Quantitative application of satellite observations requires the absolute calibration of the observed raw radiance data. Calibration techniques of the thermal channels of the meteorological satellites rely on on-board calibration employing a black body or on vicarious techniques. All techniques associate the raw measured units, expressed as counts, with calculated radiances, in order to retrieve a one-to-one relation between them.

Different calibration methods have been used for the Meteosat satellites, and the calibration also depends on the imager instrument flying on the spacecraft (i.e. MVIRI for Meteosat First Generation, and SEVIRI for Meteosat Second Generation satellites). Regardless of the calibration method used, the appropriate Temperature/Radiance conversion tables have to be applied to convert the radiances into brightness temperatures.

These calibration pages offer an overview of the methods used to calibrate the MVIRI channels of Meteosat First Generation, and the SEVIRI channels of Meteosat Second Generation along with the respective calibration coefficients.