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Description

The AHI/Himawari-08 Dark Target Aerosol 10-Min L2 Full Disk 10 km product, short-name XAERDT_L2_AHI_H08 is provided at 10-km spatial resolution (at-nadir) and a 10-minute full-disk cadence that typically yields about 142 granules over the daylit hours of a 24-hour period (there are no images produced at 02:20 or 14:20 UTC for navigation purposes). The Himawari-8 platform served in the operational Himawari position (near 140.7°E) between October 2014 and 13 December 2022. Himawari-9 replaced Himawari-8 and is currently operational. The Himawari-8/AHI collection record spans from January 2019 through 12th December 2022. The final 19 days of 2022 (December 13 through 31) are served by L2 products derived from the Himawari-9/AHI instrument.

The XAERDT_L2_AHI_H08 product is a part of the Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO)–Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) Dark Target Aerosol project under NASA’s Making Earth System Data Records for Use in Research Environments (MEaSUREs) program, led by Robert Levy, uses a special version of the MODIS Dark Target (DT) aerosol retrieval algorithm to produce Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD) and other aerosol parameters derived independently from seven sensor/platform combinations, where 3 are in GEO and 4 are in LEO. The 3 GEO sensors include Advanced Baseline Imagers (ABI) on both GOES-16 (GOES-East) and GOES-17 (GOES-West), and Advanced Himawari Imager (AHI) on Himawari-8. The 4 LEO sensors include MODIS on both Terra and Aqua, and VIIRS on both Suomi-NPP and NOAA-20. Adding the LEO sensors reinforces a major goal of this project, which is to render a consistent science maturity level across DT aerosol products derived from both types and sources of orbital satellites.

The XAERDT_L2_AHI_H08 product, in netCDF4 format, contains 45 Science Data Set (SDS) layers that include 8 geolocation and 37 geophysical SDSs.

For more information consult LAADS product description page at:

https://ladsweb.modaps.eosdis.nasa.gov/missions-and-measurements/products/XAERDT_L2_AHI_H08

Or, Dark Target aerosol team Page at:
https://darktarget.gsfc.nasa.gov/

Version Description

Himawari-08 Version 1 Data

Product Summary

Platforms
Himawari-8
Instruments
AHI
Spatial Extent

N: 90 S: -90 E: 180 W: -180

Spatial Resolution
10 Kilometers x 10 Kilometers
Geographic Region
GLOBAL
Coordinate System
CARTESIAN
Granule Spatial Representation
GEODETIC
Temporal Extent
2019-01-01 to 2022-12-15
Data Partner
L1 and Atmosphere Archive and Distribution System,Biospheric Information Systems Branch, Hydrospheric and Biospheric Sciences Laboratory, Earth Sciences Division, Science and Exploration Directorate, Goddard Space Flight Center, NASA (NASA/GSFC/SED/ESD/H ,
Atmosphere Science Investigator-led Processing System, Space Science and Engineering Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison (UWI-MAD/SSEC/ASIPS)
Concept ID
C2859255251-LAADS
Data State
ACTIVE
Number of Files/Granules
203981
Processing Level
2
Published
Science Keywords
Aerosol Optical Depth/Thickness ,
Angstrom Exponent ,
Aerosols ,
Aerosol Particle Properties

Citation

Citation is critically important for dataset documentation and discovery. This dataset is openly shared, without restriction, in accordance with the EOSDIS Data Use and Citation Guidance.

Copy Citation

Dark Target Aerosol Atmosphere Science Team. (2024). AHI/Himawari-08 Dark Target Aerosol 10-Min L2 Full Disk 10 km [Data set]. NASA Level 1 and Atmosphere Archive and Distribution System Distributed Active Archive Center. https://doi.org/10.5067/MEASURES/GLDTA/XAERDT_L2_AHI_H08.001 Date Accessed: 2025-12-14

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