VNP43DNBA3: Daily Global Land Albedo at 1km Resolution

NASA/NOAA's Suomi NPP VIIRS VNP43DNBA3 Version 2 product provides daily, global 1-kilometer resolution estimates of land surface albedo. It uses 16 days of VIIRS Day/Night Band data and the RTLSR BRDF model to generate black-sky and white-sky albedo values, promoting continuity with the MODIS BRDF/Albedo product suite. Researchers can use the provided model parameters to derive albedo for specific solar illumination angles.

Use Cases

• Modeling surface energy balance based on black-sky albedo (BSA) and white-sky albedo (WSA) layers.
• Tracking changes in land surface reflectance over time based on daily, 1km resolution global data.
• Estimating instantaneous 'blue-sky' albedo using the provided BSA/WSA layers with a polynomial.
• Studying surface anisotropic effects using the underlying RossThick/Li-Sparse-Reciprocal BRDF model parameters.

Strengths

• Provides continuity with the established NASA MODIS BRDF/Albedo data product suite.
• Offers daily global coverage at a consistent 1-kilometer spatial resolution.
• Algorithm is documented in an Algorithm Theoretical Basis Document (ATBD).

Limitations

• Metadata completeness is low: column names, row counts, and exact file sizes are unknown across all sources.
• The product is generated using a 16-day data composite, which may smooth over very rapid surface changes.
• License is ambiguously listed as 'other-license-specified' without explicit details.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

Collection Method

Produced daily from 16 days of Suomi NPP VIIRS satellite sensor data, using the RTLSR kernel-driven BRDF model.

Time Range

Daily production; temporal weighting is applied to the ninth day of the 16-day composite.

Freshness

2026-04-09 21:14:09.391791

Geography

Global