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Improved Algorithm For Water Vapor Retrieval And Field Calibration In The Channell 940-Nm Of Sun-Photometer, Hao Zhang, Zhengchao Chen, Bing Zhang, Changyun Chen

Conference on Characterization and Radiometric Calibration for Remote Sensing (CALCON)

The sunphotometer is broadly adopted in global or local aerosol measurement networks (e.g., CE318 in AERONET) or field observing campaigns. The water absorption 940nm combination-vibrational band of sunphotometers is always used to retrieve vertical columnar water content (VCW). The retrieval principle is based on the ‘Reagan’s model’, like Tw=exp(-a* (m*PW)^b), where Tw is band transmittance, PW is VCW and m is the relative air mass. The process includes two steps: 1) calculating the water absorption transmittance from the measurement by applying the calibration coefficient, which was always determined by the ‘modified Longley method’ from measurements under stable atmospheric conditions; 2) …

A Method Suitable For In-Flight Calibration Of A Uav Hyperspectral Remote Sensor, Haiwei Li, Hao Zhang, Zhengchao Chen

Conference on Characterization and Radiometric Calibration for Remote Sensing (CALCON)

Imagery acquired with unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) has a great potential for incorporation into natural resource monitoring protocols due to their ability to be deployed quickly and repeatedly. A valid radiometric calibration of radiance measuring instruments is required for physically based analysis of the measured data. In the autumn of 2013, an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle hyperspectral calibration experiment of the HeadWall imaging spectrometer was conducted at a civilian airport in Suizhong, Liaoning province of China. Headwall’s Micro-Hyperspec airborne sensors optimized performance for the most demanding UAV applications which measure radiance in nominally 4nm channels between 380~1000nm. The purpose of the …

Nist Greenhouse Gas And Climate Science Measurements Program Overview, James R. Whetstone

Conference on Characterization and Radiometric Calibration for Remote Sensing (CALCON)

NIST has increased its emphasis on measurements and standards research for greenhouse gas and climate science measurements over the last three years by establishing its Greenhouse Gas and Climate Science Measurements Program. This research effort seeks to develop or extend the measurement science underpinning internationally-recognized measurement standards, methodologies, and technologies that can enhance science-based greenhouse gas measurement capabilities and emissions data. This research utilizes expertise found both in the NIST laboratories and in the research capabilities of external partner institutions. NIST research activities include advancing standards capabilities for greenhouse gas composition in the atmosphere, development of high accuracy measurement techniques …

Calibrating Hyper- And Multispectral Imagers At The Nasa Ames Airborne Sensor Facility, Thomas Ellis, Pat Grant, Edward Hildum, Jeff Myers

Conference on Characterization and Radiometric Calibration for Remote Sensing (CALCON)

The NASA Airborne Sensor Facility (ASF) at Ames Research Center maintains a suite of facility remote sensing instruments that support multi-disciplinary research in the NASA Earth Science Division. These instruments are maintained at the ASF, and are regularly characterized and calibrated in its radiometric calibration laboratory. This facility specializes in radiometric calibration and spectral characterization of passive optical airborne sensors that have moderate to high spectral resolution from 0.35um – 14um. In the past, this calibration facility has focused on scanning instruments with large apertures and narrow instantaneous fields of view such as the eMAS-scanner (the enhanced MODIS Airborne Simulator …

Calibration Of Neon's Airborne Imaging Spectrometers, Nathan Leisso, Thomas Kampe, Bryan Karpowicz

Conference on Characterization and Radiometric Calibration for Remote Sensing (CALCON)

The National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) is a continental-scale ecological observation facility currently under construction by the National Science Foundation (NSF). NEON’s mission is to enable understanding and forecasting of the impacts of land-use change and invasive species by providing the infrastructure and consistent methodologies for the collection of continental-scale ecological data. The Airborne Observation Platform (AOP) will play a unique role in scaling individual in-situ measurements collected by NEON to those collected by external satellite-based remote sensing systems. The airborne payload consists of the NEON Imaging Spectrometer, a waveform LIDAR, and a high-resolution digital camera integrated into a Twin …

Meteosat Third Generation (Mtg) Lightning Imager (Li) Instrument Performance And Calibration From User Perspective, Marcel Dobber, Jochen Grandell

Conference on Characterization and Radiometric Calibration for Remote Sensing (CALCON)

The European Meteosat Third Generation (MTG) Lightning Imager (LI) is an instrument on the geostationary MTG Imager satellite series, for which the first satellite is scheduled for launch in 2019.

