We developed a new integrated ray tracing (IRT) technique to analyze the stray light effect in remotely sensed images. Images acquired with the Geostationary Ocean Color Imager show a radiance level discrepancy at the slot boundary, which is suspected to be a stray light effect. To determine its cause, we developed and adjusted a novel in-orbit stray light analysis method, which consists of three simulated phases (source, target, and instrument). Each phase simulation was performed in a way that used ray information generated from the Sun and reaching the instrument detector plane efficiently. This simulation scheme enabled the construction of the real environment from the remote sensing data, with a focus on realistic phenomena. In the results, even in a cloud-free environment, a background stray light pattern was identified at the bottom of each slot. Variations in the stray light effect and its pattern according to bright target movement were simulated, with a maximum stray light ratio of 8.5841% in band 2 images. To verify the proposed method and simulation results, we compared the results with the real acquired remotely sensed image. In addition, after correcting for abnormal phenomena in specific cases, we confirmed that the stray light ratio decreased from 2.38% to 1.02% in a band 6 case, and from 1.09% to 0.35% in a band 8 case. IRT-based stray light analysis enabled clear determination of the stray light path and candidates in in-orbit circumstances, and the correction process aided recovery of the radiometric discrepancy.

The world's first geostationary ocean color imager (GOCI) is a three-mirror anastigmat optical system 140 mm in diameter. Designed for 500 m ground sampling distance, this paper deals with on-orbit modulation transfer function (MTF) measurement and analysis for GOCI. First, the knife-edge and point source methods were applied to the 8th band (865 nm) image measured April 5th, 2011. The target details used are the coastlines of the Korean peninsula and of Japan, and an island 400 meters in diameter. The resulting MTFs are 0.35 and 0.34 for the Korean East Coastline and Japanese West Coastline edge targets, respectively, and 0.38 for the island target. The daily and seasonal MTF variations at the Nyquist frequency were also checked, and the result is 0.32 ± 0.04 on average. From these results, we confirm that the GOCI on-orbit MTF performance satisfies the design requirements of 0.32 for 865 nm wavelength.