Characterization of GOES-16 ABI detector-level uniformity from post-launch north south scan collections of several earth targets.

The GOES-16 Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI) is the first of four of NOAA's new generation of Earth imagers. The ABI uses large focal plane arrays (100s to 1000s of detectors per channel), which is a significant increase in the number of detectors per channel compared to the heritage GOES O-P imagers (2 to 8 detectors per channel). Due to the increase in number of detectors there is an increased risk of imaging striping in the L1b & L2+ products. To support post-launch striping risk mitigation strategies, customized ABI special scans (ABI North South Scans - NSS) were developed and implemented in the post-launch checkout validation plan. ABI NSS collections navigate each detector of a given channel over the same Earth target enabling the characterization of detector-level performance evaluation. These scans were used to collect data over several Earth targets to understand detector-to-detector uniformity as function of a broad set of targets. This effort will focus on the data analysis, from a limited set of NSS data (ABI Ch. 1), to demonstrate the fundamental methodology and ability to conduct post-launch detector-level performance characterization and advanced relative calibrations using such data. These collections and results provide critical insight in the development of striping risk mitigation strategies needed in the GOES-R era to ensure L 1b data quality to the GOES user community.