Results from Solar Reflective Band End-to-End Testing for VIIRS F1 Sensor Using T-SIRCUS

Published

October 24, 2011

Author(s)

Jeff McIntire, David Moyer, James K. McCarthy, Steven W. Brown, Keith R. Lykke, Frank De Luccia, Xiaoxiong Xiong, James J. Butler, Bruce Guenther

Abstract

Verification of the Visible Infrared Imager Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) End-to-End (E2E) sensor calibration is highly recommended before launch, to identify any anomalies and to improve our understanding of the sensor on-orbit calibration performance. E2E testing of the Reflective Solar Bands (RSB) calibration cycle was performed pre-launch for the VIIRS Flight 1 (F1) sensor at the Ball Aerospace facility in Boulder CO in March 2010. VIIRS reflective band calibration cycle is very similar to heritage sensor MODIS in that solar illumination, via a diffuser, is used to correct for temporal variations in the instrument responsivity. Monochromatic light from the NIST T-SIRCUS was used to illuminate both the Earth View (EV), via an integrating sphere, and the Solar Diffuser (SD) view, through a collimator. The collimator illumination was cycled through a series of angles intended to simulate the range of possible angles for which solar radiation will be incident on the solar attenuation screen on-orbit. Ideally, the measured instrument responsivity (defined here as the ratio of the detector response to the at-sensor radiance) should be the same whether the EV or SD view is illuminated. The ratio of the measured responsivities was determined at each collimator angle and wavelength. In addition, the Solar Diffuser Stability Monitor (SDSM), a ratioing radiometer designed to track the temporal variation in the SD BRF by direct comparison to solar radiation, was illuminated by the collimator. The measured SDSM ratio was compared to the predicted ratio. An uncertainty analysis was also performed on both the SD and SDSM calibrations.

Proceedings Title

SPIE Optical Engineering + Applications

Volume

8153

Conference Dates

August 21-25, 2011

Conference Location

San Diego, CA, US

Pub Type

Conferences

Download Paper

https://doi.org/10.1117/12.891917

Local Download

Keywords

NPP VIIRS, pre-launch calibration

Citation

McIntire, J. , Moyer, D. , McCarthy, J. , Brown, S. , Lykke, K. , De Luccia, F. , Xiong, X. , Butler, J. and Guenther, B. (2011), Results from Solar Reflective Band End-to-End Testing for VIIRS F1 Sensor Using T-SIRCUS, SPIE Optical Engineering + Applications , San Diego, CA, US, [online], https://doi.org/10.1117/12.891917, https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=909145 (Accessed October 3, 2024)