Air temperature and humidity by altitude, near real-time (Aqua MODIS, 5 km)
What it measures. Snapshots of the atmosphere showing temperature and moisture at 20 different heights, plus total water vapor and total ozone overhead, available for both day and night where skies are clear.
How it's made. Derived from infrared readings by the MODIS instrument on NASA's Aqua satellite and delivered quickly as a near-real-time product at about 5 km per pixel.
How & where you'd use it. Feeds weather forecasting and helps gauge atmospheric stability, useful for spotting conditions that brew storms.
What's measured
Coverage & cadence
- Time span2015-12-06 → ongoing
- Measured byAQUA (MODIS)
- Processing levelLevel Not provided
- Spatial extent-180, -90, 180, 90
- FormatsHDF-EOS
- StatusACTIVE
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
The level-2 MODIS Temperature and Water Vapor Profile Product MYD07_L2 consists of 30 gridded parameters related to atmospheric stability, atmospheric temperature and moisture profiles, total atmospheric water vapor, and total ozone. All of these parameters are produced for both daytime and nighttime conditions at 5-km pixel resolution when at least 9 FOVs are cloud free. The atmospheric profiles are produced at 20 vertical atmospheric levels (5., 10., 20., 30., 50., 70., 100., 150., 200., 250., 300., 400., 500., 620., 700., 780., 850., 920., 950., 1000. mbar) The water vapor parameter is an estimate of the total tropospheric column water vapor made from integrated MODIS infrared retrievals of atmospheric moisture profiles in clear scenes. The thermal band 9.6 micron is used for retrieving total ozone burden. The shortname for this Level-2 MODIS atmospheric profile product is MYD07_L2 and the principal investigator for this product is MODIS scientist Dr. Paul Menzel ( paulm@ssec.wisc.edu).The MODIS atmospheric profile (MYD07_L2) product contains data that has a spatial resolution (pixel size) of 5 x 5 kilometers (at nadir). Each MYD07_L2 product file covers a five-minute time interval, which means the MYD07_L2 output grid is 270 5-km pixels in width and 406 5-km pixels in length for nine consecutive granules. Every tenth granule has an output grid size of 270 by 408 pixels. MYD07_L2 product files are stored in Hierarchical Data Format(HDF-EOS). Twenty eight of the 30 gridded cloud parameters(5-kilometer pixel resolution) are stored as Scientific Data Sets (SDS) within the file, the remaining two algorithmic static parameters (band number and presure level) are stored as Vdata(table arrays). Cloud Mask SDS, derived from the 1-km MOD35_L2 Cloud Mask parameter, is remapped to 5-km resolution, by using only the center 1-km pixel in the 5x5 pixel retrieval array. The remaining two (band number and static pressure levels) are stored as Vdata(table arrays) Each file is roughly 8 MB in size, and the total data volume is approximately 2 GB/day. MYD07_L2 Data Group and Parameters: Spatial & Temporal Resolution:Latitude & LongitudeScan start time Solar and Sensor Viewing Geometry:Solar zenith & Solar azimuth angleSensor zenith & Sensor azimuth angle Static Algorithm Parameters:MODIS band numberPressure levels Atmospheric & Surface Pressure:Retrieved Geopotential Height ProfileTropopause HeightSurface Elevation, Surface Pressure Atmospheric & Surface Temperature:Guess & Retrieved Temperature ProfilesBrightness Temperature and Skin Temperature Atmospheric Moisture:Guess Mixing ratio ProfileRetrieved Dew Point Temperature Profile Atmospheric Stability Indices:Total Totals, Lifted Index, and K-index Atmospheric Trace Gases:Total Ozone BurdenTotal Column Precipitable Water Vapor - IR RetrievalTotal Column Precipitable Water Vapor - Direct IR RetrievalWater Vapor(Low & High)Retrieved Water Vapour Mixing Ratio Profile Quality Assurance & Statistical Parameters:Quality Assurance ParametersRun time QA flagsMODIS Cloud MaskProcessing Flag These parameters are very essential in the characterization of the atmosphere, atmospheric correction of remotely sensed surface parameters, and prediction of convective clouds and thunderstorms. For more information about the MYD07_L2 product, visit the MODIS-Atmosphere site at:http://modis-atmos.gsfc.nasa.gov/MOD07_L2/
Get the data
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc") # free Earthdata Login
results = earthaccess.search_data(
short_name="MYD07_L2",
version="6NRT",
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 LANCEMODIS Browsing CMR needs no login. Downloading or streaming bytes needs a free Earthdata Login + the earthaccess package.