NASAVertical profiles of aerosol and cloud distributions from NASA's CALIPSO satellite, enabling 3D mapping of smoke, dust, and pollution layers at global scale since 2006.
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VIIRS Deep Blue Aerosol Product
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The VIIRS Deep Blue aerosol algorithm retrieves aerosol optical depth (AOD) and Ångström exponent over both dark vegetated surfaces and bright desert and urban areas. Originally developed for MODIS, the Deep Blue approach uses blue-wavelength channels where surface reflectance is low even over bright soils.
Applied to the VIIRS instrument aboard Suomi-NPP and NOAA-20/21, the product provides daily global AOD at 6-kilometer resolution with a continuous record extending the MODIS Deep Blue archive from 2012 to present. The dataset is particularly valuable for monitoring Saharan dust transport, Middle Eastern dust storms, and aerosol loading over urban deserts.
Learn more
Documentation, algorithm details, and background reading for VIIRS Deep Blue.
Download data
Access VIIRS Deep Blue through the provider portal or download it directly.
Tutorials
Self-paced tutorials to help you get started with VIIRS Deep Blue.
Getting started with VIIRS Deep Blue
An introduction to the VIIRS Deep Blue dataset — what it measures, how it is produced, and when to use it.
Accessing and downloading VIIRS Deep Blue dataFind, subset, and download VIIRS Deep Blue data, with tips for common file formats and access tools.
Exploring VIIRS Deep Blue in the AIR4US visualization toolLoad VIIRS Deep Blue layers in the AIR4US visualization tool and interpret them alongside other air quality data.
Cite this dataset
NASA GSFC / NOAA. VIIRS Deep Blue Aerosol Product. 2012 – Present. Accessed via the AIR4US Portal, https://earthdata.nasa.gov.
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