Surface Spectral Reflectance Data for Satellite Calibration in Botswana

August 18 to September 4, 2000, ground-based reflectance measurements were collected at Sua Pan salt playa and adjacent grasslands in Botswana during the SAFARI 2000 campaign. The dataset provides mean reflectance values, with grassland data covering 1 nm intervals from 1 to 2500 nm and Sua Pan data aggregated every 10 nm across 20 sample points. Collected by NASA's MISR Validation team, this data was designed for the vicarious calibration of the Terra satellite's MISR instrument.

Use Cases

• Vicarious calibration of the MISR instrument by comparing ground-based mean reflectance spectra with top-of-atmosphere radiance predictions.
• Analysis of spectral reflectance variability in a homogeneous grassland ecosystem using per-wavelength mean and standard deviation values over a 1 km2 area.
• Spatial scaling studies comparing local reflectance averages from 20 points within a 1 km x 2 km salt pan area to satellite pixel footprints.
• Validation of bidirectional reflectance distribution function (BRDF) models and Leaf Area Index (LAI) retrievals using related ground measurements.

Strengths

• Provides high spectral resolution grassland data with measurements at 1 nm intervals across 2500 wavelengths.
• Includes statistical robustness with grassland reflectance means calculated from 570 individual measurements per wavelength over a 1 km2 area.
• Supports spatial analysis with Sua Pan data geolocated to 20 specific points, each representing an average within a 150 m radius.

Limitations

• Conflicting metadata: the 'last updated' date differs significantly between platforms (2000-09-03 on NASA Earthdata vs. 2026-03-12 on Data.gov).
• Key quantitative metadata like total row count, file size, and specific column names are not provided by any source.
• Temporal coverage is limited to a single, short campaign in the year 2000.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) MISR Validation team.

Collection Method

Ground-based measurements collected using an Analytical Spectral Devices (ASD) spectroradiometer.

Time Range

2000-08-18 to 2000-09-04

Freshness

2026-03-12 22:14:48.921381

Geography

Sua Pan salt playa and adjacent grasslands in the Makgadikgadi region of Botswana.