Arabia 2
|
|
Arabia 2 site is one of the 20 Pseudo-invariant Calibration (PIC) sites for medium to coarse resolution satellite sensor calibration in the solar spectrum range identified by Cosnefroy et, al. [1]. The area of Arabia 2 contains dunes at several scales across the entire area. Dunes are less pronounced north of the center coordinates, where the area is spatially uniform over large regions of at least 100 kilometers (km) x 100 km. Though the site had been selected based on its temporal and spatial homogeneity, later analysis determined that Arabia 2 contained some deviation. Specifically, a recent study [2] analyzing the identified Cosnefroy sites found that the Arabia 2 site’s Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD) loads (median values of 0.39 and 0.41) exceeded the estimated threshold on the median AOD values (0.38).
Arabia 2 site has been used in absolute calibration of Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO) satellites [2]. Arabia-2 desert sites can be viewed by satellites positioned at 0 degrees longitude and over the Indian Ocean.
| Location (City, State, Country): |
Rub’al Khali, The Empty Quarter, Arabian Peninsula, Saudi Arabia, Asia
|
|---|---|
| Landsat WRS - 2 Path / Row: |
162/46
|
| Center Latitude (degrees): |
N 20.13
|
| Center Longitude (degrees): |
E 50.96
|
| CEOS Region of Interest |
N 20.13, E 50.96 |
| Size of Usable Area (km): |
100 x 100
|
| Altitude above sea level (meters): |
217
|
| Purpose: |
Radiometry
|
| Status: |
Active
|
- Cosnefroy, Helene, Marc Leroy, and Xavier Briottet. "Selection and characterization of Saharan and Arabian desert sites for the calibration of optical satellite sensors." Remote Sensing of Environment 58, no. 1 (1996): 101-114.
- Bacour, Cédric, Xavier Briottet, François-Marie Bréon, Françoise Viallefont-Robinet, and Marc Bouvet. "Revisiting Pseudo Invariant Calibration Sites (PICS) over sand deserts for vicarious calibration of optical imagers at 20 km and 100 km scales." Remote Sensing 11, no. 10 (2019): 1166.
- Wang, L.; Hu, X.; Chen, L.; He, L. Consistent Calibration of VIRR Reflective Solar Channels Onboard FY-3A, FY-3B, and FY-3C Using a Multisite Calibration Method. Remote Sens. 2018, 10, 1336.
- Bhatt, Rajendra, David R. Doelling, Daniel Morstad, Benjamin R. Scarino, and Arun Gopalan. "Desert-based absolute calibration of successive geostationary visible sensors using a daily exoatmospheric radiance model." IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing 52, no. 6 (2013): 3670-3682.
Note: This information has been compiled by the USGS ECCOE Team, using the best sources currently known. Updates will be made as more information becomes available. Please contact eccoe@usgs.gov with any updates you would like to contribute.