Instruments

Overview

The facility’s instrument pool is divided into dedicated equipment suites and services, tailored to allow users select the most appropriate instrument for research which aligns with NERC science themes.

A brief overview of each suite is given, and the NERC research areas which equipment within the suite are typically used within are provided. More details on the individual instruments within each suite can be found by selecting the links in the navigation menu to the left. The NERC science research themes which each instrument can be used for, based on previous loans and assessment by the facility, is provided as tags found at the bottom of the instrument page.

If you need further help in deciding which instrument or instrument package best suits your research needs, contact the facility for advice and further information.

Optical Laboratory Suite

The dark optical calibration laboratory is used to characterize and calibrate all of the facilities instruments and sensors, using the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) traceable radiometric standards. This ensures that the all of the data collected by the instruments used by our loan users are traceable, calibrated, and have their uncertainties quantified. This lab is also provided as a service to loan users to for instrument prototyping, validation measurements, and developing new field spectroscopy methodologies.

Full Range Field Spectroradiometer Suite

This suite consists of hyperspectral spectroradiometers covering the ultraviolet to visible to the near- and shortwave infrared region of the electromagnetic spectrum (350 nm to 2500 nm). This region of the EM spectrum, when used in spectroscopy, provides key information for multidisciplinary science, included but not limited to ecology (e.g. vegetation health), cryosphere studies (e.g. sea ice reflectance), geology (e.g. materials detection), and wider earth observation (e.g. ground based validation of satellites). This suite provides the ability to answer research questions in five of the eight NERC science themes. All of our instruments within this suite are supplied with an appropriate reflectance panel (which range in reflectances from 20% to 99.9%), to allow for direct measurements of surface reflectance.

UAV Sensor Suite

This suite includes multiple multispectral cameras, thermal and RGB imagers, and the primary sensor of the suite, a hyperspectral imager covering the 350 nm to 2500 nm range. The sensors within the UAV suite provide data which can be used in six of the eight NERC science themes, by providing reflectance data over terrestrial, freshwater, and marine environments. The spatial resolution of the sensors depend upon the field of view of the sensor and the altitude at which the sensor is flown. All spatial resolutions quoted in the individual instrument pages are at 50 m flight altitude, which is the median flight altitude at which most UAV loans are conducted.

Spectral Atmospheric Suite

The suite supports research in two of the NERC science themes (“atmospheric physics and chemistry” and “climate and climate change”, by providing surface concentrations or column densities of greenhouse gases in the near infrared range (750 to 2000 nm, EM27/SUN), gaseous pollutants such as nitrogen dioxide in the UV-VIS range (320 nm to 450 nm, AirYX 2D MAX-DOAS), or volcanic gas emissions in the mid infrared region (7 µm to 9 µm, Midac Corporation M4410-S 341). The suite also includes the UK’s largest pool of sunphotometers, which can be used to measure aerosol optical depth, a key parameter when validating satellite measurements.

Solar Induced Fluorescence Suite

This suite consists of ground based and UAV mounted sensors designed to measure solar induced fluorescence, a key parameter for measuring vegetation health, and potentially providing accurate estimates of crop yield. The suite is designed to take high spatial resolution measurements of SIF and to validate airborne and future satellite sensor measurements of SIF. This allows plant photosynthesis to be estimated and so supports NERC science areas “climate and climate change”, “ecology, biodiversity and systematics” and “terrestrial and freshwater environments”.

Bio-optical Underwater Suite

This suite consists of spectroscopic instrumentation designed to be used underwater in support of marine and riparian studies The instruments cover the UV to visible range of the spectrum, focusing on either general hyperspectral measurements of light interaction with water (such as the Wetlabs AC-S, spectral range 400-730 nm); ocean colour measurements (either hyperspectral using the Satlantic HyperOCR, 350-950 nm, or multispectral using the Saltantic Multispectral OCRs, providing coverage from 400-865 nm across seven spectral bands); or specific parameters of marine vegetation (such as measurements of photosynthesis using the WETStar Fluorometer, which measures chlorophyll-a using excitation wavelength 460 nm and emission wavelength 695 nm). NERC research themes supported include “marine environments” and “terrestrial and freshwater environments”.