PROVE MQUALS Airborne Reflectance Data for MODIS Validation

Jornada Experimental Range in New Mexico was the site for this 1997 aircraft-based reflectance study. The MODIS Land validation group collected multi-angle, top-of-canopy radiometric measurements to assess low-flying aircraft for satellite product validation. Data includes transects over several land cover types within the semi-arid biome, captured during the Prototype Validation Experiment (PROVE).

Use Cases

• Validating MODIS land surface reflectance algorithms using multi-angle, nadir, and off-nadir airborne measurements.
• Analyzing spectral reflectance variation across different land cover types in a semi-arid environment.
• Studying the impact of sun angle on observed reflectance through data from two separate overflights.
• Comparing pointable radiometer data from principal and orthogonal viewing planes (0, 15, 30, 45 degrees).

Strengths

• Data includes multi-angle reflectance measurements at nadir, 15, 30, and 45 degrees along principal and orthogonal planes.
• Measurements cover several land cover types within a defined semi-arid validation site (Jornada Experimental Range).
• A companion descriptive article (Huete et al., 1999) provides scientific context for the dataset.

Limitations

• Key structural metadata (row count, column names, file size) is unavailable from all sources.
• Sources conflict on the last updated date (1997-05-25 vs. 2026-03-12), creating uncertainty about metadata maintenance.

Provenance

Source

MODIS Land (MODLAND) validation group, likely affiliated with ORNL_CLOUD.

Collection Method

Aircraft-based multiband radiometers (Exotech) flown at 100 m altitude along transects.

Time Range

1997-05

Freshness

2026-03 12 22:39:28.665159

Geography

Jornada Experimental Range, New Mexico, USA.