VNP43MA1: VIIRS BRDF/Albedo Model Parameters for Earth's Surface

NASA's decommissioned VNP43MA1 Version 1 product provided daily, 1-kilometer resolution model parameters describing how Earth's land surface reflects light. It used 16 days of data from the Suomi NPP satellite's VIIRS instrument and the RossThick/Li-Sparse-Reciprocal model to calculate anisotropic effects. The dataset's 24 science layers, including fiso, fvol, and fgeo parameters for specific spectral bands, were designed to ensure continuity with earlier MODIS albedo products.

Use Cases

• Correcting surface reflectance to a common view geometry using the BRDF model parameters.
• Calculating black-sky albedo at any solar angle by applying a polynomial to the provided model parameters.
• Estimating instantaneous blue-sky albedo by combining the provided black-sky and white-sky albedo layers.
• Analyzing surface anisotropy and reflectance patterns over time for specific VIIRS moderate resolution bands.

Strengths

• Provides a specific, high-resolution spatial scale of 1 kilometer.
• Designed for continuity with the established NASA MODIS BRDF/Albedo product suite.
• Based on a documented, semi-empirical kernel-driven model (RTLSR).

Limitations

• The Version 1 product is explicitly decommissioned as of July 31, 2025, directing users to newer versions.
• Key metadata like row count, file size, and specific column names are unavailable across all sources.
• Platforms list conflicting 'last updated' dates (2026-04 09 and 2025-02-08).

Provenance

Source

NASA/NOAA Suomi NPP satellite, Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS)

Collection Method

Produced daily using a 16-day rolling window of VIIRS data, weighted to the ninth day.

Time Range

Daily production, but specific date range of coverage is not provided.

Freshness

2026-04-09 20:56:39.581432

Geography

Global coverage on a sinusoidal (SIN) grid projection.