2008 Annual Report - NASA Airborne Science Program

AVIRIS: Cal/Val
Science Focus: Carbon Cycle & Ecosystems
Sponsor: D. Wickland, NASA HQ
Location: U.S. and Canada
From June 5 through August 14,
2008, a total of 20 AVIRIS science
flights were flown on the ER-2,
totaling 92.7 flight hours. It included
a deployment to Westover ARB,
MA, for the month of July. Other data sites
included areas in central and southern
California, Michigan, Wisconsin, Maryland and
Minnesota. AVIRIS data was also collected
over experiment sites in British Columbia,
Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario,
and Québec, Canada.
The series of AVIRIS flights were initiated with
an in-flight spectral, radiometric, spatial, and
uniformity calibration and characterization of
the AVIRIS imaging spectrometer. The science
data gathered over experiment sites included
characterization of forest functional types and
their role in mediating ecosystem response
to environmental change, carbon cycling,
vegetation nitrogen status and surface albedo,
field validation with seepage from marine,
urban and submerged city sources, and live
fuel moisture retrieval for Southern California
fire danger assessments.
Science data was successfully gathered over
all requested experiment sites by the ER-
2 team. AVIRIS scientists included Philip
Dennison, Dar Roberts, Scott Ollinger, and
Phil Townsend. The AVIRIS instrument
is managed by JPL (Instrument Manager:
Michael Eastwood, Chief Scientist: Robert
Green).
URL: http//aviris.jpl.nasa.gov
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