VIIRS/JPSS1 Day/Night Band: Nighttime Radiance Swaths

750-meter spatial resolution characterizes this panchromatic Day-Night Band (DNB) calibrated radiance product from the VIIRS/JPSS1 satellite. Its spectral wavelength ranges from 0.5 µm to 0.9 µm, facilitating measurement of night lights and reflected solar or lunar illumination across a large dynamic range. The data is aggregated to maintain nearly constant horizontal spatial resolution across the instrument's swath.

Use Cases

• Mapping urban development and economic activity based on night light intensity.
• Monitoring light pollution and its environmental impacts using calibrated radiance measurements.
• Studying the effects of lunar illumination on nighttime remote sensing observations.
• Analyzing time-series of nighttime lights for disaster assessment or conflict monitoring.

Strengths

• Provides calibrated radiance data specifically designed for a large dynamic range, from quarter moon illumination to brightest daylight.
• Maintains a consistent 750-meter at-nadir spatial resolution across the entire scan swath through aggregation.

Limitations

• Key metadata such as dataset size, row count, and specific column names are unavailable across all sources.
• One source lists a last updated date in the future (2026-04-09), indicating potential metadata inaccuracy.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Platform-derived single sensor product from the VIIRS/JPSS1 satellite.

Freshness

2026-04-09 21:05:38.661404

Geography

Global coverage via satellite swath.