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The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) is a satellite-based sensor used for earth and climate measurements. There are two MODIS sensors in
Earth orbit Earth orbits the Sun at an average distance of 149.60 million km (92.96 million mi) in a counterclockwise direction as viewed from above the Northern Hemisphere. One complete orbit takes  days (1 sidereal year), during which time Earth ...
: one on board the
Terra Terra may often refer to: * Terra (mythology), primeval Roman goddess * An alternate name for planet Earth, as well as the Latin name for the planet Terra may also refer to: Geography Astronomy * Terra (satellite), a multi-national NASA scienti ...
(
EOS In ancient Greek mythology and religion, Eos (; Ionic and Homeric Greek ''Ēṓs'', Attic ''Héōs'', "dawn", or ; Aeolic ''Aúōs'', Doric ''Āṓs'') is the goddess and personification of the dawn, who rose each morning from her home ...
AM) satellite, launched by
NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeeding t ...
in 1999; and one on board the
Aqua Aqua is the Latin word for water. It is used in many words which relate to water, such as aquatic life. In English, it may also refer to: Arts * Aqua (color), a greenish-blue color Business * Aqua (skyscraper), an 82-story residential skysc ...
(EOS PM) satellite, launched in 2002. MODIS has now been replaced by the
VIIRS The Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) is a sensor designed and manufactured by the Raytheon Company on board the polar-orbiting Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (Suomi NPP), NOAA-20, and NOAA-21 weather satellites. VIIRS ...
, which first launched in 2011 aboard the
Suomi NPP The Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (Suomi NPP), previously known as the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System Preparatory Project (NPP) and NPP-Bridge, is a weather satellite operated by the United States ...
satellite. The MODIS instruments were built by Santa Barbara Remote Sensing. They capture data in 36 spectral bands ranging in wavelength from 0.4
μm The micrometre ( international spelling as used by the International Bureau of Weights and Measures; SI symbol: μm) or micrometer (American spelling), also commonly known as a micron, is a unit of length in the International System of Unit ...
to 14.4 μm and at varying spatial resolutions (2 bands at 250 m, 5 bands at 500 m and 29 bands at 1 km). Together the instruments image the entire Earth every 1 to 2 days. They are designed to provide measurements in large-scale global dynamics including changes in Earth's
cloud cover Cloud cover (also known as cloudiness, cloudage, or cloud amount) refers to the fraction of the sky obscured by clouds on average when observed from a particular location. Okta is the usual unit for measurement of the cloud cover. The cloud co ...
,
radiation budget Earth's energy budget accounts for the balance between the energy that Earth receives from the Sun and the energy the Earth loses back into outer space. Smaller energy sources, such as Earth's internal heat, are taken into consideration, but m ...
and processes occurring in the oceans, on land, and in the
lower atmosphere Lower atmosphere is a collective term sometimes used to refer to various layers of the atmosphere of the Earth and corresponding regions of the atmospheres of other planets, and includes: * The troposphere The troposphere is the first and lowest ...
. Support and calibration is provided by the MODIS characterization support team (MCST).


Applications

With its high temporal resolution although low spatial resolution, MODIS data are useful to track changes in the landscape over time. Examples of such applications are the monitoring of vegetation health by means of time-series analyses with vegetation indices, long term land cover changes (e.g. to monitor deforestation rates), global snow cover trends, water inundation from pluvial, riverine, or
sea level rise Globally, sea levels are rising due to human-caused climate change. Between 1901 and 2018, the globally averaged sea level rose by , or 1–2 mm per year on average.IPCC, 2019Summary for Policymakers InIPCC Special Report on the Ocean and Cry ...
flooding in coastal areas, change of water levels of major lakes such as the
Aral Sea The Aral Sea ( ; kk, Арал теңізі, Aral teñızı; uz, Орол денгизи, Orol dengizi; kaa, Арал теңизи, Aral teńizi; russian: Аральское море, Aral'skoye more) was an endorheic basin, endorheic lake lyi ...
, and the detection and mapping of
wildland fires A wildfire, forest fire, bushfire, wildland fire or rural fire is an unplanned, uncontrolled and unpredictable fire in an area of Combustibility and flammability, combustible vegetation. Depending on the type of vegetation present, a wildfire ...
in the United States. The
United States Forest Service The United States Forest Service (USFS) is an agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture that administers the nation's 154 national forests and 20 national grasslands. The Forest Service manages of land. Major divisions of the agency inc ...
's Remote Sensing Applications Center analyzes MODIS imagery on a continuous basis to provide information for the management and suppression of wildfires."MODIS Active Fire Mapping Program FAQs."
''United States Forest Service.'' Retrieved: 30 September 2014.


