Radiometric Response Research Articles

Field gamma ray spectrometry as a diagnostic tool for the assessment of hypothetical melt rocks from the Maâdna structure (Talemzane, Algeria): Implications for the crater formation process

AbstractAmong all geophysical methods, gamma ray spectrometry is not widely used in impact cratering studies, despite its efficiency in the investigation of physical/chemical changes in rocks. The application of gamma ray spectrometry method to data from the Maâdna crater is aimed at detection and verification of the presumed impact‐derived melt rocks or breccias, as well as discussing its implications on process of formation. The resulting information also demonstrates the potential of these specific data regarding our general understanding of impact cratering, while a few case studies have been reported in the literature to date within the impact community. Maâdna crater is dated at 2.6–3.1 Ma of ~1.7 km and is emplaced in Upper‐Cretaceous to Eocene limestones of the northern part of the Algerian Saharan platform. Although originally accepted as an impact crater, its origin is still controversial. Several thousands of field measurements were taken using a field portable gamma ray spectrometer. The measurements can be equivalently expressed by up to about 42 km footpath recordings in real‐time ground acquisitions, covering the entire structure and surrounding areas beyond the crater edge. The collected data included the total count (Tc) and the concentrations of the radionuclides calculated in wt% for K and in ppm for U and Th. The spectra rates recorded inside and outside the crater did not exceed the maximum average concentrations corresponding to 75.3 Cps, 4.94 ppm, 10.5 ppm, and 1.79 wt% for Tc, U, Th, and K, respectively. The database was processed using various gridding data methods, from which the minimum curvature was adopted as it provides a powerful visualization and interpretation of the anomalous distribution of radioactive elements and their corresponding ratios maps. In addition, an improved statistical analysis was carried out in order to extract a maximum of information about the radiometric response of each rock unit. This analysis consisted of a series of multiple linear regression, mean differencing, Q–Q (quantile–quantile) plots, and ternary mapping. Maps and plots of various models allowed us to examine the background variability in the distribution of K, Th, and U concentrations at the surface of the three distinctive litho‐type zones in the surveyed area, which are the central part, the crater edge, and the outside of the crater including the wadi deposits. Observed results of different radiometric responses clearly reflect the effect of various lithological units, especially in the areas with high K concentration. Note that this positive K‐anomaly has been observed in recent deposits that fill the Maâdna depression or external wadi beds. In contrast, the surrounding limestone rocks showed lower levels of radioelement concentrations. Relevant similarities found between the radiometric signatures of the Neogene formations inside and outside the crater can be considered as a strong argument to exclude preferential radionuclides enrichment caused by an impact event. Consequently, the natural origin of radioactive sources can be easily explained. Compared to other radiometric signatures documented on proven impact structures, the Maâdna structure has been notably discussed in the context of a diapiric hypothesis rather than a meteoritic one. Moreover, the methods used here contribute to our knowledge of the regional sedimentary history in terms of natural radioactivity.

In-Flight Relative Radiometric Calibration of a Wide Field of View Directional Polarimetric Camera Based on the Rayleigh Scattering over Ocean

The directional polarimetric camera (DPC) is a Chinese satellite sensor with a large field of view (FOV) (±50° both along-track and cross-track) and a high spatial resolution (about 3.3 km at nadir) that operates in a sun-synchronous orbit. It is a difficult task to calibrate the in-flight relative radiometric variation of the sensors with such a wide FOV. In this study, a new method based on Rayleigh scattering over the ocean is developed to estimate the radiometric sensitivity variation over the whole FOV of DPC. Firstly, the theoretical uncertainty of the method is analyzed to calibrate the relative radiometric response. The calibration uncertainties are about 2–6.9% (depending on the wavelength) when the view zenith angle (VZA) is 0° and decrease to about 1–3.8% when VZA increases to 70°. Then, the method is applied to evaluate the long-term radiometric drift of the DPC. It is found that the radiometric response of DPC/GaoFen-5 over the whole FOV is progressively drifting over time. The sensitivity at shorter bands decreases more strongly than longer bands, and at the central part of the optics decreases more strongly than the marginal part. During the 14 months (from March 2019 to April 2020) of operational running in-orbit, the DPC radiometric responses of 443 nm, 490 nm, 565 nm, and 670 nm bands drifted by about 4.44–23.08%, 4.75–16.22%, 3.86–9.81%, and 4.7–16.86%, respectively, from the marginal to the central part of the FOV. The radiometric sensitivity has become more stable since January 2020. The monthly radiometric drift is separated into the relative radiometric part and the absolute radiometric part. The relative radiometric drift of DPC is found to be smoothly varying with VZA, which can be parameterized as a polynomial function via VZA. At last, the temporal radiometric drift of DPC/GaoFen-5 is corrected by combining the relative and absolute radiometric coefficients. The correction is convincing by cross calibration with MODIS/Aqua observation over the desert sites and improving the aerosol retrievals. The Rayleigh method in this study is efficient for the radiometric sensitivity calibration of wide FOV satellite sensors.

