MASTER Airborne Imagery for California Farmland Mapping, August 2003

California farmland was surveyed by the MODIS/ASTER Airborne Simulator (MASTER) instrument during eight NASA ER-2 flights from August 5 to 11, 2003. The dataset provides Level 1B georeferenced multispectral imagery across 50 spectral bands and derived Level 2 products including land surface temperature and emissivity. Data collection was coordinated by NASA's Dryden (now Armstrong) Flight Research Center for agricultural mapping.

Use Cases

• Crop type classification and farmland delineation using 50-band multispectral radiance imagery.
• Land surface temperature estimation for irrigation and water stress studies from the derived L2 product.
• Emissivity analysis in the thermal infrared range (8.58-12.13 micrometers) for surface material characterization.
• Flight path and instrument configuration review for mission planning and data validation.
• Generation of browse images for quick visual assessment of georeferenced airborne coverage.

Strengths

• Provides calibrated radiance data across 50 spectral bands from visible to thermal infrared (0.460 to 12.879 micrometers).
• Includes derived geophysical products: land surface temperature and emissivity in 5 thermal bands.
• Data collected over eight coordinated flights, offering multiple snapshots of the target region.

Limitations

• Exact file size, row count, and total data volume are not specified across any platform.
• Sources conflict on the last updated date: one lists 2003-08-11, another lists 2026-03-13.
• Primary data formats (HDF-4, ENVI) may require specialized software for access and analysis.

Provenance

Source

NASA's Dryden (Armstrong) Flight Research Center, ORNL_CLOUD.

Collection Method

Data collected via the MASTER instrument aboard a NASA ER-2 high-altitude aircraft.

Time Range

2003-08-05 to 2003-08-11

Freshness

2026-03 13 00:48:46.257919

Geography

California, U.S.