Proceedings Article | 15 October 2012
Proc. SPIE. 8510, Earth Observing Systems XVII
KEYWORDS: Long wavelength infrared, Signal to noise ratio, Aerospace engineering, Polarization, Sensors, Aerosols, Clouds, Quality measurement, Infrared radiation, Space operations
The Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (S-NPP) satellite was successfully launched on October 28,
2011, beginning the on-orbit era of the Visible Infrared Imager Radiometer Suite (VIIRS). In support of atlaunch
readiness, VIIRS underwent a rigorous pre-launch test program to characterize its spatial, radiometric,
and spectral performance. Spectral measurements, the subject of this paper, were collected during instrument
level testing at Raytheon Corp. (summer 2009), and then again in a special spectral test for VisNIR bands
during spacecraft level testing at Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corp. (spring 2010). These spectral
performance measurements were analyzed by industry (Northrop Grumman, NG) and by the Relative Spectral
Response (RSR) subgroup of the Government team, (NASA, Aerospace Corp., MIT/Lincoln Lab, Univ.
Wisconsin) leading to releases of the S-NPP VIIRS RSR characterization by both NG and the Government
team. The NG RSR analysis was planned to populate the Look-Up-Tables (LUTs) that support the various
VIIRS operational products, while the Government team analysis was initially intended as a verification of
the NG RSR product as well as an early release RSR characterization for the science community’s pre-launch
application. While the Government team deemed the NG December 2010 RSR release as acceptable for the
“at-launch” RSR characterization during the pre-launch phase, the Government team has now (post-launch
checkout phase) recommended for using the NG October 2011 RSR release as an update for the LUTs used in
VIIRS SDR and EDR operational processing. Meanwhile the Government team RSR releases remain
available to the community for their investigative interests, and may evolve if new understanding of VIIRS
spectral performance is revealed in the S-NPP post-launch era.
