The Reprocessed Suomi NPP Satellite Observations

Abstract

The launch of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)/ National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (S-NPP) and its follow-on NOAA Joint Polar Satellite Systems (JPSS) satellites marks the beginning of a new era of operational satellite observations of the Earth and atmosphere for environmental applications with high spatial resolution and sampling rate. The S-NPP and JPSS are equipped with five instruments, each with advanced design in Earth sampling, including the Advanced Technology Microwave Sounder (ATMS), the Cross-track Infrared Sounder (CrIS), the Ozone Mapping and Profiler Suite (OMPS), the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS), and the Clouds and the Earth’s Radiant Energy System (CERES). Among them, the ATMS is the new generation of microwave sounder measuring temperature profiles from the surface to the upper stratosphere and moisture profiles from the surface to the upper troposphere, while CrIS is the first of a series of advanced operational hyperspectral sounders providing more accurate atmospheric and moisture sounding observations with higher vertical resolution for weather and climate applications. The OMPS instrument measures solar backscattered ultraviolet to provide information on the concentrations of ozone in the Earth’s atmosphere, and VIIRS provides global observations of a variety of essential environmental variables over the land, atmosphere, cryosphere, and ocean with visible and infrared imagery. The CERES instrument measures the solar energy reflected by the Earth, the longwave radiative emission from the Earth, and the role of cloud processes in the Earth’s energy balance. Presently, observations from several instruments on S-NPP and JPSS-1 (re-named NOAA-20 after launch) provide near real-time monitoring of the environmental changes and improve weather forecasting by assimilation into numerical weather prediction models. Envisioning the need for consistencies in satellite retrievals, improving climate reanalyses, development of climate data records, and improving numerical weather forecasting, the NOAA/Center for Satellite Applications and Research (STAR) has been reprocessing the S-NPP observations for ATMS, CrIS, OMPS, and VIIRS through their life cycle. This article provides a summary of the instrument observing principles, data characteristics, reprocessing approaches, calibration algorithms, and validation results of the reprocessed sensor data records. The reprocessing generated consistent Level-1 sensor data records using unified and consistent calibration algorithms for each instrument that removed artificial jumps in data owing to operational changes, instrument anomalies, contaminations by anomaly views of the environment or spacecraft, and other causes. The reprocessed sensor data records were compared with and validated against other observations for a consistency check whenever such data were available. The reprocessed data will be archived in the NOAA data center with the same format as the operational data and technical support for data requests. Such a reprocessing is expected to improve the efficiency of the use of the S-NPP and JPSS satellite data and the accuracy of the observed essential environmental variables through either consistent satellite retrievals or use of the reprocessed data in numerical data assimilations.

New Reprocessing towards Life-Time Quality-Consistent Suomi NPP OMPS Nadir Sensor Data Records (SDR): Calibration Improvements and Impact Assessments on Long-Term Quality Stability of OMPS SDR Data Sets

“…As mentioned above, the new reprocessing implements two types of calibration tables. The first one covers the validated-maturity calibration tables passing the JPSS' final review, which were implemented in the v 1 reprocessing [33], while the second one consists of the new improvements under circumstances associated with the updated tables after the review. The validated tables include, but are not limited to, the following list: the weekly dark calibration tables for both NM and NP, validated day-1 solar spectrum data for the NM and NP, and the SL calibration tables for the NP and NM.…”

“…The four updates highlighted in the dashed line of the rectangular box are the new improvements in the new reprocessing. The deficiencies of the v 1 reprocessing in [33] are thus illustrated in the figure: missing the four updated LUTs within the rectangular box and using a static solar wavelength shift LUT. In addition, the NP quality flag update among them does not affect the quality of the SDR data, so its discussions are omitted in this study.…”

“…An initial reprocessing of SNPP OMPS data was conducted in 2016 to improve the discrepancy of the available operational data quality [32]. In 2020, a more comprehensive reprocessing, referred to as version 1 (v 1 ), was completed [33]. Version 1 reprocessing covered the period prior to 8 March 2017 for the NP and the period prior to 30 September 2018 for the NM.…”

“…Those improvements include a newly updated stray light (SL) table to improve the accuracy of the NM Earth-view radiance data at short wavelengths [11], the correction of an artifactual dark processing coding error for the NM [34], and an updated Field Angle Map (FAM) LUT for off-nadir geolocation error corrections to the NM [35,36]. In addition, the v 1 reprocessing used a fixed solar irradiance wavelength calibration table for the NP [33], which was the solar wavelength shift table applicable for two succeeding weeks after 18 July 2015. Such tables were unable to represent the variable wavelength shift features with time.…”

Comparison of lidar and satellite measurements against quasi-triennial seasonal model of vertical distribution of ozone concentration

“…Zuev Institute of Atmospheric Optics, Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences in 2011 [7]. The Suomi satellite [8] was created in partnership between NASA and NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) and launched into orbit in October 2011. The OMPS [9] is flown onboard Suomi satellite.…”