The NPOESS VIIRS day/night visible sensor

Thomas E. Lee, Steven D. Miller, F. Joseph Turk, Carl Schueler, Richard Julian, Steve Deyo, Patrick Dills, Sherwood Wang

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

184 Scopus citations

Abstract

The National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS) will feature the Visible-Infrared Imager-Radiometer Suite (VIIRS), a 22-channel imager that will contribute to nearly half of the NPOESS environmental data records. Included on VIIRS will be the Day/ Night band (DNB), a visible channel designed to image the Earth and its atmosphere in all conditions ranging from bright solar illumination, to nocturnal lunar illumination, and negligible external illumination. Drawing heritage from the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) Operational Linescan System (OLS) instruments orbiting since the late 1960s, the DNB will be used to detect clouds at night, understand patterns of urban development based on the emissions of cities, monitor fires, and image scenes of snow and ice at the surface of the Earth. Thanks to significant engineering improvements, the DNB will produce superior capabilities to the OLS for a number of new applications.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)191-199
Number of pages9
JournalBulletin of the American Meteorological Society
Volume87
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - Feb 2006

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'The NPOESS VIIRS day/night visible sensor'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this