This PDF file contains the front matter associated with SPIE Proceedings Volume 9639 including the Title Page, Copyright information, Table of Contents, Introduction, and Conference Committee listing.

The Meteosat Third Generation (MTG) Programme is being realised through the well-established and successful cooperation between EUMETSAT and ESA. It will ensure the continuity with, and enhancement of, operational meteorological and climate data from Geostationary Orbit as currently provided by the Meteosat Second Generation (MSG) system. The industrial Prime Contractor for the Space segment is Thales Alenia Space (France) with a core team consortium including OHB-Bremen (Germany) and OHB-Munich (Germany. This contract includes the provision of six satellites, four Imaging satellites (MTG-I) and two Sounding satellites (MTG-S), which will ensure a total operational life of the MTG system in excess of 20 years. A clear technical baseline has been established for both MTG-I and MTG-S satellites, and confirmed through a rigorous Preliminary Design Review (PDR) process that was formally concluded during 2013. Dedicated reviews have been held for all the main elements including the core instruments (Flexible Combined Imager (FCI) and Infrared Sounder (IRS)), the Platform (which is largely common for the two satellites), the Lightning Imager (LI) and the MTG-I and MTG-S satellites as a whole. The satellites and instruments are at the moment in preparation for the Structural and Thermal Models (STM). The FCI is designed to provide images of the Earth every 10 to 2.5 minutes in 16 spectral channels between 0.44 and 13.3 μm, with a ground resolution ranging from 0.5 km to 2 km. The on-board calibration is based on the use of a Metallic Neutral Density (MND) filter for VIS/NIR channels and a blackbody for the IR channels. This paper introduces the overall FCI design and its calibration concept covering VIS/NIR and IR domains and it describes how the use of the MND makes it possible to accurately correct the medium and long term radiometric drifts of the IR3.8 μm channel.

In partnership with the European Commission and in the frame of the Copernicus program, the European Space Agency (ESA) is developing the Sentinel-2 optical imaging mission devoted to the operational monitoring of land and coastal areas. The Sentinel-2 mission is based on a satellites constellation offering a unique combination of global coverage with a wide field of view (290km), a high revisit (5 days with two satellites), a high spatial resolution (10m, 20m and 60m) and multi-spectral imagery (13 spectral bands in visible and shortwave infra-red domains). The Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales (CNES) supports ESA/ESTEC to insure the Calibration/Validation commissioning phase during the first three months in flight, providing refined Ground Image Processing Parameters and leaving then the floor to the ESA operational processing center after the commissioning phase. This paper provides an overview of the Technical Expertise Center Sentinel-2 (TEC-S2) which is the CNES expertise center in charge of the Calibration/Validation activities during the In Orbit Tests. It describes first the functional breakdown and the IT architecture put in place, regarding to the Sentinel 2 calibration needs and depending on CNES organization. A focus is made on software reuse and also on the parallelization of tasks processing voluminous data. Indeed, the significant 290 km swath image products, associated with the 13 spectral bands and the 12 detectors of the specific focal plan constitute a good opportunity to implement new software configurations. Then, as a second step, it provides the first feedbacks on the operations carried out by this center and in particular the first results on data processing performances.

In partnership with the European Commission and in the frame of the Copernicus program, the European Space Agency (ESA) is developing the Sentinel-2 optical imaging mission devoted to the operational monitoring of land and coastal areas. The Sentinel-2 mission is based on a satellites constellation deployed in polar sun-synchronous orbit. Sentinel-2 offers a unique combination of global coverage with a wide field of view (290km), a high revisit (5 days with two satellites), a high spatial resolution (10m, 20m and 60m) and multi-spectral imagery (13 spectral bands in visible and shortwave infrared domains). The first satellite, Sentinel-2A, has been launched in June 2015. The Sentinel-2A Commissioning Phase starts immediately after the Launch and Early Orbit Phase and continues until the In-Orbit Commissioning Review which is planned three months after the launch. The Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales (CNES) supports ESA/ESTEC to insure the Calibration/Validation commissioning phase during the first three months in flight. This paper provides first an overview of the Sentinel-2 system and a description of the products delivered by the ground segment associated to the main radiometric specifications to achieve. Then the paper focuses on the preliminary radiometric results obtained during the in-flight commissioning phase. The radiometric methods and calibration sites used in the CNES image quality center to reach the specifications of the sensor are described. A status of the Sentinel-2A radiometric performances at the end of the first three months after the launch is presented. We will particularly address in this paper the results in term of absolute calibration, pixel to pixel relative sensitivity and MTF estimation.

Sentinel-2 is an optical imaging mission devoted to the operational monitoring of land and coastal areas. It is developed in partnership between the European Commission and the European Space Agency. The Sentinel-2 mission is based on a satellites constellation deployed in polar sun-synchronous orbit. It will offer a unique combination of global coverage with a wide field of view (290km), a high revisit (5 days with two satellites), a high resolution (10m, 20m and 60m) and multi-spectral imagery (13 spectral bands in visible and shortwave infra-red domains). CNES is involved in the instrument commissioning in collaboration with ESA. This paper reviews all the techniques that will be used to insure an absolute calibration of the 13 spectral bands better than 5% (target 3%), and will present the first results if available. First, the nominal calibration technique, based on an on-board sun diffuser, is detailed. Then, we show how vicarious calibration methods based on acquisitions over natural targets (oceans, deserts, and Antarctica during winter) will be used to check and improve the accuracy of the absolute calibration coefficients. Finally, the verification scheme, exploiting photometer in-situ measurements over Lacrau plain, is described. A synthesis, including spectral coherence, inter-methods agreement and temporal evolution, will conclude the paper.

Earth’s changing environment impacts every aspect of life on our planet and climate change has profound implications on society. Studying Earth as a single complex system is essential to understanding the causes and consequences of climate change and other global environmental concerns. NASA’s Earth Science Division (ESD) shapes an interdisciplinary view of Earth, exploring interactions among the atmosphere, oceans, ice sheets, land surface interior, and life itself. This enables scientists to measure global and climate changes and to inform decisions by government, other organizations, and people in the United States and around the world. The data collected and results generated are accessible to other agencies and organizations to improve the products and services they provide, including air quality indices, disaster prediction and response, agricultural yield projections, and aviation safety. ESD’s Flight Program provides the space based observing systems and infrastructure for mission operations and scientific data processing and distribution that support NASA’s Earth science research and modeling activities. The Flight Program currently has 21 operating Earth observing space missions, including the recently launched Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) mission, the Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2), the Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) mission, and the International Space Station (ISS) RapidSCAT and Cloud-Aerosol Transport System (CATS) instruments. The ESD has 22 more missions and instruments planned for launch over the next decade. These include first and second tier missions from the 2007 Earth Science Decadal Survey, Climate Continuity missions and selected instruments to assure availability of key climate data sets, operational missions to ensure sustained land imaging provided by the Landsat system, and small-sized competitively selected orbital missions and instrument missions of opportunity belonging to the Earth Venture (EV) Program. Some examples are the NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR), Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT), ICESat-2, SAGE III on ISS, Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment Follow On (GRACE FO), Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution (TEMPO), Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System (CYGNSS), ECOsystem Spaceborne Thermal Radiometer Experiment on Space Station (ECOSTRESS), and Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation (GEDI) Lidar missions. An overview of plans and current status will be presented.

Landsat 8 and its two Earth imaging sensors, the Operational Land Imager (OLI) and Thermal Infrared Sensor (TIRS) have been operating on-orbit for 2 ½ years. Landsat 8 has been acquiring substantially more images than initially planned, typically around 700 scenes per day versus a 400 scenes per day requirement, acquiring nearly all land scenes. Both the TIRS and OLI instruments are exceeding their SNR requirements by at least a factor of 2 and are very stable, degrading by at most 1% in responsivity over the mission to date. Both instruments have 100% operable detectors covering their cross track field of view using the redundant detectors as necessary. The geometric performance is excellent, meeting or exceeding all performance requirements. One anomaly occurred with the TIRS Scene Select Mirror (SSM) encoder that affected its operation, though by switching to the side B electronics, this was fully recovered. The one challenge is with the TIRS stray light, which affects the flat fielding and absolute calibration of the TIRS data. The error introduced is smaller in TIRS band 10. Band 11 should not currently be used in science applications.

