Search

Atmospheric turbulence has significant impairments on the operation of Free-Space Optical (FSO) communication systems, in particular temporal and spatial intensity fluctuations at the receiving aperture resulting in power surges and fades, changes in angle of arrival, spatial coherence degradation, etc. The refractive index structure parameter C 2 n is a statistical measure of the strength of turbulence in the atmosphere and is highly dependent upon vertical height. Therefore to understand atmospheric turbulence effects on vertical FSO communication links such as space-to-ground links, it is necessary to specify C 2 n profiles along the atmospheric propagation path. To avoid the limitations on the applicability of classical approaches, propagation simulation through geometrical ray tracing is applied. This is achieved by considering the atmosphere along the optical propagation path as a spatial distribution of spherical bubbles with varying relative refractive index deviations representing turbulent eddies. The relative deviations of the refractive index are statistically determined from altitude-dependent and time varying temperature fluctuations, as measured by a microwave profiling radiometer. For each representative atmosphere ray paths are analyzed using geometrical optics, which is particularly advantageous in situations of strong turbulence where there is severe wavefront distortion and discontinuity. The refractive index structure parameter is then determined as a function of height and time.

Working all-day and all-weather, the passive millimeter wave radiometer is widely used in remote sensing, guidance and other fields. In order to solve the increasingly serious problem of water pollution, especially the pollution caused by the rapidly breed of the aquatic plants, a simple and effective method to monitor the water environment is proposed. Aquatic plants can be distinguished through millimeter wave system, as they have high bright temperature compared to Water. The 8mm radiometer is used to measure the radiation characteristics of aquatic plants and image. The simulation results and radiation imaging experiments prove the feasibility and effectively of monitoring aquatic plants by millimeter wave radiometer. This study will contribute to monitoring the aquatic plants growth and decreasing the pollution.

The paper presents lecture materials given at the Nineteenth International Conference and School on Quantum Electronics “Laser Physics and Applications” (19th ICSQE) in 2016, Sozopol, Bulgaria and contains the results of the 10-year research of Belarusian Antarctic expeditions to study the atmospheric aerosol and Earth surface in Antarctica. The works focus on the studying variability and trends of aerosol, cloud and snow characteristics in the Antarctic and the links of these processes with the long range transport of atmospheric pollutants and climate changes.

In order to validate the good linear response of an instrument entitled Sky Radiometer(abbreviated to DTL-1) and check the great accuracy of radiance, the experiments which checked the DTL-1 using the large diameter integrating sphere system verified that the instrument had fine linearity and working stability. At the same time, the sky radiance in Hefei was measured, and the validity and correctness of DTL-1 were verified using fibre-optical spectrometer. The results indicated that the instrument had fine work ability, including good linear response, and could satisfy the scientific research and the actual application. However, the linear response of the instrument entitled Sky Radiometer in different region will be validated.

The specially calculated and prepared antiradar surfaces on special ships is very good for detecting them by the microwave radiometers. It is interesting to evaluate the possibility of using a passive millimeter wave (PMMW) radiometric discriminator for the remote controlling and finding such objects at real distances and also for environmental monitoring.

Currently, global sea surface salinity (SSS) can be retrieved by the satellite microwave radiometer onboard the satellite, such as the Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity(SMOS) and the Aqurius. SMOS is an Earth Explorer Opportunity Mission from the European Space Agency(ESA). It was launched at a sun-synchronous orbit in 2009 and one of the payloads is called MIRAS(Microwave Imaging Radiometer using Aperture Synthesis), which is the first interferometric microwave radiometer designed for observing SSS at L-band(1.41 GHz).The foundation of the salinity retrieval by microwave radiometer is that the sea surface radiance at L-band has the most suitable sensitivity with the variation of the salinity. It is well known that the sensitivity of brightness temperatures(TB) to SSS depends on the sea surface temperature (SST), but the quantitative impact of the SST on the satellite retrieval of the SSS is still poorly known. In this study, we investigate the impact of the SST on the accuracy of salinity retrieval from the SMOS. First of all, The dielectric constant model proposed by Klein and Swift has been used to estimate the vertically and horizontally polarized brightness temperatures(TV and TH) of a smooth sea water surface at L-band and derive the derivatives of TV and TH as a function of SSS to show the relative sensitivity at 45° incident angle. Then, we use the GAM(generalized additive model) method to evaluate the association between the satellite-measured brightness temperature and in-situ SSS at different SST. Moreover, the satellite-derived SSS from the SMOS is validated using the ARGO data to assess the RMSE(root mean squared error). We compare the SMOS SSS and ARGO SSS over two regions of Pacific ocean far from land and ice under different SST. The RMSE of retrieved SSS at different SST have been estimated. Our results showed that SST is one of the most significant factors affecting the accuracy of SSS retrieval. The satellite-measured brightness temperature has a higher sensitivity with SSS variation and better accuracy of SSS retrieval at higher SST. For the most open oceans where surface salinity is typically greater than 32 psu, the sensitivity is around 0.2-0.25 K/psu for both vertical polarization and horizontal polarization when SST is 5°C,and the TB is more sensitive to the SSS for vertical polarization than horizontal polarization with the increase of SST. When SST increases to 30°C, the sensitivity is around 0.8 K/psu for vertical polarization which is about 40% larger than it of the horizontal polarization. In addition, the result of GAM model indicates that satellite-measured brightness temperature has better correlation with in-situ SSS at higher SST. The mean absolute error of the SMOS-derived SSS is around 0.9 psu when SST is 15°C, and decreases to 0.4 psu when the SST is 30°C.

The Visible-Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) instrument onboard the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (SNPP) satellite began acquiring Earth observations in November 2011. VIIRS data from all spectral bands became available three months after launch when all infrared-band detectors were cooled down to operational temperature. Before that, VIIRS sensor data record (SDR) products were successfully generated for the visible and near infrared (VNIR) bands. Although VIIRS calibration has been significantly improved through the four years of the SNPP mission, SDR reprocessing for this early mission phase has yet to be performed. Despite a rapid decrease in the telescope throughput that occurred during the first few months on orbit, calibration coefficients for the VNIR bands were recently successfully generated using an automated procedure that is currently deployed in the operational SDR production system. The reanalyzed coefficients were derived from measurements collected during solar calibration events that occur on every SNPP orbit since the beginning of the mission. The new coefficients can be further used to reprocess the VIIRS SDR products. In this study, they are applied to reprocess VIIRS data acquired over pseudo-invariant calibration sites Libya 4 and Sudan 1 in Sahara between November 2011 and February 2012. Comparison of the reprocessed SDR products with the original ones demonstrates improvements in the VIIRS calibration provided by the reprocessing. Since SNPP is the first satellite in a series that will form the Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS), calibration methods developed for the SNPP VIIRS will also apply to the future JPSS measurements.

