Validation of CrIS Radiometric Performance through Its Comparison to ABI

Abstract

Radiometric intercomparison between satellite remote sensing instruments has become an increasingly common practice to monitor the stability and even the accuracy of their radiance products. The assessment also enables the evaluation of calibration improvements made to these products, as well as the identification and resolution of remaining calibration inadequacies. In this paper, the radiance products of the Cross-track Infrared Sounder (CrIS), an interferometer-based hyperspectral IR sounder in low Earth orbit (LEO), is compared with the level-1b (L1b) radiance products of the infrared (IR) bands of the Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI), an imaging radiometer in geostationary (GEO) orbit. Two CrIS instruments are currently in operation on S-NPP and NOAA-20 satellites, respectively, and two ABI instruments are in operation on GOES-16 and GOES-17 satellites, respectively. Radiometric intercomparisons are performed between each CrIS-ABI pair. An established procedure by GSICS for such GEO-LEO instrument comparison is principally followed to emulate the radiance of ABI IR bands from CrIS spectra of the collocated pixels to be compared with the actual ABI radiance. Results show that the long-term time series of CrIS-ABI radiance bias have been stable within 0.2 K for nearly all ABI IR bands within a spectral range from 3.7 μm to 13.3 μm, except those with known calibration issues. Miscellaneous calibration events that had occurred to either instrument and altered the biases are identified and explained. While the main goal of the work is to support the on-orbit Cal/Val of CrIS, including the future JPSS-2/3/4 CrIS, such observations can also be referenced to further improve the calibration of ABI.