Suomi NPP (National Polar-orbiting Partnership) VIIRS Imagery and Visualization Team

The first of the NASA/NOAA Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) spacecraft, the Suomi NPP (National Polar-orbiting Partnership) satellite was successfully launched on 28 October 2011 @ 0948 UTC.

The first visible/reflective images were received on 21 November 2011 @ 1604 UTC.

The first infrared/thermal images were received on (or before) 19 January 2012 @ 0620 UTC.

The spacecraft was renamed Suomi NPP on 25 January 2012.

The NESDIS/StAR Imagery and Visualization and Visualization Team (co-led by Don Hillger @ NOAA and Tom Kopp @ Aerospace Corp.) will be responsible for the checkout of imagery (and data) from the Visible/Infrared Imager Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) instrument on NPP.

For a roster of VIIRS EDR Imagery Team members see JPSS_Imagery_and_Visualization_Team.docx.

CIRA's NPP Blog is available at http://rammb.cira.colostate.edu/projects/npp/blog/. The Blog was set up by Kevin Micke (CIRA) and is maintained by Curtis Seaman, PostDoc (CIRA).

Naval Research Laboratory (NRL)'s VIIRS imagery for selected areas of interest is available at http://www.nrlmry.navy.mil/viirs-bin/viirs.cgi.

CIMSS' Satellite Blog for VIIRS is available at http://cimss.ssec.wisc.edu/goes/blog/archives/category/viirs.

The StAR-JPSS ADP (Algorithm and Data Products) web site, covering all StAR JPSS Teams, is available at http://www.star.nesdis.noaa.gov/jpss/index.php.

NPP Orbital Passes	Reverse Chronology of NPP VIIRS Significant Events (Newest information at the top)	NPP Reference Information/Websites and VIIRS Imagery Documents

NPP Orbital Passes

The NPP predicted track is plotted on GOES-13 full-disk 10.7 µm imagery to assist with matching NPP data with meteorological features of interest. Since the full disk scans occur every 3 hours, only the track within +/- 90 minutes of each scan is plotted. See http://rammb.cira.colostate.edu/templates/loop_directory.asp?data_folder=dev/lindsey/loops/npp_track&image_width=1020&image_height=720&number_of_images_to_display=20

NPP Orbital Passes, alternative

Another NPP orbit predictor is available from SSEC/University of Wisconsin at http://www.ssec.wisc.edu/datacenter/npp/. Starting with that main page, users have a choice of orbit tracks on higher-resolution images over the various continents.

VIIRS DNB image for 30 April 2012 over North Dakota and Minnesota, with a large cluster of oil well flares in northwest ND. The striping in the imagery is a result of the high degree of enhancement used in extremely low light conditions and is not un-expected. [Image courtesy of Dan Lindsey, NOAA/NESDIS/StAR]

VIIRS SDR band-M6 images of showing the effect of the radiance foldover for large radiances: [Presentation courtesy of Curtis Seaman, CIRA]

A example of VIIRS true-color imagery of a dust storm in Iraq on 20 April 2012: [Presentation courtesy of Jeff Hawkins, NRL]

An analysis of detector-to-detector striping in VIIRS imagery for several granules on 9 April 2012. [Presentation courtesy of Stan Kidder, CIRA]

An analysis of VIIRS M6 saturation or foldover at high radiances, as seen on highly-reflective cloud tops. [Presentation courtesy of Chris Moeller, CIMSS]

Suomi NPP Imagery EDR Team slides presented at the 17-18 April 2012 Cal/Val workshop in Greenbelt MD.

A example of VIIRS true-color and Dust Product imagery of a dust storm in the Texas Panhandle on 20 February 2012 that caused a 30 car pileup, and very unfortunately a couple fatalities: [Presentation courtesy of Steven Miller, CIRA]

An example of DNB and other VIIRS imagery of a Topical Cyclone Jasmine is available below: [Presentation courtesy of Jeff Hawkins, NRL]

A example of detecting fires in DNB imagery. The bright dotted lines in southern Iraq are gas flares at oil drilling/refinery sites, as seen on 7 February 2012 at 2237 UTC. [Image courtesy of Steven Miller, CIRA]

About 10 to 15% of the VIIRS Imagery "EDR" (GTM projection) granules have been discovered to have corrupted data in the triangular regions in the upper right and lower left portions of the granules. These triangular regions are associated with pixels mapped from the adjacent (+1 and -1 buffered) VIIRS Imagery "SDR" granules. The corrupted values are generally fall within the valid data range but appear to be duplicated data values or values that are suspicious (ie. constant reflectance values of 1.6). Multiple VIIRS Imagery EDR bands are affected by the same problem. Below are some images of the "problem". [Information and images courtesy of Robert Mahoney, Northrop Grumman, and Curtis Seaman, CIRA]

The first image is the EDR composite of channels I1, I2, and I3, with the triangular section of apparently missing data. This missing data is present in each of those band files.

The second image is the SDR composite of the same channels, with no section of missing data.

In the third image, an outline is plotted of where the data from the SDRs lines up with the data from the EDRs. It appears that the corner of missing data in the EDRs should be coming from the next granule in time. The data in the opposite corner must be coming from the previous granule.

