Electronic crosstalk correction for terra long wave infrared photovoltaic bands

The MODerate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) is one of the primary instruments in the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Earth Observing System (EOS). The first MODIS instrument was launched in December 1999 on-board the Terra spacecraft. MODIS has 36 bands, among which 27-30 are Long Wave Infrared (LWIR) PhotoVoltaic (PV) bands covering a wavelength range from 6.72 μm to 9.73 μm. It has been found that there is severe contamination in Terra band 27 from other three bands due to crosstalk of signals among them. The crosstalk effect induces strong striping in the Earth View (EV) images and causes large long-term drift in the EV Brightness Temperature (BT) in the band. An algorithm using a linear approximation derived from on-orbit lunar observations has been developed to correct the crosstalk effect for band 27. It was demonstrated that the crosstalk correction can substantially reduce the striping in the EV images and significantly remove the long-term drift in the EV BT. In this paper, it is shown that other three LWIR PV bands are also contaminated by the crosstalk of signals among themselves. The effect induces strong striping artifacts and large long-term drifts in these bands as similarly observed in band 27. The crosstalk correction algorithm previously developed is applied to correct the crosstalk effect. It is demonstrated that the crosstalk correction successfully reduces the striping in the EV images and removes long-term drifts in the EV BT in bands 28-30 as was done similarly for band 27. The crosstalk correction algorithm can thus substantially improve both the image quality and radiometric accuracy of the LWIR PV bands Level 1B (L1B) products. The algorithm can be applied to other MODIS bands and/or other remote sensors that exhibit an electronic crosstalk effect.