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.

Twelve representative buffalo were selected from 22 suckling calves, 41 weaned calves, 57 reserve bulls and 20 adult bulls for slaughter. The study aims to assess the effect of age on dressing percentage, meat percentage and carcass meat yield and physico-chemical properties of longissimus dorsi and biceps femoris, and to evaluate the correlation between live weight and marbling, backfat thickness, rib eye area. The results showed that the slaughter performance and meat quality of Binlangjang male buffalo showed an obvious change with age. The dressing percentage decreased from 54.93% to 51.22% with the increase of age, while meat percentage and carcass meat yield increased gradually with age, which were 34.58-38.59%, 62.95-75.34%; Marbling, backfat thickness and rib eye area increased with age, and there was significant difference between the situation before 3 months and after 12 months of age (P < 0.05). The moisture content was maximum at birth, which then gradually decreased, but the difference was insignificant (P > 0.05). The levels of fat, protein, cholesterol and inosine acid were significantly different before 3 months of age from those after 12 months (P < 0.05). Cholesterol content was negatively correlated with age, the minimum was 80.25 mg/100 g; Inosine acid content increased with age, reaching 133.11 mg/100 g. Marbling, backfat thickness, rib eye area had a high correlation with live weight, with correlation coefficients respectively at 0.9096, 0.9291, 0.9551. Based on the prediction model of live weight, Buffaloes was suitable for slaughtering for superior slaughter performance and meat quality after 24 months of age.

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