VJ143D72: White-Sky Albedo for VIIRS Band M7 Daily Global Climate Grid

NOAA-20 VIIRS satellite data provides daily global white-sky albedo measurements for the 0.865 μm wavelength band at a 1,000-meter resolution. Each daily value is synthesized from a 16-day observation window, temporally weighted to the ninth day, and formatted on a Climate Modeling Grid for direct use in simulations. This product is part of a larger suite that includes albedo for nine moderate bands and the Day/Night Band, alongside black-sky albedo counterparts.

Use Cases

• Parameterizing surface reflectance in climate simulation models based on the Climate Modeling Grid (CMG) format.
• Analyzing temporal trends in land surface albedo using the daily, 16-day composite data.
• Comparing white-sky albedo (bihemispherical reflectance) with black-sky albedo for anisotropic reflectance studies.
• Incorporating the 0.865 μm band (M7) data into vegetation or surface type classification algorithms.

Strengths

• Provides daily global coverage at a consistent 30 arc-second (1 km) spatial resolution.
• Data is part of a vetted operational product suite (V002) with documented algorithm improvements in calibration and geolocation.
• Explicitly designed for climate modeling via the standardized Climate Modeling Grid.

Limitations

• Critical metadata such as row count, file size, and specific column names are unavailable across all platforms.
• The dataset's license is listed as 'other-license-specified' without explicit terms, requiring further investigation.
• Each file contains only one data layer, which may complicate multi-band analysis without accessing the full product suite.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

Collection Method

Processed from NOAA-20 Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) sensor observations.

Time Range

Daily production, using a rolling 16-day data window.

Freshness

2026-04-09 21:05:26.140132

Geography

Global