Update of S-NPP VIIRS Thermal Emissive Bands Radiometric Calibration Stability Monitoring Using the Moon

Abstract: The Suomi-NPP VIIRS thermal emissive bands (TEB) are radiometrically calibrated on-orbit with reference to an onboard blackbody (BB) regularly operated at approximately 292.5 K. The calibration stability at other temperature ranges can be evaluated based on the observations of remote targets with stable thermal properties, such as the Moon. VIIRS has scheduled viewings of the Moon on a nearly monthly basis at a phase angle of nearly -51 degrees. In this study, the brightness temperatures (BT)…