One of the primary goals for the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) on board the Suomi National Polar‐orbiting Partnership is to provide the science and user communities with the data continuity of the Environmental Data Records (EDR) (or Level‐2 products) over global oceanic waters for various research and applications, including assessment of climatic and environmental variations. The ocean color EDR is one of the most important products derived from VIIRS. Since ocean color EDR is processed from the upstream Sensor Data Records (SDR) (or Level‐1B data), the objective of this study is to evaluate the impact of the SDR on the VIIRS ocean color EDR. The quality of the SDR relies on prelaunch sensor characterizations as well as on‐orbit radiometric calibrations, which are used to develop the sensor F‐factor lookup tables (F‐LUTs). VIIRS F‐LUTs derived from solar and lunar calibrations have been used in processing data from the VIIRS Raw Data Records (or Level‐0 data) to SDR. In this study, three sets of F‐LUTs with different generation schemes have been used to reprocess the SDR and then the ocean color EDR for product evaluations. VIIRS ocean color products are compared with in situ data from the Marine Optical Buoy and products from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on the satellite Aqua. It is found that the data quality of VIIRS operational ocean color products before 6 February 2012 is poor due to the inappropriate use of the at‐launch F‐LUTs for the SDR calibration, and that the recently updated VIIRS F‐LUTs have significantly improved the SDR and ocean color EDR. Using reprocessed SDR with updated F‐LUTs and including vicarious calibration, VIIRS ocean color EDR products are consistent with those from MODIS‐Aqua in global deep waters. Although there are still some significant issues with VIIRS ocean color EDR, e.g., poor data quality over coastal regions, our results demonstrate that VIIRS has great potential to provide the science and user communities with consistently high‐quality global ocean color data records that are established from heritage ocean color sensors such as MODIS‐Aqua.

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Suomi National Polar‐Orbiting Partnership (S‐NPP) Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) reflective bands are currently calibrated via weekly updates to look‐up tables (LUTs) utilized by operational ground processing in the Joint Polar Satellite System Interface Data Processing Segment (IDPS). The parameters in these LUTs must be predicted ahead 2 weeks and cannot adequately track the dynamically varying response characteristics of the instrument. As a result, spurious “predict‐ahead” calibration errors of the order of 0.1% or greater are routinely introduced into the calibrated reflectances and radiances produced by IDPS in sensor data records (SDRs). Spurious calibration errors of this magnitude adversely impact the quality of downstream environmental data records (EDRs) derived from VIIRS SDRs such as Ocean Color/Chlorophyll and cause increased striping and band‐to‐band radiometric calibration uncertainty of SDR products. A novel algorithm that fully automates reflective band calibration has been developed for implementation in IDPS in late 2013. Automating the reflective solar band (RSB) calibration is extremely challenging and represents a significant advancement over the manner in which RSB calibration has traditionally been performed in heritage instruments such as the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer. The automated algorithm applies calibration data almost immediately after their acquisition by the instrument from views of space and on‐onboard calibration sources, thereby eliminating the predict‐ahead errors associated with the current offline calibration process. This new algorithm, when implemented, will significantly improve the quality of VIIRS reflective band SDRs and consequently the quality of EDRs produced from these SDRs.

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