VNP43D34: VIIRS BRDF Isotropic Parameter for Shortwave Broadband

Daily global data from 2012 to present, produced using a 16-day rolling composite. The dataset provides the isotropic model parameter for the VIIRS shortwave broadband (1.61 μm) at a 1,000-meter resolution on a Climate Modeling Grid. This parameter, alongside volumetric and geometric parameters, is used to derive surface Bidirectional Reflectance Distribution Function (BRDF) and albedo values for climate modeling.

Use Cases

• Modeling surface energy balance in climate simulations based on the provided BRDF model parameters.
• Deriving broadband albedo values for land cover studies using the isotropic, volumetric, and geometric parameters.
• Analyzing temporal trends in surface reflectance anisotropy from the daily, globally-complete time series.
• Assimilating land surface radiative properties into Earth system models using the Climate Modeling Grid (CMG) format.

Strengths

• Provides a long-term, daily global record from the Suomi NPP satellite mission, which launched in 2011.
• Offers high spatial consistency on a standardized Climate Modeling Grid (CMG) at 30 arc-second (~1 km) resolution.
• Includes improvements such as an updated calibration algorithm and better geolocation accuracy for the entire mission.

Limitations

• Critical metadata such as exact row/column count, specific data schema, and author are not provided on any platform.
• Each product file contains only a single data layer, requiring multiple files for a complete BRDF model parameter set.
• Known data quality issues exist, though details require consulting an external website.

Provenance

Source

NASA/NOAA Suomi NPP satellite, VIIRS instrument, processed by LPCLOUD.

Collection Method

Derived from 16 days of VIIRS observations, temporally weighted to the ninth day, using a BRDF model.

Time Range

2012 to present (inferred from Suomi NPP mission start).

Freshness

Last updated metadata date is 2026-04-09, though the underlying data is produced daily.

Geography

Global coverage.