NASA's Level-1 and Atmosphere Archive and Distribution System Distributed Active Archive Center (LAADS DAAC) has released eight Version 7.0 Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) Calibrated Radiances and Geolocation data products. This is the latest version of this product suite, which has undergone multiple reprocessing cycles over the past 25 years.
Version 7.0 MODIS Level 1 data include six calibrated radiance products distributed at three different spatial resolutions (250-meter, 500-meter, and 1-kilometer) for each MODIS sensor on both the Aqua and Terra platforms. Additionally, this version updates the geolocation products with 1-kilometer spatial resolution for each MODIS sensor. The version 6.1 MODIS Level-1 collection will remain available for the next six months before being decommissioned on September 30, 2026.
MODIS Version 7.0 Collection Improvements
Calibrated Radiance Improvements
Reflective Solar Bands updates:
- Applied improvements to desert data-fitting algorithms and a correction for changing instrument polarization sensitivity to desert scene data before using that data to derive the response-versus-scan angle for Terra MODIS bands 3, 4, 8, 9, and 10.
- Applied drift corrections, derived an on-orbit response-versus-scan angle, and improved the optical and electronic crosstalk-correction algorithms for Terra MODIS short-wave infrared bands 5 and 26.
- Corrected drift in Terra MODIS bands 11 and 12 using ocean scene data.
Thermal Emissive Bands updates:
- Applied electronic crosstalk correction to the Aqua MODIS photovoltaic long-wave infrared bands 27–30 and select mid-wave infrared detectors, and also improved the handling of crosstalk correction at the image-edge frames through adjustments to the L1B code.
- Applied bias corrections using deep convective cloud data to Terra MODIS bands 20 and 29 and Aqua MODIS bands 27 through 30, as well as improving the scan mirror-side differences in the Aqua MODIS thermal emissive bands.
- Applied adjustments to the non-linear calibration coefficients for Terra and Aqua MODIS band 30 to improve long-term stability.
Geolocation Improvements
- Added a new field view to indicate whether a scan contains a solar eclipse.
- Added 500-meter versions of the latitude, longitude, and height fields in Collection 7 to conform to NetCDF data compliance standards.
- Implemented a dynamic yearly land-water mask to maintain accuracy over time.
- Increased the number and extent of chips in the ground point control library, which are used to assess the geolocation accuracy of the product. This increases the assessable scan angles and search area, enabling more reliable results with a stronger filter and a higher signal-to-noise ratio.
Orbit Drifts
Both the Terra and Aqua platforms have had their orbits adjusted to save fuel. Both orbits are slowly descending, and the local time of ascending/descending nodes is drifting. The final inclination adjustment maneuver (IAM) was performed on February 27, 2020 (for Terra) and March 8, 2021 (For Aqua). As a result, the equatorial-crossing mean local time (MLT) of the descending node for Terra is drifting away from 10:30 AM to early morning, and the equatorial crossing MLT of the ascending node for Aqua is drifting to late afternoon from 13:30 PM.
Version 7.0 MODIS Calibrated Radiance Data Products
- MODIS/Aqua Calibrated Radiances 5-Min L1B Swath 250m
- MODIS/Aqua Calibrated Radiances 5-Min L1B Swath 500m
- MODIS/Aqua Calibrated Radiances 5-Min L1B Swath 1000m
- MODIS/Terra Calibrated Radiances 5-Min L1B Swath 250m
- MODIS/Terra Calibrated Radiances 5-Min L1B Swath 500m
- MODIS/Terra Calibrated Radiances 5-Min L1B Swath 1000m