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Full catalog/VJ128C2
VJ128C2·v002·dataset

Reservoir and lake surface area, 8-day (VIIRS NOAA-20)

VIIRS/JPSS1 Water Reservoir Area 8-day L3 Global V002
hydrosphere NASA LPCLOUD Level 3 active HDF-EOS5
In plain English

What it measures. The surface area, water level, and stored water amount of 164 reservoirs and regulated lakes worldwide, updated every 8 days.

How it's made. Derived from VIIRS near-infrared surface reflectance on the NOAA-20 satellite, combined with established curves linking each reservoir's area to its elevation.

How & where you'd use it. Helps track water storage in dams and managed lakes for water management and drought monitoring; readings in cold regions can be thrown off by lake ice.

What's measured

TERRESTRIAL HYDROSPHERE › SURFACE WATER › SURFACE WATER FEATURES › LAKES/RESERVOIRSTERRESTRIAL HYDROSPHERE › SURFACE WATER › SURFACE WATER PROCESSES/MEASUREMENTS › WATER SURFACE HEIGHTTERRESTRIAL HYDROSPHERE › SURFACE WATER › SURFACE WATER PROCESSES/MEASUREMENTS › TOTAL SURFACE WATERLAND SURFACE › TOPOGRAPHY › TERRAIN ELEVATION › BED ELEVATION

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

  • Follow rainfall, floods and surface-water extent
  • Track soil moisture and the onset of drought
  • Monitor lakes, rivers and groundwater storage
Official description

The NOAA-20 Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) Water Reservoir 8-day Level 3 (L3) Global (VJ128C2) Version 2 product provides current data for 151 man-made reservoirs and 13 regulated natural lakes for a total of 164 reservoirs. The VJ128C2 data product provides an 8-day time series of surface area, elevation, and water storage. Datasets are combined with pre-established [Area-Elevation (A-E) curves](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2020.111831) and image classifications of near-infrared (NIR) reflectance from the surface reflectance product acquired by the VIIRS satellite ([VJ109H1](https://lpdaac.usgs.gov/products/vj109h1v002/)). The VJ128C2 data product consists of a single variable with information about the reservoir identifier, dam location (longitude and latitude), reservoir surface area, elevation, and water storage capacity. Known Issues * Water occurrence images generally show smaller surface area dynamics in high latitude regions, creating pixels with low occurrence values that have relatively large uncertainties. In addition, the quality of raw water area classification can be affected by lake ice coverage typically creating an overestimation of surface area in the enhancement algorithm. This issue will be addressed in a future release of the enhancement algorithm. For additional information about known issues, refer to Section 4 in the User Guide.

Get the data

vj128c2_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="VJ128C2",
    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.