Skip to main content

Description

The Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) (https://lpdaac.usgs.gov/dataset_discovery/viirs) Leaf Area Index (LAI) and Fraction of Photosynthetically Active Radiation (FPAR) Version 2 data product (VNP15A2H) provides information about the vegetative canopy layer at 500 meter resolution. The VIIRS sensor is located aboard the NASA/NOAA Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (Suomi NPP) satellite. LAI is an index that quantifies the one-sided leaf area of a canopy, while FPAR is the fraction of incoming solar energy absorbed through photosynthesis at 400 to 700 nanometers. This product is intentionally designed after the Terra and Aqua Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) LAI/FPAR operational algorithm to promote the continuity of the Earth Observation System (EOS) mission.

The VNP15A2H product includes six Science Data Set Layers for the analysis of key factors in LAI/FPAR measurements. These include the LAI and FPAR measurements, quality detail for LAI/FPAR, extra quality detail for FPAR, and the standard deviation for LAI and FPAR. Two low resolution browse images are also available for each VNP15A2H granule: LAI and FPAR.

Known Issues

Improvements/Changes from Previous Versions

  • Improved calibration algorithm and coefficients for entire Suomi NPP 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.
  • More details can be found in this VIIRS Land V2 Changes document.

Product Summary

Platforms
Suomi-NPP
Instruments
VIIRS
Spatial Extent

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

Spatial Resolution
500 Meters x 500 Meters
Geographic Region
GLOBAL
Coordinate System
CARTESIAN
Granule Spatial Representation
GEODETIC
Temporal Extent
2012-01-01 to Present
Temporal Resolution
8 Day
Data Partner
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) ,
Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center (LP DAAC)
Concept ID
C2545314545-LPCLOUD
Data State
ACTIVE
Number of Files/Granules
182182
Processing Level
4
Published
Updated
Science Keywords
Photosynthetically Active Radiation ,
Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar) ,
LEAF AREA INDEX (LAI)

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

Myneni, R. (2023). VIIRS/NPP Leaf Area Index/FPAR 8-Day L4 Global 500m SIN Grid V002 [Data set]. NASA Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center. https://doi.org/10.5067/VIIRS/VNP15A2H.002 Date Accessed: 2025-12-13

File Naming Convention

VNP15A2H.A2025217.h16v08.002.2025229125436.h5

The file name begins with the Product Short Name (VNP15A2H) followed by the Julian Date of Acquisition formatted as AYYYYDDD (A2025217), the Tile Identifier which is horizontal tile and vertical tile provided as hXXvYY (h16v08), the Version of the data collection (002), the Julian Date and Time of Production designated as YYYYDDDHHMMSS (2025229125436), 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
Fpar VIIRS Gridded 500M FPAR (8-day composite) Fraction uint8 249 0 to 100 0.01
FparExtra_QC VIIRS pass-through QC for FPAR and LAI (8-day composite) Class Flag uint8 255 0 to 254 N/A
FparLai_QC VIIRS QC for FPAR and LAI (8-day composite) Class Flag uint8 255 0 to 254 N/A
FparStdDev VIIRS Gridded 500M Standard Deviation FPAR (8-day composite) Fraction uint8 248 0 to 100 0.01
Lai VIIRS Gridded 500M Leaf Area Index LAI (8-day composite) m² plant/m² ground uint8 249 0 to 100 0.1
LaiStdDev VIIRS Gridded 500M Standard Deviation Leaf Area Index (8-day composite) m² plant/m² ground uint8 248 0 to 100 0.1
You're viewing 6 of 6