The Multi-Viewing -Channel -Polarization Imager (3MI), planned to fly on the Metop-SG satellite as part of the EPS-SG programme in the timeframe beyond 2020, is a radiometer dedicated to aerosol and cloud characterization for climate monitoring, atmospheric composition, air quality and numerical weather prediction. The purpose of the 3MI is to provide multi-spectral (12 channels between 410 and 2130 nm), multi-polarization (-60°, 0°, and +60°), and multi-angular (10 to 14 views) images of the Earth top of atmosphere outgoing radiance. 3MI does not have an onboard calibration facility and its radiometric and geometric performance will rely on vicarious calibration. The aim of this paper is to present the state of the art of vicarious calibration methods applicable to 3MI. The 3MI measurement principle is based on the French atmospheric mission PARASOL (Polarization and Anisotropy of Reflectances for Atmospheric Sciences coupled with Observations from a Lidar) heritage [1]. This allows adapting the vicarious calibration methods of the PARASOL mission to the needs of 3MI. However, the monitoring of the SWIR (short wave infrared) channels will be a new challenge for the 3MI calibration as this spectral range was not present on PARASOL. The cross-calibration with other instruments flying on the same satellite will support the calibration of 3MI. Indeed the Metop-SG payload includes two other optical instruments covering the same spectral regions. METimage and Sentinel-5 will both be equipped with on-board calibration capabilities and provide valuable measurements for vicarious calibration of 3MI. Further cross-calibration with Earth observation instruments on other satellites, will be studied.

The Suomi-NPP VIIRS thermal emissive bands (TEB) are radiometrically calibrated on-orbit with reference to a blackbody (BB) regularly operated at approximately 292.5 K. The calibration stability at other temperature ranges can be evaluated based on the observations of remote targets with stable thermal properties, such as the Moon. VIIRS has scheduled viewings of the Moon on a nearly monthly basis at a phase angle of nearly -51 degrees. In this paper, the brightness temperatures (BT) of the lunar surface retrieved using the detector gain coefficients calibrated with the BB are trended to monitor the calibration stability of VIIRS TEB. Since the Lunar surface temperatures are spatially nonuniform and vary greatly with the solar illumination geometry, the BT trending must be based on the same regions of the Moon under the same solar illumination condition. Also, the TEB lunar images are always partially saturated because the highest lunar surface temperatures are beyond the dynamic range of all VIIRS TEB detectors. Therefore, a temporally dynamic mask is designed to clip a fraction of the lunar images corresponding to the regions of the Moon that may saturate the detector at any lunar event. The BT trending is then based on the hottest pixels not clipped by the mask. Results show that, since the launch of VIIRS to mid-2016, the radiometric calibration of all TEB detectors has been stable within ±0.4 K at the BT range of as high as 350-260 K.

The Joint Polar Satellite System 1 (JPSS-1) is the follow on mission to the Suomi-National Polar-orbiting Partnership (SNPP) and provides critical weather and global climate products to the user community. A primary sensor on both JPSS-1 and S-NPP is the Visible-Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) with the Reflective Solar Band (RSB), Thermal Emissive Band (TEB) and Day Night Band (DNB) imagery providing a diverse spectral range of Earth observations. These VIIRS observation are radiometrically calibrated within the Sensor Data Records (SDRs) for use in Environmental Data Record (EDR) products such as Ocean Color/Chlorophyll (OCC) and Sea Surface Temperature (SST). Spectrally the VIIRS sensor can be broken down into 4 groups: the Visible Near Infra-Red (VNIR), Short-Wave Infra-Red (SWIR), Mid- Wave Infra-Red (MWIR) and Long-Wave Infra-Red (LWIR). The SWIR spectral bands on JPSS-1 VIIRS have a nonlinear response at low light levels affecting the calibration quality where Earth scenes are dark (like oceans). This anomalous behavior was not present on S-NPP VIIRS and will be a unique feature of the JPSS-1 VIIRS sensor. This paper will show the behavior of the SWIR response non-linearity on JPSS-1 VIIRS and potential mitigation approaches to limit its impact on the SDR and EDR products.

The EPS-SG Visible/Infrared Imaging (VII) mission is dedicated to supporting the optical imagery user needs for Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP), Nowcasting (NWC) and climate in the timeframe beyond 2020. The VII mission is fulfilled by the METimage instrument, developed by the German Space Agency (DLR) and funded by the German government and EUMETSAT. Following on from an important list of predecessors such as the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) and the Moderate resolution Imaging Spectro-radiometer (MODIS), METimage will fly in the mid-morning orbit of the Joint Polar System, whilst the early-afternoon orbits are served by the JPSS (U.S. Joint Polar Satellite System) Visible Infrared Imager Radiometer Suite (VIIRS). METimage itself is a cross-purpose medium resolution, multi-spectral optical imager, measuring the optical spectrum of radiation emitted and reflected by the Earth from a low-altitude sun synchronous orbit over a minimum swath width of 2700 km. The top of the atmosphere outgoing radiance will be sampled every 500 m (at nadir) with measurements made in 20 spectral channels ranging from 443 nm in the visible up to 13.345 μm in the thermal infrared. The three major objectives of the EPS-SG METimage calibration and validation activities are: • Verification of the instrument performances through continuous in-flight calibration and characterisation, including monitoring of long term stability. • Provision of validated level 1 and level 2 METimage products. • Revision of product processing facilities, i.e. algorithms and auxiliary data sets, to assure that products conform with user requirements, and then, if possible, exceed user expectations. This paper will describe the overall Calibration and Validation (Cal/Val) logic and the methods adopted to ensure that the METimage data products meet performance specifications for the lifetime of the mission. Such methods include inter-comparisons with other missions through simultaneous nadir overpasses and comparisons with ground based observations, analysis of algorithm internal diagnostics to confirm retrieval performance for geophysical products and vicarious calibration to assist with validation of the instrument on-board calibration. Any identified deficiencies in the products will lead to either an update any auxiliary data sets (e.g. calibration key data) that are used to configure the product processors or to a revision of algorithms themselves. The Cal/Val activities are mostly foreseen during commissioning but will inevitably extend to routine operations in order to take on board seasonal variations and ensure long term stability of the calibrated radiances and geophysical products. Pre-requisite to validation of products at scientific level is that the satellite and instrument itself have been verified against their respective specifications both pre-launch and during the satellite in-orbit verification phase.

Aerosol optical depth (AOD) derived from hyperspectral measurements can serve as an invaluable input for simultaneous retrievals of particle size distributions and major trace gases. The required hyperspectral measurements are provided by a new ground-based radiometer, the so-called Shortwave Array Spectroradiometer-Hemispheric (SAS-He), recently developed with support from the Department of Energy (DOE) Office Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Program. The SAS-He has wide spectral coverage (350-1700nm) and high spectral resolution: about 2.4 nm and 6 nm within 350-1000 nm and 970-1700 nm spectral ranges, respectively. To illustrate an initial performance of the SAS-He, we take advantage of integrated dataset collected during the ARM-supported Two-Column Aerosol Project (TCAP) over the US coastal region (Cape Cod, Massachusetts). This dataset includes AODs derived using data from Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET) sunphotometer and Multi-Filter Rotating Shadowband Radiometer (MFRSR). We demonstrate that, on average, the SAS-He AODs closely match the MFRSR and AERONET AODs in the ultraviolet and visible spectral ranges for this area with highly variable AOD. Also, we discuss corrections of SAS-He total optical depth for gas absorption in the near-infrared spectral range and their operational implementation

Second-generation Global Imager (SGLI) has a multi-channel in the wavelength range from near-UV to thermal infrared. SGLI consists of two sensor units, Visible and Near Infrared Radiometer (VNR) and Infrared Scanning Radiometer (IRS). We use three integrating spheres for each wavelength range in radiometric tests. The materials of inside wall of sphere are polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) and barium sulfate for ultraviolet-visible to near infrared channels, and gold for shortwave infrared channels, respectively. This paper describes the Proto Flight Model (PFM) radiometric performance using these integrating spheres.

