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Full catalog/MOD08_M3
MOD08_M3·v6.1·dataset

Haze, clouds, water vapor and ozone overhead (MODIS Terra, monthly)

MODIS/Terra Aerosol Cloud Water Vapor Ozone Monthly L3 Global 1Deg CMG
atmosphere NASA LAADS Level 3 active HDF-EOS
In plain English

What it measures. Bundles monthly maps of many atmospheric properties together: airborne haze particles, cloud features, water vapor and total overhead ozone, plus statistics like averages and spread for each.

How it's made. Built from the MODIS instrument on the Terra satellite, summarizing daily global data into monthly averages on a 1-degree map grid.

How & where you'd use it. Used to study clouds, water vapor, aerosols and trace gases together, and how they influence Earth's energy balance and climate over seasons and years.

What's measured

ATMOSPHERE › AEROSOLS › AEROSOL BACKSCATTERATMOSPHERE › AEROSOLS › AEROSOL EXTINCTIONATMOSPHERE › AEROSOLS › AEROSOL OPTICAL DEPTH/THICKNESSATMOSPHERE › AEROSOLS › AEROSOL OPTICAL DEPTH/THICKNESS › ANGSTROM EXPONENTATMOSPHERE › AEROSOLS › AEROSOL PARTICLE PROPERTIESATMOSPHERE › AEROSOLS › AEROSOL RADIANCEATMOSPHERE › AEROSOLS › CARBONACEOUS AEROSOLSATMOSPHERE › AEROSOLS › CLOUD CONDENSATION NUCLEIATMOSPHERE › AEROSOLS › DUST/ASH/SMOKEATMOSPHERE › AEROSOLS › NITRATE PARTICLESATMOSPHERE › AEROSOLS › ORGANIC PARTICLESATMOSPHERE › AEROSOLS › PARTICULATE MATTERATMOSPHERE › AEROSOLS › SULFATE PARTICLESATMOSPHERE › ATMOSPHERIC CHEMISTRY › TRACE GASES/TRACE SPECIES

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span2000-02-01 → ongoing
  • Measured byTerra (MODIS)
  • Processing levelLevel 3
  • Spatial extent-180, -90, 180, 90
  • FormatsHDF-EOS
  • 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

The MODIS/Terra Aerosol Cloud Water Vapor Ozone Monthly L3 Global 1Deg CMG product (MOD08_M3) contains monthly 1 x 1 degree grid average values of atmospheric parameters related to atmospheric aerosol particle properties, total ozone burden, atmospheric water vapor, cloud optical and physical properties, and atmospheric stability indices. This product also provides standard deviations, quality assurance weighted means and other statistically derived quantities for each parameter. The MOD08_M3 contains roughly 800 statistical datasets that are derived from the Level-3 MODIS Atmosphere Daily Global Product. Statistics are sorted into 1x1 degree cells on an equal-angle grid that spans a (calendar) monthly interval and then summarized over the globe. MOD08_M3 product files are stored in Hierarchical Data Format (HDF-EOS). Each gridded global parameter is stored as Scientific Data Sets (SDS) within the file. The MODIS monthly Product will be used in the simultaneously study of clouds, water vapor, aerosol , trace gases, land surface and oceanic properties, as well as the interaction between them and their effect on the Earth's energy budget and climate. This product will also be used to investigate seasonal and inter-annual changes in cirrus (semi-transparent) global cloud cover and cloud phase with multispectral observations at high spatial resolution. For more information about the MOD08_M3 product, please visit the MODIS-Atmosphere site at: https://modis-atmos.gsfc.nasa.gov/products/monthly

Get the data

mod08_m3_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="MOD08_M3",
    version="6.1",
    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 LAADS
Browsing CMR needs no login. Downloading or streaming bytes needs a free Earthdata Login + the earthaccess package.