The cross-calibration of CBERS-02B/CCD visible-near infrared channels with Terra/MODIS channels

Abstract

Radiometric calibration is a prerequisite to quantitative remote sensing, and its accuracy has a direct impact on the reliability and accuracy of the quantitative application of remote-sensing data. This article attempts to cross-calibrate the visible and near-infrared channels 1 (450–520 nm), 2 (520–590 nm), 3 (630–690 nm), and 4 (770–890 nm) of the China–Brazil Earth Resources Satellite (CBERS)-02B/charge-coupled device (CCD) camera with channels 3 (459–479 nm), 4 (545–565 nm), 1 (620–670 nm), and 2 (841–876 nm) of the Terra/Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), respectively. The radiative transfer modelling (RTM) method is implemented using the CBERS-02B/CCD and Terra/MODIS measurements at the Dunhuang radiometric calibration site in October 2008. The differences between the cross-calibration and vicarious calibration techniques for channels 1, 2, 3, and 4 are 11.15%, –0.89%, 2.88%, and 11.28%, respectively. Furthermore, the accuracies of the cross-calibration coefficients of CBERS-02B/CCD are analysed, wherein the results indicate that the calibration uncertainty is within 5%.