Terra MODIS has successfully operated for more than 16 years since its launch in December 1999. From its observations, many science data products have been generated in support of a broad range of research activities and remote sensing applications. Terra MODIS has operated in a number of configurations and experienced a few anomalies, including spacecraft and instrument related events. MODIS collects data in 36 spectral bands that are calibrated regularly by a set of on-board calibrators for their radiometric, spectral, and spatial performance. Periodic lunar observations and long-term radiometric trending over well-characterized ground targets are also used to support sensor on-orbit calibration. Dedicated efforts made by the MODIS Characterization Support Team (MCST) and continuing support from the MODIS Science Team have contributed to the mission success, enabling well-calibrated data products to be continuously generated and routinely delivered to users worldwide. This paper presents an overview of Terra MODIS mission operations, calibration activities, and instrument performance of the past 16 years. It illustrates and describes the results of key sensor performance parameters derived from on-orbit calibration and characterization, such as signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), noise equivalent temperature difference (NEdT), solar diffuser (SD) degradation, changes in sensor responses, center wavelengths, and band-to-band registration (BBR). Also discussed in this paper are the calibration approaches and strategies developed and implemented in support of MODIS Level 1B data production and re-processing, major challenging issues, and lessons learned. (2016) COPYRIGHT Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.

The Sentinel-3A satellite, the first of a series of four satellites from the European Commission’s Copernicus Programme, was launched on the 16th of February 2016. Sentinel-3 is a multi-instrument mission to measure sea-surface topography, sea- and land-surface temperature, ocean colour and land colour to support ocean forecasting systems, as well as environmental and climate monitoring. The presentation will focus on Sentinel-3 optical instruments, namely the Ocean Land Colour Imager (OLCI) and the Sea and Land Surface Temperature Radiometer (SLSTR). The results of the five-month commissioning phase (concluded in July 2016) are presented. The Level-1 product quality is presented as well as preliminary verification and validation results of the Level-2 ocean products.

We have examined the L-band radiometer and radar data from NASA’s Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) mission for ocean research and applications. We find that the SMAP data are in excellent agreement with the geophysical model function (GMF) derived from the Aquarius data up to a wind speed of 20 ms-1. For severe wind conditions, the higher resolution data from SMAP allowed us to assess the sensitivity of L-band radiometer signals to hurricane force winds. We applied the L-band GMF to the retrieval of ocean surface wind and SSS from the SMAP data. Comparison with the European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasting, WindSat and RapidSCAT wind speeds suggests that SMAP’s radiometer wind speed reaches an excellent accuracy of about 1.1-1.7 ms-1 below a wind speed of 20 ms-1. We have also found that the maximum wind speed derived from the SMAP radiometer data can reach 140 knots for severe storms and are generally in good agreement with the hurricane track analysis and operational aircraft Stepped Frequency Microwave Radiometer wind speeds. The spatial patterns of the SMAP SSS agree well with climatological distributions, but exhibit several unique spatial and temporal features.

In this work, a comparison between soil moisture products derived from satellite and land model data was performed; in particular, the soil moisture retrievals of SMOS and ASCAT were compared with those of the ERA-Interim/Land model, produced by the ECMWF in a timeframe of 3 years. Subsequently, for a limited period of time, the product from the SMAP radiometer was joined to SMOS, ASCAT and ERA-Interim model data as a fourth dataset. In both cases, the whole H-SAF region of interest, which includes Northern Africa and Europe, was analysed. In order to validate the products, the Triple Collocation technique was applied to estimate the independent error standard deviation of three systems that observe the same target parameter. When more than three datasets were available, the Quadruple Collocation technique was used to jointly estimate the error standard deviation of four sources. Moreover, when the SMOS and SMAP radiometer products were considered, the Extended Collocation was adopted in order to evaluate the error variances of the systems, taking into account the possible presence of an error cross-correlation between the radiometer retrievals.

With the rapid development of China's economy, many industries have more requirements for UV light applications, such as machinery manufacturing, aircraft manufacturing using high power UV light for detection, IT industry using high power UV light for curing component assembly, building materials, ink, paint and other industries using high power UV light for material aging test etc. In these industries, there are many measuring instruments for high power UV irradiance which are need to traceability. But these instruments are mostly imported instruments, these imported UV radiation meter are large range, wide wavelength range and high accuracy. They have exceeded our existing calibration capability. Expand the measuring range and improve the measurement accuracy of UV irradiance calibration device is a pressing matter of the moment. The newly developed high power UV irradiance calibration device is mainly composed of high power UV light, UV filter, condenser, UV light guide, optical alignment system, standard cavity absolute radiometer. The calibration device is using optical alignment system to form uniform light radiation field. The standard is standard cavity absolute radiometer, which can through the electrical substitution method, by means of adjusting and measuring the applied DC electric power at the receiver on a heating wire, which is equivalent to the thermo-electromotive force generated by the light radiation power, to achieve absolute optical radiation measurement. This method is the commonly used effective method for accurate measurement of light irradiation. The measuring range of calibration device is (0.2~200) mW/cm 2 , and the uncertainty of measurement results can reached 2.5% ( k =2).

The Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) aboard the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (SNPP) satellite is a passive scanning radiometer and an imager, observing radiative energy from the Earth in 22 spectral bands from 0.41 to 12 m which include 14 reflective solar bands (RSBs). Extending the formula used by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer instruments, currently the VIIRS determines the sensor aperture spectral radiance through a quadratic polynomial of its detector digital count. It has been known that for the RSBs the quadratic polynomial is not adequate in the design specified spectral radiance region and using a quadratic polynomial could drastically increase the errors in the polynomial coefficients, leading to possible large errors in the determined aperture spectral radiance. In addition, it is very desirable to be able to extend the radiance calculation formula to correctly retrieve the aperture spectral radiance with the level beyond the design specified range. In order to more accurately determine the aperture spectral radiance from the observed digital count, we examine a few polynomials of the detector digital count to calculate the sensor aperture spectral radiance.

The difficulty of in-situ calibration on the 940 nm channel of Multi-Filter Rotating Shadowband Radiometer (MFRSR) stems from the distinctive non-linear relationship between the amount of precipitable water vapor (PW) and its optical depth (i.e. curve of growth) compared to the counterpart of aerosols. Previous approaches, the modified Langley methods (MLM), require exact aerosol optical depth (AOD) values and a constant PW value at all points participating the regression. Instead, we propose a new method that substitutes the PW optical depth derived from collocated GPS zenith wet delay retrieval in conjunction with meteorology data and requires a constant AOD value at all points participating the regression. The main benefits of the new method include: (1) Aerosol stability is easier to fulfill than PW stability; (2) AOD stability could be inferred from adjacent channels (e.g. 672 and 870 nm) of MFRSR itself without measurements of a collocated AERONET sun photometer; and (3) When applicable, the time interval of GPS derived PW (i.e. 3 minutes) is more compatible with the MFRSR sampling interval (i.e. 3 minutes) than AERONET interpolated AOD (i.e. 15 minutes). Both MLM and the new method were applied to the MFRSR of USDA UV-B Monitoring and Research Program at the station in Billings, Oklahoma (active for 18 years so far) on July 28, 2015. The performances of the two methods are compared in order to assess their accuracy and the advantages and disadvantages.

