Daily Global Aerosol and Water Vapor Data from MODIS Satellites

MCD19A2CMG Version 6.1 provides daily global measurements of aerosol optical depth and column water vapor from combined Terra and Aqua MODIS satellite observations. The product is generated by NASA's LPCLOUD organization using the Multi-Angle Implementation of Atmospheric Correction algorithm on a 0.05-degree climate modeling grid. The data supports atmospheric correction for surface reflectance products.

Use Cases

• Analyze spatial patterns of blue band AOD at 0.47 µm and green band AOD at 0.55 µm for air pollution monitoring.
• Compare column water vapor for Terra and Aqua satellite overpass times to study diurnal atmospheric moisture cycles.
• Use the AOD uncertainty and average cloud fraction layers to assess data reliability for climate model validation.
• Track aerosol transport by correlating available AOD records with satellite line and sample number geolocation.

Strengths

• Combined data from two MODIS satellites (Terra and Aqua) provides multiple daily observations.
• Gridded at a consistent 0.05-degree resolution suitable for global climate modeling.
• Includes multiple specific science dataset layers like AOD uncertainty and column water vapor.

Limitations

• Specific row count, file size, and temporal coverage range are not provided.
• Known issues exist, requiring consultation of the MODIS/VIIRS Land Quality Assessment website.
• Data format and column structure details are unspecified.

Provenance

Source

LPCLOUD

Collection Method

Generated from Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer Terra and Aqua satellite data using the Multi-Angle Implementation of Atmospheric Correction algorithm.

Freshness

Daily

Geography

Global