This PDF file contains the front matter associated with SPIE Proceedings Volume 7862, including the Title Page, Copyright information, Table of Contents, and the Conference Committee listing.

The European Union-ESA Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) programme decided to develop the Sentinels as first series of operational satellites in order to meet specific Earth observation user needs. The series of Sentinel-3 satellites will provide global, frequent and near-realtime ocean, ice and land monitoring. It continues Envisat's altimetry, the multispectral, medium-resolution visible and infrared ocean and land-surface observations of ERS, Envisat and Spot, and includes enhancements to meet the operational revisit requirements and to facilitate new products and evolution of services. The first launch is expected in 2013. In this paper an outline of the Sentinel-3 satellite and optical payload is presented. Dedicated calibration and validation activities regarding the sea and land surface temperature radiometer (SLSTR) and ocean and land colour radiometer (OLCI) are then reviewed. Calibration and validation (calval) activities are based on the heritage gained from ENVISAT MERIS and AATSR experience and cover pre-launch, in-orbit commissioning and operational measures for the Sentinel 3 satellites.

After the 1.5 year operation of GOSAT (Greenhouse gases Observing SATellite), NIES GOSAT DHF (GOSAT Data Handling Facility of National Institute for Environmental Studies) has been producing CAI Level 1B and 1B+, FTS/CAI Level 2 and FTS/CAI Level 3 products, receiving FTS Level 1A/1B, and CAI Level 1A data from JAXA ( FTS: Fourier Transform Spectrometer; CAI: Cloud and Aerosol Imager; JAXA: Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency). In addition to the higher level data processing, GOSAT DHF has several additional roles 1) observation request collection from users and their submission to JAXA 2) Data archive and 3) Data Distribution. After the calibration and preliminary validation, processed data are distributed to RA researchers at first stage. Then, after the validation, they are distributed to General users. All the distribution is through GOSAT User Interface Gateway (GUIG). As of May of 2010, total number of user registration exceeds 800, and a large number of products are distributed both to the RA researchers and to General Users. At this moment, validation indicates that the FTS L2 SWIR CO₂ and CH₄ data show slightly lower values than validation results. In addition, very high XCO2 values, which seemed caused by aerosol, appeared on some desert area. But, further improvement of the algorithm was conducted as version 01.XX of FTS L2 products. Preliminary FTS TIR L2 processing is being conducted and TIR processing is starting. In addition to the L2 products, some Level 3 products are going to be released: FTS L3 global distribution of CO₂ and CH₄, and CAI L3 global radiance distribution.

We report on the design and development of the large linear SWIR focal plane arrays to be deployed in the multispectral instrument of the Proba-V satellite. These sensors are based on mechanical butting of three InGaAs photodiode arrays with 1024 pixels on 25 μm pitch, forming a nearly continuous line of 3072 pixels. A new read-out integrated circuit (ROIC) for photocurrent integration and signal multiplexing with 1024 inputs was designed and manufactured by stitching due to the length of the chip. The ROIC (XRO3508) includes both correlated double sampling (CDS) and autozero features, enabling a very low Dark Signal Non Uniformity (DSNU) and Photoresponse Non-Uniformity (PRNU) less than 0.5% of the available signal range.

EarthCARE is ESA's Earth Clouds Aerosols and Radiation Explorer and is a joint mission in collaboration with JAXA. The satellite will carry a suite of instruments which operate in synergy to provide simultaneous observations of clouds and aerosols and will lead to improved understanding and modelling of these factors as well as their role in climatology. Development of the four instrument payload, consisting of an Atmospheric Lidar (ATLID), a Cloud Profiling Radar (CPR), a Multi Spectral Imager (MSI) and a Broad Band Radiometer (BBR) has been continuing for some time now and all instruments have progressed beyond the preliminary design stage. The paper will describe the mission, the satellite and in particular the principles, performance and design evolution of the payload.

