MODIS reflective solar bands are calibrated on-orbit using a solar diffuser and near-monthly lunar observations. To monitor the performance and effectiveness of the on-orbit calibrations, pseudo-invariant targets such as deep convective clouds (DCCs), Libya-4, and Dome-C are used to track the long-term stability of MODIS Level 1B product. However, the current MODIS operational DCC technique (DCCT) simply uses the criteria set for the 0.65-µm band. We optimize several critical DCCT parameters including the 11-µm IR-band Brightness Temperature (BT11) threshold for DCC identification, DCC core size and uniformity to help locate DCCs at convection centers, data collection time interval, and probability distribution function (PDF) bin increment for each channel. The mode reflectances corresponding to the PDF peaks are utilized as the DCC reflectances. Results show that the BT11 threshold and time interval are most critical for the Short Wave Infrared (SWIR) bands. The Bidirectional Reflectance Distribution Function model is most effective in reducing the DCC anisotropy for the visible channels. The uniformity filters and PDF bin size have minimal impacts on the visible channels and a larger impact on the SWIR bands. The newly optimized DCCT will be used for future evaluation of MODIS on-orbit calibration by MODIS Characterization Support Team.

This work takes advantage of the stable distribution of deep convective cloud (DCC) reflectance measurements to assess the calibration stability and detector difference in Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) reflective bands. VIIRS Sensor Data Records (SDRs) from February 2012 to June 2015 are utilized to analyze the long-term trending, detector difference, and half angle mirror (HAM) side difference. VIIRS has two thermal emissive bands with coverage crossing 11 μm for DCC pixel identification. The comparison of the results of these two processing bands is one of the indicators of analysis reliability. The long-term stability analysis shows downward trends (up to approximately 0.4% per year) for the visible and near-infrared bands and upward trends (up to 0.5% per year) for the shortand midwave infrared bands. The detector difference for each band is calculated as the difference relative to the average reflectance over all detectors. Except for the slightly greater than 1% difference in the two bands at 1610 nm, the detector difference is less than 1% for other solar reflective bands. The detector differences show increasing trends for some short-wave bands with center wavelengths from 400 to 600 nm and remain unchanged for the bands with longer center wavelengths. The HAM side difference is insignificant and stable. Those short-wave bands from 400 to 600 nm also have relatively larger HAM side difference, up to 0.25%. Comparing the striped images from SDR and the smooth images after the correction validates the analyses of detector difference and HAM side difference. These analyses are very helpful for VIIRS calibration improvement and thus enhance product quality.

Two VIIRS sensors onboard the SNPP and NOAA20 satellites have been successfully operating for over 10 and 4 years, respectively, providing the worldwide user community with high-quality imagery and radiometric measurements of the land, atmosphere, cryosphere, and oceans. This study provides a temporal radiometric stability and calibration consistency assessment of the SNPP and NOAA20 VIIRS reflective solar bands using the latest NASA SIPS C2 L1B products. Several independent vicarious approaches are used to examine the stability of SNPP VIIRS and consistency of the at-sensor reflectance between the two VIIRS instruments. These approaches include observations from simultaneous nadir overpasses, the Libya-4 desert and Dome C snow/ice sites, and deep convective clouds. The impact of existing band spectral differences on the reflectance measurements is accounted for utilizing scene-specific hyperspectral observations provided by the SCIAMACHY sensor onboard the ENVISAT platform. Results indicate that both SNPP and NOAA20 VIIRS reflectances are stable within 1% over their mission periods for all bands, except for a few bands in the visible range from SNPP VIIRS that show more upward drifts at high radiances. NOAA20 VIIRS reflectances are systematically lower than SNPP by 2 to 4% for most bands, with the exception of few short wavelength bands where it is seen to be up to 7%.

The reflective solar bands (RSB) of the Visible and Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) on Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership satellite are calibrated using solar diffuser and lunar observations. To evaluate the performance of the VIIRS RSB calibration, the deep convective clouds (DCC) are utilized as invariant targets to assess the stability of NASA’s VIIRS sensor data record (SDR) reflectance product for 10 moderate resolution bands (M-bands, M1 to M5 and M7 to M11) and three imagery resolution bands (I-bands, I1 to I3). All the frames along with each scan are divided into six aggregation zones for the scan angle. An empirical bidirectional reflectance distribution function (BRDF) correction is performed to SDR reflectances over DCC to reduce the scattering anisotropy in view and solar angles. The BRDF-corrected reflectances are used to assess the stability and to explore the residual RVS effects for selected bands. Results of this study show that after more than 6 years of on-orbit operation, the use of the prelaunch-based RVS still meets the radiometric requirement for the VIIRS RSB. Examination of the small but noticeable RVS residuals indicates they occur in a few shortest wavelength bands based on a time-dependent quadratic fit of the reflectance trends obtained at all scan angle zones. As the mission continues, continuing monitoring of on-orbit RVS stability and its effects on VIIRS SDR reflectance products are necessary with the DCC technique in the future VIIRS calibrations to ensure the quality of the RSB SDR products.

The Earth-observing Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) on the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (SNPP) satellite regularly performs on-orbit radiometric calibration of its reflective solar bands (RSBs), primarily through observations of an onboard sunlit solar diffuser (SD). The on-orbit change of the SD bidirectional reflectance distribution function (BRDF) value, quantified by a numerical factor called the H-factor, is determined by the onboard SD stability monitor. Our previous study showed that the H-factor is solar angle- and view direction-dependent. In this study, we determine the dependence of the H-factor on the detector SD view footprint location. We fit an empirical model to the NASA Collection 1 SNPP VIIRS Level 1B (L1B) spectral reflectance difference across the detectors in an RSB over uniform Earth scenes of the Libya 4 desert and deep convective clouds (DCCs). We apply the model predicted SD-positional-dependent H-factor to calibrate the RSBs. Under this new calibration scheme, the original unreal striping is removed from the homogeneous Libya 4 desert and the DCC images, as well as the original unreal striping from the Dunhuang desert image. The SD-positional-dependent H-factor has been used to calculate the SNPP VIIRS RSB radiometric correction factor for the NASA Collection 2.0 SNPP VIIRS L1B products.

<!-- *** Custom HTML *** --> An accurate on-orbit characterization of the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) onboard the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership satellite is essential to satisfy the requirements from NOAA, NASA, and the general research community for high-quality operational and research products. NASA’s Land Science Investigator-led Processing System (LSIPS) sensor data records (SDRs) are utilized to assess the stability of the calibrated top of atmosphere reflectance over the deep convective clouds (DCCs) and over the Libya-4 desert site. The results from DCCs and desert show detector-to-detector (D2D) reflectance differences in the VIIRS reflective solar bands, 10 moderate-resolution bands (M-bands, M1 to M5, M7 to M11), and three imagery resolution bands (I-bands, I1-I3). More importantly, the D2D differences exhibit an increase in magnitude over time for bands M1 to M5 and I1 to I2, which induces noticeable striping and higher uncertainties in the downstream data products. The largest D2D difference is observed in bands M1 and M2, with magnitudes greater than 1.8% in trends among the 16 detectors and standard deviations less than 0.12% over time. The D2D stability assessment results over DCCs are consistent with those observed over the Libya-4 desert site. To improve the quality of the calibrated SDR reflectance data, NASA’s VIIRS characterization support team has improved the calibration algorithm to incorporate corrections based on these DCC measurements to mitigate the striping (detector differences) observed in the current version of the SDR. These improvements are planned to be included in the next mission reprocessing of the LSIPS land products.