IMPACT OF SPATIAL RESOLUTION ON THE OBSERVATION OF COASTAL ENVIRONMENTAL FEATURES

During the Hyperspectral Coastal Ocean Dynamics Experiment (HyCODE) conducted at Tuckerton, New Jersey near coincident PHILLS airborne hyperspectral data at 1.8 m and 9 m Ground Sample Distance (GSD), AVIRIS data at 20 m GSD and SeaWiFS and MODIS data at 1 km GSD were all collected during a 2 hour time window on July 31, 2001. At the same time 5 research vessels, CODAR, and a variety of in-situ autonomous systems were sampling the environment. This unprecedented data set makes it possible to evaluate the utility of high spectral and spatial resolution data for a variety of coastal environments, and to directly compare it to ocean color measurements from SeaWiFS and MODIS and ship measurements. The offshore end of the study area is a typical continental shelf environment, which is well sampled by the 1 km GSD systems. The inshore end is far more complex and includes salt marshes, barrier islands and complex bottom features in the Mullica River Estuary and Barnegat Bay. This is a preliminary look at these data sets, highlighting the advantages and disadvantages of the different remote sensing data sets for the diversity of environments sampled in this experiment