Spatial Registration Assessments for the SNPP and N20 VIIRS Reflective Solar Bands Using Unscheduled Lunar Observations

Abstract

The Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) is a multispectral Earth-observing instrument onboard the Suomi-NPP (SNPP) and NOAA-20 (N20) spacecraft, with spectral bands ranging in wavelength from 0.41 to <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$12.2~\mu \text{m}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> . For the reflective solar bands (RSBs), the bands are calibrated on-orbit using both solar diffuser (SD) and lunar observations. The lunar observations use near-monthly scheduled spacecraft maneuvers in order to view the Moon within a desired phase angle range. While the primary purpose of the maneuvers is for radiometric calibration, these observations can also be used to characterize the spatial performance of the instrument, including the band-to-band and detector-to-detector registrations (BBR/DDR). The Moon can also be observed without spacecraft maneuvers. However, these observations are over a larger phase angle range. While the geometry of these unscheduled observations is more varied, they can still be used to assess the sensor performance. In this work, we will use unscheduled Moon data to analyze the BBR and DDR of the SNPP and N20 VIIRS RSB. For the BBR, we implemented an image cross correlation approach that removes the residual oscillations in the trending data compared to previous methodologies. For the DDR, we developed an edge-fitting approach that accounts for the lunar motion across the VIIRS focal plane array on a scan-by-scan basis using lunar and satellite ephemeris data. In our analysis, we find that the BBR and DDR for both VIIRS RSBs are stable on-orbit.