MASTER Airborne Imagery and Land Surface Data for HyspIRI Campaign

Multispectral imagery and derived land surface data were collected by the MASTER instrument aboard a NASA ER-2 aircraft during six flights over California and Nevada in June 2016. The dataset contains Level 1B georeferenced radiance imagery across 50 spectral bands and Level 2 products including emissivity and land surface temperature. This collection was part of the preparatory airborne campaign for the Hyperspectral Infrared Imager (HyspIRI) mission.

Use Cases

• Developing and validating algorithms for deriving land surface temperature from thermal infrared bands (8.58 to 12.13 micrometers).
• Analyzing surface radiative properties using the 5-band emissivity product.
• Calibrating satellite-based sensors with high-resolution, georeferenced radiance data from 50 spectral bands.
• Studying regional land cover and thermal features using the provided browse images and flight path information.

Strengths

• Data includes calibrated radiance values across 50 spectral bands from 0.460 to 12.879 micrometers.
• Covers six distinct flights over a two-week period, providing multiple observational snapshots.
• Provides derived geophysical products (emissivity, land surface temperature) alongside raw radiance imagery.

Limitations

• Key quantitative details like total file size, row count, and exact spatial resolution beyond 'approximately 50-meter' are unavailable.
• Conflicting last update dates exist between sources (2016-06-22 on NASA Earthdata vs. 2026-03-13 on Data.gov).
• Specific license terms are not detailed, only listed as 'other-license-specified'.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

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

Time Range

2016-06-09 to 2016-06-21

Freshness

2026-03-13 00:48:14.610438

Geography

California and Nevada, U.S.