VIIRS/SNPP Dark Target Aerosol L2 Swath: 6-km Resolution

VIIRS/SNPP Dark Target aerosol data provides satellite-derived Aerosol Optical Thickness (AOT) measurements globally every six minutes. It applies separate algorithms for retrievals over dark ocean surfaces and vegetated or dark-soiled land. The product's at-nadir resolution of 6 km x 6 km aggregates information from 64 native VIIRS pixels.

Use Cases

• Monitoring global aerosol optical thickness over land and ocean based on the dark target algorithm.
• Analyzing aerosol size parameters over oceans using spectral AOT data.
• Studying aerosol trends and events with six-minute temporal resolution.
• Comparing aerosol retrievals with legacy MODIS Dark Target products from Terra and Aqua.

Strengths

• Based on the established Dark Target algorithm used for MODIS instruments, suggesting methodological maturity.
• Provides global coverage with a high temporal resolution of six minutes.
• Version 2.0 contains improvements over the previous v1.1 collection.

Limitations

• Spatial resolution degrades progressively away from nadir due to sensor scanning geometry.
• Key metadata such as exact row count, file size, and specific column names are not provided across platforms.
• License is ambiguously listed as 'other-license-specified' without further detail.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

Collection Method

Satellite remote sensing from the Suomi NPP spacecraft's VIIRS instrument, processed with the Dark Target algorithm.

Freshness

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

Geography

Global