Initial results from the NEON airborne observatory package pathfinder mission

Background/Question/Methods

The National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON), being funded by the National Science Foundation, is a continental-scale research platform for discovering, understanding and forecasting the impacts of climate change, land-use change, and invasive species on ecology. 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.  Three airborne systems will be built 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.  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.

Results/Conclusions

A summary of the imaging spectroscopy and waveform lidar data of the Ordway-Swisher Biological Station as well as associated ground-based data is presented.  Additionally, results include:

  -Details on processing the imagery from radiance to reflectance

  -Validation of airborne against ground-based measurements

  -Comparison of higher-level data products such as leaf area index

  -Evaluation of scaling strategies between the stand and airborne-footprint sized areas