VNP46A1: Daily Gridded Nighttime Radiance at 500m Resolution

26 Science Data Sets provide daily top-of-atmosphere nighttime radiance from January 2012 onward. The VIIRS/NPP sensor data includes radiance, angles, cloud-mask flags, and quality information at a 15 arc-second spatial resolution. NASA produces this collection, which has been updated to version 2.0 with floating-point radiance and coverage over both land and water.

Use Cases

• Mapping urban growth and light pollution based on daily nighttime radiance data.
• Analyzing lunar illumination effects on observed radiance using the moon phase and illumination fraction layers.
• Filtering data for clear-sky conditions using the cloud-mask flags and quality flags.
• Studying temporal trends in nighttime brightness from the continuous daily record starting in 2012.

Strengths

• Daily temporal resolution from January 2012 provides a long-term time series.
• 26 distinct Science Data Sets (SDS) include radiance, angles, flags, and temperature data.
• 15 arc-second (approximately 500m) spatial resolution offers detailed global coverage.
• Collection version 2.0 includes updated data formats and expanded coverage over water surfaces.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count and dataset size are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Satellite observations from the VIIRS/NPP sensor.

Time Range

January 2012 onward

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-12 20:16:09.961731; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Global