Nathan Leisso

Radiometric calibration of earth-observing sensors using an automated test site at Railroad Valley, Nevada

The Remote Sensing Group (RSG) at the University of Arizona uses the reflectance-based approach to radiometrically calibrate airborne and spaceborne sensors in the solar-reflective regime. The Radiometric Calibration Test Site (RadCaTS) concept was developed in 2004 to increase the amount of ground-based data collected. RadCaTS provides a methodology to determine the surface reflectance for any arbitrary test site in the absence of ground personnel. It is founded on the reflectance-based approach and has successfully operated at Railroad Valley, Nevada, with a suite of instruments including nadir-viewing multispectral radiometers, a Cimel sun photometer, and a meteorological station. RadCaTS data are currently used by RSG to supplement those collected by on-site personnel. This work presents a description of the RadCaTS automated concept, including the process used to determine surface reflectance and top-of-atmosphere (TOA) spectral radiance. The instrumentation required to measure the surface and atmosphere is introduced, followed by discussions regarding their placement on the 1 km2 site at Railroad Valley and their calibration. Lastly, the RadCaTS results are compared with those obtained from the Landsat 7 Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+) and Terra Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MODIS). The average percent difference in TOA spectral radiance is 4.1% between the six bands of ETM+ and RadCaTS and 3.6% between the seven land bands of Terra MODIS and RadCaTS.

Recent surface reflectance measurement campaigns with emphasis on best practices, SI traceability and uncertainty estimation

A significant problem facing the optical satellite calibration community is limited knowledge of the uncertainties associated with fundamental measurements, such as surface reflectance, used to derive satellite radiometric calibration estimates. In addition, it is difficult to compare the capabilities of calibration teams around the globe, which leads to differences in the estimated calibration of optical satellite sensors. This paper reports on two recent field campaigns that were designed to isolate common uncertainties within and across calibration groups, particularly with respect to ground-based surface reflectance measurements. Initial results from these efforts suggest the uncertainties can be as low as 1.5% to 2.5%. In addition, methods for improving the cross-comparison of calibration teams are suggested that can potentially reduce the differences in the calibration estimates of optical satellite sensors.

Solar radiation-based calibration of laboratory grade radiometers

The Remote Sensing Group (RSG) at the University of Arizona Optical Sciences Center has been performing high accuracy laboratory calibration for over 20 years. This work has been done both in support of our work in vicarious calibration of space-borne and airborne imaging sensors and as a standalone means of achieving NIST-traceable radiometric calibration. The solar radiation-based calibration (SRBC) has in the past been a way for the RSG to verify calibration results and to achieve continued calibration of field-grade instruments. This paper presents multiple SRBC results for multiple laboratory-grade radiometers. These results are compared with laboratory calibrations and studied for their merit as a sole means of high-accuracy calibration.

On-orbit radiometric calibration of Earth-observing sensors using the Radiometric Calibration Test Site (RadCaTS)

Vicarious techniques are used to provide supplemental radiometric calibration data for sensors with onboard calibration systems, and are increasingly important for sensors without onboard calibration systems. The Radiometric Calibration Test Site (RadCaTS) is located at Railroad Valley, Nevada. It is a facility that was developed with the goal of increasing the amount of ground-based radiometric calibration data that are collected annually while maintaining the current level of radiometric accuracy produced by traditional manned field campaigns. RadCaTS is based on the reflectance-based approach, and currently consists of a Cimel sun photometer to measure the atmosphere, a weather station to monitor meteorological conditions, and ground-viewing radiometers (GVRs) that are used the determine the surface reflectance throughout the 1 × 1-km area. The data from these instruments are used in MODTRAN5 to determine the at-sensor spectral radiance at the time of overpass. This work describes the RadCaTS concept, the instruments used to obtain the data, and the processing method used to determine the surface reflectance and top-of-atmosphere spectral radiance. A discussion on the design and calibration of three new eight-channel GVRs is introduced, and the surface reflectance retrievals are compared to in situ measurements. Radiometric calibration results determined using RadCaTS are compared to Landsat 7 ETM+, MODIS, and MISR.

Radiometric characterization of hyperspectral imagers using multispectral sensors

The Remote Sensing Group (RSG) at the University of Arizona has a long history of using ground-based test sites for the calibration of airborne and satellite based sensors. Often, ground-truth measurements at these tests sites are not always successful due to weather and funding availability. Therefore, RSG has also employed automated ground instrument approaches and cross-calibration methods to verify the radiometric calibration of a sensor. The goal in the cross-calibration method is to transfer the calibration of a well-known sensor to that of a different sensor. This work studies the feasibility of determining the radiometric calibration of a hyperspectral imager using multispectral imagery. The work relies on the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) as a reference for the hyperspectral sensor Hyperion. Test sites used for comparisons are Railroad Valley in Nevada and a portion of the Libyan Desert in North Africa. Hyperion bands are compared to MODIS by band averaging Hyperions high spectral resolution data with the relative spectral response of MODIS. The results compare cross-calibration scenarios that differ in image acquisition coincidence, test site used for the calibration, and reference sensor. Cross-calibration results are presented that show agreement between the use of coincident and non-coincident image pairs within 2% in most bands as well as similar agreement between results that employ the different MODIS sensors as a reference.

