Classification and Evaluation of Extended PICS (EPICS) on a Global Scale for Calibration and Stability Monitoring of Optical Satellite Sensors

Historically stable areas across North Africa, known as pseudo invariant calibration sites (PICS), have been used targets for the and monitoring of optical satellite sensors. However, two major drawbacks exist these sites: first is dependency on a single location to be always invariant, second limited amount observation achieved using sites. As result, longer time periods are necessary construct dense dataset assess radiometric performance on-orbit sensors confirm that change detected sensor-specific rather than site-specific. This work presents global land cover classification obtain an extended site (EPICS) scale Landsat-8 Operational Land Imager (OLI) data. technique provides multiple globe, allowing building richer datasets in shorter frame compared traditional approach with advantage assessing stability faster, detecting possible changes sooner correcting them accordingly. identified 23 World Reference System (WRS-2) path/row locations around globe part EPICS. These EPICS achieving observations per day, similar spectral characteristics PICS, while still producing temporal coefficient variation (ratio standard deviation mean) less 4% all bands, some low 2.7%.