The VIIRS/SNPP Dark Target Aerosol L2 6-Min Swath 6 km 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 Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (SNPP) Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) incarnation of the dark target (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) 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). For more information consult LAADS product description page at: https://ladsweb.modaps.eosdis.nasa.gov/missions-and-measurements/products/AERDT_L2_VIIRS_SNPP Or, Dark Target aerosol team Page at: https://darktarget.gsfc.nasa.gov/

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).

The VIIRS/NOAA20 Dark Target Aerosol L2 6-Min Swath 6 km 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 NOAA-20 - formerly the Joint Polar Satellite System-1 (JPSS-1) - Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) incarnation of the dark target (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_NOAA20) 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. This Version-2 set of products is the first collection of the Level-2 Dark Target Aerosol derived from the NOAA-20 VIIRS source. Hence, it bears outlining the differences between the products derived from NOAA-20 VIIRS as against the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (SNPP) VIIRS. For more information consult LAADS product description page at: https://ladsweb.modaps.eosdis.nasa.gov/missions-and-measurements/products/AERDT_L2_VIIRS_NOAA20 Or, Dark Target aerosol team Page at: https://darktarget.gsfc.nasa.gov/

The SNPP/VIIRS L2 Dark Target Aerosol 6-Min L2 Swath 6 km product, short-name XAERDT_L2_VIIRS_SNPP is provided at 6-km spatial resolution (at-nadir) and a 6-minute cadence that typically yields about 130 granules over the daylit hours of a 24-hour period. The SNPP/VIIRS L2 collection record spans from January 2019 through December 2022. The XAERDT_L2_VIIRS_SNPP product is a part of the Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO)–Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) Dark Target Aerosol project under NASA’s Making Earth System Data Records for Use in Research Environments (MEaSUREs) program, led by Robert Levy, uses a special version of the MODIS Dark Target (DT) aerosol retrieval algorithm to produce Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD) and other aerosol parameters derived independently from seven sensor/platform combinations, where 3 are in GEO and 4 are in LEO. The 3 GEO sensors include Advanced Baseline Imagers (ABI) on both GOES-16 (GOES-East) and GOES-17 (GOES-West), and Advanced Himawari Imager (AHI) on Himawari-8. The 4 LEO sensors include MODIS on both Terra and Aqua, and VIIRS on both Suomi-NPP and NOAA-20. Adding the LEO sensors reinforces a major goal of this project, which is to render a consistent science maturity level across DT aerosol products derived from both types and sources of orbital satellites. The XAERDT_L2_VIIRS_SNPP product, in netCDF4 format, contains 45 Science Data Set (SDS) layers that include 8 geolocation and 37 geophysical SDSs. For more information consult LAADS product description page at: https://ladsweb.modaps.eosdis.nasa.gov/missions-and-measurements/products/XAERDT_L2_VIIRS_SNPP Or, Dark Target aerosol team Page at: https://darktarget.gsfc.nasa.gov/

The Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (SNPP) Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) NASA standard Level-2 (L2) deep blue aerosol product provides satellite-derived measurements of Aerosol Optical Thickness (AOT) and their properties over land and ocean, every 6 minutes, globally. The Deep Blue algorithm draws its heritage from previous applications to retrieve AOT from Sea‐viewing Wide Field‐of‐view Sensor (SeaWiFS) and Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) measurements over land.This orbit-level product (Short-name: AERDB_L2_VIIRS_SNPP) 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. The L2 Deep Blue AOT data products, at 550 nanometers reference wavelengths, are derived from particular VIIRS bands using two primary AOT retrieval algorithms: Deep Blue algorithm over land, and the Satellite Ocean Aerosol Retrieval (SOAR) algorithm over ocean. Although this product is called Deep Blue based on retrievals for the land algorithm, the data includes over-water retrievals as well.

The Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (SNPP) Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) NASA standard Level-2 (L2) deep blue aerosol product provides satellite-derived measurements of Aerosol Optical Thickness (AOT) and their properties over land and ocean, every 6 minutes, globally. The Deep Blue algorithm draws its heritage from previous applications to retrieve AOT from Sea‐viewing Wide Field‐of‐view Sensor (SeaWiFS) and Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) measurements over land.This orbit-level product (Short-name: AERDB_L2_VIIRS_SNPP) 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. The L2 Deep Blue AOT data products, at 550 nanometers reference wavelengths, are derived from particular VIIRS bands using two primary AOT retrieval algorithms: Deep Blue algorithm over land, and the Satellite Ocean Aerosol Retrieval (SOAR) algorithm over ocean. Although this product is called Deep Blue based on retrievals for the land algorithm, the data includes over-water retrievals as well.

