Radiometric Calibration

Stuart F. Biggar, U of AZ
Kurtis J. Thome, U of AZ
Simon J. Hook, JPL
 Outline
• Preflight – Biggar
– Characterization
– Calibration
– On-board calibration systems
– Sensor artifacts
• In-flight VNIR and SWIR – Thome
• In-flight TIR - Hook
 Calibration (absolute)
Why do we calibrate?
– Understand sensor performance
– L1 data in physical units (at sensor)
• Radiance in Watts/m2-sr-micrometer (or similar)
• Determine sensor linearity
• Derived units
– Reflectance
– Geophysical units (temperature, etc)
– Comparison to other sensors
– Atmospheric correction
– Reasonable looking imagery
 Calibration (2)
What do we need to be able to calibrate?
– Stable instrument
• Over time
• With changing environment
– Characterized instrument
• Spectral response
• Spatial response
• Noise
• Systematic errors
– Image artifacts
– Stray light
– Stable calibration source
 Characterization
Piece part measurements
– Filter transmittance
– Lens and/or mirror transmittance and
reflectance
– Mirror reflectance and scatter (BRDF)
– Lamp output, stability, longevity
– Detector Quantum efficiency, spectral response,
noise, temperature dependence
Filter spectral characteristics
Normalized Response
 Characterization (2)
Assembly level
– Alignment
– Relative spectral response (of telescope)
– Noise – amplifier assembly for example
– Field-of-view
– Stray light
 Characterization (3)
Sensor level
– Relative spectral response
– Field-of-view
– Modulation transfer function
– Noise
• Random
• Coherent
– Stray light
 ASTER design “features” (1)
• Long linear array detectors with long strip filters
in VNIR and SWIR – “pushbroom”
– Good SNR due to longer integration time
– Detector and filter uniformity issues
– Many detectors (5000 in VNIR for example)
• Gain
• Offset
• Spectral response
• Large focal plane
– Post detector electronic chains (amps, A/D, etc)
– “Stripes” in images even of constant radiance scenes
ASTER L1A,
bands 1and 13
 ASTER design “features” (2)
• Short linear arrays (10 elements) with a
scan mirror in the TIR sensor –
“whiskbroom”
– Shorter integration time
– Larger pixels to improve the SNR
– Limited number of detectors
– Individual amplifiers
– “Stripes” in images but repeated along track
 ASTER design “features” (3)
• Three separate sensors
– 3 telescopes
• Individually pointed
• Alignment
• Rotation of images
• Focal plane distortions
– 3 manufacturers
• Different design practices
• Different measurement practices
• Different calibration methodologies and equipment
 Radiometric calibration
Preflight in the laboratory
– Well characterized and controlled source
– Reasonable but not normal environment
– May (or may not) approximate normal imaging
operation mode
• Scan mirror may not be operating
• Source is usually smaller angular extent than the
earth
– “Uniform” source is not a normal image
 On-board calibrators
• VNIR
– Lamp based source with monitors
• SWIR
– Lamp based source with monitors
• TIR
– Blackbody that can be heated
 Philosophy
Careful preflight calibration
– Determine absolute response so we can convert from
DN to radiance
– At the same time, run the on-board systems to transfer a
radiance value to them using the sensor (ASTER)
– Determine noise (random and coherent)
– Look for image artifacts
– Use preflight values after launch
Update after launch as sensors usually change
– On-board
– Vicarious (ground reference and moon)
Preflight source for VNIR/SWIR
Large aperture integrating sphere
– 1 meter diameter sphere
– Round output port
– Multiple lamps
• Internal surrounding the port
• External through small ports
– High reflectance coating on the sphere wall
• Barium sulfate (BaSO4)
• Spectralon (sintered PTFE)
• Gold sandpaper (rough, diffuse surface)
40” BaSO4 integrating sphere
 Integrating sphere
• Advantages
– Uniform radiance across port (one % or so)
– Lambertian (radiance independent of direction)
– Multiple output levels
• Change number of lamps (MELCO)
• Change voltage/current of all lamps (voltage for NEC sphere)
• Change aperture size between external lamp and sphere
– Reasonably stable with good control of lamp (V or I)
– Repeatable if temperature is controlled
• Disadvantages
– Low output in blue relative to NIR and SWIR
 TIR preflight cal source
• Large area blackbody
– Measure the temperature precisely and accurately
– Measure (or compute) emissivity
– Compute radiance output
• Operated in a vacuum chamber with the sensor
• Vary temperature of source to get multiple
radiance values
– Absolute calibration
– Linearity correction (output usually fit to something
other than a gain and offset – quadratic is common)
 Calibration chain
• NRLM (Japanese equivalent of NIST) calibrated a
set of fixed point blackbody simulators
• Calibration transferred to portable, variable
temperature blackbody simulators
• Calibration transferred to the ASTER calibration
sources (Spheres and TIR calibration blackbody)
• VNIR and SWIR spheres were measured at NEC
and MELCO with a set of transfer radiometers
from NIST, NRLM, GSFC, and University of
Arizona
• NRLM (now AIST) and NIST collaborate to
ensure that their scales are consistent
 Are preflight values usable?
