Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR) on-board calibrator (OBC) in-flight performance studies

The Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR) consists of nine cameras pointing from nadir to an extreme of 70.5degrees in the view angle. It is a pushbroom imager with four spectral bands per camera. Instrument specifications call for each camera to be calibrated to an absolute uncertainty of 3% and to within 1% relative to the other cameras. To accomplish this, the MISR instrument utilizes an on-board calibrator (OBC) to provide updates to the instrument gain coefficients on a bimonthly basis (i.e., once every two months). Spectralon diffuse panels are used in the OBC to provide a uniform target for the nine MISR cameras to view. The radiometric scale of the OBC is established through the use of photodiodes. The stability of the MISR OBC system and its in-flight calibration are discussed in this paper.