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Full catalog/MOD28C2
MOD28C2·v061·dataset

Reservoir and lake surface area, 8-day (Terra)

MODIS/Terra Water Reservoir 8-Day L3 Global V061
hydrosphere NASA LPCLOUD Level 3 active HDF4
In plain English

What it measures. Every eight days, the surface area, water level, and stored water volume for 164 large reservoirs and regulated lakes around the world.

How it's made. Built from Terra/MODIS satellite imagery that detects open water, combined with pre-built relationships linking a reservoir's area to its elevation and storage.

How & where you'd use it. Helps track how much water major reservoirs hold over time, useful for water management, drought monitoring, and hydrology research.

What's measured

TERRESTRIAL HYDROSPHERE › SURFACE WATER › SURFACE WATER FEATURES › LAKES/RESERVOIRSTERRESTRIAL HYDROSPHERE › SURFACE WATER › SURFACE WATER PROCESSES/MEASUREMENTS › TOTAL SURFACE WATERLAND SURFACE › TOPOGRAPHY › TERRAIN ELEVATION › BED ELEVATIONTERRESTRIAL HYDROSPHERE › SURFACE WATER › SURFACE WATER PROCESSES/MEASUREMENTS › WATER SURFACE HEIGHT

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span2000-02-26 → ongoing
  • Measured byTerra (MODIS)
  • Processing levelLevel 3
  • Spatial extent-180, -90, 180, 90
  • FormatsHDF4
  • StatusACTIVE

What you can do with it

  • Follow rainfall, floods and surface-water extent
  • Track soil moisture and the onset of drought
  • Monitor lakes, rivers and groundwater storage
Official description

The Terra Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) Water Reservoir 8-Day Level 3 (L3) Global (MOD28C2) Version 6.1 product provides current data for 151 man-made reservoirs and 13 regulated natural lakes for a total of 164 reservoirs. The MOD28C2 Version 6.1 data product provides an 8-day time series of surface area, elevation, and water storage. Datasets are combined with pre-established [Area-Elevation (A-E) curves](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2020.111831) and image classifications of near-infrared (NIR) reflectance from the surface reflectance product acquired by the Terra satellite ([MOD09Q1](https://lpdaac.usgs.gov/products/mod09q1v061/)). The MOD28C2 data product contains a single layer with information about the reservoir identifier, dam location (longitude and latitude), reservoir area, elevation, and storage capacity. Known Issues * Water occurrence images generally show smaller surface area dynamics in high latitude regions, creating pixels with low occurrence values that have relatively large uncertainties. In addition, the quality of raw water area classification can be affected by lake ice coverage typically creating an overestimation of surface area in the enhancement algorithm. This issue will be addressed in a future release of the enhancement algorithm. For additional information about known issues, refer to Section 4 in the User Guide and [MODIS/VIIRS Land Quality Assessment website](https://landweb.modaps.eosdis.nasa.gov/knownissue?sensor=MODIS&sat=Terra&as=61).

Get the data

mod28c2_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="MOD28C2",
    version="061",
    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.