Lifetime radiometric calibration of HJ-1A/B CCD sensor using Dunhuang Gobi site

Abstract

Dunhuang Gobi site, a pseudo-invariant ground target, has been extensively used to calibrate the remote sensing instruments because of its high spatial and spectral uniformity and good temporal stability. Four Charge Coupled Device (CCD) sensors onboard HUANGJING-A/B (HJ-1A/B) satellites have been running 5-years since launched in 2008, and provided important remote sensing data for land surface reflectance retrieval, bio/geophysical variables estimation and environment pollution /disaster monitoring. The radiometric performance of HJ-1A/B CCD may change after launched because of many factors, thus, we have carried out many ground measurement campaigns at a pseudo-invariant test site-Dunhuang gobi to perform radiometric calibration of these sensors. This article describes the characteristics of Dunhuang gobi site and lifetime radiometric calibration monitoring results obtained for four CCD sensors. The results indicate that the long-term changes in calibration coefficients trending exceeding the dark-noise changes are primarily due to the drifts in the CCD radiometric responsivity, and the degradations of HJ-1A/B CCD are from -2.3%/year to -9.5%/year.