Overview of Suomi National Polar-Orbiting Partnership (NPP) Satellite Instrument Calibration and Validation

Abstract:

The Suomi National Polar-Orbiting Partnership (SNPP) satellite carries five instruments on board including ATMS, CrIS, VIIRS, OMPS and CERES. During the SNPP intensive calval, ATMS was pitched over to observe the cold space radiation. This unique data set was used for diagnostics of the ATMS scan-angle dependent bias and a scan-to-scan variation. A new algorithm is proposed to correct the ATMS scan angle dependent bias related to the reflector emission. ATMS radiometric calibration is also revised in IDPS with the full radiance processing (FRP). CrIS is the first Fourier transform Michelson interferometer and measures three infrared spectral bands from 650 to 1095, 1210 to 1750 and 2155 to 2550 cm-1 with spectral resolutions of 0.625 cm-1, respectively. Its spectral calibration is with an accuracy of better than 2 ppm and its noise is also well characterized with the Allan variance. Since CrIS was switched to the transmission of full spectral resolution (FSR) of RDR data to the ground in January 2015. The CrIS FSR SDR data are also produced offline at NOAA STAR. VIIRS has 22 spectral bands covering the spectrum between 0.412 μm and 12.01 μm, including 16 moderate resolution bands (M-bands) with a spatial resolution of 750 m at nadir, five imaging resolution bands (I-bands) with a spatial resolution of 375 m at nadir, and one day-night band (DNB) with a nearly-constant 750 m spatial resolution throughout the scan. The calibration of VIIRS reflective solar bands (RSB) requires a solar diffuser (SD) and a solar diffuser stability monitor (SDSM). Using the SNPP yaw maneuver data, SDSM screen transmission function can be updated to better capture the fine structures of the vignetting function. For OMPS nadir mapper (NM) and nadir profiler (NP), the detector signal-to-noise ratio, and sensor signal-to-noise ratio meet the system requirement. Detector gain and bias performance trends are generally stable. System linearity performance is stable and highly consistent with the prelaunch values. The recent updates on OMPS wavelength, solar flux and radiance coefficients have resulted in viewing angle dependent bias in the earth view observations. OMPS dark currents are updated weekly and monitored for further improving the radiometric calibration.