Since the early 1980s, the geostationary Meteosat instruments have been observing the earth at a high temporal and spatial resolution. The data record contains more than 30 years of observations and has become very useful for climate monitoring. With a compilation of 10 satellites, it is crucial to reach the highest possible consistency between the instruments. However, the quality of the level 1 data records is still far from what is needed to generate homogeneous climate data records, due to both temporal ageing as well as discontinuities between successive instruments. In this letter, a method is proposed to assess the pre-launch Meteosat-7 visible spectral response curve and a model of its ageing. The results not only validate the ageing model, but also provide evidence that the official pre-launch spectral response curve of Meteosat-7 poorly represents the sensitivity of the instrument in the blue part of the visible spectrum. Until theMeteosat-7 visible spectral response curve has been reassessed, it is suggested to replace the Meteosat-7 curve with the curve of the high resolution visible channel ofMeteosat-8. Quantitatively, the error introduced when unfiltering the data (i.e. conversion from filtered to unfiltered radiance), due to the uncertainty on the Meteosat-7 spectral response, is estimated at 4.5% using the Meteosat-7 spectral response curve, but could be reduced to 2.1% by following the recommendations in this letter.
Decoster, I, Clerbaux, N, Baudrez, E, Dewitte, S, Ipe, A, Nevens, S, Velazquez Blazquez, A, Cornelis, J & Govaerts, Y 2013, 'Evidence of pre-launch characterization problem of Meteosat-7 visible spectral response curve', Remote Sensing Letters, vol. 4, pp. 108-117.
Decoster, I., Clerbaux, N., Baudrez, E., Dewitte, S., Ipe, A., Nevens, S., Velazquez Blazquez, A., Cornelis, J., & Govaerts, Y. (2013). Evidence of pre-launch characterization problem of Meteosat-7 visible spectral response curve. Remote Sensing Letters, 4, 108-117.
@article{6870ad89cf434458a3e4175c6999910b,
title = "Evidence of pre-launch characterization problem of Meteosat-7 visible spectral response curve",
abstract = "Since the early 1980s, the geostationary Meteosat instruments have been observing the earth at a high temporal and spatial resolution. The data record contains more than 30 years of observations and has become very useful for climate monitoring. With a compilation of 10 satellites, it is crucial to reach the highest possible consistency between the instruments. However, the quality of the level 1 data records is still far from what is needed to generate homogeneous climate data records, due to both temporal ageing as well as discontinuities between successive instruments. In this letter, a method is proposed to assess the pre-launch Meteosat-7 visible spectral response curve and a model of its ageing. The results not only validate the ageing model, but also provide evidence that the official pre-launch spectral response curve of Meteosat-7 poorly represents the sensitivity of the instrument in the blue part of the visible spectrum. Until theMeteosat-7 visible spectral response curve has been reassessed, it is suggested to replace the Meteosat-7 curve with the curve of the high resolution visible channel ofMeteosat-8. Quantitatively, the error introduced when unfiltering the data (i.e. conversion from filtered to unfiltered radiance), due to the uncertainty on the Meteosat-7 spectral response, is estimated at 4.5% using the Meteosat-7 spectral response curve, but could be reduced to 2.1% by following the recommendations in this letter.",
keywords = "Meteosat-7, Climate monitoring",
author = "Ilse Decoster and Nicolas Clerbaux and E. Baudrez and Steven Dewitte and Alessandro Ipe and S. Nevens and {Velazquez Blazquez}, Almudena and Jan Cornelis and Y. Govaerts",
year = "2013",
month = jul,
day = "19",
language = "English",
volume = "4",
pages = "108--117",
journal = "Remote Sensing Letters",
issn = "2150-704X",
publisher = "Taylor and Francis Ltd.",
}