RapidEye product quality assessment

Geometric and radiometric product quality are critical to enable the use of remotely sensed imagery [1,2]. Over a period of nine months following the launch, the constellation of five RapidEye satellites underwent an iterative process of commissioning, calibration and product quality assessment. This paper describes the post-launch calibration techniques used to characterize the payloads, summarizes the calibration results, and documents the product quality achieved. It illustrates how ground-based post-launch calibration techniques were successfully used to mount a geometric and radiometric calibration campaign consistent with a small-sat satellite mission, to produce high quality imagery products.