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National Aeronautics and Space Administration

NASA's Arctic-Boreal Vulnerability Experiment

ABoVE

Airborne Science

The ABoVE Airborne Campaign began in 2017. See the tab for each year (2017, 2018, 2019, 2022, 2023, 2024) to learn about the types of data collected during that year and download kmls of the flightlines. The 2017 tab also links to an ERL article overviewing the Airborne Campaign and a list of sites used to plan the campaign. See the Data tab to discover where to download data collected for each flight. The Projects tab shows projects selected during the ABoVE Airborne call in 2016.
 
Summary of the ABoVE L-band and P-band Airborne SAR Surveys: ABoVE conducted airborne synthetic aperture radar (SAR) surveys of over 120,000 km2 in Alaska and northwestern Canada during 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2022. This dataset contains tables listing the Airborne flight metadata from the SAR surveys flown during ABoVE. >>
 
Join Airborne Daily Email List: If you would like to be notified of the aircraft flight schedules and updates for the upcoming airborne campaign, please, Join Airborne Daily. View current members.
 

ABoVE Airborne Campaign Data Viewer
 

ABoVE Airborne Campaign StoryMap
 
2017 Completed Flights
The 2017 Arctic Boreal Vulnerability Experiment Airborne Campaign (AAC) was one of the largest, most complex airborne science experiments conducted by NASA's Earth Science Division. Between April and November, the AAC involved ten aircraft in more than 200 science flights that conducted surveys across over 4 million km2 in Alaska and northwestern Canada. Many flights were coordinated with same-day ground-based measurements to link process-level studies with geospatial data products derived from satellite sensors. The AAC collected data spanning the critical intermediate space and time scales that are essential for a comprehensive understanding of scaling across the ABoVE Study Domain and ultimately extrapolation to the pan-Arctic using satellite data and ecosystem models. The AAC provided unique opportunities to validate satellite and airborne remote sensing data and data products for northern high latitude ecosystems. The science strategy coupled domain-wide sampling with so-called "Foundational Instrument", L-band and P-band synthetic aperture radar (SAR), imaging spectroscopy, full waveform LIDAR, atmospheric trace gases (including carbon dioxide and methane), as well as PI-led studies using Ka-band SAR and solar induced chlorophyll fluorescence. Targets of interest included field sites operated by the ABoVE Science Team as well as the intensive and/or long-term sites operated by US and Canadian partners.

Flown Lines
Detailed flight lines for each sensor were constructed to overlap the ground projections for each sensor while simultaneously maximizing field site sampling. The ~12 km swath of the P-band SAR was used to anchor all flight lines. The L-band SAR (~15 km swath) flight lines were designed with the requirement to maximize near-field overlap of the P-band and L-band swaths, while extending past the P-band swath in the far field. Flight lines for LVIS (~1.4 km swath), AVIRIS-NG (~3.6 km swath) and Ka-band SAR (~4 km swath) were slaved to the centerline of the P-band swath, except where deviations were required to capture critical ground sites.
Individual Sensors
All Sensors
ABoVE: Directory of Field Sites Associated with 2017 ABoVE Airborne Campaign
This dataset provides a listing of the ~6,700 field sites used in planning the ABoVE Airborne Campaign (AAC) for 2017. The sites included point, polygon, and line locations that were used in determining the 2017 AAC flight paths. We intend this compilation to assist investigators in understanding the flight line choices and as a method for investigators to identify ground locations used in the airborne campaign. Data users may also search for the underlying data available at each of these locations. Site descriptors include name, coordinates, principal investigators with emails, data types, long-term archive locations, and links to project descriptions.
We request that users properly cite the data when used in publications, to enable readers to find the data files. The citation is the following:

Hoy, E.E., P. Griffith, C.E. Miller, and ABoVE Science Team. 2018. ABoVE: Directory of Field Sites Associated with 2017 ABoVE Airborne Campaign. ORNL DAAC, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA. https://doi.org/10.3334/ORNLDAAC/1582

2018 Completed Flights
NASA conducted flights using AVIRIS-NG, L-band SAR (UAVSAR), and G-LiHT in 2018. Coordinated flights and ground validation were conducted with the German Aerospace Center (DLR). Targets of interest included field sites occupied by the ABoVE Science Team as well as the intensive sites operated by the DOE NGEE-Arctic on the Seward Peninsula and in Barrow, NSF's LTER sites at Toolik Lake (Arctic/North Slope) and Bonanza Creek (Boreal/Interior Alaska), the Canadian Cold Regions Hydrology sites in the Arctic tundra near Trail Valley Creek NT, the interdisciplinary science station at Scotty Creek NT, the Government of the Northwest Territories Slave River/Slave Delta watershed time series, the Kluane Lake (YT) Research Station, and numerous forest and fire disturbance US and Canadian Forest Services. NASA Stories organized with help from the NASA Office of Communications are posted here and Media Coverage articles are available here.


