Vicarious Calibration Based Cross Calibration of Solar Reflective Channels of Radiometers Onboard Remote Sensing Satellite and Evaluation of Cross Calibration Accuracy through Band-to-Band Data Comparisons

Accuracy evaluation of cross calibration through band-to-band data comparison for visible and near infrared radiometers which onboard earth observation satellites is conducted. The conventional cross calibration for visible to near infrared radiometers onboard earth observation satellites is conducted through comparisons of band-to-band data of which spectral response functions are overlapped mostly. There are the following major error sources due to observation time difference, spectral response function difference in conjunction of surface reflectance and atmospheric optical depth, observation area difference. These error sources are assessed with dataset acquired through ground measurements of surface reflectance and optical depth. Then the accuracy of the conventional cross calibration is evaluated with vicarious calibration data. The results show that cross calibration accuracy can be done more precisely if the influences due to the aforementioned three major error sources are taken into account. Keywords—vicarious calibration; cross calibration; visible to near infrared radiometer; earth observation satellite; remote sensing; radiative transfer equation