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January 28, 2010 - Calibration update to ETM+ thermal band

By Landsat Missions

Effective January 1, 2010, the calibration of the ETM+ thermal band was modified to correct for a lifetime gain error detected by the vicarious calibration teams.

Changes were made to the Calibration Parameter File (CPF) to correct a gain error that has been present since the launch of the instrument. This gain error causes the thermal band to predict too hot at cold temperatures and too cold at hot temperatures. For instance, a target with an at-satellite temperature of 0C will appear to be 0.8C based on the image data and a target with an at-satellite temperature of 27C will appear to be 26.3C. The error at 12C is approximately 0C. The vicarious calibration data were used to generate a correction to the calibration and the corrected coefficients were implemented in the processing system on Jan 1, 2010. All data processed by the USGS/EROS processing system after Jan 1, 2010 are correctly calibrated. More information is available.