Abstract
A vicarious calibration method was developed for the OSMI sensor calibration. Employing measured aerosol optical thickness by a sunphotometer and a sky radiometer and water leaving radiance by ship measurements as inputs, TOA (top of the atmosphere) radiance at each OSMI band was simulated in conjunction with a radiative transfer model (Rstar5b) by Nakajima and Tanaka (1988). As a case of examining the accuracy of this method, we simulated TOA radiance based on water leaving radiance measured at NASA/MOBY site and aerosol optical thickness estimated nearby at Lanai, and compared simulated results with SeaWiFS-estimated TOA radiances. The difference falls within about $\pm$5%, suggesting that OMSI sensor can be calibrated with the suggested accuracy. In order to apply this method for the OSMI sensor calibration, ground-based sun photometry and ship measurements were carried out off the east coast of Korean peninsula on May 31, 2000. Simulations of TOA radiance by using these measured data as input to the radiative transfer model show that there are substantial differences between simulated and OSMI-estimated radiances. Such a discrepancy appears to be mainly due to the cloud contamination because satellite image indicates optically thin clouds over the experimental area. Nevertheless results suggest that sensor calibration can be achieved within 5% uncertainty range if there are ground-based measurements of aerosol optical thickness, and water leaving radiances under clear-sky and optically thin atmospheric conditions.