Verification of the problem (granules visually examined) occurred over New Zealand (25 Jan 2012), and over the Arabian Sea (19 Jan 2012). The VIIRS granules for the Saudi Arabia case with the "triangular issue" are available via FTP, which includes the EDRs from Robert Mahoney, the associated SDRs, and the images created from them. Go to ftp://ftp.cira.colostate.edu/ftp/Seaman/satdat/VIIRS/

Three additional (NRL/CIRA) AMS 2012 New Orleans presentations can be downloaded at the links immediate below:

Below is a color-enhanced VIIRS I-band-5 (375 m resolution) IR image for 25 January 2012 for Tropical Cyclone Funso in the southwestern Indian Ocean. [Image courtesy of CIRA/RAMMB]

D. Hillger (NOAA/StAR) and Tom Kopp's (Aerospace Corp.) AMS 2012 New Orleans presentation can be downloaded at the link immediate below:

Below is a comparison between GOES and VIIRS window IR from ~0700 UTC on 23 January 2012 (before the deadly storms struck Birmingham). Note the -78 deg C brightness temperature with VIIRS, compared to -55 deg C with GOES. This is a good example of how the finer resolution of VIIRS allows small overshooting tops to seen much more accurately.

Below are VIIRS I-band-5 (375 m resolution) IR images (grey-scale and color-enhanced) for 19 January 2012 @ ~0620 UTC over the U.S. Note that this IR image is noisy, due to the still-cooling IR detectors at this time. [Image courtesy of Dan Lindsey, NOAA/NESDIS/StAR]

Below is a VIIRS M-band (750 m resolution) true-color/RGB image (consisting of several granules for 20 December 2011) composited over the continental U.S. [Image courtesy of Stan Kidder, CIRA]

Below is a VIIRS M-band (750 m resolution) true-color/RGB image (for 14 December 2011) over northeastern India and Nepal. Note the large amount of pollution over India relative to Tibet, and how the mountains keep it all to the south. [Image courtesy of Dan Lindsey, NOAA/NESDIS/StAR]

Below is a VIIRS M-band (750 m resolution) true-color/RGB image (for 9 December 2011) over the U.S. upper midwest. [Image courtesy of Dan Lindsey, NOAA/NESDIS/StAR]

Below is a VIIRS M-band (750 m resolution) true-color/RGB image (for 7 December 2011) over the southern U.S. [Image courtesy of Dan Lindsey, NOAA/NESDIS/StAR]

S. Miller's CIRA/NRL presentation "VIIRS Imagery Examples" can be downloaded at the link immediate below:

Below is a VIIRS M-band (750 m resolution) true-color/RGB image (for 3 December 2011) with cloud vortices over the Canary Islands, just off of NW Africa. [Image courtesy of Dan Lindsey, NOAA/NESDIS/StAR]

Below is a VIIRS M-band (750 m resolution) true-color/RGB image (for 25 November 2011) with a nice contrast of the open ocean v/s ice. The map is the Antarctic Peninsula which extends toward the tip of S. America, and the Weddell Sea on the right in the image. [Image courtesy of Dan Lindsey, NOAA/NESDIS/StAR]

Below is a VIIRS M-band (750 m resolution) true-color/RGB image (for 22 November 2011) over Hurricane Kenneth in the east Pacific. [Image courtesy of Dan Lindsey, NOAA/NESDIS/StAR]

Among the VIIRS M-band (750 m resolution) true-color/RGB images created from the first data from VIIRS is the following image of the Brazilian coast created using McIDAS-V. [Image courtesy of Tom Rink, CIMSS]

Another VIIRS M-band (750 m resolution) true-color/RGB image of the western coast of South America. [Image courtesy of Tom Rink, CIMSS]

Below is a VIIRS M-band (750 m resolution) true-color/RGB image from the first day of NPP data (from 21 November) over Hurricane Kenneth in the east Pacific. [Image courtesy of Dan Lindsey, NOAA/NESDIS/StAR]

The VIIRS first-light images are scheduled for 1604 UTC on 21 November 2011 [Julian Day 325]. Note that is not the time we'll actually receive the imagery, since the data won't be downloaded until NPP goes over Svalbard, the data passes through the ground system infrastructure, and is created by the IDPS! The delay might be on the order of hours!

Below are sections of the orbital track for that first orbit. The first one is for 1600-1610 UTC (over the South Atlantic Ocean), and the second one is for 1800-1820 UTC (near NASA HQ!). [Images courtesy of Stan Kidder, CIRA]

A zoomed-in VIIRS M-band (750 m resolution) true-color of simulated/proxy data (nowhere near full resolution), created from data on GRAVITE. [Image courtesy of Jeremy Solbrig, NRL]

Aerospace Imagery Visualization Tool Example [Image courtesy of Tom Kopp, Aerospace Corp.]

Simulated/proxy VIIRS image loop (thru I and M bands) [Image courtesy of Tom Rink, CIMSS]

Suomi NPP (National Polar-orbiting Partnership)VIIRS Imagery and Visualization Team

(Last updated: 2012-05-15)

Suomi NPP (National Polar-orbiting Partnership)
VIIRS Imagery and Visualization Team