The MTG series consists of 6 satellites in total: 4 Imager satellites, equipped with the Flexible Combined Imager (FCI) and Lightning Imager (LI) instruments, and 2 Sounding satellites, with the Infrared Sounder (IRS) and Sentinel-4 UVN instruments.

Thales Alenia Space France is the main contractor for the MTG series under agency supervision from ESA. Selex ES are the main contractor for the LI mission and instrument. EUMETSAT will operate the …

Snpp Omps Performance And Lessons Learned, Glen Jaross, M. Haken, C. Seftor, M. Kowitt, L-K. Huang

Conference on Characterization and Radiometric Calibration for Remote Sensing (CALCON)

The Ozone Mapping and Profiler Suite (OMPS) on board the Suomi NPP spacecraft represents the culmination of over 30 years of backscatter ultraviolet (BUV) sensor design. With the advantage of lessons learned from predecessor instruments, it has so far lived up to most expectations with some notable exceptions. One characteristic that is especially important to BUV sensors, optical degradation, appears to be remarkably benign while another, thermal stability, is presenting more of a problem. We will review the basic principles of reflectance calibration used by most BUV instrument programs and explain the role that these performance characteristics play in successful …

The Diagnosis, Derivation And Validation Of A Point Spread Function To Mitigate The Slight Blurring Manifested In The Mtsat-1r Visible Channel Imagery, David Doelling, Konstantin Khlopenkov, Conor Haney, Arun Gopalan, Arata Okuyama

Conference on Characterization and Radiometric Calibration for Remote Sensing (CALCON)

The Multi-functional Transport Satellite (MTSAT)-1R is a geostationary imager located at 140°E over the tropical western pacific operated by the Japanese Meteorological Agency and was launched on February 26, 2005. It has been operational from June 2005 to June 2010 and now serves as the backup instrument when the MTSAT-2 ground segment is maintained annually during November and December. The Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES) project utilizes geostationary (GEO) derived broadband fluxes to infer the regional diurnal cycle between CERES observed broadband observations. The GEO visible channels are first calibrated against Aqua-MODIS using ray-matched coincident 0.5° gridded …

Monitoring On-Orbit Radiometric Stability Of Hj-1a/Ccd Using Terra/Modis Data, Zhengchao Chen, Hao Zhang, Guanwen Chen

Conference on Characterization and Radiometric Calibration for Remote Sensing (CALCON)

It is important for a sensor to provide calibrated, consistent measurement of the Earth’s surface feature through a long period of time. HJ-1A, launched on Sept. 6, 2008, is the first satellite of the Environment and Disasters Monitoring Microsatellite Constellation of China. This work focuses on monitoring the long-term on-orbit radiometric stability of the HJ-1A CCD sensors using Dunhuang Site. This site is one of the national calibration sites of China and has been frequently used as radiometric calibration target because of its relatively stable surface conditions spatially and temporally. This study was performed using all cloud-free images from the …

Deriving A Geostationary Visible Sensor Calibration Reference Using Dcc Targets Tied To The Aqua-Modis Band 1 Calibration, Conor Haney, David Doelling, Arun Gopalan, Benjamin Scarino, Rajendra Bhatt

Conference on Characterization and Radiometric Calibration for Remote Sensing (CALCON)

