These are the rawest level instrument data from the VIIRS satellite sensor (http://npp.gsfc.nasa.gov/viirs.html). They are pre-calibration, so are unique and should never change. As processing algorithms and instrument calibration evolve, they can be applied repeatedly to these data to produce useful physical products. This avoids repeated download of the product data from the US.
VIIRS is the follow on US sensor for the MODIS instruments, the foremost moderate resolution environmental imager of the past decade. The area encompassed is the whole of the Australian terrestrial region and the surrounding oceans. They are intended to be a national research resource.
The MODIS instrument resulted in may application projects which will need to migrate to VIIRS data once MODIS missions end (likely 2014-2016 time frame). This data set will underpin that activity in Australia.
The data continue and extend the time series of continental scale moderate resolution remote sensing time series started by NOAA/AVHRR and continued by MODIS.
As raw data, these are unlikely to be cited directly. IMOS and TERN will generate higher level products from these data that will be more useful in applications more likely to attract citations.