RESEARCH AND APPLICATIONS

Through measurement of the solar reflected spectrum, a range of scientific research and application is being pursed using signatures of energy, molecules and scatterers in the spectra measured by AVIRIS:

With current technology, it has become possible to build sensors than can measure spectra as images of the Earth at high spectral and spatial resolution. Below is a depiction of how NASA's Airborne Visible/Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (AVIRIS) measures spectra from 400 to 2500 nm at 10 nm intervals across the solar reflected spectrum. This chart shows the 224 AVIRIS spectral channels, a typical transmittance spectrum of the Earth's atmosphere and 6 of the multispectral bands measured by the Landsat Thematic Mapper.

AVIRIS Measurements in the Solar Reflected Spectrum

Note: additional research, environmental or application questions may be pursued through correlations with materials that interacts with solar reflected energy.

2) Reflectance or equivalent signatures of materials of interest

3) Acquisition of imaging spectrometer data for optimal expression of solar reflected signatures.

3a) Contemporaneous validation data measurements

4) Have a strategy for atmospheric correction

4a) Measurements that support atmospheric correction. 

5) Algorithms and software that derive the expression of the material of interest from the atmospherically corrected reflectance imaging spectroscopy data set.

6) Algorithms that transform the resulting material distribution images to map coordinates.

7) Apply the derived information and address the research, environmental or application question.

8) Results and Reporting