AERDB_D3_VIIRS_NOAA20 - VIIRS/NOAA20 Deep Blue Level 3 daily aerosol data, 1x1 degree grid

The Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) NASA standard Level-3 (L3) daily Deep Blue aerosol products from the NOAA-20 — formerly known as the Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS-1) — satellite provide satellite-derived measurements of Aerosol Optical Thickness (AOT) and their properties over land and ocean as gridded aggregates with daily global coverage. The Deep Blue algorithm draws its heritage from previous applications to retrieve AOT from the Sea‐viewing Wide Field‐of‐view Sensor (SeaWiFS) over both land and ocean, and the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) measurements over land.

This daily aggregated product (Short-name: AERDB_D3_VIIRS_NOAA20) is derived from the Version-2.0 (V2.0) L2 6-minute swath-based products (AERDB_L2_VIIRS_NOAA20), and is provided in a 1 x 1 degree horizontal resolution grid. Each data field, in most cases, represents the arithmetic mean of all the cells whose latitude and longitude coordinates positions them within each grid element’s bounding limits. Other measures like standard deviation are also provided. This aggregated product is derived using only the best-estimate QA-filtered retrievals. Using only cells that were measured on the day of interest, the algorithm requires at least three retrieved measurements to render a given grid as valid on any given day. This daily product record starts from February 17th, 2018.

This L3 daily product, in netCDF, contains 45 Science Data Set (SDS) layers that include the following:

  1. Aerosol_Optical_Thickness_550_Land_Count
  2. Aerosol_Optical_Thickness_550_Land_Maximum
  3. Aerosol_Optical_Thickness_550_Land_Mean
  4. Aerosol_Optical_Thickness_550_Land_Minimum
  5. Aerosol_Optical_Thickness_550_Land_Ocean_Count
  6. Aerosol_Optical_Thickness_550_Land_Ocean_Maximum
  7. Aerosol_Optical_Thickness_550_Land_Ocean_Mean
  8. Aerosol_Optical_Thickness_550_Land_Ocean_Minimum
  9. Aerosol_Optical_Thickness_550_Land_Ocean_Standard_Deviation
  10. Aerosol_Optical_Thickness_550_Land_Standard_Deviation
  11. Aerosol_Optical_Thickness_550_Ocean_Count
  12. Aerosol_Optical_Thickness_550_Ocean_Maximum
  13. Aerosol_Optical_Thickness_550_Ocean_Mean
  14. Aerosol_Optical_Thickness_550_Ocean_Minimum
  15. Aerosol_Optical_Thickness_550_Ocean_Standard_Deviation
  16. Aerosol_Type_Land_Ocean_Histogram
  17. Aerosol_Type_Land_Ocean_Mode
  18. Aerosol_Types
  19. Angstrom_Exponent_Land_Maximum
  20. Angstrom_Exponent_Land_Mean
  21. Angstrom_Exponent_Land_Minimum
  22. Angstrom_Exponent_Land_Ocean_Maximum
  23. Angstrom_Exponent_Land_Ocean_Mean
  24. Angstrom_Exponent_Land_Ocean_Minimum
  25. Angstrom_Exponent_Land_Ocean_Standard_Deviation
  26. Angstrom_Exponent_Land_Standard_Deviation
  27. Angstrom_Exponent_Ocean_Maximum
  28. Angstrom_Exponent_Ocean_Mean
  29. Angstrom_Exponent_Ocean_Minimum
  30. Angstrom_Exponent_Ocean_Standard_Deviation
  31. Fine_Mode_Fraction_550_Ocean_Mean
  32. Fine_Mode_Fraction_550_Ocean_Standard_Deviation
  33. Land_Bands
  34. Latitude
  35. Latitude_1D
  36. Longitude
  37. Longitude_1D
  38. Ocean_Bands
  39. Spectral_Aerosol_Optical_Thickness_Land_Count
  40. Spectral_Aerosol_Optical_Thickness_Land_Mean
  41. Spectral_Aerosol_Optical_Thickness_Land_Standard_Deviation
  42. Spectral_Aerosol_Optical_Thickness_Ocean_Count
  43. Spectral_Aerosol_Optical_Thickness_Ocean_Mean
  44. Spectral_Aerosol_Optical_Thickness_Ocean_Standard_Deviation
  45. Unsuitable_Pixel_Fraction_Land_Ocean

Consult the VIIRS Deep Blue Aerosol product user guide for additional information regarding the global attributes, data field attributes, quality flags, software to handle and use these data products, etc.

