spectral albedo for energy balance studies.
Observing seasonal changes in radiometric properties along transects across lakes and between study areas.
Strengths
Data collection was part of the large-scale BOREAS campaign, a well-documented international science project.
Images were collected on 15 specific days during a focused summer field campaign, providing temporal consistency.
The dataset includes both raw radiance and processed at-ground reflectance products.
Limitations
Column names and a precise row/image count are not provided in the available metadata.
Sources conflict on the last updated date (1996 vs. 2026), suggesting metadata may be inconsistently maintained.
The data is described as a subset (CASI Mission 3), implying it is not the complete collection from the campaign.
Provenance
Source
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), RSS-19 team, BOREAS project.
Collection Method
Collected using a Compact Airborne Spectrographic Imager (CASI) mounted on a Chieftain Navaho aircraft.
Time Range
1996-07-18 to 1996-08-01
Freshness
Last updated date conflicts: one source states 1996-07-30, another states 2026-03-13.
Geography
Boreal forest sites near Thompson, Manitoba, and Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, Canada.
License is listed as 'other-license-specified' on one platform but 'None' on another; users should verify terms. Data is stored as binary image files.