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Description

The NOAA-20 Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) Vegetation Indices (VJ113C1) Version 2 data product provides vegetation indices by a process of selecting the best available pixel over a 16-day acquisition period at 0.05 degree resolution. The VNP13 data products are designed after the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) Terra and Aqua Vegetation Indices product suite to promote the continuity of the Earth Observation System (EOS) mission.

The VJ113 algorithm process produces three vegetation indices: The Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), the Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI), and the Enhanced Vegetation Index-2 (EVI2). NDVI is one of the longest continual remotely sensed time series observations, using both the red and near-infrared (NIR) bands. EVI is a slightly different vegetation index that is more sensitive to canopy cover, while NDVI is more sensitive to chlorophyll. EVI2 is a reformation of the standard 3-band EVI, using the red band and NIR band. This reformation addresses arising issues when comparing VIIRS EVI to other EVI models that do not include a blue band. EVI2 will eventually become the standard EVI.

Along with the three Vegetation Indices layers, this product also includes layers for the standard deviations of each Vegetation Index; NIR reflectance; three shortwave infrared (SWIR) reflectance; red, blue, and green reflectance; number of pixels, number of pixels used; pixel reliability; average sun angle, and a quality layer. Two low resolution browse images are also available for each VJ113C1 product: EVI and NDVI.

Known Issues

  • Due to missing critical inputs, this product lacks coverage for tiles h33v07 and h18v14, which are located over water.
  • For complete information about known issues please refer to the MODIS/VIIRS Land Quality Assessment website and the User Guide and ATBD.

Improvements/Changes from Previous Version

  • Improved calibration algorithm and coefficients for entire NOAA-20 mission.
  • Improved geolocation accuracy and applied updates to fix outliers around maneuver periods.
  • Corrected the aerosol quantity flag (low, average, high) mainly over brighter surfaces in the mid- to high-latitudes such as desert and tropical vegetation areas. This has an impact on the retrieval of other downstream data products such as VNP13 Vegetation Indices and VNP43 Bidirectional Reflectance Distribution Function (BRDF)/Albedo.
  • Improved cloud mask input product for corrections along coastlines and artifacts from use of coarse resolution climatology data.
  • Replaced the land/water mask input product with the eight-class land/water mask from the VNP03 geolocation product that better aligns with MODIS.
  • Modified QA VI Usefulness bits to ignore BRDF flag.
  • Implemented VI specific land/water mask.
  • More details can be found in this VIIRS Land V2 Changes document.

Product Summary

Platforms
NOAA-20
Instruments
VIIRS
Spatial Extent

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

Spatial Resolution
5600 Meters x 5600 Meters
Geographic Region
GLOBAL
Coordinate System
CARTESIAN
Granule Spatial Representation
CARTESIAN
Temporal Extent
2018-01-01 to Present
Temporal Resolution
16 Day
Data Partner
Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center (LP DAAC) ,
Land Science Investigator-led Processing System, Terrestrial Information Systems Laboratory, Earth Sciences Division, Sciences and Exploration Directorate, Goddard Space Flight Center, NASA (NASA/GSFC/SED/ESD/TISL/LandSIPS)
Concept ID
C2545310861-LPCLOUD
Data State
ACTIVE
Number of Files/Granules
363
Processing Level
3
Published
Updated
Science Keywords
Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) ,
Plant Phenology

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

Vermote, E. (2023). VIIRS/JPSS1 Vegetation Indices 16-Day L3 Global 0.05Deg CMG V002 [Data set]. NASA Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center. https://doi.org/10.5067/VIIRS/VJ113C1.002 Date Accessed: 2025-12-14

File Naming Convention

VJ113C1.A2025201.002.2025217151623.h5

The file name begins with the Product Short Name (VJ113C1) followed by the Julian Date of Acquisition formatted as AYYYYDDD (A2025201), the Version of the data collection (002), the Julian Date and Time of Production designated as YYYYDDDHHMMSS (2025217151623), and the Data Format (h5).

Documents

Variables

Variables are a set of physical properties whose values determine the characteristics or behavior of something. For example, temperature and pressure are variables of the atmosphere. Parameters and variables can be used interchangeably. Variable level attributes provide individual information for each variable.

The Name in this table is the variable name. Fill value indicates missing or undefined data points in a variable. Valid range is the range of values the variable can store. Scale factor is used to increase or decrease the size of an object and can be used to correct for distortion. For questions on a specific variable, please use the Earthdata Forum.

Name Description Units Data Type Fill Value Valid Range Scale Factor
CMG 0.05 Deg 16 days #1km pix used Number of 1 km pixels used for monthly 0.05° (5,600 m) composite Number uint8 255 0 to 36 N/A
CMG 0.05 Deg 16 days Avg sun zen angle Average sun zenith angle for each pixel Degree int16 -20000 0 to 18000 100
CMG 0.05 Deg 16 days blue reflectance Blue band reflectance (478–498 nm) N/A int16 -1000 0 to 10000 10000
CMG 0.05 Deg 16 days EVI2 2 band Enhanced Vegetation Index EVI2 int16 -15000 -10000 to 10000 10000
CMG 0.05 Deg 16 days EVI2 std dev Standard Deviation for the 2 band Enhanced Vegetation Index EVI2 int16 -15000 0 to 10000 10000
CMG 0.05 Deg 16 days EVI std dev Standard Deviation for the 3 band Enhanced Vegetation Index EVI int16 -15000 0 to 10000 10000
CMG 0.05 Deg 16 days NDVI std dev Standard Deviation for the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index NDVI int16 -15000 0 to 10000 10000
CMG 0.05 Deg 16 days NIR reflectance Near-infrared Radiation reflectance (846–885 nm) N/A int16 -1000 0 to 10000 10000
CMG 0.05 Deg 16 days number of 1km pix used Number of 1 km pixels used for monthly 0.05° (5,600 m) composite Number uint8 255 0 to 36 N/A
CMG 0.05 Deg 16 days pixel reliability Pixel usefulness using a simple rank class Rank int8 -4 0 to 11 N/A
CMG 0.05 Deg 16 days SWIR3 reflectance Shortwave Infrared Radiation reflectance (2225–2275 nm) N/A int16 -1000 0 to 10000 10000
CMG 0.05 Deg 16 days EVI 3 band Enhanced Vegetation Index EVI int16 -15000 -10000 to 10000 10000
CMG 0.05 Deg 16 days green reflectance Green band reflectance (545–565 nm) N/A int16 -1000 0 to 10000 10000
CMG 0.05 Deg 16 days NDVI Normalized Difference Vegetation Index NDVI int16 -15000 -10000 to 10000 10000
CMG 0.05 Deg 16 days red reflectance Red band reflectance (600–680 nm) N/A int16 -1000 0 to 10000 10000
CMG 0.05 Deg 16 days SWIR1 reflectance Shortwave Infrared Radiation reflectance (1230–1250 nm) N/A int16 -1000 0 to 10000 10000
CMG 0.05 Deg 16 days SWIR2 reflectance Shortwave Infrared Radiation reflectance (1580–1640 nm) N/A int16 -1000 0 to 10000 10000
CMG 0.05 Deg 16 days VI Quality Bit field that assigns each pixel a Quality Assessment (QA) attribute Bit Field uint16 65535 0 to 65534 N/A
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