Harmonization of Multi-Mission High-Resolution Time Series: Application to BELAIR

High-resolution data are increasingly used for various applications, yet the revisit time is still low for some applications, particularly in frequently cloud-covered areas. Therefore, sensors are often combined, which raises issues on data consistency. In this study, we start from L1 to L3 data, and investigate the impact of harmonization measures, correcting for difference in radiometric gain and spectral response function (SRF), and the use of a common processing chain with the same atmospheric correction for Sentinel-2A/B, Landsat-8, DEIMOS-1, and Proba-V center cameras. These harmonization measures are evaluated step-wise in two applications: (1) agricultural monitoring, and (2) hydrological modelling in an urban context, using biophysical parameters and NDVI. The evaluation includes validation with in situ data, relative consistency analysis between different sensors, and the evaluation of the time series noise. A higher accuracy was not obtained when validating against in situ data. Yet, the relative analysis and the time series noise analysis clearly demonstrated that the largest improvement in consistency between sensors was obtained when applying the same atmospheric correction to all sensors. The gain correction obtained and its impact on the results was small, indicating that the sensors were already well calibrated. We could not demonstrate an improved consistency after SRF correction. It is likely that other factors, such as anisotropy effects, play a larger role, requiring further research.

Characterizing terranes and a Neoproterozoic suture zone in Central Hoggar (Tuareg Shield, Algeria) with airborne geophysics and Landsat 8 OLI data

Integration of multisource data into a geographic information system has been a powerful tool to characterize contrasting terranes and their boundaries, such as suture zones with oceanic rocks juxtaposed to continental blocks. We present an integration study of geological, Landsat 8 OLI, and airborne geophysical data for the Wadi Takalous region (Central Hoggar, Algeria), covering the SAA (Sérouenout, Aghefsa, Aguendis) domain, rich in juvenile oceanic rocks, flanked by two continental domains, LATEA (Laouni, Aouilène, Tefedest, Egéré-Aleksod and Azrou N'Fad) to the West, and TAI (Tazat and Assodé-Issalane) to the East. The Sérouenout terrane, comprising tectonic slices of metamafic-ultramafic rocks (including eclogites) enveloped by metapelites and covered by Eopaleozoic sandstones, stands out for its low magnetic intensities and low radiometric responses. To the East, granitic rocks with abnormally high radiometric responses and high magnetic intensities highlight the TAI domain, a basement block rich in Pan-African collisional and post-collisional intrusions. To the West of Sérouenout terrane, a heterogeneous magnetic and radiometric pattern characterizes the eastern LATEA that has been interpreted as a Neoproterozoic passive margin. Our integrated data also suggests that the Afara terrane is more likely correlated with LATEA (instead of TAI). Deep magnetic lineaments outline major shear zones marking terrane boundaries, such as the crustal-scale (hundreds-km long and dozens-km thick) 7°30′E thrust zone limiting the SAA and TAI domains. Structures and kinematic indicators related to collisional deformation point to an overall NE-SW to E-W crustal shortening which induced thrusting and tight folding, followed by strike-slip shear zones related to transpressional deformation in late orogenic stage. In this scenario, the SAA domain may represent an accretionary complex associated to a Pan-African suture zone and thrust onto the LATEA passive margin.

