VIIRS/NPP Surface Reflectance: 8-Day Global 500m Composite
Updated 2mo ago
11filesBIN
Available on 2 platforms
Sign in to view source links and access this dataset
Description
Eight-day composite land surface reflectance data from the Suomi NPP VIIRS sensor provides atmospherically corrected observations at a nominal 500-meter resolution. The dataset includes three imagery bands (I1, I2, I3), a state quality assurance layer, and a reflectance band quality layer, with each pixel representing the best observation selected based on coverage, sensor angle, and absence of clouds. It is a Version 2 product with improvements to calibration, geolocation, aerosol flagging, and cloud masking.
Use Cases
Monitoring vegetation health and calculating indices based on atmospherically corrected surface reflectance bands.
Analyzing land surface changes over 8-day periods using the best-observation composite to minimize cloud contamination.
Providing corrected reflectance input for downstream products like VNP13 Vegetation Indices and VNP43 BRDF/Albedo models.
Assessing data quality for specific regions or time periods using the provided state and band quality assurance layers.
Strengths
Data is atmospherically corrected for gases and aerosols, improving accuracy for surface analysis.
Version 2 includes specific improvements to calibration, geolocation, and cloud masking over previous versions.
Cross-platform presence on NASA Earthdata and Data.gov signals its importance and official status.
Limitations
Key metadata such as row count, file size, and complete column list is unavailable across all sources.
The dataset has known issues requiring users to consult external quality assessment websites for complete information.
Spatial resolution is a resampled 500m, derived from the sensor's native 375m resolution.
Provenance
Source
NASA/NOAA Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (Suomi NPP) VIIRS sensor, processed by LPCLOUD.
Collection Method
Satellite remote sensing, with atmospheric correction and best-pixel compositing over 8-day periods.
Freshness
Last updated 2026-04-09 according to nasa_earthdata and datagov.
Geography
Global coverage.
License is listed as 'other-license-specified'; users must review specific terms. Known issues exist and are documented on the MODIS/VIIRS Land Quality Assessment website.