VIIRS/NPP BRDF-Adjusted Reflectance: Daily Global 1km Surface Reflectance

Global daily land surface reflectance data at 1-kilometer resolution is provided by the Suomi NPP satellite's VIIRS instrument. The VNP43IA4 product corrects for view-angle effects using a 16-day rolling window and the RossThick/Li-Sparse-Reciprocal BRDF model to produce stable, nadir-adjusted reflectance values. It includes 18 science data layers for nine spectral bands and is designed for continuity with NASA's MODIS BRDF/Albedo product suite.

Use Cases

• Monitoring land surface albedo changes for climate modeling based on black-sky and white-sky albedo layers.
• Analyzing surface anisotropy and bidirectional reflectance distribution function (BRDF) for vegetation and land cover studies.
• Estimating instantaneous actual (blue-sky) albedo under specific solar illumination conditions using the provided polynomial method.
• Continuity studies linking VIIRS observations with historical MODIS BRDF/Albedo data records.

Strengths

• Applies a sophisticated, peer-reviewed BRDF correction model (RossThick/Li-Sparse-Reciprocal) to remove view-angle effects.
• Provides data continuity with the long-term MODIS BRDF/Albedo product suite, supporting time-series analysis.
• Includes 18 science data layers covering reflectance for nine VIIRS moderate bands and quality information.

Limitations

• Key metadata such as row count, file size, and specific column names are not provided across any source.
• The dataset's spatial resolution of 1 kilometer may be too coarse for applications requiring fine-scale analysis.
• Relies on a 16-day composite window weighted to a central day, which may not capture very rapid surface changes.

Provenance

Source

NASA/NOAA Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (Suomi NPP) satellite, Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) instrument.

Collection Method

Produced daily using a 16-day rolling window of VIIRS data, processed with the VNP43 algorithm to generate BRDF-adjusted reflectance.

Freshness

Last updated on 2026-04-09 according to nasa_earthdata and datagov.

Geography

Global coverage.