In-flight intercalibration of FY-3C visible channels with AQUA MODIS

Na Xu; Lin Chen; Ronghua Wu; Xiuqing Hu; Ling Sun; Peng Zhang

doi:10.1117/12.2071185

26 November 2014 In-flight intercalibration of FY-3C visible channels with AQUA MODIS

Na Xu, Lin Chen, Ronghua Wu, Xiuqing Hu, Ling Sun, Peng Zhang

Proceedings Volume 9264, Earth Observing Missions and Sensors: Development, Implementation, and Characterization III; 926408 (2014) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2071185
Event: SPIE Asia-Pacific Remote Sensing, 2014, Beijing, China

Abstract

Intercalibration against a well-calibrated instrument at Low Earth Orbit (LEO) is a common method which has been widely used to assess the in-flight calibration of a new instrument. Different instruments on LEO spacecraft with similar spectral channels can be compared with each other using their simultaneous nadir observations (SNO). The postlaunch calibrations of Medium Resolution Spectral Imager (MERSI) and the Visible Infrared Radiometer (VIRR) in visible channels which are two major multi-spectral imaging radiometers onboard FY-3C are addressed based on SNO intercalibration method. Collection 6 reflectance products of AQUA MODIS are used as reference. The spectral difference impacts of matching channels are simulated and adjusted using GOME-2 hyperspectral measurements. As monitoring the stability of monthly forcing fits, it is found the linear fitting slopes of MERSI VIS channel 1~12 are scene reflectance dependence with relative differences greater than 20%, while the monthly forcing fits of VIRR show well agreement in VIS channels. This is proved to attribute to the nonlinear response of MERSI as the monthly measurements cover different dynamic ranges. A new radiometric calibration equation considering nonlinear correction is proposed based on an on orbit linear adjustment to prelaunch quadratic calibration. The new calibrations are more consistent with SNO samples, and greatly improve the performance over high reflective scene comparing with linear results verified by statistical measurements over Deep Convective Clouds targets. It is demonstrated that other reference is necessary in ocean color channels as MODIS reflectance is within 10% where the nonlinear feature is likely much serious. It is an invaluable lesson that the temporal variation of calibration slope not always indicates the detector’s degradation, but maybe is the valuable information that helps to expose undiscovered characters of instrument.

Citation Download Citation

Na Xu, Lin Chen, Ronghua Wu, Xiuqing Hu, Ling Sun, and Peng Zhang " In-flight intercalibration of FY-3C visible channels with AQUA MODIS", Proc. SPIE 9264, Earth Observing Missions and Sensors: Development, Implementation, and Characterization III, 926408 (26 November 2014); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2071185

ACCESS THE FULL ARTICLE

INSTITUTIONAL
Select your institution to access the SPIE Digital Library.

SELECT YOUR INSTITUTION

PERSONAL
Sign in with your SPIE account to access your personal subscriptions or to use specific features such as save to my library, sign up for alerts, save searches, etc.

PERSONAL SIGN IN

No SPIE Account? Create one

PURCHASE THIS CONTENT

SUBSCRIBE TO DIGITAL LIBRARY

50 downloads per 1-year subscription

Members: $195

Non-members: $335 ADD TO CART

25 downloads per 1 - year subscription

Members: $145

Non-members: $250 ADD TO CART

PURCHASE SINGLE ARTICLE

Includes PDF, HTML & Video, when available