Abstract
Radiometric calibration is an ongoing concern at Planet. The moon has been used as a stable calibration source by previous imaging systems, making it a natural choice for radiometric calibration efforts at Planet. Planet has been conducting an ongoing Lunar capture campaign since Q4 of 2016 and has amassed a database of over 1.7 million images of the moon so far.
Every lunar cycle over 100 satellites take collects of the moon at three phase angles in both the waxing and waning part of the cycle and a subset of these satellites take daily collects of the moon while in phase. An automated pipeline analyses these images, runs an implementation of the ROLO model and collates the statistics into a database. This allows us to easily recall data from the entire collection for studies and dashboards. Currently this data is used for radiometric validation and monitoring of satellite health over the entire fleet of satellites. Later this year though, new manouevres will be productionised to use the moon to measure other aspects of the imaging chain, e.g. sensor characterisation or stray light. Here we will be discussing the current state of Planet’s lunar campaign and give a brief overview of the future plans.
Using the Moon as a Calibration Source for a Fleet of Satellites
Radiometric calibration is an ongoing concern at Planet. The moon has been used as a stable calibration source by previous imaging systems, making it a natural choice for radiometric calibration efforts at Planet. Planet has been conducting an ongoing Lunar capture campaign since Q4 of 2016 and has amassed a database of over 1.7 million images of the moon so far.
Every lunar cycle over 100 satellites take collects of the moon at three phase angles in both the waxing and waning part of the cycle and a subset of these satellites take daily collects of the moon while in phase. An automated pipeline analyses these images, runs an implementation of the ROLO model and collates the statistics into a database. This allows us to easily recall data from the entire collection for studies and dashboards. Currently this data is used for radiometric validation and monitoring of satellite health over the entire fleet of satellites. Later this year though, new manouevres will be productionised to use the moon to measure other aspects of the imaging chain, e.g. sensor characterisation or stray light. Here we will be discussing the current state of Planet’s lunar campaign and give a brief overview of the future plans.