Airborne Imaging Spectrometer, Spectrometer Algorithm Development, and Spectrometer Components

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This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).The biosphere is experiencing a period of unprecedented change. The biosphere is responding to multiple drivers of change simultaneously operating over scales from the individual organism (e.g. invasive species), region (e.g. landuse change) to the globe (e.g. climate change). Our fundamental understanding of the effects of climate and landuse change, and invasive species on the biosphere have largely been formed through the study of the properties and processes of living systems at scales from individual organisms to watersheds. But the most compelling scientific questions about the biosphere involve events at larger scales, from landscapes to continents. Understanding these co-occurring processes and responses has been hampered by the lack of an instrument platform that has the capabilities to measure the structure, composition, processes, and dynamics of the biosphere from sub-meter to regional scales, regional scales to the continent, and continental to global. Funds from this award will provide a vital new tool to understanding the biosphere at these critical scales. The award will provide funds to fabricate and test a ?state-of-the-art? Airborne Imaging Spectrometer, develop initial data algorithms to interpret spectra, and purchase long lead components for two additional spectrometers. The Imaging Spectrometer is a new design that will provide remote sensing data of land cover and land use, plant biochemistry and biophysical properties, and detection of invasive plant species at the sampling resolution and spectral sensing range not available in spectrometers today. Both the spectrometer precision and spectral range will permit analyses of biological phenomena not possible using the existing technology available to the research community and provide the intermediate-scale measurements necessary to scale from in situ measurements to continental scale satellite remote sensing. The proposed spectrometer performance characteristics will make significant advances over existing satellite and airborne spectrometers and these capabilities will transform the field of remote sensing.The data will contribute to an innovative multi-disciplinary approach to educate undergraduate and graduate students, the public, and policy-making individuals about landuse change and environmental concerns. The data will aid visualizing and understanding complex information about the spatial relationships between ecological conditions and processes and the environment and aid in a better understanding of land use decisions on regional scales. Such spatial images are often more intuitive to interpret (e.g., detailed spatial maps and distributions of environmental changes) than other forms of information.