VIIRS DNB BRDF and Albedo Quality Daily Global 1km Grid

VIIRS/NPP DNB BRDF/Albedo Quality Daily L3 Global 1km SIN Grid V002 provides quality metrics for surface reflectance and albedo derived from the Day/Night Band sensor. The dataset is produced daily by NASA/NOAA using 16-day temporal composites and the RossThick/Li-Sparse-Reciprocal BRDF model to ensure continuity with MODIS products. It contains seven Science Dataset layers, including band quality flags and observation counts.

Use Cases

• Assessing data quality for VIIRS DNB black-sky and white-sky albedo retrievals using the 'BRDF/Albedo band quality' layer.
• Determining temporal data coverage for a 16-day period via the 'days of valid observation' Science Dataset layer.
• Masking snow-covered or water bodies in albedo analysis using the 'snow BRDF albedo class flag' and 'land water type class flag'.
• Supporting the calculation of instantaneous blue-sky albedo by combining the black-sky and white-sky albedo layers with a polynomial.
• Validating surface anisotropy corrections in other remote sensing products using the underlying RTLSR kernel-driven model parameters.

Strengths

• Provides continuity with NASA's established MODIS BRDF/Albedo product suite, supporting long-term Earth observation studies.
• Employs a documented semi-empirical kernel-driven model (RossThick/Li-Sparse-Reciprocal) to correct for surface anisotropic effects.
• Offers daily production with a 16-day temporal composite, weighting data to the ninth day to provide a stable central estimate.
• Contains seven specific Science Dataset layers for quality assessment, including land/water and snow classification flags.

Limitations

• Specific row counts, file sizes, and complete column names are not provided across any source platform.
• License information is inconsistently reported: one source lists 'other-license-specified' while another lists 'None'.
• The dataset description references known issues but does not provide the complete details within the available metadata.

Provenance

Source

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

Collection Method

Data is gathered daily by the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) Day/Night Band sensor and processed using a 16-day composite algorithm.

Time Range

Daily production from the Suomi NPP satellite mission; specific start date not provided.

Freshness

2026-03-12 20:14:17.074417

Geography

Global coverage at 1 kilometer resolution on a sinusoidal (SIN) grid.