AVIRIS-NG Derived Canopy Water Content for California Drought Monitoring

SHIFT campaign data provides weekly mosaicked canopy water content (CWC) derived from AVIRIS-NG airborne hyperspectral imagery across a 1,656-square-kilometer area in Central California from February to May 2022. ORNL_CLOUD processed the data, applying a spectral fitting method to surface reflectance across 425 spectral bands to estimate vegetation water content at 5-meter spatial resolution. These cloud-optimized GeoTIFFs track seasonal changes in ecosystem health and drought stress.

Use Cases

• Analyzing spatial patterns of canopy water content to identify areas of acute drought stress within the study region.
• Tracking temporal changes in vegetation water status from late winter to early summer using weekly flight mosaics.
• Calibrating or validating satellite-derived drought indices with high-resolution (5m) airborne hyperspectral measurements.
• Assessing wildfire fuel moisture and risk by linking canopy water content estimates to known vegetation types and conditions.

Strengths

• High spectral resolution with 425 bands measured at 5-nm intervals between 380 and 2510 nm.
• Weekly temporal coverage over a 12-week period (2022-02 24 to 2022-05-17) provides a dense time series.
• High spatial resolution of approximately 5 meters per pixel for detailed landscape analysis.
• Data is radiometrically, geometrically, and atmospherically corrected, providing a processed scientific product.

Limitations

• Spatial coverage is limited to a specific 1,656 sq km study area in Central California, not statewide or national.
• Conflicting last updated dates exist between platforms (2026-03-12 and 2022-05-17), creating uncertainty about metadata freshness.
• Specific column names and row/file counts are not provided in any source description.

Provenance

Source

ORNL_CLOUD

Collection Method

Derived from surface reflectance measured by the Airborne Visible/Infrared Imaging Spectrometer-Next Generation (AVIRIS-NG) instrument, processed via spectral fitting of liquid water absorption features.

Time Range

2022-02-24 to 2022-05-17

Freshness

2026-03-12 21:45:57.384389

Geography

A 640-square-mile (1,656-square-kilometer) study area stretching from Los Padres National Forest to the Central California coast and coastal ocean, including Dangermond Preserve and UCSB's Sedgwick Reserve.