Monitoring NPP VIIRS on-orbit radiometric performance from TOA reflectance time series

Abstract

The recently launched (October 28, 2011) Suomi NPP (National Polar-orbiting Partnership) satellite has been operating nominally to daily collect global data. The Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) is a key NPP sensor onboard the spacecraft. Similar to the heritage sensor MODIS, VIIRS has on-board calibration components including a solar diffuser (SD) and a solar diffuser stability monitor (SDSM) for the reflective solar bands (RSB), a V-groove blackbody for the thermal emissive bands (TEB), and a space view (SV) port for background. This study examines VIIRS reflective solar bands (RSB) calibration stability and performance using observed top-of-atmosphere (TOA) reflectance time series collected from two approaches. The first is from comparison with a well-calibrated Aqua MODIS and the second is from overpasses over the widely used Liby-4 desert site. The VIIRS and MODIS comparison data is obtained from simultaneous nadir overpasses (SNO) for their spectrally matched bands. The reflectance trends over the Libya-4 site are extracted from 16-day repeatable orbits so each data point has the same viewing geometry relative to the site. The impact due to the band spectral differences between the two instruments is corrected based on MODTRAN5 simulations. Results of this study provide useful information on NPP VIIRS post-launch calibration assessment and preliminary analysis of its calibration stability and consistency for the first 1.5 years.