VNP13A1.002: VIIRS Vegetation Indices 16-Day 500m

  • The VNP13A1 data product provides VIIRS vegetation indices at 500 meter resolution by selecting the best available pixel over a 16-day period.

  • This product includes three vegetation indices: Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI), and Enhanced Vegetation Index-2 (EVI2).

  • The dataset is available from 2012-01-17 to 2025-09-30 with a cadence of 8 days.

  • Along with vegetation indices, the product also provides layers for various reflectances, composite day of year, pixel reliability, and view/sun angles.
NASA/VIIRS/002/VNP13A1
Dataset Availability
2012-01-17T00:00:00Z–2026-02-18T00:00:00Z
Dataset Producer
Earth Engine Snippet
ee.ImageCollection("NASA/VIIRS/002/VNP13A1")
Cadence
8 Days
Tags
16-day evi nasa ndvi noaa npp vegetation vegetation-indices viirs
vnp13a1

Description

The Suomi National Polar-Orbiting Partnership (S-NPP) NASA Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) Vegetation Indices (VNP13A1) 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 VNP13 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 VNP13 algorithm process produces three vegetation indices: (1) Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), (2) the Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI), and (3) Enhanced Vegetation Index-2 (EVI2). (1) NDVI is one of the longest continual remotely sensed time series observations, using both the red and near-infrared (NIR) bands. (2) EVI is a slightly different vegetation index that is more sensitive to canopy cover, while NDVI is more sensitive to chlorophyll. (3) EVI2 is 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; view and sun angles, and a quality layer.

For additional information, visit the VIIRS Land Product Quality Assessment website and see the User Guide.

Documentation:

Bands

Bands

Pixel size: 500 meters (all bands)

Name Units Pixel Size Wavelength Description
EVI 500 meters None

3 band Enhanced Vegetation Index
EVI2 500 meters None

2 band Enhanced Vegetation Index
NDVI 500 meters None

Normalized Difference Vegetation Index
NIR_reflectance 500 meters 846-885nm

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

Shortwave Infrared Radiation reflectance
SWIR2_reflectance 500 meters 1580-1640nm

Shortwave Infrared Radiation reflectance
SWIR3_reflectance 500 meters 2225-2275nm

Shortwave Infrared Radiation reflectance
VI_Quality 500 meters None

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

Red band reflectance
green_reflectance 500 meters 545-656nm

Green band reflectance
blue_reflectance 500 meters 478-498nm

Blue band reflectance
composite_day_of_the_year d 500 meters None

Julian day of year
pixel_reliability 500 meters None

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

Relative azimuth angle for each pixel
sun_zenith_angle deg 500 meters None

Sun zenith angle for each pixel
view_zenith_angle deg 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)

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:

DOIs

Explore with Earth Engine

Code Editor (JavaScript)

var dataset = ee.ImageCollection('NASA/VIIRS/002/VNP13A1')
                  .filter(ee.Filter.date('2017-05-01', '2017-06-30'));
var rgb = dataset.select(['EVI']);
var rgbVis = {
  min: 0.0,
  max: 1.0,
  palette: ['000000', '004400', '008800', '00bb00', '00ff00'],
};
Map.setCenter(17.93, 7.71, 6);
Map.addLayer(rgb, rgbVis, 'RGB');
Open in Code Editor
The Suomi National Polar-Orbiting Partnership (S-NPP) NASA Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) Vegetation Indices (VNP13A1) 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 VNP13 data products are designed after the Moderate Resolution Imaging …
NASA/VIIRS/002/VNP13A1, 16-day,evi,nasa,ndvi,noaa,npp,vegetation,vegetation-indices,viirs
2012-01-17T00:00:00Z/2026-02-18T00:00:00Z
-90 -180 90 180
Google Earth Engine