Radiometric calibration of Landsat Thematic Mapper thermal band

Radiometric calibration of satellite-acquired data is essential for quantitative scientific studies, as well as for a variety of image-processing applications. This paper describes a multilayer, on-orbit radiometric calibration of the Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) Band 6 conducted at DOE's Pacific Northwest Laboratory (PNL). Numerous Landsat TM scenes acquired and analyzed included day and night coverage at several geographical locations over several seasons. Concurrent with Landsat overpasses, thermal field and local meteorological (surface and radiosonde) measurements were collected. At-satellite (uncorrected) radiances and temperatures for water and nonwater land cover were compared to ground truth (GT) measurements after making adjustments for atmospheric (using LOWTRAN), mixed-pixel, and emissivity effects. Results indicated that, for both water and nonwater features, TM band 6 average corrected temperature determinations using local radiosonde data to adjust for atmospheric effects, and using appropriate emissivities, are within ⩽1.0°C of GT temperature values. Temperatures of water pixels derived from uncorrected TM Band 6 data varied roughly between 1 and 3°C of ground truth values for water temperatures ranging between 4 and 24°C. Moreover, corrections using nonlocal and noncoincident radiosonde data resulted in errors as large as 12°C. Corrections using the U.S. Standard Atmosphere gave temperature values within 1–2°C of GT. The average uncertainty for field instruments was ± 0.2°C; average uncertainty for Landsat TM corrected temperature determinations was ± 0.4°C.