The Second-generation Global Imager (SGLI) on the Global Change Observation Mission (GCOM) is a multi-band optical imaging radiometer in the wavelength range from near-UV to thermal infrared. SGLI will provide high accuracy measurements of Ocean, Atmosphere, Land and Cryosphere. SGLI will provide the global scale multi spectral data with about 2 days frequency. The observation data over the land area is 250m resolution with more than 1000km swath, and the ocean area in 1km resolution. SGLI also has a unique tilting data to realize the directional polarized observation with red and near infrared wavelength. This paper describes the operation concept and current status of the SGLI instrument development.

Remote sensing missions have been conventionally performed by using satellite-onboard optical sensors with extraordinarily high reliability, on huge satellites. On the other hand, small satellites for remote-sensing missions have recently been developed intensely and operated all over the world. This paper gives a Japanese concept of the development of nano-satellites(10kg to 50kg) based on "Hodoyoshi" (Japanese word for "reasonable") reliability engineering aiming at cost-effective design of optical sensors, buses and satellites. The concept is named as "Hodoyoshi" concept. We focus on the philosophy and the key features of the concept. These are conveniently applicable to the development of optical sensors on nano-satellites. As major advantages, the optical sensors based on the "Hodoyoshi" concept are "flexible" in terms of selectability of wavelength bands, adaptability to the required ground sample distance, and optimal performance under a wide range of environmental temperatures. The first and second features mentioned above can be realized by dividing the functions of the optical sensor into modularized functional groups reasonably. The third feature becomes possible by adopting the athermal and apochromatic optics design. By utilizing these features, the development of the optical sensors become possible without exact information on the launcher or the orbit. Furthermore, this philosophy leads to truly quick delivery of nano-satellites for remote-sensing missions. On the basis of the concept, we are now developing nano-satellite technologies and five nano-satellites to realize the concept in a four-year-long governmentally funded project. In this paper, the specification of the optical sensor on the first satellite is also reported.

Traditionally, satellite instruments that measure Earth-reflected solar radiation in the visible and near infrared wavelength regions have been calibrated for radiance response in a two-step method. In the first step, the spectral response of the instrument is determined using a nearly monochromatic light source, such as a lamp-illuminated monochromator. Such sources only provide a relative spectral response (RSR) for the instrument, since they do not act as calibrated sources of light nor do they typically fill the field-of-view of the instrument. In the second step, the instrument views a calibrated source of broadband light, such as a lamp-illuminated integrating sphere. In the traditional method, the RSR and the sphere spectral radiance are combined and, with the instrument's response, determine the absolute spectral radiance responsivity of the instrument. More recently, an absolute calibration system using widely tunable monochromatic laser systems has been developed. Using these sources, the absolute spectral responsivity (ASR) of an instrument can be determined on a wavelength-by-wavelength basis. From these monochromatic ASRs, the responses of the instrument bands to broadband radiance sources can be calculated directly, eliminating the need for calibrated broadband light sources such as integrating spheres. Here we describe the laser-based calibration and the traditional broad-band sourcebased calibration of the NPP VIIRS sensor, and compare the derived calibration coefficients for the instrument. Finally, we evaluate the impact of the new calibration approach on the on-orbit performance of the sensor.

The Bidirectional Reflectance Distribution Function (BRDF) at visible and near-infrared wavelengths of Multi-Wall Carbon NanoTubes (MWCNTs) grown on substrate materials are reported. The BRDF measurements were performed in the Diffuser Calibration Laboratory (DCaL) at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, and results at 500nm and 900nm are reported here. In addition, the 8° Directional/Hemispherical Reflectance of the samples is reported from the ultraviolet to shortwave infrared. The 8° Directional/Hemispherical Reflectance was measured in the Optics Branch at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. The BRDF was measured at 0° and 45° incident angles and from -80° to +80° scatter angles using a monochromatic source. The optical scatter properties of the samples as represented by their BRDF were found to be strongly influenced by the choice of substrate. As a reference, the optical scattering properties of the carbon nanotubes are compared to the BRDF of Aeroglaze Z306^TM and Rippey Ultrapol IV^TM, a well-known black paint and black appliqué, respectively. The possibility, promise, and challenges of employing carefully engineered carbon nanotubes in straylight control applications particularly for spaceflight instrumentation is also discussed.

