Getting Started with MODIS Version 6 Land Surface Temperature Data Part 1:
All About Accessing 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 Land Surface Temperature Data”
video series. This video will cover the Land Surface Temperature data
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 Land Surface Temperature products. All data
distributed by the LP DAAC are available for download at no charge.
These data products provide information on the temperature and
emissivity of the land’s surface. These products provide 5 minute,
daily, 8-day and monthly coverage, with spatial resolutions of 1,000
and 5,600 meters. MODIS Land Surface Temperature data products are
provided as non-gridded swaths, as tiled and in sinusoidal
projection or as Global Climate Modeling Grid or CMG products that
are projected to a latitude- longitude grid. 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 included in the reprocessing of
the Land Surface Temperature data products. Improvements include:
removal of cloud-contaminated land surface temperature values from
both level 2 and level 3 products, updates to the look-up table for
the split-window algorithm, minor adjustments in the classification
based surface emissivity values for bare soils and rocks, improvements
to the tuned day/night algorithm for a better performance over
desert regions, and the addition of two new 8-day and monthly 6
kilometer gridded Land Surface Temperature products. More
detailed information on the changes to each of the MODIS Land
Surface Temperature 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 Land Surface
Temperature data products. At the bottom of the DOI Landing Page
for each product are links to the data access tools for the specific
data 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 with 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
Monthly Land Surface Temperature 6 kilometer level 3 gridded product,
MOD11B3. Type “MOD11B3” in the search bar and hit enter. Click on
the MOD11B3 Version 6 data product. This will pull up all of the
MOD11B3 granules. Parameters for a specific time and location can be
set above the map. For this video let’s look at Land Surface
Temperature in Alberta, Canada from March 1 to June 30, 2016.
First, pan and zoom the map to Alberta, Canada. Change the
temporal range by clicking on “Temporal” and then click on the
Start date to change the date to “March 1, 2016”. Now change the
End date to “June 30, 2016” and click on apply filter. To change
the spatial information, click on “Spatial” and select “polygon”
from the drop down menu. Draw a polygon around Alberta. You will
now see a green outline that indicates the footprints of the
Terra MODIS tiles contained in your polygon. The granules for the
selected time 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 “Retrieve Collection Data” which allows a
user 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 a
user 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 granule list, an “i” for more information,
and the retrieval 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 the granule list.
Click on “Retrieve Collection Data” to download all of the
granules in the granule 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 granules in the order or select
“Delivery Option” to receive the granules via email.
Click on “Download” and then “submit” to submit the order.
This will provide you with download links, a data access
script or links to browse images of the data. Depending
on the data access method, the data can be accessed
immediately or will be sent to the user via email.
Thank you for watching our video. For more information
on MODIS Version 6 Land Surface Temperature data please visit
the LP DAAC website at lpdaac.usgs.gov