• Sometimes …
• Launch may cause a shift in a sensor performance
– Operating temperatures may be different
– Something may have moved
• On-board lamps may change output
– Convection inside the lamp may be different
– Aging of the lamp
• Emissivity of the on-board blackbody may change
• Mirror reflectance may change
• Filters/detectors/amplifiers may change
• There may have been unexpected “features”
 Unexpected “features”
• VNIR
– On-board calibrator monitor is “off-scale”
– Change in output is more than expected so
dynamic range of A/D is too small
• SWIR
– Unexpected stray light causes “crosstalk”
– Present during preflight calibration and in all
in-flight data
 VNIR OBC
• VNIR OBC has two monitors for each of two
redundant calibrators
– One monitor diode at lamp
– One monitor diode at output
• They track but at different rates
• We really want the output monitor to determine
how well the on-board calibrator is working but
we have only the lamp monitor “on-scale”
 VNIR OBC output monitor
• NEC selected an expected output range
based on preflight measurements, OPS
experience with a similar calibrator, and
desire to maximize resolution
• Output has fallen to below the lowest
expected monitor output
• Telemetry value for monitor is now a flat
line (signal – offset < zero)
 SWIR crosstalk
• SWIR has multiple spectral bands
– 6 linear PtSi detector arrays
– Spectral selection filters over the arrays
– Not all light hitting the detector is absorbed
– Light hitting between the detectors is reflected
– Some reflected light is reflected back down by
the filters
• Optical “crosstalk”
Stretched RGB of a Japanese
Island, SWIR bands 4,5, & 9,
400x400 pixels
 SWIR Crosstalk
• Present in all images
– Preflight calibration
– In-flight calibration
– “normal” images
• Visible in images with strong contrast
• Not “visible” but present in others
• Currently NOT corrected for in normal
processing of L1 data
 Crosstalk correction
• If we know the amount of light leaking from one
pixel to each other pixel in all the SWIR bands,
we can correct for it
• Preflight data for MTF determination would
probably contain much of the needed information
but it was recorded only for the band under test
– Scan a line source across the array in both directions
– Scan a point (pixel size or less) in both directions
• It is possible to infer the correction from images
with strong contrast (coast lines, islands, moon,
and similar), however it is difficult and incomplete
 SWIR correction
• Japanese team has developed a “beta” level,
Windows (Win32) based, correction program. It
does one scene at a time operating on a L1B HDF
input file and writing a corrected L1B HDF file.
• US team is developing a program that is run as
part of L2 processing. It starts with L1A data. For
example, you will be able to order
atmospherically-corrected, crosstalk-corrected
surface reflectance at L2.
“Corrected” image, SWIR RGB
with 4,5, & 9
 SWIR Crosstalk Correction
• Qualitatively improves image
• Largest effect is band 4 into 5 and 9
• However, any band should leak into all others
(including itself) with the strongest effect on
adjacent bands on the focal plane
– Band 4 has higher typical radiance than the others
– Japan correction has only band 4 into others
• There is interplay between crosstalk and water
vapor absorption, especially in band 9
 Conclusions (preflight)
• ASTER was calibrated preflight
– VNIR accuracy was probably within spec
– SWIR accuracy is poorer due to crosstalk
– TIR was probably within spec
• Preflight calibration is probably not appropriate at
this point
– Change in sensor (VNIR and some TIR bands)
– Crosstalk in SWIR
• Calibration is being updated