VNP43D52: VIIRS/NPP Daily Snow Status for Global Climate Models

VNP43D52 provides a daily, global snow status layer at 30 arc-second (1,000 meter) resolution. The product is generated using 16 days of data from the Suomi NPP VIIRS sensor, temporally weighted to the ninth day, and is formatted for use in climate simulation models. Its single data layer classifies each pixel as either 'Snow-free Albedo Retrieved' or 'Snow Albedo Retrieved'.

Use Cases

• Modeling surface albedo feedbacks in climate simulations based on the snow status classification.
• Monitoring daily snow cover extent and persistence at a 1km global scale.
• Assessing snow impact on land surface radiative properties as part of the VNP43D BRDF/Albedo product suite.

Strengths

• Provides global coverage daily on a standardized Climate Modeling Grid (CMG).
• Offers a specific, single-purpose data layer (snow status) derived from a 16-day observation composite.
• Dataset is maintained by a major space agency (NASA), indicating institutional support.

Limitations

• The Version 1 product was decommissioned on July 31, 2025, directing users to newer versions.
• Known data quality issues exist, including reduced high-quality BRDF inversions over arid bright surfaces due to upstream aerosol flagging.
• Key metadata (row count, column names, exact file size) is unavailable across all sources.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) via the Suomi NPP satellite.

Collection Method

Produced daily from 16 days of Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) observations, processed through the BRDF/Albedo algorithm.

Freshness

Last updated metadata on 2026-04-09, but the underlying data product version is deprecated.

Geography

Global