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DSCOVR EPIC Level 2 GLINT

Metadata Updated: September 19, 2025

DSCOVR_EPIC_L2_GLINT_01 is Version 1 of the Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera (EPIC) Level 2 glint data product. This product indicates the presence of glint caused by the single scattering specular reflection of sunlight either from horizontally oriented ice crystals floating in clouds or from smooth, highly reflective water surfaces. Such glints can prevent accurate retrievals of atmospheric and surface properties using existing algorithms but can also be used to learn more about the glint-causing objects.The glint detection algorithm relies on EPIC taking images at different wavelengths at slightly different times. For example, red images are taken about 4 minutes after blue images. During these few minutes, the Earth's rotation changes the scene's orientation by one degree, affecting whether EPIC observations at a specific wavelength will capture or miss the narrowly focused specular reflection from ice clouds or smooth water surfaces. As a result, sharp brightness differences between EPIC images taken a few minutes apart can identify glint signals. The glint product includes three parameters for each pixel in the part of EPIC images where the alignment of solar and viewing directions is suitable for sun glint observations: (1) The surface type flag shows whether the area of a pixel is covered mainly by water, desert, or non-desert land; (2) The glint angle—the angle between the actual EPIC view direction and the direction of looking straight into the specular reflection from a perfectly horizontal surface—tells how favorable the EPIC view direction is for glint detection and can help in estimating the distribution of ice crystal orientation; (3) The glint mask indicates whether or not glint has been detected.

Access & Use Information

Public: This dataset is intended for public access and use. License: No license information was provided. If this work was prepared by an officer or employee of the United States government as part of that person's official duties it is considered a U.S. Government Work.

Downloads & Resources

Dates

Metadata Created Date April 11, 2025
Metadata Updated Date September 19, 2025

Metadata Source

Harvested from NASA Data.json

Additional Metadata

Resource Type Dataset
Metadata Created Date April 11, 2025
Metadata Updated Date September 19, 2025
Publisher NASA/LARC/SD/ASDC
Maintainer
Identifier 10.5067/EPIC/DSCOVR/L2_GLINT.001
Data Last Modified 2025-09-11
Category Earth Science
Public Access Level public
Bureau Code 026:00
Metadata Context https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.jsonld
Schema Version https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
Catalog Describedby https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.json
Harvest Object Id 1863e2de-84b3-48c8-ba6c-f77e225b45d8
Harvest Source Id 58f92550-7a01-4f00-b1b2-8dc953bd598f
Harvest Source Title NASA Data.json
Homepage URL https://epic.gsfc.nasa.gov/
Old Spatial "CARTESIAN",{"Boundary":{"Points":{"Latitude":-90,"Longitude":-180},{"Latitude":-90,"Longitude":180},{"Latitude":90,"Longitude":180},{"Latitude":90,"Longitude":-180},{"Latitude":-90,"Longitude":-180}}}
Program Code 026:000
Source Datajson Identifier True
Source Hash 143ba292a9f72f00e9840212b63811b6b52a51624e086e42e199532ac96465de
Source Schema Version 1.1
Spatial
Temporal 2015-06-13/2015-06-13

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