MASTER Airborne Spectral Imagery Over California-Nevada

MASTER instrument data contains Level 1B and Level 2 products from three NASA ER-2 aircraft flights over California and Nevada in late 2005. The dataset provides georeferenced multispectral imagery across 50 spectral bands from visible to thermal infrared wavelengths, at approximately 50-meter spatial resolution. It includes derived products like land surface temperature and emissivity, along with flight paths and instrument metadata.

Use Cases

• Calibrating satellite-based thermal infrared sensors using the airborne emissivity and land surface temperature data.
• Analyzing land cover and surface material composition using the 50-band multispectral radiance imagery.
• Validating atmospheric correction models with georeferenced, calibrated radiance measurements across a wide spectral range.
• Studying spatial patterns of surface heat flux using the derived land surface temperature maps.
• Mapping geological features or thermal anomalies with the high-resolution thermal infrared bands (8.58 to 12.13 micrometers).

Strengths

• Provides data from 50 spectral bands covering wavelengths from 0.460 to 12.879 micrometers, enabling detailed spectral analysis.
• Includes both raw calibrated radiance (L1B) and derived geophysical products like land surface temperature and emissivity (L2).
• Contains ancillary data such as flight paths, instrument configuration, and spectral band information for each of the three flights.

Limitations

• Specific row counts, file sizes, and exact column names are not provided across any source, limiting precise data volume assessment.
• Sources disagree on the last updated date, with one listing 2026-03-13 (likely a metadata refresh) and another listing 2005-12-09 (data collection end).

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Dryden/Armstrong Flight Research Center.

Collection Method

Collected via the MODIS/ASTER Airborne Simulator (MASTER) instrument aboard a NASA ER-2 aircraft during three coordinated flights.

Time Range

2005-10-19 to 2005-12-09

Freshness

2026-03-13 00:50:13.514289

Geography

California and Nevada, United States.