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VIIRS/JPSS1 Land Surface Temperature/Emissivity Monthly L3 Global 0.05Deg CMG V002

Metadata Updated: January 15, 2026

The NOAA-20 Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) Land Surface Temperature and Emissivity (LST&E) monthly Climate Modeling Grid Version 2 product (VJ121C3) provides LST&E by a process of selecting the best available pixel over a monthly acquisition period at 0.05 degree (~5,600 meter) resolution. The VJ121C3 dataset is a monthly composite LST&E product that uses an algorithm based on a simple averaging method and is formatted as a CMG for use in climate simulation models. The algorithm calculates the average from all the cloud free VJ121A1D and VJ121A1N daily acquisitions from the monthly period. Unlike the VJ121A1 data sets where the daytime and nighttime acquisitions are separate products, the VJ121C3 contains both daytime and nighttime acquisitions as separate Science Dataset (SDS) layers within a single Hierarchical Data Format (HDF) file. Additional details regarding the method used to create this Level 3 (L3) product are available in the Algorithm Theoretical Basis Document (ATBD).The VJ121C3 product contains 25 Science Datasets (SDS): LST, quality control, view zenith angle, and time of observation for both day and night observations along with emissivity for bands M14, M15, and M16. Low-resolution browse images for day and night LST are also available for each VJ121C3 granule.Known Issues For complete information about known issues please refer to the MODIS/VIIRS Land Quality Assessment website and the User Guide.Improvements/Changes from Previous Version Improved calibration algorithm and coefficients for entire NOAA-20 mission. Improved geolocation accuracy and applied updates to fix outliers around maneuver periods. Corrected the aerosol quantity flag (low, average, high) mainly over brighter surfaces in the mid- to high-latitudes such as desert and tropical vegetation areas. This has an impact on the retrieval of other downstream data products such as VNP13 Vegetation Indices and VNP43 Bidirectional Reflectance Distribution Function (BRDF)/Albedo. Improved cloud mask input product for corrections along coastlines and artifacts from use of coarse resolution climatology data. * Replaced the land/water mask input product with the eight-class land/water mask from the VNP03 geolocation product that better aligns with MODIS. Replaced MERRA2 inputs with GEOS5. Included inland water body pixels to allow for LST retrieval over these areas. Introduced daily, 8-day, and monthly LST CMG products.* More details can be found in this VIIRS Land V2 Changes document.

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 January 15, 2026

Metadata Source

Harvested from NASA Data.json

Additional Metadata

Resource Type Dataset
Metadata Created Date April 11, 2025
Metadata Updated Date January 15, 2026
Publisher LP DAAC;NASA/GSFC/SED/ESD/TISL/LandSIPS
Maintainer
Identifier 10.5067/VIIRS/VJ121C3.002
Data Last Modified 2026-01-13
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 da647587-35eb-4a13-84f4-4770a6aea95b
Harvest Source Id 58f92550-7a01-4f00-b1b2-8dc953bd598f
Harvest Source Title NASA Data.json
Homepage URL https://search.earthdata.nasa.gov/search?q=C2545310909-LPCLOUD
Old Spatial {"NorthBoundingCoordinate":90,"WestBoundingCoordinate":-180,"EastBoundingCoordinate":180,"SouthBoundingCoordinate":-90},"CARTESIAN"
Program Code 026:000
Source Datajson Identifier True
Source Hash d86de4e2e4667640a69c2bf13668582b7d350ed427e36be63ffe792eb27887ed
Source Schema Version 1.1
Spatial
Temporal 2018-01-01/2018-01-01

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