MODIS/Terra L3 Value-added Aerosol Optical Depth - NRT

MODAODHD is a gridded product and is specifically designed for quantitative applications including data assimilation and model validation. It is available through LANCE-MODIS. It offers several enhancements over the MODIS Level 2 data on which it is based.

These enhancements include stringent filtering to reduce outliers, eliminate cloud contamination, and exclude conditions where aerosol detection is likely to be inaccurate; reduction of systematic biases over land and ocean by empirical corrections; reduction of random variation in AOD values by spatial averaging; quantitative estimation of uncertainty for each AOD data point. The MxDAODHD granules are produced every six hours, and time-stamped 00:00, 06:00, 12:00, and 18:00 (all times UTC).

Each granule includes MODIS observations from +/-3 hours from the timestamp (e.g. 12:00 product includes MODIS data from 09:00-15:00 UTC). Production is initiated as soon as the Level 2 inputs become available in the LANCE system.