Aircraft Scanners

The Aircraft Scanners data set contains digital imagery acquired from several multispectral scanners including NS-001 Mutispectral scanner, Daedalus thematic mapper simulator (TMS), scanners and the thermal infrared multispectral scanner (TIMS). Data are collected from selected areas over the conterminous United States, Alaska, and Hawaii by NASA ER-2 and NASA C-130B aircraft operating from the NASA Ames Research Center (ARC) in Moffett Field, California, and by NASA Learjet aircraft operating from Stennis Space Center in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi.Limited international acquisitions also are available.

The NS-001 multispectral scanner was flown aboard a NASA C-130B aircraft and is a line-scanning device designed to simulate Landsat TM sensor performance.  The scanner collects multispectral data in the seven LANDSAT-4 and -5 Thematic Mapper bands plus a band from 1.13 to 1.35 micrometers. The eight-channel detector subsystem consists of a six-element array and separate detectors for measuring reflected infrared energy and thermal infrared energy. The spectral bandwidths of each channel are fixed by design:

NASA Stennis Space Center (SSC), the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and Daedalus Corporation have developed the Thermal Infrared Multispectral Scanner (TIMS) for exploiting mineral signature information. TIMS is a multispectral scanning system using a dispersive grating and a six element Mercury-cadmium-telluride (HgCdTe) detector array to produce six discrete channels in the 8.2 to 12.2 micron region. Used as an airborne geologic remote sensing tool, the TIMS acquires emitted and reflected thermal data that are useful in the discrimination of silicate, carbonate and hydrothermally altered rocks. TIMS data have been used extensively in geology and volconology research in the western United States, Hawaiian Islands, Europe and Russia.

The Thematic Mapper Simulator (TMS) is a Daedalus AADS-1268 scanner that is flown on the ER-2 aircraft and simulates the LANDSAT Thematic Mapper (TM) instrument, with slightly higher spatial resolution. The TMS is used for collecting data similar to data collected by the LANDSAT Thematic Mapper with applications including Earth resources mapping, vegetation/landcover mapping and geologic studies. The sensor acquires data in 12 spectral bands.

Aircraft platforms for TIMS, NS-001 and TMS are operated by the NASA Ames Research Center (ARC) and the NASA Stennis Space Center (SSC). ARC operates the high-altitude ER-2, which carries TIMS and TMS and formerly operated the medium-altitude C-130B, which carried TIMS and NS-001. SSC operates the medium-altitude Learjet 23 that carries TIMS.

The Aircraft Scanner data are available for distribution from the USGS EROS Data Center:

Customer Services
U.S. Geological Survey
EROS Data Center
47914 252nd Street
Sioux Falls, SD 57198-0001

Tel: 800-252-4547
Tel: 605-594-6151
TDD: 605-594-6933
Fax: 605-594-6589
Email: custserv@usgs.gov

The data can be ordered online through the EOS Data Gateway (EDG).