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Description

The Suomi NPP VIIRS Water Vapor Products provide total column water vapor (TPW) properties from merged VIIRS infrared measurements and CrIS plus ATMS water vapor soundings to continue the depiction of global moisture at high spatial resolution started with MODIS on the Terra and Aqua platforms. While MODIS has two water vapor channels within the 6.5 μm H2O absorption band and four channels within the 15 micrometer CO2 absorption band, VIIRS has no channels in either IR absorption band. The VNPWATVP algorithm is similar to the MODIS MOD07 synthetic regression algorithm. It uses the three VIIRS longwave IR window bands in a regression relation and adds the NUCAPS (CrIS+ATMS) water vapor product to compensate for the absence of VIIRS water vapor channels. The Level-2 6-minute granule and 750 m spatial resolution VIIRS TPW product file includes the collocated NUCAPS background TPW, the VIIRS-only TPW, and VIIRS+NUCAPS TPW retrievals with quality flags.

Version Description

SUOMI-NPP VIIRS Version 1 Data

Product Summary

Platforms
Suomi-NPP
Instruments
VIIRS
Spatial Extent

N: 90 S: -90 E: 180 W: -180

Geographic Region
GLOBAL
Coordinate System
CARTESIAN
Granule Spatial Representation
GEODETIC
Temporal Extent
2012-05-01 to 2018-09-11
Data Partner
Space Science and Engineering Center, University of Wisconsin, Madison (UWI-MAD/SSEC) ,
L1 and Atmosphere Archive and Distribution System,Biospheric Information Systems Branch, Hydrospheric and Biospheric Sciences Laboratory, Earth Sciences Division, Science and Exploration Directorate, Goddard Space Flight Center, NASA (NASA/GSFC/SED/ESD/H ,
MODIS Adaptive Processing System, Biospheric Information Systems Branch, Hydrospheric and Biospheric Sciences Laboratory, Earth Sciences Division, Science and Exploration Directorate, Goddard Space Flight Center, NASA (NASA/GSFC/SED/ESD/HBSL/BISB/MODAPS)
Concept ID
C1681179895-LAADS
Data State
COMPLETE
Number of Files/Granules
539388
Processing Level
2
Published
Updated
Science Keywords
Atmospheric Water Vapor ,
Water Vapor Indicators ,
Humidity ,
Total Precipitable Water ,
Water Vapor ,
Water Vapor Profiles

Citation

Citation is critically important for dataset documentation and discovery. This dataset is openly shared, without restriction, in accordance with the EOSDIS Data Use and Citation Guidance.

Copy Citation

VIIRS Atmosphere Science Team SSEC University Of Wisconsin-Madison. (2020). VIIRS/SNPP Level-2 Water Vapor Products 6-min Swath 750m [Data set]. NASA Level 1 and Atmosphere Archive and Distribution System Distributed Active Archive Center. https://doi.org/10.5067/VIIRS/WATVP_L2_VIIRS_SNPP.001 Date Accessed: 2025-12-14

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