Earth Data School
About
Full catalog/VNP09GA
VNP09GA·v002·dataset

True surface color each day (VIIRS, Suomi-NPP, 500 m)

VIIRS/NPP Surface Reflectance Daily L2G Global 1km and 500m SIN Grid V002
land NASA LPCLOUD Level 2G active HDF-EOS5
In plain English

What it measures. A daily estimate of the true color of the land surface in twelve color bands, with the effects of atmospheric gases and airborne particles removed, plus viewing-angle details.

How it's made. Produced from the VIIRS instrument on the Suomi-NPP satellite, resampled to 500-meter and 1-kilometer grids and corrected using cloud, aerosol, and weather-model inputs.

How & where you'd use it. A core daily surface-color product that feeds many other VIIRS land products and supports mapping vegetation, land cover, and surface change.

What's measured

LAND SURFACE › SURFACE RADIATIVE PROPERTIES › REFLECTANCE

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span2012-01-17 → ongoing
  • Measured bySuomi-NPP (VIIRS)
  • Processing levelLevel 2G
  • 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 Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) daily surface reflectance (VNP09GA) Version 2 product provides an estimate of land surface reflectance from the NASA/NOAA Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (Suomi NPP) VIIRS sensor. Data are provided for three imagery bands (I1-I3) at nominal 500 meter resolution (~463 meter) and nine moderate resolution bands (M1-M5, M7, M8, M10, M11) at nominal 1 kilometer (~926 meter) resolution. The 500 meter and 1 kilometer datasets are derived through resampling the native 375 meter and 750 meter VIIRS resolutions, respectively, in the Level 2 input product. These bands are corrected for atmospheric conditions such as the effects of molecular gases, including ozone and water vapor, and for the effects of atmospheric aerosols. The inputs to the surface reflectance algorithm are top-of-atmosphere reflectance for the VIIRS visible bands, the VIIRS cloud mask and aerosol product, aerosol optical thickness and atmospheric data obtained from the NOAA National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) reanalysis system. This product includes a total of 30 variables, including twelve reflectance bands are reflectance band quality, sensor azimuth angle, solar azimuth angle, sensor zenith angle, solar zenith angle, and observations layers. The reflectance layers from the VNP09GA data product are used as input data for many of the VIIRS land products. 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

vnp09ga_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="VNP09GA",
    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.