Getting Started with MODIS Version 6 Thermal Anomalies and Fire Data Part 1:
All About Accessing the Data. Presented by the Land Processes
Distributed Active Archive Center or LP DAAC.
This video is part 1 of the “Getting Started with MODIS
Version 6 Thermal Anomalies and Fire Data” video series.
This video will cover the MODIS Version 6 Fire products,
improvements in Version 6 products over Version 5 products, and how
to search for and download these data using the Earthdata Search
Client data access tool. The LP DAAC distributes several MODIS Version 6
Thermal Anomalies and Fire products. All data distributed by the LP DAAC
are available for download at no charge. The Thermal Anomalies and
Fire products identify fires and other thermal anomalies. These
products provide 5 minute, daily, and 8-day coverage, with a spatial
resolution of 1 kilometer. MODIS Thermal Anomalies and Fire products
are either swath data or tiled and in sinusoidal projection.
Detailed information about each of the individual products can be found
on the LP DAAC website at lpdaac.usgs.gov.
The MODIS data collection is reprocessed into a new version every
so often to provide users with improved products. There are several
improvements that were implemented in the reprocessing of the Thermal
Anomalies and Fire products. Improvements include: refinements
to the internal cloud mask to help distinguish between heavy smoke and
clouds; fixes to prevent small forest clearings in the Amazon rainforest
from generating a false flag for fire; corrections to the misidentification
pixels near the scan line; improvements in detection of small
fires; detection of oil rig fires near coastlines and on the ocean surface;
and identification of class 3 pixel values as non-fire water pixels instead
of water. More detailed information on the changes to each of the MODIS Fire
data products can be found on the Digital Object Identifier or DOI landing
page on the LP DAAC website. The LP DAAC website also offers several
ways to download MODIS Thermal Anomalies and Fire products. At the bottom of the
DOI Landing Page for each product are links to the data access tools for that
specific product. In this video, step-by-step information for downloading
data using NASA’s Earthdata Search Client data access tool will be demonstrated.
From the Earthdata Search home page, search.earthdata.nasa.gov, click on
the “Earthdata Login” button to login to your NASA Earthdata account.
If you do not have an Earthdata account, click on the register button and
follow the prompt to create one. Now, search for the Terra MODIS
Version 6 8-Day Thermal Anomalies and Fire 1 kilometer level 3 gridded
product, MOD14A2. Type “MOD14A2” in the search bar and hit enter.
Click on the MOD14A2 Version 6 data product. This will pull up all
of the MOD14A2 granules. Parameters for the
specific time and location can be set above the map.
The country of Madagascar experienced many fires in November of 2015.
For this video let’s look at fire in Madagascar between November 9th
and November 16th, 2015. First, pan and zoom the map to Madagascar.
Change the temporal range by clicking on “Temporal” and then click on the
Start date and change the date to “November 9, 2015.” Now, change the
End date to “November 16, 2015” and click on apply filter.
To change the spatial information, click on “Spatial” and select “rectangle”
from the drop down menu. Draw a rectangle around Madagascar. You will now see green
outlines that indicate the footprints of the Terra MODIS tiles contained
in your rectangle. The granules from the selected time period that are
located in the selected area are now listed in the lower left hand corner
of your window. Above the granule list are options to “Download Collection Data”
which allows users to download all of the matching granules, an “i” icon to
learn more about the data collection, a filter icon to further filter the data,
and a plus sign icon, which allows users to add multiple data products to their
Earthdata Search project. Click on the first box in the lower left hand corner
list to select the most recent scene in the list. This box contains a preview
of the granule, the Terra MODIS filename, the dates of the data, an “x” in the upper
right hand corner to remove the scene from your list, an “i” for more
information, and the download icon to download a single granule.
Click on the “i” icon to bring up the metadata for the selected granule.
Remember, metadata are data about data. The metadata include the DOI, which is
necessary for proper citation, as well as information on the scene’s corner
coordinates, input granules, and more. Click on the “Metadata” tab for links
to download metadata in different standard formats. Click on
“Back to Granules” to return to your list. Click on “Download Collection Data”
to download all of the granules in the list. Now, review the data download
order on the “Data Access” page, this page lists the number of granules in
the order and the size of the order. From here users can select the service
options. Select “download” to instantly receive the data or select
“Delivery Option” to receive the data via email. The “MOD14A2.6 ESI Service
option allows the user to select various service options, including
reformatting the data into a GeoTIFF or to other file formats. From here
you can also spatial subset the data, re-project the data, and subset the
science datasets. Click on “submit” or “continue” and then “submit” to
submit the order. Depending on the data access method, the data will be
immediately available or will be sent to the user via email.
Thank you for watching our video. For more information on MODIS Version 6
Thermal Anomalies and Fire data please visit the LP DAAC website
at lpdaac.usgs.gov.