Vicarious and cross calibration methods for satellite thermal infrared sensors using hot ground targets

For radiometric calibration of ASTER TIR and Landsat-7 ETM+ thermal infrared band, vicarious calibration (VC) and cross calibration (CC) experiments were carried out in Lake Tahoe (Nevada), Salton Sea (California), and Railroad Valley (Nevada) in 2000. For Salton Sea and Railroad Valley, ground temperature measurements were conducted in large playas during overpasses of these satellites. For Lake Tahoe, airborne MASTER data were acquired. Atmospheric profile data were obtained by radiosonde during the experiments. These calibration results show that the radiant temperature of ASTER TIR, based on the on-board blackbody, is lower than those of VC/CC at high temperature, the ETM+ band 6 is 3/spl deg/C (except in Railroad Valley) higher than those of VC/CC. VC/CC accuracy is better than 1/spl deg/C (radiometric calibration requirement of ASTER TIR).