Tropical Deep Convective Clouds (DCC) are the brightest, nearly isotropic, tropopause-level earth invariant targets or solar diffusers, making them suitable as pseudo invariant calibration sites (PICS). DCC are observed by both low earth orbit and geostationary (GEO) satellites, since they are found over all tropical domains. DCC calibration is a statistical technique that collectively analyzes all identified DCC over a geographical domain by a simple IR threshold. After the pixel level application of a DCC Bidirectional Reflectance Distribution Function (BRDF), the DCC monthly mode statistic can accurately verify the temporal stability of the sensor response. The temporal standard error is …

Calibration: Criticality And Creativity, G. Charmaine Gilbreath

Conference on Characterization and Radiometric Calibration for Remote Sensing (CALCON)

Biography:

Dr. Gilbreath holds a B.S. in physics from the Georgia Institute of Technology, and an M.S. and Ph.D. in Engineering Science from the Johns Hopkins University.

She joined NRL in 1982 as an electronics engineer in the Naval Center for Space Technology, later becoming head of the Electro-optics Section, before moving to the Remote Sensing Division and then the Information Technology Division. In addition to these duties, Dr. Gilbreath served as the Associate Technology Director to the National Signatures Program for the Defense Intelligence Agency from 2005-2009. She is currently the Head of the Freespace Photonics Communications Office at …

A New Cubesat Mission For High-Resolution Earth Atmospheric Sensing Using Combined Microwave Radiometry And Gnss Radion Occultation, W. Blackwell, V. Leslie, M. Diliberto, I. Osaretin, K. Cahoy, P. Dave, B. Cohen

Conference on Characterization and Radiometric Calibration for Remote Sensing (CALCON)

We introduce a new technique for absolute "through-the-antenna" calibration of cross-track-scanning passive microwave radiometers viewing earth from a low-earth orbit. This method offers significant advantages, in that neither internal calibration targets nor noise diodes are needed to calibrate the radiometer. The algorithm does require periodic updates of the atmospheric state, which can be readily provided by GNSS radio occultation observations, for example. An iterative algorithm retrieves the radiometer gain given a sequence of observations of the earth's limb.

The algorithm uses a parameterized radiative transfer model of a spherically-stratified atmosphere. We will present results showing that this method yield calibration …

Gpm Microwave Imager Key Technologies, Performance And Calibration Results, David Newell, Don Figgins, David Draper, Barry Berdanier, Michael Kubitschek, David Holshouser, Adam Sexton, Sergey Krimchansky, Frank Wentz, Thomas Meissner

Conference on Characterization and Radiometric Calibration for Remote Sensing (CALCON)

The Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) Microwave Imager (GMI) Instrument was built and tested by Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corporation (Ball) under a contract with the GPM program at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Goddard Space Flight Center. The GMI instrument was delivered to Goddard in February 2012 and launched onboard the GPM spacecraft in late February 2014. This paper presents an overview of the GMI instrument, examines pre-flight radiometric accuracy and evaluates early on-orbit data versus pre-flight performance.

The GPM Mission is an international effort managed by NASA to improve climate, weather, and hydro-meteorological predictions through more accurate …

Atms And Cris Geolocation, Mark Esplin, Kris Robinson, Ben Esplin, Nephi Grant, Deron Scott, Likun Wang

Conference on Characterization and Radiometric Calibration for Remote Sensing (CALCON)

An important part of any earth observing sensor’s calibration is determining the precise location of the sensor footprint on the earth (geolocation calibration). SDL has evaluated the geolocation calibration of two sensors on the Suomi-NPP spacecraft: ATMS (Advanced Technology Microwave Sounder) and CrIS (The Cross-track Infrared Sounder). Both sensors have bands that can sense the radiance contrasts that generally occurs at land sea boundaries both during the day and the night. The observed position of the land sea transitions can be compared to the know shoreline position to evaluate the geolocation calibration. SDL used two different methods to achieve sub-pixel …

Radiation Issue During The Eclipse Season Of The Coms Mi, Jae-Gwan Kim, Byung-Il Lee, Jeong-Sik Kim, Hyuk-Jin Yun

Conference on Characterization and Radiometric Calibration for Remote Sensing (CALCON)

