True Color - Corrected Reflectance (VIIRS / NOAA-20)

Visualization OverviewThis visualization represents a "true color" band combination (Red = I1, Green = M4, Blue = M3) of data collected by the VIIRS instrument on NOAA’s Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS-1) satellite, which was renamed to NOAA-20 once on orbit. The imagery is most similar to how we see the Earth’s surface with our own eyes.   It is a natural looking image that is useful at a global and regional scale.  At its highest resolution, this visualization represents the underlying data scaled to a resolution of 250m per pixel at the equator.The VIIRS Corrected Reflectance product provides natural-looking images by removing gross atmospheric effects such as Rayleigh scattering from the visible bands. By contrast the VIIRS Surface Reflectance product, also available in the Living Atlas, provides a more complete atmospheric correction algorithm that includes aerosol correction and is designed to derive land surface properties. In clear atmospheric conditions the Corrected Reflectance product is similar to the Surface Reflectance product, but they depart from each other in the presence of aerosols.Multi-Spectral BandsThe following table lists the VIIRS bands that are utilized to create this visualization.  See here for a full description of all VIIRS bands.BandDescriptionWavelength (µm)Resolution (m)I3Shortwave IR (Red)1.58 - 1.64 375M3Visible / Reflective0.478 - 0.488750M4Visible / Reflective0.545 - 0.565750Temporal CoverageBy default, this layer will display the imagery currently available for today’s date.  This imagery is a "daily composite" that is assembled from hundreds of individual data files.  When viewing imagery for “today,” you may notice that only a portion of the map has imagery.  This is because the visualization is continually updated as the satellite collects more data.  To view imagery over time, you can update the layer properties to enable time animation and configure time settings.  Currently, this layer is available from present back to April 25th, 2020.  In the coming months, this will be extended to the start of the mission (November 18th, 2017).NASA Global Imagery Browse Services (GIBS), NASA Worldview, & NASA LANCEThis visualization is provided through the NASA Global Imagery Browse Services (GIBS), which are a set of standard services to deliver global, full-resolution satellite imagery for hundreds of NASA Earth science datasets and science parameters.  Through its services, and the NASA Worldview client, GIBS enables interactive exploration of NASA's Earth imagery for a broad range of users.  The data and imagery are generated within 3 hours of acquisition through the NASA LANCE capability.Esri and NASA Collaborative ServicesThis visualization is made available through an ArcGIS image service hosted on Esri servers and facilitates access to a NASA GIBS service endpoint. For each image service request, the Esri server issues multiple requests to the GIBS service, processes and assembles the responses, and returns a proper mosaic image to the user.  Processing occurs on-the-fly for each and every request to ensure that any update to the GIBS imagery is immediately available to the user.  As such, availability of this visualization is dependent on both the Esri and the NASA GIBS services.