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Copernicus Sentinels Missions Calibration, Validation, FRM and Innovation Approaches in Satellite-Data Quality Assessment

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A special issue of Remote Sensing (ISSN 2072-4292). This special issue belongs to the section "Remote Sensing Image Processing".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 August 2024 | Viewed by 6455

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Special Issue Editors

Dr. Bahjat Alhammoud

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Guest Editor

Earth Observation R&D, ARGANS Ltd., Plymouth PL68BX, UK
Interests: optics; vicarious calibration/validation methods; remote sensing; numerical modeling; oceanography

Dr. Sebastien Clerc

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor

ACRI-ST, 06904 Sophia-Antipolis, France
Interests: geophysical image processing; remote sensing; calibration; image classification; learning (artificial intelligence); image segmentation; radiometry

Dr. Steffen Dransfeld

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor

European Space Agency, ESA-ESRIN, Earth Observation Ground Segment Department, 1 00044 Frascati, Italy
Interests: calibration and validation of optical remote sensing instruments; validation of level 2 remote sensing products (LST, vegetation parameters, AOD, FRP, IWV, SDR)

Dr. Jean Christopher Lambert

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor

Royal Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy, BIRA-IASB, 1180 Brussels, Belgium
Interests: remote sensing; atmospheric composition; satellite validation; metrology

Pierre Féménias

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor Assistant

European Space Agency, ESA-ESRIN, Earth Observation Ground Segment Department, 1 00044 Frascati, Italy
Interests: earth observation; altimetry; radiometry; calibration; validation; data quality

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Continuous observation of the Earth by remote sensing satellites provides cost-effective acquisition of global data, which can be fed into internationally agreed key datasets, such as the Climate Data Records of Essential Climate Variables targeted by the Global Climate Observing System (GCOS) of the United Nations.

With the increasing number of spaceborne Optical, Thermal, Radar, and Microwave sensors, we are moving toward systematic and continuous global Earth observation of the most relevant processes in land, oceans, the atmosphere and over the cryosphere. Hence, the need for consistency among (past, present and future) EO remotely sensed data remains more than ever critical for building coherent time series of geophysical quantities.

Rigorous Calibration and Validation (Cal/Val) processes and protocols are required to ensure the highest quality of the data products and to document this quality, hence, building confidence in satellite data and in their use by the widest community. At the same time, new technologies emerge, new Earth observation methods appear, and new types of data become available, raising new Cal/Val challenges.

Accurate calibration and validation require the availability of Fiducial Reference Measurements (FRM), which are a suite of independent ground-based measurements with traceability to established standards and community protocols that provide independent validation datasets. For this purpose, the European Space Agency (ESA) and the European Organization for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT) support a series of Fiducial Reference Measurements (FRM) projects targeting the validation of satellite data products of the atmosphere, land, and ocean under the auspices of the Committee on Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS).

The goal of this Special Issue is to combine and summarize recent scientific advances related to the satellite Cal/Val techniques, FRM datasets and innovations in the field, with a focus on - but not limited to - the Copernicus Sentinels.

Potential topic areas covered by Copernicus Sentinels missions but are not limited to:

remote sensing of atmospheric composition, land, ocean, snow and ice surface,
calibration and sensors’ intercomparison,
validation of geophysical data products,
innovations to products’ retrieval algorithms and Cal/Val techniques,
Fiducial Reference Measurements (FRM) for satellite data validation.

Dr. Bahjat Alhammoud
Dr. Sebastien Clerc
Dr. Steffen Dransfeld
Dr. Jean Christopher Lambert
Guest Editors

Pierre Féménias
Guest Editor Assistant

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Remote Sensing is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

remote sensing
calibration/validation
fiducial reference measurement
copernicus sentinel missions
altimetry
radiometry

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

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29 pages, 2729 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Towards Operational Fiducial Reference Measurement (FRM) Data for the Calibration and Validation of the Sentinel-3 Surface Topography Mission over Inland Waters, Sea Ice, and Land Ice

by Elodie Da Silva, Emma R. Woolliams, Nicolas Picot, Jean-Christophe Poisson, Henriette Skourup, Geir Moholdt, Sara Fleury, Sajedeh Behnia, Vincent Favier, Laurent Arnaud, Jérémie Aublanc, Valentin Fouqueau, Nicolas Taburet, Julien Renou, Hervé Yesou, Angelica Tarpanelli, Stefania Camici, Renée Mie Fredensborg Hansen, Karina Nielsen, Frédéric Vivier, François Boy, Roger Fjørtoft, Mathilde Cancet, Ramiro Ferrari, Ghislain Picard, Mohammad J. Tourian, Nicolaas Sneeuw, Eric Munesa, Michel Calzas, Adrien Paris, Emmanuel Le Meur, Antoine Rabatel, Guillaume Valladeau, Pascal Bonnefond, Sylvie Labroue, Ole Andersen, Mahmoud El Hajj, Filomena Catapano and Pierre Féménias Show full author list Hide full author list

Remote Sens. 2023, 15(19), 4826; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs15194826 - 05 Oct 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1147

