SATELLITE INSTRUMENT
VIIRS-DNB
The Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) is one of the key instruments onboard the Suomi National Polar-Orbiting Partnership (Suomi NPP) spacecraft, launched on October 28, 2011. It performs moderate resolution imaging with 22 channels, allowing environmental monitoring and weather forecasting. The very high sensitivity of the Day Night Band (DNB) of VIIRS allows global daily measurements of the visible and near-infrared light, in lowlight conditions.
TYPE OF INSTRUMENT
Radiometric imaging sensor
STATUS
Operational
DATA AVAILABILITY
Yes, freely available
TIME RANGE
Since 2012
FREQUENCY OF MEASUREMENT
Continuous
(14 hours revisit cycle)
DATA PUBLISHING FREQUENCY
Daily
DATA PUBLISHING DELAY
None
OWNER
NASA and NOAA
MORE INFORMATION
CALIBRATED DATA
Yes
MEASUREMENT UNIT
nW/cm²/sr
WAVELENGTH RANGE
500 – 900 nm
OBSERVED AREA
from -180° to 180° of long. from -65° to +75° of lat.
FIELD-OF-VIEW
3000 km swath
POINTING DIRECTION
Nadir
SPATIAL RESOLUTION
750 m
ORBIT TYPE
Sun-synchronous low alt. polar orbit (830 km alt.)
DATA VISUALISATION
Yes
DATA DOWNLOAD
LAADS – DAAC
DATA FORMAT
NetCDF, tgz, png
DATA POLICY
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
CONTACTS
SUOMI
FURTHER REFERENCES
– VIIRS-Land Near Real-Time Data (read the article)
– Comparison between VIIRS-DNB and Globe At Night data (read the article)
– Interactive visualization of VIIRS annual data on Light Pollution Map
– NASA’s Black Marble
– VIIRS Nighttime Light Data from EOG / Earth Observation Group, Colorado School of Mines (read the article)
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