Search

The primary objective of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Surface Biology and Geology (SBG) mission is to measure biological, physical, chemical, and mineralogical features of the Earth's surface, realizing a key conceptual component of the envisioned NASA Earth System Observatory (ESO). SBG is planned to launch as a two‐platform mission in the late 2020s, the first of the ESO satellites. Targeted science and applications objectives based on observations of the Earth's SBG helped to define the mission architecture and instrument capabilities for the SBG mission concept. These objectives further drove the need for enabling change detection and trending of surface biological and geological features. These needs implied fundamental calibration goals to achieve the necessary science data quality characteristics. To meet those goals, calibration and validation pre‐launch and on‐orbit methods formed a basis of the calibration and validation concept, including the combined use of on‐board references, vicarious techniques, and routine lunar imaging. International collaboration with space agencies in other countries, an important feature of the recommended SBG mission architecture, uncovered and emphasized the need for inter‐calibration techniques that underscored the importance of collaborative instrument characterization data sharing and the use of common calibration references that are International System of Units (SI) traceable in pre‐launch and post‐launch on orbit calibration mission phases. International collaboration through the use of terrestrial and aquatic networks on six continents for vicarious calibration and validation activities will further assure necessary science data quality while in orbit. The NASA Surface Biology and Geology (SBG) mission will measure biological, physical, chemical, and mineralogical features of the Earth's surface. Targeted science and applications objectives helped to define the mission architecture and instrument capabilities for the SBG mission concept. These objectives also defined the need to detect changes and trends in biological and geological process on the face of the Earth. To meet these needs and objectives required fundamental calibration and validation concepts to achieve the necessary science data quality characteristics. These concepts included methods and resources used before and after launch. International collaboration with space agencies in other countries, an important feature of the recommended SBG mission architecture, also revealed the need for strong collaboration between agencies. This includes maintaining commonality in terminology, methods, algorithms and references and through the shared use of surface measurement networks on six continents. Overviews cal/val ideas recommended for the Surface Biology and Geology (SBG) mission, with some consideration for collaborating with multiple contemporary missionsLooks at approaches to inter‐calibration of multiple Earth orbiting sensorsSurveys what cal/val resources and techniques are currently available or may be available to the SBG mission later in this decade Overviews cal/val ideas recommended for the Surface Biology and Geology (SBG) mission, with some consideration for collaborating with multiple contemporary missions Looks at approaches to inter‐calibration of multiple Earth orbiting sensors Surveys what cal/val resources and techniques are currently available or may be available to the SBG mission later in this decade