Individual Sensors
All Sensors
AVIRIS-NG

NASA conducted AVIRIS-NG flights during July 21 through 18 August, 2018. Primary mission was to obtain imagery over areas that were not imaged in 2017 due to weather conditions. Some flights were flown in "methane mode" over regions known or suspected to have high methane emissions.

In the KMZ: GREEN = science quality data; YELLOW = partial cloud/smoke/other imperfections (parts of the line may be good); MAGENTA = unusable/unacquired lines.

2018 ABoVE AVIRIS-NG final coverage:
L-Band

NASA conducted L-Band SAR (UAVSAR) flights during 18-31 August of 2018, repeating lines flown during the 2017 campaign to establish a multi-year time series. Sites included the BERMS site in Saskatchewan, the Peace-Athabascan Delta, road-accessible sites near Yellowknife and Inuvik, and a subset of sites in Alaska and Yukon that were of greatest interest to the SAR Working Group. New flight lines were planned and executed in coordination with the German Aerospace Center (see below). The BERMS sites was flown in TomoSAR mode.

German Aerospace Center (DLR)

The DLR flew their F-SAR instrument over regions of the ABoVE Domain in the Northwest Territories and Saskatchewan in August 2018. DLR and ABoVE will share airborne and ground validation data from the coordinated collections at the Boreal Ecosystem Research and Monitoring Sites (BERMS) in Saskatchewan and at the Baker Creek watershed near Yellowknife, NT.

G–LiHT
G-LiHT conducted flights for ABoVE during 13-15 July. The aircraft transited to the Tanana Valley to collect data over 1) forests that burned since the 2014 G-LiHT acquisitions; 2) Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory (CRREL) permafrost transects flown by G-LiHT in 2014; and 3) ABoVE 2018 requests over a) Creamer's Field near Fairbanks and b) Yukon Flats near Ft. Yukon. Weather did not permit collections over Delta Junction sites in 2018, but these may be attempted in 2019.
NEON

During the active flight season, the NEON project flies two Airborne Observation Platforms (AOP) to collect data across NEON field sites. See the NEON Airborne Remote Sensing webpage.

Science Summaries
Science Summaries show a combination of the daily status of the different aircraft, photos relevant to the flights, first-looks of the imagery acquired, and graphics of the completed flight lines. These summaries are preliminary, but can provide information about the current status of the campaign.
2019 Completed Flights
NASA conducted flights using AVIRIS-NG, L-band SAR (UAVSAR), and LVIS in 2019. As in past years, targets of interest included field sites occupied by the ABoVE Science Team as well as the intensive sites operated by the DOE NGEE-Arctic on the Seward Peninsula and in Barrow, NSF's LTER sites at Toolik Lake (Arctic/North Slope) and Bonanza Creek (Boreal/Interior Alaska), the Canadian Cold Regions Hydrology sites in the Arctic tundra near Trail Valley Creek NT, the interdisciplinary science station at Scotty Creek NT, the Government of the Northwest Territories Slave River/Slave Delta watershed time series, the Kluane Lake (YT) Research Station, and numerous forest and fire disturbance plots maintained by the National Park Service, and the US and Canadian Forest Services.



    2019 Completed Flight Lines:

    Individual Sensors:
    AVIRIS-NG

    In the KMZ: GREEN = science quality data; YELLOW = partial cloud/smoke/other imperfections (parts of the line may be good); MAGENTA = unusable/unacquired lines.

