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Full catalog/MIL3YCOD
MIL3YCOD·v001·dataset

Cloud top height and thickness, yearly (MISR)

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

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

How it's made. Derived from the MISR instrument on Terra, whose nine differently-angled cameras and four wavelengths let it measure cloud height and type, with results summarized over a full year.

How & where you'd use it. Supports the study of cloud types and their long-term trends, part of MISR's goal of understanding clouds, particles, and how sunlight moves through Earth's atmosphere.

What's measured

ATMOSPHERE › CLOUDSATMOSPHERE › CLOUDS › CLOUD MICROPHYSICSATMOSPHERE › CLOUDS › CLOUD MICROPHYSICS › CLOUD OPTICAL DEPTH/THICKNESSATMOSPHERE › CLOUDS › CLOUD PROPERTIESATMOSPHERE › CLOUDS › CLOUD PROPERTIES › CLOUD TOP HEIGHT

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span1999-12-01 → 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

MIL3YCOD_1 is the Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR) Level 3 Cloud Top Height-Optical Depth Product covering a year version 1. 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 successively 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.

Get the data

mil3ycod_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="MIL3YCOD",
    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.