MODIS Terra Atmospheric Temperature and Water Vapor Profiles

MOD07_L2 provides 30 gridded parameters for atmospheric stability, temperature and moisture profiles, total water vapor, and total ozone at 5-km resolution. Data is produced for daytime and nighttime conditions by the MODIS instrument on NASA's Terra satellite, with each file covering a five-minute interval. The principal investigator for this product is MODIS scientist Dr. Paul Menzel.

Use Cases

• Analyze vertical temperature profiles across 20 pressure levels from 5 to 1000 mbar.
• Estimate total tropospheric column water vapor from integrated infrared moisture retrievals.
• Retrieve total ozone burden using thermal band 9.6 micron data.
• Calculate atmospheric stability indices like Total Totals and Lifted Index.
• Map solar zenith, sensor zenith, and other viewing geometry parameters for radiative transfer modeling.

Strengths

• Provides 30 distinct atmospheric parameters per 5-km pixel.
• Data is available at 20 vertical atmospheric pressure levels.
• Each file covers a five-minute interval, enabling near real-time analysis.
• Output grid size is typically 270 by 406 pixels for nine consecutive granules.

Limitations

• Retrievals require at least 9 cloud-free fields of view, limiting data in cloudy regions.
• Cloud mask data is remapped from 1-km resolution, potentially reducing detail.
• Specific row counts and total historical data volume are not provided.

Provenance

Source

NASA MODIS instrument on the Terra satellite.

Collection Method

Satellite remote sensing retrievals from infrared bands.

Freshness

Near Real Time (NRT)

Geography

Global coverage.