The first Korean meteorological satellite, Communication, Ocean, and Meteorological Satellite (COMS) which has been operated on the geostationary orbit has to be exposed to eclipse twice a year at before and after vernal equinox and autumnal equinox. At about midnight during the eclipse season, it could be occurs the radiometric quality contamination such as solar intrusion, stray light on the image data measured by Meteorological Imager (MI). The time of the biggest impact is about April 10th in vernal season and September 2nd in autumnal season. On the image at about the same time, stripes appear at regular intervals. Especially …

Altair: Precision Photometric Calibration Via Artificial Light Sources Above The Atmosphere, Justin Albert

Conference on Characterization and Radiometric Calibration for Remote Sensing (CALCON)

Understanding the properties of dark energy via type Ia supernova surveys requires unprecedented photometric precision. Laboratory and solar photometry and radiometry can achieve precision on the order of parts in ten thousand, but photometric calibration for non-solar astronomy presently remains stuck at the percent or greater level. We overview our project, ALTAIR, working to erase this discrepancy, and our steps toward achieving laboratory-level photometric precision for surveys late this decade. In particular, we show new observations of the balloon-borne light source we are presently testing, and comparisons with stellar and lunar observations. Our technique is additionally applicable to microwave astronomy. …

Ultraviolet Radiation From Some Types Of Outdoor Lighting Lamps, Essam El-Moghazy

Conference on Characterization and Radiometric Calibration for Remote Sensing (CALCON)

Illumination using artificial light sources is common in these days. Many manufactures are paying for the design of lamps depending on high efficacy and low UV hazards. This research is focusing on the most useable lamps in the Egyptian markets; High Pressure Mercury (HPM), Metal Halide (MH), and High Pressure Sodium (HPS). A set up for relative spectral power distribution based on single monochromator and UVA silicon detector for absolute irradiance measurements are used. The absolute irradiance in (W/m2) in UVA region of the lamps and their accompanied standard uncertainty are evaluated.

Lunar Calibration Analysis Of Landsat-8 Oli Images Of The Moon, Thomas C. Stone

Conference on Characterization and Radiometric Calibration for Remote Sensing (CALCON)

The Landsat Data Continuity Mission was launched February 11, 2013, and was renamed Landsat-8 when satellite operations were handed off to USGS on May 30th of that year. Landsat-8 carries two instruments: the Operational Land Imager (OLI) and the Thermal Infrared Sensor (TIRS). Typically once per month, the satellite executes a series of attitude maneuvers to scan the Moon over the entire OLI focal plane array, capturing lunar images in all 9 reflective solar bands (442 nm to 2200 nm) with each of the 14 Sensor Chip Assemblies (SCAs). These images have been processed at the USGS Earth Resources Observations …

Improvements Of Viirs Reflective Solar Bands (Rsb) Solar And Lunar Calibration, Jack Xiong, Ning Lei, Zhipeng Wang, Jon Fulbright, James Butler

Conference on Characterization and Radiometric Calibration for Remote Sensing (CALCON)

The Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) instrument on-board the Suomi-NPP satellite has successfully operated for more than 2 years since its launch in October, 2011. VIIRS has 15 reflective solar bands (RSB) with wavelengths ranging from 0.41 to 2.3 um, which include a day night band (DNB). VIIRS RSB calibration is performed each orbit using an on-board solar diffuser (SD). A fixed solar attenuation screen is placed in front of the SD panel. The SD on-orbit degradation is tracked on a daily basis by a solar diffuser stability monitor (SDSM), which has 8 filtered detectors covering wavelengths from 0.41 …

Stray Light Calibration Of Orbiting Sensors Using Solar Or Lunar Observations, Larry Gordley, Tom Marshall, Marty Mchugh

Conference on Characterization and Radiometric Calibration for Remote Sensing (CALCON)

This paper presents a method of calibrating the stray light component of signal for imaging sensors by scanning the sun or moon. The advance of FPA detectors has enabled a variety novel small sensors for inferring atmospheric parameters. However, reflections off detector arrays can create a large component of stray light that must be removed from the total signal. Limb observations are particularly susceptible to stray light error. This paper presents a method of accurate numerical removal of stray light signal as a "function" of the measurement. We show that the "function" can be inferred from lunar or solar scans.