Abstract

The Copernicus Sentinel-3 Surface Topography Mission (STM) Land Altimetry provides valuable surface elevation information over inland waters, sea ice, and land ice, thanks to its synthetic aperture radar (SAR) altimeter and its orbit that covers high-latitude polar regions. To ensure that these measurements are reliable and to maximise the return on investment, adequate validation of the geophysical retrieval methods, processing algorithms, and corrections must be performed using independent observations. The EU-ESA project St3TART (started July 2021) aims to generalise the concept of Fiducial Reference Measurements (FRMs) for the Copernicus Sentinel-3 STM. This work has gathered existing data, made new observations during field campaigns, and ensured that these observations meet the criteria of FRM standards so that they can be used to validate Sentinel-3 STM Land Altimetry products operationally. A roadmap for the operational provision of the FRM, including the definition, consolidation, and identification of the most relevant and cost-effective methods and protocols to be maintained, supported, or implemented, has been developed. The roadmap includes guidelines for SI traceability, definitions of FRM measurement procedures, processing methods, and uncertainty budget estimations. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Copernicus Sentinels Missions Calibration, Validation, FRM and Innovation Approaches in Satellite-Data Quality Assessment)

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19 pages, 2801 KiB

Open AccessArticle

An Improved Altimeter in-Orbit Range Noise-Level Estimation Approach Based on Along-Track Differential Method

by Xiaonan Liu, Weiya Kong, Hanwei Sun, Yongsheng Xu and Yaobing Lu

Remote Sens. 2022, 14(24), 6250; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs14246250 - 09 Dec 2022

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 904

Abstract

Satellite radar altimeters are advanced remote sensing devices that play an important role in observing the global marine environment. Accurately estimating the noise level of altimeter in-orbit ranging data is crucial for evaluating the payload performance, analyzing sea conditions, and monitoring data quality. In this study, we propose an approach based on the differential processing of along-track odd–even data sequences for altimeter in-orbit range noise-level estimation. Using the long-term along-track data sequence can notably improve the issue in the existing method in that the noise level is underestimated owing to the utilization of a relatively short data segment. On the basis of an analysis of the influence of low-frequency components on noise-level estimation, the mathematical formulas of the above differential method were deduced, and the efficacy of the approach in assessing the noise level of altimeter in-orbit data was demonstrated by simulation experiments. This method was used to estimate the noise levels of the 20 Hz datasets of Jason-3 and Sentinel-6, and the idea of the time-domain difference was extended to the frequency domain. The statistical results showed that the 20 Hz noise levels at the significant wave height (SWH) = 2 m were 7.41 cm (Jason-3 low-resolution (LR) mode), 6.66 cm (Sentinel-6 LR mode), and 3.13 cm (Sentinel-6 high-resolution (HR) mode). The power spectrum density analysis further verified its accuracy. By reprocessing the 20 Hz data of Sentinel-6 into 10, 5, and 1 Hz, the effectiveness of the along-track odd–even differential method to directly evaluate the noise level of 1 Hz data was explored, and the impact of ocean signals such as swells on noise-level estimation in synthetic aperture mode was discussed. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Copernicus Sentinels Missions Calibration, Validation, FRM and Innovation Approaches in Satellite-Data Quality Assessment)

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Review

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35 pages, 2366 KiB

Open AccessReview

Activities to Promote the Moon as an Absolute Calibration Reference

by Zhenhua Jing, Xiuqing Hu, Yang Wang, Ronghua Wu, Lin Chen, Lu Zhang, Yu Huang, Shuang Wang, Shuang Li and Peng Zhang

Remote Sens. 2023, 15(9), 2431; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs15092431 - 05 May 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2797

Abstract

The accuracy and consistency of Earth observation (EO) instrument radiometric calibration is a fundamental prerequisite for achieving accurate results and delivering reliable predictions. Frequent calibration and validation (Cal/Val) activities are needed during the instrument’s lifetime, and this procedure is often extended to historical archives. Numerous satellites in orbit and proposed future missions have incorporated lunar observation into their vicarious calibration components over recent years, facilitated by the extreme long-term photometric stability of the Moon. Since the birth of the first lunar calibration reference model, lunar-dependent calibration techniques have developed rapidly, and the application and refinement of the lunar radiometric model have become a welcome research focus in the calibration community. Within the context of the development of lunar observation activities and calibration systems globally, we provide a comprehensive review of the activities and results spawned by treating the Moon as a reference for instrument response and categorize them against the understanding of lunar radiometric reference. In general, this appears to be a process of moving from data to instruments, then back into data, working towards a stated goal. Here we highlight lunar radiometric models developed by different institutions or agencies over the last two decades while reporting on the known limitations of these solutions, with unresolved challenges remaining and multiple lunar observation plans and concepts attempting to address them from various perspectives, presenting a temporal development. We also observe that the methods seeking uncertainty reduction at this stage are rather homogeneous, lacking the combination of approaches or results from lunar surface studies conducted by many spacecraft missions, and joint deep learning methods to extract information. The factors that influence the accuracy of the measurement irradiance may be regulated when practical models arrive. As a central element in lunar calibration, the development of an absolute radiometric datum helps to better understand the Earth system. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Copernicus Sentinels Missions Calibration, Validation, FRM and Innovation Approaches in Satellite-Data Quality Assessment)

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