Inflight Radiometric Calibration and Performance of the Orbiting Carbon Observatory 3 for Version 10 Products

The Orbiting Carbon Observatory-3 (OCO-3) measures carbon dioxide and solar-induced fluorescence from the International Space Station (ISS). It uses the flight spare spectrometers from its predecessor, OCO-2, and produces spectral images in three near-infrared channels. Its preflight radiometric calibration was performed at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and is constantly updated inflight to account for both gradual and abrupt changes in instrument response that display a wavelength dependency within the bands. Some of these are caused by the accumulation of contaminants and their subsequent removal after scheduled decontamination events, but sudden changes of the overall gain state of the two longest wavelength bands, unrelated to contamination, are also observed. They were found to be triggered by instrument resets as well as by decontamination events. OCO-3 cannot perform solar calibration due to its position on the ISS and the inflight updates to its radiometric calibration depend solely on its on-board calibrator, which consists of three lamps and a reflective diffuser. The lamps are observed with different cadences and thus degrade at different rates. Information from all three lamps is combined to provide high temporal resolution and minimize the impact of lamp aging on the gain degradation coefficients that describe the changes in the radiometric response of the instrument inflight. We use thousands of soundings from ocean scenes to assess the relative calibration within the two shortest wavelength bands. Here we present the algorithm developed for the inflight relative radiometric calibration of OCO-3 Version 10 products and discuss the state of the calibration.

High-accuracy source-independent radiometric calibration with low complexity for infrared photonic sensors

Radiometric calibration (RC) is an essential solution to guarantee measurements from infrared photonic sensors with certain accuracy, the main task of which is to determine the radiometric responsivity of sensor and usually be solved by comparing with some radiation source (i.e., blackbody), called source-based RC (SBRC). In addition to the complexity in manufacture, the nonideal characteristics of an available source will inevitably introduce unexpected uncertainties to reduce the final calibration accuracy by around 0.2–0.5 K in SBRC. Therefore, we propose an original source-independent RC (SIRC) principle based on modeling instead of comparing for SBRC, where the incident background radiation to detector, as a dominated factor influencing the responsivity characteristics of a photonic sensor, is modeled to implement RC for both two fundamental types (photoconductive and photovoltaic) of HgCdTe photonic detectors. The SIRC merely requires the temperature information of main components of a sensor other than some complex source and its assembly, and provides a traceable way at lower uncertainty costs relative to the traditional SBRC. The SIRC is being implemented in Fengyun-2 satellites since 2019, which ensures a long-term stable service of Chinese geostationary meteorological satellites for the global observation system under the framework of World Meteorological Organization. Moreover, a 20-year-period traceable Fengyun-2 dataset to be recalibrated with SIRC will benefit the further climate applications.

Path-space differentiable rendering of participating media

Physics-based differentiable rendering---which focuses on estimating derivatives of radiometric detector responses with respect to arbitrary scene parameters---has a diverse array of applications from solving analysis-by-synthesis problems to training machine-learning pipelines incorporating forward-rendering processes. Unfortunately, existing general-purpose differentiable rendering techniques lack either the generality to handle volumetric light transport or the flexibility to devise Monte Carlo estimators capable of handling complex geometries and light transport effects.

Stream Sediment Datasets and Geophysical Anomalies: A Recipe for Porphyry Copper Systems Identification—The Eastern Papuan Peninsula Experience

Airborne magnetic and radiometric datasets have, over the past few years, become powerful tools in the identification of porphyry systems which may host economic porphyry copper–gold–molybdenum ore bodies. Magnetisation contrasts with the unaltered host rocks, coupled with the elevated radiometric signature, compared to the host rock, makes identification of large-scale porphyry copper systems possible. Integrating these two different datasets with stream sediment data and other geochemical exploration methods results in a higher degree of confidence. Stream sediment data were analysed to see the distribution of copper and gold elements throughout the study area, located within the Eastern Papuan Peninsula of Papua New Guinea. Airborne geophysics data over the same area were also processed for magnetic and radiometric responses. The processing of the magnetic data revealed several magnetic anomalies related to concealed intrusive rock units, with associated radiometric signatures. The distribution of gold and copper anomalism was correlated with the geology and geophysical signatures. Results indicate varying degrees of correlation, with some areas showing a strong correlation between gold/copper occurrence and geophysical signatures, compared to other areas. Some factors that we believe impact the level of correlation may include tectonic history, volcanic cover, and weathering patterns. We recommend caution when applying multi-data exploration for porphyry copper systems.

