[1] The Suomi National Polar-Orbiting Partnership (NPP) launched on 28 October 2011 hosts the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) sensor. The VIIRS sensor includes a day-night band (DNB) that covers almost 7 orders of magnitude in its dynamic range from full sunlit scenes to lunar-illuminated clouds. The DNB is panchromatic and covers the wavelengths from 500 nm to 900 nm. Since launch, extensive effort has gone into its characterization. We have shown that the DNB is performing extremely well, meeting most of its specifications with some minor exceedances. The DNB characteristics evaluated include the following: sampling and resolution across the swath, geolocation uncertainty, radiometric sensitivity, radiometric uncertainty, and stray light. The only significant deviation from specification involves the stray light specification. On-orbit, the characterization shows that the DNB suffers stray light level on the order of 100% L min or 3 × 10 À9 W•cm À2 •sr À1 . After algorithmic correction, the residual radiometric error was reduced to approximately 4.5 × 10 À10 W•cm À2 •sr À1 .

The Hyperion Imaging Spectrometer is one of three principal instruments aboard the EO-1 spacecraft. Its mission as a technology demonstrator is to evaluate on-orbit issues for imaging spectroscopy and to assess the capabilities of a spacebased imaging spectrometer for earth science and earth observation missions. The instrument provides earth imagery at 30 meter spatial resolution, 7.5 km swath width in 220 contiguous spectral bands at 10 nm spectral resolution. Spectral range is from 0.4 µm to 2.5 µm. The instrument includes internal and solar calibration sub-systems. This paper will review the design, construction and calibration of the Hyperion instrument. The on-orbit plans and operations will be presented along with updated calibration and characterization measurements.

The Hyperion Imaging Spectrometer is one of three principal instruments aboard the EO-1 spacecraft. Its mission as a technology demonstrator is to evaluate on-orbit issues for imaging spectroscopy and to assess the capabilities of a spacebased imaging spectrometer for earth science and earth observation missions. For the latter activity, a science team has been selected, which is complemented by commercial applications teams. This paper will review the design, construction and calibration of the Hyperion instrument. The on-orbit plans and operations will be presented along with updated calibration and characterization measurements.

This paper presents the techniques and results of Hyperion laboratory characterization. Hyperion is a hyperspectral imager scheduled to fly on the Earth-Orbiter 1 (EO-1) spacecraft for the New Millennium project. The other payloads on the spacecraft are ALI (Advanced Land Imager) and AC (atmospheric corrector). The payloads were integrated into the spacecraft at Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC). An End-to-End imaging test was conducted at GSFC which demonstrated integrity of Hyperion performance after environmental tests. The performance characterization procedures described here include: crosstrack MTF, spectral and spatial co-alignment, spectral wavelength calibration, signal to noise, polarization, spectral response function and scene generation. The characterization was carried out with the TRW Imaging Spectrometer Characterization Facility which is based on a 250 watt QTH lamp, a monochromator, a collimator and a fine pointing mirror. A selection of narrow slits and a knife edge are illuminated at the exit slit of the monochromator for sub-pixel performance characterization parameters such as MTF. Special attention is devoted to the spectral calibration technique using rare earth doped Spectralon panels. This was the technique used at the End-to-End test to verify spectral performance of Hyperion after GSFC environmental tests. It is a particular useful technique when the optical test setup does not allow for the use of a monochromator.

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