MODIS/Aqua V6.1: Daily Surface Reflectance at 500m and 1km

MYD09GA Version 6.1 provides daily, atmospherically corrected surface spectral reflectance for Aqua MODIS Bands 1-7. It serves as a foundational source for many downstream MODIS land products, offering data at 500-meter resolution alongside ten 1-kilometer observation bands and geolocation flags. The dataset includes documented known issues, such as non-functional detectors in Band 6, and incorporates calibration improvements like polarization corrections for Reflective Solar Bands.

Use Cases

• Generating vegetation indices (e.g., NDVI) based on atmospherically corrected reflectance bands.
• Monitoring land surface change over time using the daily, global 500m and 1km observations.
• Assessing surface conditions for wildfire or drought modeling, leveraging the quality assurance flags.
• Serving as input for higher-level MODIS land products like land cover or albedo.

Strengths

• Atmospherically corrected for gasses, aerosols, and Rayleigh scattering, enhancing data utility.
• Includes specific calibration improvements for Version 6.1, such as a polarization correction.
• Available under a permissive CC-BY-4.0 license on at least one major platform.

Limitations

• Contains a known hardware issue where a majority of Band 6 detectors are non-functional.
• Conflicting license information: listed as CC-BY-4.0 on AWS but 'other-license-specified' on Data.gov.
• Sparse column-level metadata across all platform listings.

Provenance

Source

Aqua Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) sensor.

Collection Method

Satellite remote sensing with atmospheric correction.

Freshness

Last updated date cited as 2026-04-10 on AWS Open Data and Data.gov.

Geography

Global