VNP09H1: VIIRS 8-Day Land Surface Reflectance Composite

VNP09H1 is a decommissioned Version 1 data product from the NASA/NOAA Suomi NPP satellite's VIIRS sensor. It provides atmospherically corrected land surface reflectance estimates for three imagery bands (I1, I2, I3) at a nominal 500-meter resolution, composited from the best observations over 8-day periods. The dataset includes quality assurance layers and was used for downstream products like albedo and vegetation indices.

Use Cases

• Monitoring land surface change over time based on 8-day composite reflectance values.
• Assessing vegetation health and dynamics using the corrected surface reflectance bands.
• Providing input data for generating downstream products like BRDF/Albedo (VNP43) and Vegetation Indices (VNP13).
• Quality screening of satellite observations using the included state QA and reflectance band quality layers.

Strengths

• Data is atmospherically corrected for gases and aerosols, improving surface signal accuracy.
• Pixels are selected based on high coverage, low sensor angle, and absence of clouds, aiming for optimal quality.
• Product has a defined DOI and is documented on authoritative NASA platforms, indicating formal provenance.

Limitations

• Dataset is decommissioned (as of April 8, 2025) and contains known issues with aerosol flagging over bright surfaces.
• Metadata completeness is medium; specific column names, row counts, and spatial/temporal extents are not provided.
• Conflicting 'last updated' dates (2026-04-09 vs. 2024-06-16) across sources create uncertainty about metadata freshness.

Provenance

Source

NASA/NOAA Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (Suomi NPP) VIIRS sensor, processed by LPCLOUD.

Collection Method

Derived through resampling of native 375m Level 2G input to a 500m SIN grid, with atmospheric correction and 8-day compositing.

Time Range

null

Freshness

2026-04-09 21:12:34.661071

Geography

Global