The Visible/Infrared Imager Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) will provide advanced imaging and radiometric capabilities onboard the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS). Raytheon has just announced they have completed ambient EMI (Electro-Magnetic Interference) testing on the VIIRS for NPOESS (National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System). The prime is Northrop Grumman and the testing was completed at Raytheon's El Segundo, CA, manufacturing location.

The test verified the VIIRS flight unit will be able to operate in a space-like configuration without emitting or being susceptible to electro-magnetic signals that could interfere with the spacecraft or other sensors' operations. Also starting this month will be comprehensive vibration testing and then, next month, the vacuum testing, which will continue for several months. The NPOESS satellites combine the civil and national security requirements of current NOAA and DoD polar-orbiting satellites. Additional DoD requirements that will be met by NPOESS include increased imagery requirements, data availability, and data access. In addition, the NPOESS satellites will be designed to last nearly twice as long on orbit as the current satellites.

VIIRS will combine the radiometric accuracy of the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) currently being flown on the NOAA polar orbiters with the high spatial resolution (0.65 km) of the Operational Linescan System (OLS) flown on DMSP. The VIIRS will provide imagery of clouds under sunlit conditions in about a dozen bands, and will also provide coverage in a number of infrared bands for night and day cloud imaging applications. VIIRS will have multi-band imaging capabilities to support the acquisition of high-resolution atmospheric imagery and generation of a variety of applied products including visible and infrared imaging of hurricanes and detection of fires, smoke, and atmospheric aerosols. VIIRS will also provide capabilities to produce higher-resolution and more accurate measurements of sea surface temperature than currently available from the heritage AVHRR instrument on POES, as well as provide an operational capability for ocean-color observations and a variety of derived ocean-color products.