Airborne Imaging Spectrometer, Spectrometer Algorithm Development, and Spectrometer Components

该奖项是根据2009年美国复苏和再投资法案（公法111-5）资助的。生物圈正在经历一个前所未有的变化时期。生物圈正在对从个体生物（如入侵物种）、区域（如土地利用变化）到全球（如气候变化）同时发生的多种变化驱动因素做出反应。我们对气候和土地利用变化以及入侵物种对生物圈的影响的基本理解，很大程度上是通过对从个体生物到流域尺度上的生命系统的特性和过程的研究而形成的。但是，关于生物圈最引人注目的科学问题涉及更大范围的事件，从景观到大陆。由于缺乏能够从亚米尺度到区域尺度、从区域尺度到大陆尺度、从大陆尺度到全球尺度测量生物圈的结构、组成、过程和动态的仪器平台，对这些共同发生的过程和响应的理解受到了阻碍。该奖项的资金将为在这些关键尺度上了解生物圈提供一个重要的新工具。该奖项将为制造和测试“最先进的？机载成像光谱仪，开发初始数据算法来解释光谱，并为另外两个光谱仪购买长引线组件。成像光谱仪是一种新的设计，它将以目前光谱仪无法提供的采样分辨率和光谱传感范围提供土地覆盖和土地利用、植物生物化学和生物物理特性以及入侵植物物种检测的遥感数据。分光仪的精度和光谱范围将允许对使用研究界现有技术无法进行的生物现象进行分析，并提供从现场测量到大陆尺度卫星遥感所需的中等尺度测量。拟议的光谱仪性能特点将大大超过现有的卫星和机载光谱仪，这些能力将改变遥感领域。这些数据将有助于采用一种创新的多学科方法，对本科生和研究生、公众和决策人员进行有关土地利用变化和环境问题的教育。这些数据将有助于可视化和理解有关生态条件和过程与环境之间空间关系的复杂信息，并有助于更好地了解区域尺度上的土地利用决定。这种空间图像（如详细的空间地图和环境变化的分布）往往比其他形式的信息更直观地解释。

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.