Abstract
Abstract. The first Pleiades-HR satellite, part of a constellation of two, has been launched on December 17, 2011. This satellite produces high resolution optical images. In order to achieve good image quality, Pleiades-HR should first undergo an important 6 month commissioning phase period. This phase consists in calibrating and assessing the radiometric and geometric image quality to offer the best images to end users. This new satellite has benefited from technology improvements in various fields which make it stand out from other Earth observation satellites. In particular, its best-in-class agility performance enables new calibration and assessment techniques. This paper is dedicated to presenting these innovative techniques that have been tested for the first time for the Pleiades- HR radiometric commissioning. Radiometric activities concern compression, absolute calibration, detector normalization, and refocusing operations, MTF (Modulation Transfer Function) assessment, signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) estimation, and tuning of the ground processing parameters. The radiometric performances of each activity are summarized in this paper.
Highlights
TO PLEIADES-HR SATELLITE The PLEIADES program is a space Earth Observation system led by France, under the leadership of the French Space Agency (CNES)
Since it was successfully launched on December 17, 2011, Pleiades 1A high resolution optical satellite has been thoroughly tested and validated during the commissioning phase led by CNES [1]
The estimation of the absolute calibration coefficients for every spectral band is done on various types of landscapes to achieve cross method comparison and temporal monitoring [8]
Summary
TO PLEIADES-HR SATELLITE The PLEIADES program is a space Earth Observation system led by France, under the leadership of the French Space Agency (CNES) It will operate in 2012 two agile satellites designed to provide optical images to civilian and defence users. It allows the satellite to move quickly from one attitude to another, enabling rapid collection of separated point targets and an increase of imaging capacity Thanks to this agility, several guidance strategies have been defined in order to facilitate both the radiometric and geometric satellite commissioning. Coupled Device (CCD) arrays for PA and XS bands with overlapping Inter-Array-Zone (IAZ) to ensure line continuity These arrays are located in the focal plane of the telescope and acquire a scan-line over an integration time (push-broom principle) [4]. For the PA band, the TDI enables to achieve five different exposure levels
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
