MODIS Near-Real-Time Aerosol Swath Data At 10km Resolution

MODIS/Terra satellite provides global aerosol optical depth measurements every five minutes at a 10 km nadir resolution. The Level-2 product combines retrievals from Dark Target and Deep Blue algorithms over land and ocean. LANCE MODIS processes this data for near-real-time availability.

Use Cases

• Modeling particulate matter (PM2.5) concentrations using the Optical_Depth_Land_And_Ocean column as a proxy input.
• Analyzing aerosol type and source regions by combining Aerosol_Type_Land, Scattering_Angle, and Land_sea_Flag data.
• Assessing retrieval quality and uncertainty for specific scenes using the Land_Ocean_Quality_Flag and Deep_Blue_Aerosol_Optical_Depth_550_Land_Estimated_Uncertainty fields.
• Studying diurnal aerosol patterns by aligning Optical_Depth_Land_And_Ocean measurements with the Scan_Start_Time and Solar_Zenith geometry data.
• Creating merged global aerosol maps by combining the Dark Target and Deep Blue retrievals via the AOD_550_Dark_Target_Deep_Blue_Combined Science Data Set.

Strengths

• Global coverage provided by the MODIS/Terra satellite sensor.
• Five-minute temporal resolution per swath file enables near-real-time monitoring.
• Combined Dark Target and Deep Blue algorithm outputs (C6) improve land surface coverage.

Limitations

• Spatial resolution is 10 km at nadir, which may be coarse for local-scale air quality studies.
• Algorithm changes between Collection 5 and 6 caused significant regional statistic shifts, complicating time-series analysis.
• Data is stored in HDF-EOS format, requiring specialized libraries for access and processing.

Provenance

Source

NASA LANCE MODIS system, from the MODIS/Terra satellite.

Collection Method

Satellite remote sensing using the MODIS instrument, processed with Dark Target and Deep Blue aerosol retrieval algorithms.

Time Range

Continuous from MODIS/Terra operational date, with near-real-time latency.

Freshness

Near-real-time (NRT) processing.

Geography

Global.