Guidelines For Radiometric Calibration Of Electro-Optical Instruments For Remote Sensing, Joe Tansock, Dan Bancroft, James Butler, Changyong Cao, Raju Datla, Scott Hansen, Dennis Helder, Raghu Kacker, Harri Latvakoski, Martin Mlynczak, Tom Murdock, James Peterson, David Pollock, Ray Russell, Deron Scott, John Seamons, Tom Stone, Alan Thurgood, Richard Williams, Xiaoxiong (Jack) Xiong, Howard Yoon

Conference on Characterization and Radiometric Calibration for Remote Sensing (CALCON)

Sensor calibration increases the probability of mission success by quantifying the sensor’s response to known radiometric input, characterizing the interactions between the sensor's components, and allowing systematic errors to be discovered and resolved before launch. This workshop provides guidelines for conducting a successful EO sensor calibration campaign. It is intended for use by managers, technical oversight personnel, scientists, and engineers as a useful reference in planning and carrying out a sensor calibration.

The information presented at this workshop is based on a publication titled Guidelines for Radiometric Calibration of Electro-Optical Instruments for Remote Sensing that is due to be published …

Proba-V: The Example Of Onboard And Onground Autonomy, Stijn Ilsen, Dennis Gerrits, Davy Vrancken, Joris Naudet, Karim Mellab, Stefano Santandrea, Thomas Laroche, Alain Verheyden

Small Satellite Conference

The PROBA-V satellite, built by QinetiQ Space (Belgium), was launched on May 7th 2013. It is a small ESA satellite tasked with a full-scale mission: to map land cover and vegetation growth across the entire planet on an daily basis (+90% per day). It is the third satellite in the PROBA series, after PROBA-1 (launched on 22/10/2001) and PROBA-2 (launched on 2/11/2009), which are both still in nominal operations. The PROBA satellites are part of ESA’s In-orbit Technology Demonstration Programme, which handles missions dedicated to the demonstration of innovative technologies. PROBA stands for PRoject for OnBoard Autonomy. From the very …

Gomx-1 Flight Experience And Air Traffic Monitoring Results, Lars Alminde, Karl Kaas, Morten Bisgaard, Johan Christiansen, David Gerhardt

Small Satellite Conference

On the 21st of November 2013 the Dnepr rocket propelled a record number of small satellites into space including the 2 kg GOMX-1 satellite with a novel miniaturized payload for air traffic monitoring from Space. The mission of GOMX-1 is to demonstrate that ADS-B (Automatic Dependent Surveillance Broadcast) signals broadcasted by passenger aircraft can be received on a nano-satellite platform. The payload is composed of a deployable helical antenna and an ADS-B receiver module that is partly software-defined. The antenna is tuned to the 1090MHz ADS-B signal and extends 40cm when deployed compared to 2 cm in the stowed configuration. …

On-Orbit Performance Of The Bright Target Explorer (Brite) Nanosatellite Astronomy Constellation, Karan Sarda, Cordell Grant, Monica Chaumont, Seung Yun Choi, Bryan Johnston-Lemke, Robert Zee

Small Satellite Conference

In 2013, the first three satellites of the BRITE-Constellation mission, believed to be the world’s first satellite constellation dedicated to astronomy, were placed into orbit on two separate launches. To be eventually composed of at least six cooperating nanosatellites, BRITE-Constellation’s mission is to perform a survey of the most luminous stars in the Earth’s sky. In the push to observe ever fainter objects, these apparently bright stars, despite being prominent members of our most familiar constellations, have been poorly studied and are not well understood. Typically massive and short lived, through their turbulent lives and via their especially violent deaths …

Early Results Of The Cascade Technology Demonstration Payload On Cassiope, Mark Senez, Jeff Hemingway, Bruce Entus, A.W. Yau, G.A Enno

