VIIRS/SNPP Deep Blue Aerosol L2 6-Min Swath 6 km

The Deep Blue algorithm draws its heritage from previous applications to retrieve AOT from Sea‐viewing Wide Field‐of‐view Sensor (SeaWiFS) and Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) measurements over land.

This orbit-level product (Short-name: AERDB_L2_VIIRS_SNPP) has an at-nadir resolution of 6 km x 6 km, and progressively increases away from nadir given the sensor’s scanning geometry and Earth’s curvature. Viewed differently, this product’s resolution accommodates 8 x 8 native VIIRS moderate-resolution (M-band) pixels that nominally have ~750 m horizontal pixel size. The L2 Deep Blue AOT data products, at 550 nanometers reference wavelengths, are derived from particular VIIRS bands using two primary AOT retrieval algorithms: Deep Blue algorithm over land, and the Satellite Ocean Aerosol Retrieval (SOAR) algorithm over ocean.