VNP09GA: VIIRS Daily Surface Reflectance for Land Products

NASA/NOAA's Suomi NPP satellite provides daily land surface reflectance estimates across twelve spectral bands at two resolutions: three imagery bands at 500 meters and nine moderate bands at 1 kilometer. These atmospherically corrected data layers, including quality flags and observation angles, serve as foundational input for many downstream VIIRS land products. The Version 1 product was decommissioned on April 8, 2025, with users directed to Version 2 for improved calibration.

Use Cases

• Monitoring vegetation health based on corrected reflectance in the imagery and moderate bands.
• Assessing aerosol impacts on land observations using the reflectance band quality layers.
• Calculating land surface albedo using the sensor and solar zenith/azimuth angle layers.
• Developing fire detection algorithms using the atmospherically corrected thermal bands.
• Inputting reflectance data into higher-level VIIRS land product generation workflows.

Strengths

• Provides data at two specific spatial resolutions: 500 meters (~463m) for three bands and 1 kilometer (~926m) for nine bands.
• Corrects for atmospheric effects including molecular gases (ozone, water vapor) and aerosols.
• Includes ancillary data layers such as reflectance band quality and solar/sensor observation angles.

Limitations

• The dataset is deprecated; Version 1 was decommissioned on April 8, 2025.
• Metadata completeness is low; column names, row counts, and exact license are unknown.
• A known issue exists where retrievals may be incorrectly flagged as 'High Aerosol' over bright surfaces.

Provenance

Source

NASA/NOAA Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (Suomi NPP) VIIRS sensor.

Collection Method

Algorithm processing of top-of-atmosphere reflectance, cloud mask, aerosol product, and NCEP reanalysis data.

Freshness

Last updated metadata on 2026-04-09, but the data product itself is no longer current.

Geography

Global