MASTER: Airborne Science, Hawaii-Pacific Ocean-western US, Fall, 2001, V2

This dataset contains calibrated multispectral imagery and derived geophysical products from 19 NASA ER-2 aircraft flights in October-November 2001. It provides Level 1B georeferenced radiance data across 50 spectral bands and Level 2 products including land surface temperature and emissivity in 5 thermal bands. The data, collected by the MASTER instrument, covers Hawaii, the eastern Pacific Ocean, and the western United States.

Use Cases

• Validating satellite-derived land surface temperature and emissivity models using the 5-band thermal infrared L2 products.
• Analyzing surface composition and vegetation health with 50-band multispectral radiance imagery at ~50m resolution.
• Studying spatial patterns of radiative properties across diverse terrains in Hawaii and the western U.S.
• Correlating flight path and instrument configuration metadata with the georeferenced imagery for mission analysis.
• Using browse images and KMZ files for rapid visual assessment of data coverage and quality.

Strengths

• Data includes calibrated radiance across 50 spectral bands from 0.460 to 12.879 micrometers, providing detailed spectral coverage.
• Collection includes 19 separate flights over a one-month period, offering multiple observational snapshots.
• Dataset provides both raw sensor data (L1B) and derived geophysical products (L2 emissivity, temperature), supporting different analysis levels.

Limitations

• Conflicting last updated dates: one source states 2001-11-15, while others state 2026-03 13, suggesting potential metadata inconsistency.
• Specific file sizes and row/observation counts are not provided across any platform.
• Primary L1B data is in the legacy HDF-4 format, which may require specialized software for access.

Provenance

Source

MODIS/ASTER Airborne Simulator (MASTER) instrument aboard a NASA ER-2 aircraft.

Collection Method

Airborne remote sensing data collected during 19 pre-planned science flights.

Time Range

2001-10-14 to 2001-11-14

Freshness

2026-03-13 00:49:44.589847

Geography

Hawaii, eastern Pacific Ocean, and western United States.