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Description

The daily NASA/NOAA Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (Suomi NPP) Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) Burned Area (VNP64A1) Version 2 data product is a monthly, global gridded 500-meter (m) product containing per-pixel burned area and quality information. The VNP64 burned area mapping approach employs 750 m VIIRS imagery coupled with 750 m VIIRS active fire observations. The hybrid algorithm applies dynamic thresholds to composite imagery generated from a burn-sensitive Vegetation Index (VI) derived from VIIRS shortwave infrared channels M8 and M11, and a measure of temporal texture. VIIRS bands that are both sensitive and insensitive to biomass burning are used to detect changes caused by fire and to differentiate them from other types of change. The mapping algorithm ultimately identifies the date of burn, to the nearest day, for 500 m grid cells within the individual sinusoidal tile being processed. The date is encoded in a single data layer of the output product as the ordinal day of the calendar year on which the burn occurred (range 1–366), with a value of 0 for unburned land pixels and additional values reserved for missing data and water grid cells. The VNP64A1 data product is designed after the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) Terra and Aqua combined burned area product to promote the continuity of the Earth Observation System (EOS) mission.

The data layers provided in the VNP64A1 product include Burn Date, Burn Date Uncertainty, and Quality Assurance (QA), along with First Day and Last Day of reliable change detection of the year. A low resolution browse is also provided showing the burned date layer with a color map applied in JPEG format.

Known Issues

Improvements/Changes from Previous Versions

  • Improved calibration algorithm and coefficients for entire Suomi NPP mission.
  • Improved geolocation accuracy and applied updates to fix outliers around maneuver periods.
  • Corrected the aerosol quantity flag (low, average, high) mainly over brighter surfaces in the mid- to high-latitudes such as desert and tropical vegetation areas. This has an impact on the retrieval of other downstream data products such as VNP13 Vegetation Indices and VNP43 Bidirectional Reflectance Distribution Function (BRDF)/Albedo.
  • Improved cloud mask input product for corrections along coastlines and artifacts from use of coarse resolution climatology data.
  • Replaced the land/water mask input product with the eight-class land/water mask from the VNP03 geolocation product that better aligns with MODIS.
  • More details can be found in this VIIRS Land V2 Changes document.

Version Description

Collection Version 2 Processing and Reprocessing

Product Summary

Platforms
Suomi-NPP
Instruments
VIIRS
Spatial Extent
N: 90 S: -90 E: 180 W: -180
Spatial Resolution
500 Meters x 500 Meters
Geographic Region
GLOBAL
Coordinate System
CARTESIAN
Granule Spatial Representation
GEODETIC
Temporal Extent
2012-03-01 to Present
Temporal Resolution
1 Month
Data Partner
Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center (LP DAAC)
Land Science Investigator-led Processing System, Terrestrial Information Systems Laboratory, Earth Sciences Division, Sciences and Exploration Directorate, Goddard Space Flight Center, NASA (NASA/GSFC/SED/ESD/TISL/LandSIPS)
Concept ID
C2847928673-LPCLOUD
Data State
ACTIVE
Processing Level
4
Published
Updated
Science Keywords
Fire Ecology,
Fire Occurrence,
Burned Area

Citation

Citation is critically important for dataset documentation and discovery. This dataset is openly shared, without restriction, in accordance with the EOSDIS Data Use and Citation Guidance.

Copy Citation

Giglio, L. (2024). VIIRS/NPP Burned Area Monthly L4 Global 500m SIN Grid V002 [Data set]. NASA Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center. https://doi.org/10.5067/VIIRS/VNP64A1.002 Date Accessed: 2025-10-31

File Naming Convention

VNP64A1.A2025152.h04v10.002.2025225165332.hdf

The file name begins with the Product Short Name (VNP64A1) followed by the Julian Date of Acquisition formatted as AYYYYDDD (A2025152), the Tile Identifier which is horizontal tile and vertical tile provided as hXXvYY (h04v10), the Version of the data collection (002), the Julian Date and Time of Production designated as YYYYDDDHHMMSS (2025225165332), and the Data Format (hdf).

Documents

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Variables

Variables are a set of physical properties whose values determine the characteristics or behavior of something. For example, temperature and pressure are variables of the atmosphere. Parameters and variables can be used interchangeably. Variable level attributes provide individual information for each variable.

The Name in this table is the variable name. Fill value indicates missing or undefined data points in a variable. Valid range is the range of values the variable can store. Scale factor is used to increase or decrease the size of an object and can be used to correct for distortion. For questions on a specific variable, please use the Earthdata Forum.

Name Description Units Data Type Fill Value Valid Range Scale Factor
Burn Date Burn day of year Day int16 -2 -2 to 366 N/A
Burn Date Uncertainty Estimated uncertainty in day of burn Percent uint8 0 0 to 100 N/A
First Day First day of the year of reliable change detection Day int16 -2 -2 to 366 N/A
Last Day Last day of the year of reliable change detection Day int16 -2 -2 to 366 N/A
QA Quality Assurance Indicators Bit Field uint8 N/A N/A to 255 N/A
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