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Full catalog/MOD28C3
MOD28C3·v061·dataset

Surface water temperature of lakes (Terra, monthly)

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

What it measures. Monthly figures for 164 large reservoirs and regulated lakes, including each one's surface area, water level, stored water volume, and how much water evaporated. It tracks how much water these reservoirs hold and lose.

How it's made. Derived from Terra MODIS satellite observations combined with a lake model and weather data, rolled up from 8-day classifications into monthly numbers.

How & where you'd use it. Valuable for water managers, drought monitoring, and tracking water supply in dams and reservoirs over time.

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 span2000-03-01 → 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 Monthly Level 3 (L3) Global (MOD28C3) Version 6.1 product provides current data for 151 man-made reservoirs and 13 regulated natural lakes for a total of 164 reservoirs. The MOD28C3 Version 6.1 data product is a composite of the 8-day area classifications from [MOD28C2](https://lpdaac.usgs.gov/products/mod28c2v061/), which is converted to provide monthly elevation and water storage. [Lake Temperature and Evaporation Model (LTEM)](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2020.112104) via MODIS Land Surface Temperature (LST) ([MOD21](https://lpdaac.usgs.gov/products/mod21v061/)) and meteorological data from [Global Land Data Assimilation System (GLDAS)](https://earth.gsfc.nasa.gov/hydro/data/gldas-global-land-data-assimilation-system-data) are used to produce monthly evaporation rates and volume losses. The MOD28C3 data product contains a single layer with information about the reservoir identifier, dam location (longitude and latitude), monthly reservoir area, elevation, storage capacity, evaporation rate, and evaporation volume. 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

mod28c3_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="MOD28C3",
    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.