MASTER Airborne Multispectral Imagery for Southwest US and Mexico, 2011

NASA's MASTER instrument collected Level 1B and Level 2 data during six ER-2 aircraft flights from June 8 to 20, 2011. The dataset provides georeferenced calibrated radiance across 50 spectral bands (0.460-12.879 µm) at ~50m resolution, plus derived emissivity and land surface temperature products. This deployment supported wildfire mapping, airborne science initiatives, and calibration for the AVIRIS instrument.

Use Cases

• Wildfire impact assessment and mapping using calibrated radiance and land surface temperature layers.
• Land surface emissivity studies in the 8.58-12.13 µm thermal infrared range from the 5-band L2 product.
• Calibration and validation of satellite sensors like AVIRIS using the high-resolution airborne spectral data.
• Analysis of surface radiative properties across diverse southwestern US and northern Mexico terrains.
• Integration of flight path, instrument configuration, and ancillary notes for mission reconstruction and analysis.

Strengths

• Contains data from 6 coordinated flights, providing systematic coverage over a specific campaign period.
• Offers 50 bands of multispectral data spanning visible to thermal infrared wavelengths (0.460 to 12.879 µm).
• Includes both primary L1B radiance data and derived L2 products (emissivity, temperature) for direct application.
• Provides ancillary materials like flight paths, band information, and browse images for context.

Limitations

• Exact dataset size, row count, and specific column names are not provided by any source.
• Conflicting last updated dates: Data.gov lists 2026-03-13, while NASA Earthdata lists 2011-06-20, suggesting potential metadata inconsistency.
• License is specified as 'other-license-specified' on Data.gov but is null on NASA Earthdata, requiring user verification.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Armstrong Flight Research Center (formerly Dryden).

Collection Method

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

Time Range

2011-06-08 to 2011-06-20

Freshness

2026-03 -13 22:34:06.321937

Geography

Southwestern United States and northern Mexico.