Initial assessment of radiometric performance of N20 VIIRS reflective solar bands using vicarious approaches

The newly launched (November 18, 2017) polar-orbiting satellite of the Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS-1), now transitioned to NOAA-20, is the follow-on mission to the SNPP (Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership) satellite, launched six years ago. NOAA-20 leads SNPP by a half orbit or about 50 minutes. The Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) is a key sensor onboard both NOAA-20 and SNPP spacecraft with nearly identical band spectral responses. 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) as background reference for calibration. This study provides an initial assessment of calibration of the NOAA-20 VIIRS reflective solar bands (RSB) by intercomparison with measurements from SNPP VIIRS using various vicarious approaches. The first approach is based on a double difference method using observations from simultaneous nadir overpasses (SNO) with Aqua MODIS. The second is from the collected reflectances over the widely used Liby-4 desert site from 16-day repeatable orbits so each data point has the same viewing geometry relative to the site. The third approach is to use the frequent overpasses over the Dome C snow site. Results of this study provide useful information on NOAA-20 VIIRS post-launch calibration assessment and preliminary analysis of its calibration stability and consistency for the first 6 months.