MODIS/Terra Water Reservoir Monthly L3 Global V061

The Terra MODIS Water Reservoir Monthly Level 3 product provides monthly data for 164 global water bodies, including 151 man-made reservoirs and 13 regulated natural lakes. It is produced by NASA and contains composite data on reservoir area, elevation, storage, and evaporation rates derived from MODIS imagery and meteorological models. The dataset's latest version is 6.1, with a metadata update noted for 2026-03 12.

Use Cases

• Modeling monthly water storage changes based on reported reservoir area and elevation.
• Estimating evaporation volume losses for reservoirs based on the described Land Surface Temperature and meteorological data integration.
• Monitoring surface area dynamics of man-made and regulated natural lakes over time.
• Assessing regional water availability and reservoir performance using the reported dam location and capacity data.

Strengths

• Covers a specific set of 164 global reservoirs and lakes.
• Integrates multiple data sources, including MODIS Land Surface Temperature and GLDAS meteorological data.
• Provides monthly composite data for key hydrological variables like area, elevation, storage, and evaporation.

Limitations

• Known issues with surface area overestimation due to lake ice coverage and uncertainties in high-latitude regions.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count and dataset size are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Composite of 8-day MODIS area classifications, processed with the Lake Temperature and Evaporation Model (LTEM).

Time Range

Monthly composites; specific temporal coverage is not detailed.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-12 23:35:54.436558; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Global coverage for the 164 specified reservoirs and lakes.