Adjustments to the MODIS Terra radiometric calibration and polarization sensitivity in the 2010 reprocessing

Gerhard Meister; Bryan A. Franz

doi:10.1117/12.891787

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13 September 2011 Adjustments to the MODIS Terra radiometric calibration and polarization sensitivity in the 2010 reprocessing

Gerhard Meister, Bryan A. Franz

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Proceedings Volume 8153, Earth Observing Systems XVI; 815308 (2011) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.891787
Event: SPIE Optical Engineering + Applications, 2011, San Diego, California, United States

Abstract

The Moderate-Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA's Earth Observing System (EOS) satellite Terra provides global coverage of top-of-atmosphere (TOA) radiances that have been successfully used for terrestrial and atmospheric research. The MODIS Terra ocean color products, however, have been compromised by an inadequate radiometric calibration at the short wavelengths. The Ocean Biology Processing Group (OBPG) at NASA has derived radiometric corrections using ocean color products from the SeaWiFS sensor as truth fields. In the R2010.0 reprocessing, these corrections have been applied to the whole mission life span of 10 years. This paper presents the corrections to the radiometric gains and to the instrument polarization sensitivity, demonstrates the improvement to the Terra ocean color products, and discusses issues that need further investigation. Although the global averages of MODIS Terra ocean color products are now in excellent agreement with those of SeaWiFS and MODIS Aqua, and image quality has been significantly improved, the large corrections applied to the radiometric calibration and polarization sensitivity require additional caution when using the data.

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Gerhard Meister and Bryan A. Franz "Adjustments to the MODIS Terra radiometric calibration and polarization sensitivity in the 2010 reprocessing", Proc. SPIE 8153, Earth Observing Systems XVI, 815308 (13 September 2011); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.891787

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