Earth Data School
About
Full catalog/VJ102IMG
VJ102IMG·v2.1·dataset

Raw camera-like image bands (VIIRS, NOAA-20, 375 m)

VIIRS/JPSS1 Imagery Resolution 6-Min L1B Swath 375 m
land NASA LAADS Level 1B active NetCDF-4
In plain English

What it measures. The light and heat energy recorded by the camera-like sensor in five sharp 375-meter bands, spanning visible light through infrared, along with reflectance values and quality flags for each pixel.

How it's made. Built from the raw signal of the VIIRS instrument on the NOAA-20 satellite, then calibrated and tied to ground positions over six-minute stretches of orbit.

How & where you'd use it. A foundational image product feeding higher-level maps of fires, clouds and land surfaces. It is mostly an input that people use through finished products rather than directly.

What's measured

SPECTRAL/ENGINEERING › INFRARED WAVELENGTHS › INFRARED RADIANCESPECTRAL/ENGINEERING › INFRARED WAVELENGTHS › REFLECTED INFRAREDSPECTRAL/ENGINEERING › VISIBLE WAVELENGTHS › VISIBLE RADIANCE

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span2018-01-05 → ongoing
  • Measured byNOAA-20 (VIIRS)
  • Processing levelLevel 1B
  • 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/JPSS1 Imagery Resolution 6-Min L1B Swath 375m, short-name VJ102IMG product that comprise five image-resolution or I-bands, which have a 375-meter resolution at nadir. These I-bands comprise three reflective solar bands (RSB) and two thermal emissive bands (TEB). Ranging in wavelengths from 0.6 µm to 12.4 µm, the I-bands are sensitive to visible/reflective, near-, shortwave-, mediumwave-, and longwave-infrared wavelengths. Derived from the NASA VIIRS L1A raw radiances, this product includes calibrated and geolocated radiance and reflectance data, quality flags, and granule- and collection-level metadata. In contrast to a MODIS L1B product, which temporally spans 5 minutes, the VIIRS L1B calibrated radiances product contains a nominal temporal duration of 6 minutes.

Get the data

vj102img_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="VJ102IMG",
    version="2.1",
    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.