An overview of NASA NPP SDS-NICSE activities on VIIRS SDR assessment

The NPP Instrument Calibration Support Element (NICSE) of the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS) Preparatory Project (NPP) National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Science Data Segment (SDS) is designed to assess the long-term geometric and radiometric performance of the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) instrument data. VIIRS is scheduled for flight on NPP and subsequent program flights. In making its assessments of VIIRS performance, the NICSE directly supports NASA´s goal of determining whether VIIRS data is consistent with the decades-long long-term Earth Science Data Record (ESDR) that includes data from multiple satellites and instruments, and NASA´s goal of recommending improvements to VIIRS data products. The NICSE promotes the generation of a well-calibrated VIIRS data set that can integrate into a long-term ESDR. In general, the NICSE performs this process by establishing a quantitative understanding of the radiometric and geometric performance of the VIIRS data set.