{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,12]],"date-time":"2025-10-12T04:12:40Z","timestamp":1760242360668,"version":"build-2065373602"},"reference-count":36,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"6","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2017,5,27]],"date-time":"2017-05-27T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1495843200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Remote Sensing"],"abstract":"<jats:p>MODIS reflective solar bands are calibrated on-orbit using a solar diffuser and near-monthly lunar observations. To monitor the performance and effectiveness of the on-orbit calibrations, pseudo-invariant targets such as deep convective clouds (DCCs), Libya-4, and Dome-C are used to track the long-term stability of MODIS Level 1B product. However, the current MODIS operational DCC technique (DCCT) simply uses the criteria set for the 0.65-\u00b5m band. We optimize several critical DCCT parameters including the 11-\u00b5m IR-band Brightness Temperature (BT11) threshold for DCC identification, DCC core size and uniformity to help locate DCCs at convection centers, data collection time interval, and probability distribution function (PDF) bin increment for each channel. The mode reflectances corresponding to the PDF peaks are utilized as the DCC reflectances. Results show that the BT11 threshold and time interval are most critical for the Short Wave Infrared (SWIR) bands. The Bidirectional Reflectance Distribution Function model is most effective in reducing the DCC anisotropy for the visible channels. The uniformity filters and PDF bin size have minimal impacts on the visible channels and a larger impact on the SWIR bands. The newly optimized DCCT will be used for future evaluation of MODIS on-orbit calibration by MODIS Characterization Support Team.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/rs9060535","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2017,5,30]],"date-time":"2017-05-30T04:35:42Z","timestamp":1496118942000},"page":"535","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":27,"title":["Optimization of a Deep Convective Cloud Technique in Evaluating the Long-Term Radiometric Stability of MODIS Reflective Solar Bands"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"9","author":[{"given":"Qiaozhen","family":"Mu","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Science Systems and Applications, Inc., 10210 Greenbelt Road, Lanham, MD 20706, USA"}]},{"given":"Aisheng","family":"Wu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Science Systems and Applications, Inc., 10210 Greenbelt Road, Lanham, MD 20706, USA"}]},{"given":"Xiaoxiong","family":"Xiong","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Sciences and Exploration Directorate, NASA\/GSFC, Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA"}]},{"given":"David","family":"Doelling","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"NASA Langley Research Center, 21 Langley Blvd. MS 420, Hampton, VA 23681, USA"}]},{"given":"Amit","family":"Angal","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Science Systems and Applications, Inc., 10210 Greenbelt Road, Lanham, MD 20706, USA"}]},{"given":"Tiejun","family":"Chang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Science Systems and Applications, Inc., 10210 Greenbelt Road, Lanham, MD 20706, USA"}]},{"given":"Rajendra","family":"Bhatt","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Science Systems and Applications Inc., 1 Enterprise Pkwy, Suite 200, Hampton, VA 23666, USA"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2017,5,27]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"879","DOI":"10.1109\/TGRS.2006.890567","article-title":"Multi-year On-orbit Calibration and Performance of Terra MODIS Reflective Solar Bands","volume":"45","author":"Xiong","year":"2007","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. 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