Airborne Sensor Combination for Calibration, Validation, and Research in Dynamic Aquatic Systems

NASA has a continuing requirement to collect high-quality in situ data for the vicarious calibration of current and next generation satellite sensors for oceanic, coastal, and inland waters. Further, this requirement extends to the validation of the algorithms that use the remotely sensed observations. Dynamic coastal and inland water bodies produce greater spatial and temporal variability of aquatic and atmospheric constituents, which may be inadequately characterized by non-contemporaneous or spatially separate platforms. We address these inadequacies through an airborne sensor network approach to obtain contemporaneous, collocated aquatic and atmospheric radiometric measurements, with the versatility to deploy our approach to geographically distinct targets. We demonstrate novel high-fidelity above- and in-water measurement capabilities at five unique California sites (Monterey Bay, Grizzly Bay, San Pablo Bay, Lake Tahoe, and Pinto Lake), spanning clear to turbid waters, and including algal and cyanobacteria blooms. The combined airborne sensor approach - matched with in-water and surface instrument technology - characterizes coastal atmospheric and aquatic properties through an end-to-end assessment of apparent optical property data acquisition, algorithm application, plus sea-truth observations from state-of-the-art instrument systems. We present airborne and field measurements to demonstrate the improvements to aquatic remote sensing achieved using a sensor network approach, including through the collection of contemporaneous atmospheric and aquatic radiometric measurements. Finally, we discuss the relevance of our sensor web approach to planned NASA missions (e.g., Plankton, Cloud, and Coastal Ecosystem [PACE], Surface Biology and Geology [SBG], and Geostationary Littoral Imaging and Monitoring Radiometer [GLIMR]) and event response for blooms and riverine discharge.