    Statistics for the AVIRIS 2019 ABoVE Airborne Campaign

    • Campaign Duration: 36 Days (30 June – 4 August)
    • Number of Science Flight Days: 27
    • Number of Sorties: 37
    • Number of flight hours: 129
    • # lines acquired: 193 (this number will increase given some lines were flown multiple times)
    • Est km of flight lines: 15,712 km (see column U, this number will increase given some lines were flown multiple times)
    • Est number of sq km mapped: 51,850 km2 (see column W, this number will increase given some lines were flown multiple times)
    LVIS
    NASA5 and the LVIS team conducted science sorties (91 flight hours), including during the two transit legs, between 12 July and 7 August 2019 for the Arctic-Boreal Vulnerability Experiment. Targets requested by the Science Team included TomoSAR swaths at BERMS and Delta Junction for NISAR; underflights of IceSAT-2 Reference Ground Tracks; first-time observations and revisits of L-ban SAR swaths across the ABoVE domain for the Active Layer Working Group; opportunistic data acquisition of the Shovel Creek fire perimeter near Fairbanks, including reflights of an line flown in 2014 by G-LiHT; NGEE-Arctic sites in Barrow and the Seward Peninsula; and numerous burn scars around Yellowknife/Great Slave Lake for the Phase 2 Wildfire projects. Weather provided daily challenges to acquisition, but due to the excellent performance of the LVIS instruments and NASA's extended range and duration, in the end, the only targets not acquired were the Anaktuvuk Burn Scar on the North Slope of Alaska, and two SAR swaths on the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta.
    L-band SAR
    NASA conducted L-band SAR flights 4-17 September, 2019, repeating lines flown during the 2017 and 2018 campaigns to continue the multi-year time series, and enable accurate interferometric differencing and comparisons of interannual variability in permafrost active layer thickness, thermokarst, post-fire permafrost degradation and boreal forest structure. Sites included the BERMS site in Saskatchewan, the Peace-Athabascan Delta, road-accessible sites near Yellowknife and Inuvik, and sites in Alaska and Yukon that were of greatest interest to the SAR Working Group. The L-band SAR flights provide key precursor data for NASA's upcoming NISAR satellite mission.

    NEON Airborne Observation Platform

    2022 Airborne Plans

    NASA ABoVE conducted coordinated airborne and fieldwork in 2022. L-Band SAR and AVIRIS flights were flown in Alaska and Canada during the months of July and August. Flights were planned in coordination with NASA–funded investigators, PIs of affiliated projects, and representatives of Partner Organizations.

    Ground Observations

    Multiple teams executed ground observations underneath the flight paths of the aircraft and instruments.

    L-Band SAR Flights

    NASA conducted L-band SAR flights on the AFRC NASA802 during 12-25 August, 2022, repeating lines flown during the 2017, 2018, and 2019 campaigns to continue the multi-year time series, and enable accurate interferometric differencing and comparisons of interannual variability in permafrost active layer thickness, thermokarst, post-fire permafrost degradation and boreal forest structure. Sites included the BERMS site in Saskatchewan, the Peace-Athabascan Delta, road-accessible sites near Yellowknife and Inuvik, and sites in Alaska and Yukon that were of greatest interest to the SAR Working Group.

    Flights can be viewed and downloaded from this web map. Dates of flights are posted on the UAVSAR Calendar.

    Protocol for Active Layer Thickness Surveys
    Protocol for Soil Moisture Measurements
    Notes on the Protocols

    Webinar

    Download 2022 L-Band Footprints KML

    AVIRIS

    NASA conducted AVIRIS-NG flights during July and August 2022.

    Download AVIRIS-NG 2022 Flight Lines KML

    Link to processed 2022 AVIRIS-NG data

    G-LiHT 2022 CAMPAIGN NOTES

    Integration & Testing (Bridgewater, VA): 28-30 June 2022
    Transit to AK: 1-6 July 2022

    Science Flights and Motivation:

    1. USFS Southwest Inventory Unit (southern half). Multi-sensor airborne data was collected with NASA Goddard's Lidar, Hyperspectral and Thermal (G-LiHT) airborne imager over Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) plots and transects between FIA plots in Alaska to improve regional estimates of aboveground forest biomass and terrestrial ecosystem carbon stocks.
    2. Carbon Cap-and-Trade Pilot Study (near Fairbanks, AK). The objectives of this pilot project are to assess the feasibility of using repeat-pass G-LiHT measurements to estimate aboveground carbon stocks with sampling error below the 20% threshold and to develop the most cost-effective carbon inventory protocol using a combination of field inventory data and advanced, multi-sensor airborne remote sensing.
    3. FIA Plot Cal/Val (near Anchorage, AK). G-LiHT image data will be acquired over USFS FIA training plots where field crews will be collecting traditional measurements and Terrestrial Laser Scanning (TLS) data during August 2022.
    4. Spruce Beetle Monitoring (near Anchorage, AK). G-LiHT image data was re-acquired over spruce beetle monitoring transects stretching from the Kenai Peninsula, in the south, to Denali National Park, in the north. These transects were last measured on the ground and with G-LiHT during 2018, during the peak of a spruce beetle outbreak, and changes in vegetation structure and spectral reflectance will be used to evaluate the long-term mortality and growth of these forests.
    5. Chugach National Forest and Coastal AK. USFS Geospatial Technology and Applications Center (GTAC) used G-LiHT data acquired over FIA and GTAC measured ground plots and area between plots to map forest characteristics on federally managed lands, including forest type, biomass, vegetation structure, tree and shrub cover, etc. Data will also be used to guide future inventory efforts in Coastal AK using methods developed for Interior AK.

