MISR L2 FIRSTLOOK: Arctic Land Surface Reflectance from Nine Angles

Nine cameras on NASA's MISR instrument captured each piece of Earth's surface from angles of 0, 26.1, 45.6, 60.0, and 70.5 degrees in four spectral bands. This FIRSTLOOK product provides a subset for the ARCTAS region, containing directional reflectance, albedo, FPAR, and terrain-referenced geometric parameters. It is designed for monitoring monthly trends in aerosols, clouds, and land surface cover.

Use Cases

• Tracking monthly aerosol type and amount over the Arctic based on multi-angle reflectance.
• Modeling surface radiation budgets using spectral and PAR-integrated albedo parameters.
• Estimating vegetation Fraction of Photosynthetically Active Radiation (FPAR) for canopy studies.
• Analyzing cloud height and type distributions from multi-angle imagery.
• Studying seasonal land surface cover changes with terrain-referenced geometric data.

Strengths

• Data collection is explicitly stated as complete.
• Provides unique multi-angle observations from nine cameras with seven-minute temporal separation.
• Cross-platform presence on Data.gov and NASA EarthData signals importance and validation.

Limitations

• Column names and dataset size are unknown across all sources, hindering structural understanding.
• Conflicting 'last updated' dates: Data.gov shows 2026-04-10 (future date), while NASA EarthData shows 2008-07-24.
• FIRSTLOOK processing relies on ancillary data from the previous month/year, introducing a latency.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

Collection Method

Satellite remote sensing from the Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR) instrument.

Time Range

Data collection is complete, but specific start/end dates are not provided.

Freshness

Last updated dates conflict: 2026-04 10 (Data.gov) vs. 2008-07-24 (NASA EarthData).

Geography

ARCTAS region (Arctic).