VNP43IA2N: Daily BRDF and Albedo Quality at 500m Resolution

VIIRS/NPP BRDF/Albedo Quality Daily L3 Global 500 m SIN Grid NRT (VNP43IA2N) Version 1 provides quality metrics for Bidirectional Reflectance Distribution Function (BRDF) and albedo at a 500-meter spatial resolution. The product is generated daily using a 16-day rolling window of VIIRS data and employs the RossThick/Li-Sparse-Reciprocal (RTLSR) kernel-driven BRDF model. Its 11 Science Dataset layers support the calculation of black-sky and white-sky albedo, enabling correction for surface anisotropic effects.

Use Cases

• Correcting directional reflectance to a common view geometry based on the RTLSR BRDF model parameters.
• Estimating instantaneous actual albedo (blue-sky albedo) using the provided black-sky and white-sky albedo Science Dataset layers.
• Assessing data quality for VIIRS imagery bands I1, I2, and I3 using the BRDF/Albedo band quality and days of valid observation layers.
• Classifying surface types for analysis using the land water type and snow BRDF albedo class flags.

Strengths

• Provides a high spatial resolution of 500 meters for global land surface observations.
• Offers daily production with a 16-day data composite, balancing temporal frequency with observational coverage.
• Includes 11 specific Science Dataset layers, such as quality flags and observation counts, as detailed in the product description.

Limitations

• Key metadata such as specific column names, dataset size, and row counts are not provided by any source.
• The license is ambiguously listed as 'other-license-specified' without explicit terms.
• The 'last updated' date of 2026-04-09 appears to be a future date, which may indicate a metadata error.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Satellite remote sensing data from the VIIRS/NPP platform, processed using the VNP43 algorithm.

Time Range

Daily production, utilizing a rolling 16-day window of observations.

Freshness

2026-04-09 21:17:01.155089

Geography

Global coverage using a sinusoidal (SIN) grid projection.