Six programs, i.e. AMSR-E, ASTER, GOSAT, GCOM-W1, GPM and ALOS-2 are going on in Japanese Earth Observation programs. ASTER has lost its short wave infrared channels. AMSR-E stopped its operation, but it started its operation from Sep. 2012. GCOM-W1 was launched on 18, May, 2012 and is operating well as well as GOSAT. ALOS (Advanced Land Observing Satellite) was successfully launched on 24th Jan. 2006. ALOS carries three instruments, i.e., PRISM (Panchromatic Remote Sensing Instrument for Stereo Mapping), AVNIR-2 (Advanced Visible and Near Infrared Radiometer), and PALSAR (Phased Array L band Synthetic Aperture Radar). Unfortunately, ALOS has stopped its operation on 22nd, April, 2011 by power loss. GOSAT (Greenhouse Gas Observation Satellite) was successfully launched on 29, January, 2009. GOSAT carries 2 instruments, i.e. a green house gas sensor (TANSO-FTS) and a cloud/aerosol imager (TANSO-CAI). The main sensor is a Fourier transform spectrometer (FTS) and covers 0.76 to 15 μm region with 0.2 to 0.5 cm^-1 resolution. SMILES (Super-conducting Millimeter wave Emission Spectrometer) was launched on September 2009 to ISS and started the observation, but stopped its operation on April 2010. GPM (Global Precipitation Mission) core satellite was launched on Feb. 2014. GPM is a joint project with NASA and carries two instruments. JAXA has developed DPR (Dual frequency Precipitation Radar) which is a follow on of PR on TRMM. ALOS F/O satellites are divided into two satellites, i.e. SAR and optical satellites. The first one of ALOS F/O is called ALOS 2 and carries L-band SAR. It was launched on May 2014. JAXA is planning to launch follow on of optical sensors. It is now called Advanced Optical Satellite and the planned launch date is fiscal 2019. Other future satellites are GCOM-C1 (ADEOS-2 follow on), GOSAT-2 and EarthCare. GCOM-C1 will be launched on 2016 and GOSAT-2 will be launched on 2017. Another project is EarthCare. It is a joint project with ESA and JAXA is going to provide CPR (Cloud Profiling Radar). EarthCare will be launched on 2018.

The Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) Visible and Near Infrared Radiometer (VNIR) is the remote sensing equipment which has 3 spectral bands and one along-track stereoscopic band radiometer. ASTER VNIR’s planned long life design (more than 5 years) is successfully achieved. ASTER VNIR has been imaging the World-wide Earth surface multiband images and the Global Digital Elevation Model (GDEM). VNIR data create detailed world-wide maps and change-detection of the earth surface as utilization transitions and topographical changes. ASTER VNIR’s geometric resolution is 15 meters; it is the highest spatial resolution instrument on NASA’s Terra spacecraft. Then, ASTER VNIR was planned for the geometrical basis map makers in Terra instruments. After 15-years VNIR growth to the standard map-maker for space remote-sensing. This paper presents VNIR’s feature items during 15-year operation as change-detection images , DEM and calibration result. VNIR observed the World-wide Earth images for biological, climatological, geological, and hydrological study, those successful work shows a way on space remote sensing instruments. Still more, VNIR 15 years observation data trend and onboard calibration trend data show several guide or support to follow-on instruments.

The Advanced Land Observing Satellite-2 (ALOS-2) was launched from Tanegashima Space Center by H-IIA rocket successfully on 24th May 2014. ALOS-2 carries the Phased Array type L-band Synthetic Aperture Radar-2 (PALSAR-2) as the state-of-the-art L-band SAR system which succeeds to PALSAR onboard ALOS. PALSAR-2 uses almost whole bandwidth allocated for L-band active sensor of Earth Exploration Satellites Service specified by the Radio Regulation in order to realize the high resolution observation, and also, it transmits more than 6 kW power for lower Noise Equivalent Sigma Zero using 180 TRMs driven by Gallium Nitride (GaN) amplifier which is the first use in space. Furthermore, because ALOS-2 carries the SAR system only, PALSAR-2 antenna can be mounted under the satellite body. It enables to observe right-/left-looking observation by satellite maneuvering. And the high accuracy orbit control to maintain the satellite within 500 m radius tube against the reference orbit enables high coherence for the InSAR processing. Using these new technologies, ALOS-2 has been operating to fulfill the mission requirements such as disaster monitoring and so on. This document introduces the initial result of ALOS-2 from the first year operation.

Compact Infrared Camera (CIRC) is a technology demonstration instrument equipped with an uncooled infrared array detector (microbolometer) for space application. Microbolometers have an advantage of not requiring cooling system such as a mechanical cooler and are suitable for resource-limited sensor systems. Another characteristic of the CIRC is its use of an athermal optical system and a shutterless system. The CIRC is small in size (approximately 200 mm), is light weight (approximately 3 kg), and has low electrical power consumption (<20 W) owing to these characteristics. The main objective of CIRC is to detect wildfires, which are major and chronic disasters affecting various countries of Southeast Asia, particularly considering the effects of global warming and climate change. One of the CIRCs was launched in May 24, 2014 as a technology demonstration payload of the Advanced Land Observation Satellite-2 (ALOS- 2). Since the initial functional verification phase (July 4–14, 2014), the CIRC has demonstrated functions according to its intended design. We also confirmed that the noise equivalent differential temperature of the CIRC observation data is less than 0.2 K, the temperature accuracy is within ±4 K, and the spatial resolution is less than 210 m in the calibration validation phase after the initial functional verification phase. The CIRC also detects wildfires in various areas and observes volcano activities and urban heat islands in the operational phase. The other CIRC will be launched in 2015 onboard the CALorimetric Electron Telescope (CALET) of the Japanese Experiment Module (JEM) of the International Space Station. Installation of the CIRCs on the ALOS-2 and on the JEM/CALET is expected to increase the observation frequency. In this study, we present the on-orbit performance including observational results of the CIRC onboard the ALOS-2 and the current status of the CIRC onboard the JEM/CALET.

The Dual-frequency Precipitation Radar (DPR) on the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) core satellite was developed by Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT). The GPM is a follow-on mission of the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM). The objectives of the GPM mission are to observe global precipitation more frequently and accurately than TRMM. The frequent precipitation measurement about every three hours will be achieved by some constellation satellites with microwave radiometers (MWRs) or microwave sounders (MWSs), which will be developed by various countries. The accurate measurement of precipitation in mid-high latitudes will be achieved by the DPR. The GPM core satellite is a joint product of National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), JAXA and NICT. NASA developed the satellite bus and the GPM Microwave Imager (GMI), and JAXA and NICT developed the DPR. JAXA and NICT developed the DPR through procurement. The configuration of precipitation measurement using active radar and a passive radiometer is similar to TRMM. The major difference is that DPR is used in GPM instead of the precipitation radar (PR) in TRMM. The inclination of the core satellite is 65 degrees, and the nominal flight altitude is 407 km. The non-sun-synchronous circular orbit is necessary for measuring the diurnal change of rainfall similarly to TRMM. The DPR consists of two radars, which are Ku-band (13.6 GHz) precipitation radar (KuPR) and Ka-band (35.5 GHz) precipitation radar (KaPR). Both KuPR and KaPR have almost the same design as TRMM PR. The DPR system design and performance were verified through the ground test. GPM core observatory was launched at 18:37:00 (UT) on February 27, 2014 successfully. DPR orbital check out was completed in May 2014. The results of orbital checkout show that DPR meets its specification on orbit. After completion of initial checkout, DPR started Normal Operations and Initial Calibration and Validation period was started. JAXA conducted internal calibrations, external calibrations and phase code changes to mitigate KuPR sidelobe clutter effect. JAXA evaluated these operations results and concluded that DPR data could go public. DPR products were released to the public on Sep. 2, 2014 and Normal Observation Operation period was started. JAXA is continuing DPR trend monitoring, calibration operations to confirm that DPR keeps its function and performance on orbit.

Earth Clouds, Aerosols and Radiation Explorer (EarthCARE) is a Japanese-European collaborative earth observation satellite mission aimed to deepen understanding of the interaction process between clouds and aerosols and their effects on the Earth’s radiation. The outcome of this mission is expected to improve the accuracy of global climate change prediction. As one of instruments for EarthCARE, the Cloud Profiling Radar (CPR) is the world’s first space-borne Doppler cloud radar jointly developed by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT). In Japan, the critical design review of the CPR has been completed in 2013, and CPR proto-flight model was manufactured and integrated until summer in 2015. Finally, the proto-flight test have been just started. This paper describes the design results and current status of CPR proto-flight test.

Global Change Observation Mission (GCOM) consists of two series of satellites, GCOM-W (Water) and GCOM-C (Climate) for long-term monitoring of earth environment. Second-generation Global Imager (SGLI), the onboard mission instrument of GCOM-C, is the wide FOV multi-spectral optical radiometer in the wavelength range of near-UV to thermal infrared. SGLI consists of two sensor units, Visible and Near Infrared Radiometer (SGLI-VNR) and Infrared Scanning Radiometer (SGLI-IRS). SGLI will provide high accuracy measurements of Ocean, Atmosphere, Land and Cryosphere. Manufacturing and sensor system integration of SGLI flight models were completed. The sensor system proto-flight tests (PFTs) are on-going including optical characterization tests such as radiometric tests using an integrating sphere and geometric and MTF tests using a collimator. This paper describes development and pre-launch test status of SGLI flight model. Especially we focus on the pre-launch radiometric performances such as the spectral response characteristics and signal to noise ratio.

