Aqua MODIS Geolocation Fields for Land and Ocean Analysis

MYD03 provides the precise geolocation data for every 1 km sample collected by the MODIS instrument aboard NASA's Aqua satellite daily. Each 5-minute swath file is approximately 30 MB, contributing to a daily volume of about 8 GB. This foundational dataset is produced by the MODIS Science Team and is a critical input for numerous higher-level land and ocean products.

Use Cases

• Correcting atmospheric and surface reflectance products by providing precise latitude, longitude, and sensor zenith/azimuth angles.
• Masking land or ocean pixels in downstream analyses using the included land/sea mask for each 1 km sample.
• Modeling solar radiation at the Earth's surface for energy balance studies using solar zenith and azimuth angles.
• Enabling inter-sensor data fusion by providing a common geolocation reference for the 36 spectral bands of MODIS.
• Supporting terrain-corrected analyses with surface height above geoid data derived from a digital elevation model.

Strengths

• Provides geolocation for all daily Aqua MODIS orbits with a spatial resolution of 1 km (and supports 500m calculation in Collection 6+).
• Includes multiple critical geometric fields: latitude, longitude, height, and both solar and satellite view angles.
• Serves as a foundational input for a large number of subsequent MODIS products, indicating its reliability and importance.

Limitations

• Specific column names and the total row count are not provided in the available metadata.
• Sources conflict on license details, with some specifying 'other-license-specified' and others listing 'None'.
• The exact temporal coverage (start and end dates) for the dataset is not explicitly stated.

Provenance

Source

NASA MODIS Science Team, processed by LAADS.

Collection Method

Calculated from spacecraft attitude, orbit, instrument telemetry, and a digital elevation model for each 1 km Instantaneous Field of View.

Time Range

Daily coverage from the Aqua satellite mission start date (unknown) to present, with Collection 6+ enhancements.

Freshness

2026-03-12 23:51:21.867209

Geography

Global coverage from the Aqua satellite's sun-synchronous orbit.