NASA PROVE Project

Description

An inventory of NASA's airborne and field campaigns for Earth Science

jornada_landcover_lai_665

Field measurement of shrubland ecological properties is important for both site monitoring and validation of remote-sensing information. During the NASA Earth Observing System Prototype Validation Exercise (PROVE) at the Jornada Experimental Range, New Mexico, on May 20-30, 1997, we calculated plot-level plant area index, leaf area index, total fractional cover, and green fractional cover with data from four instruments: (1) a Dycam Agricultural Digital Camera (ADC), (2) a LI-COR LAI-2000 plant canopy analyzer, (3) a Decagon sunfleck ceptometer, and (4) a laser altimeter. Estimates from the LAI-2000 and ceptometer were very similar (plant area index 0.3, leaf area index 0.22, total fractional cover 0.19, green fractional cover 0.14), but the ADC produced values 5 to 10% higher. Laser altimeter values, depending on the height cutoff used to establish total fractional cover, were either higher or lower than the other instruments' values: a 10-cm cutoff produced values approximately 80% higher, whereas a 20-cm cutoff produced values approximately 30% lower.

jornada_mquals_666

This study utilized low flying, aircraft-based radiometers for optical characterization of top-of-the-canopy reflectance at Jornada Experimental Range in New Mexico during the Prototype Validation Experiment (PROVE) in May 1997. MQUALS refers to a light aircraft radiometric package for MODLAND Quick Airborne Looks (MQUALS). The objective was to examine the usefulness of low-flying aircraft for Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) validation of land products. This project was the responsibility of the MODIS Land (MODLAND) validation group. The descriptive article by Huete et al. (1999) is included as a companion file to this data set. Multiband radiometers (Exotech) were flown at 100 m above ground level along transects encompassing several land cover types within this semi-arid biome validation site. Pointable radiometers acquired data at nadir (i.e., 0 degree), as well as at 15-degree, 30-degree, and 45-degree viewing angles along the principal and orthogonal planes. The sequence of measurements involved two separate sun angle-based overflights.

jornada_albedo_667

The objective of this study was to determine the spatial variations in field measurements of broadband albedo as related to the ground cover and under a range of solar conditions during the Prototype Validation Exercise (PROVE) at the Jornada Experimental Range in New Mexico on May 20-30, 1997. The surface albedo was sampled as described in Barnsley et al. (2000) at intervals along transects radiating north, south, east, and west from the main instrumentation tower at the transitional vegetation site. Several of these transects were sampled on more than one occasion, under a range of solar illumination conditions. At the grassland site, albedo measurements were taken along a single transect, sampled at 10-m intervals, at three different times of day (i.e., at different solar zenith angles). In addition to the albedo data, hemispherical photographs were taken at each of the sample sites to provide a visual record, and the images were classified to estimate the proportion of bare soil, live vegetation, and woody ground cover.

jornada_canopy_brf_668

Directional reflected radiation was measured over plots representing selected canopy components (shrubs and individual plants, bare sand, and background) at the Jornada Experiment Range site near Las Cruces, New Mexico, during the Prototype Validation Experiment (PROVE) in May 1997.At each plot, directional reflected radiation was measured in the solar principal plane; directional reflected radiation in the plane perpendicular to the solar principle plane were measured next (by rotating the mast around the plot so that the pivoting point is 90 degrees from the initial pivoting location). View zenith angles of 60, 45, 30 and 15 degrees in the back and forward scatter directions of nadir were measured in each plane. Nadir-viewed reflected radiation was measured for each plane as well.

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License

Creative Commons BY 4.0

Documentation

https://impact.earthdata.nasa.gov/casei/campaign/PROVE/

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Contact

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How to Cite

NASA PROVE Project was accessed on DATE from https://registry.opendata.aws/nasa-prove.