In mid-July, members of the Fire & Ice remote sensing team got the chance to play
host to Dar Roberts, a Professor in the Department of Geography at the University
of California, Santa Barbara. Roberts has been working with hyperspectral remote sensing
since 1984 and is a renowned expert in the field, as well as one of four members of
Fire & Ice’s External Advisory Council.
During his weeklong visit Roberts got to meet with remote sensing researchers and
accompany them on visits to various field sites around Fairbanks. The purpose of the
week’s fieldwork was to use a portable PSR+ spectroradiometer to collect spectral
data on a variety of boreal trees and shrubs, as well as materials like leaf litter,
dry needles, tree bark, and branches. The data will be used to assist in mapping boreal
vegetation from airborne hyperspectral data; in simulating hyperspectral data from
multispectral data; and in creating a spectral library of boreal vegetation.
Field sites that Dar and the researchers visited included the UAF North Campus, Caribou-Poker
Creeks Research Watershed; Bonanza Creek Experimental Forest and Creamer’s Field Migratory
Waterfowl Refuge. They also had the opportunity to inspect the Cessna 185 that researcher
Martin Stuefer flies to collect aerial hyperspectral data.