Refined algorithms for star-based monitoring of GOES Imager visible-channel responsivities

摘要

Monitoring the responsivities of the visible channels of the Imagers on GOES satellites is a continuing effort at the NationalEnvironmental Satellite, Data and Information Service of NOAA. At this point, a large part of the initial processing of thestar data depends on the operationalGOES Sensor Processing System(SPS) and GOES Orbit and AttitudeTracking System(OATS) for detecting the presence of stars and computing the amplitudes of the star signals. However, the algorithms ofthe SPS and the OATS are not optimized for calculating the amplitudes of the star signals, as they had been developed todetermine pixel location and observation time of a star, not amplitude. Motivated by our wish to be independent of the SPSand the OATS for data processing and to improve the accuracy of the computed star signals, we have developed our ownmethods for such computations. We describe the principal algorithms and discuss their implementation. Next we show ourmonitoring statistics derived from star observations by the Imagers aboard GOES-8, -10, -11, -12 and -13. We give a briefintroduction to a new class of time series that have improved the stability and reliability of our degradation estimates.© (2012) COPYRIGHT Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.