Path-space differentiable rendering of participating media

Physics-based differentiable rendering---which focuses on estimating derivatives of radiometric detector responses with respect to arbitrary scene parameters---has a diverse array of applications from solving analysis-by-synthesis problems to training machine-learning pipelines incorporating forward-rendering processes. Unfortunately, existing general-purpose differentiable rendering techniques lack either the generality to handle volumetric light transport or the flexibility to devise Monte Carlo estimators capable of handling complex geometries and light transport effects. In this paper, we bridge this gap by showing how generalized path integrals can be differentiated with respect to arbitrary scene parameters. Specifically, we establish the mathematical formulation of generalized differential path integrals that capture both interfacial and volumetric light transport. Our formulation allows the development of advanced differentiable rendering algorithms capable of efficiently handling challenging geometric discontinuities and light transport phenomena such as volumetric caustics. We validate our method by comparing our derivative estimates to those generated using the finite differences. Further, to demonstrate the effectiveness of our technique, we compare both differentiable rendering and inverse rendering performance with state-of-the-art methods.

Comprehensive Evaluation of the GF-4 Satellite Image Quality from 2015 to 2020

GaoFen-4(GF-4) is the highest spatial resolution Earth observation satellite operating in geosynchronous orbit. Its fixed Earth observation location, rapid responsiveness, and wide observation range make it popular in disaster and emergency monitoring. To evaluate the GF-4 image quality in detail on a long-term basis, this study analyzes the image quality after the commissioning phase by focusing on ground sample distance (GSD) and geometric and radiometric quality. The theoretical calculation, geometric and radiometric measurements, and on-site experiments results show that (1) the GSD of the GF-4 image is ~50 m at the nadir point and increases gradually with the distance away from the nadir point, (2) most external geometric errors are within the design requirements of 4 km despite some exceeding the limit, and the internal geometric errors are tested within 1 pixel, and (3) image sharpness is generally stable but varies with the atmosphere condition and imaging time, and the radiometric response gradually degrades at the rate of less than 5.5% per year.

Vicarious Calibration of eMAS, AirMSPI, and AVIRIS Sensors During FIREX-AQ

Remote sensing instruments, both aircraft and on-orbit platforms, undergo extensive laboratory calibrations to determine their geometric, spectral, and radiometric responses. Additional in-flight radiometric calibrations can be performed using well-characterized earth targets. The Fire Influence on Regional to Global Environments and Air Quality (FIREX-AQ) campaign provided such an opportunity when the ER-2 aircraft overflew Railroad Valley on August 13 and 15, 2019. Surface reflectances were available from the August 4, 2019 field team and from the Radiometric Calibration Network (RadCalNet) portal, and spectral aerosol optical depths from an on-site AERosol RObotic NETwork (AERONET) sunphotometer. The Enhanced MODIS Airborne Simulator (eMAS), the Airborne Multiangle SpectroPolarimetric Imager (AirMSPI), and the “Classic” Airborne Visible/Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (AVIRIS-C) sensors individually performed a vicarious calibration using their respective methodologies and selection of input parameters. A comparison of the at-sensor radiances predicted from these independent analyses highlights some of the uncertainties in the inputs, including choice of solar irradiance model. Although good agreement, within 5%, is found at visible wavelengths, difference can be as large as 15% in the shortwave infrared (SWIR). This highlights the need for the remote sensing community to agree upon a standard solar model, to remove sensor-to-sensor biases derived from in-flight calibrations.

