Vicarious Radiometric Calibration of a Multispectral Camera on Board an Unmanned Aerial System

Abstract

Combinations of unmanned aerial platforms and multispectral sensors are considered low-cost tools for detailed spatial and temporal studies addressing spectral signatures, opening a broad range of applications in remote sensing. Thus, a key step in this process is knowledge of multi-spectral sensor calibration parameters in order to identify the physical variables collected by the sensor. This paper discusses the radiometric calibration process by means of a vicarious method applied to a high-spatial resolution unmanned flight using low-cost artificial and natural covers as control and check surfaces, respectively.

Keywords

• radiometric calibration
• vicarious method
• multispectral camera
• UAS
• low-cost targets
• radiance
• remote sensing