Cloud and aerosol properties, precipitable water, and profiles of temperature and water vapor from MODIS

TLDR

MODIS, an Earth‑viewing sensor on Terra and Aqua launched in 1999 and 2002, provides global coverage every two days with a 2330‑km swath and 36 spectral bands ranging from 0.415 to 14.235 µm at 250–1000 m resolution. The paper describes the MODIS atmospheric data products, detailing their file sizes, spatial resolutions, and availability. The products are derived from 26 carefully chosen spectral bands that enable retrieval of cloud masks, atmospheric profiles, aerosol characteristics, total precipitable water, and cloud properties.

Abstract

The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) is an Earth-viewing sensor that flies on the Earth Observing System Terra and Aqua satellites, launched in 1999 and 2002, respectively. MODIS scans a swath width of 2330 km that is sufficiently wide to provide nearly complete global coverage every two days from a polar-orbiting, Sun-synchronous, platform at an altitude of 705 km. MODIS provides images in 36 spectral bands between 0.415 and 14.235 /spl mu/m with spatial resolutions of 250 m (two bands), 500 m (five bands), and 1000 m (29 bands). These bands have been carefully selected to enable advanced studies of land, ocean, and atmospheric properties. Twenty-six bands are used to derive atmospheric properties such as cloud mask, atmospheric profiles, aerosol properties, total precipitable water, and cloud properties. We describe each of these atmospheric data products, including characteristics of each of these products such as file size, spatial resolution used in producing the product, and data availability.