Patent ID: 6161075
Filing Date: 2000-12-12
Classification: G06F

Abstract:
A method of estimating expected errors of environmental data parameters based on radiance measurements obtained from visible infra red radiometric satellite sensors (VIIRS) orbiting the earth, comprising the steps of:obtaining N radiance measurements of a surface body I.sub.I, . . . I.sub.N defining a matrix I depending on p unknown surface and atmospheric parameters T.sub.i, . . . T.sub.p, defining a matrix T;generating a forward model I=f(T) for obtaining said I radiance measurements from said p parameters, where f(T) comprises an N element matrix;choosing an initial set of values for said p parameters and linearizing f(T) about said initial values to obtain a linearized forward model I=s+H.theta. as f.sub.i (T.sub.01, T.sub.02, . . . T.sub.0p)+.SIGMA.H.sub.ij .theta..sub.j where I=1,2, . . . N and .theta..sub.j =T.sub.j -T.sub.oj and H.sub.ij =.delta..sub.i f/.delta.T.sub.j and where .theta. is a column matrix .sub.1 .theta., . . . .sub.p .theta. and H is a matrix of H.sub.ij values;adding measurement noise vector w of noise values to said forward model;determining the covariance of said measurement noise w to obtain a covariance matrix C; andmanipulating the matrices H and C according to the equation C.sub.EDR=(H.sup.T C.sup.-1 H).sup.-1 to obtain a matrix element of C.sub.EDR indicative of the expected errors in said values of T.sub.1. . . T.sub.p parameters.