SAFARI 2000 MODIS Water Vapor Data for Southern Africa

MODIS precipitable water vapor data provides vertical column amounts in centimeters at a 1-kilometer spatial resolution. This SAFARI 2000 subset contains daytime-only measurements from the Terra satellite over southern Africa for a one-month period from August 21 to September 20, 2000. The data, originally from NASA's MOD05_L2 product, was converted to flat binary format and includes specific scientific data sets for analysis.

Use Cases

• Analyzing boundary-layer water vapor sensitivity using the Water_Vapor_Near_Infrared column derived from reflected solar light attenuation.
• Mapping regional atmospheric water vapor distribution over clear land areas using Latitude and Longitude coordinates.
• Studying diurnal patterns by examining Sensor_Zenith angles from morning-pass Terra satellite observations.
• Investigating aerosol properties and climate interactions through near-infrared algorithm-derived water vapor values.

Strengths

• Provides high-resolution (1-km) geospatial data for water vapor analysis.
• Contains a focused temporal sample (31 days) from a specific scientific campaign (SAFARI 2000).
• Data is derived from a validated NASA MODIS Level 2 product (MOD05) with a defined near-infrared algorithm.

Limitations

• Spatial coverage is limited to clear land areas over southern Africa only.
• Temporal coverage is restricted to daytime observations from a single satellite (Terra) over one month.
• Sources conflict on the last updated date, with one listing 2000-09-20 and another listing 2026-03 12.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), MODIS on Terra satellite.

Collection Method

Near-infrared algorithm applied to MODIS Level 2 MOD05 product, converted from HDF to flat binary format using Interactive Data Language (IDL).

Time Range

August 21, 2000, through September 20, 2000.

Freshness

2026-03-12 22:15:55.995570

Geography

Southern Africa.