With the self-developing CMOS imaging sensors in the instrument Focal Plane Assembly (FPA), there is flexibility in the trade-off for optimal specifications of CMOS sensor for systematic study. The criteria considered for the optimization are MTF and SNR, the CMOS imaging sensor considered is with TDI (time delay integration) feature. Among the specifications, fill factor is a key item. It affect not only the window effect in FPA MTF (static), but also the smearing effect in dynamic MTF, especially in satellite along track direction. Considering different fill factors, mirror-type and non-mirror-type pixel layout were studied for estimating the system MTF, another concern from image user point of view is mirror type pixel layout may cause different response between even and odd pixels. This work is to present the analysis results based on the construction of the non-equal spacing signal via Whittaker -Shannon interpolation formula. Further to present the analysis results about fill factor and stage number of TDI CMOS sensor. The result can function as a practice of FPA design specification.

The Earth Observing-1 (EO-1) Hyperion instrument provides 220 spectral bands with wavelengths between 400 and 2500 nm at 30 m spatial resolution, which covers a 7.5 km by 100 km area on the ground. The EO-1 spacecraft has another multispectral sensor called the Advanced Land Imager (ALI), which has 10 spectral bands with wavelengths between 400 and 2350 nm at 30 m spatial resolution. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) sensor onboard the Terra spacecraft was launched in Dec., 1999, and flies approximately 30 minutes behind EO-1. Nearsimultaneous observations from Terra MODIS, EO-1 ALI and Hyperion over a well characterized Railroad Valley Playa in Nevada (RVPN) target are chosen for this study. A uniform region of interest (ROI) within the playa within latitudes and longitudes of 38.48 and -115.71 to 38.53 and -115.66 was chosen for this analysis. A representation of the ground spectra during every near-simultaneous acquisition of MODIS and ALI is obtained using EO-1 Hyperion data. Using the EO-1 Hyperion derived top-of-atmosphere (TOA) reflectance profile along with the ALI and MODIS relative spectral responses (RSR), simulated reflectance for the matching band pairs is calculated. The Hyperion simulated TOA reflectance results are compared to the measured TOA reflectance trends of ALI and MODIS. The long-term measured versus simulated reflectance results are used to examine the relationships and calibration differences between the ALI and MODIS sensors.

There are over 25 years of historical satellite data available for climate analysis. The historical satellite data needs to be properly calibrated, especially in the visible, for sensors with no onboard calibration. Accurate vicarious calibration of historical satellites relies on invariant targets, such as the moon, Dome C, and deserts. Deep convective clouds (DCC) also show promise of being a stable or predictable target viewable by all satellites, since they behave as solar diffusers. However DCC have not been well characterized for calibration. Ten years of well-calibrated MODIS radiances are now available. DCC can easily be identified using IR thresholds, where the IR calibration can be traced to the onboard blackbodies. The natural variability of the DCC radiance will be analyzed geographically, seasonally, and for differences of convection initiated over land and ocean. Functionality between particle size and ozone absorption with DCC albedo will be examined theoretically. Although DCC clouds are nearly Lambertian, the angular distribution of reflectances will be sampled and compared with theoretical models. Both Aqua and Terra MODIS DCC angular models were compared for consistency. The DCC method was able to identify two calibration coefficient discontinuities in the Terra-MODIS Collection 5 10-year record and validated the calibration stability of MODIS to within 0.1% per decade. The DCC method needs to take into account the functionality of the 0.65μm DCC radiance with the 11μm brightness temperature threshold and the DCC 0.65μm radiance difference observed over the tropical western pacific and the afternoon generated DCC over land. Both of these cases cause a bias on the order of 5%. These improvements are the first steps towards successful use of DCC as an absolute calibration target.

