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. In May of 2026, UAVSAR flights complimented AVIRIS-3 flights in targeted areas and included concurrent field collections.

AVUELO deployed the Airborne Visible-Infrared Imaging Spectrometer 3 (AVIRIS-3) and Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle Synthetic Aperture Radar (UAVSAR) to collect 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. UAVSAR flights compliment NISAR data comparisons. Associated terrestrial field work focused on acquiring data on the traits and taxonomic identity of canopy plant species captured in the airborne imagery.