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Full catalog/MODGRNLD
MODGRNLD·v1·dataset

Greenland ice surface temperature, brightness and water vapor (MODIS)

Multilayer Greenland Ice Surface Temperature, Surface Albedo, and Water Vapor from MODIS V001
cryosphere NASA NSIDC_CPRD Level 3 netCDF-4
In plain English

What it measures. Conditions on Greenland's ice sheet: the temperature of the ice surface and a map of where it's melting, plus how reflective the surface is and how much water vapor sits above it. Resolution is under a kilometer.

How it's made. Drawn from MODIS observations on NASA's Terra satellite, combining surface temperature, melt, reflectivity, and water-vapor layers along with ice and drainage-basin masks.

How & where you'd use it. Lets researchers study the link between surface temperature and melting on Greenland's ice sheet, and compare results against models and other satellites.

What's measured

CRYOSPHERE › SNOW/ICE › ALBEDOCRYOSPHERE › SNOW/ICE › SNOW/ICE TEMPERATURECRYOSPHERE › SNOW/ICE › SURFACE MELTATMOSPHERE › ATMOSPHERIC WATER VAPOR › WATER VAPOR INDICATORS › WATER VAPOR

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span2000-03-01 → 2021-08-31
  • Measured byTerra (MODIS)
  • Processing levelLevel 3
  • Spatial extent-94, 58, 12, 84
  • FormatsnetCDF-4
  • StatusCOMPLETE

What you can do with it

  • Measure sea ice, snow cover and glaciers
  • Watch ice-sheet elevation change
  • Track freeze/thaw and permafrost
Official description

This multilayer data set includes standard MODIS Collection 6.1 ice surface temperature (IST) and derived melt map, as well as MODIS Collection 6.0 albedo and water vapor for Greenland, at a spatial resolution of 0.78 km. These fields enable the relationship between IST and surface melt to be evaluated by researchers studying surface changes on the Greenland ice sheet. Water vapor is included to assist with evaluating the accuracy of the IST data and the model output. Also included is an ice mask and a basins mask for delineating drainage basins in Greenland. Surface temperature is a fundamental input for dynamical ice sheet models because it is a component of the ice sheet radiation budget and mass balance. Surface temperature also influences ice sheet processes, such as surface melt. This data set may be used as a resource for model-validation studies such as comparing MERRA-2 surface temperature with MODIS IST, and for comparing MODIS IST, albedo and water vapor with products from sensors on other satellites such as VIIRS and AIRS The temporal coverage for this data set spans 1 March 2000 through 31 December 2019, with the exception of the IST data, which has been extended through 31 Aug 2021.

Get the data

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

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