Improvements of on-orbit characterization of Terra MODIS short-wave infrared spectral bands out-of-band responses

Abstract

The short-wave infrared (SWIR) bands (5 to 7, 26) of Terra Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), which are colocated with the midwave infrared bands (20 to 25) on the short- and mid-wave infrared focal plane assembly, have a known issue related to 5.3-μm out-of-band (OOB) thermal leak and electronic crosstalk that was identified prelaunch. As a result, a crosstalk correction algorithm was designed and implemented in the MODIS level 1B (L1B) calibration. Shortly after the Terra launch, extensive efforts were undertaken to help characterize and mitigate the impact due to the OOB response and crosstalk on the SWIR on-orbit calibration and, consequently, the associated L1B data products. In addition, special night-time-day-mode operations have been regularly scheduled to derive the crosstalk correction coefficients. Since MODIS does not have a spectral band centered at 5.3 μm, its band 28 (7.325 μm) was chosen as the surrogate sending band to simulate the OOB radiances at 5.3 μm. This was largely based on the measurements from the MODIS Airborne Simulator spectrometer field campaigns in the early months after the Terra launch. In the case of Aqua MODIS, the magnitude of the SWIR crosstalk was much smaller and band 25 (4.52 μm) was found to be more effective as the sending band for the crosstalk correction. In recent years, the Terra MODIS photovoltaic (PV) long-wave infrared (LWIR) bands (27 to 30) electronic crosstalk has increased considerably, especially after the spacecraft safe-mode event occurred in February 2016. This accentuated degradation in the PV LWIR performance has also impacted the performance of the SWIR crosstalk correction and thus its calibration and data quality. We examine the use of band 25 as the sending band for the Terra MODIS SWIR crosstalk correction and compare its performance with that based on band 28 as the sending band. Results indicate an improvement of on-orbit gain stability for the SWIR calibration and reduced detector to detector and subframe to subframe striping in the calibrated L1B imagery, especially during the period when the PV LWIR electronic crosstalk has become more severe. This approach has been implemented in the forward production of Terra MODIS Collection 6 and Collection 6.1, starting from July 2019, and is planned to be used for the future reprocessing of MODIS L1B and to help improve the mission-long reflectance calibration and trending stability of the SWIR bands.