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Full catalog/MIB2GEOP
MIB2GEOP·v003·dataset

Viewing angles for multi-angle camera imagery (MISR)

MISR Geometric Parameters V003
land NASA LARC_CLOUD Level 1B active netCDF-4
In plain English

What it measures. The angles involved in each MISR image: where the Sun was in the sky and the direction each of the camera's nine viewing angles was pointed, all referenced to a smooth model of the Earth's surface. These geometry numbers are the bookkeeping that lets the imagery be interpreted correctly.

How it's made. Generated from the MISR instrument on NASA's Terra satellite, which photographs each spot below from nine different camera angles as it passes overhead.

How & where you'd use it. This is a supporting input rather than a picture in itself. Researchers studying clouds, airborne particles, and land cover rely on these viewing angles to correctly process MISR's multi-angle images.

What's measured

SPECTRAL/ENGINEERING › SENSOR CHARACTERISTICS › VIEWING GEOMETRY

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span1999-12-18 → ongoing
  • Measured byTerra (MISR)
  • Processing levelLevel 1B
  • Spatial extent-180, -90, 180, 90
  • FormatsnetCDF-4
  • 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

MIB2GEOP_003 is the Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR) Geometric Parameters Version 3 product. It contains the Geometric Parameters which measure the sun and view angles at the reference ellipsoid. Data collection for this product is ongoing. The distribution format of this product is NetCDF-4 which is a migration from the previous version's format of HDF-EOS2. MISR itself is an instrument designed to view Earth with cameras pointed in 9 different directions. As the instrument flies overhead, each piece of Earth's surface below is successively imaged by all 9 cameras, in each of 4 wavelengths (blue, green, red, and near-infrared). The goal of MISR is to improve our understanding of the affects of sunlight on Earth, as well as distinguish different types of clouds, particles and surfaces. Specifically, MISR monitors the monthly, seasonal, and long-term trends in three areas: 1) amount and type of atmospheric particles (aerosols), including those formed by natural sources and by human activities; 2) amounts, types, and heights of clouds, and 3) distribution of land surface cover, including vegetation canopy structure.

Get the data

mib2geop_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="MIB2GEOP",
    version="003",
    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 LARC_CLOUD
Browsing CMR needs no login. Downloading or streaming bytes needs a free Earthdata Login + the earthaccess package.