On-Orbit Characterization of MODIS Modulation Transfer Function Using the Moon

The high-contrast edge of the Moon has been used for the on-orbit measurement of the modulation transfer function (MTF) of remote sensing instruments with a lunar observation capability. With the lunar edge as a target, the classical edge method is applied to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration´s MODerate resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on board the Terra and Aqua satellites. One of the major difficulties encountered during the calculation is that the spatial resolution of MODIS is too coarse to capture the fine structure of the edge spread function (ESF), which is required to calculate the MTF. To produce the MODIS ESF in high resolution, lunar images of a selected edge acquired by multiple instrument scans need to be superposed by aligning the edge positions accurately. In this paper, an algorithm is developed to perform the alignment, based on the lunar position data generated by the MODIS geolocation algorithm and recorded scan by scan. The positions of the lunar edges at the focal plane are calculated scan by scan, allowing the construction of a high-quality ESF for MTF derivation. The algorithm is applied to all MODIS bands with 250-m, 500-m, and 1-km spatial resolutions in both along-scan and along-track directions. The along-track MTF results are particularly valuable because the onboard SpectroRadiometric Calibration Assembly can only monitor the along-scan MTF. The trending results show that the along-track MTF of MODIS has been stable throughout the MODIS lifetime and is well above the design specification for all bands. The limitation of the algorithm is analyzed. The algorithm developed in this paper can be applied to other instruments with similar design features.