Automated On-Orbit Absolute Radiometric Calibration: A Preliminary Method and Results

Abstract

On-orbit absolute radiometric calibration tracks sensor radiometric degradation and ensures accuracy for quantitative applications. Low-cost commercial satellites lack expensive on-board calibration systems, and traditional alternative methods cannot achieve automated, reliable calibration for large sensor fleets with low resource consumption. Pseudo-invariant calibration sites require no ground instruments, but commercial satellites’ heavy imaging schedules hinder frequent PICS observations. The Jilin-1 constellation is a large commercial constellation composed of satellites carrying multispectral imagers with resolution better than 1 m, and it has no on-board calibration system. Thus, an automated calibration method applicable to numerous imagers is needed, one that requires widely available clear-sky ground targets. Using MCD43A2 and MCD12Q1 products, we generate calibration region vectors to transfer the MODIS radiometric reference to Jilin-1. A look-up table (LUT) is constructed for the input parameters of the MODTRAN model. Calibration pixels and model input parameters are then extracted from Jilin-1 imagery using the region vectors, the LUT is interpolated to obtain the at-aperture radiance for each pixel and band, and on-orbit absolute radiometric calibration coefficients are calculated. The proposed method requires no ground-based synchronous experiments, achieves a high level of automation, and does not consume commercial imaging resources. The site calibration validation based on RadCalNet for the JL1GF02F PMS1 sensor shows that the maximum relative difference in the method across all bands is less than 4%.