Document Type
Thesis - University Access Only
Award Date
2009
Degree Name
Master of Science (MS)
Department / School
Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
Abstract
The only Landsat data available from 1972 to early 1982 is Multispectral Scanner Subsystem (MSS) data. So, the study of the MSS data archive is important for scientific analysis of geographical changes of the Earth's surface in the past. In order to use Landsat data for any application, the data has to be calibrated accurately. Each MSS sensor consists of four bands with the first three bands using Photomultiplier Tubes (PMTs) based on vacuum technology which is highly unstable, non-linear, and inconsistent. Band 4 uses Silicon Photodiodes (SiPds) which are much more consistent than PMTs. All five MSS sensors in the past were calibrated based on internal calibration data. Hence, it is important to study the stability of the internal calibration system to ensure that the detectors were calibrated correctly. This stability analysis was done using three different time intervals ranging from a single scene, an interval of scenes, and the entire lifetime of the sensor. For each sensor, the internal calibration data, which was stored in different file formats, was extracted and studied over each time interval for each detector and all bands. The study was also used to quantify in what ways the SiPd detectors might have performed better than the PMT detectors. A single scene based study showed significant drift for PMT detectors and a constant trend for SiPd detectors indicating the need for calibrating PMT detectors on a scan-by-scan basis. The interval-based study suggested that both PMT and SiPd detectors can drift significantly showing up to a 19% change in gain. Landsat 5 is the most stable MSS sensor with only 5% average drift in gain for the PMT detectors over an interval, compared to more than 9% drift for the remaining MSS sensors. The average drift in SiPd detectors monotonically decreases from 11 % for Landsat 1 to less than 4% for Landsat 5, indicating a consistent improvement in sensor performance from Landsat 1 to 5. Over the lifetime, most of the PMT detectors over all Landsats suggested unstable, inconsistent, non-linear, and noisy data trends. SiPd detectors also exhibited highly unstable data trends over the lifetime. However, the lifetime trends are highly consistent with each other and smooth indicating the possibility of characterizing the detectors using simple linear or exponential models. Silicon Photodiode detectors in Landsat 2 exhibited the most stable trends with 5.2% change in gain over the lifetime. The pseudo-invariant site based stability analysis for Landsat 1 showed that the calibration lamp was highly stable over the lifetime and the degradation in the MSS instrument is primarily due to the detectors only. Similarly, positive and negative drift in PMT detector gain during the same time also indicates that the lamps are stable for all MSS sensors and the drift is primarily due to the detectors. This further indicates the internal calibration lamp system to be a viable source for the calibration of the MSS instruments.
Library of Congress Subject Headings
Landsat satellites
Landsat satellites -- Calibration
Format
application/pdf
Number of Pages
202
Publisher
South Dakota State University
Recommended Citation
Uprety, Sirish, "Radiometric Stability Analysis of Landsat- I through -5 MSS Sensors" (2009). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 1619.
https://openprairie.sdstate.edu/etd2/1619
