MAC03S1: MODIS/Aqua Geolocation Subset Along CloudSat Track

Daily geolocation data from the MODIS/Aqua satellite, subset to a 200 km wide swath centered on the CloudSat track. Fields include geodetic latitude, longitude, surface height, solar and satellite viewing angles, and a land/sea mask for each 1 km sample. This product serves as a foundational input for numerous downstream MODIS land data products.

Use Cases

• Precise georeferencing of MODIS land products based on latitude, longitude, and surface height.
• Correction of atmospheric and bidirectional reflectance effects using solar and satellite zenith/azimuth angles.
• Masking land versus ocean pixels for terrestrial studies using the included land/sea mask.
• Calculating detector center locations for any of MODIS's 36 spectral bands using header information.

Strengths

• Provides high-resolution (1 km) geolocation for all daily MODIS/Aqua orbits.
• Cross-platform presence on NASA-affiliated portals indicates established importance and reliability.
• Contains specific, detailed geolocation fields derived from spacecraft attitude, orbit, and a digital terrain model.

Limitations

• Key metadata is missing: exact column names, row counts, and file sizes are not provided.
• Conflicting last-updated dates exist between sources (2018 vs. 2026), casting doubt on data freshness.
• The license is ambiguously listed as 'other-license-specified' without clear terms.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

Collection Method

Calculated from MODIS/Aqua instrument telemetry, spacecraft attitude and orbit data, and a digital elevation model.

Time Range

Daily coverage for all orbits.

Freshness

Last updated dates conflict: 2026-04-10 (datagov) and 2018-03-01 (nasa_earthdata).

Geography

Global coverage, subset to a 200 km cross-track swath along the CloudSat satellite's field of view.