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Full catalog/M1_AVH02C1
M1_AVH02C1·v6·dataset

Sunlight reflected at top of atmosphere, daily (MetOp-B, 0.05°)

METOP-B AVHRR Top-of-Atmosphere Reflectance Daily L3 Global 0.05 Deg. CMG
atmosphere NASA LAADS Level 3 active HDF-EOS
In plain English

What it measures. A daily global map of how much sunlight is reflected at the top of the atmosphere, at about 0.05-degree resolution. It records reflectance before correcting for the air in between.

How it's made. Generated from the AVHRR instrument on the MetOp-B satellite as part of a long-term climate data record, processed and gridded so it can connect with older and newer satellite series.

How & where you'd use it. Serves climate-change research as a consistent, decades-spanning record and as a step toward derived products like vegetation greenness indices.

What's measured

ATMOSPHERE › ATMOSPHERIC RADIATION › REFLECTANCE › TOP OF ATMOSPHERE (TOA) REFLECTANCELAND SURFACE › SURFACE RADIATIVE PROPERTIES › REFLECTANCESPECTRAL/ENGINEERING › INFRARED WAVELENGTHS › BRIGHTNESS TEMPERATURE

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span2013-01-16 → ongoing
  • Measured byMETOP-B (AVHRR)
  • Processing levelLevel 3
  • Spatial extent-180, -90, 180, 90
  • FormatsHDF-EOS
  • StatusACTIVE

What you can do with it

  • Map air pollutants — NO₂, aerosols, ozone
  • Track greenhouse gases and Earth's energy budget
  • Feed weather and air-quality analysis
Official description

The Long-Term Data Record (LTDR) produces, validates, and distributes a global land surface climate data record (CDR) that uses both mature and well-tested algorithms in concert with the best-available polar-orbiting satellite data from past to the present. The CDR is critically important to studying global climate change. The LTDR project is unique in that it serves as a bridge that connects data derived from the NOAA Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR), the EOS Moderate resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (SNPP) Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS), and Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) VIIRS missions. The LTDR draws from the following eight AVHRR missions: NOAA-7, NOAA-9, NOAA-11, NOAA-14, NOAA-16, NOAA-18, NOAA-19, and MetOp-B. Currently, the project generates a daily surface reflectance product as the fundamental climate data record (FCDR) and derives daily Normalized Differential Vegetation Index (NDVI) and Leaf-Area Index/fraction of absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (LAI/fPAR) as two thematic CDRs (TCDR). LAI/fPAR was developed as an experimental product. The METOP-B AVHRR Top-of-Atmosphere Reflectance Daily L3 Global 0.05 Deg CMG, short-name M1_AVH02C1 is generated from GIMMS Advanced Processing System (GAPS) BRDF-corrected Surface Reflectance product (AVH01C1). The M1_AVH02C1 consist of Top-of-atmosphere reflectance for bands 1 and 2, data Quality flags, angles (solar zenith, view zenith, and relative azimuth), thermal data (thermal bands 3, 4 and 5), and additional data (scan time).

Get the data

m1_avh02c1_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="M1_AVH02C1",
    version="6",
    bounding_box=(-122.5, 37.2, -121.8, 37.9),  # your area (W,S,E,N)
    temporal=("2024-01-01", "2024-12-31"),       # your dates
)
files = earthaccess.open(results)   # stream straight from LAADS
Browsing CMR needs no login. Downloading or streaming bytes needs a free Earthdata Login + the earthaccess package.