Why FarEarth performs continuous calibration

FarEarth produces science-quality products after your first calibration. The FarEarth system continuously measures the quality of your products as they are created, since detector responses and sensor accuracy drift and degrade over time.

FarEarth recommends corrective actions to take during the operational phase of your satellite to ensure quality.

FarEarth will update calibration parameter files for your processing throughout the lifetime of your satellite. With these updates, we ensure your satellite continues to produce accurate and consistent data. This is what we refer to as continuous calibration. 

1. Quality monitoring of your image products 

Every product in FarEarth has quality metrics. By default, the geometric quality of all Level 1C and Level 2 products is measured. Suitable scenes will have their radiometric quality measured against reference data.  

2. FarEarth will identify calibration parameters to update  

FarEarth automatically detects anomalies and values drifting away from the nominal, by monitoring the trends of the quality metrics.  

3. FarEarth will recommend new calibration acquisitions 

FarEarth will recommend the calibration sites you need to target for new calibration datasets. Depending on the calibration metrics that require updating, the targets might be geometric, radiometric, or dark nighttime sites.  

4. FarEarth will detect new calibration data 

All data processed by FarEarth will automatically be evaluated for use in calibration activities. Acquisitions of known calibration sites will automatically trigger the calibration process in the background. Dark-nighttime data acquisitions will trigger the estimation of the noise floor of your sensor.  

5. FarEarth will use your new calibration parameter files 

FarEarth will update the calibration parameter files after quality measurements and regression testing.  

Why is it important? 

To create consistent temporal datasets, you need to maintain calibration stability over time. Consistent temporal datasets are critical for applications such as change detection, vegetation health monitoring, and climate trend analysis. 

Continuous calibration establishes a uniform radiometric baseline across your satellite constellations. This enables seamless data fusion, cross-sensor interoperability, and scalable global coverage.  

Continuous calibration will ensure your satellites produce accurate and consistent data during all your missions.