    Base of Operation and Dates:

    • Kodiak, AK — 6-16 July 2022
    • Aniak, AK — 16-26 July 2022
    • Kodiak, AK — 26-30 July 2022

    CoMet 2.0 Arctic

    This year ABoVE coordinated with CoMet 2.0 Arctic. This initiative was developed by the German Space Agency (DLR) to learn more about the distribution and temporal variation of the two most important anthropogenically-influenced greenhouse gases, carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4), in the Arctic. Aircraft-based instruments using both remote sensing and in-situ techniques carried out measurements of these trace gases and tracers related to their emissions. The results will help to better understand the global methane and carbon cycle. This mission makes use of the German research aircraft HALO. This mission was based out of Edmonton, Alberta. See this pdf for more information on CoMet 2.0 Arctic.

    NEON AOP

    NEON based their AOP Payload 1 in Deadhorse Alaska, July and August 2022, to fly NEON Domain 18.

    Weather Forecast: ABoVE Domain

    NASA GEOS-FP weather and chemistry forecast data, both in lat-lon plot and datagram form, with forecast archives remaining available for up to two weeks after they are run. The lat-lon plots include full and zoomed in views of the ABoVE domain over Alaska and western Canada.

    NOAA High-Resolution Rapid Refresh (HRRR) for Alaska

    Windy weather visualization

    FAA Weather Cameras - Interactive map with Alaska and Canadian cameras

    Alaska Fires and Smoke Predictions

    Alaska Wildland Fire Information

    Daily Flight Reports

    2023 Airborne Plans

    NASA ABoVE conducted coordinated airborne and fieldwork in 2023. AVIRIS flights were flown in Alaska and Canada during the months of July and August. Flights were planned in coordination with NASA-funded investigators, PIs of affiliated projects, and representatives of Partner Organizations. The L-band SAR will next be flown in 2024.

    Ground Observations

    Multiple teams executed ground observations underneath the flight paths of the aircraft and instruments.

    AVIRIS-3 (Dynamic Aviation B-200 N53W)

    NASA conducted AVIRIS-3 flights during July and August 2023.

    AVIRIS-3 Flight Summaries

    Perma-X Flight Campaign (AWI Polar 6)

    The Perma-X campaign conducted flights on the AWI Polar-6 aircraft in NW Canada in July 2023. They had the super-high-resolution Modular Aerial Camera System (MACS) (sensor heads: 1x 50MP RGB, 1x 50MP NIR, 1x 1MP TIR) on board and a full-wave-form LiDAR. Their core areas of interest were repeat flights over Trail Valley Creek, Inuvik-Tuk-Highway, Yukon Coastal Plain coastline and Herschel Island, some areas in the Mackenzie Delta, and thermokarst lakes and thaw slumps (Peel Plateau) in the region. PermaX flew over areas previous flown by AVIRIS.

    NEON AOP

    NEON based their AOP Payload 1 in Fairbanks Alaska, summer 2023, to fly NEON Domain 18. Visit their flight report archive.

    Weather Forecast: ABoVE Domain

    NASA GEOS-FP weather and chemistry forecast data, both in lat-lon plot and datagram form, with forecast archives remaining available for up to two weeks after they are run. The lat-lon plots include full and zoomed in views of the ABoVE domain over Alaska and western Canada.

    Windy

    FAA weather cams

    Canadian airport webcams

    Alaska satellite

    Canada Satellite links

    UAF Alaska smoke forecast

    Canada Smoke Forecast

    Fire Information for Resource Management (FIRMS)

    NWT live fire maps

    AK lightning strikes

    Fairbanks air quality

    Alaska Wildland Fire Information

    Daily Flight Reports

    2024 Airborne Plans

    NASA ABoVE conducted coordinated airborne and fieldwork in 2024. L–Band SAR flights flew in Alaska and Canada in the month of August. Flights were planned in coordination with NASA–funded investigators, PIs of affiliated projects, and representatives of Partner Organizations.

