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VIIRS/SNPP Dark Target Aerosol L2 6-Min Swath (v2.0)

Metadata Updated: September 18, 2025

The Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (SNPP) Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) NASA standard Level-2 (L2) dark target (DT) aerosol product provides satellite-derived measurements of Aerosol Optical Thickness (AOT) and their properties over land and ocean, and spectral AOT and their size parameters over oceans every 6 minutes, globally. The VIIRS incarnation of the DT aerosol product is based on the same DT algorithm that was developed and used to derive products from the Terra and Aqua mission’s MODIS instruments. Two separate and distinct DT algorithms exist. One helps retrieve aerosol information over ocean (dark in visible and longer wavelengths), while the second aids retrievals over vegetated/dark-soiled land (dark in the visible).This orbit-level product (Short-name: AERDT_L2_VIIRS_SNPP_NRT) has an at-nadir resolution of 6 km x 6 km, and progressively increases away from nadir given the sensor's scanning geometry and Earth's curvature. Viewed differently, this product's resolution accommodates 8 x 8 native VIIRS moderate-resolution (M-band) pixels that nominally have ~750 m horizontal pixel size. Hence, the Level-2 Dark Target Aerosol Optical Thickness data product incorporates 64 (750 m) pixels over a 6-minute acquisition. Version 2.0 constitutes the latest collection of the L2 Dark Target Aerosol product and contains improvements over its previous collection (v1.1).

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 18, 2025

Metadata Source

Harvested from NASA Data.json

Additional Metadata

Resource Type Dataset
Metadata Created Date April 11, 2025
Metadata Updated Date September 18, 2025
Publisher UWI-MAD/SSEC/ASIPS
Maintainer
Identifier 10.5067/VIIRS/AERDT_L2_VIIRS_SNPP_NRT.002
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 dd2f8e96-9aa6-4843-ae72-7b2e06f83797
Harvest Source Id 58f92550-7a01-4f00-b1b2-8dc953bd598f
Harvest Source Title NASA Data.json
Homepage URL https://sips.ssec.wisc.edu/about/products/2/AERDT_L2_VIIRS_SNPP_NRT
Old Spatial "GEODETIC",{"NorthBoundingCoordinate":90,"WestBoundingCoordinate":-180,"EastBoundingCoordinate":180,"SouthBoundingCoordinate":-90}
Program Code 026:000
Source Datajson Identifier True
Source Hash ab57eba29d9f6deef87dd662c55c81a562c3164f63551997212976d22bacd5ef
Source Schema Version 1.1
Spatial
Temporal 2023-11-15/2023-11-15

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