Raw calibrated aircraft camera light (eMAS, 50 m)
What it measures. Calibrated, location-tagged readings of light from a research aircraft's scanning camera — how much energy the sensor recorded across many channels from visible light to thermal infrared, at 50-meter detail.
How it's made. Collected by the eMAS instrument flown on NASA's high-altitude ER-2 aircraft, then calibrated and geolocated into a Level 1B product; it stands in for MODIS to test and validate satellite measurements.
How & where you'd use it. A raw building-block input for field campaigns and instrument testing; researchers use it to simulate and check satellite data rather than as a finished map for general audiences.
What's measured
Coverage & cadence
- Time span2013-08-01 → 2019-08-22
- Measured byNASA ER-2 (eMAS)
- Processing levelLevel 1B
- Spatial extent-180, -35, 180, 80
- FormatsHDF-EOS
- StatusCOMPLETE
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
The Enhanced Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) Airborne Simulator (eMAS)instrument is maintained and operated by the Airborne Sensor Facility at NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California, under the oversight of the EOS Project Science Office at NASA Goddard. Prior to 1995, the MAS was deployed on the NASA's ER-2 and C-130 aircraft platforms using a 12-channel, 8-bit data system that somewhat constrained the full benefit of having a 50-channel scanning spectrometer. Beginning in January 1995, a 50-channel, 16-bit digitizer was used on the ER-2 platform, which greatly enhanced the capability of MAS to simulate MODIS data over a wide range of environmental conditions. Recently, it has undergone extensive upgrades to the optics and other components. New detectors have been installed and the spectral bands have been streamlined. The eMAS instrument is now a 38-channel instrument, sensing in the range from 0.445 to 13.844 um. Visit ladsweb page for more information and for campaign flights' [list](https://ladsweb.modaps.eosdis.nasa.gov/missions-and-measurements/mas/)
Get the data
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc") # free Earthdata Login
results = earthaccess.search_data(
short_name="eMASL1B",
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 LAADSBrowsing CMR needs no login. Downloading or streaming bytes needs a free Earthdata Login + the earthaccess package.