modis-derecho·dataset
Northern Plains Dust and Haze, May 2022 Derecho
MODIS Aersol Optical Depth (AOD) for May 12, 2022
atmosphere NASA VEDA COG
In plain English
What it measures. Measures how much dust, smoke, and haze hung in the air over the Northern Plains during the daytime on May 12, 2022, when a powerful windstorm (derecho) swept through.
How it's made. Built from NASA's MODIS satellite instrument, which gauges how much sunlight airborne particles block (aerosol optical depth).
How & where you'd use it. Helps track air-quality hazards and visibility during severe wind and dust events.
What's measured
modisderecho
Coverage & cadence
- Time span2022-05-12 → 2022-05-12
- Spatial extent-104.959, 39.604, -87.864, 49.636
- FormatsCOG
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
MODIS AOD over the Northern Plains region during the daytime on May 12, 2022
Get the data
# NASA VEDA — open STAC API, anonymous (cloud-optimized GeoTIFFs)
from pystac_client import Client
cat = Client.open("https://openveda.cloud/api/stac")
col = cat.get_collection("modis-derecho")
items = list(col.get_items()) # browse the analysis-ready COGs
# open an asset with rioxarray:
# import rioxarray; da = rioxarray.open_rasterio(items[0].assets["cog_default"].href) NASA VEDA is an open STAC catalog — browse and stream the cloud-optimized GeoTIFFs anonymously (no login).
Official links
- Open data source VEDA