Links

  • Search for Product Files
  • Data Archive
  • VIIRS Deep Blue Aerosol Product User Guide
  • VIIRS Deep Blue Aerosol Algorithm Theoretical Basis Document
  • DOI: 10.5067/VIIRS/AERDT_L2_VIIRS_NOAA21.021
  • Please cite the use of this product in publications using the following references: Sawyer, V., R.C. Levy, S. Mattoo, Y.R. Shi, M. Kim, L.A. Remer, and G. Cureton (2025), An updated VIIRS dark target aerosol product for continuity with MODIS: assessing regional aerosol trends. Front. Environ. Sci. 13, https://doi.org/10.3389/fenvs.2025.1602145 Sawyer, V., R.C. Levy, S. Mattoo, G. Cureton, Y. Shi, and L.A. Remer (2020), Continuing the MODIS Dark Target Aerosol Time Series with VIIRS. Remote Sens. 2020, 12, 308, https://doi.org/10.3390/rs12020308 Levy, R.C., L. A. Munchak, S. Mattoo, F. Patadia, L. A. Remer, and R. E. Holz (2015), Towards a long-term global aerosol optical depth record: applying a consistent aerosol retrieval algorithm to MODIS and VIIRS-observed reflectance, Atmos. Meas. Tech., 8, 4083-4110.
Shortname: AERDB_D3_VIIRS_NOAA20
Platform: NOAA20
Instrument: VIIRS
Processing Level: Level-3
Data Format: netCDF4
Spatial Resolution: 1 degree
Temporal Resolution: Daily
ArchiveSet(s): 5200
Collection: NPP and JPSS1 VIIRS data 2.0 (ArchiveSet 5200)
PGE Number: NONE
File Naming Convention:

Syntax: ESDT.AYYYYDDD.CCC.YYYYDDDHHMMSS.Format

Example: AERDB_D3_VIIRS_NOAA20.A2020001.002.2022245184551.nc

ESDTEarth Science Data Type or Shortname
AStands for Acquisition
YYYYDDDData acquisition year and Day-of-year per the Julian Calendar
CCCVersion ID of the data collection
YYYYDDDHHMMSSProcessing year, Day-of-year, UTC time (hour, minutes, seconds)
FormatFile format suffix, which in the above case represents netCDF4
Citation: Please cite the use of this product in publications using the following references: Sawyer, V., R.C. Levy, S. Mattoo, Y.R. Shi, M. Kim, L.A. Remer, and G. Cureton (2025), An updated VIIRS dark target aerosol product for continuity with MODIS: assessing regional aerosol trends. Front. Environ. Sci. 13, https://doi.org/10.3389/fenvs.2025.1602145 Sawyer, V., R.C. Levy, S. Mattoo, G. Cureton, Y. Shi, and L.A. Remer (2020), Continuing the MODIS Dark Target Aerosol Time Series with VIIRS. Remote Sens. 2020, 12, 308, https://doi.org/10.3390/rs12020308 Levy, R.C., L. A. Munchak, S. Mattoo, F. Patadia, L. A. Remer, and R. E. Holz (2015), Towards a long-term global aerosol optical depth record: applying a consistent aerosol retrieval algorithm to MODIS and VIIRS-observed reflectance, Atmos. Meas. Tech., 8, 4083-4110.
Keywords: NOAA20 VIIRS, L3, Daily Aggregated, Deep Blue Aerosol Optical Thickness
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