MIDAS: Global Fine-Resolution Dust Optical Depth Data, 2003-2017

MIDAS (ModIs Dust AeroSol) is a global dataset providing daily dust optical depth (DOD) at 550 nm. It was developed by Antonis Gkikas of the National Observatory of Athens and covers a 15-year period from 2003 to 2017 at a 0.1° x 0.1° spatial resolution. The dataset combines quality-filtered satellite aerosol optical depth retrievals from MODIS-Aqua with dust fraction data from the MERRA-2 reanalysis.

Use Cases

• Conducting dust climatological studies based on the 15-year global time series.
• Evaluating atmospheric and climate models based on the fine-resolution dust optical depth data.
• Assimilating observational dust data into models based on the daily, gridded DOD values.
• Analyzing spatiotemporal variability of dust aerosols across major dust belts based on the global coverage.

Strengths

• Provides data at a fine spatial resolution of 0.1° x 0.1°.
• Covers a 15-year time period from 2003 to 2017.
• Shows strong correlation (R=0.89) with AERONET-derived DODs, with a small positive bias of 0.004.
• Combines satellite retrievals from MODIS-Aqua with reanalysis data from MERRA-2.

Limitations

• Data quality agreement degrades in North America and the Southern Hemisphere where dust sources are smaller, as noted in the description.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Last update date is unknown; freshness unverified.

Provenance

Source

National Observatory of Athens

Collection Method

Combines quality-filtered satellite aerosol optical depth retrievals from MODIS-Aqua (Collection 6.1, Level 2) with DOD-to-AOD ratios from the MERRA-2 reanalysis.

Time Range

2003-2017

Geography

Global