Abstract:Radiometric cross-calibration between the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) and the Terra-Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) has been partially used to derive the ASTER radiometric calibration coefficient (RCC) curve as a function of date on visible to near-infrared bands. However, cross-calibration is not sufficiently accurate, since the effects of the differences in the sensor's spectral and spatial responses are not fully mitigated. The present study attempts to evaluate radiometric consistency across two sensors using an improved cross-calibration algorithm to address the spectral and spatial effects and derive cross-calibration-based RCCs, which increases the ASTER calibration accuracy. Overall, radiances measured with ASTER bands 1 and 2 are on averages 3.9% and 3.6% greater than the ones measured on the same scene with their MODIS counterparts and ASTER band 3N (nadir) is 0.6% smaller than its MODIS counterpart in current radiance/reflectance products. The percentage root mean squared errors (%RMSEs) between the radiances of two sensors are 3.7, 4.2, and 2.3 for ASTER band 1, 2, and 3N, respectively, which are slightly greater or smaller than the required ASTER radiometric calibration accuracy (4%). The uncertainty of the cross-calibration is analyzed by elaborating the error budget table to evaluate the International System of Units (SI)-traceability of the results. The use of the derived RCCs will allow further reduction of errors in ASTER radiometric calibration and subsequently improve interoperability across sensors for synergistic applications.
The present study evaluates inter-band radiometric consistency across the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) visible and near-infrared (VNIR) bands and develops an inter-band calibration algorithm to improve radiometric consistency. Inter-band radiometric comparison of current ASTER data shows a root mean square error (RMSE) of 3.8%-5.7% among radiance outputs of spectral bands due primarily to differences between calibration strategies of the NIR band for nadir-looking (Band 3N) and the other two bands (green and red bands, corresponding to Bands 1 and 2). An algorithm for radiometric calibration of Bands 2 and 3N with reference to Band 1 is developed based on the band translation technique and is used to obtain new radiometric calibration coefficients (RCCs) for sensor sensitivity degradation. The systematic errors between radiance outputs are decreased by applying the derived RCCs, which result in reducing the RMSE from 3.8%-5.7% to 2.2%-2.9%. The remaining errors are approximately equal to or smaller than the intrinsic uncertainties of inter-band calibration derived by sensitivity analysis. Improvement of the radiometric consistency would increase the accuracy of band algebra (e.g., vegetation indices) and its application. The algorithm can be used to evaluate inter-band radiometric consistency, as well as for the calibration of other sensors.
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