Integration of VIIRS Aerosol EDR Algorithm for the JPSS Satellite Mission

The Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) is an instrument on board S-NPP that was launched on October 28, 2011. The instrument is also planned to be on board of J1, the next Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) that is planned to be launched in early 2017. VIIRS consists of 22 spectral channels with band centers from 412 nm to 12,050 nm. The radiometric channels covering the visible through the short-wave infrared spectral regions (412nm to 2250 nm) are mostly used to derive VIIRS aerosol data products. This is achieved through algorithms that create Aerosol Environmental Data Records (EDR). In this work we will provide information on testing, troubleshooting and integrating changes to Aerosol EDR algorithms using the Algorithm Development Library (ADL). ADL is a framework that mimics the operational IDPS (Interface Data Processing Segment) system that is currently being used to process data from instruments aboard S-NPP. Several aerosol EDR algorithm updates have recently been integrated into ADL framework and have become operational. These updates include aerosol particle size parameter (APSP) quality flag (QF) fix, suspended matter (SM) QF fix, fixing of cloud contamination flags in aerosol optical depth (AOT) intermediate product (IP) and SM, correcting for undetermined SM type over ocean that was incorrectly labeled as smoke, correcting the Angstrom Exponent (AE) QF error, and improving the snow test over land. We have integrated these improvements into the ADL version of the software. The results prove these algorithm updates improve the science product quality. The integration process, its implementation, and the product validation shall be discussed.