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Full catalog/MCD19A1
MCD19A1·v061·dataset

True surface color, viewing-angle corrected (Terra+Aqua, 500 m)

MODIS/Terra+Aqua Land Surface BRF Daily L2G Global 500m and 1km SIN Grid V061
land NASA LPCLOUD Level 2G active HDF-EOS2
In plain English

What it measures. An estimate of the true color of the land surface across many bands, corrected so it reflects what you would see at ground level with the atmosphere stripped away, at 500-meter and 1-kilometer resolution. It also includes detailed angle and quality layers.

How it's made. Produced daily by combining Terra and Aqua MODIS data and applying an advanced atmospheric-correction method (MAIAC) that analyzes the data over time and across whole images.

How & where you'd use it. Used for high-quality vegetation, land-cover and air-quality studies where consistent, viewing-angle-aware surface color matters, and as a clean input for further land-surface analysis.

What's measured

LAND SURFACE › SURFACE RADIATIVE PROPERTIES › REFLECTANCE

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span2000-02-24 → ongoing
  • Measured byTerra (MODIS) · Aqua (MODIS)
  • Processing levelLevel 2G
  • Spatial extent-180, -90, 180, 90
  • FormatsHDF-EOS2
  • StatusACTIVE

What you can do with it

  • Track deforestation, fire scars and land-cover change
  • Monitor crop and vegetation health (NDVI/EVI)
  • Map how built-up vs. green an area is over time
Official description

The MCD19A1 Version 6.1 data product is a Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) Terra and Aqua combined Land Surface Bidirectional Reflectance Factor (BRF) gridded Level 2 product produced daily at 500 meter (m) and 1 kilometer (km) pixel resolutions. The MCD19A1 product is corrected for atmospheric gases and aerosols using a Multi-Angle Implementation of Atmospheric Correction (MAIAC) algorithm that is based on a time series analysis and a combination of pixel- and image-based processing. The MODIS MAIAC Land Surface BRF products provide an estimate of the surface spectral reflectance as it would be measured at ground-level in the absence of atmospheric scattering or absorption. The MCD19A1 MAIAC Surface Reflectance data product includes 31 Science Dataset (SDS) layers: surface reflectance for bands 1-12, BRF uncertainty for bands 1-2, Quality Assessment (QA) bits at 1 km, surface reflectance for bands 1-7 at 500 m, cosine of solar zenith angle, cosine of view zenith angle, relative azimuth angle, scattering angle, solar azimuth angle, view azimuth angle, glint angle, RossThick/Li-Sparse (RTLS) volumetric kernel, and RTLS geometric kernel at 5 km. A low-resolution browse image is also included showing surface reflectance band combination 1, 4, 3 created using a composite of all available orbits. Each SDS layer within each MCD19A1 Hierarchical Data Format 4 (HDF4) file contains a third dimension that represents the number of orbit overpasses. This factor could affect the total number of bands for each SDS layer. Known Issues * Known issues are described in Section 6 of the User Guide. * For complete information about known issues please refer to the [MODIS/VIIRS Land Quality Assessment website](https://landweb.modaps.eosdis.nasa.gov/knownissue?sensor=MODIS&sat=TerraAqua&as=61).

Get the data

mcd19a1_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="MCD19A1",
    version="061",
    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 LPCLOUD
Browsing CMR needs no login. Downloading or streaming bytes needs a free Earthdata Login + the earthaccess package.