The dataset is composed of a) hyperspectral imagery acquired during airplane overflights on August 7th, 2008 and August 20th, 2009 consisting of 126 and 125 spectral bands, respectively, ranging from VIS to SWIR (456 - 2490 nm and 453 - 2480 nm) wavelength regions; b) spectral reference measurements acquired with an portable ASD field spectroradiometer in 2150 spectral bands (350 - 2500nm) in the same phenological periods of July/August/September 2008/09 c) plant species assemblages on 81 moist and 72 dry habitats consisting of the fractional cover of all vascular plants, mosses and lichens.
The overall goal of the study was to map plant species shift along environmental gradients relating spectral information to the floristic composition. Reference plots of 1 or 2 m² size were thereby located in typical plant communities as well as in transition zones affected by species shift due to management measures such as grazing or shrub removal. In addition 17 field plots were analyzed with regard to soil horizon parameter (e.g. pH, grain size, carbonate content) in the year 2011. Soil types are further available on 51 auger probes.
The Environmental Mapping and Analysis Program (EnMAP) is a German hyperspectral satellite mission that aims at monitoring and characterizing the Earth’s environment on a global scale. EnMAP serves to measure and model key dynamic processes of the Earth’s ecosystems by extracting geochemical, biochemical and biophysical parameters, which provide information on the status and evolution of various terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. In the frame of the EnMAP preparatory phase, pre-flight campaigns including airborne and in-situ measurements in different environments and for several application fields are being conducted. The main purpose of these campaigns is to support the development of scientific applications for EnMAP. In addition, the acquired data are input in the EnMAP end-to-end simulation tool (EeteS) and are employed to test data pre-processing and calibration-validation methods. The campaign data are made freely available to the scientific community under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. An overview of all available data is provided in in the EnMAP Flight Campaigns Metadata Portal https://www.enmap.org/data_tools/flights/
