High-altitude aircraft radiometric calibration-validation campaigns

The potential for high accuracy of airborne sensors, combined with the ability to perform pre- and post-campaign calibration tests to confirm the radiometric performance and update traceability to absolute standards, makes satellite under-flight comparisons uniquely capable among existing approaches for assessing the accuracy of infrared satellite observations. The Scanning High-resolution Interferometer Sounder (S-HIS) has proven to be an extremely valuable tool for airborne calibration validation of on-orbit infrared sensors and has demonstrated robust performance, high calibration accuracy, and traceability to NIST standards. An introduction to high-altitude airborne radiometric calibration-validation, an overview of the S-HIS instrument, and results for radiometric validation of the Cross-track Infrared Sounder and the Advanced Baseline Imager with the S-HIS are presented in this chapter.