There is a great need to establish satellite instrument calibration consistency using vicarious calibration sites with wellknown spectral and radiometric characteristics. The Dunhuang calibration/validation site located in the Gobi desert, China, and the Dome C in the Antarctic are two of the eight reference sites endorsed by the Committee on Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS) Working Group on Cal/Val (WGCV). This paper presents results of the spectral characterization of the Dunhuang calibration/validation site using hyperspectral measurements. Its spectra are compared with those from the Dome C, as well as with ground sample measurements with radiative transfer calculations. Further comparisons are made with the spectra obtained by the HSI on China's HJ-1A environmental satellite. The results show that the Dunhuang and Dome C sites have distinct spectral characteristics that complement each other for satellite instrument calibration in the reflective solar bands. This study is part of the collaboration effort by the CEOS/WGCV towards consistent satellite observations for the global earth observation system of systems (GEOSS).

This paper focuses on radiometric and geometric assessment of the Indian Remote Sensing (IRS-P6) Advanced Wide Field Sensor (AWiFS) sensor using the Sonoran desert and Railroad Valley Playa, Nevada (RVPN) ground sites. Imageto- Image (I2I) accuracy and relative band-to-band (B2B) accuracy were measured. I2I accuracy of the AWiFS imagery was assessed by measuring the imagery against Landsat Global Land Survey (GLS) 2000. The AWiFS images were typically registered to within one pixel to the GLS 2000 mosaic images. The B2B process used the same concepts as the I2I, except instead of a reference image and a search image; the individual bands of a multispectral image are tested against each other. The B2B results showed that all the AWiFS multispectral bands are registered to sub-pixel accuracy. Using the limited amount of scenes available over these ground sites, the reflective bands of AWiFS sensor indicate a long-term drift in the top-of-atmosphere (TOA) reflectance. Because of the limited availability of AWiFS scenes over these ground sites, a comprehensive evaluation of the radiometric stability using these sites is not possible. In order to overcome this limitation, a cross-comparison between AWiFS and Landsat 7 (L7) Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+) was performed using image statistics based on large common areas observed by the sensors within 30 minutes. Regression curves and coefficients of determination for the TOA trends from these sensors were generated to quantify the uncertainty in these relationships and to provide an assessment of the calibration differences between these sensors.

Since launch in 1999, the NASA EOS Terra MODIS has successfully operated for more than a decade. MODIS acquires data in 36 spectral bands with wavelengths ranging from visible (VIS) to long-wave infrared (LWIR) and at three nadir spatial resolutions: 250m for 2 bands, 500m for 5 bands, and 1km for 29 bands. In addition to its on-board calibrators (OBC), designed for sensor radiometric calibration and characterization, MODIS was built with a unique device called the spectro-radiometric calibration assembly (SRCA), which can be configured into three different modes: radiometric, spatial, and spectral. When it is operated in the spectral mode, the SRCA can monitor changes in sensor spectral performance for the VIS and near-infrared (NIR) spectral bands. For more than 10 years, the SRCA operations have continued to provide valuable information for Terra MODIS on-orbit spectral performance. This paper briefly describes Terra MODIS SRCA on-orbit operations and calibration activities and presents results derived from its decade-long spectral characterization, including changes in the VIS and NIR spectral bands center wavelengths (CW) and bandwidths (BW). It demonstrates that the SRCA on-orbit wavelength calibration capability remains satisfactory. For most spectral bands, the changes in CW and BW are less than 0.5 nm and 1.0 nm, respectively. As expected, results and lessons from Terra MODIS on-orbit spectral characterization have and will continue to benefit the operation and calibration of its successor, Aqua MODIS, and the development of future missions and sensors, which have stringent requirements on sensor spectral performance.

The Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES) instruments measure the two key components of the Earth's Radiation Budget, the reflected shortwave and the emitted longwave energy. The CERES instrument consists of three scanning thermistor bolometers that measure the broadband radiances in the shortwave (0.3 to 5.0 micrometer), total (0.3 to >100 micrometer) and 8-12 micrometer water vapor window regions. Four CERES instruments (Flight Models 1 through 4) are flying aboard EOS Terra and Aqua platforms with two instruments aboard each spacecraft. The accuracy requirements of the CERES sensors are achieved through the prelaunch calibrations and on-orbit calibration activities. The CERES detector gain and the response function are determined by the prelaunch ground calibrations. The post launch calibration of CERES sensors are carried out using the internal calibration module (ICM) comprising of blackbody sources and quartz-halogen tungsten lamp, and a solar diffuser plate known as the Mirror Attenuator Mosaic (MAM). The ICM calibration results are instrumental in determining the changes in CERES sensors' gains after launch from the pre-launch determined values and the on-orbit gain variations. In addition to the broadband response changes derived from the on-board blackbody and the tungsten lamp, the shortwave and the total sensors show a spectral change in responsivity in the shorter wavelength region below one micron that were brought to light through vicarious studies. The spectral change was attributed to the instrument operational modes and the corrections were derived using the sensor radiance comparisons. This paper covers the on-orbit behavior of CERES sensors and the determination of the sensor response changes utilizing the in-flight calibration and the radiance comparisons. The corrections for the sensor responses were incorporated in the radiance calculations of CERES Edition3 data products.

Traditional aerial images provided by satellite, manned aircraft or stock photography are often expensive, difficult to obtain or outdated. The CropCam provides GPS based digital images on demand and real time data with high temporal resolution throughout the equatorial region where the sky is often covered by clouds. The images obtained by the CropCam will allow producers to detect, locate, and have better assessment of the actions required to overcome the problem of unclear images obtained by the satellite and manned aircraft in this area. A Pentax digital camera, model Optio A40, was used to capture images from the height of 320 meters on board the CropCam UAV autopilot. The objective of this study is to evaluate the land use /land cover (LULC) features over Penang Island using the images obtained during the CropCam flying mission. The study also test the effectiveness of neural network approach instead of conventional methods in classification process in order to overcome or minimize the difficulty in classification of the mixed pixel areas using high resolution images with spatial ground 8 cm. The technique was applied to the digital camera spectral bands (red, green and blue) to extract thematic information from the acquired scene by using PCI Geomatica 10.3 image processing software. Training sites were selected within each scene and four LULC classes were assigned to each classifier. The accuracy assessment of each classification map produced was validated using the reference data sets consisting of a large number of samples collected per category. The results showed that the neural network classifier produced superior results and achieved a high degree of accuracy. The study revealed that the neural network approach is effective and could be used for LULC classification using high resolution images of a small area of coverage acquired by the CropCam UAV.

The extraction of power lines from aerial images and the distinguishing of them are of great significance to locate the points of the faults on power lines and to diagnose the components equipped on power lines. To solve the two problems, an algorithm composed of three steps is proposed as follows. Firstly, the edges of power lines are extracted by SWIFTS algorithm1, which is developed on the basis of the differentiation of Dissimilarity between power line and background. Secondly, to detect power lines, Hough transform (HT) is employed by taking advantage of its insensitive to noise. Lastly, a clustering algorithm based on Nearest Neighborhood (NN) is adopted to distinguish power lines. Experiments and analysis demonstrate that the proposed algorithm could effectively extract and distinguish power lines from aerial images.

