Landsat-7 ETM+: 12 years on-orbit reflective-band radiometric performance

IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing
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Abstract

The Landsat-7 ETM+ sensor has been operating on orbit for more than 12 years, and characterizations of its performance have been ongoing over this period. In general, the radiometric performance of the instrument has been remarkably stable: 1) noise performance has degraded by 2% or less overall, with a few detectors displaying step changes in noise of 2% or less; 2) coherent noise frequencies and magnitudes have generally been stable, though the within-scan amplitude variation of the 20 kHz noise in bands 1 and 8 disappeared with the failure of the scan line corrector and a new similar frequency noise (now about 18 kHz) has appeared in two detectors in band 5 and increased in magnitude with time; 3) bias stability has been better than 0.25 DN out of a normal value of 15 DN in high gain; 4) relative gains, the differences in response between the detectors in the band, have generally changed by 0.1% or less over the mission, with the exception of a few detectors with a step response change of 1% or less; and 5) gain stability averaged across all detectors in a band, which is related to the stability of the absolute calibration, has been more stable than the techniques used to measure it. Due to the inability to confirm changes in the gain (beyond a few detectors that have been corrected back to the band average), ETM+ reflective band data continues to be calibrated with the prelaunch measured gains. In the worst case, some bands may have changed as much as 2% in uncompensated absolute calibration over the 12 years.
Publication type Article
Publication Subtype Journal Article
Title Landsat-7 ETM+: 12 years on-orbit reflective-band radiometric performance
Series title IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing
DOI 10.1109/TGRS.2011.2169803
Volume 50
Issue 5
Year Published 2012
Language English
Publisher IEEE
Contributing office(s) Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center
Description 7 p.
Larger Work Type Article
Larger Work Subtype Journal Article
Larger Work Title IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing
First page 2056
Last page 2062
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