IPCC Fifth Assessment Report says that there are still large uncertainties of carbon flux estimations in the interaction between ground and atmosphere. That is because of the uncertainties of “change of land use”, in other words, “change of biomass” such as deforestation. Biomass estimation needs not only area of the forest but also its height information with topological features. In that sense, active sensors are highly expected for precise height measurement. Laser Altimeter or simply LIDAR is able to measure the height of dense forest, where SAR has salutation. ICESat / GLAS is firstly used to measure biomass as satellite LIDAR. However it was reported that there is uncertainty where terrain relief exists. To calibrate terrain relief using multi footprints, a Vegetation LIDAR named MOLI (Multi Observation LIDAR and Imager) was studied by JAXA. The unique points of MOLI are the dual beams with enough small and close footprints to determine terrain relief. Full wave analysis technique is also under development to distinguish canopy heights, crown depth and other forest features. Co-aligned imager will be used for determination of positions where LIDAR measured and observation of phonology. MOLI system design is about to finalize. Regarding Laser Transmitter, Bread Board Model with pressure vessel is being tested under vacuum condition. Target launch year of MOLI is around 2019.

Sensitivity studies of temperature and chemical species (Observed by ISS/JEM/SMILES: O₃, HCl, ClO, HO₂, BrO, HNO₃, CH₃CN, and Not observed by SMILES: Temperature, H₂O, N₂O, NO₂, NO, CH₃Cl, CO, H₂CO, OH and O-atom) was carried out for the SMILES-2 proposal, a sub-mm and THz observation of limb emission from space over the spectral region from 400 GHz to 2.5 THz. Tentative but optimal candidate of frequency bands to cover these species was selected with 3 SIS (Superconductor-Insulator-Superconductor) mixers; SIS-1 (485-489 GHz + 523-527 GHz), SIS-2 (623-627 GHz + 648-652 GHz), SIS-3 (557 GHz + 576.3 GHz) and 2 HEB (Hot Electron Bolometer); HEB-1 (1.8 THz OH) and HEB-2 (2.06 THz O-atom). Temperature can be retrieved with 1 K precision and 1 km vertical resolution from 15 to 120 km. Other chemical species also showed very high single scan precision (random error) comparable to statistical standard error of previous satellite measurements.

Satellite missions for measuring winds in the troposphere and thermosphere will be launched in a near future. There is no plan to observe winds in the altitude range between 30-90 km, though middle atmospheric winds are recognized as an essential parameter in various atmospheric research areas. Sub-millimetre limb sounders have the capability to fill this altitude gap. In this paper, we summarize the wind retrievals obtained from the Japanese Superconducting Submillimeter Wave Limb Emission Sounder (SMILES) which operated from the International Space Station between September 2009 and April 2010. The results illustrate the potential of such instruments to measure winds. They also show the need of improving the wind representation in the models in the Tropics, and globally in the mesosphere. A wind measurement sensitivity study has been conducted for its successor, SMILES-2, which is being studied in Japan. If it is realized, sub-millimeter and terahertz molecular lines suitable to determine line-of-sight winds will be measured. It is shown that with the current instrument definition, line-of-sight winds can be observed from 20 km up to more than 160 km. Winds can be retrieved with a precision better than 5 ms^-1 and a vertical resolution of 2-3 km between 35-90 km. Above 90 km, the precision is better than 10 ms^-1 with a vertical resolution of 3-5 km. Measurements can be performed day and night with a similar sensitivity. Requirements on observation parameters such as the antenna size, the satellite altitude are discussed. An alternative setting for the spectral bands is examined. The new setting is compatible with the general scientific objectives of the mission and the instrument design. It allows to improve the wind measurement sensitivity between 35 to 90 km by a factor 2. It is also shown that retrievals can be performed with a vertical resolution of 1 km and a precision of 5-10 ms^-1 between 50 and 90 km.

Remote sensing is a priority activity for the European Space Agency and detector performance is a crucial factor in determining how well this role is performed. Consequently, the Agency has a strong interest in continuous improvement of both detector capabilities and availability within Europe. To this end, ESA maintains a number of strategic detector development plans combining both technology-push and technology-pull. The visible and infrared wavebands are of particular interest for remote sensing activities and this paper sets out the requirements for current and future missions and presents details of the Agency’s current and planned detector developments.

For nearly 40 years AIM develops, manufactures and delivers photo-voltaic and photo-conductive infrared sensors and associated cryogenic coolers which are mainly used for military applications like pilotage, weapon sights, UAVs or vehicle platforms. In 2005 AIM started to provide the competences also for space applications like IR detector units for the SLSTR instrument on board of the Sentinel 3 satellite, the hyperspectral SWIR Imager for EnMAP or pushbroom detectors for high resolution Earth observation satellites. Meanwhile AIM delivered more than 25 Flight Models for several customers. The first European pulse-tube cooler ever operating on-board of a satellite is made by AIM. AIM homes the required infrared core capabilities such as design and manufacturing of focal plane assemblies, detector housing technologies, development and manufacturing of cryocoolers and also data processing for thermal IR cameras under one roof which enables high flexibility to react to customer needs and assures economical solutions. Cryogenically cooled Hg_(1-x)Cd_xTe (MCT) quantum detectors are unequalled for applications requiring high imaging as well as high radiometric performance in the infrared spectral range. Compared with other technologies, they provide several advantages, such as the highest quantum efficiency, lower power dissipation compared to photoconductive devices and fast response times, hence outperforming micro-bolometer arrays. However, achieving an excellent MCT detector performance at long (LWIR) and very long (VLWIR) infrared wavelengths is challenging due to the exponential increase in the thermally generated photodiode dark current with increasing cut-off wavelength and / or operating temperature. Dark current is a critical design driver, especially for LWIR / VLWIR multi-spectral imagers with moderate signal levels or hyper-spectral Fourier spectrometers operating deep into the VLWIR spectral region. Consequently, low dark current (LDC) technologies are the prerequisite for future scientific space and earth observation missions. Aiming, for example at exoplanet or earth atmospheric spectral analysis, significant improvement in LWIR / VLWIR detector material performance is mandatory. LDC material optimization can target different directions of impact: (i) reduction of dark current for a given operational temperature to increase SNR and reduce thermally induced signal offset variations. (ii) operation at elevated temperatures at a given dark current level to reduce mass and power budget of the required cryocooler and to reduce cryostat complexity. (iii) increase the accessible cut-off wavelength at constant detector temperature and dark current level. This paper presents AIM’s latest results on n-on-p as well as p-on-n low dark current planar MCT photodiode focal plane detector arrays at cut-off wavelengths >11 μm at 80 K. Dark current densities below Tennant’s ‘Rule07^’1 have been demonstrated for n-on-p and p-on-n devices. This work has been carried out under ESA contract ESTEC 4000107414/13/NL/SFe².

SOFRADIR is one of the leading companies involved in the development and manufacturing of infrared detectors for space applications. As a matter of fact, SOFRADIR is present in many space programs in visible and SWIR spectral ranges. Most of these programs concern hyperspectral imagery observation of the earth but also some scientific applications. For more than 10 years, the Saturn generation detector (VISIR or SWIR) of Sofradir was the basis of numerous space missions. In order to answer future mission needs which require larger detector for better spatial and spectral resolutions while complying with all specifications reflecting the state of requirements for space detectors, SOFRADIR has developed a new detector in a frame of an ESA R and T program, named Next Generation Panchromatic Detector (NGP). While designed for VISIR and SWIR spectral ranges, this detector is also studied to be extended in MWIR spectral range. In this paper, NGP detector will be described as well as its performances. Space applications using this detector will be presented also showing appropriateness of its use to answer space programs specifications, as for example those of Sentinel-5.

Push broom multi-band Focal Plane Array (FPA) design needs to consider optics, image sensor, electronic, mechanic as well as thermal. Conventional FPA use two or several CCD device as an image sensor. The CCD image sensor requires several high speed, high voltage and high current clock drivers as well as analog video processors to support their operation. Signal needs to digitize using external sample / hold and digitized circuit. These support circuits are bulky, consume a lot of power, must be shielded and placed in close to the CCD to minimize the introduction of unwanted noise. The CCD also needs to consider how to dissipate power. The end result is a very complicated FPA and hard to make due to more weighs and draws more power requiring complex heat transfer mechanisms. In this paper, we integrate microelectronic technology and multi-layer soft / hard Printed Circuit Board (PCB) technology to design electronic portion. Since its simplicity and integration, the optics, mechanic, structure and thermal design will become very simple. The whole FPA assembly and dis-assembly reduced to a few days. A multi-band CMOS Sensor (dedicated as C468) was used for this design. The CMOS Sensor, allow for the incorporation of clock drivers, timing generators, signal processing and digitization onto the same Integrated Circuit (IC) as the image sensor arrays. This keeps noise to a minimum while providing high functionality at reasonable power levels. The C468 is a first Multiple System-On-Chip (MSOC) IC. This device used our proprietary wafer butting technology and MSOC technology to combine five long sensor arrays into a size of 120 mm x 23.2 mm and 155 mm x 60 mm for chip and package, respectively. The device composed of one Panchromatic (PAN) and four different Multi- Spectral (MS) sensors. Due to its integration on the electronic design, a lot of room is clear for the thermal design. The optical and mechanical design is become very straight forward. The flight model FPA passed all of the reliability testing.

