VIIRS lunar radiance removal by Dark Object Subtraction

The removal of lunar radiance in Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) - Day/Night Band (DNB) images is explored based on the Dark Object Subtraction method. A Dark Object is selected and the difference of the expected vs. observed values is used as a correction coefficient to rescale all values and form a compatible times-series of DNB data at 24h intervals. The proposed method is compared to a rigorous lunar irradiation correction method. The results indicate that the proposed method could be used in conjunction to the existing methods, to further stabilize the time-series.