Performance results of CERES instrument sensors aboard EOS Terra and Aqua spacecraft using tropical ocean measurements

Susan Thomas; Kory J. Priestley; Peter L. Spence

doi:10.1117/12.560961

26 October 2004 Performance results of CERES instrument sensors aboard EOS Terra and Aqua spacecraft using tropical ocean measurements

Susan Thomas, Kory J. Priestley, Peter L. Spence

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 5542, Earth Observing Systems IX; (2004) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.560961
Event: Optical Science and Technology, the SPIE 49th Annual Meeting, 2004, Denver, Colorado, United States

Abstract

Clouds and the Earth’s Radiant Energy System (CERES) instruments were designed to measure the reflected shortwave and emitted longwave radiances with three scanning thermistor bolometer sensors that measure broadband radiances in the shortwave (0.3 - 5.0 micrometers), total (0.3 - >100 micrometers) and 8 -12 micrometer water vapor window regions. Currently four of the CERES instruments (Flight Models1 through 4[FM1 - FM4]) are flying aboard EOS Terra and Aqua platforms with two instruments aboard each spacecraft. The Terra and Aqua spacecraft are at 705 km near polar, sun synchronous orbits with the equatorial crossing time of 10:30 AM and 1:30 PM. One of the several validation studies for gauging the CERES sensors' performance utilizes the monitoring of tropical ocean longwave measurements for all sky condition. Previous studies on tropical ocean conducted by Earth Radiation Budget Satellite (ERBS) have shown that the mean longwave radiances remain very stable making it a suitable Earth target for validation. The difference in the tropical ocean daytime and nighttime longwave radiances measured by the two longwave measuring sensors on the same instrument are compared, to understand the total sensor’s behavior in various spectral regions. This paper focuses on the results from the tropical ocean measurement analysis called Tropical Mean (TM), calculated for all four CERES instruments aboard Terra and Aqua spacecraft. The TM results along with other validation and calibration studies have helped to detect variations that have occurred in the total sensors of FM2, FM3 and FM4 instruments aboard Terra and Aqua platforms. Further, the TM results has been used to help correct these variations in the ground processing system.

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Susan Thomas, Kory J. Priestley, and Peter L. Spence "Performance results of CERES instrument sensors aboard EOS Terra and Aqua spacecraft using tropical ocean measurements", Proc. SPIE 5542, Earth Observing Systems IX, (26 October 2004); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.560961

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