Radiometric calibration of DMSP-OLS sensor using VIIRS day/night band

Abstract

Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) Operational Linescan System (OLS) has been collecting global night light imaging data for more than 40 years. With the launch of Suomi-NPP satellite in 2011, the Day/Night Band (DNB) of the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) represents a major advancement in night time imaging capabilities because it surpasses DMSP-OLS in having broader radiometric measurement range, more accurate radiometric calibration, finer spatial resolution, and better geometric quality. DMSP-OLS sensor does not have on-board calibration and data is recorded as digital number (DN). Therefore, VIIRS-DNB provides opportunities to perform quantitative radiometric calibration of DMSP-OLS sensor. In this paper, vicarious radiometric calibration of DMSP-OLS at night under lunar illumination is performed. Events were selected when satellite flies above Dome C in Antarctic at night and the moon illuminates the site with lunar phase being more than quarter moon. Additional event selection criteria to limit solar and lunar zenith angle range have been applied to ensure no influence of stray light effects and adequate lunar illumination. The data from DMSP-OLS and VIIRS-DNB were analyzed to derive the characteristic radiance or DN for the region of interest. The scaling coefficient for converting DMSP-OLS DN values into radiance is determined to optimally merge the observation of DMSP-OLS into VIIRS-DNB radiance data as a function of lunar phases. Calibrating the nighttime light data collected by the DMSP-OLS sensors into radiance unit can enable applications of using both sensor data and advance the applications of night time imagery data.