VJ143IA2N: Daily BRDF/Albedo Quality from VIIRS at 500m

11 Science Dataset layers provide BRDF and Albedo quality metrics at 500-meter resolution, produced daily using a 16-day rolling window of VIIRS/JPSS1 satellite data. The algorithm applies the RossThick/Li-Sparse-Reciprocal kernel-driven model to reconstruct surface anisotropic effects and compute black-sky and white-sky albedo. Researchers can use these model parameters to derive albedo estimates for any solar illumination angle, supporting studies of surface energy balance and climate.

Use Cases

• Correcting directional reflectance to a common view geometry based on the RTLSR BRDF model parameters.
• Estimating instantaneous actual (blue-sky) albedo using the provided black-sky and white-sky albedo layers with a polynomial.
• Monitoring surface anisotropic changes over time using the daily 16-day composite quality flags.
• Classifying land surface conditions using the included land water type and snow BRDF albedo class flags.

Strengths

• Provides 11 specific Science Dataset layers, including quality flags and observation days for three VIIRS bands.
• Uses a documented, peer-reviewed algorithm with an available Algorithm Theoretical Basis Document.
• Offers daily near-real-time production with a consistent 500-meter global spatial resolution.
• Cross-platform presence on authoritative sources (data.gov, NASA Earthdata) signals importance and reliability.

Limitations

• Key metadata such as row count, file size, and specific column names are unavailable across all sources.
• The 'last updated' date of 2026-04-09 appears to be a future date, indicating potential metadata freshness issues.
• License is ambiguously listed as 'other-license-specified' without explicit terms.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Satellite remote sensing from the VIIRS/JPSS1 sensor, processed using a semi-empirical kernel-driven BRDF model.

Time Range

Daily near-real-time production.

Freshness

2026-04-09 21:06:25.292929

Geography

Global coverage on a 500 m SIN Grid.