SPLITSnow: A spectral light transport model for snow

Snow is a fundamental component of the climate system. It is also an important part of the planet's hydrological cycle. Accordingly, the investigation of its light scattering properties is essential for remote sensing applications employed in the estimation of changes in the current amount of snowpack. These wide-scale environmental changes are key indicators of future climate events affecting global sustainability. Viewed in this context, computational simulations of light interactions with snow can be used to increase the effectiveness-to-cost ratio of remote sensing initiatives in this area. More specifically, by enabling a controlled assessment of the effects of snow granular structure and composition parameters on its light reflection and transmission profiles, these simulations can be instrumental in the high-fidelity interpretation of data remotely acquired from snow-covered landscapes that pose sizable challenges for field work. In order to contribute to these interdisciplinary research efforts, this paper presents a novel light transport model for snow that can predictively simulate the spectral and spatial distributions of light interacting with this ubiquitous particulate material. While the former radiometric responses are quantified in terms of hyperspectral reflectance and transmittance, the latter are quantified in terms of BSDF (bidirectional scattering distribution function). The proposed model employs a first-principles simulation approach that accounts for the positional dependence of the scattered light in the quantification of its spatial distribution. Thus, this distribution can also be expressed in terms of BSSDF (bidirectional surface-scattering distribution function). The predictive capabilities of the proposed model are quantitatively and qualitatively evaluated by comparing modeled results with measured data obtained from in situ experiments and phenomenological traits reported in the literature, respectively.

Onboard absolute radiometric calibration and validation of the satellite calibration spectrometer on HY-1C.

As the reference radiometric calibration standard of sensors on the Haiyang-1C (HY-1C) satellite platform, the satellite calibration spectrometer (SCS) is equipped with an onboard calibration system composed of double solar diffusers and an erbium-doped diffuser to monitor the postlaunch radiometric response change. Herein, through onboard calibration data analysis, the calibration diffuser performance remains stable without degradation, and the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on Terra is adopted as a reference to repeatedly verify onboard radiometric calibration results by selecting different dates and reflectance scenes. The SCS equivalent reflectance is obtained by combining the mean digital number (DN) of the SCS crossing area image with the radiometric calibration coefficient. The spectral reflectance is obtained via interpolation and iteration, which is adopted as the actual MODIS incident pupil spectral reflectance because the small imaging time interval can be ignored and almost vertically observed, and it is convoluted with the MODIS spectral response function to obtain the predicted equivalent reflectance. Validation is completed by comparing the predicted MODIS equivalent reflectance to the measured value based on the onboard calibration coefficient. The results show that (1) the difference between the measured and predicted MODIS band equivalent reflectance is between -0.00466 and 0.0039, and (2) the percentage difference between the measured and predicted MODIS band equivalent reflectance ranges from 4.17% and 1.24%, indicating that the calibration system carried on HY-1C can perform high-precision SCS radiometric calibration, meeting the cross-calibration accuracy requirements of other loads on the same platform.

Identification of impact cratering-related similarities based on airborne geophysical data and satellite images: the Cabeça de Sapo Structure, Parnaíba Basin, Northeast Brazil

This study was performed to identify and interpret airborne geophysical responses and landform features of the Cabeca de Sapo Structure (CSS), a 6 km-diameter circular structure located in northeastern Brazil, SW of the Maranhao State, suspected of having been formed by the impact of a solid body. The application of processing techniques addressed to enhance the images from the remotely sensed data (gamma-ray spectrometry, magnetic, Sentinel 2B and ALOS PALSAR) enabled the identification of two airborne geophysical responses (ring-shaped magnetic anomaly and radiometric patterns) and five landform features (A, B, C,D and E). The ring-shaped magnetic anomaly is related to a 5.4 km-diameter well-defined circular structure and the depth of its magnetic sources is estimated in 300 m. Those sources are unknown, but they probably occur due to layers of dolerite sills. The radiometric patterns identified seem to be related to the A and D landform features. Feature A is an elevated area at the center of CSS. The radiometric response (high eTh, eU, and low K) at the top of this area possibly reflects the weathering effect, while the radiometric response (high K and low eTh, eU) at the hillside is possibly from the lithotypes that have supported this elevation. Feature “D” is a 6 km – diameter circular elevated area that corresponds to the outer boundary of CSS. This boundary is characterized by increased eU counts, which may happen due to weathering-resistant mineral content (e.g. zircon) present in eolian sandstones. Features “C” and “E” are outside of CSS. The first is interpreted as plateau-shaped residual relief formed by differential erosion of basaltic rocks and sandstones and the second is interpreted as a flat-relief dominated by eolian sandstones. This flat-relief may represent the landscape that has not been affected by the formation process of CSS, while the affected internal region may be represented by feature “B”. The interpretations also have revealed that CSS shows some similarities with typical features of impact structures, namely: disruption of the magnetic field by a ring-shaped magnetic anomaly; central elevation surrounded by a raised outer rim; local control of drainage and; differences in the relief pattern of internal and external parts of the structure. Those similarities reinforce the possibility of an exogenous origin of CSS, but new studies are required to confirm or refuse such possibility.