The Climate Absolute Radiance and Refractivity Observatory (CLARREO) mission is formulated to determine long-term climate trends using SI-traceable measurements. The CLARREO mission will include instruments operating in the reflected solar (RS) wavelength region from 320 nm to 2300 nm. The Solar, Lunar for Absolute Reflectance Imaging Spectroradiometer (SOLARIS) is the calibration demonstration system (CDS) for the reflected solar portion of CLARREO and facilitates testing and evaluation of calibration approaches. The basis of CLARREO and SOLARIS calibration is the Goddard Laser for Absolute Measurement of Response (GLAMR) that provides a radiance-based calibration at reflective solar wavelengths using continuously tunable lasers. SI-traceability is achieved via detector-based standards that, in GLAMRs case, are a set of NIST-calibrated transfer radiometers. A portable version of the SOLARIS, Suitcase SOLARIS is used to evaluate GLAMRs calibration accuracies. The calibration of Suitcase SOLARIS using GLAMR agrees with that obtained from source-based results of the Remote Sensing Group (RSG) at the University of Arizona to better than 5 (k2) in the 720-860 nm spectral range. The differences are within the uncertainties of the NIST-calibrated FEL lamp-based approach of RSG and give confidence that GLAMR is operating at 5 (k2) absolute uncertainties. Limitations of the Suitcase SOLARIS instrument also discussed and the next edition of the SOLARIS instrument (Suitcase SOLARIS- 2) is expected to provide an improved mechanism to further assess GLAMR and CLARREO calibration approaches. (2016) COPYRIGHT Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE).

The European Space Agency (ESA) and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) are co-operating to develop as part of ESA’s Living Planet Programme, the third Earth Explorer Core Mission, EarthCARE, with the fundamental objective of improving the understanding of the processes involving clouds, aerosols and radiation in the Earth’s atmosphere. EarthCARE payload consists of two active and two passive instruments: an ATmospheric LIDar (ATLID), a Cloud Profiling Radar (CPR), a Multi-Spectral Imager (MSI) and a Broad-Band Radiometer (BBR). The four instruments data are processed individually and in a synergetic manner to produce a large range of products, which include vertical profiles of aerosols, liquid water and ice, observations of cloud distribution and vertical motion within clouds, and will allow the retrieval of profiles of atmospheric radiative heating and cooling. Operating in the UV range at 355 nm, ATLID provides atmospheric echoes with a vertical resolution up to 100 m from ground to an altitude of 40 km. Thanks to a high spectral resolution filtering, the lidar is able to separate the relative contribution of aerosol (Mie) and molecular (Rayleigh) scattering, which gives access to aerosol optical depth. Co-polarised and cross-polarised components of the Mie scattering contribution are also separated and measured on dedicated channels. This paper gives an overview of the mission science objective, the satellite configuration with its four instruments and details more specifically the implementation and development status of the Atmospheric Lidar. Manufacturing status and first equipment qualification test results, in particular for what concerns the laser transmitter development are presented.

The Visible/Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) is a key sensor on Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (S-NPP) satellite launched on October 28, 2011 into a polar orbit of 824 km nominal altitude and the JPSS sensors currently being built and integrated. VIIRS collects radiometric and imagery data of the Earth’s atmosphere, oceans, and land surfaces in 22 spectral bands spanning the visible and infrared spectrum from 0.4 to 12.5 μm. Interference filters assembled in ‘butcher-block’ arrays mounted adjacent to focal plane arrays provide spectral definition. Out-of-band signal and out-of-band optical cross-talk was observed for bands in the 0.4 to 1 μm range in testing of VIIRS for S-NPP. Optical cross-talk is in-band or out-of-band light incident on an adjacent filter or adjacent region of the same filter reaching the detector. Out-of-band optical cross-talk results in spectral and spatial ‘impurities’ in the signal and consequent errors in the calculated environmental parameters such as ocean color that rely on combinations of signals from more than one band. This paper presents results of characterization, specification, and coating process improvements that enabled production of filters with significantly reduced out of band light for Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) J1 and subsequent sensors. Total transmission and scatter measurements at a wavelength within the pass band can successfully characterize filter performance prior to dicing and assembling filters into butcher block assemblies. Coating and process development demonstrated performance on test samples followed by production of filters for J1 and J2. Results for J1 and J2 filters are presented.

The recently launched SENTINEL-3 mission measures sea surface topography, sea/land surface temperature, and ocean/land surface colour with high accuracy. The mission provides data continuity with the ENVISAT mission through acquisitions by multiple sensing instruments. Two of them, OLCI (Ocean and Land Colour Imager) and SLSTR (Sea and Land Surface Temperature Radiometer) are optical sensors designed to provide continuity with Envisat's MERIS and AATSR instruments. During the commissioning, in-orbit calibration and validation activities are conducted. Instruments are in-flight calibrated and characterized primarily using on-board devices which include diffusers and black body. Afterward, vicarious calibration methods are used in order to validate the OLCI and SLSTR radiometry for the reflective bands. The calibration can be checked over dedicated natural targets such as Rayleigh scattering, sunglint, desert sites, Antarctica, and tentatively deep convective clouds. Tools have been developed and/or adapted (S3ETRAC, MUSCLE) to extract and process Sentinel-3 data. Based on these matchups, it is possible to provide an accurate checking of many radiometric aspects such as the absolute and interband calibrations, the trending correction, the calibration consistency within the field-of-view, and more generally this will provide an evaluation of the radiometric consistency for various type of targets. Another important aspect will be the checking of cross-calibration between many other instruments such as MERIS and AATSR (bridge between ENVISAT and Sentinel-3), MODIS (bridge to the GSICS radiometric standard), as well as Sentinel-2 (bridge between Sentinel missions). The early results, based on the available OLCI and SLSTR data, will be presented and discussed.

The Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) on the Suomi NPP (National Polar-orbiting Partnership) satellite (http:npp.gsfc.nasa.govviirs.html) has been in operation for nearly five years. The onboard calibration of the VIIRS reflective solar bands (RSB) relies on a solar diffuser (SD) located at a fixed scan angle and a solar diffuser stability monitor (SDSM). The VIIRS response versus scan angle (RVS) was characterized prelaunch in ambient conditions and is currently used to determine the on-orbit response for all scan angles relative to the SD scan angle. Since the RVS is vitally important to the quality of calibrated level 1B products, it is important to monitor its on-orbit stability. In this study, the RVS stability is examined based on reflectance trends collected from 16-day repeatable orbits over pre-selected pseudo-invariant desert sites in Northern Africa. These trends nearly cover the entire Earth view scan range so that any systematic drifts in the scan angle direction would indicate a change in RVS. This study also compares VIIRS RVS on-orbit stability results with those from both Aqua and Terra MODIS over the first four years of mission for a few selected bands, which provides further information on potential VIIRS RVS on-orbit changes.

