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Landsat-7 ETM+ radiometric calibration status

September 1, 2016

Now in its 17th year of operation, the Enhanced Thematic Mapper + (ETM+), on board the Landsat-7 satellite, continues to systematically acquire imagery of the Earth to add to the 40+ year archive of Landsat data. Characterization of the ETM+ on-orbit radiometric performance has been on-going since its launch in 1999. The radiometric calibration of the reflective bands is still monitored using on-board calibration devices, though the Pseudo-Invariant Calibration Sites (PICS) method has proven to be an effective tool as well. The calibration gains were updated in April 2013 based primarily on PICS results, which corrected for a change of as much as -0.2%/year degradation in the worst case bands. A new comparison with the SADE database of PICS results indicates no additional degradation in the updated calibration. PICS data are still being tracked though the recent trends are not well understood. The thermal band calibration was updated last in October 2013 based on a continued calibration effort by NASA/Jet Propulsion Lab and Rochester Institute of Technology. The update accounted for a 0.036 W/m2 sr μm or 0.26K at 300K bias error. The updated lifetime trend is now stable to within +/- 0.4K.

Publication Year 2016
Title Landsat-7 ETM+ radiometric calibration status
DOI 10.1117/12.2238625
Authors Julia A. Barsi, Brian L. Markham, J. S. Czapla-Myers, Dennis L. Helder, Simon Hook, John R. Schott, Md Obaidul Haque
Publication Type Conference Paper
Publication Subtype Conference Paper
Index ID 70192912
Record Source USGS Publications Warehouse
USGS Organization Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center