VNP43D81: Nadir-Adjusted Surface Reflectance for VIIRS Band M2

Daily global surface reflectance data at 30 arc-second (1,000 meter) resolution is produced using 16 days of observations from the Suomi NPP VIIRS instrument. The VNP43D81 product provides Nadir BRDF-Adjusted Reflectance (NBAR) for band M2 (0.445 μm), corrected to a nadir view at local solar noon for use in climate models. This dataset is part of a suite of ten NBAR products covering nine moderate resolution bands and the Day/Night Band.

Use Cases

• Modeling land surface albedo for climate simulations based on the Climate Modeling Grid (CMG) format.
• Monitoring vegetation health and land cover change using the 0.445 μm (blue) band reflectance.
• Assessing aerosol impacts on surface reflectance using the corrected aerosol quantity flag over bright surfaces.
• Integrating nadir-adjusted reflectance with other VIIRS bands for multi-spectral analysis of surface properties.

Strengths

• Provides daily, global coverage at a consistent 1,000-meter spatial resolution.
• Employs a sophisticated NBAR algorithm that corrects for bidirectional reflectance distribution function (BRDF) effects.
• Includes improvements for the entire Suomi NPP mission, such as enhanced calibration coefficients and geolocation accuracy.

Limitations

• Metadata for row count, file size, and specific column names is unavailable across all platform entries.
• The dataset has known issues, requiring users to consult an external website for complete quality assessment.
• Each global daily file contains only a single data layer, which may complicate multi-band analysis.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

Collection Method

Produced from data collected by the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) on the NASA/NOAA Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (Suomi NPP) satellite.

Freshness

2026-04-09 20:56:16.090042

Geography

Global coverage.