Sentinel-2 MSI Radiometric Characterization and Cross-Calibration with Landsat-8 OLI

Near-nadir observations by the Multispectral Instrument (MSI) onboard the Sentinel-2 and the Operational Land Imager (OLI) onboard Landsat 8 were collected during two Simultaneous Nadir Overpasses (SNO). Multispectral images with 10, 20, and 30 m resolution from a spatially uniform area in the Saharan desert were acquired for direct comparison of MSI and OLI TopOf-Atmosphere (TOA) reflectances. This paper presents an initial radiometric cross-calibration of the 8 corresponding spectral bands of the Sentinel-2 MSI and Landsat 8 OLI sensors. With the well-calibrated Landsat 8 OLI as a reference, the comparison indicates that 6 MSI bands are consistent with OLI within 3% in terms of spectral band adjustment factors Bi . The Near-Infra-Red (NIR) and cirrus bands are exceptions. They yield radiometric differences on the order of 8% and 15% respectively. Cross-calibration results show that the radiometric difference of the 7 corresponding bands are consistent to OLI within 1% or better, except on cirrus band. A pixel-by-pixel match between the MSI and OLI observations for different land covers showed that. This initial study suggests that the red-edge band B8A of MSI can be used to replace the NIR band B08 when conducting vegetation monitoring.