SHIFT: AVIRIS-NG L2A Unrectified Surface Reflectance

February to May 2022, with a follow-up week in September, the SHIFT campaign collected high-frequency airborne spectral imagery over Santa Barbara County, California. The dataset contains Level 2A unrectified surface reflectance images from NASA's AVIRIS-NG instrument, covering nearly 1,656 square kilometers of land and coastal waters. Data is provided in ENVI binary format, capturing reflected radiance at 5-nm intervals across the 380-2510 nm VSWIR spectral range.

Use Cases

• Analyzing temporal changes in plant communities based on weekly cadence spectral reflectance.
• Conducting traceability analyses for the science value of VSWIR revisit frequency.
• Mapping surface biology and geology features using high signal-to-noise ratio spectral data.
• Studying coastal and terrestrial radiative properties from altitude-dependent ground sampling.

Strengths

• Covers a large, specific area of nearly 1,656 square kilometers.
• Provides high-frequency temporal data with approximately weekly cadence over several months.
• Features high spectral resolution with measurements at 5-nm intervals across 380-2510 nm.
• Data originates from a NASA facility instrument (AVIRIS-NG) designed for high-performance spectroscopy.

Limitations

• Key metadata such as row count, file size, and specific column structure is unavailable across all sources.
• Conflicting last updated dates (2026-04-09 on Data.gov vs. 2022-05-29 on NASA Earthdata) create uncertainty about metadata freshness.
• The 'unrectified' nature of the images suggests they may require additional geometric correction for some analyses.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Collected via NASA's Airborne Visible / Infrared Imaging Spectrometer-Next Generation (AVIRIS-NG) pushbroom spectral mapping system.

Time Range

February to May 2022, with one week in September 2022

Freshness

2026-04-09 22:19:11.317336

Geography

Santa Barbara County, California, US, and nearby coastal Pacific waters