Monthly Global Dust Storm Frequency from MODIS Terra at 0.1 Degree Resolution

Monthly frequency of dust storms over land derived from MODIS Terra Deep Blue aerosol products. The dataset provides global coverage from 80°S to 80°N and 175°W to 175°E at a 0.1˚ x 0.1˚ spatial resolution for the period 2000 to 2022. It was produced by the GES DISC using Collection 6.1 of the MOD04_L2 product.

Use Cases

• Analyze temporal trends in dust storm frequency using the monthly time series from 2000 to 2022.
• Compare dust activity intensity across different regions using the eight separate dust optical depth threshold files (e.g., 0.025, 0.5, 1).
• Validate atmospheric dust models by comparing simulated dust events against the observed frequency data flagged with quality levels 1 and 3.
• Assess seasonal dust patterns over source regions by examining the monthly frequency data on the 0.1-degree grid.

Strengths

• 23-year temporal coverage from 2000 to 2022 provides a long-term climatology.
• Global spatial coverage from 80°S to 80°N at a consistent 0.1-degree resolution.
• Data includes eight distinct dust intensity thresholds, allowing analysis of varying storm severities.

Limitations

• Data quality is variable, with the documentation advising use of lower-quality flag 1 over dust source regions and higher-quality flag 3 elsewhere, which may complicate consistent analysis.
• The dataset is limited to land areas and does not cover oceanic regions where dust transport occurs.
• The temporal record ends in 2022, lacking the most recent years.

Provenance

Source

GES DISC, derived from NASA MODIS Terra Deep Blue Level 2 Aerosol Products (MOD04_L2 Collection 6.1).

Collection Method

Calculated as the number of days per month where daily dust optical depth exceeded defined thresholds, processed to Level 3 global grids.

Time Range

2000 to 2022

Freshness

Data collection ended in 2022; the dataset is not updated.

Geography

Global land coverage from 175°W to 175°E and 80°S to 80°N.