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MODIS Airborne Simulator (MAS)

FLIGHT SUMMARY INFORMATION

Flight Track Map
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Flight: 03-915
Date: 23 November 2002
Location: Texas / Louisiana / Gulf of Mexico
Deployment: TX-2002
Principal Investigators: Drs. Paul Menzel & Chris Moeller (UWISC)
Additional Sensors: CPL, MVIS, RC-10 (dual), SHIS, VIS
Data Evaluation
Ports 2 & 3 have some Line-to-Line Noise.
Port 4 has some Coherent Noise (strongest to date), most visable in Bands 42-46.
AQUA Underflight @19:29
Processing Information
Level-1B Data in HDF format is available
Flight Line Summary
Spectral Band Configuration
Spectral Response Function Table
Browse Imagery
Flight Tracks: 12
Scanlines: 63535
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 16:57 - 17:23 90.5 29.665 - 29.741 96.158 - 92.674 9765 19570
2 17:25 - 17:38 120.0 29.571 - 28.956 92.477 - 91.057 4569 19883
3 17:41 - 17:53 296.7 29.193 - 29.759 90.915 - 92.245 4423 19804
4 17:56 - 18:07 118.7 29.521 - 28.950 92.364 - 91.042 4273 20021
5 18:11 - 18:23 296.3 29.183 - 29.769 90.892 - 92.271 4472 19934
6 18:26 - 18:39 117.5 29.556 - 28.936 92.449 - 91.011 4646 19787
7 18:42 - 18:55 295.0 29.149 - 29.770 90.808 - 92.273 4772 19855
8 18:57 - 19:16 143.9 29.627 - 27.916 92.407 - 90.954 7250 19869
9 19:18 - 19:37 343.5 27.985 - 30.012 90.804 - 91.352 6850 19760
10 19:39 - 19:45 223.4 30.059 - 29.556 91.566 - 92.081 2326 19883
11 19:46 - 19:50 283.0 29.516 - 29.597 92.234 - 92.644 1268 19797
12 19:50 - 20:14 279.4 29.599 - 29.881 92.655 - 95.617 8921 19879
Images 01 through 12 in sequence
Flight Summary Report

Mission Objectives

Map and monitor turbid coastal water for sediment transport, underflying Aqua (1929 UTC) for transferring SSC algorithm to MODIS. Map western Louisiana muddy coast region for geomorphic measurement.

Flight Summary:

Take-off was at 1630 UTC.  ER-2 landed at 2105 UTC.

ER-2 flew towards LA coast from SAT to pick up on ESE bound seaward leg of racetrack covering Atchafalaya Bay turbid water zone. Flew 3 orbits of this racetrack (16 NM spacing between lines for overlap with MAS to reduce impact of sunglint on the data set), shooting RC-10 on final landward leg. Skies clear on all orbits. Then flew south to open water to pick up line parallel to Aqua orbital track (offset by 18 deg view angle) meeting the satellite at 1929 UTC midway along this 17 minute leg and continuing up over Fourleague Bay region (LSU in situ sites). Some cumulus just at southern extent of this line but skies clear elsewhere. Then proceeded to western Louisiana muddy coast for photo line (clear skies) and then brought the ER-2 back to SAT..

Highlights:

Sediment monitoring with in situ water quality measurements. Co-incident Aqua MODIS and MAS over turbid water.

Instrument Status:
  • Modis Airborne Simulator (MAS): Operated. Good data.
  • NPOESS Atmospheric Sounder Testbed (NAST-I): Operated only from 1931 UTC to end of flight. Low signal in all bands.
  • Cloud Physics Lidar (CPL): Operated. Data system failure.
  • Scanner High-Resolution Interferometer Sounder (SHIS): Good data.
  • VIS video camera: Operated.  Good video collected.
  • M/VIS mini video camera: Operated.  Good video collected.
  • RC-10 Cameras: Operated 12" (f/c IR) and 6" (b/w) cameras (1843 - 1855, 1920 - 1937, 1947-1950 UTC) over turbid water, Aqua, muddy coast.
Additional Pilot Notes

Lots of shrimp boat tracks. NAST-I inadvertantly left off till 1931 UTC.

GOES Satellite Image
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Flight 03-915

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Sample Imagery
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Track #09
Gulf of Mexico / Louisiana
Click to load the full resolution image Flight Direction Indicator
R: 2.15µm
G: 1.64µm
B: 0.55µm