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MODIS Airborne Simulator (MAS)

FLIGHT SUMMARY INFORMATION

Flight Track Map
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Flight: 00-179
Date: 23 September 2000
Location: South Africa and Mozambique
Deployment: SAFARI
Principal Investigator: Dr. Michael King (NASA GSFC)
Flight Scientist: Dr. Steven Platinick (NASA GSFC)
Additional Sensors: AirMISR, CLS, LAS, MOPITT-A, S-HIS, & SSFR
Objective: To understand the key linkages between the physical, chemical and biological processes, including human activities, that comprise the southern African biogeophysical system.
Data Evaluation
Overall quality is good
Processing Information
Level-1B Data in HDF format is available
Flight Line Summary
Spectral Band Configuration
Spectral Response Function Table
Browse Imagery
Flight Tracks: 13
Scanlines: 71798
Browse Imagery Table
Click a Flight Track number to view a quicklook image
Lat/Lon ranges are for the BEG-END scanline nadir pixels
Flight
Track		 Time Span
(GMT)		 Heading
(Deg)		 Lat Range
(Deg North)		 Lon Range
(Deg West)		 Length
(scanlines)		 Altitude
(meters)
1 07:57-08:15 101 24.64-25.08 30.38-32.43 6596 19148
2 08:19-08:35 284 25.23-24.82 32.53-30.60 5842 19509
3 08:40-08:57 105 24.90-25.34 30.36-32.36 6421 19623
4 08:59-09:17 207 25.50-27.29 32.45-31.33 6725 19829
5 09:17-09:44 223 27.32-29.49 31.31-28.86 9999 19952
6 09:48-09:55 7 29.57-28.79 28.47-28.50 2516 19967
7 09:56-10:01 342 28.70-28.15 28.48-28.28 1869 20043
8 10:02-10:05 278 28.05-28.00 28.16-27.73 1227 20063
9 10:06-10:19 298 27.98-27.25 27.67-26.17 4849 20167
10 10:21-10:40 79 27.07-26.56 26.19-28.42 7099 20207
11 10:41-10:49 138 26.59-27.20 28.56-29.19 2899 20295
12 10:52-11:11 350 27.02-24.82 29.34-28.77 7247 20298
13 11:13-11:36 59 24.68-23.43 28.82-31.18 8509 19710
Images 01 through 13 in sequence
Flight Summary Report

Author: Steve Platnick
Mission Scientist: Dr. Michael King
ER-2 Pilot: Dave Wright
Takeoff: 0720 (UTC)
Landing: 1220 (UTC)
Duration: 5:00 (h:mm)

Objective and Summary:

  1. Overfly Skukuza tower site with PARABOLA instrument for MISR instrument team,
  2. Overfly Katse Dam and Malibamatso River catchment to study land use patterns, degredation/erosion,
  3. Overfly powerplants east of Johannesburg, including Witbank, Secunda and Tutuka (third attempt),
  4. Overfly industrial sites south of Johannesburg along with the Vredefort dome (ancient impact crater site),
  5. Overfly Merensky Nature Reserve.

SAWB Aerocommander JRA, the remaining in situ aircraft, was not operating in the ER-2 flight area.

The RC-10 was operated over the prime target areas mentioned above except during overcast conditions.

Key Flight Legs:

ER-2 flight tracks over Skukuza Tower in Kruger Park were oriented perpendicular to the Terra track with a 15 km offset to allow forward, nadir, and aft views of the site from MAS, and coincident with the 0828 UTC overpass. The Terra ground track was approximately 140 km west of Skukuza (12 degree viewing angle), within the MODIS, MOPITT, and MISR swath.

Highlights:

N/A

AERONET sites and features overflown during this mission:

  • Skukuza Tower, Kruger Park, RSA (25° 01´ S, 31° 30´ E)
  • Katse Dam (Lesotho Highlands Project) and Malibamatso River catchment, RSA
    (vicinity of 29° 30´ S, 28°v 05´ E)
  • Bethlehem AERONET sun photometer site (28° 14´ S, 28° 19´ E)
  • Merensky Nature Reserve, RSA (25° 01´ S, 31° 30´ E)

Pilot Report:

The flight legs over Skukuza were reported by the pilot to be over approximately 60% cloud cover. The water catchment and sunphotometer site were in clear sky, while views of the industrial and powerplant sites near Johannesburg were once again hindered by cloud (about 50% coverage). The flight leg over Merensky was estimated to have about 40% cloud cover.

Meteorology:

A cold front is approaching the Cape, bringing some light rain showers to the Cape peninsula overnight. A detached cell of high pressure over the northern South African interior causes generally fine weather elsewhere, but the eastern and northeastern areas (including Skukuza) will have patchy fog or low stratus at first. Clouds in the Skukuza area are expected to burn off in time for the Terra/ER-2 overpass.

ER-2 Science Instrument Payload Status

  • AirMISR: not on aircraft
  • CLS: Lidar worked properly, but navigation data not recorded
  • LAS: not on aircraft
  • MAS: worked well
  • MOPITT-A: worked well
  • SHIS: operated in scanning mode
  • SSFR: worked well
  • RC-10: worked well
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Flight 00-179

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Sample Imagery
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Track #4
Mozambique
Click to load the full resolution image Flight Direction Indicator
R: 2.15µm
G: 0.91µm
B: 0.55µm