Skip to main content

Clouds over Flores Island, Indonesia

MODIS; aboard NASA’s Aqua satellite flew over Indonesia and captured this true-color image of spectacular clouds rising over the landscape.

Tropical Cyclone Alessia (02S) over Australia

The first storm of the Australian region's cyclone season threatened Australia’s Top End in late November 2013.

Plume from Sakura-jima, southern Japan

On November 23, 2013 violent eruptions shook Japan’s Sakura-jima volcano.

Tropical Storm Issac

In late August 2012, Tropical Storm Isaac hovered over the Caribbean Sea, taking aim at populated areas. At 2:00 p.m. EDT on August 23, shortly after MODIS took this picture, the U.S.

Fires and smoke in western United States

The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite captured this true-color image of the fires on August 13, 2012.

Latest News

After several months of reviewing the performance of the Terra day/night-rate schedule (originally implemented November 8, 2020) and with input from science-team users, MCST has implemented a revised day/night schedule that goes into effect May 2, 2021 (2021/122). This updated schedule improves the day-rate data coverage by using a timing variation based on sun-angle changes throughout the year.

The MODIS and VIIRS Characterization Support Teams held a 2-day virtual calibration workshop on February 25 and 26, 2021 via MSTeams. The presentations from the workshop are posted here: https://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov/sci_team/meetings/202102/presentations.php

In preparation for Collection 7. MCST has released the proposed algorithm changes for RSB, TEB, and L1B. (https://mcst.gsfc.nasa.gov/content/collection-7)

Due to the recent PWA failure on the EOS Terra spacecraft, MODIS has a reduced on-board memory allocation. Initial efforts reduced the data rate of day mode data (reflective solar band measurements) near the poles in a uniform manner. In an attempt to provide near-global two-day coverage, an alternating schedule was implemented starting November 8, 2020 (2020/313).

The Terra spacecraft experienced a PWA (printed-wire assembly) failure on Monday, October 5, 2020. The incident was noted by the Terra flight operations team at 15:21:12z.  As part of the recovery, science recording was disabled on October 6 (2020/280) at 03:32:56z to handle the moving of the supersets and was re-enabled at 03:41:56z. 

MODIS Characterization Support Team

The MODIS Characterization Support Team (MCST) is dedicated to the production of a high quality MODIS calibration product. This product is a precursor to every geophysical science product. MCST works for the Science Team Leader and is responsible for developing and maintaining the calibration product (L1B algorithm).

Tags: Calibration

Calibration

Collection 6 has been under development for a number of years. MCST, in consultation with representatives of the science disciplines, developed improvements to the calibration algorithms and methodolgies to handle known issues with the aging MODIS sensors. Summary talks of the proposed Collection 6 changes have been delivered at the MODIS science team meetings over the last few years.

L1B

Current L1B LUT Versions:

Terra C6: 6.1.26.85; Terra C6.1: 6.2.2.107; Aqua C6: 6.1.37.88; Aqua C6.1: 6.2.3.32

Tags: L1B Product

Latest MsWG