Historic Calibration of the Thermal Infrared Band of Landsat-5 TM

This investigation was motivated by the need for radiometric calibration of the Landsat-5 Thematic Mapper (TM) thermal band (Band 6), covering its 25 years of operation. Through fusion of environmental data and physical modeling, a vicarious calibration approach was implemented. Results, which were demonstrated to agree with data from previous field campaigns, indicate the Landsat-5 thermal band has been calibrated to better than 1 K over the 24 years in orbit. The data indicate the sensor exhibits a small gain error (approximately constant over time) and a bias shift for all data post-1999. The lifetime calibration error can be reduced to 0.49 K, in reference to a 300 K blackbody, by a pair of linear corrections. This study established that the methodology presented can be implemented to achieve a very high level of radiometric integrity, applicable to both historic and current data from remote thermal infrared systems.