Abstract
Pushbroom-style imaging systems exhibit several advantages over line scanners when used on space-borne platforms as they typically achieve higher signal-to-noise and reduce the need for moving parts. Pushbroom sensors contain thousands of detectors, each having a unique radiometric response, which will inevitably lead to streaking and banding in the raw data. To take full advantage of the potential exhibited by pushbroom sensors, a relative radiometric correction must be performed to eliminate pixel-to-pixel non-uniformities in the raw data. Side slither is an on-orbit calibration technique where a 90-degree yaw maneuver is performed over an invariant site to flatten the data. While this technique has been utilized with moderate success for the QuickBird satellite [1] and the RapidEye constellation [2], further analysis is required to enable its implementation for the Landsat 8 sensors, which have a 15-degree field-of-view and a 0.5% pixel-to-pixel uniformity requirement. This work uses the DIRSIG model to analyze the side slither maneuver as applicable to the Landsat sensor. A description of favorable sites, how to adjust the maneuver to compensate for the curvature of “linear” arrays, how to efficiently process the data, and an analysis to assess the quality of the side slither data, are presented.
Highlights
Traditional line scanners used on space-borne platforms (e.g., MODIS and ETM+) contain a handful of detectors that collect data of a scene in the cross-track direction as the satellite flies over in the along-track direction [3,4]
Minimal effort is required to perform a relative calibration of their data as the simplicity of their focal plane design minimizes non-uniformities in the raw data [5]
To take full advantage of these potential benefits, much more effort is required to perform a relative calibration as pushbroom sensors typically contain tens-of-thousands of detectors arranged on several focal plane modules (FPMs) that are staggered across the focal plane [7]
Summary
Traditional line scanners used on space-borne platforms (e.g., MODIS and ETM+) contain a handful of detectors that collect data of a scene in the cross-track direction as the satellite flies over in the along-track direction [3,4]. A 90-degree yaw maneuver can be applied to the spacecraft ( the focal plane) forcing each detector to image a similar spot on the ground This article presents the results of simulated studies designed to investigate the potential to use the side slither maneuver to perform a relative calibration for pushbroom-style imaging systems such as Landsat 8 (i.e., systems with a wide field-of-view). While this technique has been previously applied to other systems, the sources of potential errors in the flat-field process have not been convincingly identified. A summary of the side slither recommendations made for Landsat 8 during its commissioning phase is presented
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