DAAC Data Projects: Aircraft
Remote sensing instruments are mounted on a variety of aircraft to obtain high resolution images of the earth. Uses of aircraft remote sensing apply broadly to applications like measurements of aerosol optical properties, remote sensing of soil moisture using passive microwave sensors, vegetation imaging, sea ice measurements, and heights of surface objects and features. Aircraft are used to gather cryospheric measurements employing remote sensing instruments such as lasers, radars, high resolution cameras, and gravimeters.
Types of aircraft used in airborne remote sensing include Lockheed P-3 Orion, Douglas DC-8, DeHavilland DHC-3 Single Otter, ER-2 High Altitude Airborne Science Aircraft, and Basler BT-67. The aircraft are flown at various altitudes over planned flightlines. Some flightlines and sensors cover the same swaths as earth orbiting remote sensing satellites do.
Various airborne sensors are used aboard the aircraft. Sensors include LIDAR based Airborne Topographic Mapper (ATM), airborne microwave, imaging radiometer, Synthetic Aperture Radiometer (SAR), Polarimetric Scanning Radiometer, digital camera, gravimeter, and magnetometer.
For specific details regarding aircraft remote sensing data at NSIDC, please refer to the IceBridge description below.
Operation IceBridge: Operation IceBridge collects airborne remote sensing measurements over Antarctica, Greenland, the Arctic, and southeast Alaska. The Operation ICE Bridge mission, initiated in 2009, bridges the gap between NASA's Ice, Cloud and Land Elevation Satellite (ICESat-I) mission and the upcoming ICESat-II mission.
Page last updated: 01/09/12
