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MODIS/Terra Clouds 5-Min L2 Swath 1km and 5km - NRT

Metadata Updated: September 19, 2025

The level-2 MODIS cloud product consists of cloud optical and physical parameters. These parameters are derived using remotely sensed infrared, visible and near infrared solar reflected radiances. MODIS infrared channel radiances are used to derive cloud top temperature, cloud top height, effective emissivity, cloud phase (ice vs. water, opaque vs. non-opaque), and cloud fraction under both daytime and nighttime conditions. MODIS visible radiances are used to derive cloud optical thickness and effective particle radius and cloud shadow effects. Near infrared solar reflected radiance provides additional information in the retrieval of cloud particle phase (ice vs. water, clouds vs. snow). The shortname for this level-2 MODIS cloud product is MOD06_L2.MOD06_L2 consists of parameters at a spatial resolution of either 1- km or 5-km (at nadir). Each MOD06_L2 product file covers a five-minute time interval. This means that for 5-km resolution parameters, the output grid is 270 pixels in width by 406 pixels in length.On 18 February 2016, the Terra spacecraft, and therefore MODIS, unexpectedly entered safe holdmode during an inclination adjustment maneuver (IAM). After resuming operation on 24 February2016, several infrared (IR) channels exhibited significant degradation, namely increased electroniccross talk in the 8.5μm (Band 29) and immediately surrounding channels. This cross talk,manifesting as a “warming” of Band 29, exacerbated a previously identified Band 29 “warming”(cross talk) trend that caused a spurious cloud mask trend over the tropics starting around 2010.Following extensive analysis, a cross talk correction was developed for the affected IR channels,and the decision was made to reprocess the entire Terra-MODIS L1B record to include this fix.The Atmosphere Team subsequently decided to piggyback the Terra-MODIS L1B reprocessingeffort to implement numerous low-impact updates to the C6 atmosphere products.C6.1 changes for the cloud optical property retrievals are low-impact, and are limited primarilyto ancillary product usage, the Quality Assurance (QA), and handling of cloud top (CT) propertiesfill values; no updates to retrieval science are implemented.For more information about the MODIS Cloud product, visit the MODIS-Atmosphere site at:https://modis-atmos.gsfc.nasa.gov/products/cloudFor more details regarding dataset changes read the document at https://modis-atmos.gsfc.nasa.gov/documentation/collection-61

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.

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Dates

Metadata Created Date April 11, 2025
Metadata Updated Date September 19, 2025

Metadata Source

Harvested from NASA Data.json

Additional Metadata

Resource Type Dataset
Metadata Created Date April 11, 2025
Metadata Updated Date September 19, 2025
Publisher NASA/GSFC/EOS/ESDIS/LANCEMODIS
Maintainer
Identifier 10.5067/MODIS/MOD06_L2.NRT.061
Data Last Modified 2025-09-11
Category Earth Science
Public Access Level public
Bureau Code 026:00
Metadata Context https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.jsonld
Schema Version https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
Catalog Describedby https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.json
Harvest Object Id c21ef344-781b-4606-ae2d-4ecdb15e8586
Harvest Source Id 58f92550-7a01-4f00-b1b2-8dc953bd598f
Harvest Source Title NASA Data.json
Homepage URL https://earthdata.nasa.gov/earth-observation-data/near-real-time/download-nrt-data/modis-nrt
Old Spatial "CARTESIAN",{"WestBoundingCoordinate":-180,"NorthBoundingCoordinate":90,"EastBoundingCoordinate":180,"SouthBoundingCoordinate":-90}
Program Code 026:000
Source Datajson Identifier True
Source Hash a6d512db21da1a1c897fb5240c901ff1d6df30e1456899ac4f9b53c041e75256
Source Schema Version 1.1
Spatial
Temporal 2017-10-11/2017-10-11

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