Title
Footprint Determination of a Spectroradiometer Mounted on an Unmanned Aircraft System
Abstract
Unmanned aircraft system (UAS)-mounted spectroradiometers offer a new capability to measure spectral reflectance and solar-induced chlorophyll fluorescence at detailed canopy scales. This capability offers potential for upscaling and comparison with airborne and space-borne observations [e.g., the upcoming European Space Agency (ESA) Fluorescence Explorer (FLEX) satellite mission]. In this respect, the accurate spatial characterization and georeferencing of the UAS acquisition footprints are essential to unravel the origin and spatial variability of optical signals acquired within the extent of airborne/satellite pixels. In this article, we present and validate a novel algorithm to georeference the footprint extent of a nonimaging spectroradiometer mounted on a multirotor UAS platform. We used information about the spectroradiometer position and orientation during flight and about topography of observed terrain to calculate the footprint geolocation. In a recursive process, the field of view (FOV) of the spectroradiometer projected on the ground. Multiple FOV ground projections retrieved during a spectroradiometer reading (i.e., a single integration time) were aggregated to calculate the footprint extent. The spatial accuracy of the footprint geolocation was validated by applying the georeferencing algorithm on checkpoint pixels of image acquired with a comounted digital camera. Geolocations of the checkpoint pixels, which served as a proxy for the spectroradiometer footprint, were successfully compared with surveyed ground checkpoints. Finally, the spectral and radiometric quality of UAS-acquired reflectance signatures was compared with ground-measured reflectance of four natural targets (three different types of grass and a bare soil), and a strong agreement was observed.
Year
DOI
Venue
2020
10.1109/TGRS.2019.2947703
IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing
Keywords
DocType
Volume
Spectroradiometers,Global navigation satellite system,Antennas,Geology,Vegetation mapping,Cameras,Synchronization
Journal
58
Issue
ISSN
Citations 
5
0196-2892
0
PageRank 
References 
Authors
0.34
0
4
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Deepak Gautam101.35
Arko Lucieer245546.51
j bendig3865.86
Zbynek Malenovsky45211.53