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A technique is presented for absolute radiometric calibration of longwave infrared satellite systems. The technique involves a combination underflight technique and radiometric models to estimate the radiance field reaching a satellite sensor. The radiance field can then be compared to the radiance observed at the satellite to evaluate the sensor's post launch calibration. The technique was applied to the Thematic Mapper band 6 sensor on board Landsat 5. Results are presented for three underflight dates. These results indicate that the TM band 6 sensor can be calibrated to yield an expected error (1 standard deviation) in surface temperature of 0.9K. The radiometric propagation models used to achieve these results are presented along with estimates of potential sensor calibration errors. The final radiometric propagation models developed can be applied independent of underflight requirements and represent a general approach to computation of kinetic surface temperatures. The parameters included in the analysis encompass internal calibration, sensor spectral response, atmospheric transmission, upwelled radiance, downwelled radiance, and sample emissivity.
John R. Schott (Wed,) studied this question.