Analysis of the boreal forest-tundra ecotone: A test of AVIRIS capabilities in the Eastern Canadian subarctic

A comparison was conducted between ground reflectance spectra collected in Schefferville, Canada and imaging spectrometer observations acquired by the AVIRIS sensor in a flight of the ER-2 Aircraft over the same region. The high spectral contrasts present in the Canadian Subarctic appeared to provide an effective test of the operational readiness of the AVIRIS sensor. Previous studies show that in this location various land cover materials possess a wide variety of visible/near infrared reflectance properties. Thus, this landscape served as an excellent test for the sensing variabilities of the newly developed AVIRIS sensor. An underlying hypothesis was that the unique visible/near infrared spectral reflectance patterns of Subarctic lichens could be detected from high altitudes by this advanced imaging spectrometer. The relation between lichen occurrence and boreal forest-tundra ecotone dynamics was investigated.