{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,2]],"date-time":"2026-04-02T08:42:08Z","timestamp":1775119328466,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":46,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"16","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2020,8,5]],"date-time":"2020-08-05T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1596585600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"the National Key R&amp;D Program of China","award":["2018YFB0504901"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2018YFB0504901"]}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100001809","name":"the National Natural Science Foundation of China","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["41401417"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["41401417"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100001809","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100001809","name":"the National Natural Science Foundation of China","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["41675036"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["41675036"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100001809","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"name":"the Youth Talent Fund","award":["201802QT006"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["201802QT006"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Remote Sensing"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Pseudo-invariant calibration sites (PICS) have been used for the radiometric calibration and stability monitoring of satellite optical sensors. Several stable PICS, such as those in the Sahara Desert in North Africa, were selected for the vicarious calibration of earth remote sensing satellites. However, the selection procedure of PICSs in the whole of Northwest China has not been fully explored before. This paper presents a novel technique for selecting PICS in Northwest China by combined using the coefficient of variation (CV) and the iteratively reweighted multivariate alteration detection (IR-MAD) technique. IR-MAD, which calculates the differences between two multispectral N-band images from the same scene acquired at different times, is used to identify no-change pixels (NCPs) of the scene through one image pair. The NCPs from IR-MAD using the long-term data of FY-3 visible infrared radiometer (VIRR) and aqua Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) were aggregated into the contiguously stable sites. The traditional spatial uniformity and temporal stability from MODIS surface products were used to select the potential PICS. By combining the results of both methods, over thirty PICSs with a wider brightness range of the scene types were selected. To confirm and characterize these PICSs over Northwest China, Landsat operational land imager (OLI) high-spatial-resolution images were used to check the spatial uniformity of the selected site to determine the specific location and the size of these sites. Additionally, the surface spectral reflectance and bidirectional reflectance distribution function (BRDF) were obtained from the field campaign at Chaidamu Basin, 2018. To demonstrate the practical utilization and usability of these PICSs, they were employed in the multi-site top of atmosphere (TOA) reflectance simulation to validate the operational calibration performance of Aqua\/MODIS and FY-3D\/MERSI-II (Medium Resolution Spectral Imager II). The simulation results showed good consistency compared with the observations from both MODIS and MERSI-II, with a relative bias and root mean square error (RMSE) of &lt;5% and &lt;0.05%, respectively. These sites provide prospects for multi-site vicarious calibrations of solar reflective bands, which may help to evaluate or characterize instrumental nonlinear responses using a wider signal dynamic from the sites in different seasons.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/rs12162517","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2020,8,5]],"date-time":"2020-08-05T15:13:18Z","timestamp":1596640398000},"page":"2517","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":27,"title":["Preliminary Selection and Characterization of Pseudo-Invariant Calibration Sites in Northwest China"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"12","author":[{"given":"Xiuqing","family":"Hu","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Key Laboratory of Radiometric Calibration and Validation for Environmental Satellites, China Meteorological Administration, Beijing 100081, China"},{"name":"National Satellite Meteorological