In this paper, we report about a family of linear imaging FPAs sensitive in the [0.9 - 1.7um] band, developed for high speed applications such as LIDAR, wavelength references and OCT analyzers and also for earth observation applications. Fast linear FPAs can also be used in a wide variety of terrestrial applications, including high speed sorting, electro- and photo-luminesce and medical applications. The arrays are based on a modular ROIC design concept: modules of 512 pixels are stitched during fabrication to achieve 512, 1024 and 2048 pixel arrays. In principle, this concept can be extended to any multiple of 512 pixels, the limiting factor being the pixel yield of long InGaAs arrays and the CTE differences in the hybrid setup. Each 512-pixel module has its own on-chip digital sequencer, analog readout chain and 4 output buffers. This modular concept enables a long-linear array to run at a high line rate of 400 KHz irrespective of the array length, which limits the line rate in a traditional linear array. The pixel has a pitch of 12.5um. The detector frontend is based on CTIA (Capacitor Trans-impedance Amplifier), having 5 selectable integration capacitors giving full well from 62x10³e- (gain0) to 40x10⁶e- (gain4). An auto-zero circuit limits the detector bias non-uniformity to 5-10mV across broad intensity levels, limiting the input referred dark signal noise to 20e-_rms for Tint=3ms at room temperature. An on-chip CDS that follows the CTIA facilitates removal of Reset/KTC noise, CTIA offsets and most of the 1/f noise. The measured noise of the ROIC is 35e-_rms in gain0. At a master clock rate of 60MHz and a minimum integration time of 1.4us, the FPAs reach the highest line rate of 400 KHz.

As part of a strategy to provide increasingly complex systems to customers, e2v is currently developing the sensor solution for focal plane array for the WSO-UV (World Space Observatory – Ultraviolet) programme, a Russian led 170 cm space astronomical telescope. This is a fully integrated sensor system for the detection of UV light across 3 channels: 2 high resolution spectrometers covering wavelengths of 115 – 176 nm and 174 – 310 nm and a Long-Slit Spectrometer covering 115 nm – 310 nm. This paper will describe the systematic approach and technical solution that has been developed based on e2v’s long heritage, CCD experience and expertise. It will show how this approach is consistent with the key performance requirements and the overall environment requirements that the delivered system will experience through ground test, integration, storage and flight.

We report on the evaluation of InAs photodiodes and their potential for low temperature sensing. InAs n-i-p photodiodes were grown and analyzed in this work. Radiation thermometry measurements were performed at reference blackbody temperatures of 37 to 80°C to determine photocurrent and temperature error. The uncooled InAs photodiodes, with a cutoff wavelength of 3.55 μm, detect a target temperature above 37°C with a temperature error of less than 0.46°C. When the photodiode was cooled to 200 K, the temperature error at 37°C improves by 10 times from 0.46 to 0.048°C, suggesting the potential of using InAs for human temperature sensing.

The spatial resolution of optical monitoring satellites increases continuously and it is more and more difficult to satisfy the stability constraints of the instrument. The compactness requirements induce high sensitivity to drift during storage and launching. The implementation of an active loop for the control of the performances for the telescope becomes essential, in the same way of astronomy telescopes on ground. The active loop requires disposing of informations in real time of optical distortions of the wavefront, due to mirror deformations. It is the role of the Shack-Hartmann wave front sensor studied by Sodern. It is located in the focal plane of the telescope, in edge of field of view, in order not to disturb acquisition by the main instrument. Its particular characteristic, compared to a traditional wavefront sensor is not only to work on point source as star image, but also on extended scenes, as those observed by the instrument. The exit pupil of the telescope is imaged on a micro lenses array by a relay optics. Each element of the micro lenses array generates a small image, drifted by the local wavefront slope. The processing by correlation between small images allows to measure local slope and to recover the initial wavefront deformation according to Zernike decomposition. Sodern has realized the sensor dimensioning and has studied out the comparison of various algorithms of images correlation making it possible to measure the local slopes of the wave front. Simulations, taking into account several types of detectors, enabled to compare the performances of these solutions and a choice of detector was carried out. This article describes the state of progress of the work done so far. It shows the result of the comparisons on the choice of the detector, the main features of the sensor definition and the performances obtained.

Publisher's Note: This paper, originally published on 10/12/2015, was replaced with a corrected/revised version on 10/23/2015. If you downloaded the original PDF but are unable to access the revision, please contact SPIE Digital Library Customer Service for assistance. The Payload Technology Validation Section (SRE-FV) at ESTEC has the goal to validate new technology for future or on-going mission. In this framework, a test set up to characterize the quantum efficiency of near-infrared (NIR) detectors has been created. In the context of the NIR European Large Format Array (“LFA”), 3 deliverables detectors coming from SELEX-UK/ATC (UK) on one side, and CEA/LETI- CEA/IRFU-SOFRADIR (FR) on the other side were characterized. The quantum efficiency of an HAWAII-2RG detector from Teledyne was as well measured. The capability to compare on the same setup detectors from different manufacturers is a unique asset for the future mission preparation office. This publication will present the quantum efficiency results of a HAWAII-2RG detector from Teledyne with a 2.5um cut off compared to the LFA European detectors prototypes developed independently by SELEX-UK/ATC (UK) on one side, and CEA/LETI- CEA/IRFU-SOFRADIR (FR) on the other side.

The first VIIRS instrument was launched on-board the S-NPP satellite in October 2011. It has a total of 15 reflective solar bands (RSB), which include a day-night band (DNB). The VIIRS RSB are calibrated each orbit by an on-board solar diffuser and regularly scheduled lunar observations. With a few exceptions, regularly scheduled lunar observations have been made with the same phase angles from -51.5⁰ to -50.5⁰. The PLEIADES system consists of two satellites, PLEIADES-1A and PLEIADES-1B, which were launched in December of 2011 and December of 2012, respectively. Each instrument has 5 RSB: four (blue, green, red and near-infrared) bands with a 2.8 m spatial resolution and one panchromatic band with a 70 cm vertical viewing resolution. PLEIADES RSB are calibrated using observations of Pseudo Invariant Calibration Sites (PICS) and the Moon. Both PLEIADES-1A and PLEIADES-1B lunar observations have been made over a wide range of phase angles. In this paper we provide an overview of S-NPP VIIRS and PLEIADES lunar observations and an analysis to qualify their lunar calibration differences. Results derived from different inter-comparison methodologies (or approaches) are illustrated. Also discussed in this paper are the challenging issues, lessons, and future effort to further improve sensor lunar calibration inter-comparisons.

In December 2014 experts from 14 different agencies and departments attended the joint GSICS – CEOS/IVOS Lunar Calibration Workshop meeting organised by EUMETSAT in collaboration with USGS, CNES and NASA. Altogether, this represents potentially more than 25 instruments capable of observing the Moon. The main objectives of the workshop were i) to work across agencies with the GSICS Implementation of the ROLO model (GIRO) - a common and validated implementation of the USGS lunar radiometric reference, ii) to share knowledge and expertise on lunar calibration and iii) to generate for the first time a reference dataset that could be used for validation and comparisons. This lunar calibration community endorsed the GIRO to be the established publicly available reference for lunar calibration, directly traceable to the USGS ROLO model. However, further effort is required to reach inter-calibration between instruments, in particular for each instrument team to accurately estimate the over-sampling factor for their images of the Moon. A way to develop a cross-calibration algorithm and GSICS inter-calibration products is proposed. This includes key issues of fixing the GIRO calibration to an absolute scale, addressing spectral differences between instruments, and improving the existing calibration reference, which translates into future updates of the GIRO. The availability of extensive Moon observation datasets will help to further improve this reference and is expected to grow with the availability of additional lunar observations from past, current and future missions. All participants agreed on EUMETSAT pursuing its efforts in developing and maintaining the GIRO in collaboration with USGS to ensure traceability to the reference ROLO model.

The Terra and Aqua satellites are part of NASA’s Earth Observing System and both satellites host a nearly-identical Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS). Of the 36 MODIS spectral bands mounted among four Focal Plane Assemblies (FPAs) two have a 250 meter spatial resolution at nadir. Five bands have a spatial resolution of 500 meters, while the remaining bands make observations at 1 kilometer resolution. MODIS is equipped with a suite of onboard calibrators to track on-orbit changes in key sensor performance parameters. The Spectro-Radiometric Calibration Assembly (SRCA) contains a calibration source that allows on-orbit assessment of MODIS spatial performance, providing information on current band-to-band registration (BBR), FPA-to-FPA registration (FFR), detector-to-detector registration (DDR), modulation transfer function (MTF), and instantaneous field-of-view (IFOV). In this paper, we present the methodology of the on-orbit spatial calibrations using SRCA and the results of these key spatial parameters. The MODIS spatial characteristics, measured on-orbit, are compared against design specifications and pre-launch measurements.

