At this site you will find information on research activities directed at using high spectral resolution remote sensing data for the measurement of forest canopy chemistry - specifically, nitrogen and lignin in temperate broad- and needle-leaved species. This research has taken place at the University of New Hampshire's Complex Systems Research Center .
Data from NASA's Airborne Visible Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (AVIRIS) has been used in conjunction with field data collected at a variety of sites throughout the US. Current projects are funded through the NASA Carbon program and USDA. More information on this work can be found at the MAPBGC webpage.
The AVIRIS instrument flies at an altitude of 20km on board an ER-2 aircraft, the spatial resolution of this instrument is approximately 20m, with each scene covering a width of 614 pixels. Some AVIRIS data has been acquired from a Twin Otter platform yeilding 5m resolution. A spatial image is collected by a cross track scanning mechanism (perpendicular to the direction of travel) and the forward motion of the aircraft. AVIRIS measures 224 contiguous spectral bands for each picture element (pixel) ranging from .4 to 2.4um with a spectral resolution of 10nm.
Foliar chemistry data from these studies are available through an online database containing sample analysis data from over 8000 samples.
Please contact mary.martin@unh.edu for more information.Return to Complex Systems Home Page
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