Radiometric Cross-Calibration of GF6-PMS and WFV Sensors with Sentinel 2-MSI and Landsat 9-OLI2

Abstract

A panchromatic and multispectral sensor (PMS) and a wide-field-of-view (WFV) sensor were fitted aboard the Gaofen6 (GF6) satellite, which was launched on 2 June 2018. This study used the Landsat9-Operational Land Imager 2 and Sentinel2-Multispectral Instrument as reference sensors to perform radiometric cross-calibration on GF6-PMS and WFV data at the Dunhuang calibration site. The four selected sensor images were all acquired on the same day. The results indicate that: the calibration results between different reference sensors can be controlled within 3%, with the maximum difference from the official coefficients being 8.78%. A significant difference was observed between the coefficients obtained by different reference sensors when spectral band adjustment factor (SBAF) correction was not performed; from the two sets of validation results, the maximum mean relative difference in the near-infrared band was 9.46%, with the WFV sensor showing better validation results. The validation of calibration coefficients based on synchronous ground observation data and the analysis of the impact of different SBAF methods on the calibration results indicated that Landsat9 is more suitable as a reference sensor for radiometric cross-calibration of GF6-PMS and WFV.