On the use of deep convective clouds to calibrate AVHRR data

David R. Doelling; Louis Nguyen; Patrick Minnis

doi:10.1117/12.560047

26 October 2004 On the use of deep convective clouds to calibrate AVHRR data

David R. Doelling, Louis Nguyen, Patrick Minnis

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 5542, Earth Observing Systems IX; (2004) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.560047
Event: Optical Science and Technology, the SPIE 49th Annual Meeting, 2004, Denver, Colorado, United States

Abstract

Remote sensing of cloud and radiation properties from National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) satellites requires constant monitoring of the visible sensors. NOAA satellites do not have onboard visible calibration and need to be calibrated vicariously in order to determine the calibration and the degradation rate. Deep convective clouds are extremely bright and cold, are at the tropopause, have nearly a Lambertian reflectance, and provide predictable albedos. The use of deep convective clouds as calibration targets is developed into a calibration technique and applied to NOAA-16 and NOAA-17. The technique computes the relative gain drift over the life-span of the satellite. This technique is validated by comparing the gain drifts derived from inter-calibration of coincident AVHRR and Moderate-Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) radiances. A ray-matched technique, which uses collocated, coincident, and co-angled pixel satellite radiance pairs is used to inter-calibrate MODIS and AVHRR. The deep convective cloud calibration technique was found to be independent of solar zenith angle, by using well calibrated Visible Infrared Scanner (VIRS) radiances onboard the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite, which precesses through all solar zenith angles in 23 days.

Citation Download Citation

David R. Doelling, Louis Nguyen, and Patrick Minnis "On the use of deep convective clouds to calibrate AVHRR data", Proc. SPIE 5542, Earth Observing Systems IX, (26 October 2004); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.560047

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