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    • MISR Level 3 Cloud Fraction by Altitude Product covering a month V001

    Metadata Updated: December 6, 2023

    MIL3MCFA_1 is the Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR) Level 3 Cloud Fraction by Altitude Product covering a month version 1. It provides the frequency of cloud occurrence partitioned into different cloud top height bins at a global and monthly scale with a latitude/longitude resolution of 0.5 degree by 0.5 degree and a vertical resolution of 500m. For each height bin, the frequency of cloud occurrence of a region over a time period is represented by the temporal mean of the spatial coverage of cloud tops. The spatial coverage of clouds is referred to as cloud fraction, which is defined as the ratio of the number of cloudy pixels to the total number of cloudy and cloud-free pixels observed by the instrument. Clouds are assigned to height bins based on their top height as retrieved by the MISR stereoscopic technique. Data collection for this product is complete.

    The MISR instrument consists of nine pushbroom cameras which measure radiance in four spectral bands. Global coverage is achieved in nine days. The cameras are arranged with one camera pointing toward the nadir, four cameras pointing forward, and four cameras pointing aftward. It takes seven minutes for all nine cameras to view the same surface location. The view angles relative to the surface reference ellipsoid, are 0, 26.1, 45.6, 60.0, and 70.5 degrees. The spectral band shapes are nominally Gaussian, centered at 443, 555, 670, and 865 nm.

    MISR itself is an instrument designed to view Earth with cameras pointed in 9 different directions. As the instrument flies overhead, each piece of Earth's surface below is successively imaged by all 9 cameras, in each of 4 wavelengths (blue, green, red, and near-infrared). The goal of MISR is to improve our understanding of the affects of sunlight on Earth, as well as distinguish different types of clouds, particles and surfaces. Specifically, MISR monitors the monthly, seasonal, and long-term trends in three areas: 1) amount and type of atmospheric particles (aerosols), including those formed by natural sources and by human activities; 2) amounts, types, and heights of clouds, and 3) distribution of land surface cover, including vegetation canopy structure.

    Access & Use Information

    Public: This dataset is intended for public access and use. License: No license information was provided. If this work was prepared by an officer or employee of the United States government as part of that person's official duties it is considered a U.S. Government Work.

    Downloads & Resources

    Dates

    Metadata Created Date November 12, 2020
    Metadata Updated Date December 6, 2023

    Metadata Source

    Harvested from NASA Data.json

    Other Data Resources

    Graphic Preview

    ASDC List of MISR Imagery and Articles

    Additional Metadata

    Resource Type Dataset
    Metadata Created Date November 12, 2020
    Metadata Updated Date December 6, 2023
    Publisher NASA/LARC/SD/ASDC
    Maintainer
    Identifier C188637669-LARC
    Data First Published 2010-03-31
    Language en-US
    Data Last Modified 2019-06-19
    Category MISR, geospatial
    Public Access Level public
    Bureau Code 026:00
    Metadata Context https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.jsonld
    Metadata Catalog ID https://data.nasa.gov/data.json
    Schema Version https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
    Catalog Describedby https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.json
    Citation 2014-08-29. Archived by National Aeronautics and Space Administration, U.S. Government, NASA/LARC/SD/ASDC. https://doi.org/10.5067/Terra/MISR/MIL3MCFA_L3.001. https://asdc.larc.nasa.gov/project/MISR.
    Graphic Preview Description ASDC List of MISR Imagery and Articles
    Graphic Preview File https://asdc.larc.nasa.gov/documents/misr/imagery.html
    Harvest Object Id e62d0541-5a10-49f8-9e30-4eae7e3445b4
    Harvest Source Id 58f92550-7a01-4f00-b1b2-8dc953bd598f
    Harvest Source Title NASA Data.json
    Homepage URL https://doi.org/10.5067/Terra/MISR/MIL3MCFA_L3.001
    Metadata Type geospatial
    Old Spatial -180.0 -90.0 180.0 90.0
    Program Code 026:001
    Source Datajson Identifier True
    Source Hash 213deed7ac2cfc5a2fa97d2ee3ef362cc65e6d690b532c1a3b48ff1eee8f4023
    Source Schema Version 1.1
    Spatial
    Temporal 2000-03-01T00:00:00Z/2022-01-17T00:00:00Z

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