AIRS Level 1B Visible/Near-Infrared Channels ATBD - NASA's Earth ...

AIRS Level 1b ATBD Part 2: Vis/Near IR Channels
Figure 2.3: Cross-calibration of AIRS channel 1 (a and b) and 2 (c and d) using MODIS data.
Panels (a) and (c) show the accuracy with which the cross-calibration can be achieved for sand
surfaces. Panel (b) indicates that, even with a vegetated surface, the Ch. 1 cross-calibration is
successful. For Ch. 2, however, the calibration is much poorer if vegetation is present (panel d). In
these plots, calculations were made for 3 atmospheric profiles, 5 solar zenith angles, 3 aerosol types
with 3 visibilities each, cloud optical thickness 0, 1 and 2 with 4 effective radii and 5 heights.
It can be seen that for AIRS 1
and AIRS 4
, the coefficients calculated from sand and vegetated
surfaces, in clear sky and slightly cloudy conditions (Fig. 2.3.b and Fig. 2.4.d), can fit the
data as well as coefficients calculated from sand surfaces in clear sky (Fig. 2.3.a and 2.4.c).
On the other hand, for channels 2 and 3, the correlation in the presence of vegetation (Fig.
2.3.d and 2.4.b) is much poorer than in the pure sand case (Fig. 2.3.c and 2.4.a).
22 Version 2.2 10 November 2000