MISR abstract

Stockton, Paul H. and Donald W. Deering (1994). PARABOLA II: a field sphere-scanning radiometer for radiance measurements of sky and ground. In EUROPTO/Earth Observing System II, Proceedings of the SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering: Spin-Off Technologies from NASA for Commercial Sensors and Scientific Applications. 2270. pp115-122.

Bi-directional reflectance from earth terrain surfaces, particularly vegetation has placed increasing emphasis on the measurement of angular reflectance. Many remote-sensing scientists today are focusing on measurements and/or modeling of the angular reflectance properties of earth surface materials. The angular studies emphasis is occurring for several reasons. Of the four primary aspects of land surface reflectance (i.e., spectral, spatial, temporal, angular), this is the least intensively studied and, therefore, the least understood. The angular reflectance properties of Earth targets and, in particular, the bi-directional reflectance of land surface cover types, must be studied to develop algorithms to provide more accurate estimates of spectral hemispherical reflectance and albedo, which is a crucial input to Global Climate Models. The maximum potential of current satellites (e.g., SPOT, AVHRR) that acquire off-nadir viewing data cannot be realized without a good understanding of the angular reflectance properties of the Earth's surfaces. Future EOS satellite instruments (e.g., MISR) have been included expressly to take advantage of, or, to help overcome, the Earth's surface and atmosphere angular reflectance dependencies. The PARABOLA II field scanning radiometer will aid in ground calibration.

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