An Investigation Of Sub-Pixel Cloud/clear-Sky Contamination Using Hyper-Spectral AVIRIS Data

Cloud and clear sky contamination due to sub-pixel clouds remains as a troubling issue for scientific applications that rely on remotely sensed data. Sub-pixel level clouds may not be detected by a standard cloud filtering process, and thus can cause uncertainties in satellite-based meteorological property retrievals. In this study, using collocated data from Airborne Visible/Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (AVIRIS) and Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) data, sub-pixel cloud and clear-sky contamination were studied over the west coast of Northern California. The hyper-spectral data from AVIRIS have a spatial resolution on the order of 11.5 m for the study case, thus can be used for carefully examining the sub pixel cloud related bias in GOES data. This study suggest that significant sub-pixel cloud and clear-sky contamination exist, and should be considered for future applications that use measurements from passive sensors such as GOES. Lastly, simulated AVIRIS radiance values from a radiative transfer model were used to explore the possibility of using AVIRIS data for future aerosol studies

Summaries of the Sixth Annual JPL Airborne Earth Science Workshop

This publication contains the summaries for the Sixth Annual JPL Airborne Earth Science Workshop, held in Pasadena, California, on March 4-8, 1996. The main workshop is divided into two smaller workshops as follows: (1) The Airborne Visible/Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (AVIRIS) workshop, on March 4-6. The summaries for this workshop appear in Volume 1; (2) The Airborne Synthetic Aperture Radar (AIRSAR) workshop, on March 6-8. The summaries for this workshop appear in Volume 2