VNP21_NRT: VIIRS Land Surface Temperature and Emissivity Swath Data

VIIRS/NPP Land Surface Temperature and Emissivity 6-Min L2 Swath 750 m (VNP21_NRT) is a near real-time satellite product providing simultaneous retrievals of land surface temperature (LST) and spectral emissivity. It uses a physics-based algorithm derived from ASTER TES to process data from three VIIRS thermal infrared bands (M14, M15, M16) at a native spatial resolution of 750 meters. The dataset is produced by NASA and supports monitoring of surface thermal properties and radiative energy balance.

Use Cases

• Monitoring urban heat islands based on high-resolution (750m) land surface temperature retrievals.
• Modeling surface energy balance and evapotranspiration using simultaneous temperature and emissivity data.
• Analyzing temporal changes in surface thermal properties from the near real-time (NRT) data stream.
• Validating land surface models against satellite-derived emissivity from three specific thermal infrared bands.

Strengths

• Provides simultaneous retrieval of both land surface temperature and spectral emissivity, a key methodological strength.
• Offers a high native spatial resolution of 750 meters at nadir for detailed thermal mapping.
• Algorithm is based on a well-established physics-based method (ASTER TES) with documented theoretical basis and user guides.
• Dataset is hosted and maintained by a authoritative source (NASA).

Limitations

• Key metadata such as row count, file size, and specific column names are unavailable across all sources.
• License is ambiguously listed as 'other-license-specified' without explicit terms.
• The 'last updated' metadata shows a future date (2026), indicating a potential data integrity issue or system error.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

Collection Method

Satellite remote sensing via the VIIRS instrument on the Suomi NPP platform, using a physics-based retrieval algorithm.

Time Range

Near real-time (implied by product name).

Freshness

2026-03-12 20:29:17.236188

Geography

Global swath coverage from the VIIRS instrument.