Study on the Full Moon Observation of the COMS Meteorological Imager

摘要

Since April 2011 Communication Ocean Meteorological Satellite (COMS) is under normal operation service for the three missions of meteorological observation, ocean monitoring, and telecommunication service on 128.2° East of the geostationary orbit. The meteorological observation mission is done by the meteorological imager (MI) of the COMS, which observes the Earth to make meteorological images every day. Along with the Earth observation, the MI looks at the Moon every month to get the images of the Moon, which are used to check the variation of radiometric performance of the MI visible channel after the launch of the COMS. The monthly observation of the full Moon can be considered as a way to reduce or to avoid the effect of the Moon phase variation and to improve reliability in the check of optical payload performance using the Moon image. In this paper, the monthly variation of the Moon phase are studied in relation to the design characteristics of the MI and the operational features for the Moon observation by the MI. And based on the simulation results and the real operation results for the Moon observation of the MI, this paper discusses realistic limit to the monthly observation of the full Moon in the aspect of the mission operation of the COMS.