NEON ground validation capabilities for airborne and space-based imagers

Abstract

Airborne remote sensing measurements provide the capability to quantitatively measure biochemical and biophysical properties of vegetation at regional scales, therefore complementing surface and satellite measurements. The National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) will build three airborne systems to allow for routine coverage of NEON sites (60 sites nationally) and the capacity to respond to investigator requests for specific projects. Each airborne system will consist of an imaging spectrometer, waveform lidar and high-resolution digital camera. Remote sensing data gathered with this instrumentation needs to be quantitative and accurate in order to derive meaningful information about ecosystem properties and processes. Also, comprehensive and long-term ecological studies require these data to be comparable over time, between coexisting sensors and between generations of follow-on sensors. NEON's calibration plan for the airborne instrument suite relies on intensive laboratory, on-board, ground-based characterization as well as inter-sensor comparisons. As part of these efforts, NEON organized a pathfinder mission in September 2010 to test prototype techniques and procedures for field sampling and sensor validation. Imaging spectroscopy data from AVIRIS and waveform lidar data were acquired in addition to ecological field sampling at the Ordway-Swisher Biological Station near Gainesville, Florida. This paper presents NEON's capabilities for validation of at-sensor radiance of airborne and space-based sensors and shows results from the September 2010 pathfinder mission.