Sensitivity of NEON's airborne remote sensing instrumentation to cloud and illumination conditions

The National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) remote sensing component is tasked with collecting high resolution imaging spectrometer data, discrete and waveform lidar data, and high-resolution digital camera data of the NEON sites at or near peak greenness. Due to the passive nature of the utilized imaging spectrometer and digital camera, it is of paramount important to collect the desired remote sensing data under optimal weather conditions. To better understand the impact of sub-optimal weather on the derived data products, a series of test flights were conducted over a well-characterized test site near Boulder, Colorado under a variety of solar illumination geometries and cloud loading. The airborne data was processed through the nominal NEON workflow and compared to in-situ data collected of various reflectance targets. The results and challenges in comparison of the results are discussed.