First Assessment of SDGSAT-1 TIS Thermal Infrared Bands Calibration Using Landsat 9 TIRS-2

Abstract

SDGSAT-1, the inaugural Earth science satellite commissioned by the Chinese Academy of Sciences, successfully lifted off from China's Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center on 5 November 2021. Cross calibration has emerged as an indispensable methodology, providing an effective means for quality assessment, stability monitoring, and uncertainty analysis. This is achieved through the meticulous selection of an appropriate reference instrument. In our investigation, we conducted a comprehensive evaluation of the absolute radiometric calibration accuracy of the thermal infrared spectrometer (TIS), a pivotal component aboard SDGSAT-1. Our evaluation centered on a meticulous comparative analysis, where we juxtaposed the brightness temperature (BT) values recorded by TIS with the BT values derived from TIRS-2, computed following the spectral alignment with TIS. Our findings reveal that the current absolute BT bias for the B2 channel of TIS is less than 0.52 K. Meanwhile, the B3 channel exhibits a slightly larger fluctuation in absolute BT bias, yet remains within acceptable parameters, registering at less than 1 K. Notably, B3 emerges as the more dependable option for accurately gauging the temperature of the target region. Specifically, when the BT of B3 surpasses 290 K, the BT bias remains consistently below 0.3 K. In light of the approximately 40-min time difference in the water surface data utilized in our study, we conducted simulations to assess the channel BT of TIS under the scenario of a 0.25 °C water temperature variation. Our simulations conclusively demonstrate that the corresponding change in BT does not exceed 0.25 K.

Keywords

• Cross calibration
• thermal infrared (TIR)
• thermal infrared sensor 2 (TIRS-2)
• thermal infrared spectrometer (TIS)