JPSS and S-NPP Vegetation Index Products, and Algorithm Development

The JPSS Program constitutes the next series of US civilian polar orbiting environmental sensing satellites. JPSS will implement NOAA's requirements for collection of global data, via remote sensing of land, sea, and the atmosphere. These data will support NOAA's mission for continuous observations of the Earth's environment necessary to understand and predict changes in weather, climate, oceans and coasts, which support the Nation's economy, and protect lives and property. The JPSS will also provide operational continuity of satellite-based observations and products for NOAA's Polar Operational Environmental Satellites (POES) and the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (S-NPP) satellite. S-NPP was launched in October 2011, and JPPS1 is planned for launch in 2017. Vegetation Indices (VI) derived from satellite measurements are used to monitor the environment including drought, the health of ecosystems, forest fires, crop monitoring, as well as for weather forecasting and climate research. The S-NPP VIIRS Vegetation Index operational product includes two vegetation indices: the Top of the Atmosphere (TOA) Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), and the Top of the Canopy (TOC) Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI). The S-NPP VI EDR was shown to meet the threshold performance attributes identified in the JPSS Level 1 Requirements document, and was promoted to Validated 1 maturity status in September 04, 2014. The VI EDR official product is available to the general public through NOAA's Comprehensive Large Array-Data Stewardship System (CLASS). For JPSS1, the S-NPP Vegetation Index EDR algorithm has been updated to include the TOC NDVI, additional quality flags, and improved high quality definitions for the three indices. The new JPSS1 Vegetation Index EDR algorithm will be deployed and transitioned to operations within the Block 2.0 JPSS Ground System before JPSS1 launch. STAR/JPSS VI Team members are also embarking in the planning and development of common Vegetation Index algorithms and products from JPSS, GOES-R, and other non-NOAA missions like Sentinel-3 and Himawari, to support the future NESDIS Ground Enterprise Architecture System (GEARS).