Center, China Meteorological Administration, Beijing 100081, China"}]},{"given":"Ling","family":"Wang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Key Laboratory of Radiometric Calibration and Validation for Environmental Satellites, China Meteorological Administration, Beijing 100081, China"},{"name":"National Satellite Meteorological Center, China Meteorological Administration, Beijing 100081, China"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-8549-2600","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Junwei","family":"Wang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Optics and Photonics, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing 100081, China"}]},{"given":"Lingli","family":"He","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Key Laboratory of Radiometric Calibration and Validation for Environmental Satellites, China Meteorological Administration, Beijing 100081, China"},{"name":"National Satellite Meteorological Center, China Meteorological Administration, Beijing 100081, China"}]},{"given":"Lin","family":"Chen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Key Laboratory of Radiometric Calibration and Validation for Environmental Satellites, China Meteorological Administration, Beijing 100081, China"},{"name":"National Satellite Meteorological Center, China Meteorological Administration, Beijing 100081, China"}]},{"given":"Na","family":"Xu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Key Laboratory of Radiometric Calibration and Validation for Environmental Satellites, China Meteorological Administration, Beijing 100081, China"},{"name":"National Satellite Meteorological Center, China Meteorological Administration, Beijing 100081, China"}]},{"given":"Bingcheng","family":"Tao","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Key Laboratory of Radiometric Calibration and Validation for Environmental Satellites, China Meteorological Administration, Beijing 100081, China"},{"name":"National Satellite Meteorological Center, China Meteorological Administration, Beijing 100081, China"},{"name":"School of Surveying and Land Information Engineering, Henan Polytechnic University, Jiaozuo 454003, China"}]},{"given":"Lu","family":"Zhang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Key Laboratory of Radiometric Calibration and Validation for Environmental Satellites, China Meteorological Administration, Beijing 100081, China"},{"name":"National Satellite Meteorological Center, China Meteorological Administration, Beijing 100081, China"}]},{"given":"Peng","family":"Zhang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Key Laboratory of Radiometric Calibration and Validation for Environmental Satellites, China Meteorological Administration, Beijing 100081, China"},{"name":"National Satellite Meteorological Center, China Meteorological Administration, Beijing 100081, China"}]},{"given":"Naimeng","family":"Lu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Key Laboratory of Radiometric Calibration and Validation for Environmental Satellites, China Meteorological Administration, Beijing 100081, China"},{"name":"National Satellite Meteorological Center, China Meteorological Administration, Beijing 100081, China"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2020,8,5]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"515","DOI":"10.1364\/AO.41.000515","article-title":"Calibration monitoring of the visible and near-infrared channels of the Along-Track Scanning Radiometer-2 by use of stable terrestrial sites","volume":"41","author":"Smith","year":"2002","journal-title":"Appl. Opt."},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"21","DOI":"10.1080\/01431169308904320","article-title":"Calibration of the AVHRR visible and near-IR bands by atmospheric scattering, ocean glint and desert reflection","volume":"14","author":"Kaufman","year":"1993","journal-title":"Int. J. Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_3","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"105","DOI":"10.1016\/0034-4257(90)90060-Y","article-title":"Three methods for the absolute calibration of the NOAA AVHRR sensors in flight","volume":"31","author":"Teillet","year":"1990","journal-title":"Remote Sens. Environ."},{"key":"ref_4","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"11","DOI":"10.1016\/0034-4257(87)90026-5","article-title":"Reflectance- and radiance-based methods for the in-flight absolute calibration of multispectral sensors","volume":"22","author":"Slater","year":"1987","journal-title":"Remote Sens. Environ."