Both Terra MODIS and Landsat 7 (L7) Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+) have been successfully operating for over 15 years to collect valuable measurements of the earth’s land, ocean, and atmosphere. The land-viewing bands of both sensors are widely used in several scientific products such as surface reflectance, normalized difference vegetation index, enhanced vegetation index etc. A synergistic use of the multi-temporal measurements from both sensors can greatly benefit the science community. Previous effort from the MODIS Characterization Support Team (MCST) was focused on comparing the top-of-atmosphere reflectance of the two sensors over Libya 4 desert target. Uncertainties caused by the site/atmospheric BRDF, spectral response mismatch, and atmospheric water-vapor were also characterized. In parallel, an absolute calibration approach based on empirical observation was also developed for the Libya 4 site by the South Dakota State University’s (SDSU) Image Processing Lab. Observations from Terra MODIS and Earth Observing One (EO-1) Hyperion were used to model the Landsat ETM+ TOA reflectance. Recently, there has been an update to the MODIS calibration algorithm, which has resulted in the newly reprocessed Collection 6 Level 1B calibrated products. Similarly, a calibration update to some ETM+ bands has also resulted in long-term improvements of its calibration accuracy. With these updates, calibration differences between the spectrally matching bands of Terra MODIS and L7 ETM+ over the Libya 4 site are evaluated using both approaches.

This paper presents a vicarious radiometric calibration of the Korea Multi-Purpose Satellite-3 (KOMPSAT-3) performed by the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) and the Pukyong National University Remote Sensing Group (PKNU RSG) in 2012 and 2014. Correlations between top-of-atmosphere (TOA) radiances and the spectral band responses of the KOMPSAT-3 sensors at the Zuunmod, Mongolia and Goheung, South Korea sites were significant for multispectral bands. KOMPSAT-3 calibration coefficients for all bands estimated in 2012 continued to agree well with calibration coefficients estimated in 2014 (within 1.5%). The average difference in TOA reflectance between KOMPSAT-3 and Landsat-8 image over the Libya 4, Libya site in the red-green-blue (RGB) region was under 3%, whereas in the NIR band, the TOA reflectance of KOMPSAT-3 was lower than the that of Landsat-8 due to the difference in the band passes of two sensors. The KOMPSAT-3 sensor includes a band pass near 940 nm that can be strongly absorbed by water vapor and therefore displayed low reflectance. To overcome this, we need to undertake a detailed analysis using rescale methods, such as the spectral bandwidth adjustment factor (SBAF).

The S-NPP Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) instrument is designed based on MODIS heritage and uses a similar on-board calibrating source - a V-grooved blackbody for the Thermal Emissive Bands (TEBs). Except for the 10.7 μm band, the central wavelengths of the rest of the VIIRS TEBs match well with MODIS. To ensure the continuity and consistency of data records between VIIRS and MODIS TEBs, it is important to assess any systematic differences between the two instruments for scenes with temperatures significantly lower than blackbody operating temperatures at ~290 K. In previous studies, the MODIS Calibration and Characterization Support Team (MCST) at NASA/GSFC uses recurrent observations of Dome C, Antarctica by both Terra and Aqua MODIS over the mission lifetime to track their calibration stability and consistency. Near-surface temperature measurements from an Automatic Weather Station (AWS) provide a proxy reference useful for tracking the stability and determining the relative bias between the two MODIS instruments. In this study, the same approach is applied to VIIRS TEBs and the results are compared with those from the matched MODIS TEBs. The results of this study provide a quantitative assessment for VIIRS TEBs performance over the first three years of the mission.

The Moderate-Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) is currently flying on NASA's Earth Observing System (EOS) Terra and Aqua satellites, launched in 1999 and 2002, respectively. MODIS reflective solar bands (RSB) in the visible wavelength range are known to be sensitive to polarized light based on prelaunch polarization sensitivity tests. The polarization impact is dependent on scan angle and mirror side. After about five years of on-orbit operation, it is found that a few shortest-wavelength bands of Terra MODIS show increased polarization sensitivity. In this study, we examine the impact of polarization on measured top-of-atmosphere (TOA) reflectances over pseudo-invariant desert sites. The standard polarization correction equation is used in combination with simulated at-sensor radiances by the Second Simulation of a Satellite Signal in the Solar Spectrum (6SV), Vector Radiative Transfer Code. Key Mueller matrix elements describing the polarization and gain correction of these bands are derived over the mission lifetime. Results indicate that the polarization sensitivity increases with scan mirror’s angle of incidence (AOI) and relatively large impact is observed from mirror side 2. At the end of 2009, it reaches a peak at approximately 30% at 0.41 μm and stabilizes since then.

The Clouds and Earth’s Radiant Energy System (CERES) instruments help to study the impact of clouds on the earth's radiation budget. There are currently five instruments- two each on board Aqua and Terra spacecraft and one on the Suomi NPP spacecraft to measure the earth’s reflected shortwave and emitted longwave energy, which represent two components of the earth’s radiation energy budget. Flight Models (FM) 1 and 2 are on Terra, FM 3 and 4 are on Aqua, and FM5 is on Suomi NPP. The measurements are made by three sensors on each instrument: a shortwave sensor that measures the 0.3-5 microns wavelength band, a window sensor that measures the water vapor window between 8-12 microns, and a total sensor that measures all incident energy (0.3- >100 microns). The required accuracy of CERES measurements of 0.5% in the longwave and 1% in the shortwave is achieved through an extensive pre-launch ground calibration campaign as well as on-orbit calibration and validation activities. Onorbit calibration is carried out using the Internal Calibration Module (ICM) that consists of a tungsten lamp, blackbodies, and a solar diffuser known as the Mirror Attenuator Mosaic (MAM). The ICM calibration provides information about the stability of the sensors’ broadband radiometric gains on-orbit. Several validation studies are conducted in order to monitor the behavior of the instruments in various spectral bands. The CERES Edition-4 data products for the FM1-FM4 instruments incorporate the latest calibration methodologies to improve on the Edition-3 data products. In this paper, we discuss the updated calibration methodology and present some validation studies to demonstrate the improvement in the trends using the CERES Edition-4 data products for all four instruments.

The Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI) will be aboard the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite R-Series (GOES-R) to supply data needed for operational weather forecasts and long-term climate variability studies, which depend on high quality data. Unlike the heritage operational GOES systems that have two or four detectors per band, ABI has hundreds of detectors per channel requiring calibration coefficients for each one. This increase in number of detectors poses new challenges for next generation sensors as each detector has a unique spectral response function (SRF) even though only one averaged SRF per band is used operationally to calibrate each detector. This simplified processing increases computational efficiency. Using measured system-level SRF data from pre-launch testing, we have the opportunity to characterize the calibration impact using measured SRFs, both per detector and as an average of detector-level SRFs similar to the operational version. We calculated the spectral response impacts for the thermal emissive bands (TEB) theoretically, by simulating the ABI response viewing an ideal blackbody and practically, with the measured ABI response to an external reference blackbody from the pre-launch TEB calibration test. The impacts from the practical case match the theoretical results using an ideal blackbody. The observed brightness temperature trends show structure across the array with magnitudes as large as 0.1 K for and 12 (9.61 µm), and 0.25 K for band 14 (11.2 µm) for a 300 K blackbody. The trends in the raw ABI signal viewing the blackbody support the spectral response measurements results, since they show similar trends in bands 12 (9.61µm), and 14 (11.2 µm), meaning that the spectral effects dominate the response differences between detectors for these bands. We further validated these effects using the radiometric bias calculated between calibrations using the external blackbody and another blackbody, the ABI on-board calibrator. Using the detector-level SRFs reduces the structure across the arrays but leaves some residual bias. Further understanding of this bias could lead to refinements of the blackbody thermal model. This work shows the calibration impacts of using an average SRF across many detectors instead of accounting for each detector SRF independently in the TEB calibration. Note that these impacts neglect effects from the spectral sampling of Earth scene radiances that include atmospheric effects, which may further contribute to artifacts post-launch and cannot be mitigated by processing with detector-level SRFs. This study enhances the ability to diagnose anomalies on-orbit and reduce calibration uncertainty for improved system performance.

Radiometric stability of the lunar surface, its lack of atmosphere and smooth reflectance spectrum makes the moon an ideal target for calibrating satellite-based multi-band imagers. Lunar calibration for solar bands has been an important part of trending the radiometric performance of GOES imager. The lunar disk-equivalent irradiance has been often used to trend the on-orbit degradation of the GOES imager and its performance is largely affected by the uncertainties embedded in the lunar irradiance model in characterizing its dependence on lunar phase and libration. On the other hand, the lunar view by GOES imager provides opportunity to perform radiometric calibration of GOES imager using lunar radiances of selected locations on the moon. In order to do so, lunar observations by GOES need to be mapped onto selenographic coordinate, i.e. latitude and longitude in moon-centered coordinate. In this paper, algorithms and procedures are developed to map lunar images observed by GOES onto selenographic coordinate. Progressive shift in east-west scan direction, oversampling factor and distortion of lunar image are corrected to transform it back to be within a circular disk. Controlling region matching is applied to determine rotation angle and three consecutive rotations are performed to map lunar observation onto selenographic coordinate. Lunar observations of GOES-12 are processed and regions of interest (ROIs) are identified. Lunar phase-dependence of lunar measurements at ROIs is analyzed. It is found that lunar measurement depends strongly on Sun-Moon-Satellite geometry and knowledge of BRDF of lunar surface can enable trending of radiometric performance of GOES imager with local lunar radiance.

