VNP01_NRT: Raw VIIRS/NPP Satellite Radiances and Telemetry

Global satellite observations from the VIIRS instrument aboard the Suomi NPP spacecraft. This dataset contains unpacked, raw science, calibration, and engineering data, including ephemeris, attitude, and spacecraft telemetry for 6-minute swaths. The data is provided in NetCDF5 format with a Near-Real-Time (NRT) processing level.

Use Cases

• Calibrating higher-level VIIRS data products based on raw sensor counts and engineering data.
• Analyzing spacecraft attitude and ephemeris for precise geolocation of observations.
• Monitoring instrument health and performance using raw telemetry and calibration data.
• Developing and validating Level 1B processing algorithms for radiance retrieval.

Strengths

• Provides the foundational, unprocessed sensor data (Level 1A) required for all downstream VIIRS products.
• Contains multiple integrated data types, including science radiances, calibration information, and spacecraft telemetry.
• Available in a Near-Real-Time (NRT) stream, suggesting relatively low latency for operational use.

Limitations

• Critical metadata is missing from all sources: specific column/variable names, row counts, and file sizes are unknown.
• License information is inconsistently reported, with one source listing 'other-license-specified' and others listing 'None'.
• The dataset likely requires significant domain expertise and specialized tools to interpret the raw binary and telemetry data.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

Collection Method

Satellite remote sensing via the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) aboard the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (NPP) spacecraft.

Freshness

2026-04-09 20:57:47.300809 (from Data.gov)

Geography

Global