CEOS' Endorsement of the Nighttime Light Surface Radiance Product Family Specification (v1.0)

The Level-1 Atmosphere Archive & Distribution System (LAADS) Distributed Active Archive Center (DAAC) has added additional information to both the SNPP VIIIRS (Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite) Level-1 Calibrated Radiances and Geolocation, and Level-3 Nighttime Lights products' landing pages on June 14, 2023. The Committee on Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS) requested these updates be made to the LAADS DAAC website in October 2022 as part of the CEOS-endorsed version 1.0 Product Family Specification (PFS) for the Nighttime Light Surface Radiance (NLSR)

The CEOS coordinates space-based satellite observations at an international level, advocating for Analysis-Ready Data (ARD). The CEOS ARD products "have been processed to a minimum set of requirements and organized into a form that allows immediate analysis with a minimum of additional user effort and interoperability both through time and with other datasets," according to the CEOS website.

The LAADS DAAC, which produces, archives, and distributes the SNPP-based VIIRS v1.0 Black Marble suite of Nighttime Lights (NTL) products continues to address all additional requirements to conform to the NLSR PFS through enhancements to the Level-1 and Level-3 landing pages. The current PFS evaluation is considered a preliminary assessment, and a follow-up assessment is expected to take place after the v2.0 Black Marble suite of NTL products is released later in 2023. The additional information in the landing pages includes the following:

SNPP VIIRS v2.0 Level-1 landing pages for Calibrated Radiances and Geolocation:

• Traceability for reference-based instrument calibration and measurement uncertainty
• VIIRS Level-1B measurement uncertainty
• Radiometric accuracy
• Geometric accuracy

SNPP VIIRS v1.0 Level-3 landing pages for Nighttime Lights:

• Processing Chain Provenance
• Processing steps used to generate the SNPP VIIRS VNP46 product
• The data producer's name and email
• The production software (Product Generation Executable) version used

For additional information, consult the following updated landing pages and User Guides:

SNPP Level-1 Landing Pages

• SNPP VIIRS Level-1B Calibrated Radiances (I-bands)
• SNPP VIIRS Level-1B Calibrated Radiances (M-bands)
• SNPP VIIRS Level-1B Calibrated Radiances (Day-Night band)

• SNPP VIIRS Level-1 Geolocation (I-bands)
• SNPP VIIRS Level-1 Geolocation (M-bands)
• SNPP VIIRS Level-1 Geolocation (Day-Night band)

• NASA VIIRS Level-1B Product User Guide

SNPP VIIRS Level-3 Landing Pages

• SNPP VIIRS Daily L3 Gridded Day Night Band 500m Linear Lat Lon Grid Night
• SNPP VIIRS Gap-Filled Lunar BRDF-Adjusted Nighttime Lights Daily L3 Global 500m Linear Lat Lon Grid
• SNPP VIIRS Lunar BRDF-Adjusted Nighttime Lights Monthly L3 Global 15 arc second Linear Lat Lon Grid
• SNPP VIIRS Lunar BRDF-Adjusted Nighttime Lights Yearly L3 Global 15 arc second Linear Lat Lon Grid

• VIIRS Black Marble Product User Guide