Permanent target for optical payload performance and data quality assessment: spectral characterization and a case study for calibration

To regularly evaluate the optical payload performance (geometric, radiometric, and spatial resolution) and the data quality for high-resolution airborne and satellite imaging systems, two new permanent targets (the knife-edge target and the fan-shaped target) made of gravel and with the advantages of year-round availability, lower maintenance operations, and a long lifetime were established in the Academy of Opto-Electronics Baotou site in China. The spectral properties of these targets are investigated in this study. Note that the anisotropy factor at 550 nm for the white gravel is approximately 6%, 12.5% 16.5%, 17.5%, 11.5%, and 5% at the principal plane for the observer zenith angle of 60 deg, 50 deg, 40 deg, 30 deg, 20 deg, and 10 deg (backscatter), respectively. The corresponding value for the gray gravel is 20.8%, 24.8%, 29.4%, 23.8%, 13%, and 3.7%, respectively, and 62.8%, 65.7%, 59.2%, 40.3%, 22.3%, and 9.0%, respectively, for the black gravel. The anisotropy of the black gravel is larger than that of the gray and white gravel areas. The nonuniformity of the target reflectivity is within 2.5%. Furthermore, a calibration for the optical payloads onboard the GF-1 satellite is performed with the knife-edge target, and the uncertainty analysis demonstrates that the uncertainty for this calibration is <2.12% when the relative error for the surface reflectance measurement, the aerosol optical depth, and the total column water vapor are approximately 1%, 10%, and 10%, respectively. c 2014 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE)