CLARREO Pathfinder (CPF) State-of-the-Art Intercalibration Capabilities

NASA’s Climate Absolute Radiance and Refractivity Observatory (CLARREO) Pathfinder (CPF) mission will deploy an Earth-observing reflected solar (RS) spectrometer, designed to measure Earth-reflected solar radiation from the International Space Station with a remarkable SI-traceable radiometric uncertainty of 0.3%-0.6% (k=1). The high-accuracy CPF measurements will provide an on-orbit reference for intercalibrating other spaceflight RS instruments. The CPF intercalibration team will showcase an innovative on-orbit intercalibration approach, wherein two other RS sensors—the shortwave (SW) channel of the Clouds and the Earth’s Radiant Energy System (CERES) and the Reflective Solar Bands (RSB) of the Visible Infrared Imager Radiometer Suite (VIIRS)—are intercalibrated against CPF benchmark measurements, with an unprecedented intercalibration methodology uncertainty of 0.3% (k=1).