Characterization and removal of striping artifacts in VIIRS-derived ocean color products

We revisit the methodology of the destriping method for deriving ocean color products from the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) onboard the NOAA-20 satellite and provide an important update for removing striping artifacts in VIIRS-measured normalized water-leaving radiance nL_w(λ) spectra and other related ocean color products. We show that an existing destriping methodology applied for VIIRS on the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (SNPP) during its early years of mission must be updated to effectively eliminate the striping noise in VIIRS-NOAA-20 ocean color data. We further review the importance of this change in nL_w(λ) at various VIIRS-NOAA-20 spectral bands and show the corresponding impacts on the derived chlorophyll-a, water clarity, and spectral nL_w(λ) quality assurance score in ocean color data products. In addition, we find similar, though less severe, striping artifacts in the VIIRS-NOAA-21-derived nL_w(λ) imagery and show that some updates are required for the VIIRS-SNPP destriping approach. Finally, it is demonstrated that, with appropriately selected destriping parameters, we can effectively mitigate striping artifacts and significantly improve ocean color products from all three VIIRS sensors.