VJ213A1: VIIRS Vegetation Indices 16-Day 500m

NASA/VIIRS/002/VJ213A1
Dataset Availability
2023-02-10T00:00:00Z–2026-10-16T00:00:00Z
Dataset Producer
Earth Engine Snippet
ee.ImageCollection("NASA/VIIRS/002/VJ213A1")
Cadence
8 Days
Tags
16-day evi nasa ndvi noaa noaa21 vegetation vegetation-indices viirs
vj213a1

Description

The Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS-2) / NOAA-21 NASA Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) Vegetation Indices (VJ213A1) Version 2 data product provides vegetation indices by a process of selecting the best available pixel over a 16-day acquisition period at 500 meter resolution. The VJ213 data products are designed after the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) Terra and Aqua Vegetation Indices product suite to promote the continuity of the Earth Observation System (EOS) mission.

The VJ213 algorithm process produces three vegetation indices:

  1. Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI): One of the longest continual remotely-sensed time series observations, using both the red and near-infrared (NIR) bands.
  2. Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI): A slightly different vegetation index that is more sensitive to canopy cover, while NDVI is more sensitive to chlorophyll.
  3. Enhanced Vegetation Index-2 (EVI2): A reformation of the standard 3-band EVI, using the red band and NIR band. This reformation addresses arising issues when comparing VIIRS EVI to other EVI models that do not include a blue band. EVI2 will eventually become the standard EVI.

Along with the three Vegetation Indices layers, this product also includes layers for near-infrared (NIR) reflectance; three shortwave infrared (SWIR) reflectance; red, blue, and green reflectance; composite day of year; pixel reliability; relative azimuth, view, and sun angles; and a quality layer.

The band scale factors are already applied.

For additional information, visit the VIIRS Land Product Quality Assessment website.

Documentation:

Bands

Bands

Pixel size: 500 meters (all bands)

Name Units Min Max Pixel Size Wavelength Description
EVI -1 1 500 meters None

3 band Enhanced Vegetation Index
EVI2 -1 1 500 meters None

2 band Enhanced Vegetation Index
NDVI -1 1 500 meters None

Normalized Difference Vegetation Index
NIR_reflectance 0 1 500 meters 846-885nm

Near-infrared Radiation reflectance
SWIR1_reflectance 0 1 500 meters 1230-1250nm

Shortwave Infrared Radiation reflectance
SWIR2_reflectance 0 1 500 meters 1580-1640nm

Shortwave Infrared Radiation reflectance
SWIR3_reflectance 0 1 500 meters 2225-2275nm

Shortwave Infrared Radiation reflectance
VI_Quality 500 meters None

Quality Assessment (QA) bit-field
red_reflectance 0 1 500 meters 600-680nm

Red band reflectance
green_reflectance 0 1 500 meters 545-565nm

Green band reflectance
blue_reflectance 0 1 500 meters 478-498nm

Blue band reflectance
composite_day_of_the_year d 1 366 500 meters None

Julian day of year
pixel_reliability 500 meters None

Pixel usefulness using a simple rank class
relative_azimuth_angle deg -180 180 500 meters None

Relative azimuth angle for each pixel
sun_zenith_angle deg 0 180 500 meters None

Sun zenith angle for each pixel
view_zenith_angle deg 0 180 500 meters None

View zenith angle for each pixel

pixel_reliability Class Table

Value Color Description
0 None

Excellent
1 None

Good
2 None

Acceptable
3 None

Marginal
4 None

Pass
5 None

Questionable
6 None

Poor
7 None

Cloud Shadow
8 None

Snow/Ice
9 None

Cloud
10 None

Estimated
11 None

LTAVG (taken from database)

Image Properties

Image Properties

Name Type Description
num_tiles INT

The number of source tiles that were mosaicked to create this image.

Terms of Use

Terms of Use

LP DAAC NASA data are freely accessible; however, when an author publishes these data or works based on the data, it is requested that the author cite the datasets within the text of the publication and include a reference to them in the reference list.

Citations

Citations:

  • Vermote, E. (2023). VIIRS/JPSS2 Vegetation Indices 16-Day L3 Global 500m SIN Grid V002 [Data set]. NASA EOSDIS Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center. doi:10.5067/VIIRS/VJ213A1.002

DOIs

Explore with Earth Engine

Code Editor (JavaScript)

var dataset = ee.ImageCollection('NASA/VIIRS/002/VJ213A1')
                  .filter(ee.Filter.date('2026-10-08', '2026-10-16'));

var trueColorVis = {
  bands: ['red_reflectance', 'green_reflectance', 'blue_reflectance'],
  min: 0.0,
  max: 0.3,
  gamma: 1.4,
};

var ndviVis = {
  min: 0.0,
  max: 0.9,
  palette: [
    'FFFFFF', 'CE7E45', 'DF923D', 'F1B555', 'FCD163', '99B718', '74A901',
    '66A000', '529400', '3E8601', '207401', '056201', '004C00', '023B01',
    '012E01', '011D01', '011301',
  ],
};

Map.setCenter(-98.0, 17.6, 6);
Map.addLayer(dataset, trueColorVis, 'True Color (RGB)');
Map.addLayer(dataset.select('NDVI'), ndviVis, 'NDVI');
Open in Code Editor
The Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS-2) / NOAA-21 NASA Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) Vegetation Indices (VJ213A1) Version 2 data product provides vegetation indices by a process of selecting the best available pixel over a 16-day acquisition period at 500 meter resolution. The VJ213 data products are designed after …
NASA/VIIRS/002/VJ213A1, 16-day,evi,nasa,ndvi,noaa,noaa21,vegetation,vegetation-indices,viirs
2023-02-10T00:00:00Z/2026-10-16T00:00:00Z
-90 -180 90 180
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