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Full catalog/VNP43C3
VNP43C3·v002·dataset

How much sunlight the land reflects (Suomi-NPP, daily, 0.05 degree)

VIIRS/NPP 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 surface reflects, day by day, across the globe at about 5.6-kilometer detail. It gives both the reflectance under direct sun and under diffuse sky light, across many color and infrared bands.

How it's made. Built from VIIRS data on the Suomi-NPP satellite, combining 16 days of high-quality measurements through a model that accounts for the angle of sun and sensor to compute surface reflectance.

How & where you'd use it. Feeds climate models and helps researchers study how reflective the land is, which affects how much solar energy the planet absorbs versus bounces back to space.

What's measured

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

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span2012-01-19 → ongoing
  • Measured bySuomi-NPP (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 NASA/NOAA Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (Suomi NPP) 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 (VNP43C3) is derived from the 30 arc second CMG VNP43D Version 2 product suite. VNP43C3 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 VNP43 algorithm uses the RossThick/Li-Sparse-Reciprocal (RTLSR) semi-empirical kernel-driven BRDF model, with the three kernel weights from [VNP43C1](https://doi.org/10.5067/VIIRS/VNP43C1.002) 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 VNP43C3 product includes 26 layers 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 layers 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

vnp43c3_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="VNP43C3",
    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.