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Full catalog/AVIRIS-Classic_L1B_Radiance_2155
AVIRIS-Classic_L1B_Radiance_2155·v1·dataset

Calibrated airborne imaging in many light colors (AVIRIS)

AVIRIS-Classic: L1B Calibrated Radiance, Facility Instrument Collection, V1
land NASA ORNL_CLOUD Level 1B active multiple
In plain English

What it measures. Calibrated airborne images of the surface split into 224 narrow bands of light from visible through shortwave infrared, showing how much energy the sensor recorded, plus the geometry and lighting of each view.

How it's made. Recorded by the AVIRIS-Classic imaging spectrometer flown on aircraft like the Twin Otter, WB-57, and ER-2, then processed into geo-corrected, calibrated radiance images.

How & where you'd use it. A foundational input for detailed surface studies; commonly used to derive maps of vegetation, minerals, water, and land cover at fine detail.

What's measured

SPECTRAL/ENGINEERING › INFRARED WAVELENGTHS › INFRARED RADIANCESPECTRAL/ENGINEERING › VISIBLE WAVELENGTHS › VISIBLE RADIANCE

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span2004-08-25 → ongoing
  • Measured byNOAA Twin Otter (AVIRIS) · NASA ER-2 (AVIRIS) · NASA WB-57F (AVIRIS)
  • Processing levelLevel 1B
  • Spatial extent-171.842, -0.032904, -68.3432, 56.174
  • Formatsmultiple
  • StatusACTIVE

What you can do with it

  • Track deforestation, fire scars and land-cover change
  • Monitor crop and vegetation health (NDVI/EVI)
  • Map how built-up vs. green an area is over time
Official description

This dataset contains Level 1B (L1B) orthocorrected, scaled radiance image files as well as files of observational geometry and illumination parameters and supporting sensor band information from the Airborne Visible / Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (AVIRIS-Classic) instrument. This is the NASA Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS) facility instrument archive of these data. The NASA AVIRIS-Classic is a pushbroom spectral mapping system with high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), designed and toleranced for high performance spectroscopy. AVIRIS-Classic measures reflected radiance in 224 contiguous bands at approximately 10-nm intervals in the Visible to Shortwave Infrared (VSWIR) spectral range from 400-2500 nm. The AVIRIS-Classic sensor has a 1 milliradian instantaneous field of view, providing altitude dependent ground sampling distances from 20 m to sub meter range. AVIRIS-Classic is flown on a variety of aircraft platforms including the Twin Otter, NASA's WB-57, and NASA's high altitude ER-2. Multiple file types are included for each flight line. The primary data files include: orthocorrected calibrated radiance image (img) files, geometric lookup table (glt) and orthocorrected observation geometry and illumination (obs_ort) files. Also included are unprojected files of input geometry (igm), and parameters relating to the geometry of observation and illumination (obs). Additional files provide information on spectral (spc) and radiometric calibration (rcc, gain), spatial resolution (geo), aircraft and sensor position (eph, nav), deployment notes (info), and data processing (plog). Quicklook images (jpeg) and polygon outlines of imagery footprints (kmz) are provided for each flight line. The primary AVIRIS-Classic L1B data are provided in ENVI binary format, which includes a flat binary file accompanied by a header (.hdr) file holding metadata in text format. The ancillary files include JPEG images, maps in Keyhole Markup Language (KML), and calibration files in binary and text formats. This archive currently includes data from 2004, and 2006 - 2025. Additional L1B data will be added as they become available. AVIRIS-Classic supports NASA Science and applications in many areas including plant composition and function, geology and soils, greenhouse gas mapping, and calibration of orbital platforms.

Get the data

aviris-classic_l1b_radiance_2155_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="AVIRIS-Classic_L1B_Radiance_2155",
    version="1",
    bounding_box=(-122.5, 37.2, -121.8, 37.9),  # your area (W,S,E,N)
    temporal=("2024-01-01", "2024-12-31"),       # your dates
)
files = earthaccess.open(results)   # stream straight from ORNL_CLOUD
Browsing CMR needs no login. Downloading or streaming bytes needs a free Earthdata Login + the earthaccess package.