NPP/VIIRS Surface Reflectance with Atmospheric Correction

VNP09_NRT provides atmospherically corrected surface reflectance data from the Suomi NPP satellite's VIIRS instrument. The Level-2 product contains approximately six minutes of swath data per granule, with separate retrievals for 375-meter and 750-meter resolution pixels. It is produced by NASA for daytime land observations under most atmospheric conditions.

Use Cases

• Monitoring vegetation health by analyzing reflectance in bands like M7 (red) and M10 (near-infrared).
• Tracking aerosol dispersion and atmospheric composition using corrected reflectance inputs from aerosol optical thickness products.
• Assessing land surface thermal properties via the imagery-resolution I-bands.
• Supporting climate models with surface pressure, water vapor, and ozone concentration data integrated into the correction algorithm.
• Detecting surface changes for disaster response using the near-real-time (NRT) delivery of 6-minute swaths.

Strengths

• Provides data at two specific spatial resolutions: 375 meters for imagery bands (I1-I3) and 750 meters for moderate bands (M1-M5, M7, M8, M10, M11).
• Applies atmospheric correction for molecular gases (ozone, water vapor) and aerosols, using inputs from VIIRS cloud mask and reanalysis data.
• Available in near-real-time (NRT), supporting time-sensitive monitoring applications.
• Produced under all daytime atmospheric conditions over land, excluding only night and ocean pixels.

Limitations

• Specific row counts, file sizes, and a complete column list are not provided by any source.
• Sources conflict on the version of the user guide referenced (v2.0 vs v1.3), indicating potential documentation inconsistency.
• Data is only produced for daytime conditions, with fill values for night and ocean pixels.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

Collection Method

Derived from Suomi NPP satellite VIIRS sensor top-of-atmosphere reflectance, corrected using VIIRS cloud mask, aerosol products, and atmospheric reanalysis data.

Time Range

Near-real-time ongoing collection; specific start date not provided.

Freshness

2026-03-12 23:05:36.104055

Geography

Global land surface coverage from satellite swaths.