Description
The VIIRS/NPP BRDF/Albedo Quality Daily L3 Global 1 km SIN Grid Near Real Time (NRT), short-name VNP43MA2N product provides BRDF and Albedo quality at 1 km resolution. The VNP43MA2N product is produced daily using 16-day VIIRS data (i.e., the current day and the previous 15 days).
The VNP43 algorithm uses the RossThick/Li-Sparse-Reciprocal (RTLSR) semi-empirical kernel-driven BRDF model, with the three kernel weights from VNP43MA1N to reconstruct surface anisotropic effects, correcting the directional reflectance to a common view geometry (VNP43MA4N), while also computing integrated black-sky albedo (BSA) at local solar noon and white-sky albedo (WSA) (VNP43MA3N). Researchers can use the BRDF model parameters with a simple polynomial, to obtain black-sky albedo at any solar illumination angle. Likewise, both the BSA and WSA Science Dataset (SDS) layers can be used with a simple polynomial, to manually estimate instantaneous actual albedo (blue-sky albedo). Additional details regarding the methodology are available in the Algorithm Theoretical Basis Document (ATBD) at https://www.umb.edu/editor_uploads/images/school_for_the_environment_cs/Viirs/VIIRS_ATBD_Apr_Jul2017.pdf
The VNP43MA2N data product provides a total of 23 SDS layers including: BRDF/Albedo band quality and days of valid observation within a 16-day period for VIIRS moderate resolution bands: M1-M5, M7-M8, and M10-M11, as well as land water type class flag, snow BRDF albedo class flag, local solar noon, and the platform name.
Product Summary
Citation
Citation is critically important for dataset documentation and discovery. This dataset is openly shared, without restriction, in accordance with the EOSDIS Data Use Policy.