MASTER Airborne Multispectral Imagery and Land Surface Temperature for Southwest US

Fifty spectral bands of calibrated radiance and derived land surface temperature data were captured by the MODIS/ASTER Airborne Simulator instrument during five NASA ER-2 flights. The dataset covers parts of the southwestern United States from May 15 to 23, 2011, with Level 1B data in HDF-4 format and Level 2 products in ENVI and KMZ formats. It was coordinated by NASA's Dryden (now Armstrong) Flight Research Center and includes flight paths, instrument configuration, and ancillary notes.

Use Cases

• Analyzing land surface temperature using the derived 5-band thermal infrared emissivity product.
• Calibrating satellite sensors with high-resolution, georeferenced radiance data from 50 spectral bands.
• Mapping surface radiative properties across the flight path using calibrated radiance imagery.
• Studying wildfire impacts or geological features using visible to thermal infrared spectral information.

Strengths

• Provides high spectral resolution with 50 bands covering wavelengths from 0.460 to 12.879 micrometers.
• Includes derived geophysical products like land surface temperature and 5-band emissivity.
• Data is georeferenced with approximately 50-meter spatial resolution for detailed analysis.
• Contains ancillary data like flight paths and instrument configuration for context.

Limitations

• Platforms disagree on the last update date: Data.gov lists 2026-03-13, while NASA Earthdata lists 2011-05-23.
• Specific row counts, file sizes, and detailed column names are not provided across sources.
• The license is ambiguously listed as 'other-license-specified' without explicit terms.

Provenance

Source

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

Collection Method

Data collected by the MASTER instrument aboard a NASA ER-2 aircraft during five coordinated flights.

Time Range

2011-05-15 to 2011-05-23

Freshness

2026-03 13 00:49:44.599196

Geography

Southwestern United States.