VNP46A2: VIIRS Lunar Gap-Filled BRDF Nighttime Lights Daily L3 Global 500m

NASA/VIIRS/002/VNP46A2
Dataset Availability
2012-01-19T00:00:00Z–2025-06-20T00:00:00Z
Dataset Provider
Earth Engine Snippet
ee.ImageCollection("NASA/VIIRS/002/VNP46A2")
Cadence
1 Day
Tags
brdf daily nasa nighttime noaa population viirs

Description

The Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (SNPP) Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) supports a Day-Night Band (DNB) sensor that provides global daily measurements of nocturnal visible and near-infrared(NIR) light that are suitable for Earth system science and applications. The VIIRS DNB's ultra-sensitivity in lowlight conditions enable us to generate a new set of science-quality nighttime products that manifest substantial improvements in sensor resolution and calibration when compared to the previous era of Defense Meteorological Satellite Program/Operational Linescan System's (DMSP/OLS) nighttime lights image products. Such improvements allow the VIIRS DNB products to better monitor both the magnitude and signature of nighttime phenomena, and anthropogenic sources of light emissions.

VNP46A2 is the short-name for the daily moonlight- and atmosphere-corrected Nighttime Lights (NTL) product called VIIRS/NPP Gap-Filled Lunar BRDF-Adjusted Nighttime Lights Daily L3 Global 500m Linear Lat Lon Grid.

Documentation:

Bands

Pixel Size
500 meters

Bands

Name Min Max Description
DNB_BRDF_Corrected_NTL 0 6553.4

BRDF corrected DNB NTL

Gap_Filled_DNB_BRDF_Corrected_NTL 0 6553.4

Gap Filled BRDF corrected DNB NTL

DNB_Lunar_Irradiance 0 6553.4

DNB Lunar Irradiance

Latest_High_Quality_Retrieval

Latest high quality BRDF corrected DNB radiance retrieval

Mandatory_Quality_Flag 0 3

Mandatory quality flag

Snow_Flag 0 1

Flag for snow cover

QF_Cloud_Mask

Quality flag for cloud mask

Mandatory_Quality_Flag Class Table

Value Color Description
0 High-quality, Persistent nighttime lights
1 High-quality, Ephemeral nighttime Lights
2 Poor-quality, Outlier, potential cloud contamination, or other issues
255 No retrieval, Fill value (masked out on ingestion)

Snow_Flag Class Table

Value Color Description
0 No Snow/Ice
1 Snow/Ice

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:
  • Román, M.O., Wang, Z., Sun, Q., Kalb, V., Miller, S.D., Molthan, A., Schultz, L., Bell, J., Stokes, E.C., Pandey, B. and Seto, K.C., et al. (2018). NASA's Black Marble nighttime lights product suite. Remote Sensing of Environment 210, 113-143. 10.1016/j.rse.2018.03.017

DOIs

Explore with Earth Engine

Code Editor (JavaScript)

var dataset = ee.ImageCollection('NASA/VIIRS/002/VNP46A2')
                  .filter(ee.Filter.date('2013-01-01', '2013-03-01'));

var nighttime = dataset.select('Gap_Filled_DNB_BRDF_Corrected_NTL');
var nighttimeVis = {min: 0.0, max: 1.0};

Map.setCenter(-77.1056, 38.8904, 3);
Map.addLayer(nighttime, nighttimeVis, 'Nighttime');
Open in Code Editor