HySens-DAIS/ROSIS Imaging Spectrometers at DLR

Airborne imaging spectroscopy has undergone a rapid development over the last decade. The number of research groups making use of this technology has increased by an order of a magnitude. Starting from the late 1980s at the DLR research center 'Oberpfaffenhofen' spectroscopic earth observation facilities have been continuously improved in order to be able to provide reliable imaging spectrometer data to the scientific community. At the current stage the integrated hyperspectral facilities at DLR Cluster for Applied Remote Sensing consists of the two imaging spectrometers DAIS 7915 and ROSIS, a laboratory calibration facility and the respective processing and archiving facilities. As an additional important factor in airborne remote sensing access to a DLR-own fleet of research aircraft (Dornier Do228, Cessna 208B Grand-Caravan, FALCON 20 E5 jet) is granted. Numerous imaging spectrometer campaigns have been carried out during the last years with flight activities all over Europe. Currently the two airborne imaging sensors are identified by the European Commission as a mayor research infrastructure and supported in a 3 year project. In the frame of this project hyperspectral data sets will be acquired over different test areas proposed by international research teams. In this paper the installation of the facility in an European research environment, the technical components as well as the currently ongoing research activities will be described. A list of already acquired data sets and the corresponding thematic applications is shown. An outlook to future improvements including new sensor initiatives is given.