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Full catalog/VJ103DNB
VJ103DNB·v2.1·dataset

Nighttime lights pixel locations, a helper file (VIIRS NOAA-20)

VIIRS/JPSS1 Day/Night Band Resolution Terrain Corrected Geolocation L1 6-Min Swath 750 m
land NASA LAADS Level 1A active netCDF-4
In plain English

What it measures. A helper file giving the precise Earth location of each nighttime-light pixel, including latitude, longitude, surface height, and sun, moon, and sensor viewing angles.

How it's made. The terrain-corrected geolocation product for the VIIRS Day/Night Band on NOAA-20, built from the satellite's orbit data and a terrain model.

How & where you'd use it. Used alongside the matching light-measurement files to map the data accurately; it's a companion product rather than a standalone measurement.

What's measured

SPECTRAL/ENGINEERING › INFRARED WAVELENGTHS › INFRARED RADIANCESPECTRAL/ENGINEERING › INFRARED WAVELENGTHS › REFLECTED INFRAREDSPECTRAL/ENGINEERING › SENSOR CHARACTERISTICS › GEOLOCATIONSPECTRAL/ENGINEERING › VISIBLE WAVELENGTHS › VISIBLE RADIANCE

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span2017-12-13 → ongoing
  • Measured byNOAA-20 (VIIRS)
  • Processing levelLevel 1A
  • 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 Day/Night Band Resolution Terrain Corrected Geolocation 6-Min L1 Swath 750m product contains the derived line-of-sight (LOS) vectors for the single panchromatic Day-Night band (DNB). The geolocation algorithm uses a number of inputs that include an Earth ellipsoid, geoid, and a digital terrain model along with the SNPP platform’s ephemeris and attitude data, and knowledge of the VIIRS sensor and satellite geometry. It provides geodetic coordinates (latitude and longitude), and related parameters for each VIIRS L1 pixel. The VJ103DNB product includes geodetic latitude, longitude, surface height above the geoid, solar zenith and azimuth angles, lunar zenith and azimuth angles, sensor zenith and azimuth angles, land/water mask, moon illumination fraction and phase angle, and quality flag for every pixel location.

Get the data

vj103dnb_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="VJ103DNB",
    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.