The VIIRS/SNPP Deep Blue Aerosol L2 6-Min Swath 6 km product from the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) determines atmospheric aerosol loading for daytime cloud-free snow-free scenes. This orbit-level product (Short-name: AERDB_L2_VIIRS_SNPP) 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. The L2 Deep Blue AOT data products, at 550 nanometers reference wavelengths, are derived from particular VIIRS bands using two primary AOT retrieval algorithms: Deep Blue algorithm over land, and the Satellite Ocean Aerosol Retrieval (SOAR) algorithm over ocean. Although this product is called Deep Blue based on retrievals for the land algorithm, the data includes over-water retrievals as well. This L2 description pertains to the VIIRS Deep Blue Aerosol collection version 2.0 (C2) product. Significant changes have been made to the V2.0 Deep Blue/SOAR algorithms to further improve the data quality. For C2.0, the aerosol products are available for NOAA20 VIIRS in addition to SNPP. Some of changes in the retrieval algorithms and data products include, new SDS suite for prognostic uncertainties of 550 nm AOT over both land and ocean is added, surface pressure is better accounted for for both over-land and over-ocean retrievals by adding surface pressure nodes in the aerosol lookup table, and a number of other improvements which can be found from Product page at: https://ladsweb.modaps.eosdis.nasa.gov/missions-and-measurements/products/AERDB_L2_VIIRS_SNPP For more information consult Deep Blue aerosol team Page at: https://deepblue.gsfc.nasa.gov

The VIIRS/SNPP Deep Blue Aerosol L2 6-Min Swath 6 km product from the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) determines atmospheric aerosol loading for daytime cloud-free snow-free scenes. This orbit-level product (Short-name: AERDB_L2_VIIRS_SNPP) 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. The L2 Deep Blue AOT data products, at 550 nanometers reference wavelengths, are derived from particular VIIRS bands using two primary AOT retrieval algorithms: Deep Blue algorithm over land, and the Satellite Ocean Aerosol Retrieval (SOAR) algorithm over ocean. Although this product is called Deep Blue based on retrievals for the land algorithm, the data includes over-water retrievals as well. This L2 description pertains to the SNPP VIIRS Deep Blue Aerosol collection-1.1 (C1.1) product, whose record starts from March 1st 2012. The primary reason for generating this new C1.1 version is that it no longer contains out-of-valid-range pixels, except in the case of the solar zenith angle. A number of other improvements and changes have been added that can be found from Product page at: https://ladsweb.modaps.eosdis.nasa.gov/missions-and-measurements/products/AERDB_L2_VIIRS_SNPP For more information consult Deep Blue aerosol team Page at: https://deepblue.gsfc.nasa.gov

The NOAA-20 - formerly the Joint Polar Satellite System-1 (JPSS-1) - 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 missions' Moderate Imaging Spectroradiometer (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 wavelengths).This orbit-level product (Short-name: AERDT_L2_VIIRS_NOAA20_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. This Version-2 set of products is the first collection of the Level-2 Dark Target Aerosol derived from the NOAA-20 VIIRS source. Hence, it bears outlining the differences between the products derived from NOAA-20 VIIRS as against the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (NOAA20) VIIRS.

This High-Resolution (0.1 x 0.1 degree) Level 3 monthly Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD) product is generated by combining two Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) operational algorithms, namely Deep Blue (DB) and Dark Target (DT), on board the Suomi National Polar-Orbiting Partnership (SNPP) satellite. This dataset is provided in monthly files ranging from March 2012 to the present. The spatial coverage is global and the dataset is gridded at 0.1 x 0.1 degree spatial resolution. The data are generated using Level 2 AOD retrieved using DT and DB algorithms. The product provides multiple options for using data either from DT or DB or combined. Depending on user need and application, they can choose one or more relevant parameter. The pixels with highest quality as recommended by science teams are only considered in these averaging. In addition to averaged AOD at 0.1 x 0.1 degree resolution, standard deviation and number of pixels averaged from each algorithm are also provided. Average sensor zenith angle is also provided for additional filtering of the data. If you have any questions, please read the README document first and post your question to the NASA Earthdata Forum (forum.earthdata.nasa.gov) or email the GES DISC Help Desk (gsfc-dl-help-disc@mail.nasa.gov).