NOAA-20 VIIRS Dark Target Aerosol Level-2 Swath Data

VIIRS/NOAA-20 Dark Target Aerosol L2 6-Min Swath (v2.0) provides global satellite-derived measurements of Aerosol Optical Thickness (AOT) and related properties over land and ocean every 6 minutes. The dataset is produced by NASA using the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) on the NOAA-20 satellite, applying a dark target algorithm with heritage from MODIS instruments on Terra and Aqua. This Version-2 collection represents the first Level-2 Dark Target Aerosol product derived specifically from the NOAA-20 VIIRS source.

Use Cases

• Analyzing spatial and temporal trends in aerosol optical thickness over oceans using spectral AOT and size parameters.
• Monitoring regional air quality and pollution transport over vegetated land surfaces via retrieved aerosol information.
• Comparing aerosol retrieval algorithms by leveraging this VIIRS-based product alongside heritage MODIS DT datasets.
• Studying aerosol-cloud interactions using the high-temporal-resolution (6-minute) global swath measurements.

Strengths

• Provides global coverage with measurements every 6 minutes, enabling high-temporal-resolution analysis.
• Applies a mature dark target algorithm with a proven heritage from the MODIS instruments on NASA's Terra and Aqua missions.
• Offers at-nadir spatial resolution of 6 km x 6 km, aggregating data from 64 native VIIRS moderate-resolution pixels.

Limitations

• Key metadata such as row count, file size, and specific column names are not provided by any source platform.
• Sources disagree on license information: Data.gov lists 'other-license-specified', while NASA Earthdata lists no license.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

Collection Method

Satellite remote sensing data from the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) on the NOAA-20 platform, processed using the NASA standard Level-2 dark target aerosol algorithm.

Time Range

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Freshness

2026-03-12 19:59:44.626343

Geography

Global