A new permanently instrumented radiometric calibration site for high/medium resolution imaging satellite sensors is currently under development, focussing on the visible and near infra-red parts of the spectrum. The site will become a European contribution to the Committee on Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS) initiative RadCalNet (Radiometric Calibration Network). The exact location of the permanent monitoring instrumentation will be defined following the initial site characterisation. The new ESA/CNES RadCalNet site will have a robust uncertainty budget and its data fully SI traceable through detailed characterisation and calibration by NPL of the instruments and artefacts to be used on the site. This includes a CIMEL sun photometer (the permanent instrumentation) an ASD FieldSpec spectroradiometer, Gonio Radiometric Spectrometer System (GRASS), and reference reflectance standards.

TRUTHS (Traceable Radiometry Underpinning Terrestrial- and Helio-Studies) is a proposed small satellite mission to enable a space-based climate observing system capable of delivering data of the quality needed to provide the information needed by policy makers to make robust mitigation and adaptation decisions. This is achieved by embedding trust and confidence in the data and derived information (tied to international standards) from both its own measurements and by upgrading the performance and interoperability of other EO platforms, such as the Sentinels by in-flight reference calibration. TRUTHS would provide measurements of incoming (total and spectrally resolved) and global reflected spectrally and spatially (50 m) solar radiation at the 0.3% uncertainty level. These fundamental climate data products can be convolved into the building blocks for many ECVs and EO applications as envisaged by the 2015 ESA science strategy; in a cost effective manner. We describe the scientific drivers for the TRUTHS mission and how the requirements for the climate benchmarking and cross-calibration reference sensor are both complementary and simply implemented, with a small additional complexity on top of heritage calibration schemes. The calibration scheme components and the route to SI-traceable Earth-reflected solar spectral radiance and solar spectral irradiance are described.

Sintered PTFE is an extremely stable, near-perfect Lambertian reflecting diffuser and calibration standard material that has been used by national labs, space, aerospace and commercial sectors for over two decades. New uncertainty targets of 2% on-orbit absolute validation in the Earth Observing Systems community have challenged the industry to improve is characterization and knowledge of almost every aspect of radiometric performance (space and ground). Assuming “near perfect” reflectance for angular dependent measurements is no longer going to suffice for many program needs. The total hemispherical spectral reflectance provides a good mark of general performance; but, without the angular characterization of bidirectional reflectance distribution function (BRDF) measurements, critical data is missing from many applications and uncertainty budgets. Therefore, traceable BRDF measurement capability is needed to characterize sintered PTFE’s angular response and provide a full uncertainty profile to users. This paper presents preliminary comparison measurements of the BRDF of sintered PTFE from several laboratories to better quantify the BRDF of sintered PTFE, assess the BRDF measurement comparability between laboratories, and improve estimates of measurement uncertainties under laboratory conditions.

A brand-new field observing station has been built up in the China radiometric calibration sites (CRCS) of Dunhuang Gobi for CAL/VAL, include house, observing field, power supply, tower crane, et al. Many automatic observation instruments designed and manufactured by Anhui Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanical Chinese Academy of Sciences were deployed in CRCS Dunhuang Site and introduced deeply in this paper. Followed with the finishing of the basic constructions of the field observing station, it will be an open field test and exchange platform for sharing of test data, research and infrastructure, promote exchanges and cooperation between the relevant disciplines and units.

A novel mission concept namely NEXRAD-In-Space (NIS) has been developed for monitoring hurricanes, cyclones and other severe storms from a geostationary orbit. It requires a space deployable 35-meter diameter Ka-band (35 GHz) reflector. NIS can measure hurricane precipitation intensity, dynamics and its life cycle. These information is necessary for predicting the track, intensity, rain rate and hurricane-induced floods. To meet the requirements of the radar system, a Membrane Shell Reflector Segment (MSRS) reflector technology has been developed and several technologies have been evaluated. However, the deployment analysis of this large size and high-precision reflector has not been investigated. For a pre-studies, a scaled tetrahedral truss reflector with spring driving deployment system has been made and tested, deployment dynamics analysis of this scaled reflector has been performed using ADAMS to understand its deployment dynamic behaviors. Eliminating the redundant constraints in the reflector system with a large number of moving parts is a challenging issue. A primitive joint and flexible struts were introduced to the analytical model and they can effectively eliminate over constraints of the model. By using a high-speed camera and a force transducer, a deployment experiment of a single-bay tetrahedral module has been conducted. With the tested results, an optimization process has been performed by using the parameter optimization module of ADAMS to obtain the parameters of the analytical model. These parameters were incorporated to the analytical model of the whole reflector. It is observed from the analysis results that the deployment process of the reflector with a fixed boundary experiences three stages. These stages are rapid deployment stage, slow deployment stage and impact stage. The insight of the force peak distributions of the reflector can help the optimization design of the structure.

In the framework of the European Union Copernicus programme, the European Space Agency (ESA) has launched the Sentinel-2 (S2) Earth Observation (EO) mission which provides optical high spatial resolution imagery. Here is presented a tool, S2-RUT, (Sentinel-2 Radiometric Uncertainty Tool) allowing estimation of the radiometric uncertainties associated to each pixel using as input the top-of-atmosphere (TOA) reflectance images provided by ESA. The Sentinel-2 radiometric analysis focuses on the review of the pre- and post-launch characterisations in order to specify the uncertainty contributors at a pixel level and allow changes to be proposed in the uncertainty contributors where necessary. The identified uncertainty contributors are combined using a metrological Guide to Expression of Uncertainty in Measurement’ (GUM) model that is validated by comparing the results to a multivariate Monte Carlo Method (MCM). Specific contributors of the TOA reflectance are initially characterised and its future integration in the tool is discussed. The software implementation of the S2-RUT tool relies on the flexibility of the JPEG2000 standard using partial decoding. Auxiliary information for the uncertainty calculation is extracted from the metadata and quality masks integrated in the L1C product. In addition, using the detector footprint mask it is possible to account for parameters dependent on the neighbouring pixels and/or detector module. The L1C uncertainty is coded using 1 byte with an extra optional byte for complementary information. The resulting images and the metadata are directly appended to the original L1C product.

The recent developments of single-photon counting array detectors opens the door to a novel type of systems that could be used on satellites in low Earth orbit. One possible application is the detection of non-cooperative vessels or illegal fishing activities. Currently only surveillance operations conducted by Navy or coast guard address this topic, operations by nature costly and with limited coverage. This paper aims to describe the architectural design of a system based on a novel single-photon counting detector, which works mainly in the visible and features fast readout, low noise and a 256x256 matrix of 64 μm-pixels. This detector is positioned in the focal plane of a fully aspheric reflective f/6 telescope, to guarantee state of the art performance. The combination of the two grants optimal ground sampling distance, compatible with the average dimension of a vessel, and overall performance. A radiative analysis of the light transmitted from emission to detection is presented, starting from models of lamps used for attracting fishes and illuminating the deck of the boats. A radiative transfer model is used to estimate the amount of photons emitted by such vessels reaching the detector. Since the novel detector features high framerate and low noise, the system as it is envisaged is able to properly serve the proposed goal. The paper shows the results of a trade-off between instrument parameters and spacecraft operations to maximize the detection probability and the covered sea surface. The status of development of both detector and telescope are also described.

In this paper a beamforming network concept based on photonic technology for future array antenna systems for SAR applications is reported, covering from the optical signal distribution to the antenna, the true-time-delay control of the signal for each antenna element by using integrated photonics (PICs) both in transmission and reception, with broadband characteristics.

In this paper, two new techniques are proposed for manipulation of the microsatellite imaging structures and sensors in order to reduce the micro-satellite’s weight and improve the image quality. Theses satellites generally include three mirrors. First, replacing primary mirror by deformable mirror with appropriate actuators is suggested. In this design, the primary mirror is replaced with deformable mirror (DM) and the secondary mirror can be aligned in the cassegrain design and tertiary mirror could be ignored. Second, by changing the position of sensor, the image quality of different pixels could be changed. Normally, when the sensor is fixed, parts of the image might be blurred, noisy and distorted. Therefore, if the sensor is capable of changing its position, the quality of the distorted pixels will be improved but other parts will become blurred. In this case blurred pixels should be omitted and improved pixels should be saved and final image would be taken form processed pixels. In this paper a new concept of “local focusing” is introduced. This concept aims to process images at a variable distance of a sensor, which can cause the final image quality to become better than the fixed sensor.

