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Spectral reflectance measurements of radiometric calibration panels for UAS image calibration

Metadata Updated: January 21, 2026

Calibration panels are used as reference materials with known reflectance characteristics to convert remote sensing image pixel values to scientific units such as reflectance. At the time of purchase, the panel vendor typically provides the customer with reflectance data for the panel. The vendor-provided spectral data as a reference for each panel’s reflectance values at the time of purchase. Over time, the panel’s reflectance can change due to exposure of its surface to elements such as the sun, dirt, dust, sand, and more during the panel’s use in the field. The purpose of this dataset is to enable the assessment of calibration panel reflectance changes over time. In addition to the vendor-provided spectral data for a series of panels at each panel's respective time of purchase, we measured the reflectance characteristics of each panel using a handheld spectroradiometer instrument and share those spectra in this data release. These Calibrated Reflectance Panels were manufactured by MicaSense (MicaSense Inc., Seattle, WA, USA; http://www.micasense.com/), which was also the source of the vendor-provided reflectance data. The vendor-provided data is provided as absolute reflectance (a value between 0.0 and 1.0) in the range of 400 nm to 850 nm (in increments of 1 nm). These vendor-provided spectra are provided in Comma Separated Value file format (files with a .csv extension) with two columns (wavelength, reflectance). We combined the vendor-provided spectral data into a single .csv file for this data release. On February 10, 2020, USGS researchers collected a series of reflectance spectra using a handheld field spectroradiometer for five calibration panels, each delivered to the customer on different dates between 2015-2019 and subjected to different field work conditions over time. This enables an assessment of calibration panel reflectance changes over time. The instrument used to measure the panel reflectance spectra was the Analytical Spectral Devices FieldSpec® 4 Hi-Res (ASD FS4; ASD Inc., a Malvern PANalytical Company, Longmont, Colorado) covering the range from 0.35 to 2.5 µm. These handheld collected reflectance spectra were exported in the .txt format from the ASD ViewSpecPro software, and we combined the collected spectral data into a single Comma Separated Value file format (with a .csv extension).

Access & Use Information

Public: This dataset is intended for public access and use. License: No license information was provided. If this work was prepared by an officer or employee of the United States government as part of that person's official duties it is considered a U.S. Government Work.

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Dates

Metadata Created Date January 11, 2026
Metadata Updated Date January 21, 2026

Metadata Source

Harvested from DOI USGS DCAT-US

Additional Metadata

Resource Type Dataset
Metadata Created Date January 11, 2026
Metadata Updated Date January 21, 2026
Publisher U.S. Geological Survey
Maintainer
Identifier http://datainventory.doi.gov/id/dataset/USGS_613ba6a0d34e40dd9c0f974f
Data Last Modified 2021-12-09T00:00:00Z
Category geospatial
Public Access Level public
Bureau Code 010:12
Metadata Context https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.jsonld
Metadata Catalog ID https://ddi.doi.gov/usgs-data.json
Schema Version https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
Catalog Describedby https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.json
Datagov Dedupe Retained 20260121062710
Harvest Object Id f785ae2c-ae22-4506-b733-74b9340bce9c
Harvest Source Id 2b80d118-ab3a-48ba-bd93-996bbacefac2
Harvest Source Title DOI USGS DCAT-US
Metadata Type geospatial
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Source Datajson Identifier True
Source Hash 75963d63d9e3f6c22a736abdaa31b3c0a73783a55af082f0acadf48b602f2c5a
Source Schema Version 1.1
Spatial {"type": "Polygon", "coordinates": -180.0000, -90.0000, -180.0000, 90.0000, 180.0000, 90.0000, 180.0000, -90.0000, -180.0000, -90.0000}

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