Absolute Calibration of a 5 Satellite Constellation Using Vicarious Calibration – 7 Years of Operational Experience

RapidEye is a commercial constellation of 5 satellites carrying identical 5 band multispectral pushbroom imagers. The band combination including the first commercially available Red-Edge band on a multispectral satellites makes the constellation ideal for landuse and landcover applications. These kinds of applications require an accurate absolute calibration of the satellites. To achieve this requirement, the satellites are calibrated using vicarious calibration methods. Since the beginning of operations vicarious calibration techniques using different partners and sites have been used. Vicarious calibration has started using the bright desert sites of Railroad Valley and Ivanpah playa in collaboration with the University of Arizona in 2009. Later the darker 3M site in Brookings South Dakota has been added as a second radiance level with the goal to represent the dynamic range of the sensors better. The proposed presentation is summarizing the campaigns performed over the past years, shows the experiences made with the different sites and demonstrates the results achieved with the vicarious calibration methodology