},{"key":"ref_5","unstructured":"Butler, J.J., and Xiong, J. (2007). Prime candidate Earth targets for the post-launch radiometric calibration of space-based optical imaging instruments. Earth Observing Systems XII, SPIE Proceedings."},{"key":"ref_6","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"437","DOI":"10.5589\/m10-079","article-title":"Terrestrial reference standard sites for postlaunch sensor calibration","volume":"36","author":"Teillet","year":"2010","journal-title":"Can. J. Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_7","unstructured":"QA4EO (2019, December 07). A Quality Assurance Framework for Earth Observation: Principles, 14 January 2010. Available online: http:\/\/qa4eo.org\/docs\/QA4EO_Principles_v4.0.pdf."},{"key":"ref_8","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"101","DOI":"10.1016\/0034-4257(95)00211-1","article-title":"Selection and characterization of Saharan and Arabian desert sites for the calibration of optical satellite sensors","volume":"58","author":"Cosnefroy","year":"1996","journal-title":"Remote Sens. Environ."},{"key":"ref_9","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"527","DOI":"10.5589\/m10-085","article-title":"Optimized identification of worldwide radiometric pseudo-invariant calibration sites","volume":"36","author":"Helder","year":"2010","journal-title":"Can. J. Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_10","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Shrestha, M., Leigh, L., and Helder, D. (2019). Classification of the North Africa Region for Use as an Extended Pseudo Invariant Calibration Sites (EPICS) for Radiometric Calibration and Stability Monitoring of Optical Satellite Sensors. Remote Sens., 11.","DOI":"10.3390\/rs11070875"},{"key":"ref_11","unstructured":"Valorge, C., Meygret, A., Leb\u00e9gue, L., Henry, P., Bouillon, A., Gachet, R., Breton, E., L\u00e9ger, D., and Viallefont, F. (2004). Forty Years of Experience with SPOT In-flight Calibration. Post-Launch Calibration of Satellite Sensors\u2013Morain and Budge, Taylor & Francis Group."},{"key":"ref_12","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2960","DOI":"10.1109\/TGRS.2013.2268161","article-title":"Assessment of long-term sensor radiometric degradation using time series analysis","volume":"52","author":"Kim","year":"2014","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_13","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1327","DOI":"10.3390\/rs6021327","article-title":"Absolute calibration of optical satellite sensors using Libya 4 pseudo invariant calibration site","volume":"6","author":"Mishra","year":"2014","journal-title":"Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_14","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"3470","DOI":"10.1109\/JSTARS.2019.2936940","article-title":"Sentinel-2 Level-1 Radiometry Assessment Using Vicarious Methods from DIMITRI Toolbox and Field Measurements from RadCalNet Database","volume":"12","author":"Alhammoud","year":"2019","journal-title":"IEEE J. Sel. Top. Appl. Earth Obs. Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_15","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1900","DOI":"10.1109\/TGRS.2004.831882","article-title":"Operational calibration of the Meteosat radiometer VIS band","volume":"42","author":"Govaerts","year":"2004","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_16","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"176","DOI":"10.1109\/TGRS.2003.815406","article-title":"Evaluation of radiative transfer simulation over bright desert calibration sites","volume":"42","author":"Govaerts","year":"2004","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_17","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Bhatt, R., Doelling, D.R., Morstad, D., Scarino, B.R., and Gopalan, A. (2013). Desert-based absolute calibration of successive geostationary visible sensors using a daily exoatmospheric radiance model. IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote Sens.","DOI":"10.1109\/IGARSS.2012.6351956"},{"key":"ref_18","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2821","DOI":"10.1109\/TGRS.2004.836387","article-title":"Cross calibration of the Landsat-7 ETM+ and EO-1 ALI sensor","volume":"42","author":"Chander","year":"2004","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_19","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"386","DOI":"10.1109\/JSTARS.2013.2251999","article-title":"Radiometric cross-calibration of EO-1 ALI with L7 ETM+ and Terra MODIS sensors using near-simultaneous desert observations","volume":"6","author":"Chander","year":"2013","journal-title":"IEEE J. Sel. Top. Appl. Earth Obs. Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_20","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Pinto, C., Ponzoni, F., Castro, R., Leigh, L., Mishra, N., Aaron, D., and Helder, D. (2016). First in-flight radiometric calibration of MUX and WFI on-board CBERS-4. Remote. Sens., 8.","DOI":"10.3390\/rs8050405"},{"key":"ref_21","unstructured":"Pinto, C.T., Haque, M.O., Micijevic, E., and Helder, D.L. (2019). Landsats 1-5 Multispectral Scanner System Sensors Radiometric Calibration Update. IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote Sens., 1\u201317."},{"key":"ref_22","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"12619","DOI":"10.3390\/rs61212619","article-title":"Radiometric cross calibration of Landsat 8 operational land imager (OLI) and Landsat 7 enhanced thematic mapper plus (ETM+)","volume":"6","author":"Mishra","year":"2014","journal-title":"Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_23","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Bruegge, C., Coburn, C., Elmes, A., Helmlinger, M.C., Kataoka, F., Kuester, M., Kuze, A., Ochoa, T., Schaaf, C., and Shiomi, K. (2019). Bi-Directional Reflectance Factor Determination of the Railroad Valley Playa. Remote Sens., 11.","DOI":"10.3390\/rs11222601"},{"key":"ref_24","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Angal, A., Chander, G., Xiong, X., Choi, T., and Wu, A. (2011). Characterization of the Sonoran desert as a radiometric calibration target for Earth observing sensors. J. Appl. Remote Sens., 5.","DOI":"10.1117\/1.3613963"},{"key":"ref_25","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"239","DOI":"10.1007\/s13143-014-0012-y","article-title":"Climatological Assessment of Desert Targets over East Asia-Australian Region for the Solar Channel Calibration of Geostationary Satellites","volume":"50","author":"Chun","year":"2014","journal-title":"Asia-Pac. J. Atmos. Sci."},{"key":"ref_26","unstructured":"Cook, M. (2010). Spatial, Spectral, and Radiometric Characterization of Libyan and Sonoran Desert Calibration Sites in Support of GOES-R Vicarious Calibration, Rochester Institute of Technology, College of Science, Center for Imaging Science."},{"key":"ref_27","unstructured":"Ruchira, T. (2017). Worldwide Optimal PICS Searc, Theses, and Dissertations. 1693, South Dakota State University. Available online: http:\/\/openprairie.sdstate.edu\/etd\/1693."},{"key":"ref_28","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"509","DOI":"10.1175\/1520-0426(1993)010<0509:DOTVVS>2.0.CO;2","article-title":"Degradation of the VISSR visible sensor on GMS-3 during June 1987\u2013December 1988","volume":"10","author":"Kizu","year":"1993","journal-title":"J. Atmos. Ocean. Technol."},{"key":"ref_29","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"118","DOI":"10.1175\/1520-0450(1994)033<0118:AMFDTS>2.0.CO;2","article-title":"A method for determining the sensor degradation rates of NOAA AVHRR channels 1 and 2","volume":"33","author":"Wu","year":"1994","journal-title":"J. Clim. Appl. Meteorol."},{"key":"ref_30","unstructured":"Sohn, B.-J. (2019, December 07). Selection of Desert Targets, GSICS Webmeeting, for VISIBLE Channel Calibration in the Eastern Hemisphere. Available online: http:\/\/gsics.atmos.umd.edu\/pub\/Development\/20090714\/Site-Sel-Web.pdf."},{"key":"ref_31","unstructured":"(2019, December 07). GSICS Report in Comparison of Vicarious Calibration Methods and a Strategy to Use Various Land Sites for Inter-Comparison, CGMS-38, NOAA-WP-26. Available online: ftp:\/\/ftp.eumetsat.int\/pub\/CPS\/out\/CGMS%2038%20report\/CGMS-38%20CD\/Working%20Papers%20CGMS-38\/NOAA\/CGMS-38%20NOAA-WP-26.pdf."},{"key":"ref_32","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"566","DOI":"10.5589\/m10-087","article-title":"Characterization of CRCS Dunhuang test site and vicarious calibration utilization for Fengyun (FY) series sensors","volume":"36","author":"Hu","year":"2010","journal-title":"Can. J. Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_33","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Zhang, Y., Zhong, B., Liu, Q., Li, H., and Sun, L. (2011, January 24\u201329). BRDF of Badain Jaran Desert retrieval using Landsat TM\/ETM+ and ASTER GDEM data. Proceedings of the 2011 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium, Vancouver, BC, Canada.","DOI":"10.1109\/IGARSS.2011.6049475"},{"key":"ref_34","unstructured":"Hubanks, P.A., King, M.D., Platnick, S.T., and Pincus, R.O. (2018, August 19). MODIS Atmosphere L3 Gridded Product Algorithm Theoretical Basis Document, Available online: https:\/\/eospso.nasa.gov\/sites\/default\/files\/atbd\/atbd_mod30.pdf."