An overview of sensor calibration inter-comparison and applications

Abstract

Long-term climate data records (CDR) are often constructed using observations made by multiple Earth observing sensors over a broad range of spectra and a large scale in both time and space. These sensors can be of the same or different types operated on the same or different platforms. They can be developed and built with different technologies and are likely operated over different time spans. It has been known that the uncertainty of climate models and data records depends not only on the calibration quality (accuracy and stability) of individual sensors, but also on their calibration consistency across instruments and platforms. Therefore, sensor calibration inter-comparison and validation have become increasingly demanding and will continue to play an important role for a better understanding of the science product quality. This paper provides an overview of different methodologies, which have been successfully applied for sensor calibration inter-comparison. Specific examples using different sensors, including MODIS, AVHRR, and ETM+, are presented to illustrate the implementation of these methodologies.

Optimization of a Deep Convective Cloud Technique in Evaluating the Long-Term Radiometric Stability of MODIS Reflective Solar Bands

“…Any SD degradation beyond 0.94 µm cannot be derived directly using the SDSM and, if not accounted for, will impact the L1B product for the short-wave infrared (SWIR) bands 5-7 and 26. The MODIS bands in gray in Table 1 are the selected reflective solar bands in this study To accurately track the performance of the on-orbit calibration, invariant earth targets such as the deserts [7,8], Dome-Concordia (Dome-C, located in Antarctica) [9,10], and clear-sky oceans [11,12] are used to monitor the stability of the MODIS L1B product. The use of deep convective clouds (DCCs) is another similar method and particularly useful for the SWIR bands 5-7 and 26 in assessing their long-term calibration stability [13,14].…”

GOES‐16/ABI Thermal Emissive Band Assessments Using GEO‐LEO‐GEO Double Difference

“…The methods for sensor intercomparisons have been overviewed in the literatures (Chander et al, 2013;Xiong et al, 2010). The intersatellite sensor comparisons for thermal bands have been performed using simultaneous nadir overpasses (SNO) and calibration sites such Dome Concordia (Dome C) site in Antarctica, Lake Tahoe, ocean buoys, and various land sites (Cao et al, 2004;Xiong et al, 2008;Gunshor et al, 2009;Shrestha et al, 2018;Madhavan et al, 2015;Hook et al, 2007;Tobin et al, 2006;Moeller et al, 2014, andVeglio et al, 2016).…”

Design and investigation of absolute radiance calibration primary radiometer

“…The radiometric calibration is significant for manufacturing the space remote sensor [1,2]. Radiometric calibration accuracy has a direct bearing on the quality of remote sensing data [3,4]. The radiometric calibration methods are mainly divided into laboratory calibration and in orbit calibration.…”