MASTER Airborne Multispectral Radiance Imagery from 2003

Fifty spectral bands of calibrated radiance imagery were captured by the MODIS/ASTER Airborne Simulator (MASTER) instrument during a single NASA WB-57 aircraft flight on August 27, 2003. The data covers parts of California, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington, including the Cascade Mountains and Lake Tahoe, at approximately 25-meter spatial resolution. This dataset is a Level 1B product from an instrument validation flight, provided by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

Use Cases

• Validating satellite-derived land surface temperature and emissivity models using 12.879 micrometer thermal infrared bands.
• Mapping vegetation health and water content through analysis of visible and near-infrared radiance (0.460+ micrometers).
• Assessing geological features and mineral composition via spectral signatures across 50 discrete wavelength bands.
• Correlating flight path and instrument configuration metadata with the georeferenced imagery for precise spatial analysis.

Strengths

• Contains 50 discrete spectral bands covering a wide wavelength range from 0.460 to 12.879 micrometers.
• Provides high spatial resolution imagery at approximately 25 meters per pixel.
• Includes ancillary data such as flight path, band information, and instrument configuration for context.

Limitations

• Data is from a single flight on a specific date (2003-08 27), offering no temporal series.
• Sources conflict on the last updated metadata date: datagov lists 2026-03-13, while nasa_earthdata lists 2003-08-27.
• Specific row counts, file sizes, and detailed column structures are not provided by any source.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Collected by the MODIS/ASTER Airborne Simulator (MASTER) instrument aboard a NASA WB-57 aircraft.

Time Range

2003-08-27

Freshness

2026-03-13 00:48:04.581885

Geography

California, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington, U.S., including Cascade Mountains and Lake Tahoe.