In-Flight Radiometric Calibration of SNPP VIIRS using Rayleigh scattering over oceanic oligotrophic regions

This paper presents the absolute calibration in the visible of the VIIRS sensor on SNPP using Rayleigh scattering techniques over oceanic oligotrophic sites. As demonstrated for a number of sensors (Polder, Meris) the Rayleigh scattering signal may be used as a calibration source in the visible. The quality of the calibration depends in large part on controlling unavoidable contributions to the top of atmosphere reflectance such as gaseous transmittance, aerosols and variations in marine reflectance. The effect of a number of these parameters on the calibration uncertainty and their relative contribution to the calibration error budget is quantified. The technique is then applied to SNPP VIIRS bands M1 (412 nm) through M5 (672 nm).