OpAiRS - Optical Airborne Remote Sensing and Calibration Facility

Since 1995 DLR is calibrating and operating its own airborne imaging spectrometers and is developing software tools for data processing and evaluation for different application fields. In November 2007 this service called Optical Airborne Remote Sensing (OpAiRS) has been ISO certified (ISO 9001:2000).

OpAiRS operates different airborne hyperspectral sensors, e.g. ROSIS or HyMap, which are accurately calibrated to ensure quantitative remote sensing. Since 2007 the new laboratory has been equipped with a vibration damped large optical bench, an upgraded monochromator for precisely calibrating the spectral properties of an instrument from 400 nm to 12.5 µm, a new collimator and folding mirror for providing a well-characterized stimulus at well-defined angles for geometric calibration, and an integrating sphere that is traceable to national standards for accurate radiometric calibration. The equipment is computer-controlled in order to allow automatic wavelength and angle scans.

The image data can be processed at the automated data processing facility of OpAiRS. The pre-processing software consists of modules for system correction, fully parametric orthorectification and geocoding as well as atmospheric modelling for the normalisation of imaging spectrometer data to ground reflectance.

For the validation of airborne sensors OpAiRS operates a set of calibrated field spectrometers to determine spectral properties of land and water targets and the atmosphere during field campaigns.

Several national and international campaigns have been organised, co-ordinated and managed by DLR's Applied Remote Sensing Cluster covering the system chain from sensor integration/adaptation to various aircraft, system calibration, campaign management, data processing, evaluation, archiving, and distribution.

To request access to the service OpAiRS, please contact OpAiRS, or check the News
for an announcement of opportunity.

last changes: 12.09.2008