NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration

ER-2 Sample Data And Film Products

Multispectral Scanners

Airborne Ocean Color Imager

Aquatic ecosystems research is supported with the Airborne Ocean Color Imager (AOCI) which is another Daedalus multispectral scanner configuration. An outgrowth of the Coastal Zone Color Scanner, it has spectral bands designed for the mapping of chlorophyll, suspended sediments and water surface temperature. The AOCI provides ten-bit digitization of eight bands of the visible spectrum with two additional bands of eight-bit digitization in the near and thermal infrared portions of the spectrum.

Airborne Ocean Color Imager Data Sample This natural color image shows silt loads carried by the Mississippi River being deposited in the Gulf of Mexico. This sensor is designed for the measurement of phytoplankton biomass and the investigation of aquatic ecosystems.

Thematic Mapper Simulator

A widely used digital multispectral scanner flown aboard the ER-2 is the Daedalus Thematic Mapper Simulator (TMS). Simulating the performance of the Thematic Mappers (TM) orbiting on Landsat 4 and 5 satellites, it replicates the spatial and spectral characteristics of the seven bands of digital data acquired by the Thematic Mapper. Four additional spectral bands are also acquired by the TMS while TM band 6 (thermal data) is acquired at full resolution in two channels in low and high gain settings. The TMS has provided data for land use and land cover analysis, forestry applications, geologic studies and disaster assessments.

Yellowstone Fires. The two Thematic Mapper Simulator images above are examples of data transmitted in real time from the ER-2. The image on the right is a thermal rendition of the ground scene portraying the extent of the fire. The image on the left shows the fire obscured by the smoke as imaged in the visible portion of the spectrum. The ER-2 has frequently provided imagery for natural disaster assessments to include coverage of the Mt. St. Helens eruption, Hurricane Iniki in Hawaii, the 1993 Mississippi floods and the 1994 Northridge earthquake in southern California.

MODIS Airborne Simulator

The MODIS Airborne Simulator (MAS) is a modified Daedalus multispectral scanner configured to approximate the Moderate-Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MODIS), an Earth Observing System (EOS) imaging spectrometer scheduled for orbit in the late 1990s. MODIS is designed to acquire digital imagery for measuring earth biological and physical processes and atmospheric properties. MAS records fifty channels of sixteen bit data in the visible, near infrared, mid-infrared and thermal portions of the spectrum.

MODIS Airborne Simulator Data Sample Landforms in this scene of Atchafalaya Bay on the Louisiana coast are portrayed as a color infrared composite of bands 9 (near infrared), 2 (red) and 1 (green). Pseudo-colored water features are represented with band 45 (thermal). The bright reds and yellows portray warm water of the gulf mixing with the cooler waters (dark blues) of the Atchafalaya River drainage.

Aerial Cameras

High resolution aerial photography is collected during earth imagery acquisition missions. Multiple camera systems may be flown with a variety of film types acquiring photography at varying scales and resolutions.

RC-10 Mapping Cameras

Wild Heerbrugg RC-10 Mapping Cameras with a 9 x 9 inch image format are flown on virtually every ER-2 earth imaging mission.

RC-10 Mapping Camera. This color infrared photograph of Hubbard Glacier on the southeast coast of Alaska shows a spur of the glacier at the lower right temporarily blocking the outflow of Russell Fjord into Yakutat Bay. The blockage occurred in May 1986 and water level in the fjord rose eighty feet until the ice dam dramatically burst on October 8, 1986. The image was acquired on September 3. 1986.

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