VIIRS Day/Night Band—Correcting Striping and Nonuniformity over a Very Large Dynamic Range

Stephen Mills,Steven Miller

doi:10.3390/jimaging2010009

Abstract

The Suomi National Polar-orbiting (NPP) Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) Day-Night Band (DNB) measures visible and near-infrared light extending over seven orders of magnitude of dynamic range. This makes radiometric calibration difficult. We have observed that DNB imagery has striping, banding and other nonuniformities—day or night. We identified the causes as stray light, nonlinearity, detector crosstalk, hysteresis and mirror-side variation. We found that these affect both Earth-view and calibration signals. These present an obstacle to interpretation by users of DNB products. Because of the nonlinearity we chose the histogram matching destriping technique which we found is successful for daytime, twilight and nighttime scenes. Because of the very large dynamic range of the DNB, we needed to add special processes to the histogram matching to destripe all scenes, especially imagery in the twilight regions where scene illumination changes rapidly over short distances. We show that destriping aids image analysts, and makes it possible for advanced automated cloud typing algorithms. Manual or automatic identification of other features, including polar ice and gravity waves in the upper atmosphere are also discussed. In consideration of the large volume of data produced 24 h a day by the VIIRS DNB, we present methods for reducing processing time.

Highlights

The Day/Night Band (DNB) on the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) is part ofSuomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (S-NPP) satellite launched on 28 October 2011
Since the DNB calibration process is related to the root causes of striping, we describe it in detail here
Nonuniformities, including striping and discontinuities at aggregation zone boundaries have been observed in all DNB Sensor Data Record (SDR) calibrated radiances

Summary

Introduction

The Day/Night Band (DNB) on the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) is part ofSuomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (S-NPP) satellite launched on 28 October 2011. The Day/Night Band (DNB) on the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) is part of. The DNB is a panchromatic visible to near infrared band designed to detect radiance from the brightest daytime scenes down to very dim nighttime scenes illuminated by quarter moon. The sensitivity of the DNB to very low radiance levels requires cross-calibration over three gain stages, and this makes maintaining uniformity on DNB much more difficult than for other bands on VIIRS. Other than uniformity, based on post-launch characterization, VIIRS DNB has met its radiometric and spatial resolution requirements [1]. Since the launch of S-NPP, the low-light detection capabilities of VIIRS DNB have opened new areas of research including the detection of nightglow and features illuminated by nightglow [2,3]

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Discussion

Conclusion