},{"key":"ref_35","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1324","DOI":"10.1109\/36.701082","article-title":"MODIS land data storage, gridding, and compositing methodology: Level 2 grid","volume":"36","author":"Wolfe","year":"1998","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_36","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2918","DOI":"10.1109\/TGRS.2005.857913","article-title":"Potential of Getis statistics to characterize the radiometric uniformity and stability of test sites used for the calibration of Earth observation sensors","volume":"43","author":"Bannari","year":"2005","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_37","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2494","DOI":"10.3390\/rs6032494","article-title":"Spatio-Temporal Assessment of Tuz G\u00f6l\u00fc, Turkey as a Potential Vicarious Calibration Site","volume":"6","author":"Odongo","year":"2014","journal-title":"Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_38","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2531","DOI":"10.1080\/01431169208904062","article-title":"Evaluation of measurement errors in ground surface reflectance for satellite calibration","volume":"13","author":"Gu","year":"1992","journal-title":"Int. J. Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_39","unstructured":"G\u00fcrb\u00fcz, S.Z., \u00d6zen, H., and Chander, G. (September, January 25). A Survey of Landnet Sites Focusing on Tuz G\u00f6l\u00fc Salt Lake, Turkey. Proceedings of the International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences, Melbourne, Australia."},{"key":"ref_40","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"925","DOI":"10.1016\/j.rse.2009.12.003","article-title":"Monitoring on-orbit calibration stability of the Terra MODIS and Landsat 7 ETM+ sensors using pseudo-invariant test sites","volume":"114","author":"Chander","year":"2010","journal-title":"Remote Sens. Environ."},{"key":"ref_41","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.1016\/S0034-4257(97)00162-4","article-title":"Multivariate alteration detection (MAD) and MAF postprocessing in multispectral, bitemporal image data: New approaches to change detection studies","volume":"64","author":"Nielsen","year":"1998","journal-title":"Remote Sens. Environ."},{"key":"ref_42","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"463","DOI":"10.1109\/TIP.2006.888195","article-title":"The regularized iteratively reweighted MAD method for change detection in multi-and hyperspectral data","volume":"16","author":"Nielsen","year":"2007","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Image Process."},{"key":"ref_43","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1025","DOI":"10.1016\/j.rse.2007.07.013","article-title":"Automatic radiometric normalization of multitemporal satellite imagery with the iteratively re-weighted MAD transformation","volume":"112","author":"Canty","year":"2008","journal-title":"Remote Sens. Environ."},{"key":"ref_44","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Bacour, C., Briottet, X., Br\u00e9on, F.-M., Viallefont-Robinet, F., and Bouvet, M. (2019). Revisiting Pseudo Invariant Calibration Sites (PICS) Over Sand Deserts for Vicarious Calibration of Optical Imagers at 20 km and 100 km Scales. Remote Sens., 11.","DOI":"10.3390\/rs11101166"},{"key":"ref_45","unstructured":"Butler, J.J., Xiong, X.X., Coburn, C.A., Gu, X., Logie, G., and Beaver, J. (2016, January 24\u201328). Temporal dynamics of sand dune bidirectional reflectance characteristics for absolute radiometric calibration of optical remote sensing data. Proceedings of the SPIE Optical Engineering, San Diego, CA, USA."},{"key":"ref_46","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Wang, L., Hu, X., Chen, L., and He, L. (2018). Consistent Calibration of VIRR Reflective Solar Channels Onboard FY-3A, FY-3B, and FY-3C Using a Multisite Calibration Method. Remote Sens., 10.","DOI":"10.3390\/rs10091336"}],"container-title":["Remote Sensing"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2072-4292\/12\/16\/2517\/pdf","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,11]],"date-time":"2025-10-11T09:54:37Z","timestamp":1760176477000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2072-4292\/12\/16\/2517"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2020,8,5]]},"references-count":46,"journal-issue":{"issue":"16","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2020,8]]}},"alternative-id":["rs12162517"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/rs12162517","relation":{},"ISSN":["2072-4292"],"issn-type":[{"value":"2072-4292","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2020,8,5]]}}}