Charles R McClain
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center
Code 614.8
Greenbelt, MD 20771

E-mail: charles.r.mcclain@nasa.gov
Phone: 301-286-5377
Fax: 301-286-0268

The proposed work by the Ocean Biology Processing Group (OBPG) will be to continue the evaluation of the VIIRS performance as related to the generation of ocean products and the associated algorithms used for generating ocean products, especially the feasibility of using ocean color environmental data records (EDRs) as climate data records. The OBPG has been an active component of the existing NPP Science Team and has provided numerous evaluations and sensitivity analyses related to the VIIRS design, specifications, prelaunch test data analyses, and processing algorithms, e.g., the solar diffuser configuration, polarization sensitivity, pixel aggregation, stray light contamination, and the operational chlorophyll-a algorithm. The OBPG has documented these evaluations and analyses and has made them available to the NPP Project and Deputy Project Scientists for distribution to the NPP Science Team, the Integrated Program Office (IPO) and NGST-Raytheon as deemed appropriate. The group has participated in all the VIIRS Operational Algorithm Team (VOAT) meetings and will continue to do so.

Under the current solicitation, our team will

1. continue our participation in the analysis and evaluation of engineering design unit (EDU) and flight unit #1 (FU1) test data, in collaboration with the NPP Instrument Characterization Support Team (NICST),
2. conduct EDR sensitivity analyses based on the prelaunch characterization testing,
3. derive the appropriate algorithm tables needed for ocean color data processing from the test data (polarization, response vs. scan, etc.),
4. develop a simulated ocean color and SST (in collaboration with the NPP Science Team lead for SST) for use in prelaunch testing the Ocean PEATE processing system (also being developed the OBPG), and
5. as the operational NPOESS processing code is released, continue to evaluate how advancements in the atmospheric correction and bio-optical algorithms can be efficiently incorporated.

Because the OBPG activities include the Ocean PEATE, there will be a tight coupling between the algorithm evaluation and data processing system development activities.