Airborne Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (AirMISR) Data from the Snow and Ice 2001 Campaign

The AIRMISR_SNOW_ICE_2001 data were acquired during the Colorado snow albedo field experiment in the Yampa Valley of Colorado during February and March, 2001. This experiment focused on snow albedo and atmospheric characterization as part of a validation effort for estimating snow albedo from the Multiangle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR) and the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) data. The validation site is located at 40.4N, 106.8W, just south of Steamboat Springs, Colorado. AirMISR and MODIS Airborne Simulator (MAS) data were collected on March 8, 2001. 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).

Data and Resources

Additional Info

Field	Value
Maintainer	Earthdata Forum
Last Updated	June 2, 2026, 17:04 (UTC)
Created	April 1, 2025, 14:13 (UTC)
accessLevel	public
bureauCode	{026:00}
catalog_conformsTo	https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
harvest_object_id	12261e9d-2291-4190-81b6-134ab4619328
harvest_source_id	b99e41c6-fe79-4c19-bbc3-9b6c8111bfac
harvest_source_title	Science Discovery Engine
identifier	10.5067/ASDC_DAAC/AIRMISR_SNOW_ICE_2001_1
license	https://www.usa.gov/government-works
modified	2026-06-01T22:15:58Z
programCode	{026:000}
publisher	NASA/LARC/SD/ASDC
resource-type	Dataset
source_datajson_identifier	true
source_hash	06a2fa5bdb4b5c53423232c2313eea3810a016d2d6588a3ba66f8fe3de97a3dc
source_schema_version	1.1
spatial	["CARTESIAN", [{"Boundary": {"Points": [{"Latitude": 36.27, "Longitude": -114.4}, {"Latitude": 36.27, "Longitude": -106.38}, {"Latitude": 40.75, "Longitude": -106.38}, {"Latitude": 40.75, "Longitude": -114.4}, {"Latitude": 36.27, "Longitude": -114.4}]}}]]
temporal	2001-03-08/2001-03-08
theme	{"Earth Science"}