ScaRaB (SCAnner for RAdiation Budget) is an Indo-French satellite onboard MEGHA-TROPIQUES launched on October 12th 2011. This radiometer has been designed to fill the gap between the ERBS and CERES missions to study the water cycle and energy exchanges in the tropics. ScaRaB is fit with four parallel and independent channels: channel- 2 and channel-3 being considered as the main ones, channel-1 is dedicated to measure solar radiance while channel-4 is an infrared window. The absolute calibration of ScaRaB is achieved by internal calibration sources (black bodies and a lamp for channel-1). The radiometric properties of deserts sites and more especially their stable spectral response over time made them very good candidates to perform temporal monitoring of ScaRaB channel-1. This paper deals with the corresponding results. High altitude clouds are observed by ScaRaB to survey the balance between channel 2 and channel 3: the earth longwave radiance is isolated by subtracting the short-wave channel to the total channel. Radiometric cross calibration of Earth observation sensors is a crucial need to guarantee or quantify the consistency of measurements from different sensors. CERES and ScaRaB Earth Radiation Budget missions have the same specification: to provide an accuracy of ~1% in the measurement of short-wave and long-wave radiances and an estimation of the short-wave and long-wave fluxes less than 10 W/m 2 . Taking advantage of the “equatorial” orbit of Megha-Tropiques, NASA proceeded to manoeuvers on CERES-Terra in order to ease an inter-comparison between both instruments over common targets. Actually, The CERES PAPS mode was used to align its swath scan in order to increase the collocated pixels between the two instruments. The experience lasted 3 months from March 22th and May 31st 2015. A previous similar campaign has already been led in 2012. This article presents the results of these inter-comparisons, providing an indication on the temporal stability of the calibration between 2012 and 2015.

© 2016 SPIE.The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) is the world's largest millimeter/submillimeter telescope and provides unprecedented sensitivities and spatial resolutions. To achieve the highest imaging capa- bilities, interferometric phase calibration for the long baselines is one of the most important subjects: The longer the baselines, the worse the phase stability becomes because of turbulent motions of the Earth's atmosphere, es- pecially, the water vapor in the troposphere. To overcome this subject, ALMA adopts a phase correction scheme using a Water Vapor Radiometer (WVR) to estimate the amount of water vapor content along the antenna line of sight. An additional technique is phase referencing, in which a science target and a nearby calibrator are observed by turn by quickly changing the antenna pointing. We conducted feasibility studies of the hybrid technique with the WVR phase correction and the antenna Fast Switching (FS) phase referencing (WVR+FS phase correction) for the ALMA 16 km longest baselines in cases that (1) the same observing frequency both for a target and calibrator is used, and (2) higher and lower frequencies for a target and calibrator, respectively, with a typical switching cycle time of 20 s. It was found that the phase correction performance of the hybrid technique is promising where a nearby calibrator is located within roughly 3? from a science target, and that the phase correction with 20 s switching cycle time significantly improves the performance with the above separation angle criterion comparing to the 120 s switching cycle time. The currently trial phase calibration method shows the same performance independent of the observing frequencies. This result is especially important for the higher frequency observations because it becomes difficult to find a bright calibrator close to an arbitrary sky position. In the series of our experiments, it is also found that phase errors affecting the image quality come from not only the water vapor content in the lower troposphere but also a large structure of the atmosphere with a typical cell scale of a few tens of kilometers.

The Large Millimeter Telescope Alfonso Serrano (LMT) is located in Puebla, Mexico, at an altitude of 4580 m. It is currently the largest single-dish telescope constructed to observe the Universe at wavelengths between 0.85 and 4 mm. Identifying interstellar molecules, exploring dense dark clouds, and understanding the properties of cold matter and interstellar dust in the local and distant Universe are among its main scientific goals. Since June 2013, the LMT has conducted four shared-risk early science campaigns* observing at 1.1 mm (AzTEC), and 3 mm (RSR) with the aid of a new meteorological and radiometer system to guide the flexibility scheduling of observing time. Here we report measurements of the atmospheric opacity taken with this radiometer at 225 GHz between June 2013 and April 2016. These measurements show that the LMT site has exceptional weather conditions with opacities < 0:06 25% of its observing time during the driest months of December, January and February, excellent weather conditions with opacities < 0:1 50% of the same time, and opacities below 0.28 80% of the time during the entire dry season, making it a very convenient site for sub-millimeter/millimeter astronomy.

High-Throughput Phenotyping (HTP) is a discipline for rapidly identifying plant architectural and physiological responses to environmental factors such as heat and water stress. Experiments conducted since 2010 at Maricopa, Arizona with a three-fold sensor group, including thermal infrared radiometers, active visible/near infrared reflectance sensors, and acoustic plant height sensors, have shown the validity of HTP with a tractor-based system. However, results from these experiments also show that accuracy of plant phenotyping is limited by the system’s inability to discriminate plant components and their local environmental conditions. This limitation may be overcome with plant imaging and laser scanning which can help map details in plant architecture and sunlit/shaded leaves. To test the capability for mapping cotton plants with a laser system, a track-mounted platform was deployed in 2015 over a full canopy and defoliated cotton crop consisting of a scanning LIDAR driven by Arduinocontrolled stepper motors. Using custom Python and Tkinter code, the platform moved autonomously along a pipe-track at 0.1 m/s while collecting LIDAR scans at 25 Hz (0.1667 deg. beam). These tests showed that an autonomous LIDAR platform can reduce HTP logistical problems and provide the capability to accurately map cotton plants and cotton bolls. A prototype track-mounted platform was developed to test the use of LIDAR scanning for High- Throughput Phenotyping (HTP). The platform was deployed in 2015 at Maricopa, Arizona over a senescent cotton crop. Using custom Python and Tkinter code, the platform moved autonomously along a pipe-track at

Originally designed to make the practical examination on thermography certification1 possible, the device presented in this paper has demonstrated to be a very useful and versatile didactic tool for training centers and educational institutions, it can also be used as a low cost blackbody simulator to verify calibration of radiometers. It is a simple device with several functionalities for studying and for applications on heat transfer and radiometry, among them the interesting ability to thermally simulate the surface of real objects. On that functionality, if the device is seen by a thermographic camera, it reproduces the surface apparent temperatures of the object that it is simulating, at the same time, if it is seen by a naked eye it shows a visible image of that same surface. This functionality makes the practical study in the classroom possible, from different areas such as electrical, mechanical, medical, building, veterinary, etc.

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and the Centre National d'etudes Spatiales (CNES) jointly launched SARAL/AltiKa (Satellite with ARgos and ALtiKa) in February 2013. AltiKa is the first mono frequency (Ka-band) radar altimeter with dual frequency radiometer. SARAL/AltiKa promises reliable results on retrieving water level of inland water and coastal bodies, though recognition pattern as well as interpreting and modeling of AltiKa waveforms at land water boundary is still a challenge. Different Retracking methods are widely used for determining the water level more correctly. An altimetry waveform also gives vital information about the reflecting surface. So, waveform classification is many times needed for retrieving surface information or before applying retracking method. In this paper, SARAL/AltiKa 40 Hz waveform dataset (Pass #152) over the Maithon Reservoir, Jharkhand, India were classified using evolutionary minimize indexing function (EMIF) with k-means. A fitness function was used in EMIF to map sampled AltiKa waveforms into single valued scalar. Four waveform groups were identified according to reflection from water, land and land-water boundary. Land-water boundary again divided into two classes viz., land-to-water and water-to-land based on direction of the AltiKa pass over the reservoir. Normalized Differenced Water Index (NDWI) derived from Landsat 8 OLI and Google Earth imagery of nearest date of AltiKa pass was used for accuracy assessment of the proposed method. It was found that the waveforms were classified with 85.7 kappa accuracy. The results of the proposed EMIF will be helpful for identify the SARAL/AltiKa waveforms classes over the inland water bodies.

