VNP46A1_NRT: Daily Nighttime Radiance from VIIRS/NPP
Updated 2mo ago
3filesBIN
Available on 2 platforms
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Description
VNP46A1_NRT is a NASA-produced daily, near-real-time dataset of top-of-atmosphere nighttime radiance from the VIIRS Day Night Band sensor aboard the Suomi NPP satellite. It contains 26 science data sets, including sensor radiance, solar/lunar angles, cloud-mask flags, brightness temperatures, and quality flags for multiple spectral bands. The data is gridded at a 15 arc-second (approximately 500m) resolution on a linear latitude-longitude grid.
Use Cases
Monitoring urban light pollution and energy consumption based on sensor radiance values.
Tracking disaster impacts like power outages from hurricanes or earthquakes using the daily time series.
Analyzing cloud cover and atmospheric conditions using the cloud-mask flags and brightness temperatures.
Studying lunar illumination effects on nighttime observations using the moon phase and illumination fraction data.
Assessing data quality for downstream applications using the extensive Quality Flag (QF) information.
Strengths
Contains 26 distinct science data sets (SDS), providing a multi-faceted view of each observation.
Includes extensive quality assessment information with flags specific to the cloud-mask and seven VIIRS bands (M10, M11, M12, M13, M15, M16, DNB).
Limitations
Key metadata like row count, file size, and specific column names are unavailable across all sources.
The spatial resolution is ambiguously described as both '15 arc-second' and '500m' grids, which may indicate conflicting or approximate specifications.
License information is listed as 'other-license-specified' without details, requiring users to investigate terms of use.
Provenance
Source
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
Collection Method
Satellite remote sensing from the VIIRS Day Night Band sensor aboard the Suomi NPP satellite.
Freshness
Last updated on 2026-04-09 according to datagov.
Geography
Global coverage on a linear latitude-longitude grid.
Data is provided in BIN and ISO file formats. Users must review the unspecified 'other-license-specified' terms before use.