VIIRS/NPP Vegetation Indices: 16-Day Global 1km Satellite Data

16-day composite satellite data from the Suomi NPP VIIRS sensor provides three key vegetation indices—NDVI, EVI, and EVI2—at a 1-kilometer resolution to promote continuity with the MODIS mission. The dataset includes 16 variables such as reflectance bands, sun-sensor geometry, and quality layers for each pixel. It is designed for monitoring global vegetation dynamics, plant phenology, and canopy structure over time.

Use Cases

• Monitoring crop health and agricultural productivity based on NDVI and EVI time series.
• Studying global vegetation phenology cycles using 16-day composite reflectance data.
• Modeling land surface changes and canopy cover sensitivity with the Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI).
• Assessing pixel-level data quality and reliability for specific geographic tiles using the included quality and reliability layers.

Strengths

• Provides continuity with the long-term MODIS mission, supporting one of the longest continual remotely sensed vegetation time series.
• Includes three distinct vegetation indices (NDVI, EVI, EVI2) and 16 total variables, offering multiple perspectives on vegetation properties.
• Cross-platform presence on NASA Earthdata and Data.gov signals its importance and reliability as a standard earth observation product.

Limitations

• Metadata completeness is low; specific column names, row counts, and dataset size are not provided across any source.
• Has known data gaps, specifically lacking coverage for tiles h33v07 and h18v14 over water due to missing critical inputs.
• Author and organizational attribution is inconsistent, with one source listing 'LPCLOUD' and others listing 'None' or 'unknown'.

Provenance

Source

NASA/NOAA Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (Suomi NPP) Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS)

Collection Method

Satellite remote sensing, with pixels selected as the 'best available' over a 16-day acquisition period.

Freshness

2026-04-09 21:11:47.382863

Geography

Global, projected on a 1km Sinusoidal (SIN) grid.