OOS 81

Hyperspectral Remote Sensing Data Supports 21st Century Ecological Research

Spectroscopic, often called hyperspectral, remote sensing methods are advancing terrestrial ecological research by enabling the rapid, non-destructive, and ‘wall to wall’ mapping of key plant biochemical properties, physiological traits, metabolic function, and biodiversity. These types of data products directly support efforts to map and monitor ecosystem health, air quality, animal habitat, wildfire impacts, and the urban-wildland interface at very high spatial and spectral resolutions and through time. At scales ranging from individual leaves to entire regions, hyperspectral data provide unique insights into ecosystem structure and function, including plant community composition, the origins of biodiversity, point-source pollution, ecosystem health, and human impacts. Historically, the analysis of hyperspectral data has been limited to a small number of research groups with access to specific instrumentation. Data were thus only available for a few geographic locations, and over short time frames. In recent years, however, a significant increase in publicly available datasets has occured. These include the opening up of the Airborne Visible Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (AVIRIS) archive held by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, The G-LiGHT platform at NASA Goddard, free access to the Earth Observing 1 satellite (EO-1) which contains the Hyperion hyperspectral sensor, and, soon, the National Ecological Observatory Network’s (NEON) Airborne Observation Platform (AOP). Moreover, future satellite missions including the German Environmental Mapping and Analysis Program (EnMAP) and NASA’s next generation Hyperspectral Infrared Imager (HyspIRI) will further increase data availability. At the same time, instrumentation costs, size, and weights have steadily dropped in recent years enabling relatively low cost deployments of hyperspectral sensors from towers, balloons, and unmanned aerial systems (UASs). This session will present specific ways in which hyperspectral remote sensing data, collected using near-surface to space-borne platforms, have been used to support ecological research. It will highlight a breadth of applications that explore important and challenging ecological research questions across a range of spatial and temporal scales. Finally, it will facilitate a dynamic and engaging conversations between field ecologists, remote sensing scientists, and environmental practitioners about both current hyperspectral remote sensing applications and the future of these data to support ecology. With this session, we hope to broaden interest in new hyperspectral remote sensing applications as well as illustrate how far the field has come since its first use in ecology over three decades ago.