VIIRS/JPSS2 Albedo Daily L3 Global 500m SIN Grid NRT

The VNP43IA3N product is produced daily using 16-day VIIRS data (i.e., the current day and the previous 15 days). The algorithm uses the RossThick/Li-Sparse-Reciprocal (RTLSR) semi-empirical kernel-driven BRDF model, with the three kernel weights from VJ243IA1N to reconstruct surface anisotropic effects, correcting the directional reflectance to a common view geometry (VJ243IA4N), while also computing integrated black-sky albedo (BSA) at local solar noon and white-sky albedo (WSA) (VJ243IA3N).

Researchers can use the BRDF model parameters with a simple polynomial, to obtain black-sky albedo at any solar illumination angle. Likewise, both the BSA and WSA Science Dataset (SDS) layers can be used with a simple polynomial, to manually estimate instantaneous actual albedo (blue-sky albedo). Additional details regarding the methodology are available in the Algorithm Theoretical Basis Document (ATBD) The VJ243IA3N product provides a total of 9 SDS layers including: BSA, WSA, and mandatory quality layers for VIIRS imagery bands I1, I2, and I3.