The moderate-resolution imaging spectroradiometer (MODIS) was launched on the Terra spacecraft on Dec.18, 1999 and on Aquaon May 4, 2002. The data acquired by these instruments have contributed to the long-term climate data record for more than a decade and represent a key component of NASA's Earth observing system. Each MODIS instrument observes nearly the whole Earth each day, enabling the scientific characterization of the land, ocean, and atmosphere. The MODIS Level 1B (L1B) algorithms input uncalibrated geo-located observations and convert instrument response into calibrated reflectance and radiance, which are used to generate science data products. The instrument characterization needed to run the L1B code is currently implemented using time-dependent lookup tables. The MODIS characterization support team, working closely with the MODIS Science Team, has improved the product quality with each data reprocessing. We provide an overview of the new L1B algorithm release, designated collection 6. Recent improvements made as a consequence of on-orbit calibration, onorbit analyses, and operational considerations are described. Instrument performance and the expected impact of L1B changes on the collection 6 L1B products are discussed.
MODIS-Terra is one of the key sensors in the suite of remote sensing instruments in the Earth Observing System (EOS). MODIS on the Terra platform was launched into orbit in December of 1999 and has successfully completed eleven plus years of operation. MODIS has 36 spectral channels with wavelengths varying from 0.4 µm to 14.4 µm. The native spatial resolutions for the reflective channels are 2 bands at 0.25 km, 5 bands at 0.5 km and 29 bands at 1km. However, the MODIS L1B product allows the high spatial resolution bands to be aggregated into 1km resolution. All the thermal channels in MODIS (i.e. 3.75µm -14.24µm) have a native spatial resolution of 1 km. Over the eleven plus years of mission lifetime, the sensor degradation has been carefully monitored using various On-Board Calibrators (OBC). In particular, the thermal channels are monitored using the on-board Black-Body (BB) which is traceable to NIST standards. MODIS also has a unique feature for calibration reference in terms of lunar irradiance. The lunar observations are scheduled for MODIS periodically (at least 9 observations in a calendar year). Based on the lunar observations, it was found that there was a possible signal leak for band 27 from its neighboring bands located on the Long-Wave Infrared (LWIR) focal plane. Further investigations revealed a possible leak from bands 28, 29 and 30. The magnitude of the leak was trended and correction coefficients were derived. In this paper, we demonstrate the across-band signal leak in MODIS band 27, its potential impact on the retrieved Brightness temperature (B.T.). Also, the paper explores a correction methodology to relieve the artifacts due to the across-band signal leak. Finally, the improvement in the band 27 image quality is quantified.
Terra MODerate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) is one of the key sensors in the NASA's Earth Observing System, which has successfully completed 15 years of on‐orbit operation. Terra MODIS continues to collect valuable information of the Earth's energy radiation from visible to thermal infrared wavelengths. The instrument has been well characterized over its lifetime using onboard calibrators whose calibration references are traceable to the National Institute of Standards and Technology standards. In this paper, we focus on the electronic crosstalk effect of Terra MODIS band 29, a thermal emissive band (TEB) whose center wavelength is 8.55 µm. Previous works have established the mechanism to describe the effect of the electronic crosstalk in the TEB channels of Terra MODIS. This work utilizes the established methodology to apply to band 29. The electronic crosstalk is identified and characterized using the regularly scheduled lunar observations. The moon being a near‐pulse‐like source allowed easy detection of extraneous signals around the actual Moon surface. First, the crosstalk‐transmitting bands are identified along with their amplitudes. The crosstalk effect then is characterized using a moving average mechanism that allows a high fidelity of the magnitude to be corrected. The lunar‐based analysis unambiguously shows that the crosstalk contamination is becoming more severe in recent years and should be corrected in order to maintain calibration quality for the affected spectral bands. Finally, two radiometrically well‐characterized sites, Pacific Ocean and Libya 1 desert, are used to assess the impact of crosstalk effect. It is shown that the crosstalk contamination induces a long‐term upward drift of 1.5 K in band 29 brightness temperature of MODIS Collection 6 L1B, which could significantly impact the science products. The crosstalk effect also induces strong detector‐to‐detector differences, which result in severe stripping in the Earth view images. With crosstalk correction applied, both the long‐term drift and detector differences are significantly reduced.
The MODerate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) is one of the primary instruments in the NASA Earth Observing System (EOS). The first MODIS instrument was launched in December, 1999 on-board the Terra spacecraft. MODIS has 36 bands, covering a wavelength range from 0.4 µm to 14.4 µm. MODIS band 27 (6.72 µm) is a water vapor band, which is designed to be insensitive to Earth surface features. In recent Earth View (EV) images of Terra band 27, surface feature contamination is clearly seen and striping has become very pronounced. In this paper, it is shown that band 27 is impacted by electronic crosstalk from bands 28-30. An algorithm using a linear approximation is developed to correct the crosstalk effect. The crosstalk coefficients are derived from Terra MODIS lunar observations. They show that the crosstalk is strongly detector dependent and the crosstalk pattern has changed dramatically since launch. The crosstalk contributions are positive to the instrument response of band 27 early in the mission but became negative and much larger in magnitude at later stages of the mission for most detectors of the band. The algorithm is applied to both Black Body (BB) calibration and MODIS L1B products. With the crosstalk effect removed, the calibration coefficients of Terra MODIS band 27 derived from the BB show that the detector differences become smaller. With the algorithm applied to MODIS L1B products, the Earth surface features are significantly removed and the striping is substantially reduced in the images of the band. The approach developed in this report for removal of the electronic crosstalk effect can be applied to other MODIS bands if similar crosstalk behaviors occur.
It has been previously reported that thermal emissive bands (TEB) 27-29 in the Terra (T-) MODerate resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) have been significantly affected by electronic crosstalk. Successful linear theory of the electronic crosstalk effect was formulated, and it successfully characterized the effect via the use of lunar observations as viable inputs. In this paper, we report the successful characterization and mitigation of the electronic crosstalk for T-MODIS band 30 using the same characterization methodology. Though the phenomena of the electronic crosstalk have been well documented in previous works, the novel for band 30 is the need to also apply electronic crosstalk correction to the non-linear term in the calibration coefficient. The lack of this necessity in early works thus demonstrates the distinct difference of band 30, and, yet, in the same instances, the overall correctness of the characterization formulation. For proper result, the crosstalk correction is applied to the band 30 calibration coefficients including the non-linear term, and also to the earth view radiance. We demonstrate that the crosstalk correction achieves a long-term radiometric correction of approximately 1.5 K for desert targets and 1.0 K for ocean scenes. Significant striping removal in the Baja Peninsula earth view imagery is also demonstrated due to the successful amelioration of detector differences caused by the crosstalk effect. Similarly significant improvement in detector difference is shown for the selected ocean and desert targets over the entire mission history. In particular, band 30 detector 8, which has been flagged as "out of family" is restored by the removal of the crosstalk contamination. With the correction achieved, the science applications based on band 30 can be significantly improved. The linear formulation, the characterization methodology, and the crosstalk effect correction coefficients derived using lunar observations are once again demonstrated to work remarkably well.
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