VJ143MA3: Daily Global Land Surface Albedo at 1km Resolution

Global land surface albedo data is provided at a 1-kilometer spatial resolution, derived from the NOAA-20 VIIRS sensor. The dataset contains 36 science layers, including black-sky and white-sky albedo for nine spectral bands and three broadbands, produced daily using a 16-day temporal composite. It is designed to ensure continuity with NASA's MODIS BRDF/Albedo product suite using the RossThick/Li-Sparse-Reciprocal kernel-driven model.

Use Cases

• Modeling surface energy balance based on black-sky albedo (BSA) and white-sky albedo (WSA) layers.
• Estimating instantaneous 'blue-sky' albedo using the provided polynomial method with BSA and WSA layers.
• Analyzing land surface anisotropy and reflectance properties using the BRDF model parameters.
• Continuity studies for long-term albedo trends, leveraging the dataset's design as a successor to MODIS products.
• Quality assessment of satellite retrievals using the mandatory quality layers for each spectral band.

Strengths

• Provides a high level of detail with 36 distinct science dataset (SDS) layers for analysis.
• Ensures temporal consistency by using a weighted 16-day composite, centered on the ninth day.
• Maintains continuity with a well-established data lineage, being the successor to NASA's MODIS BRDF/Albedo suite.

Limitations

• Key metadata such as row count, file size, and specific column names are not provided across any source.
• The license is ambiguously listed as 'other-license-specified' without explicit terms.
• Documentation of known issues is incomplete, requiring users to consult an external website.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

Collection Method

Produced daily from 16 days of Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) sensor data on the NOAA-20 satellite, using the RossThick/Li-Sparse-Reciprocal (RTLSR) BRDF model.

Time Range

Daily production, temporal weighting to the ninth day of a 16-day composite.

Freshness

2026-04-09 21:08:16.029432

Geography

Global coverage at 1km resolution in a sinusoidal (SIN) grid projection.