VIIRS Ocean Color Science Quality Mission-long Reprocessed Environmental Data Records (EDR) Level-3 global products from January 2012 to the present minus 15 days

This dataset contains Ocean Color (OC) Science Quality Environmental Data Records (EDR) Level-3 products from the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) onboard the Suomi-National Polar-orbiting Partnership (SNPP) satellite. Level-3 EDR data are produced by NOAA CoastWatch/OceanWatch (CW) from Level-2 products. The Level-2 OC EDR are produced by NESDIS Center for Satellite Applications and Research (STAR) OC team using the Multi-Sensor Level-1 to Level-2 (MSL12) ocean color data processing system. Science quality OC EDR are produced using the significantly improved VIIRS Sensor Data Records (SDR or Level-1B data), which are generated by the OC team (named OC-SDR) using both the solar and lunar approaches, and assimilated ancillary input data (as opposed to model predicted data used in near-real time data production). MSL12 and the OC-SDR calibration improvements were developed by the STAR OC team [Wang et al., 2013; Sun and Wang, 2015; Wang et al., 2016; Wang et al., 2017].

The Science Quality Level-2 VIIRS OC EDR are produced daily on a delayed mode (present day minus 15 days) with global spatial coverage. In addition to this forward stream processing, a consistent, full-mission dataset was generated with the same processing covering the time period from the first post-launch useable data in January 2012 to present day minus 15 days and also with global spatial coverage. The CW Level-3 processing uses MSL12 version 1.2 Level-2 (the swath or granule data) as input to produce global mapped 4 km spatial resolution, daily, weekly and monthly time binned (averaged) output data product files in NetCDF format. These CW Level-3 products include the following parameters: normalized water-leaving radiances for 6 VIIRS visible bands (i.e., bands M1-M5 at 410 nm, 443 nm; 486 nm; 551 nm; 671 nm respectively and band I1 at 638 nm), chlorophyll-a concentration (Chl-a), the diffuse attenuation coefficient at 490 nm (Kd(490)), and the diffuse attenuation coefficient for photosynthetically available radiation (Kd(PAR)).

Note that the MSL12 is the NOAA enterprise processing system for all OC data (from multiple sensors and/or satellite missions) which has replaced the Integrated Data Processing Segment (IDPS) from the Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) program for VIIRS data.

These Level-3 records are a primary source of information for numerous regional and global marine resource stewardship efforts and are used in applications in support of the NOAA mission and other applications such as fish stock assessments, local habitat characterization, phytoplankton pigment concentration and whale distribution, weather predictions and forecasting, as well as basic physical and biological oceanographic studies of our changing ocean environments.

For additional information about OC data, other data formats and a variety of search tools, visit CoastWatch.NOAA.gov.