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

Page Summary

• The VIIRS VNP46A2 dataset provides daily global measurements of nocturnal visible and near-infrared light.

• This dataset offers improvements in sensor resolution and calibration compared to previous nighttime lights products.

• VNP46A2 is a daily moonlight- and atmosphere-corrected Nighttime Lights product with a 500m pixel size.

• The dataset includes several bands such as corrected and gap-filled nighttime light, lunar irradiance, and various quality flags.

Dataset Availability

2012-01-19T00:00:00Z–2026-03-09T00:00:00Z

Dataset Producer

NASA LAADS DAAC

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:

• User's Guide

• Algorithm Theoretical Basis Document (ATBD)

• General Documentation

Bands

Bands

Pixel size: 500 meters (all bands)

Name	Min	Max	Pixel Size	Description
DNB_BRDF_Corrected_NTL	0	6553.4	500 meters	BRDF corrected DNB NTL
Gap_Filled_DNB_BRDF_Corrected_NTL	0	6553.4	500 meters	Gap Filled BRDF corrected DNB NTL
DNB_Lunar_Irradiance	0	6553.4	500 meters	DNB Lunar Irradiance
Latest_High_Quality_Retrieval			500 meters	Latest high quality BRDF corrected DNB radiance retrieval
Mandatory_Quality_Flag	0	3	500 meters	Mandatory quality flag
Snow_Flag	0	1	500 meters	Flag for snow cover
QF_Cloud_Mask			500 meters	Quality flag for cloud mask
Bitmask for QF_Cloud_Mask Bit 0: Day/Night 0: Night 1: Day Bits 1-3: Land/Water Background 0: Land & Desert 1: Land no Desert 2: Inland Water 3: Sea Water 5: Coastal Bits 4-5: Cloud Mask Quality 0: Poor 1: Low 2: Medium 3: High Bits 6-7: Cloud Detection Results & Confidence Indicator 0: Confident Clear 1: Probably Clear 2: Probably Cloudy 3: Confident Cloudy Bit 8: Shadow Detected 0: No 1: Yes Bit 9: Cirrus Detection (IR) (BTM15 - BTM16) 0: No cloud 1: Cloud Bit 10: Snow/Ice Surface 0: No Snow/Ice 1: Snow/Ice

Mandatory_Quality_Flag Class Table

Value	Color	Description
0	None	High-quality, Persistent nighttime lights
1	None	High-quality, Ephemeral nighttime Lights
2	None	Poor-quality, Outlier, potential cloud contamination, or other issues
255	None	No retrieval, Fill value (masked out on ingestion)

Snow_Flag Class Table

Value	Color	Description
0	None	No Snow/Ice
1	None	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

• https://doi.org/10.5067/VIIRS/VNP46A2.002

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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

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

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 …

NASA/VIIRS/002/VNP46A2, brdf,daily,nasa,nighttime,noaa,population,viirs

2012-01-19T00:00:00Z/2026-03-09T00:00:00Z

-90 -180 90 180

Google Earth Engine

https://developers.google.com/earth-engine/datasets

• https://doi.org/10.5067/VIIRS/VNP46A2.002
• https://doi.org/10.5067/VIIRS/VNP46A2.002