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Full catalog/MOD09GA
MOD09GA·v006·dataset

True surface color (Terra, daily, 500 m–1 km)

MODIS/Terra Surface Reflectance Daily L2G Global 1km and 500m SIN Grid V006
land NASA LPCLOUD Level 2G HDF-EOS2
In plain English

What it measures. An estimate of the true color of the land surface across seven color bands at 500-meter detail, corrected for atmospheric haze, gases, and scattering, along with quality flags and viewing information. (Note: this older version was retired in July 2023 in favor of a newer one.)

How it's made. Derived from the MODIS instrument on Terra, with raw measurements cleaned of atmospheric effects and arranged on a daily map grid.

How & where you'd use it. It feeds into many other MODIS land products, so most people encounter it indirectly through derived maps of vegetation, surface color, and reflectivity rather than using it on its own.

What's measured

LAND SURFACE › SURFACE RADIATIVE PROPERTIES › REFLECTANCE

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span2000-02-24 → 2023-02-17
  • Measured byTerra (MODIS)
  • Processing levelLevel 2G
  • Spatial extent-180, -90, 180, 90
  • FormatsHDF-EOS2
  • StatusDEPRECATED

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

The MOD09GA Version 6 data product was decommissioned on July 31, 2023. Users are encouraged to use the [MOD09GA Version 6.1](https://doi.org/10.5067/MODIS/MOD09GA.061) data product. The MOD09GA Version 6 product provides an estimate of the surface spectral reflectance of Terra Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) Bands 1 through 7, corrected for atmospheric conditions such as gasses, aerosols, and Rayleigh scattering. Provided along with the 500 meter (m) surface reflectance, observation, and quality bands are a set of ten 1 kilometer (km) observation bands and geolocation flags. The reflectance layers from the MOD09GA are used as the source data for many of the MODIS land products. Known Issues * Striping due to a dead detector is noticeable for bands 5, 6, and 7 in scenes acquired February 24 through October 31, 2000. Corrections were implemented to reduce the striping in data acquired after November 1, 2000. Users should always check the band quality for dead detectors even though reflectance values may be in the valid range. * The Collection 6 MODIS Land Surface Reflectance product (MOD09) may [incorrectly flag retrievals as ‘High Aerosol’](https://landweb.modaps.eosdis.nasa.gov/displayissue?id=86) over brighter surfaces and at higher view angles. This will impact the downstream MODIS BRDF/Albedo (MCD43) and Vegetation Index (MOD13 and MYD13) data products which use the aerosol quantity flag to screen out high aerosol values. * [Corrections](https://landweb.modaps.eosdis.nasa.gov/data/userguide/LSRHighAerosolFlagFinal.pdf) were implemented in Collection 6.1 reprocessing. * For complete information about known issues please refer to the [MODIS/VIIRS Land Quality Assessment website](https://landweb.modaps.eosdis.nasa.gov/knownissue?sensor=MODIS&sat=Terra&as=6).

Get the data

mod09ga_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="MOD09GA",
    version="006",
    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 LPCLOUD
Browsing CMR needs no login. Downloading or streaming bytes needs a free Earthdata Login + the earthaccess package.