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.