In the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection radiometer (ASTER) Project, two kinds of algorithms are used for cloud assessment in Level-1 processing. The first algorithm based on the LANDSAT-5 TM Automatic Cloud Cover Assessment (ACCA) algorithm is used for a part of daytime scenes observed with only VNIR bands and all nighttime scenes, and the second algorithm based on the LANDSAT-7 ETM+ ACCA algorithm is used for most of daytime scenes observed with all spectral bands. However, the first algorithm does not work well for lack of some spectral bands sensitive to cloud detection, and the two algorithms have been less accurate over snow/ice covered areas since April 2008 when the SWIR subsystem developed troubles. In addition, they perform less well for some combinations of surface type and sun elevation angle. We, therefore, have developed the ASTER cloud coverage reassessment system using MODIS cloud mask (MOD35) products, and have reassessed cloud coverage for all ASTER archived scenes (>1.7 million scenes). All of the new cloud coverage data are included in Image Management System (IMS) databases of the ASTER Ground Data System (GDS) and NASA's Land Process Data Active Archive Center (LP DAAC) and used for ASTER product search by users, and cloud mask images are distributed to users through Internet. Daily upcoming scenes (about 400 scenes per day) are reassessed and inserted into the IMS databases in 5 to 7 days after each scene observation date. Some validation studies for the new cloud coverage data and some mission-related analyses using those data are also demonstrated in the present paper.

This paper proposes the precise spaceborne synthetic aperture radar (SAR) image formation technique based on the analysis of critical error factors that severely degrade the SAR image quality. These are error factors related to the antenna beam pointing, the effective velocity, and the Doppler centroid. We newly developed the spaceborne SAR system simulator which is able to analysis effects that critical errors of the user-designed spaceborne SAR induce on a focused image. Using it, effects of critical errors are analyzed for spaceborne SAR image formation. Analysis results show that these cause phase distortion of rawdata, distort the symmetry of the azimuth impulse response function (IRF) of point targets in the focused image, and defocus the SAR image. To resolve these problems, we suggest to make use of the phase gradient algorithm (PGA) to compensate phase distortion induced by antenna beam pointing errors. Also, the effective velocity of the illuminated beam and the Doppler centroid of spaceborne SAR rawdata are exactly calculated by proposed methods using both orbit state vectors and the rawdata acquisition geometry based on the newly defined twoway slant range equation model. Furthermore, azimuth block processing is used to reduce signal level of ambiguities produced by sidelobes of antenna beam. The experimental results on the simulated SAR data show that proposed methods are able to reduce error effects as well as improve the focused SAR image quality greatly.

Polarization response could significant affect the accuracy of the radiance measured by the ocean color remote sensors, and it should be corrected before the atmospheric correction processing. For the Chinese Ocean Color and Temperature Scanner (COCTS) onboard the HY-1B satellite which was launched on 11 Apr., 2007, the design goal of the polarization response degree is less than 5% for the scanning angle less than 20°. However, the polarization response coefficients of Hy-1B/COCTS have not yet been completely measured pre-launched, which should be estimated by the on-orbit assessment method. In this paper, we have developed an on-bit assessment method of the polarization response coefficient for satellite ocean color remote sensor. First, the principle of the polarization response of the satellite ocean color sensor is introduced. Then, we provide the on-orbit assessment method of the polarization response for the satellite ocean color sensor. The method has been applied to the Aqua/MODIS to validate its applicability, and the derived polarization response coefficients consist well with the pre-launched measured values. Finally, we apply the method to the HY-1B/COCTS, and the results show that HY-1B/COCTS has large polarization response for the 412nm and 490nm bands with the maximum polarization response degree more than 30%, and the polarization responses at 443nm, 520nm and 565nm are relative small with the degree all less than 15%. The mean values of the polarization response degree are 17.2%, 9.4%, 23.2%, 7.7% and 4.7% for the first five bands of HY-1B/COCTS, respectively.

Fast access to large data archives and provision of near real-time processing of remote sensed image are critical services that boost earth observation applications such as geographic survey and land and coast mapping. Our motivating reasons for design the system arise from the computational and sharing resources available across China, and which we believe are representative of likely distributed computing infrastructure all around the world. "ImageMall", a service-oriented remote sensed image processing and distribution system is explained. The scheme how it provides services to improve access and use of multisensor images is demonstrated. The parallel computing of low level image processing algorithms is specifically address and a web-based interface to provide image distribution service for environmental and disaster management applications is also illustrated.