The Aqua MODIS (Moderate resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) Level-1A (L1A) Geolocation product contains geodetic coordinates, ground elevation, and solar and satellite zenith and azimuth angles for the center of each MODIS 1-km pixel at nadir. These data serve as a companion dataset to the Level-1B calibrated radiances (MYD02) and the higher-level products to enable further processing. These geolocation fields are determined using data inputs from the spacecraft attitude and orbit, instrument telemetry, and a digital elevation model.

The Aqua MODIS 1-km Geolocation product whose short-name is MYD03. The MYD03 Science Data Sets (SDS) describe the range of information provided for each 1-km pixel’s Instantaneous Field of View (IFOV). In addition, a range of other information attributes (quality, offsets, observation start-time, etc.) exist as well.

The v7.0 Aqua MODIS MYD03 in netCDF4 format represents the most current version of this product that has undergone around half-a-dozen reprocessing cycles in the last 2.5 decades. Each 1-km swath granule or data-file temporally spans 5 minutes and its nominal image dimensions measure 2,030 lines (along-track direction) by 1,354 samples (cross-track direction). The v7.0 collection’s data record starts from July 4, 2002 (2002–185).