VIIRS/SNPP Global Water Vapor Monthly Grid at 0.5 Degree Resolution

Global monthly gridded data provides total column water vapor (TPW) properties derived from merged VIIRS, CrIS, and ATMS satellite instrument measurements. NASA's VIIRS Atmosphere SIPS processes Level-2 data using the Yori gridding software to produce Level-3 products with a 0.5 by 0.5 degree spatial resolution. This dataset continues the high-resolution global moisture depiction initiated by MODIS instruments on Terra and Aqua platforms.

Use Cases

• Analyzing spatial patterns of atmospheric moisture using the gridded total precipitable water (TPW) property.
• Tracking monthly changes in global humidity indicators derived from satellite soundings.
• Validating climate and weather models with standard deviation and pixel count statistics stored for each grid cell.
• Studying diurnal water vapor cycles using data separated into day and night Level 2 products.
• Aggregating data for longer-term climate studies using the stored sum and square of sum values for each grid cell.

Strengths

• Provides a high spatial resolution of 0.5 by 0.5 degrees for global water vapor depiction.
• Derived from a multi-instrument fusion of VIIRS infrared, CrIS, and ATMS soundings for improved product quality.
• Includes statistical measures like mean, standard deviation, sum, and pixel count per grid cell for analytical flexibility.
• Cross-platform presence on Data.gov and NASA EarthData signals its importance and reliability for the scientific community.

Limitations

• Key metadata such as row count, file size, and specific column names are not provided by any source.
• Sources conflict on license: Data.gov specifies 'other-license-specified', while NASA EarthData lists no license.
• The temporal coverage (start/end dates) for the data record is not specified in the provided descriptions.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), VIIRS Atmosphere Science Investigator-led Processing System (SIPS).

Collection Method

Gridding software (Yori) developed at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, processes VIIRS Level-2 Water Vapor products into monthly Level-3 global grids.

Time Range

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Freshness

2026-03-12 20:08:33.366451

Geography

Global