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About
Full catalog/MIL3QCOD
MIL3QCOD·v001·dataset

Cloud top height and thickness, seasonal (MISR)

MISR Level 3 Cloud Top Height-Optical Depth Product covering a quarter (seasonal) V001
atmosphere NASA LARC_CLOUD Level 3 active HDF-EOS2
In plain English

What it measures. A seasonal global summary of clouds — how high their tops sit and how thick they are (cloud-top height and optical depth).

How it's made. Built from the MISR instrument on Terra, whose nine cameras pointing in different directions and four wavelengths let it gauge cloud height and type; the data are summarized over each three-month season.

How & where you'd use it. Helps scientists distinguish cloud types and track seasonal and long-term cloud trends, which matter for understanding climate and the fate of sunlight in the atmosphere.

What's measured

ATMOSPHERE › CLOUDS › CLOUD MICROPHYSICS › CLOUD OPTICAL DEPTH/THICKNESSATMOSPHERE › CLOUDS › CLOUD PROPERTIES › CLOUD TOP HEIGHTATMOSPHERE › AEROSOLS › CLOUD CONDENSATION NUCLEI

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span1999-12-18 → ongoing
  • Measured byTerra (MISR)
  • Processing levelLevel 3
  • Spatial extent-180, -90, 180, 90
  • FormatsHDF-EOS2
  • 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

Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR) is designed to view Earth with cameras pointed 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 fate of sunlight in Earth's environment 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. This file contains the public MISR Level 3 CloudTopHeight-OpticalDepth Product covering a quarter (seasonal).

Get the data

mil3qcod_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="MIL3QCOD",
    version="001",
    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.