Small Satellite Conference

CASSIOPE (CASCADE, SmallSat and Ionospheric Polar Explorer) is a Canadian SmallSat mission that supports two distinct payloads, a suite of eight space science instruments which are referred to as e-POP (Enhanced Polar Outflow Probe) and an experimental technology demonstration payload, entitled CASCADE CX, which is the focus of this paper. The experimental payload will be used to demonstrate key aspects of implementing a space-based high volume data transfer. The design has been specifically optimized to enable very large and timely data file transfers. The CASCADE CX payload has been commissioned and several demonstration experiments have occurred which have validated key …

Comm For Small Sats: The Lunar Atmosphere And Dust Environment Explorer (Ladee) Communications Subsystem, Vanessa Kuroda, Mark Allard, Brian Lewis, Michael Lindsay

Small Satellite Conference

September 6, 2013 through April 21, 2014 marked the mission lifecycle of the highly successful LADEE (Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer) mission that orbited the moon to gather detailed information about the thin lunar atmosphere. This paper will address the development, risks, and lessons learned regarding the specification, selection, and deployment of LADEE’s unique Radio Frequency based communications subsystem and supporting tools. This includes the Electronic Ground Support Equipment (EGSE), test regimes, and RF dynamic link analysis environment developed to meet mission requirements for small, flexible, low cost, high performance, fast turnaround, and reusable spacecraft communication capabilities with easy …

Small Spacecraft Design And On-Orbit Performance For The Iris Mission, Gary Kushner, Brett Allard, Chris Hoffmann, Alan Title

Small Satellite Conference

In June 2013, the Interference Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS) launched from Vandenberg AFB for a two year solar observing science investigation to study the interface of the solar photosphere to the corona. IRIS is a NASA Small Explorers mission that is in a sun-synchronous, low-Earth orbit. It is obtaining high-resolution images and spectra of the chromosphere and transition region that, combined with advanced computer models, will explore how matter, light, and energy move from the sun’s 6,000 K surface to its million K outer atmosphere, the corona. This paper describes the design, development, and test of the 183 kg observatory …

Assessment Of Educational Expectations, Outcomes And Benefits From Small Satellite Program Participation, Jeremy Straub, Ronald Marsh

Small Satellite Conference

This paper begins to characterize the educational outcomes that can be produced from student participation in a small spacecraft development program. We asked students what benefits they expected to receive from program participation and we asked them, at the end of the semester, what benefits they had received. We also characterized student performance through the use of post-participation Likert-like scale questions and the use of a widely-used questionnaire for assessing student research participation outcomes. We compare benefit expectation and attainment, characterize the level of benefits received across multiple types of participation and assess the effect of program participation on subject-specific …

Dande - Operations And Implications, Tanya Hardon, Franklin Hinckley, Brenden Hogan, Brian Sanders

Small Satellite Conference

The DANDE mission will characterize how wind and density variability translates to drag forces on satellites in low-earth orbit (specifically an altitude of 350-500km). Here the density of the atmosphere varies greatly due to space weather and a better understanding of drag forces/composition can help predict how quickly a satellite's orbit will change. The team has gained a unique perspective through operation of the DANDE satellite, as most of the members are undergraduate students. The team has captured some of the most important lessons learned, and will focus on what was effective, as well as how other satellite projects can …

Galassia System And Mission, Luo Sha, Mouthaan Koenraad, Soh Wee Seng, Goh Cher Hiang, Alexander Ling Euk Jin

Small Satellite Conference

Galassia is a 2U Cubesat, which is currently developed by undergraduate students at the National University of Singapore (NUS). Galassia is the first NUS Cubesat, and is planned to be launched on the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) developed by the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) between September - December 2015. The Cubesat will be launched into a near equatorial orbit with an altitude of 550 km and an inclination of 15°. There are many educational and scientific objectives in this project. The educational objectives are for students to gain hands-on experience with real hardware and software integrations, to design …