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Uyuni desert (-20.8 degrees to -19.6 degrees in latitude, -68.2 degrees to -66.8 degrees in longitude) covered by a few meters of salt can be a good target for Earth observation satellite with its flatness, brightness, and high altitude. We can validate the accuracy of GOES-16 Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI) visible and near-IR (VNIR) channels using the Uyuni desert as a reference. A selection and reflectance monitoring of uniform scenes over the Uyuni desert using a number of space-borne observational datasets is a main objective of this study.

It is critical to identify the geospatially, temporally, and spectrally uniform area with at least 3 km x 3 km in size for the ABI Band 2 and 7 km x 7 km for the ABI Band 1, 3, 5, and 6. For radiometric and temporal stability, GOES-13 Imager visible (0.65 mu m) data obtained near the satellite noon time is used. In terms of spatial stability, Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) data onboard Suomi-National Polar-orbiting Partnership spacecraft (SNPP) is compared to find the uniform scenes with low covariance of reflectance over the radiometric and temporal stable areas. We selected two candidate targets over the Uyuni desert and conducted monitoring of the reflectance trending for the two targets from both the ABI and VIIRS data.