MASTER FireSense: Airborne Multispectral Imagery for Wildland Fire Management

Seven flights aboard a NASA B200 aircraft collected 50-band multispectral imagery at approximately 10-meter spatial resolution from March 17 to April 18, 2025. The data, part of the FireSense project, includes Level 1B calibrated radiance and Level 2 products to support measurable improvement in US wildland fire management. Flights covered areas in California, Alabama, Georgia, and Florida.

Use Cases

• Mapping fire fuel loads and vegetation health based on 50 spectral bands covering visible to thermal infrared wavelengths.
• Calibrating satellite fire detection algorithms using high-resolution airborne radiance data.
• Analyzing post-fire burn severity and recovery across different ecosystems in the southern US and California.
• Validating thermal emission models using calibrated radiance data in the 12.879 micrometer wavelength range.

Strengths

• Contains 50 spectral bands with specific wavelength coverage from 0.460 to 12.879 micrometers.
• Data is georeferenced and collected at a high spatial resolution of approximately 10 meters.
• Includes multiple processed data levels (L1B and L2) and ancillary information like flight paths and instrument configuration.

Limitations

• Key metadata such as row count, file size, and specific license terms are not provided across platforms.
• The last updated date conflicts between sources (2025-04-18 on NASA Earthdata vs. 2026-04-10 on Data.gov).
• Column names and a precise data dictionary are unavailable, which may hinder automated processing.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

Collection Method

Collected via the MODIS/ASTER Airborne Simulator (MASTER) instrument aboard a NASA B200 aircraft.

Time Range

2025-03-17 to 2025-04-18

Freshness

2026-04-10 01:19:57.019608

Geography

California, Alabama, Georgia, and Florida, U.S.