VNP09CMG: VIIRS Daily Surface Reflectance for Climate Models

NASA/NOAA's Suomi NPP satellite provides daily land surface reflectance estimates at a 0.05-degree (~5.6 km) resolution across 12 spectral bands. The VNP09CMG Version 2 product is corrected for atmospheric gases and aerosols, using a weighted average of best-quality observations formatted specifically for climate simulation models. Improvements from previous versions include enhanced calibration, geolocation accuracy, and aerosol flag corrections impacting downstream vegetation and albedo products.

Use Cases

• Climate model parameterization based on daily, atmospherically corrected surface reflectance bands.
• Vegetation index calculation (e.g., for VNP13) using the corrected reflectance from imagery and moderate resolution bands.
• Albedo and BRDF modeling (e.g., for VNP43) leveraging improved aerosol flag corrections over bright surfaces.
• Land surface monitoring using the 33 variables, including brightness temperature and angular information layers.
• Quality assessment of satellite observations using the provided reflectance band quality and time-of-day layers.

Strengths

• Contains 33 variables, including 12 reflectance bands, 5 brightness temperature bands, and multiple information layers.
• Improved calibration and geolocation algorithms applied across the entire Suomi NPP mission.
• Atmospheric corrections address effects of molecular gases (ozone, water vapor) and aerosols.

Limitations

• Metadata completeness is medium; specific column names and dataset size are not provided.
• Known issues exist, requiring users to consult external quality assessment websites and user guides.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and NOAA via the Suomi NPP satellite.

Collection Method

Satellite remote sensing data from the VIIRS sensor, processed and gridded.

Freshness

Last updated on 2026-04-09 according to datagov entries.

Geography

Global coverage at 0.05-degree Climate Modeling Grid resolution.