S-NPP VIIRS Thermal Emissive Bands 10-Year On-Orbit Calibration and Performance

The Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) onboard the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership Program (S-NPP) satellite, launched in late 2011, has reached decade landmark under successful operations. VIIRS 22 spectral bands, 7 of which are thermal emissive bands (TEB) that cover 3.70 to 11.84 μm wavelength range. Over years, TEB observations have been used generate several data products (e.g., surface/cloud/atmospheric temperatures, cloud top altitude, and water vapor properties). calibration uses a quadratic algorithm is referenced an on-board blackbody with temperature measurements traceable Institute Standards Technology standard. This manuscript provides overview instrument operations activities algorithms level 1B describes on-orbit performance for S-NPP VIIRS. 10-year generally stable, degradations detector responses minor after orbit. noise characterization repeatedly meets design requirements all detectors as well. On-orbit changes response-versus-scan-angle, based on pitch maneuver observations, demonstrated be extremely small. Moreover, multiple time series over select ground targets shown sensor’s quite stable.