Radiometric Degradation Curves for the ASTER VNIR Processing Using Vicarious and Lunar Calibrations

Abstract

The Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) onboard Terra platform, which was launched in 1999, has three separate subsystems: a visible and near-infrared (VNIR) radiometer, a shortwave-infrared radiometer, and a thermal-infrared radiometer. The ASTER VNIR bands have been radiometrically corrected for approximately 14 years by the sensor degradation curves estimated from the onboard calibrator according to the original calibration plan. However, this calibration by the onboard calibrator encountered a problem; specifically, it is inconsistent with the results of vicarious calibration and cross calibration. Therefore, the ASTER VNIR processing was applied by the radiometric degradation curves calculated from the results of three calibration approaches, i.e., the onboard calibrator, the vicarious calibration, and the cross calibration since February 2014. Even though the current degradation curves were revised, the inter-band and lunar calibrations show some inconsistencies owing to the different traceability in the bands by different calibration approaches. In this study, the current degradation curves and their problems are explained, and the new curves that are derived from the vicarious calibration with lunar calibration are discussed. The new degradation curves that have the same traceability in the bands will be used for future ASTER VNIR processing.

The Ground-Based Absolute Radiometric Calibration of the Landsat 9 Operational Land Imager

“…Additional upgrades over the past ten years have included a satellite uplink station, upgraded Cimel CE-318T solar-lunar photometer [29], and a GVR with linear motion [37]. The RadCaTS has been used successfully for such sensors as the Landsat 7 ETM+ [38], the Landsat 8 and 9 OLIs [17,39,40], Terra and Aqua MODIS [41], ASTER [42,43], SNPP, NOAA-20 VIIRS [44], Sentinel-2A and -2B MSI [38], and GOES-16 and -17 ABI [45,46]. It has also been used to validate the calibration of airborne sensors [15,47,48].…”

Activities to Promote the Moon as an Absolute Calibration Reference

“…This is followed closely by applications to EO-1 Hyperion (~7 • ) [132], Aqua/Terra MODIS (~±55.5 • ) [30], S-NPP VIIRS (~−51 • ) [29,133], Pleiades HR (~±40 • ) [134], Proba-V VGT-P (~+7 • ) [134], Landsat 8 OLI (~+7 • ) [135], and Terra ASTER (~−27 • ) [22], which all converge towards the temporal drift monitoring under near-consistent lunar phases. Furthermore, some studies have used the SP model [22,97,99,100], the MT2009 model [96,102], or the recently developed LIME model [105] for parallel validation, either supplemented by other calibration techniques such as SD/SDSM [133,136] or DCC [137,138]. The polar-orbiting and geostationary platform satellite instruments of several agencies accept simulated irradiances from within the uncertainties of the models employed as a relative reference; however, treating the Moon as a cheap but stable object remains the driving force behind the development of its absolute calibration capability.…”

Combination of Cross- and Inter-Band Radiometric Calibrations for a Hyperspectral Sensor Using Model-Based Spectral Band Adjustment

“…The RRVP site is equipped with stand-alone instruments to measure atmospheric parameters, including the column water vapor and ozone, and the aerosol optical thickness (AOT) at several spectral bands, all of which are available through the Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET) [31]. to obtain the spectral profile of the soil surface [32], using a FieldSpec spectroradiometer (Malvern Panalytical Ltd., U.K.) and Spectralon standard reflector (Labsphere Inc., U.S.). Because spectral profiles were measured along two different incidence angles, except for 2012/06/28, 11 slightly perturbed soil profiles were obtained.…”