Analysis of a commercial small unmanned airborne system (sUAS) in support of the Radiometric Calibration Test Site (RadCaTS) at Railroad Valley

Jeffrey S. Czapla-Myers, Nikolaus J. Anderson

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

Abstract

The Radiometric Calibration Test Site (RadCaTS) is an automated facility developed by the Remote Sensing Group (RSG) at the University of Arizona to provide radiometric calibration data for airborne and satellite sensors. RadCaTS uses stationary ground-viewing radiometers (GVRs) to spatially sample the surface reflectance of the site. The number and location of the GVRs is based on previous spatial, spectral, and temporal analyses of Railroad Valley. With the increase in high-resolution satellite sensors, there is renewed interest in examining the spatial uniformity the 1-km2 RadCaTS area at scales smaller than a typical 30-m sensor. RadCaTS is one of the four instrumented sites currently in the CEOS WGCV Radiometric Calibration Network (RadCalNet), which aims to harmonize the post-launch radiometric calibration of satellite sensors through the use of a global network of automated calibration sites. A better understanding of the RadCaTS spatial uniformity as a function of pixel size will also benefit the RadCalNet work. RSG has recently acquired a commercially-available small unmanned airborne system (sUAS) system, with which preliminary spatial homogeneity measurements of the 1-km2 RadCaTS area were made. This work describes an initial assessment of the airborne platform and integrated camera for spatial studies of RadCaTS using data that were collected in 2016 and 2017.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationEarth Observing Systems XXII
EditorsJames J. Butler, Xiaoxiong Xiong, Xingfa Gu
PublisherSPIE
ISBN (Electronic)9781510612617
DOIs
StatePublished - 2017
EventEarth Observing Systems XXII - San Diego, United States
Duration: Aug 6 2017Aug 10 2017

Publication series

NameProceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering
Volume10402
ISSN (Print)0277-786X
ISSN (Electronic)1996-756X

Other

OtherEarth Observing Systems XXII
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CitySan Diego
Period8/6/178/10/17

Keywords

  • Calibration
  • Camera
  • RadCaTS
  • Radiometry
  • SUAS
  • UAV

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Electronic, Optical and Magnetic Materials
  • Condensed Matter Physics
  • Computer Science Applications
  • Applied Mathematics
  • Electrical and Electronic Engineering

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