Validation of the onboard radiometric calibration of the GOES I-M visible channel by reflectance-based vicarious methods

The current generation of the Geostationary Operations Environmental Satellite (GOES) platform employs a total of 5 sensors to monitor and record atmospheric conditions used in predictions of upcoming weather events. Included in this package is a 5-band imager that, from the 36,000-km geosynchronous orbit inhabited by GOES platform, enables multiple fixed full-disc surface images of the earth during the course of a 24-hour day. There is currently no on-board radiometric calibration for the visible bands of the imager and radiometric calibration relies on vicarious approaches. The Remote Sensing Group (RSG) at the University of Arizona uses a vicarious approach that relies on ground-based measurements to determine the radiometric calibration for multiple sun-synchronous and airborne visible and near-infrared sensors. The current work extends the approach to the GOES I-M series of sensor. The paper presents the methods and results of the reflectance-based method applied to the 1-km visible channel of GOES-11using large North American high-desert test sites. Modifications to the RSGs methods to take into account the location of the test sites at large zenith angles within the full-disk GOES image. The work provides an opportunity to evaluate uncertainties of the spectral BRF of the test sites at large view angles and resulting importance to the accurate radiometric calibration of a sensor. In addition, the impact of increased path length caused by the large view angle is evaluated with an emphasis on the increased effect of the atmospheric characterization.

Calibration of AVHRR sensors using the reflectance-based method

The Remote Sensing Group at the University of Arizona has been active in the vicarious calibration of numerous sensors through the use of ground-based test sites. Recent efforts have included work to develop cross-calibration information between these sensors using the results from the reflectance-based approach. The current work extends the cross-calibration to the AVHRR series of sensors, specifically NOAA-17, and NOAA-18. The results include work done based on data collected by ground-based personnel nearly coincident with the sensor overpasses. The available number of calibrations for the AVHRR series is increased through a set of ground-based radiometers that are deployed without the need for on-site personnel and have been operating for more than three years at Railroad Valley Playa. The spectral, spatial, and temporal characteristics of the 1-km2 large-footprint site at Railroad Valley are well understood. It is therefore well suited for the radiometric calibration of AVHRR, which has a nadir-viewing footprint of 1.1 x 1.1 km. The at-sensor radiance is predicted via a radiative transfer code using atmospheric data from a fully-automated solar radiometer. The results for AVHRR show that errors are currently larger for the automated data sets, but results indicate that the AVHRR sensors studied in this work are consistent with the Aqua and Terra MODIS sensors to within the uncertainties of each sensor.

Comparison of diffuse sky irradiance calculation methods and effect on surface reflectance retrieval from an automated radiometric calibration test site

The Remote Sensing Group (RSG) at the University of Arizona is currently refining an automated system for the absolute radiometric calibration of earth-observing sensors. The Radiometric Calibration Test Site (RadCaTS) relies on semi-permanent instrumentation at the Railroad Valley (RRV) test site to collect data from which surface reflectance and an atmospheric characterization is determined. Multispectral surface reflectance is determined from calibrated ground viewing radiometers and assimilated to determine the hyperspectral reflectance used in radiative transfer calculations. The reflectance retrieval algorithm relies on an accurate determination of the diffuse sky irradiance for the time of interest. Currently, diffuse sky irradiance is modeled using the atmospheric characterization as input into MODTRAN5. This work investigates the accuracy of the diffuse sky modeling by comparing modeled results to measurements made at the test site. Diffuse sky irradiance from several alternative methods are also presented. Surface reflectance is computed and compared to in-situ measurements taken with a portable spectoradiometer.

Recent results from the Radiometric Calibration Test Site (RadCaTS) at Railroad Valley, Nevada

The Radiometric Calibration Test Site (RadCaTS) is an automated approach to ground-based vicarious calibration that does not require on-site personnel during the overpass of an airborne or spaceborne sensor. The concept originates as an attempt to increase the amount of ground-based data that are collected throughout the year. All-weather instruments are used to measure atmospheric and surface conditions. The data are used in an automated processing scheme to produce top-of-atmosphere spectral radiance, which are then compared to the sensor under test. RadCaTS has been located at Railroad Valley, Nevada, since 2004, but the concept is applicable to any site that is suitable for vicarious calibration. Railroad Valley was chosen to test the RadCaTS concept because it has been used by the Remote Sensing Group (RSG) for over 15 years and is well understood. This work describes the RadCaTS automated concept, and outlines the automated processing scheme that is used to determine the surface reflectance. A description of the instrumentation used to measure the surface reflectance and atmosphere is presented, followed by a discussion of their placement on the site, and also their calibration. Finally, the RadCaTS ground-based results are compared to those from Aqua and Terra MODIS in 2008, and Landsat 7 ETM+ in 2009.

Transmittance measurement of a heliostat facility used in the preflight radiometric calibration of Earth-observing sensors

Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corporation in Boulder, Colorado, has developed a heliostat facility that will be used to determine the preflight radiometric calibration of Earth-observing sensors that operate in the solar-reflective regime. While automatically tracking the Sun, the heliostat directs the solar beam inside a thermal vacuum chamber, where the sensor under test resides. The main advantage to using the Sun as the illumination source for preflight radiometric calibration is because it will also be the source of illumination when the sensor is in flight. This minimizes errors in the pre- and post-launch calibration due to spectral mismatches. It also allows the instrument under test to operate at irradiance values similar to those on orbit. The Remote Sensing Group at the University of Arizona measured the transmittance of the heliostat facility using three methods, the first of which is a relative measurement made using a hyperspectral portable spectroradiometer and well-calibrated reference panel. The second method is also a relative measurement, and uses a 12-channel automated solar radiometer. The final method is an absolute measurement using a hyperspectral spectroradiometer and reference panel combination, where the spectroradiometer is calibrated on site using a solar-radiation-based calibration.