Abstract
The Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI) is the primary instrument onboard NOAA’s current generation of Geostationary Operational Environment Satellites R-series (GOES-R) satellites, measuring the reflected and emitted energy from the Earth. It consists of 16 channels, 10 in the thermal infrared (IR) and 6 in the solar reflective spectrum. Being the first in the GOES-R series satellites, GOES-16 was launched on November 19, 2016, and became operational as GOES-East at 75.2°W since December 18, 2017. We examine the radiometric calibration accuracy and stability of GOES-16 ABI IR radiance since its first light in January 2017, including the effects of two major updates of the GOES-R Ground Segment processing for the IR channels in October 2017, and June 2018. Using measurements by multiple hyperspectral radiometers from low Earth orbit satellites as references, it is found that, when converted to scene brightness temperature of 300 K, the calibrated ABI IR radiance is accurate within 0.13 K for Ch16 (13.3 μm), within 0.06 K for channel 12 (9.6 μm), and within 0.05 K for the other IR channels. This is an order of magnitude better than the requirement of 1 K. Since June, 2018, the radiometric calibration of GOES-16 ABI IR channels has been temporally stable, spatially uniform within the ABI full-disk field of view, absent of diurnal and seasonal variations, and invariant within various timelines. Other than short term disruptions as noted in the Calibration Event Log, GOES-16 ABI IR Level 1b products since June 19, 2018, is a reliable reference for satellite intercomparison or intercalibration studies.
Highlights
The Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI) is the primary weather instrument onboard the current generation of Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite R-Series (GOES-R), operated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to measure the reflected and emitted energy from the Earth surface and atmosphere in the western hemisphere
Many studies have shown that hyperspectral radiometers onboard low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites, including the Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer (IASI) onboard Metop satellites operated by the European Organisation for the Exploitation for Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT) and the Cross-track Infrared Sounder (CrIS) on-board the Suomi National Polar-Orbiting Partnership (SNPP) and NOAA-20 (N20) satellites operated by NOAA, are well calibrated and stable. 7–11 they are built and operated by different agencies in different countries, the calibration differences among these instruments are very small.[11,12,13]
The cold scenes are usually from the large cold clouds which are more uniform than the warm scenes which may be a mixture of different targets
Summary
The Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI) is the primary weather instrument onboard the current generation of Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite R-Series (GOES-R), operated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to measure the reflected and emitted energy from the Earth surface and atmosphere in the western hemisphere. While observations from the ABI solar reflective wavelengths are used for the detections of aerosol, haze, clouds, cirrus, and snow cover, the product generations of aerosol optical depth, aerosol particle sizes, clear-sky masks, cloud and moisture imagery, and the studies of vegetation, insolation, and many others, the ABI infrared (IR) data are used to generate numerous atmospheric and land surface products, including cloud and moisture products, derived motion winds, fire, hurricane intensity, volcanic ash, ozone, CO2, sea surface temperature, land surface temperature, snow/fog cover, rainfall rate, etc.[1] The IR products are critical inputs to numerical weather prediction models at the National Weather Service.
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