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Full catalog/MIL3MAEN
MIL3MAEN·v004·dataset

Haze, dust and smoke in the air (MISR, monthly)

MISR Level 3 Component Global Aerosol product in netCDF format covering a month V004
atmosphere NASA LARC_CLOUD Level 3 active netCDF-4
In plain English

What it measures. A monthly summary of how much haze, dust, smoke and other tiny airborne particles are in the air, reported as aerosol optical depth, along with what types of particles dominate.

How it's made. Derived from the MISR instrument on the Terra satellite, which views each spot from nine angles; the detailed measurements are averaged over a month onto a 0.5-degree grid.

How & where you'd use it. Useful for tracking air pollution and dust patterns and their role in climate and air quality over time.

What's measured

ATMOSPHERE › AEROSOLS › AEROSOL ABSORPTIONATMOSPHERE › AEROSOLS › AEROSOL OPTICAL DEPTH/THICKNESS › UV AEROSOL INDEX

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span1999-12-18 → ongoing
  • Measured byTerra (MISR)
  • Processing levelLevel 3
  • Spatial extent-180, -90, 180, 90
  • FormatsnetCDF-4
  • 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

This file contains the MISR Level 3 Component Global Aerosol product in netCDF format covering a month. MIL3MAEN_004 is the Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR) Level 3 Component Global Aerosol product in netCDF format covering a month version 4. It contains a statistical summary of column aerosol 555-nanometer optical depth and a monthly aerosol compositional type frequency histogram. This data product is a global summary of relevant Level 2 aerosol parameters, averaged over a month and reported on a geographic grid with a resolution of 0.5 degrees by 0.5 degrees. Data collection for this product is ongoing. The MISR instrument consists of nine push-broom cameras that measure radiance in four spectral bands. Global coverage is achieved in nine days. The cameras are arranged with one camera pointing toward the nadir, four forward, and four aftward. It takes seven minutes for all nine cameras to view the exact surface location. The view angles relative to the surface reference ellipsoid are 0, 26.1, 45.6, 60.0, and 70.5 degrees. The spectral band shapes are nominally Gaussian, centered at 443, 555, 670, and 865 nm. MISR is designed to view Earth with cameras in 9 different directions. As the instrument flies overhead, each piece of Earth's surface below is successfully imaged by all nine cameras in 4 wavelengths (blue, green, red, and near-infrared). The goal of MISR is to improve our understanding of the effects of sunlight on Earth and 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

mil3maen_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="MIL3MAEN",
    version="004",
    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.