Calibration of the National Ecological Observatory Network’s Airborne Observation Platform

The National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) is a continental-scale ecological observation facility currently under construction by the National Science Foundation (NSF). NEON’s mission is to enable understanding and forecasting of the impacts of land-use change and invasive species by providing the infrastructure and consistent methodologies in these areas. The Airborne Observation Platform (AOP) will play a unique role in scaling individual in-situ measurements to those collected by satellite-based remote sensing. The current payload consists of the NEON Imaging Spectrometer Design Verification Unit (NISDVU), a waveform LIDAR, and a high-resolution camera integrated into a platform integration mount (PIM). Three payloads on separate aircraft will provide coverage of 20 NEON core sites and 40 relocatable sites as well as targets of opportunity and PI-driven science. A key component is the consistent calibration of these instruments to provide reliable and accurate scientific data over the full lifetime of the NEON observatory. The NEON Sensor Test Facility is under development to provide facilities for the laboratory calibration of the AOP instrumentation. Laboratory calibration results will be verified through independent calibration flights. The first Airborne Observation Platform checkout flights will begin in the spring of 2012. The flights will be used to develop and test the geolocation algorithm and the radiometric calibration of the imaging spectrometer. This work examines the methods and facilities used to determine the calibration of the AOP instrumentation. The laboratory methods employed and under development in the Sensor Test Facility are discussed. Calibration results derived from data collected in the NEON sensor test facility and the checkout flights around Grand Junction, CO and Ivanpah Playa, CA are compared to laboratory results