VNP43D78: VIIRS White-Sky Albedo for Shortwave Broadband

NASA/NOAA's VNP43D78 product provides daily, global white-sky albedo values for the shortwave broadband (1.61 μm) derived from Suomi NPP VIIRS sensor data. It is generated at a 30 arc-second (1,000 meter) Climate Modeling Grid resolution, using a 16-day rolling composite temporally weighted to the ninth day. This dataset is part of a suite of BRDF/Albedo products designed for use in climate simulation models.

Use Cases

• Parameterizing surface reflectance in climate models based on the Climate Modeling Grid (CMG) format.
• Analyzing temporal trends in land surface albedo using the daily, 16-day composite data.
• Comparing white-sky albedo (bihemispherical reflectance) with black-sky albedo for different VIIRS spectral bands.
• Incorporating shortwave broadband albedo into energy balance studies for the entire globe.

Strengths

• Provides global coverage at a consistent 30 arc-second (1,000 meter) resolution.
• Offers daily temporal granularity using a 16-day composite to reduce noise.
• Cross-platform presence on NASA Earthdata and Data.gov signals its importance and official status.
• Version 2 includes documented improvements like an improved calibration algorithm.

Limitations

• Metadata completeness is medium; specific column names and dataset size are not provided.
• A version conflict exists: one source states Version 1 was decommissioned on July 31, 2025, while another lists an update date of 2026-04-09 without specifying the version.
• Each file contains only one data layer, which may require combining multiple files for multi-band analysis.

Provenance

Source

NASA/NOAA Suomi NPP VIIRS sensor, processed by LPCLOUD.

Collection Method

Derived from Bidirectional Reflectance Distribution Function (BRDF) parameters using 16 days of VIIRS data.

Time Range

Daily composites, coverage spans the operational lifetime of the Suomi NPP satellite.

Freshness

2026-04-09 21:00:30.217929

Geography

Global coverage.