Abstract
The launch of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)/ National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (S-NPP) and its follow-on NOAA Joint Polar Satellite Systems (JPSS) satellites marks the beginning of a new era of operational satellite observations of the Earth and atmosphere for environmental applications with high spatial resolution and sampling rate. The S-NPP and JPSS are equipped with five instruments, each with advanced design in Earth sampling, including the Advanced Technology Microwave Sounder (ATMS), the Cross-track Infrared Sounder (CrIS), the Ozone Mapping and Profiler Suite (OMPS), the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS), and the Clouds and the Earth’s Radiant Energy System (CERES). Among them, the ATMS is the new generation of microwave sounder measuring temperature profiles from the surface to the upper stratosphere and moisture profiles from the surface to the upper troposphere, while CrIS is the first of a series of advanced operational hyperspectral sounders providing more accurate atmospheric and moisture sounding observations with higher vertical resolution for weather and climate applications. The OMPS instrument measures solar backscattered ultraviolet to provide information on the concentrations of ozone in the Earth’s atmosphere, and VIIRS provides global observations of a variety of essential environmental variables over the land, atmosphere, cryosphere, and ocean with visible and infrared imagery. The CERES instrument measures the solar energy reflected by the Earth, the longwave radiative emission from the Earth, and the role of cloud processes in the Earth’s energy balance. Presently, observations from several instruments on S-NPP and JPSS-1 (re-named NOAA-20 after launch) provide near real-time monitoring of the environmental changes and improve weather forecasting by assimilation into numerical weather prediction models. Envisioning the need for consistencies in satellite retrievals, improving climate reanalyses, development of climate data records, and improving numerical weather forecasting, the NOAA/Center for Satellite Applications and Research (STAR) has been reprocessing the S-NPP observations for ATMS, CrIS, OMPS, and VIIRS through their life cycle. This article provides a summary of the instrument observing principles, data characteristics, reprocessing approaches, calibration algorithms, and validation results of the reprocessed sensor data records. The reprocessing generated consistent Level-1 sensor data records using unified and consistent calibration algorithms for each instrument that removed artificial jumps in data owing to operational changes, instrument anomalies, contaminations by anomaly views of the environment or spacecraft, and other causes. The reprocessed sensor data records were compared with and validated against other observations for a consistency check whenever such data were available. The reprocessed data will be archived in the NOAA data center with the same format as the operational data and technical support for data requests. Such a reprocessing is expected to improve the efficiency of the use of the S-NPP and JPSS satellite data and the accuracy of the observed essential environmental variables through either consistent satellite retrievals or use of the reprocessed data in numerical data assimilations.
Highlights
Satellite observations have been playing a vital role in improving numerical weather prediction (NWP) during the past few decades
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) operational calibration algorithms for generating instrument sensor data records (SDRs or radiances) for the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (S-NPP) satellite typically proceed through three stages: beta, provisional, and validated maturity, with many updates of algorithms and calibration coefficients taking place between them [31,32,33]
In summary of the previous sections, the SDR data for the four instruments, Advanced Technology Microwave Sounder (ATMS), Cross-track Infrared Sounder (CrIS), Ozone Mapping and Profiler Suite (OMPS), and Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) onboard S-NPP was reprocessed at NOAA/Satellite Applications and Research (STAR) for the period from near the launch time to 8 March 2017
Summary
Satellite observations have been playing a vital role in improving numerical weather prediction (NWP) during the past few decades. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) operational calibration algorithms for generating instrument sensor data records (SDRs or radiances) for the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (S-NPP) satellite typically proceed through three stages: beta, provisional, and validated maturity, with many updates of algorithms and calibration coefficients taking place between them [31,32,33] Such changes can cause inconsistency in the level-1b satellite radiance data records and lead to radiance or brightness temperature (BT) bias jumps and drifts over time when compared with other observations or numerical model simulations. The CERES measures the solar energy reflected by the Earth and the longwave radiation from the Earth, providing necessary information to understand the role of cloud processes in the Earth’s energy balance Observations from these instruments on S-NPP and NOAA-20 provide near real-time monitoring of the environmental changes and improve weather forecasting by assimilation into numerical weather prediction models.
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