On-Orbit Absolute Radiometric Calibration and Uncertainty Analysis of OCM2 Sensor onboard Oceansat-2 Satellite

Abstract

ABSTRACT This study describes On-Orbit absolute radiometric calibration for the Ocean Colour Monitor2 (OCM2) onboard Oceansat-2 satellite through a vicarious calibration experiment performed at the Great Rann of Kutch calibration site in Gujarat, India, in February 2022. To achieve accurate and consistent calibration for the OCM2 channels, a reflectance-based calibration method was used which relies on synchronous in-situ measurements of surface reflectance and atmospheric parameters at the time of satellite overpass. In this exercise, the 6 SV (Second Simulation of a Satellite Signal in the Solar Spectrum Vector) radiative transfer (RT) model was used to simulate the Top Of Atmosphere (TOA) spectral radiance for the OCM2 channels. The on-orbit radiometric performance/changes were derived by comparing the 6 SV simulated TOA radiance with those of the OCM2 Level 1B (L1B) data product. The results indicate that the average gain for band 1 to band 8 was found in the range from 0.88 to 1.23 and the relative error from 1.58% to 18.79% for the OCM2 sensor. However, the Root-Mean-Square-Error (RMSE) between the OCM2 measured and the 6 SV simulated TOA radiance data range from 0.17 (µW cm−2 sr−1 nm−1) at 443 nm to 2.04 (µW cm−2 sr−1 nm−1) at 620 nm. Furthermore, we analysed in detail the various uncertainties in this approach emanating from surface reflectance, atmospheric conditions (ozone, water vapour and aerosol optical depth), aerosol-type assumption in the RT model, BRDF, and inherent accuracy of the 6 SV RT model. The overall uncertainty was within 6% estimated using the reflectance-based calibration method.