Blackbody emissivity considerations for radiometric calibration of the MODIS Airborne Simulator (MAS) thermal channels

Christopher C. Moeller; Patrick S. Grant; Daniel Darch LaPorte; Liam E. Gumley; Pavel Hajek; W. Paul Menzel; Jeffrey S. Myers; Susan White

doi:10.1117/12.258114

11 November 1996 Blackbody emissivity considerations for radiometric calibration of the MODIS Airborne Simulator (MAS) thermal channels

Christopher C. Moeller, Patrick S. Grant, Daniel Darch LaPorte, Liam E. Gumley, Pavel Hajek, W. Paul Menzel, Jeffrey S. Myers, Susan White

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 2820, Earth Observing System; (1996) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.258114
Event: SPIE's 1996 International Symposium on Optical Science, Engineering, and Instrumentation, 1996, Denver, CO, United States

Abstract

The impact of non-unit calibration blackbody emissivity on MODIS airborne simulator (MAS) absolute thermal calibration accuracy is investigated. Estimates of blackbody effective emissivity were produced for MAS infrared channels using laboratory observations of a thermally controlled external source in a stable ambient environment. Results are consistent for spectrally close atmospheric window channels. SWIR channels show an effective emissivity of about 0.98; LWIR channels show an effective emissivity of about 0.94. Using non-unit blackbody effective emissivity reduces MAS warm scene brightness temperatures by about 1 degree Celsius and increases cold scene brightness temperatures by more than 5 degrees Celsius as compared to those inferred from assuming a unit emissivity blackbody. To test the MAS non- unit effective emissivity calibration, MAS and high- resolution interferometer sounder (HIS) LWIR data from a January 1995 ER-2 flight over the Gulf of Mexico were compared. Results show that including MAS blackbody effective emissivity decreases LWIR absolute calibration biases between the instruments to less than 0.5 degrees Celsius for all scene temperatures, and removes scene temperature dependence from the bias.

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Christopher C. Moeller, Patrick S. Grant, Daniel Darch LaPorte, Liam E. Gumley, Pavel Hajek, W. Paul Menzel, Jeffrey S. Myers, and Susan White "Blackbody emissivity considerations for radiometric calibration of the MODIS Airborne Simulator (MAS) thermal channels", Proc. SPIE 2820, Earth Observing System, (11 November 1996); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.258114

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