AVUELO

The Airborne Validation Unified Experiment Land to Ocean (AVUELO) project aims to advance the validation of spaceborne hyperspectral data for tropical ecosystems. In a February 2025 campaign, AVUELO combined airborne hyperspectral imagery for terrestrial and marine sites in Panama and Costa Rica with contemporaneous field measurements and collections. This campaign was led and supported by NASA and the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) in Panama, with additional major contributions from other scientists and institutions.

AVUELO deployed the Airborne Visible-Infrared Imaging Spectrometer 3 (AVIRIS-3) to collect hyperspectral imagery. In Panama, terrestrial collection encompassed many intensively studied sites and wide variation in soil type, geology, rainfall, and vegetation type. In Costa Rica, AVUELO focused on the Rincon de la Vieja and Turrialba volcanoes, well-studied forests sites, and Pacific coastal areas in collaboration with the Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem (PACE) team. Associated terrestrial field work focused on acquiring data on the traits and taxonomic identity of canopy plant species captured in the airborne imagery.