MODIS Aqua Near-Real-Time Aerosol Optical Depth Gridded Product

MODIS/Aqua satellite data provides near-daily global aerosol optical depth measurements. The Naval Research Laboratory and University of North Dakota produce this value-added, gridded Level-3 dataset from MODIS Level-2 aerosol products. It is generated every six hours for quantitative applications like data assimilation.

Use Cases

• Assimilating gridded AOD values into atmospheric transport models to improve air quality forecasts.
• Validating climate model aerosol simulations against spatially averaged and uncertainty-quantified satellite observations.
• Monitoring temporal trends in global aerosol loading using the six-hourly production cycle and +/-3-hour observation windows.
• Applying empirical bias corrections over land and ocean to reduce systematic errors in aerosol retrieval for regional studies.

Strengths

• Global coverage with a 2330 km viewing swath providing near-daily observations.
• Includes quantitative uncertainty estimates for each aerosol optical depth data point.
• Production occurs every six hours (00:00, 06:00, 12:00, 18:00 UTC) for near-real-time availability.
• Applies stringent filtering to reduce cloud contamination and outlier AOD values.

Limitations

• Specific row count, file size, and complete temporal coverage range are not provided in the description.
• Derived from Level-2 inputs, so dependent on the accuracy and availability of those upstream products.
• Spatial resolution is determined by the underlying MODIS bands (250m, 500m, 1000m), not native 1km for all AOD data.

Provenance

Source

NASA LANCE-MODIS system, based on MODIS/Aqua satellite sensor data.

Collection Method

Value-added processing of MODIS Level-2 aerosol products by the Naval Research Laboratory and University of North Dakota, involving filtering, bias correction, and spatial averaging.

Time Range

Data available since at least the MODIS/Aqua launch; production is ongoing with six-hourly granules.

Freshness

Updated every six hours in near-real-time.

Geography

Global coverage.