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Full catalog/FSNRAD_L2_VIIRS_CRIS_SNPP
FSNRAD_L2_VIIRS_CRIS_SNPP·v2·dataset

Blended camera and sounder imagery (VIIRS+CrIS)

SNPP VIIRS+CrIS Fusion 6-Min L2 Swath 750 m
land NASA LAADS Level 2 active netCDF-4
In plain English

What it measures. A blended imagery product that fills in extra infrared 'colors' (heat-sensitive channels) for the VIIRS camera that it doesn't natively have, by borrowing from a companion sounding instrument, at 750-meter detail.

How it's made. Created by fusing measurements from the VIIRS imager and the CrIS infrared sounder aboard Suomi-NPP to synthesize MODIS-like infrared bands.

How & where you'd use it. Helps keep cloud and moisture records consistent across different satellite eras, and supports applications that need these specific infrared bands.

What's measured

SPECTRAL/ENGINEERING › INFRARED WAVELENGTHS › INFRARED RADIANCESPECTRAL/ENGINEERING › INFRARED WAVELENGTHS › BRIGHTNESS TEMPERATURE

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span2012-04-17 → ongoing
  • Measured bySuomi-NPP (VIIRS, CrIS)
  • Processing levelLevel 2
  • Spatial extent-180, -90, 180, 90
  • FormatsnetCDF-4
  • StatusACTIVE

What you can do with it

  • Track deforestation, fire scars and land-cover change
  • Monitor crop and vegetation health (NDVI/EVI)
  • Map how built-up vs. green an area is over time
Official description

The VIIRS-CrIS Data Fusion Level-2 Product is designed to facilitate improved continuity in derived cloud and moisture products realized with HIRS and MODIS and to continue other applications that require IR absorption spectral bands. Based on data fusion with VIIRS (Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite) and CrIS (Cross-track Infrared Sounder), infrared (IR) absorption band radiances for VIIRS are constructed at 750m spatial resolution (i.e., M-band resolution). These spectral bands are similar to the MODIS spectral bands. This L2 SNPP VIIRS+CrIS product release relates to Version-2.0 (v2.0) collection, which has undergone some improvements over its previous version. In the v2.0 Fusion product, scanlines are checked for quality instead of the entire input granule as was done in the previous version of this product. Such a process has helped salvage and use granules with continuous blocks of good data with good calibration. The v2.0 product also includes a couple of improvements to the VIIRS-CrIS collocation. The first relates to how VIIRS scan sync loss events are addressed while the other correctly characterizes VIIRS pixels that should have been identified as falling within a CrIS Field-of-View. A final improvement in the v2.0 product attempts to correct an artifact detected over warm, dry surfaces in the water vapor channels that are derived using the MODIS Band-27 and -28 response functions that apparently manifest signs of surface features that should not exist for these channels. Check the User Guide for further details on these improvements. The fusion radiances, and look-up tables required to compute the related brightness temperatures, are stored in compressed NetCDF4 files of 6-minutes duration. The L2 VIIRS+CRiS Fusion product has a horizontal pixel size of 750m, which is the native VIIRS moderate-resolution (M) band pixel-size. Consult the VIIRS+CRiS Fusion product User Guide for additional information regarding this product’s algorithm, file format, global and data-field attributes, quality control flags, etc.

Get the data

fsnrad_l2_viirs_cris_snpp_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="FSNRAD_L2_VIIRS_CRIS_SNPP",
    version="2",
    bounding_box=(-122.5, 37.2, -121.8, 37.9),  # your area (W,S,E,N)
    temporal=("2024-01-01", "2024-12-31"),       # your dates
)
files = earthaccess.open(results)   # stream straight from LAADS
Browsing CMR needs no login. Downloading or streaming bytes needs a free Earthdata Login + the earthaccess package.