MASTER Airborne Multispectral Imagery of Western US

Fifty spectral bands of calibrated radiance data were collected during 10 flights over five southwestern U.S. states from May 28 to June 10, 1999. The MODIS/ASTER Airborne Simulator (MASTER) instrument, deployed by the U.S. Department of Energy's Remote Sensing Laboratory, captured this georeferenced imagery at approximately 20-meter spatial resolution. Data products include Level 1B HDF-4 files, flight paths, band information, instrument configuration, and browse images.

Use Cases

• Satellite sensor calibration and validation using 50 bands of airborne radiance data.
• Land surface temperature and thermal inertia studies using thermal infrared bands (up to 12.879 µm).
• Vegetation and mineralogical mapping via analysis of visible and near-infrared spectral reflectance.
• Flight path analysis and spatial registration of imagery using included georeferencing and ancillary data.
• Development of spectral libraries and atmospheric correction models for the southwestern U.S. region.

Strengths

• Dataset provides calibrated radiance across 50 specific spectral bands from 0.460 to 12.879 micrometers.
• Imagery offers high spatial resolution of approximately 20 meters for detailed surface analysis.
• Coverage includes 10 distinct flights over a two-week period across five U.S. states.

Limitations

• Primary data is stored in the legacy HDF-4 format, which may require specialized tools for access.
• Sources conflict on the last updated date, listing both 1999-06-10 and 2026-03 13.
• Exact file size and row/record counts are not provided by any source.

Provenance

Source

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

Collection Method

Data collected by the MASTER instrument aboard a DOE B-200 aircraft during a coordinated deployment.

Time Range

1999-05-28 to 1999-06-10

Freshness

2026-03-13 01:00:29.376224

Geography

California, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas, U.S.