Vicarious calibration of KOMPSAT-3 AEISS

Abstract

This paper presents a vicarious radiometric calibration of the Korea Multi-Purpose Satellite-3 (KOMPSAT-3) performed by the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) and the Pukyong National University Remote Sensing Group (PKNU RSG) in 2012 and 2014. Correlations between top-of-atmosphere (TOA) radiances and the spectral band responses of the KOMPSAT-3 sensors at the Zuunmod, Mongolia and Goheung, South Korea sites were significant for multispectral bands. KOMPSAT-3 calibration coefficients for all bands estimated in 2012 continued to agree well with calibration coefficients estimated in 2014 (within 1.5%). The average difference in TOA reflectance between KOMPSAT-3 and Landsat-8 image over the Libya 4, Libya site in the red-green-blue (RGB) region was under 3%, whereas in the NIR band, the TOA reflectance of KOMPSAT-3 was lower than the that of Landsat-8 due to the difference in the band passes of two sensors. The KOMPSAT-3 sensor includes a band pass near 940 nm that can be strongly absorbed by water vapor and therefore displayed low reflectance. To overcome this, we need to undertake a detailed analysis using rescale methods, such as the spectral bandwidth adjustment factor (SBAF).