Calibration of multiple Landsat sensors based on pseudo-invariant target sites in Western Queensland, Australia

The Statewide Landcover and Trees Study (SLATS) has used both Landsat-5 TM and -7 ETM+ imagery to monitor short-term woody vegetation changes throughout Queensland. In order to analyse long-term vegetation change, time-based trends that are an artifact of the sensor system must be removed. Although the calibration trends of TIM and ETM+ are well described, information on the calibration of the older Landsat-2 and -5 MSS sensors is relatively scarce. This paper describes the use of three pseudo-invariant target sites in western Queensland to achieve an operational calibration of TM and ETM+ data. Following the success of the current study, these targets will be used in the near future to achieve sensor specific calibrations for the Landsat-2 and -5 MSS SLATS data