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<front>
<journal-meta>
<journal-id journal-id-type="publisher">EGUsphere</journal-id>
<journal-title-group>
<journal-title>EGUsphere</journal-title>
<abbrev-journal-title abbrev-type="publisher">EGUsphere</abbrev-journal-title>
<abbrev-journal-title abbrev-type="nlm-ta">EGUsphere</abbrev-journal-title>
</journal-title-group>
<issn pub-type="epub"></issn>
<publisher><publisher-name>Copernicus Publications</publisher-name>
<publisher-loc>Göttingen, Germany</publisher-loc>
</publisher>
</journal-meta>
<article-meta>
<article-id pub-id-type="doi">10.5194/egusphere-2026-2675</article-id>
<title-group>
<article-title>MethaneSAT instrument spectral response functions during pre-launch calibration and on-orbit performance</article-title>
</title-group>
<contrib-group><contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Miller</surname>
<given-names>David J.</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3456-4416</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff2">
<sup>2</sup>
</xref>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff3">
<sup>3</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Sun</surname>
<given-names>Kang</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9930-7509</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Franklin</surname>
<given-names>Jonathan E.</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff3">
<sup>3</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Leisso</surname>
<given-names>Nathan</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff4">
<sup>4</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Roche</surname>
<given-names>Sébastien</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2474-4744</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff3">
<sup>3</sup>
</xref>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff5">
<sup>5</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Luo</surname>
<given-names>Bingkun</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff2">
<sup>2</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Chan Miller</surname>
<given-names>Christopher</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff2">
<sup>2</sup>
</xref>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff5">
<sup>5</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Ayvazov</surname>
<given-names>Sasha</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff5">
<sup>5</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Crowell</surname>
<given-names>Sean</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff6">
<sup>6</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>LoFaso</surname>
<given-names>Nick</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff5">
<sup>5</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Kampe</surname>
<given-names>Tom</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff4">
<sup>4</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Spuhler</surname>
<given-names>Peter</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff4">
<sup>4</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Farris</surname>
<given-names>Betsy</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff4">
<sup>4</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Walker</surname>
<given-names>Eleanor</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff3">
<sup>3</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Melendez</surname>
<given-names>Tom</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff5">
<sup>5</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Gautam</surname>
<given-names>Ritesh</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff5">
<sup>5</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Liu</surname>
<given-names>Xiong</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2939-574X</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff2">
<sup>2</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Wofsy</surname>
<given-names>Steven C.</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff3">
<sup>3</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
</contrib-group><aff id="aff1">
<label>1</label>
<addr-line>Department of Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering, University at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY, USA</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff2">
<label>2</label>
<addr-line>Center for Astrophysics | Harvard &amp; Smithsonian, Cambridge, MA, USA</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff3">
<label>3</label>
<addr-line>Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff4">
<label>4</label>
<addr-line>BAE Systems, Inc., Boulder, CO, USA</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff5">
<label>5</label>
<addr-line>Environmental Defense Fund, New York, NY, USA</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff6">
<label>6</label>
<addr-line>Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY, USA</addr-line>
</aff>
<pub-date pub-type="epub">
<day>21</day>
<month>05</month>
<year>2026</year>
</pub-date>
<volume>2026</volume>
<fpage>1</fpage>
<lpage>30</lpage>
<permissions>
<copyright-statement>Copyright: &#x000a9; 2026 David J. Miller et al.</copyright-statement>
<copyright-year>2026</copyright-year>
<license license-type="open-access">
<license-p>This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this licence, visit <ext-link ext-link-type="uri"  xlink:href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/</ext-link></license-p>
</license>
</permissions>
<self-uri xlink:href="https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2026-2675/">This article is available from https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2026-2675/</self-uri>
<self-uri xlink:href="https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2026-2675/egusphere-2026-2675.pdf">The full text article is available as a PDF file from https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2026-2675/egusphere-2026-2675.pdf</self-uri>
<abstract>
<p>MethaneSAT was a push-broom, area-mapping satellite that quantified area and point source methane (CH&lt;sub&gt;4&lt;/sub&gt;) emissions across global target areas. Two sensors onboard MethaneSAT measured short-wave infrared absorption bands of CH&lt;sub&gt;4&lt;/sub&gt;, carbon dioxide, and oxygen. We report novel methods for MethaneSAT spectral calibration during pre-launch measurements and on-orbit operation. We derive and compare instrument spectral response functions (ISRFs) measured during ground calibrations at the individual sensor level at three temperatures and at the integrated flight system level. Point spread functions are used to develop peak and ghost stray-light kernels. Underlying line shape exposures were stray-light corrected based on these kernels prior to deriving ISRFs. Novel methods robustly merge ISRFs at three overlapping slit illumination fields of view and identify bad ISRF positions for gap filling. We evaluate four distinct ISRF data sets for on-orbit calibration across three different thermal conditions by squeezing the ISRF in level 2 (L2) retrievals. ISRF widths varied by &amp;lt;5% between calibration experiments across a wider range of thermal environments than those observed on-orbit. The use of ISRFs measured at temperatures closest to those observed on-orbit resulted in a value close to unity for the parameter that squeezes the ground-based calibration derived ISRFs in L2 retrievals. A time series of these squeeze factor deviations demonstrate relatively stable on-orbit spectral calibration across the mission duration with &amp;lt;0.4% variations. Our results demonstrate stable on-orbit instrument spectral response and on-orbit wavelength shift variations compared with ground-based calibration across expected on-orbit thermal conditions. These results support the high accuracy and stability of MethaneSAT L2 retrievals.</p>
</abstract>
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</article-meta>
</front>
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