MODIS Terra Aerosol Swath Data At 3km Resolution

Collection 6.1 (C61) MODIS/Terra Aerosol 5-Min L2 Swath 3km (MOD04_3K) is an improved satellite-derived atmospheric aerosol product. It provides retrieved ambient aerosol optical properties and quality assurance globally over ocean and land at a 3 km spatial resolution, specifically developed for the air quality community. The product is based on algorithm improvements for Dark Target retrieval over urban areas and includes uncertainty estimates for Deep Blue retrievals.

Use Cases

• Analyzing urban air quality using high-resolution 3km aerosol optical depth retrievals.
• Tracking long-range transport of dust and smoke plumes across ocean and land surfaces.
• Validating and improving atmospheric models with globally distributed aerosol property measurements.
• Studying aerosol-cloud interactions using the provided aerosol optical properties and associated parameters.

Strengths

• Provides high-resolution 3km aerosol data, a significant improvement over the standard 10km product.
• Implements algorithm improvements for Dark Target retrieval over challenging urban areas.
• Offers global coverage over both ocean and land surfaces.
• Includes quality assurance parameters and uncertainty estimates for Deep Blue retrievals.

Limitations

• Specific column names, dataset size, and row counts are not provided by any source.
• Sources conflict on license information, with one specifying 'other-license-specified' and another listing 'None'.

Provenance

Source

LAADS (Level-1 and Atmosphere Archive & Distribution System), NASA.

Collection Method

Satellite remote sensing data from the MODIS instrument aboard the Terra spacecraft, processed using the Dark Target and Deep Blue algorithms.

Freshness

2026-03-12 23:44:20.409381

Geography

Global coverage over ocean and land.