Ice crystal characterization in cirrus clouds II: radiometric characterization of HaloCam for the quantitative analysis of halo displays

Abstract. We present a procedure for geometric, spectral, and absolute radiometric characterization of the weather-proof RGB camera HaloCamRAW and demonstrate its application in a case study. This characterization procedure can be generalized to other RGB camera systems with similar field of view. HaloCamRAW is part of the automated halo observation system HaloCam and designed for the quantitative analysis of halo displays. The geometric calibration was performed using a chessboard pattern to estimate camera matrix and distortion coefficients. For the radiometric characterization of HaloCamRAW, the dark signal and vignetting effect were determined to correct the measured signal. Furthermore, the spectral response of the RGB sensor and the linearity of its radiometric response were characterized. The absolute radiometric response was estimated by cross calibrating HaloCamRAW against the completely characterized spectrometer of the Munich Aerosol Cloud Scanner (specMACS). For a typical measurement signal the relative (absolute) radiometric uncertainty amounts to 2.8 % (5.0 %), 2.4 % (5.8 %), and 3.3 % (11.8 %) for the red, green, and blue channel, respectively. The absolute radiometric uncertainty estimate is larger mainly due to the inhomogeneity of the scene used for cross calibration and the absolute radiometric uncertainty of specMACS. Geometric and radiometric characterization of HaloCamRAW were applied to a scene with a 22∘ halo observed on 21 April 2016. The observed radiance distribution and 22∘ halo ratio compared well with radiative transfer simulations assuming a range of ice crystal habits and surface roughness values. This application demonstrates the potential of developing a retrieval method for ice crystal properties, such as ice crystal size, shape, and surface roughness using calibrated HaloCamRAW observations together with radiative transfer simulations.

Orbital Lifetime (2008–2017) Radiometric Calibration and Evaluation of the HJ-1B IRS Thermal Infrared Band

The infrared sensor (IRS) is a payload on the HJ-1B satellite and includes a thermal infrared band (B08). In order to obtain radiometric calibration coefficients and evaluate annual change, this study performed an analysis covering its 10-year orbital lifetime (2008–2017). The cross-calibration of IRS B08 with MODIS was performed using near-simultaneous images over Lake Qinghai, China. The results reveal that the radiometric response of IRS B08 notably changed during its orbital lifetime from year-to-year. The offsets fluctuated more than the gain. The top-of-atmosphere (TOA) radiance obtained by calibration coefficients in this study was generally in agreement with those obtained by onboard calibrator, within an error range of ±4.00% from 2008 to 2012. The percent difference compared with field validation was within 1.63%. The difference between IRS and MODIS radiance over field validation sites was within ±5%. Approximately a 1% difference occurred between the TOA temperature of IRS and MODIS. The radiometric response of IRS B08 continuously decreased from 2008 to 2013, whereas it fluctuated from 2014 to 2017. Moreover, the DN fluctuated more when the at-aperture radiance was low, although it was more stable at higher radiance.

An efficient protocol for accurate and massive shoreline definition from mid-resolution satellite imagery

Satellite images may constitute a useful source of information for coastal monitoring as long as it is possible to manage them in an efficient way and to derive precise indicators of the state of the beaches. In the present work, SHOREX system is employed for managing and processing Landsat 8 and Sentinel 2 images to automatically define the instantaneous shoreline position at sub-pixel level. Between the years 2013 and 2017, 91 satellite-derived shorelines (SDS) were assessed by comparing with high-resolution shorelines obtained simultaneously through video-monitoring. The analysis allowed identifying the combination of parameters to perform the extraction algorithm with the highest accuracy. Furthermore, an efficient self-contained workflow is proposed, more robust and independent from inaccuracies in the approximate input line and from multiple morphological and oceanographic issues that may condition the radiometric response near the shore. An iterative procedure ensures firstly a suitable kernel of analysis representing the water-land interface to get, afterward, the definition of the sub-pixel shoreline with high accuracy (below 3 m RMSE).

