POTENTIAL OF AIRBORNE IMAGING SPECTROSCOPY AT CZECHGLOBE

Abstract. Ecosystems, their services, structures and functions are affected by complex environmental processes, which are both natural and human-induced and globally changing. In order to understand how ecosystems behave in globally changing environment, it is important to monitor the current status of ecosystems and their structural and functional changes in time and space. An essential tool allowing monitoring of ecosystems is remote sensing (RS). Many ecosystems variables are being translated into a spectral response recorded by RS instruments. It is however important to understand the complexity and synergies of the key ecosystem variables influencing the reflected signal. This can be achieved by analysing high resolution RS data from multiple sources acquired simultaneously from the same platform. Such a system has been recently built at CzechGlobe - Global Change Research Institute (The Czech Academy of Sciences).

CzechGlobe has been significantly extending its research infrastructure in the last years, which allows advanced monitoring of ecosystem changes at hierarchical levels spanning from molecules to entire ecosystems. One of the CzechGlobe components is a laboratory of imaging spectroscopy. The laboratory is now operating a new platform for advanced remote sensing observations called FLIS (Flying Laboratory of Imaging Spectroscopy). FLIS consists of an airborne carrier equipped with passive RS systems. The core instrument of FLIS is a hyperspectral imaging system provided by Itres Ltd. The hyperspectral system consists of three spectroradiometers (CASI 1500, SASI 600 and TASI 600) that cover the reflective spectral range from 380 to 2450 nm, as well as the thermal range from 8 to 11.5 μm. The airborne platform is prepared for mounting of full-waveform laser scanner Riegl-Q780 as well, however a laser scanner is not a permanent part of FLIS. In 2014 the installation of the hyperspectral scanners was completed and the first flights were carried out with all sensors.

The new hyperspectral imaging system required adaptations in the data pre-processing chain. The established pre-processing chain (radiometric, atmospheric and geometric corrections), which was tailored mainly to the AISA Eagle instrument operated at CzechGlobe since 2004, has been now modified to fit the new system and users needs. Continuous development of the processing chain is now focused mainly on establishing pre-processing of thermal data including emissivity estimation and also on joint processing of hyperspectral and laser scanning data.