MISR Level 1B1: Multi-angle Satellite Radiance Data for Earth Observation

Global satellite radiance data collected by NASA's Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR) instrument. The dataset contains radiometrically scaled radiances from nine cameras viewing Earth at nine different angles across four spectral bands. Data collection is ongoing, with global coverage achieved every nine days.

Use Cases

• Monitoring trends in atmospheric aerosols based on multi-angle spectral radiance measurements.
• Analyzing cloud types, amounts, and heights based on radiance data from nine viewing angles.
• Studying vegetation canopy structure and land surface cover distribution using four spectral bands.
• Calibrating other satellite sensors based on the detailed on-board and vicarious calibration methodology described.

Strengths

• Data is calibrated using an On-Board Calibrator (OBC) with Spectralon panels and vicarious calibrations.
• Provides radiance measurements from nine cameras at specific view angles (0, 26.1, 45.6, 60.0, and 70.5 degrees).
• Covers four distinct spectral bands centered at 443, 555, 670, and 865 nm.

Limitations

• Data is not geometrically corrected or resampled, which may complicate direct spatial analysis.
• No out-of-band correction is applied to the spectral radiances.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Collected by the MISR instrument's nine push-broom cameras on a satellite platform.

Time Range

Data collection is ongoing; specific start date is not provided.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 00:14:19.154927; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Global coverage.