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Full catalog/VNP02IMG_NRT
VNP02IMG_NRT·v2·dataset

Raw imagery, near-real-time (VIIRS Suomi-NPP, 375 m)

VIIRS/NPP Imagery Resolution 6-Min L1B Swath 375m NRT
land NASA LANCEMODIS Level 1B netCDF-4
In plain English

What it measures. Snapshots of how much visible, near-infrared, and thermal energy the VIIRS sensor recorded across five higher-detail channels, at roughly 375-meter pixels. It captures what the surface looks like in light the eye can see plus heat and infrared bands.

How it's made. Built from six-minute chunks of raw data streamed down from the VIIRS instrument on the Suomi-NPP satellite and calibrated, but kept at an early swath stage rather than turned into a finished map.

How & where you'd use it. Because it arrives quickly (near-real-time), it's a building-block input for fast-turnaround needs like spotting wildfires and smoke, though most people encounter it through higher-level products built on top of it.

What's measured

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

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span2021-12-15 → ongoing
  • Measured bySuomi-NPP (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/NPP Imagery Resolution 6-Min L1B Swath 375m Near REal Time (NRT), short-name VNP02IMG_NRT is among the VIIRS Level 1 and Level 2 swath products that are generated from the processing of 6 minutes of VIIRS data acquired during the S-NPP satellite overpass. The VIIRS sensor has 5 high-resolution imagery channels (I-bands) that have 32 detectors (32 rows of pixels per scan), with twice the resolution of the M-bands and the DNB, that span the wavelengths from 0.640 micrometer to 11.45 micrometer. The VNP02IMG product is comprised of 5 bands that are sensitive to visible, near-infrared (NIR), and thermal wavelengths. The spatial resolution of the instrument at viewing nadir is approximately 375 m for the Imagery bands, and 750m for the DNB and the Moderate-resolution Bands. The spatial resolution of the instrument at viewing nadir is approximately 750 m for the Moderate-resolution and Day/Night Bands, and 375 m for the Imagery bands.

Get the data

vnp02img_nrt_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="VNP02IMG_NRT",
    version="2",
    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 LANCEMODIS
Browsing CMR needs no login. Downloading or streaming bytes needs a free Earthdata Login + the earthaccess package.