Selection of central wavelengths, bandwidths and the number of spectral bands of any sensor to be flown on a remote sensing satellite is important to ensure discriminability of targets and adequate signal-to-noise ratio for the retrieval of parameters. In recent years, a large number of spectral measurements over a wide variety of water types in the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal have been carried out through various ship cruises. It was felt pertinent to use this precious data set to arrive at meaningful selection of spectral bands and their bandwidths of the ocean colour sensor to be flown on the forthcoming Oceansat-3 of ISRO. According to IOOCG reports and studies by Lee and Carder (2002) it is better for a sensor to have ~15 bands in the 400-800 nm range for adequate derivation of major properties (phytoplankton biomass, colored dissolved organic matter, suspended sediments, and bottom properties) in both oceanic and coastal environments from observation of water color. In this study, ~417 hyper-spectral remote-sensing reflectance spectra (spectral range varies from ~380-800 nm) covering different water types like open, coastal, mid coastal and near coastal waters have been used to identify the suitable spectral bands for OCM-3. Central wavelengths were identified based on the results obtained from hyper-spectral underwater radiometer measurements of Rrs, HPLC pigments and spectrometer analyzed absorption spectra for all the above water types. Derivative analysis has been carried out from 1st to 5th order to identify the inflection and null points for better discrimination / identification of spectral peaks from the in situ Rrs spectra. The results showed that open ocean and coastal ocean waters has spectra peaks mostly in the blue, green region; turbid coastal waters has maximum spectral peaks in the red region. Apart from this, the spectral peaks were identified in the red region for the chlorophyll fluorescence in the open ocean and coastal waters. Based on these results 13 spectral bands were proposed in the VNIR region for the upcoming OCM-3 sensor. In order to obtain water leaving radiances from the measurements at spacecraft platform, it is necessary to do atmospheric correction we need to have spectral bands in the NIR and above regions. Hence, a set of bands 3 bands in the NIR and SWIR region were proposed for OCM-3 to address the atmospheric correction related issues.

Underwater radiometers are generally calibrated in air using a standard source. The immersion factors are required for these radiometers to account for the change in the in-water measurements with respect to in-air due to the different refractive index of the medium. The immersion factors previously determined for RAMSES series of commercial radiometers manufactured by TriOS are applicable to clear oceanic waters. In typical inland and turbid productive coastal waters, these experimentally determined immersion factors yield significantly large errors in water-leaving radiances (Lw) and hence remote sensing reflectances (Rrs). To overcome this limitation, a semi-analytical method with based on the refractive index approximation is proposed in this study, with the aim of obtaining reliable Lw and Rrs from RAMSES radiometers for turbid and productive waters within coastal and inland water environments. We also briefly show the variation of pure water immersion factors (Ifw) and newly derived If on Lw and Rrs for clear and turbid waters. The remnant problems other than the immersion factor coefficients such as transmission, air-water and water-air Fresnel’s reflectances are also discussed.

Pigments in the host tissues of corals can make a significant contribution to their spectral signature and can affect their apparent color as perceived by a human observer. The aim of this study is classifying the spectral reflectance of corals base on different color. It is expected that they can be used as references in discriminating between live corals, dead coral covered with algae Spectral reflectance data was collected in three small islands, Spermonde Archipelago, Indonesia by using a hyperspectral radiometer underwater. First and second derivative analysis resolved the wavelength locations of dominant features contributing to reflectance in corals and support the distinct differences in spectra among colour existed. Spectral derivative analysis was used to determine the specific wavelength regions ideal for remote identification of substrate type. The analysis results shown that yellow, green, brown and violet live corals are spectrally separable from each other, but they are similar with dead coral covered with algae spectral.

Gorakhpur (26.75°N, 83.38°E and 85 m amsl), is strategically located in the central Indo-Gangetic Plain (IGP), near the foot hills of Himalayas and hence is an ideal place for studying long-range transport as well as local sources of aerosols and its radiative implications. Here we present results from two years, October 2013 until September 2015, of measurements of spectral aerosol optical depth (AOD) utilizing ground based, Multi- Wavelength Radiometer (MWR), and satellite, MODIS Terra remote sensing platforms. Mean AOD at 500 nm (AOD 500 ) is 0.63±0.35, associated with a moderate Angstrom exponent (α) of 1.03±0.22 is found for the study period using MWR measurements. Highest AOD 500 is found during the pre-monsoon months of May and June while lowest AOD 500 in the post-monsoon months of October and November. The MWR observations have been compared with MODIS Terra derived AOD and a good correlation of 0.74 is found. We used HYSPLIT Lagrangian trajectory model to investigate long-range transport of aerosols to the study region. Aerosol sources in winter season are from the North-West part of the study region while that during pre-monsoon season lies in the south-westerly arid regions. This finding is also reflected in the α values which are high during winter months suggesting significant urban and biomass-burning contribution. α values are low and the turbidity coefficient (β) is high during pre-monsoon months indicating long-range transport of coarse dust particles carried by south westerly winds from the westerly desert regions.

Thermal Infrared (TIR) remote sensing measures emitted radiation of Earth in the thermal region of electromagnetic spectrum. This information can be useful in studying sub-surface features such as buried palaeochannels, which are ancient river systems that have dried up over time and are now buried under soil cover or overlying sediments in the present landscape. Therefore they have little or no expression on the surface topography. Study of these paleo channels has wide applications in the fields of uranium exploration and ground water hydrology. Identifying paleo channels using remote sensing technique is a cost-effective means of narrowing down search areas and thereby aids in ground exploration. The difference in thermal properties between the paleo channel-fill sediments and the surrounding bed-rock is the key to demarcate these channels. This study uses five TIR bands of day-time Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) L1A data for delineation of paleo-systems in the DeGrussa area of the Capricorn Orogen in Western Australia. The temperature-emissivity separation algorithm is applied to obtain kinetic temperature and emissivity images. Sharp contrasts in kinetic temperature and emissivity values are used to demarcate the channel boundaries. Profiles of topographic elevation, temperature and emissivity values are plotted for different sections of the interpreted channels and compared to distinguish the surface channels from sub-surface channels, and also to interpret the thickness and nature of the paleo channel-fill sediments. The results are validated using core-drilling litho logs and field exploration data.

Even though both the rain measuring instruments, radar and radiometer onboard the TRMM observe the same rain scenes, they both are fundamentally different instruments. Radar is an active instrument and measures backscatter component from vertical rain structure; whereas radiometer is a passive instrument that obtains integrated observation of full depth of the cloud and rain structure. Further, their spatial resolutions on ground are different. Nevertheless, both the instruments are observing the same rain scene and retrieve three dimensional rainfall products. Hence it is only natural to seek answer to the question, what type of information about radiometric observations can be directly retrieved from radar observations. While there are several ways to answer this question, an informational theoretic approach using neural networks has been described in the present work to find if radiometer observations can be predicted from radar observations. A database of TMI brightness temperature and collocated TRMM vertical attenuation corrected reflectivity factor from the year 2012 was considered. The entire database is further classified according to surface type. Separate neural networks were trained for land and ocean and the results are presented.

