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    • Airborne Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (AirMISR) Data from the Howland 2003 Campaign

    Metadata Updated: April 10, 2026

    The AIRMISR_HOWLAND_2003 data were acquired during a field mission which overflew Howland Forest, Maine on August 28, 2003. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California provided the data. The Airborne Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (AirMISR) is an airborne instrument for obtaining multi-angle imagery similar to that of the satellite-borne Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR) instrument, which is designed to contribute to studies of the Earth's ecology and climate. AirMISR flies on the NASA ER-2 aircraft. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California built the instrument for NASA. Unlike the satellite-borne MISR instrument, which has nine cameras oriented at various angles, AirMISR uses a single camera in a pivoting gimbal mount. A data run by the ER-2 aircraft is divided into nine segments, each with the camera positioned to a MISR look angle. The gimbal rotates between successive segments, such that each segment acquires data over the same area on the ground as the previous segment. This process is repeated until all nine angles of the target area are collected. The swath width, which varies from 11 km in the nadir to 32 km at the most oblique angle, is governed by the camera's instantaneous field-of-view of 7 meters cross-track x 6 meters along-track in the nadir view and 21 meters x 55 meters at the most oblique angle. The along-track image length at each angle is dictated by the timing required to obtain overlap imagery at all angles, and varies from about 9 km in the nadir to 26 km at the most oblique angle. Thus, the nadir image dictates the area of overlap that is obtained from all nine angles. A complete flight run takes approximately 13 minutes. The 9 camera viewing angles are: 0 degrees or nadir 26.1 degrees, fore and aft 45.6 degrees, fore and aft 60.0 degrees, fore and aft 70.5 degrees, fore and aft. For each of the camera angles, images are obtained at 4 spectral bands. The spectral bands can be used to identify vegetation and aerosols, estimate surface reflectance and for ocean color studies. The center wavelengths of the 4 spectral bands are: 443 nanometers, blue 555 nanometers, green 670 nanometers, red 865 nanometers, near-infrared. Two types of AirMISR data products are available - the Level 1 Radiometric product (L1B1) and the Level 1 Georectified radiance product (L1B2).

    Access & Use Information

    Public: This dataset is intended for public access and use. License: See this page for license information.

    Downloads & Resources

    Dates

    Metadata Created Date April 11, 2025
    Metadata Updated Date April 10, 2026

    Metadata Source

    Harvested from NASA Data.json

    Other Data Resources

    Additional Metadata

    Resource Type Dataset
    Metadata Created Date April 11, 2025
    Metadata Updated Date April 10, 2026
    Publisher NASA/LARC/SD/ASDC
    Maintainer
    Identifier 10.5067/ASDC_DAAC/AIRMISR_HOWLAND_2003_1
    Data Last Modified 2026-04-06
    Category Earth Science
    Public Access Level public
    Bureau Code 026:00
    Metadata Context https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.jsonld
    Schema Version https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
    Catalog Describedby https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.json
    Harvest Object Id c6254cf6-678e-4ecc-8fdc-f57d1890b04a
    Harvest Source Id 58f92550-7a01-4f00-b1b2-8dc953bd598f
    Harvest Source Title NASA Data.json
    License https://www.usa.gov/government-works
    Old Spatial "CARTESIAN",{"Boundary":{"Points":{"Latitude":44.95,"Longitude":-69.05},{"Latitude":44.95,"Longitude":-68.35},{"Latitude":45.45,"Longitude":-68.35},{"Latitude":45.45,"Longitude":-69.05},{"Latitude":44.95,"Longitude":-69.05}}}
    Program Code 026:000
    Source Datajson Identifier True
    Source Hash 349300f2123e7b31df00f86929534be3c805742555eaeecd793d4e28225fe816
    Source Schema Version 1.1
    Spatial
    Temporal 2003-08-28/2003-08-28

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