MASTER Airborne Multispectral Imagery Over Western U.S. 2002

MASTER instrument Level 1B data products contain georeferenced multispectral imagery from seven airborne flights over California, New Mexico, and Nevada in May 2002. The dataset provides calibrated radiance measurements across 50 spectral bands, from visible to thermal infrared wavelengths, at approximately 10-meter spatial resolution. Data collection was coordinated by the U.S. Department of Energy's Remote Sensing Laboratory.

Use Cases

• Land surface temperature and emissivity studies using thermal infrared bands (8.6-12.879 µm).
• Vegetation and land cover classification analysis leveraging visible and near-infrared spectral bands (0.460-0.940 µm).
• Atmospheric correction validation by comparing airborne radiance with concurrent satellite measurements.
• Geospatial feature mapping and change detection using the 10-meter resolution georeferenced imagery.
• Sensor cross-calibration and algorithm development for MODIS and ASTER satellite data products.

Strengths

• Contains calibrated radiance data across 50 specific spectral bands (0.460 to 12.879 micrometers).
• Provides high spatial resolution imagery at approximately 10 meters per pixel.
• Includes ancillary data such as flight paths, instrument configuration, and spectral band information for each of the seven flights.
• Dataset is hosted on multiple authoritative platforms (NASA Earthdata and Data.gov), indicating established provenance.

Limitations

• Sources conflict on the last updated date: one states 2026-03-13, another states 2002-05, suggesting potential metadata inconsistency.
• Core data columns and exact file sizes are not specified in the available metadata.
• The license is listed as 'other-license-specified', requiring users to investigate specific terms of use.

Provenance

Source

U.S. Department of Energy's Remote Sensing Laboratory (RSL) at Nellis Air Force Base.

Collection Method

Data collected by the MODIS/ASTER Airborne Simulator (MASTER) instrument aboard a DOE B-200 aircraft.

Time Range

2002-05-14 to 2002-05-24

Freshness

2026-03 13 00:49:50.251280

Geography

Flights over California, New Mexico, and Nevada, U.S.