PICASSO - A PICo-satellite for Atmospheric and Space Science Observations is an ESA project led by the Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy, in collaboration with VTT, Clyde Space Ltd. (UK), and the Centre Spatial de Liège (BE). VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd. will deliver the Visible Spectral Imager for Occultation and Nightglow (VISION) for the PICASSO mission. The VISION targets primarily the observation of the Earth's atmospheric limb during orbital Sun occultation. By assessing the radiation absorption in the Chappuis band for different tangent altitudes, the vertical profile of the ozone is retrieved. A secondary objective is to measure the deformation of the solar disk so that stratospheric and mesospheric temperature profiles are retrieved by inversion of the refractive raytracing problem. Finally, occasional full spectral observations of polar auroras are also foreseen. The VISION design realized with commercial of the shelf (CoTS) parts is described. The VISION instrument is small, lightweight (~500 g), Piezo-actuated Fabry-Perot Interferometer (PFPI) tunable spectral imager operating in the visible and near-infrared (430 – 800 nm). The spectral resolution over the whole wavelength range will be better than 10 nm @ FWHM. VISION has is 2.5° x 2.5° total field of view and it delivers maximum 2048 x 2048 pixel spectral images. The sun image size is around 0.5° i.e. ~500 pixels. To enable fast spectral data image acquisition VISION can be operated with programmable image sizes. VTT has previously developed PFPI tunable filter based AaSI Spectral Imager for the Aalto-1 Finnish CubeSat. In VISION the requirements of the spectral resolution and stability are tighter than in AaSI. Therefore the optimization of the of the PFPI gap control loop for the operating temperature range and vacuum conditions has to be improved. VISION optical, mechanical and electrical design is described.

Only a small set of radiation hardened optical glasses are currently offered in the market, thus drastically limiting the optical design choices available to the engineers at the early phases of an instrument development. Furthermore, availability of those glasses cannot be easily guaranteed for the long term horizon of future space instrument developments. Radiation tests on conventional glasses on the other hand have shown significant sensitivity to high radiation levels but such levels are not necessarily representative of typical low Earth (LEO) orbits. We have conducted irradiation campaigns on several different types of conventional, non-radiation hard glasses, selected from the wider pool of the Schott “new” arsenic and lead free series (N-*) and characterized their spectral transmission properties before and after ionizing dose deposition. We report our first findings here.

COSMO-SkyMed is a dual-use program for both civilian and defense provides user community (institutional and commercial) with SAR data in several environmental applications. In the context of COSMO-SkyMed data and User management, one of the aspects carefully monitored is the user satisfaction level, it is links to satisfaction of submitted user requests. The operational experience of the first years of operational phase, and the consequent lessons learnt by the COSMO-SkyMed data and user management, have demonstrated that a lot of acquisition rejections are due to conflicts (time conflicts or system conflicts) among two or more civilian user requests, and they can be managed and solved implementing an improved coordination of users and their requests on a daily basis. With this aim a new Service Support Tool (SST) has been designed and developed to support the operators in the User Request coordination. The Tool allow to analyze conflicts among Acquisition Requests (ARs) before the National Rankization phase and to elaborate proposals for conflict resolution. In this paper the most common causes of the occurred rejections will be showed, for example as the impossibility to aggregate different orders, and the SST functionalities will be described, in particular how it works to remove or minimize the conflicts among different orders.

COSMO-SkyMed (CSK), is an Earth Observation joint program between Agenzia Spaziale Italiana (Italian Space Agency, ASI) and Italian Ministry of Defense (It-MoD). It consists of a constellation of four X Band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) whose first satellite of has been launched on June 2007. Today the full constellation is fully qualified and is in an operative phase. The COSMO-SkyMed System includes 3 Segments: the Space Segment, the Ground Segment and the Integrated Logistic Support and Operations Segment (ILS and OPS) As part of a more complex re-engineering process aimed to improve the expected constellation lifetime, to fully exploit several system capabilities, to manage the obsolescence, to reduce the maintenance costs and to exploit the entire constellation capability for Civilian users a series of activities have been performed. In the next months these activities are planned to be completed and start to be operational so that it will be possible the programming, planning, acquisition, raw processing and archiving of all the images that the constellation can acquire.

PRISMA is an Earth observation system that combines a hyperspectral sensor with a panchromatic, medium-resolution camera. OPTIMA is one of the five independent scientific research projects funded by the Italian Space Agency in the framework of PRISMA mission for the development of added-value algorithms and advanced applications. The main goal of OPTIMA is to increase and to strengthen the applications of PRISMA through the implementation of advanced methodologies for the analysis, integration and optimization of level 1 and 2 products. The project is comprehensive of several working packages: data simulation, data quality, data optimization, data processing and integration and, finally, evaluation of some applications related to natural hazards. Several algorithms implemented during the project employ high-speed autonomous procedures for the elaboration of the upcoming images acquired by PRISMA. To assess the performances of the developed algorithms and products, an end-to-end simulator of the instrument has been implemented. Data quality analysis has been completed by introducing noise modeling. Stand-alone procedures of radiometric and atmospheric corrections have been developed, allowing the retrieval of at-ground spectral reflectance maps. Specific studies about image enhancement, restoration and pan-sharpening have been carried out for providing added-value data. Regarding the mission capability of monitoring environmental processes and disasters, different techniques for estimating surface humidity and for analyzing burned areas have been investigated. Finally, calibration and validation activities utilizing the CAL/VAL test site managed by CNR-IFAC and located inside the Regional Park of San Rossore (Pisa), Italy have been considered.

The Visible and Near-Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (VNIS) onboard China’s Chang’E 3 lunar rover is capable of simultaneously in situ acquiring full reflectance spectra for objects on the lunar surface and performing calibrations. VNIS uses non-collinear acousto-optic tunable filters and consists of a VIS/NIR imaging spectrometer (0.45–0.95 μm), a shortwave IR spectrometer (0.9–2.4 μm), and a calibration unit with dust-proofing functionality. To been underwent a full program of pre-flight ground tests, calibrations, and environmental simulation tests, VNIS entered into orbit around the Moon on 6 December 2013 and landed on 14 December 2013 following Change’E 3. The first operations of VNIS were conducted on 23 December 2013, and include several explorations and calibrations to obtain several spectral images and spectral reflectance curves of the lunar soil in the Imbrium region. These measurements include the first in situ spectral imaging detections on the lunar surface. This paper describes the VNIS characteristics, lab calibration, in situ measurements and calibration on lunar surface.

ZY-3 satellite is the first high-precision Stereo-mapping satellite for civilian purposes in China, which was launched in 9 Jun 2012. The Multi-Spectral Camera mounted on the satellite can acquire 4 multi-spectral bands. It has served steadily on orbit for more than three years. End to 22 Mar 2015 the satellite had produced more than 822730 images, include 212386 Multi-Spectral images, the multi-spectral data is more than 133TB. The telemetry data and the images shows that the imaging quality and the stability of interior orientation elements all satisfied the requirements of the mission.

The Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) is a high-resolution optical sensor system that can observe in a wide region from the visible and near-infrared, the short wavelength infrared to the thermal infrared with 14 spectral bands on board of NASA’s Terra spacecraft for Earth Observing System (EOS) “A mission to planet earth." ASTER achieved 5 years mission success on orbit operation normally which is the specified target after launched on December, 1999. And after through 10 years continuous orbit operation, ASTER has still operating the long life observation of extra success to be 15 years in total on December, 2014. As for ASTER instrument that is composed of 3 radiometers; the Visible and Near Infrared Radiometer (VNIR) with 3 bands, the Short Wavelength Infrared Radiometer (SWIR) with 6 bands, the Thermal Infrared Radiometer (TIR) with 5 bands, overall ASTER long life data taken by 15 years onboard operation has been reviewed from the point of view of the health and safety check by Telemetry (TLM) data trend, the function and performance evaluation by observation data trend, the onboard calibration and verification by periodic Calibration(CAL) data trend. As a result, the radiometric degradation of VNIR and TIR and the temperature rise of SWIR detector were identified as significant challenges. The countermeasure plan towards the end of mission was clarified and also the novel lessons learned was verified.

ASTER (Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer) System is operating more than 15 years since launched on board of NASA’s Terra spacecraft in December 1999. ASTER System is composed of 3 radiometers (VNIR (Visible and Near Infrared Radiometer), SWIR (Short-Wave Infrared Radiometer), and TIR (Thermal Infrared Radiometer)), CSP (Common Signal Processor) and MSP (Master Power Supply). This paper describes the ASTER System operating history and the achievement of ASTER System long term operation since the initial checkout operation, the normal operation, and the continuous operation. Through the 15 years operation, ASTER system had totally checked the all subsystems (MPS, VNIR, TIR, SWIR, and CSP) health and safety check using telemetry data trend evaluation, and executed the necessary action. The watch items are monitored as the life control items. The pointing mechanics for VNIR, SWIR and TIR, and the cooler for SWIR and TIR are all operating with any problem for over 15 years. In 2003, ASTER was successfully operated for the lunar calibration. As the future plan, ASTER team is proposing the 2nd lunar calibration before the end of mission.

