The Coastal and Ocean Airborne Science Testbed (COAST) Project is a NASA Earth-science flight project that will advance coastal ecosystems research by providing a unique airborne payload optimized for remote sensing in the optically complex coastal zone
The COAST instrument suite combines a customized imagingspectrometer, sunphotometer system, and new bio-optical radiometerinstruments to obtain ocean/coastal/atmosphere data simultaneously. Theimaging spectrometer is optimized in the blue region of the spectrum toemphasize remote sensing of marine and freshwater ecosystems.Simultaneous measurements for empirical characterization of theatmospheric column will be accomplished using the Ames Airborne TrackingSunphotometer (AATS-14). The radiometer system, designed and built by Biospherical Instruments, Inc., collects high quality radiance data from the ocean surface. Dr. Liane Guild of NASA Ames Biospheric Science Branch is the principal investigator.