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Full catalog/VJ143C3
VJ143C3·v002·dataset

How much sunlight the ground reflects (NOAA-20, daily, 5 km)

VIIRS/JPSS1 BRDF/Albedo Albedo Daily L3 Global 0.05Deg CMG V002
land NASA LPCLOUD Level 3 active HDF-EOS5
In plain English

What it measures. How much sunlight the land reflects (its albedo) across many color and infrared bands, on a coarse 5-km global grid suited to climate models.

How it's made. Derived from the VIIRS instrument on the NOAA-20 satellite, combining 16 days of high-quality reflectance data and modeling how surfaces reflect light at different angles.

How & where you'd use it. A building-block input for climate simulations, where the amount of sunlight the ground reflects helps set Earth's energy balance. Check the included quality flags before use.

What's measured

LAND SURFACE › SURFACE RADIATIVE PROPERTIES › ALBEDOLAND SURFACE › SURFACE RADIATIVE PROPERTIES › ANISOTROPYLAND SURFACE › SURFACE RADIATIVE PROPERTIES › REFLECTANCE

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span2018-01-05 → 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 NOAA-20 Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) Bidirectional Reflectance Distribution Function (BRDF) and Albedo Albedo Daily Global 0.05 Degree Climate Modeling Grid (CMG) Version 2 product (VJ143C3) is derived from the 30 arc second CMG VJ143D Version 2 product suite. VJ143C3 is generated daily from all available high-quality reflectance data over a 16-day moving window emphasizing the ninth day of the retrieval period, which is reflected in the Julian date in the filename. The VJ143 algorithm uses the RossThick/Li-Sparse-Reciprocal (RTLSR) semi-empirical kernel-driven BRDF model, with the three kernel weights from [VJ143C1](https://doi.org/10.5067/VIIRS/VJ143C1.002) to compute white-sky albedos and the black-sky albedos at local solar noon for the VIIRS Day/Night band (DNB), moderate resolution bands M1 through M5, M7, M8, M10, and M11, as well as the shortwave band, visible band, and near-infrared (NIR) broadbands. The quality and inversion status of the majority of the underlying 30 arc second pixels is provided as well as the percentage of the underlying pixels that were present or were snow covered. Users are encouraged to assess the quality information before using the BRDF/Albedo data. This 0.05 degree (5,600 meters at the equator) CMG product covers the entire globe for use in climate simulation models. The VJ143C3 product includes 31 variables containing white-sky albedos and the black-sky albedos for the VIIRS DNB, moderate resolution bands M1 through M5, M7, M8, M10, and M11, as well as the shortwave band, visible band, and NIR broadbands. Along with the albedo data for the 13 bands are five ancillary variables for uncertainty, quality, local solar noon, percent finer resolution inputs, and snow cover. A low-resolution image is also available showing retrievals of WSA for the shortwave broadband in JPEG format. 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).

Get the data

vj143c3_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="VJ143C3",
    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.