Specifications


Calibration

MODIS utilizes four on-board calibrators in addition to the space view in order to provide in-flight calibration: solar diffuser (SD), solar diffuser stability monitor (SDSM), spectral radiometric calibration assembly (SRCA), and a v-groove
black body A black body or blackbody is an idealized physical body that absorbs all incident electromagnetic radiation, regardless of frequency or angle of incidence. The name "black body" is given because it absorbs all colors of light. A black body ...
. MODIS has used the marine optical buoy for vicarious calibration.


MODIS bands


MODIS data


MODIS Level 3 datasets

The following MODIS Level 3 (L3) datasets are available from NASA, as processed by the Collection 5 software.


Availability

Raw MODIS data stream can be received in real-time using a tracking antenna, due to the instrument's direct broadcast capability. Alternatively, the scientific data are made available to the public via several
World Wide Web The World Wide Web (WWW), commonly known as the Web, is an information system enabling documents and other web resources to be accessed over the Internet. Documents and downloadable media are made available to the network through web se ...
sites and
FTP The File Transfer Protocol (FTP) is a standard communication protocol used for the transfer of computer files from a server to a client on a computer network. FTP is built on a client–server model architecture using separate control and data ...
archives, such as:
ECHO Reverb
– the next generation metadata and service discovery tool, which has replaced the former Warehouse Inventory and Search Tool (WIST);
LAADS Web
– Level 1 and Atmosphere Archive and Distribution System (LAADS) web interface;
LANCE-MODIS
– Land Atmosphere Near real-time Capability for EOS * ftp://ladsftp.nascom.nasa.gov/ – LAADS underlying FTP server; * http://e4ftl01.cr.usgs.gov/ – Earth land surface datasets; * ftp://n4ftl01u.ecs.nasa.gov/ – snow and ice datasets. Most of the data are available in the HDF-EOS format — a variant of
Hierarchical Data Format Hierarchical Data Format (HDF) is a set of file formats (HDF4, HDF5) designed to store and organize large amounts of data. Originally developed at the U.S. National Center for Supercomputing Applications, it is supported by The HDF Group, a non-p ...
prescribed for the data derived from
Earth Observing System The Earth Observing System (EOS) is a program of NASA comprising a series of artificial satellite missions and scientific instruments in Earth orbit designed for long-term global observations of the land surface, biosphere, atmosphere, and oceans ...
missions.


See also

*
Imaging spectroscopy In imaging spectroscopy (also hyperspectral imaging or spectral imaging) each pixel of an image acquires many bands of light intensity data from the spectrum, instead of just the three bands of the RGB color model. More precisely, it is the simult ...
*
NASA World Wind NASA WorldWind is an open-source (released under the NOSA license and the Apache 2.0 license) virtual globe. According to the website (https://worldwind.arc.nasa.gov/), "WorldWind is an open source virtual globe API. WorldWind allow ...
*
Aqua (satellite) Aqua (EOS PM-1) is a NASA scientific research satellite in orbit around the Earth, studying the precipitation, evaporation, and cycling of water. It is the second major component of the Earth Observing System (EOS) preceded by Terra (launched 199 ...
*
Terra (satellite) Terra (EOS AM-1) is a multi-national, NASA scientific research satellite in a Sun-synchronous orbit around the Earth that takes simultaneous measurements of Earth's atmosphere, land, and water to understand how Earth is changing and to identify ...


References


External links


Official NASA siteMODIS bands and spectral ranges (broken link)MODIS Images of the Day


– Google Gadget referring to MODIS image of the day.
Gallery of Images of Interest
* ttp://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/ MODIS Rapid Response system (near real time images)br>NASA OnEarth (Web service for MODIS imagery)Visible Earth: Latest MODIS imagesMODIS Sinusoidal: Projection 6842 – MODIS SinusoidalPython: accessing near real-time MODIS images and fire data from NASA’s Aqua and Terra satellites
(
Python Python may refer to: Snakes * Pythonidae, a family of nonvenomous snakes found in Africa, Asia, and Australia ** ''Python'' (genus), a genus of Pythonidae found in Africa and Asia * Python (mythology), a mythical serpent Computing * Python (pro ...
) {{Authority control Satellite imaging sensors NASA