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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

December 18, 2019 marked the 20 year anniversary of Terra launch. The MODIS instrument on-board the Terra spacecraft has well surpassed its design lifetime, but continues to acquire valuable science data. The images above are the MODIS first light (left) and the same region viewed earlier this year (right) show the continued consistency of the instrument over 20 years of successful operation.  

 

The MODIS/VIIRS 2019 Science Team Meeting was held November 18-21, 2019 at the The Hotel in College Park, MD. As part of the Science Team Meeting, MCST and VCST hosted a Calibration Workshop. The presentations from the workshop are linked here. The talks given at the plenary meeting can be found at the here.

The MODIS/VIIRS 2018 Science Team Meeting was held October 15-19 at the Sheraton in Silver Spring, MD.
As part of the Science Team Meeting, MCST and VCST hosted a Calibration Workshop and the presentation are linked here.

MCST held a workshop to review the current status of TEB crosstalk impact and correction algorithm. Follow the link here for more information.

On August 5, 2017, the Terra spacecraft completed a deep space pitch maneuver. During this maneuver, the moon was visible through the MODIS earth-view port. Details are included below. MODIS was in Day Collection rate during the maneuver, instead of nominal Night Collection. MODIS telemetry and gain parameters stabilized by 2017/218 14:20 (GMT). 

Start: 2017/217 23:15:45
Moon Center: 2017/217 23:29:54 
End:  2017/217 23:51:39

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: 6.2.2.97; Aqua C6: 6.1.37.88; Aqua C6.1: 6.2.3.21

Tags: L1B Product

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