VIIRS : The Science Collection
VIIRS, a scanning radiometer, collects visible and infrared imagery and radiometric measurements of the land, atmosphere, cryosphere, and oceans. It extends and improves upon a series of measurements initiated by the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) and the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS). VIIRS data is used to measure cloud and aerosol properties, ocean color, sea and land surface temperature, ice motion and temperature, fires, and Earth's albedo. Climatologists use VIIRS data to improve our understanding of global climate change. Get more information about the VIIRS instrument.
- VIIRS and OMPS Instruments Combine Dust and Aerosol Data
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- The world is currently in an active period for the production of atmospheric aerosols, according to Colin Seftor, an atmospheric physicist at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., who compiled these images. Seftor works for Science Systems and Applications, Inc. This image is a combination of a VIIRS RGB image with OMPS aerosol index (AI) data for September 15, 2012. → [web view] [hi-resolution]
The OMPS AI shows dust from the Sahara over northern Africa that is being blown over the Atlantic (with yellow, less opaque colors representing less dust and pink, more opaque colors representing more dust). Dust can also be seen over Saudi Arabia and parts of Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. However, the aerosol index signal over the Western U.S. is due to dense smoke from wildfires, while smoke from agricultural biomass burning is visible over both South American and southern Africa. The sun glint in the middle of each swath shows the pattern of the satellite's view in orbit.
The second image from September 17, 2012 shows the smoke over the U.S. moving over the Midwest and stretching all the way to the Mid-Atlantic, with additional smoke appearing over Australia due to many wildfires burning there. → [web view] [hi-resolution]
- Tropical Storm Isaac
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- Early on August 28, 2012, the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) on the Suomi-NPP satellite captured this nighttime view of Tropical Storm Isaac and the cities near the Gulf Coast of the United States. The image was acquired just after local midnight by the VIIRS "day-night band," which detects light in a range of wavelengths from green to near-infrared and uses light intensification to enable the detection of dim signals. In this case, the clouds of Isaac were lit by moonlight.
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- The Lights of London
- Billions of people will see London through many different filters and lenses during the 2012 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games. None of those views will look quite like this one from the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership satellite.
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- Western U.S. High Mountain Blazes
- Two of the most destructive fires in the history of Colorado and New Mexico have both now been contained. These image comparisons show how the Little Bear Fire and the High Park Fire grew over a 24-hour time period from June 9 to June 10. The red contours on the images represent areas of heat showing active fires. Taken by the VIIRS instrument, these images provide active fire data as emergency response teams continue to fight the fires.
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- Power Outages in Washington, DC Area
- These before and after images from show the power outages in the clear skies over Washington, DC and Baltimore that occurred as a result of a rare, fast-moving thunderstorm system on Friday, June 29th.
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- Tropical Cyclone Funso
- Suomi NPP's VIIRS instrument provides various looks of Tropical Cyclone Funso.
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- NPP's 'Blue Marble'
- A 'Blue Marble' image of the Earth taken from Suomi NPP's VIIRS instrument . This composite image uses a number of swaths of the Earth's surface taken on January 4, 2012.
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- Southeastern United States
- The Visible/Infrared Imager Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) produced these 'true-color', color scaled, and gray scaled variations. This was taken on January 19, 2012, the first day the full complement of VIIRS' 22 channels were active.
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Hurricane Kenneth
- True color image of Hurricane Kenneth over the northeastern Pacific Ocean on 22 November 2011. True color imagery is created using the red (0.672 µm), green (0.555 µm) and blue (0.488 µm) M-bands on VIIRS, all at 750-m resolution.
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Smog Comparisons
- True color image over northeastern India, Nepal and Tibet. Note the large amount of smog/pollution over India relative to Tibet, and how the mountains keep it all
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One granule from the new "day-night band."
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This image is from the middle of the night on 11 January, so the clouds you're seeing are purely due to light reflected from the moon back to the satellite. Also visible are the city lights from parts of south Florida and lightning flashes atop the convection in the Gulf of Mexico.
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- First Global Image from VIIRS
- The Visible Infrared Imager Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) gets a complete view of our planet every day. This image from November 24, 2011, is the first complete global image from VIIRS.
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- Suomi NPP Satellite Acquires First VIIRS Image
- This Visible Infrared Imager Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) image is of a broad swath of Eastern North America from Canada's Hudson Bay past Florida to the northern coast of Venezuela.
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+ go to feature 1 [nasa.gov]
+ go to feature 2 [earth observatory]
