MASTER Airborne Multispectral Imagery from TC4 Campaign 2007

Fifty spectral bands of calibrated radiance data were collected by the MODIS/ASTER Airborne Simulator (MASTER) instrument during seven NASA ER-2 flights from July 29 to August 18, 2007. This dataset supports the Tropical Composition, Cloud and Climate Coupling Campaign (TC4), providing Level 1B imagery and derived Level 2 products like land surface temperature and emissivity. The data, managed by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, covers regions over California, Nevada, Central America, and the eastern Pacific Ocean.

Use Cases

• Analyzing land surface temperature and emissivity from the 5-band thermal infrared L2 products.
• Studying atmospheric structure and cloud properties using 50-band calibrated radiance imagery from the L1B data.
• Mapping surface radiative properties across diverse terrains in California, Nevada, and Central America.
• Validating satellite-derived thermal and visible wavelength data with airborne measurements at ~50-meter resolution.
• Investigating processes in the Eastern Pacific Tropics as part of the TC4 campaign research.

Strengths

• Provides high-resolution multispectral data with 50 bands covering a broad wavelength range from 0.460 to 12.879 micrometers.
• Includes derived geophysical products like land surface temperature and emissivity in 5 thermal infrared bands.
• Data collection is tied to a specific, well-documented scientific campaign (TC4) with seven flights over a focused time period.

Limitations

• Specific file sizes, row counts, and total data volume are not documented across the platforms.
• Conflicting last updated dates exist between sources (2007-08-18 on NASA Earthdata and 2026-03-13 on Data.gov).

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

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

Time Range

2007-07 29 to 2007-08-18

Freshness

2026-03-13 00:57:27.815484

Geography

California, Nevada, Central America, and eastern Pacific Ocean.