The Prototype Validation Exercise (PROVE) for EOS land and atmosphere products

Three Earth Observing System (EOS) instrument teams (MODLAND, MISR and ASTER) joined forces in May, 1997 to conduct an 11-day field validation campaign in a desert grassland near Las Cruces, New Mexico. The exercise was held at the USDA-Agricultural Research Service´s (ARS) Jornada Experimental Range, an expansive and relatively flat plain hosting a mixture of short grasses and shrubs. Most macroscopic land variables affecting the radiation environment, and the radiation environment itself, were measured. Moreover, a large variety of aircraft data (e.g., AVIRIS and LIDAR) and satellite data (AVHRR, Landsat TM, SPOT, POLDER, GOES) were acquired. The authors describe the site, the experiment, and some initial results from PROVE. The latter will be published in a forthcoming special issue of Remote Sensing of Environment. The data from PROVE are available to the public and may be ideal for some scaling and remote sensing studies