Terra MODIS 1km Calibrated Radiance Swath Data

NASA's Terra MODIS satellite provides calibrated at-aperture radiances for 29 spectral bands at 1000-meter resolution. Each data granule represents a 5-minute swath with image dimensions of 2,030 lines by 1,354 samples. The version 7.0 collection is maintained by LAADS and its data record begins on July 4, 2002.

Use Cases

• Retrieving land surface temperature from calibrated radiances in thermal infrared bands (20-36).
• Performing atmospheric correction and cloud masking using the quality flags and error estimates for each pixel.
• Analyzing vegetation health and ocean color by converting scaled integers to reflectance for Visible and Near-Infrared bands (8-19).
• Developing cross-sensor calibration models by comparing radiance values from the aggregated 250-m and 500-m bands.
• Studying diurnal or seasonal cycles by leveraging the 5-minute temporal resolution and geolocation fields (latitude, longitude).

Strengths

• Provides calibrated radiances for 29 spectral bands across VNIR and TIR wavelengths.
• Data has undergone multiple reprocessing cycles over 2.5 decades, indicating a mature calibration process.
• Each 5-minute granule offers a consistent spatial dimension of 2,030 lines by 1,354 samples.

Limitations

• The 1000-meter spatial resolution is coarse for applications requiring fine-scale feature detection.
• Data requires conversion from scaled integers to physical radiance/reflectance units, adding preprocessing complexity.
• Specific information on data volume, update frequency, and license restrictions is not provided.

Provenance

Source

NASA Terra MODIS instrument, processed and distributed by LAADS.

Collection Method

Satellite remote sensing, with Level-1A raw counts calibrated to at-aperture radiances.

Time Range

From July 4, 2002, ongoing.

Geography

Global coverage from the Terra satellite's polar orbit.