MODIS Terra Aerosol Subsets for 180 AERONET Sites

NASA's MODIS/Terra Atmosphere Aeronet Subsetting Product (MODARNSS) provides satellite data subsets collocated with ground-based AERONET measurements. The dataset contains approximately 55 Science Data Sets per file, including at-aperture radiances for 36 MODIS bands, cloud mask, and water vapor, for around 180 global monitoring sites. It is produced by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

Use Cases

• Validating MODIS aerosol optical depth retrievals using collocated AERONET site measurements.
• Analyzing spectral radiance from 36 MODIS bands for atmospheric correction studies.
• Investigating cloud presence and water vapor content over specific ground observation stations.
• Studying spatial variability of atmospheric parameters within a 0.5 x 0.5 degree area around AERONET sites.

Strengths

• Provides direct collocation of satellite and ground-based data across approximately 180 global sites.
• Contains 55 distinct Science Data Sets (SDS) per site, including specific parameters like cloud mask and water vapor.
• Data is subset to a standardized 0.5 x 0.5 degree spatial cutout for consistent analysis.

Limitations

• Conflicting metadata: one source lists a last updated date of 2026-03 12, which is a future date and likely an error.
• Specific column names, row counts, and total dataset size are not provided by any source.
• License information is unclear, listed only as 'other-license-specified'.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

Collection Method

Subsets generated by locating AERONET sites within MODIS Level 2 granule coverage and extracting a 0.5 x 0.5 degree cutout.

Time Range

null

Freshness

2026-03-12 23:45:11.400737

Geography

Global coverage across approximately 180 Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET) sites.