Calibration of the METEOSAT-VIS-channel by airborne measurements
Abstract
The calibration of the Meteosat VIS channel output with respect to the incoming radiance in the 0.4-1.1 micron band by means of comparison measurements with a precisely calibrated similar instrument carried on board a high-altitude aircraft is reported. Measurements were made at an altitude of 11 km by a radiometer equipped with a spectrally flat silicon UDT detector with a constant spectral response in the 0.4-1.1 micron region which was calibrated on board the aircraft, and were corrected for the atmosphere remaining above the aircraft by computations of the radiative transfer equation for five wavelengths. Calibration factors were determined for a land surface, a stratocumulus layer over the ocean and three cloudless ocean areas with six-bit resolution and an overall accuracy believed to be better than + or 5%. It is noted that due to the nonuniform spectral sensitivity of the Meteosat VIS channel, these calibration factors can only be applied directly to those surfaces over which comparison measurements have been made.
- Publication:
-
Applied Optics
- Pub Date:
- January 1981
- DOI:
- 10.1364/AO.20.000011
- Bibcode:
- 1981ApOpt..20...11K
- Keywords:
-
- Airborne Equipment;
- Calibrating;
- Meteosat Satellite;
- Optical Measurement;
- Spectral Bands;
- Atmospheric Optics;
- Channels (Data Transmission);
- Radiative Transfer;
- Space Communications, Spacecraft Communications, Command and Tracking;
- RADIOMETRY;
- RADIOMETERS