Pre-launch radiometric calibration of the infrared spectrometer onboard SuperCam for the Mars2020 rover.

Near-infrared spectroscopy has become a well-known remote sensing technique for the surface characterization of planetary objects. Among them, Mars was observed in the past by three imaging spectrometers from orbit. The Infrared Spectrometer/SuperCam instrument performs near-infrared spectroscopy from the martian surface for the first time, with a 1.15 mrad field of view, in the 1.3 µm-2.6 µm range, enabling the identification of a variety of mafic and altered minerals. Before integration aboard the rover, the spectrometer underwent a calibration campaign. Here, we report the radiometric and linearity responses of the instrument, including the optical and thermal setups used to perform them over its nominal range of operations, in terms of instrument detector temperatures and spectral range. These responses were constrained by accuracy requirements (20% in absolute radiometry, 1% in relative). The derived instrument transfer function fits within these requirements (<15% in absolute and <0.8% in relative) and shall be used to calculate the expected instrumental signal-to-noise ratio for typical observation scenarios of mineral mixtures expected to be found in the Jezero crater, and ultimately to retrieve the spectral properties of the regions of interest observed by the rover.

Reflectance calibration of UAV-based visible and near-infrared digital images acquired under variant altitude and illumination conditions

The understanding of the radiometric response of visible and near-infrared cameras is important for quantitative spectral information obtainment. There is a lack of information regarding the comparison of calibration approaches of near-infrared images of digital cameras, since the Bayer Filter is not usually removed and the obtained NIR image records the infrared radiation in three different spectral bands (red, green and blue). This article aimed at developing reflectance calibration models for UAV-based visible and near-infrared (processed under four different methodologies) digital images acquired under variant altitude and illumination conditions. Reflectance calibration models were developed for red, green, blue and near-infrared spectral bands using UAV-based digital numbers – DNs (acquired in twelve UAV flights under variant altitude and illumination conditions) and laboratory-based reflectance. The variation of DNs among flight conditions represents from 12% to 17%, depending on the spectral band. For the visible bands, all reflectance calibration models presented R2 superior than 0.94. Regarding the near-infrared bands, the grey scale and green channel approaches demonstrated the best results, with R2 between 0.89 and 0.98. The validation of the developed models, assessed by the correlation between reflectance measured in field and the predicted reflectance, revealed strong correlations between the observed and predicted reflectance for the visible bands and for the near-infrared grey scale and green channel approaches, which were found to be more suitable for the calibration of near-infrared digital images into reflectance.

Bi-Directional Reflectance Factor Determination of the Railroad Valley Playa

Vicarious calibration is the determination of an on-orbit sensor’s radiometric response using measurements over test sites such as Railroad Valley (RRV), Nevada. It has the highest accuracy when a remote sensor’s view angle is aligned with that of the surface measurements, namely at a nadir view. For view angles greater than 10°, the dominant error is the uncertainty in the off-nadir correction factor. The factor is largest in the back-scatter principal plane and can reach 20%. The Orbiting-Carbon Observatory has access to a number of datasets to determine this deviation. These include measurements from field instruments such as the Portable Apparatus for Rapid Acquisition of Bidirectional Observation of the Land and Atmosphere (PARABOLA), as well as satellite measurements from Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR) and MODerate resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS). The correction factor derived from PARABOLA is consistent in time and space to within 2% for view angles as large as 30°. Field spectrometer data show that the correction term is spectrally invariant. For this reason, a time-invariant model of RRV surface reflectance, along with empirically derived coefficients, is sufficient to use in the calibration of off-nadir sensors, provided there has been no recent rainfall. With this off-nadir correction, calibrations can be expected to have uncertainties within 5%.