    Ground Observations

    Planning for the L-band campaign included coordination with multiple teams conducting ground observations underneath the flight paths of the aircraft and instruments. If you worked in the domain during the time frame of any of the flights and want to contribute your data, please email Liz Hoy.

    L-Band SAR Flights

    NASA conducted L-band SAR flights on the AFRC NASA802 during 15-30 August, 2024, repeating lines flown during the 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2022 campaigns to continue the multi-year time series, and enable accurate interferometric differencing and comparisons of interannual variability in permafrost active layer thickness, thermokarst, post-fire permafrost degradation and boreal forest structure. Sites included the Peace-Athabascan Delta, road-accessible sites near Yellowknife and Inuvik, and sites in Alaska and Yukon that are of greatest interest to the SAR Working Group and the SWOT validation team. Of note for these flights is the opportunity to produce before-and-after InSAR observations of areas burned in 2022 and 2023 in both Alaska and Canada.

    Flights and completed lines can be viewed and downloaded below. Dates for flights are posted on the UAVSAR Calendar. Operational updates were sent to the ABoVE Airborne Daily email list during the campaign.

    Protocol for Active Layer Thickness Surveys
    Protocol for Soil Moisture Measurements
    Notes on the Protocols

    Webinar

    Download 2022 L-Band Footprints KMZ

    UAVSAR Flight Summaries

    G-LiHT 2024 CAMPAIGN NOTES

    The G-LiHT campaign was postponed to 2025. See https://gliht.gsfc.nasa.gov/ for additional details.

    NEON AOP

    NEON plans to base their AOP Payload 1 in Deadhorse Alaska, TBD, to fly NEON Domain 18. If you are interested in tracking NEON's 2024 season, sign up to receive daily flight report emails by NEON Domain or visit their flight report archive. Please note, you will only receive emails during the time period the AOP is in the Domain you have signed up to follow.

    Weather Forecast: ABoVE Domain

    NASA GEOS-FP weather and chemistry forecast data, both in lat-lon plot and datagram form, with forecast archives remaining available for up to two weeks after they are run. The lat-lon plots include full and zoomed in views of the ABoVE domain over Alaska and western Canada.

    Windy

    FAA Weather Cameras

    Canadian Airport Webcams

    Alaska Satellite

    Canada Satellite Links

    UAF Alaska Smoke Forecast

    Canada Smoke Forecast

    Fire Information for Resource Management (FIRMS)

    NWT Live Fire Maps

    AK Lightning Strikes

    Fairbanks Air Quality

    Alaska Wildland Fire Information

    Once archived, all ABoVE Airborne Campaign data will be available through the NASA Earthdata web portal here: https://search.earthdata.nasa.gov/search

    Tutorial to access ABoVE Airborne data available here: https://daac.ornl.gov/resources/tutorials/search-above-data/

    Foundational

    Instrument Year Data Product Download Searching Instructions
    L-Band SAR 2017
    2018
    2019
    2022
    2024     		UAVSAR
    1. Unclick P-band and Ka-Band boxes
    2. type 'ABoVE' in the 'Find' section
    P-Band SAR 2017 UAVSAR
    1. Unclick L-band and Ka-Band boxes
    2. Type 'ABoVE' in the 'Find' section
    LVIS 2017
    2019    		 NSIDC
    • 2017 datasets (4) start with 'AB'
    • 2019 datasets: Classic datasets (2) start with 'LVISC' and Facility datasets (2) start with 'LVISF'
    AVIRIS-NG 2017
    2018
    2019
    2022
    2023     		 
    AVIRIS-3 2023 AVIRIS-3  
    G–LiHT 2018 G-LiHT  

    PI Instrument

    Instrument Year Data Product Download Searching Instructions
    AirSWOT 2017 Archived at the ORNL DAAC 4 AirSWOT datasets available.
    CFIS 2017 Preliminary data available Data archive in process at ORNL DAAC.
    ArcticCAP 2017 Archived at the ORNL DAAC

    2 Arctic-CAP datasets available.
    ASCENDS 2017 Available at LaRC Airborne Science Data  
    ATom 2017 Available at the ORNL DAAC  

    Partner Instruments

    Instrument Availability Data Product Download
    NEON Now

    Field Data Products

    Data products from research sponsored by NASA as part of ABoVE; from partner projects sponsored by DOE NGEE-Arctic and Polar Knowledge Canada; and other affiliated projects.