Sonoran Desert
|
|
The Sonoran Desert is located near the Mexico and United States border. It is a large flat semi-arid region with limited vegetation cover and known seasonal variations. The site is 37 meters above sea level and has horizontal visibilities between 30 and 45 kilometers (km) [1]. The site is particularly suitable for calibration purposes because of its small spatial variations and directional effects, except at solar and viewing zenith angles above 60 degrees [2]. Laboratory measurements of sand samples from the Sonoran Desert found that the effect of soil moisture could be significant on the sites long-term stability [3].
Sonoran Desert has been widely used for satellites positioned over the Western Hemisphere and has been used for monitoring long-term trends of top of atmosphere reflectance products from low- and medium-resolution sensors, include Landsat sensors [2, 4]. Several studies showed that this site can be effectively used for long-term monitoring and cross-calibration of satellite sensors.
| Location (City, State, Country): |
Sonora, Mexico, North America
|
|---|---|
| Landsat WRS - 2 Path / Row: |
38/38
|
| Center Latitude (degrees): |
N 32.35
|
| Center Longitude (degrees): |
W 114.65
|
| CEOS Region of Interest |
N 32.35, W 114.65 Search this area in EarthExplorer (Landsat 8-9 Collection 2 Level-1 - date range, datasets, cloud cover and other criteria can be modified once initial results are returned |
| Size of Usable Area (km): |
15 x 15
|
| Altitude above sea level (meters): |
37
|
| Purpose: |
Radiometry
|
| Status: |
Active
|
- Angal, Amit, Gyanesh Chander, Xiaoxiong Xiong, Taeyoung J. Choi, and Aisheng Wu. "Characterization of the Sonoran Desert as a radiometric calibration target for Earth observing sensors." Journal of Applied Remote Sensing 5, no. 1 (2011): 059502.
- Angal, Amit, Xiaoxiong Xiong, Taeyoung Choi, Gyanesh Chander, and Aisheng Wu. "Using the Sonoran and Libyan Desert test sites to monitor the temporal stability of reflective solar bands for Landsat 7 enhanced thematic mapper plus and Terra moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer sensors." Journal of Applied Remote Sensing 4, no. 1 (2010): 043525.
-  Frouin, Robert J., and James J. Simpson. "Radiometric calibration of GOES-7 VISSR solar channels during the GOES pathfinder benchmark period." Remote sensing of environment 52, no. 2 (1995): 95-115.
- D. L. Helder, S. Karki, R. Bhatt, E. Micijevic and D. Aaron, "Radiometric calibration of the Landsat MSS sensor series", IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote Sens., vol. 50, no. 6, pp. 2380-2399, Jun. 2012.
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.