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Full catalog/VJ109H1
VJ109H1·v002·dataset

True surface color of the land, 8-day (VIIRS, NOAA-20, 500 m)

VIIRS/JPSS1 Surface Reflectance 8-Day L3 Global 500m SIN Grid V002
land NASA LPCLOUD Level 3 active HDF-EOS5
In plain English

What it measures. Eight-day composite maps of the land's true surface color (reflectance) in three VIIRS imagery bands at about 500-meter resolution, with each pixel chosen as the clearest, best view in the period.

How it's made. Built from NOAA-20 VIIRS observations, corrected for atmospheric effects like ozone, water vapor, and haze, and composited over eight days.

How & where you'd use it. Useful for monitoring vegetation, land cover, and surface change over time, and for feeding into broader land-monitoring products.

What's measured

LAND SURFACE › SURFACE RADIATIVE PROPERTIES › REFLECTANCE

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span2018-01-01 → ongoing
  • Measured byNOAA-20 (VIIRS)
  • Processing levelLevel 3
  • Spatial extent-180, -90, 180, 90
  • FormatsHDF-EOS5
  • 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 8-day Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) Surface Reflectance (VJ109H1) Version 2 composite product provides an estimate of land surface reflectance from the NOAA-20 VIIRS sensor for three imagery bands (I1, I2, I3) at nominal 500 meter resolution (~463 meter). The 500 meter dataset is derived through resampling the native 375 meter VIIRS resolution in the L2 input product. The data are corrected for atmospheric conditions such as the effects of molecular gases, including ozone and water vapor, and for the effects of atmospheric aerosols. Each pixel represents the best possible Level 2G observation during an 8-day period, which is selected on the basis of high observation coverage, low sensor angle, the absence of clouds or cloud shadow, and aerosol loading. In addition to the three reflectance bands, this product includes a state quality assurance (QA) layer and a reflectance band quality layer. Known Issues * For complete information about known issues please refer to the [MODIS/VIIRS Land Quality Assessment website](https://landweb.modaps.eosdis.nasa.gov/knownissue?sensor=VIIRS) and in Section 4.0 of the User Guide.

Get the data

vj109h1_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="VJ109H1",
    version="002",
    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 LPCLOUD
Browsing CMR needs no login. Downloading or streaming bytes needs a free Earthdata Login + the earthaccess package.