HYPERNETS Hyperspectral Surface Reflectance Measurements for Satellite Validation from the Gobabeb Site in Namibia

This dataset provides quality-checked L2B surface reflectance data for the Gobabeb HYPERNETS site in Namibia (GHNA). Data is only provided for periods that are considered suitable for satellite validation (e.g. spatially homogeneous and clear sky; see https://landhypernet.org.uk/site_descriptions/GHNA for the different deployment periods and whether they are valid). Data is included until the 1st of October 2025. For near-real-time data, monthly zip files, different product levels, and querying the data, please visit the LANDHYPERNET data portal (www.landhypernet.org.uk). The data products are described in detail in https://hypernets-processor.readthedocs.io/en/latest/content/atbd/products.html and De Vis et al. (2024b).

The HYPERNETS project (www.hypernets.eu; Ruddick et al. 2024) has the overall aim to ensure that high quality in situ measurements are available to support the (VNIR/SWIR) optical satellite products. Therefore, it established a new autonomous hyperspectral spectroradiometer (HYPSTAR® - www.hypstar.eu; Kuusk et al. 2024) dedicated to land and water surface reflectance validation with instrument pointing capabilities. This instrument has been deployed over various sites covering a range of water and land types and a range of climatic and logistic conditions.

The HYPSTAR®-XR (eXtended Range) instruments deployed at each land HYPERNETS site consist of a VNIR and a SWIR sensor and autonomously collect data between 380-1680nm at various viewing geometries and send it to a central server for quality control and processing. The VNIR sensor spans 1330 channels between 380 and 1000 nm with a FWHM of 3 nm and the SWIR sensor has 220 channels between 1000 and 1680nm with a FWHM of 10 nm. The hypernets_processor (De Vis et al. 2024b) automatically processes all this data into various products, including the L2B quality-checked surface reflectance products provided here. All of the products have associated uncertainties (divided into random and systematic uncertainties, including error-correlation information) which were propagated using the CoMet toolkit (www.comet-toolkit.org). 

The GHNA site has minimal daily variation in surface cover and weather conditions and is an ideal location for sustained, homogeneous measurements. The site is well characterised as it is very close to an instrument already recognised as a radiometric calibration site (GONA) as part of the RadCalNet network (Bialek et al. 2016). The HYPERNETS site itself (23.60153 degrees S, 15.12589 degrees E) is 650 m from the RadCalNet site, and is located on a gravel plain near a dry riverbed which separates it from the neighbouring dune sea. The HYPSTAR®-XR sensor was installed May 2022 at the top of a 9m mast on an extended 1 m horizontal boom to minimise interruption of the field of view. Data are collected every 30 minutes between 9am and 6pm local time (UTC+02) between viewing zenith angles of 0 and 60 degrees. No measurements are taken at 2pm and 2:30pm local time to avoid the hottest part of the day. For an example using these data for satellite vicarious calibration, see De Vis et al. 2024a).

The provided NetCDF files are the L2B hypernets products with surface reflectances, their associated uncertainties and error-correlation information. The reflectance in these products is the Hemispherical-conical Reflectance Factor (HCRF) defined as: HCRF = π L / E where L is the conical upwelling radiance (with field of view of 5 degrees) and E is the (hemispherical) downwelling irradiance (i.e. including both direct solar and diffuse sky irradiance). These reflectances have dimensions of wavelength and series, where each series is a set of measurements for a given geometry (combination of viewing zenith and azimuth angle). In addition to variables for wavelength and bandwidth, the files also contain variables that provide for each series the acquisition time, viewing and solar angles, number of valid scans used, and quality flags (typically no flags are set in the data provided in this dataset). These NetCDF files also contain further relevant metadata as attributes. 

To obtain this dataset, we start from the full GHNA data record and omit data that does not pass the relevant quality checks (QC). Some QC are performed during the processing up to L2A (see https://hypernets-processor.readthedocs.io/en/latest/content/atbd/processing/quality_checks.html). Then, a number of site-specific QC are performed as post-processing to produce the L2B files (see https://hypernets-processor.readthedocs.io/en/latest/content/atbd/processing/post_processing.html). These site-specific QC cover things such as removing flags in the L2A data, avoiding periods with bad deployment conditions, removing unsuitable viewing and solar angles, as well as poorly performing wavelength ranges and individual sequences. Any potential misalignment of the sensor is also corrected, affecting L1D irradiances, and L2B reflectances. These corrected data are then used in a more stringent clear sky check, and in a check that verifies the reflectances are within realistic ranges for a given angle and time of year for the given site. Any measurements that fail any of these checks are omitted from the L2B data. 

There was a rain event in Gobabeb in March 2025, resulting in the growth of grass at the site. There was also a fault in the pointing system during this period causing all azimuths to be offset by about 25 degrees. Therefor, these data have been ommited from the L2B dataset, and there is no data included since March 2025. The surface is now nearly back to stable conditions and the fault has been corrected. Since the 15th of October we are collecting valid data again. These new data is not processed to L2B so far as there is not enough data yet to perform reliable QC. L2B data since October will be made available on www.landhypernet.org.uk in the near future. The next update to this Zenodo dataset is expected in February 2026 and will include all L2B data up to end of 2025.