Abstract
A methodology of intercalibration of C-band spaceborne scatterometers is developed and applied to European Remote Sensing satellite-1 (ERS-1), European Remote Sensing satellite-2 (ERS-2), and Meteorological Operational satellite (METOP) scatterometer data. Assuming that the differences between the instruments can be represented by an incidence-angle-dependent bias, this paper presents and discusses four methods, providing an estimate of that bias and of its standard deviation. Model-based methods performed more accurately than a direct comparison of σ0. The latter provides a systematic larger positive bias. The methodology is applied to ERS-1 and ERS-2 data acquired during the tandem mission in 1996. The same methodology is applied to ERS-2 and Advanced Scatterometer (ASCAT) data acquired in December 2008. Generally, the bias between the ERS-1 and ERS-2 scatterometers is smaller than 0.2 dB over most incidence angles, and the four methods provide relatively consistent results. The bias between ERS-2 and ASCAT is slightly higher, reaching 0.4 dB at certain incidence angles. These results suggest that these scatterometers need to be intercalibrated to achieve a consistent backscatter data.
Original language | English |
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Article number | 6334446 |
Pages (from-to) | 1478-1491 |
Number of pages | 14 |
Journal | IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing |
Volume | 51 |
Issue number | 3 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2013 |
Keywords
- ASCAT
- ERS
- calibration
- radar remote sensing
- scatterometer
- sea ice
- sea surface
- spaceborne radar