Water surface emissivity is a vital parameter in thermal remote sensing, since knowledge of them is required to estimate surface temperature with enough accuracy. It is also important in meteorological and climatological analysis. In this study, we show the results obtained for the water surface emissivity spectra from absolute emissivity method (AE) and the temperature and emissivity separation (TES) algorithm in the laboratory measurements with a mutiband thermal radiometer. And compare the retrieved emissivities with the water surface theoretical model. The results show that there is an agreement better than 1% for all bands for AE method, However, the TES algorithm retrieves get bad results, the deviations nearly reach 3%, due to the water have low emissivity spectral contrast, which correspond to an error in water surface temperature from 1.7 K to 2K. By revising TES algorithm (TSE*), which precision indicate accuracy of lower than 1%. Both AE and revised TES (TES*) algorithm demonstrate that they can be applying to retrieve accurate emissivity spectra for water surfaces in laboratory measurements. And providing other emissivity measurements methods reference, also supplying some thermal emission and temperature algorithm researches guidance.

The Day/Night Band (DNB) of the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) onboard Suomi-NPP represents a major advancement in night time imaging capabilities. The DNB senses radiance that can span 7 orders of magnitude in one panchromatic (0.5-0.9 μm) reflective solar band and provides imagery of clouds and other Earth features over illumination levels ranging from full sunlight to quarter moon. When the satellite passes through the day-night terminator, the DNB sensor is affected by stray light due to solar illumination on the instrument. With the implementation of stray light correction, stray light-corrected DNB images enable the observation of aurora occurred in the high latitude regions during geomagnetic storms. In this paper, DNB observations of auroral activities are analyzed during a long period (> 20 hours) of geomagnetic storm event occurred on Apr. 29-30, 2014. The storm event has the Bz component of interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) pointing southward for more than 20 hours. During this event, the geomagnetic storm index Dst reached -67 nT and the geomagnetic auroral electrojet (AE) index increased and reached as high as 1200 nT with large amplitude fluctuations. The event occurred during new moon period and DNB observation has minimum moon light contamination. During this event, auroras are observed by DNB for each orbital pass on the night side (~local time 1:30am) in the southern hemisphere. DNB radiance data are processed to identify regions of aurora during each orbital pass. The evolution of aurora is characterized with time series of the poleward and equatorward boundary of aurora, area, peak radiance and total light emission of the aurora in DNB observation. These characteristic parameters are correlated with solar wind and geomagnetic index parameters. It is found that the evolution of total area-integrated radiance of auroral region over the southern hemisphere correlated well with the ground geomagnetic AE index with correlation coefficient = 0.71. DNB observations of aurora help understand the relations among solar wind variation, auroral activities and geomagnetic responses.

Most multisensor association algorithms based on fuzzy set theory forms the opinion of fuzzy proposition using a simple triangular function. It does not take the randomness of measurements into account. Otherwise, the variance of sensors supposed to be known in the triangular function, but in fact the exact variance is difficult to acquire. This paper discuss about two situations with known and unknown variance of sensors. First, with known variance and known mean. This paper proposes a method, which use the probability ratio to calculate the fuzzy support degree. The interaction between the two objects is considered. Second, with unknown variance and known mean value, we replace the sample mean in the gray auto correlation function with the real sensor mean value to analysis the uncertainty which is the correlation coefficient between targets and measurements actually. In this way, it can deal with the case of small sample. Finally, form the opinion about the fuzzy proposition in terms of weighting the opinion of all the sensors based on the result of uncertainty analysis. Sufficient simulations on some typical scenarios are performed, and the results indicate that the method presented is efficient.

When you map the entire Earth every 5 days with the aim of generating high-quality time series over land, there is no room for geometrical error: the algorithms have to be stable, reliable, and precise. Rugged, a new open-source library for pixel geolocation, is at the geometrical heart of the operational processing for Sentinel-2. Rugged performs sensor-to-terrain mapping taking into account ground Digital Elevation Models, Earth rotation with all its small irregularities, on-board sensor pixel individual lines-of-sight, spacecraft motion and attitude, and all significant physical effects. It provides direct and inverse location, i.e. it allows the accurate computation of which ground point is viewed from a specific pixel in a spacecraft instrument, and conversely which pixel will view a specified ground point. Direct and inverse location can be used to perform full ortho-rectification of images and correlation between sensors observing the same area. Implemented as an add-on for Orekit (Orbits Extrapolation KIT; a low-level space dynamics library), Rugged also offers the possibility of simulating satellite motion and attitude auxiliary data using Orekit's full orbit propagation capability. This is a considerable advantage for test data generation and mission simulation activities. Together with the Orfeo ToolBox (OTB) image processing library, Rugged provides the algorithmic core of Sentinel-2 Instrument Processing Facilities. The S2 complex viewing model - with 12 staggered push-broom detectors and 13 spectral bands - is built using Rugged objects, enabling the computation of rectification grids for mapping between cartographic and focal plane coordinates. These grids are passed to the OTB library for further image resampling, thus completing the ortho-rectification chain. Sentinel-2 stringent operational requirements to process several terabytes of data per week represented a tough challenge, though one that was well met by Rugged in terms of the robustness and performance of the library.

ABSTRACT In Space-based optical system, during the tracking for closely spaced objects (CSOs), the traditional method with a constant false alarm rate(CFAR) detecting brings either more clutter measurements or the loss of target information. CSOs can be tracked as Extended targets because their features on optical sensor’s pixel-plane. A pixel partition method under the framework of Markov random field(MRF) is proposed, simulation results indicate: the method proposed provides higher pixel partition performance than traditional method, especially when the signal-noise-rate is poor.

The videospectral system (VSS) intended for ecological space experiment on board of the International Space Station (ISS) has been developed by the Aerospace Researches Department of the Institute of Applied Physical Problems of the Belarusian State University. The VSS is intended for registration of color images and spectra of underlying surface. The system comprises an imaging channel and three CCD-array spectrometers based on diffraction gratings. A CCD-array photodetector of each spectrometer measures the spectral radiation distribution in rows, and the spatial distribution in columns. Astigmatism is a typical aberration of polychromators based on concave spherical gratings – rays in tangential and sagittal planes are focused at different points. This degrades the spectral or spatial resolution along the entrance slit. The proposed method of obtaining high spatial resolution without spectral resolution loss consists in a displacement of the output end of the imaging fiber along the optical axis at a specified distance from the entrance slit. The entrance slit operates as a one-dimensional aperture to obtain high spectral resolution. The image and spectral channel of the VSS were calibrated by wavelengths and spectral sensitivity. A method of the second diffraction order correction has been proposed for spectrometers based on diffraction gratings. Some results of laboratory calibration and the first application are presented.

X-ray pulsar telescope (XPT) is a complex optical payload, which involves optical, mechanical, electrical and thermal disciplines. The multiphysics coupling analysis (MCA) plays an important role in improving the in-orbit performance. However, the conventional MCA methods encounter two serious problems in dealing with the XTP. One is that both the energy and reflectivity information of X-ray can’t be taken into consideration, which always misunderstands the essence of XPT. Another is that the coupling data can’t be transferred automatically among different disciplines, leading to computational inefficiency and high design cost. Therefore, a new MCA method for XPT is proposed based on the Monte Carlo method and total reflective theory. The main idea, procedures and operational steps of the proposed method are addressed in detail. Firstly, it takes both the energy and reflectivity information of X-ray into consideration simultaneously. And formulate the thermal-structural coupling equation and multiphysics coupling analysis model based on the finite element method. Then, the thermalstructural coupling analysis under different working conditions has been implemented. Secondly, the mirror deformations are obtained using construction geometry function. Meanwhile, the polynomial function is adopted to fit the deformed mirror and meanwhile evaluate the fitting error. Thirdly, the focusing performance analysis of XPT can be evaluated by the RMS. Finally, a Wolter-I XPT is taken as an example to verify the proposed MCA method. The simulation results show that the thermal-structural coupling deformation is bigger than others, the vary law of deformation effect on the focusing performance has been obtained. The focusing performances of thermal-structural, thermal, structural deformations have degraded 30.01%, 14.35% and 7.85% respectively. The RMS of dispersion spot are 2.9143mm, 2.2038mm and 2.1311mm. As a result, the validity of the proposed method is verified through comparing the simulation results and experiments, which can be employed in the reliability-based design of XPT.

High precision matching of linear array multi-sensor is the key to ensure fast stereo imaging. This paper has presented the general principle of active and passive imaging sensor, designed a high precision matching calibration system of linear array multi-sensor based on large-diameter collimator combined with assisted laser light source, and put forward an optical axis parallelism calibration technology suitable for linear array active and passive imaging sensor. This technology makes use of image acquisition system to obtain spot center, in order to match multi-linear array laser receive and transmit optical axes. At the same time, this paper uses linear visible light sources to extract the optical axis of the laser, then completes the parallelism calibration between lasers receive and transmit optical axes of multi-linear array sensors and active and passive optical axis. The matching relationship between the visible pixel and laser radar detecting element can be obtained when using this technique to calibrate the active and passive imaging sensor. And this relationship is applied to the fast stereo imaging experiment of active and passive imaging sensor and gained good imaging effect.