This paper reports the development of a millimeter-wave space-borne atmospheric Temperature Sounding Unit (TSU) in Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO). This is ISRO’s first leap towards millimeter-wave technology. The sensor has several new accomplishments to its credit which include among others, the philosophy of sounding channel selection, the new assortment of temperature sounding channels, simultaneous observation of both polarizations of all channels, compact dual-band scanning Gregorian reflector antenna, indigenously developed black-body target for in-orbit calibration, in-house developed millimeter-wave RF front-end and pre-detection automatic gain control method. The prime feature of this instrument is its unique set of channels which can profile the earth’s atmosphere from surface to 40 km altitude with vertical resolution ranging from less than a km near surface to ±2.5 km at 30km altitude. The channels are predominantly off-resonant frequencies in the 50―60 GHz O2 absorption spectrum which offer near-uniform attenuation and hence more channel-bandwidth and better temperature sensitivity and yet have adequate overlap of their weighting functions to achieve the desired vertical resolution. These channels are different and have fewer bands from what has been flown in all earlier sounding missions worldwide e.g. AMSU-A, SSMIS, ATMS etc. The TSU radiometer has been characterized thoroughly using ingenious methods such as low-power active RF energizing along with frequency sweep. This is a compact, low-mass, low-power instrument and has been configured for the ISRO mini-satellite (IMS-2) bus. The flight model with improved hardware performance is being built and a suitable opportunity of flying it is being explored.

Few systematic attempts to interpret the measurements of mm-wave radiometers over clouds and precipitation have been made to date because the scattering signatures of hydrometeors at these frequencies are very difficult to model. The few algorithms that have been developed try to retrieve surface precipitation, to which the observations are partially correlated but not directly sensitive. In fact, over deep clouds, mm-wave radiometers are most sensitive to the scattering from solid hydrometeors within the upper levels of the cloud. In addition, mm-wave radiometers have a definite advantage over the lower-frequency window-channel radiometers in that they have finer resolution and can therefore explicitly resolve deep convection. Preliminary analyses (in particular of NOAA's MHS brightness temperatures, as well as Megha-Tropiques's SAPHIR observations) indicate that the measurements are indeed very sensitive to the depth and intensity of convection. The challenge is to derive a robust approach to make quantitative estimates of the convection, for example the height and depth of the condensed water, directly from the mm-wave observations, as a function of horizontal location. To avoid having to rely on a specific set of microphysical assumptions, this analysis exploits the substantial amount of nearly- simultaneous coincident observations by mm-wave radiometers and orbiting atmospheric profiling radars in order to enforce unbiased consistency between the calculated brightness temperatures and the radar and radiometer observations.

MODerate resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), a leading heritage sensor in the fleet of Earth Observing System for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is in space orbit on two spacecrafts. They are the Terra (T) and Aqua (A) platforms. Both instruments have successfully continued to operate beyond the 6 year design life time, with the T-MODIS currently functional beyond 15 years and the A-MODIS operating beyond 13 years respectively. The MODIS sensor characteristics include a spectral coverage from 0.41 micron 14.4 micron, of which wavelengths ranging from 3.7 micron 14. 4 micron cover the thermal infrared region also referred to as the Thermal Emissive Bands (TEBs). The TEBs is calibrated using a v-grooved BlackBody (BB) whose temperature measurements are traceable to the National Institute of Standards and Technology temperature scales. The TEBs calibration based on the onboard BB is extremely important for its high radiometric fidelity. In this paper, we provide a complete characterization of the lifetime instrument performance of both MODIS instruments in terms of the sensor gain, the Noise Equivalent difference Temperature, key instrument telemetry such as the BB lifetime trends, the instrument temperature trends, the Cold Focal Plane telemetry and finally, the total assessed calibration uncertainty of the TEBs.

The Ocean Colour Monitor (OCM) sensor on-board the Oceansat-2 spacecraft has been operational since its launch in September, 2009. The Oceansat 2 OCM primary design goal is to provide continuity to Oceansat-1 OCM to obtain information regarding various ocean-colour variables. OCM acquires Earth scene measurements in eight multi-spectral bands in the range from 402 to 885 nm. The MODIS sensor on the Terra and Aqua spacecraft has been successfully operating for over a decade collecting measurements of the earth's land, ocean surface and atmosphere. The MODIS spectral bands, designed for land and ocean applications, cover the spectral range from 412 to 869 nm. This study focuses on comparing the radiometric calibration stability of OCM using near-simultaneous TOA measurements with Terra and Aqua MODIS acquired over the Libya 4 target. Same-day scene-pairs from all three sensors (OCM, Terra and Aqua MODIS) between August, 2014 and September, 2015 were chosen for this analysis. On a given day, the OCM overpass is approximately an hour after the Terra overpass and an hour before the Aqua overpass. Due to the orbital differences between Terra and Aqua, MODIS images the Libya 4 site at different scan-angles on a given day. Some of the high-gain ocean bands for MODIS tend to saturate while viewing the bright Libya 4 target, but bands 8-10 (412 nm - 486 nm) provide an unsaturated response and are used for comparison with the spectrally similar OCM bands. All the standard corrections such as bidirectional reflectance factor (BRDF), relative spectral response mismatch, and impact for atmospheric water-vapor are applied to obtain the reflectance differences between OCM and the two MODIS instruments. Furthermore, OCM is used as a transfer radiometer to obtain the calibration differences between Terra and Aqua MODIS reflective solar bands.

Since launch, both Terra and Aqua MODIS instruments have continued to operate and make measurements of the earth's top of atmospheric (TOA) radiances and reflectance. MODIS collects data in 36 spectral bands covering wavelengths from 0.41 to 14.4 microns. These spectral bands and detectors are located on four focal plane assemblies (FPAs). MODIS on-board calibrators (OBC) include a spectro-radiometric calibration assembly (SRCA), which was designed to characterize and monitor sensor spatial and spectral performance, such as on-orbit changes in the band-to-band registration (BBR), modulation transfer function (MTF), spectral band center wavelengths (CW) and bandwidths (BW). In this paper, we provide a status update of MODIS spatial and spectral characterization and performance, following a brief description of SRCA functions and on-orbit calibration activities. Sensor spatial and spectral performance parameters derived from SRCA measurements are introduced and discussed. Results show that on-orbit spatial performance has been very stable for both Terra and Aqua MODIS instruments. The large BBR shifts in Aqua MODIS, an issue identified pre-launch, have remained the same over its entire mission. On-orbit changes in CW and BW are less than 0.5 nm and 1 nm, respectively, for most VIS/NIR spectral bands of both instruments.

The proto-flight test (PFT) of Infrared Scanning Radiometer (IRS) started in December 2014 to confirm the sensor performance. IRS is one of the two sensor units of Second Generation Global Imager (SGLI) on GCOM-C satellite. IRS has six optical channels from 1.1micron to 12 micron, corresponds to Short Wave Infrared (SWI) and Thermal Infrared (TIR) observation requirements of GCOM-C mission. The GCOM-C is planned for launch in 2017. This paper describes the SGLI-IRS test status.

Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) is the keystone instrument for NASAs EOS Terra and Aqua missions, designed to extend and improve heritage sensor measurements and data records of the land, oceans and atmosphere. The reflective solar bands (RSB) of MODIS covering wavelengths from 0.41 micrometers to 2.2 micrometers, are calibrated on-orbit using a solar diffuser (SD), with its on-orbit bi-directional reflectance factor (BRF) changes tracked using a solar diffuser stability monitor (SDSM). MODIS is a scanning radiometer using a two-sided paddle-wheel mirror to collect earth view (EV) data over a range of (+/-)55 deg. off instrument nadir. In addition to the solar calibration provided by the SD and SDSM system, lunar observations at nearly constant phase angles are regularly scheduled to monitor the RSB calibration stability. For both Terra and Aqua MODIS, the SD and lunar observations are used together to track the on-orbit changes of RSB response versus scan angle (RVS) as the SD and SV port are viewed at different angles of incidence (AOI) on the scan mirror. The MODIS Level 1B (L1B) Collection 6 (C6) algorithm incorporated several enhancements over its predecessor Collection 5 (C5) algorithm. A notable improvement was the use of the earth-view (EV) response trends from pseudo-invariant desert targets to characterize the on-orbit RVS for select RSB (Terra bands 1-4, 8, 9 and Aqua bands 8, 9) and the time, AOI, and wavelength-dependent uncertainty. The MODIS Characterization Support Team (MCST) has been maintaining and enhancing the C6 algorithm since its first update in November, 2011 for Aqua MODIS, and February, 2012 for Terra MODIS. Several calibration improvements have been incorporated that include extending the EV-based RVS approach to other RSB, additional correction for SD degradation at SWIR wavelengths, and alternative approaches for on-orbit RVS characterization. In addition to the on-orbit performance of the MODIS RSB, this paper also discusses in detail the recent calibration improvements implemented in the MODIS L1B C6.

The Second-generation Global Imager (SGLI) is a mission instrument on the Global Change Observation Mission-Climate (GCOM-C) satellite. The SGLI includes two radiometers, the Visible and Near Infrared Radiometer (VNR) and Infrared Scanning Radiometer (IRS). The VNR is a multi-band optical imaging radiometer observing at wavelength range from 380 nm to 868.5 nm, including non-polarization and polarization observation. The test of the instruments consisting of VNR-SRU (Scanning Radiometer Unit) PFM (Proto-Flight model) has been finished, and the VNR-SRU PFM is under the phase of assembly and test. This paper describes the test result of the VNR-SRU PFM.

The Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite R (GOES-R) series is the planned next generation of operational weather satellites for the United State's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The first launch of the GOES-R series is planned for October 2016. The GOES-R series satellites and instruments are being developed by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). One of the key instruments on the GOES-R series is the Advance Baseline Imager (ABI). The ABI is a multi-channel, visible through infrared, passive imaging radiometer. The ABI will provide moderate spatial and spectral resolution at high temporal and radiometric resolution to accurately monitor rapidly changing weather. Initial on-orbit calibration and performance characterization is crucial to establishing baseline used to maintain performance throughout mission life. A series of tests has been planned to establish the post launch performance and establish the parameters needed to process the data in the Ground Processing Algorithm. The large number of detectors for each channel required to provide the needed temporal coverage presents unique challenges for accurately calibrating ABI and minimizing striping. This paper discusses the planned tests to be performed on ABI over the six-month Post Launch Test period and the expected performance as it relates to ground tests.

Lunar measurements are part of the calibration strategy for the instruments in Earth Observing System and satellites. The purpose of using moon as an absolute radiometric standard for calibration it is used solely as a diffuse reflector whose surface remains unchanged. INSAT-3D is India’s meteorological geostationary satellite an exclusive next-generation mission designed for enhanced meteorological observations having 6 channel imager and 18 channel sounder. INSAT-3D Spacecraft was dedicated to Nation at National Satellite Meteorological Center (NSMC) indigenously designed developed INSAT-3D Meteorological Data Processing System (IMDPS), commissioned at India Meteorological Department (IMD) New Delhi on January 15, 2014. The Moon is being observed from INSAT-3D regularly in the of full-disk operational image of earth with rectangular field of regard in IMDPS New Delhi. INSAT-3D measurements of lunar surface observed in Visible (0.55 - 0.75μm), Short Wave Infrared 1.55 - 1.70μm, Mid Wave Infrared (3.80 - 4.00μm), Water Vapor (WV) 6.50 - 7.10μm, Thermal Infrared (TIR) 1 & 2, 10.3 - 11.3μm & 11.5 - 12.5μm wavelength regions. The visible and infrared wavelengths region provide a new and intriguing methodology of distinguish in sensitivities of Earth observing radiometers.

This paper describes the inter-calibration approach and key results of Kalpana-1geostationary satellite. The normalized calibration technique is attempted in order to re-calibrate the Kalpana-1 Infrared ( 10.8 μm) channel and remove the effect of the temporal non-linearity of sensor response due to degradation of the sensor based on ISCCP (International satellite cloud climatology project) procedure over the Indian Ocean. The study region of the inter-calibration is ± 10° NS latitude of the equator; 64°-84° longitude east. INSAT-3D Infrared ( 10.8 μm) and Mid-infrared ( 3.8 μm) channel data were also used for inter-satellite calibration. The primary data used for Kalpana-1 and INSAT-3D inter-calibration is VHRR (Very High Resolution Radiometer) Infrared brightness temperatures and NOAA-19 AVHRR channel-2 and channel-4 brightness temperatures from May to December 2009 and February 2015. The reprocessing of Kalpana-1 products using NOAA coefficients have also applied to the old Kalpana-1 data. The results show the Kalpana-1 derived products are comparable to NOAA data. The major objective of this work is the generation of a Fundamental Climate Data Record ( FCDR) of calibrated and quality controlled INSAT geostationary sensor data for weather and climate prediction.

Spectroscopic analysis is carried out for lithological discrimination in a study area in the Pali and Ajmer districts of Rajasthan, western India using laboratory-based, field-based and space-borne data. We first explored the feasibility of the Landsat-8 (Operational Land Imager (OLI), Thermal Infrared Sensor (TIRS)) and Advanced Space-borne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) imagery for lithological mapping. Laboratory spectra of the samples of rocks exposed in the area were collected using FieldSpec3 spectroradiometer in the VNIR-SWIR region and resampled to the LANDSAT 8 and ASTER spectral bands. The spectral angle mapper (SAM) algorithm was used to map the lithologies using the resampled laboratory spectra as references. The resulting map was validated based on field geological mapping. Fourier Transform Infra-Red (FTIR) spectroscopy of selected rock samples was carried out to correlate spectral absorption features in the TIR-IR regions with the vibrational energy.

We present a special facility for accurate calibration of instrument’s irradiance responsivity in ultraviolet spectral region to overcome the troubles caused by the weak ultraviolet response of most spectral radiometer and poor signal-to-noise ratio. In this system, a Seya-Namioka monochromator with a small f-number is designed to get more energy as an irradiance source. Reference standard irradiance detectors, calibrated against to primary standard detector traceable to cryogenic radiometer for spectral power responsivity, are used to determine the irradiance at a reference plane. The typical combined standard uncertainties in irradiance responsivity calibrations using this system can be 2.3%.