Suomi-NPP VIIRS Initial Reprocessing Improvements and Validations in the Reflective Solar Bands

Over five years of the Suomi National Polar orbiting Partnership (S-NPP) Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) Sensor Data Records (SDR) production, there were mutual demands of the lifetime VIIRS SDR reprocessing to alleviate operational changes and user oriented suggestions. Meanwhile, the NOAA Ocean Color (OC) team through its independent effort has achieved the robust calibration of the S-NPP VIIR Reflective Solar Bands (RSBs) - including improved radiometric accuracies, minimized annual oscillations and mitigated growing bias for long-term radiometric stability. The baseline VIIRS reprocessing is performed using the RSBAutoCal LUTs with an option of using OC calibration for their mission-long reprocessing to provide enhanced radiometric accuracy for OC Environmental Data Records (EDR) products. The SDR reprocessing team has applied the most recent calibration coefficients LUTs from the RSBAutoCal processing unit as a baseline product with a new field called 'RadiometricBaisCorrection,'which holds conversion factor from baseline to OC's suggested calibration. This paper briefly summarizes the efforts of the SDR reprocessing team, the related entire life reprocessing issues and the initial results in the RSBs. It will show that the quality and accuracy of the SDR reprocessed with the new LUTs are significantly improved. It will also demonstrate the remarkable improvements of the VIIRS EDR for various applications and higher-level science products by using the reprocessed SDR as their inputs.