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Full catalog/MYD16A3GF
MYD16A3GF·v061·dataset

How much water plants use yearly, gap-filled (Aqua, 500 m)

MODIS/Aqua Net Evapotranspiration Gap-Filled Yearly L4 Global 500m SIN Grid V061
atmosphere NASA LPCLOUD Level 4 active HDF-EOS2
In plain English

What it measures. How much water plants and soil released into the air over a full year (evapotranspiration), plus related energy measures, mapped at 500-meter detail with quality flags.

How it's made. Computed for the Aqua MODIS instrument using a physics-based equation that combines satellite data on vegetation, reflectivity, and land cover with daily weather data; gaps from cloudy or poor-quality days are filled in at year's end.

How & where you'd use it. Helps with water-resource management, drought monitoring, agriculture, and understanding how much water ecosystems consume; only available after each year is complete.

What's measured

ATMOSPHERE › ATMOSPHERIC WATER VAPOR › WATER VAPOR PROCESSES › EVAPOTRANSPIRATIONBIOSPHERE › ECOLOGICAL DYNAMICS › ECOSYSTEM FUNCTIONS › PHOTOSYNTHESISBIOSPHERE › ECOLOGICAL DYNAMICS › ECOSYSTEM FUNCTIONS › PRIMARY PRODUCTIONATMOSPHERE › PRECIPITATION › PRECIPITATION PROFILES › LATENT HEAT FLUX

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span2002-07-04 → ongoing
  • Measured byAqua (MODIS)
  • Processing levelLevel 4
  • Spatial extent-180, -90, 180, 90
  • FormatsHDF-EOS2
  • 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 Aqua Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) MYD16A3GF Version 6.1 Evapotranspiration/Latent Heat Flux (ET/LE) product is a year-end gap-filled yearly composite dataset produced at 500 meter (m) pixel resolution. The improved algorithm is based on the logic of the Penman-Monteith equation, which includes inputs of daily meteorological reanalysis data along with MODIS remotely sensed data products such as vegetation property dynamics, albedo, and land cover. The MYD16A3GF will be generated at the end of each year when the entire yearly 8-day [MYD15A2H](https://doi.org/10.5067/MODIS/MYD15A2H.061) is available. Hence, the gap-filled MYD16A3GF is the improved MYD16, which has cleaned the poor-quality inputs from 8-day Leaf Area Index and Fraction Photosynthetically Active Radiation (LAI/FPAR) based on the Quality Control (QC) label for every pixel. If any LAI/FPAR pixel did not meet the quality screening criteria, its value is determined through linear interpolation. However, users cannot get MYD16A3GF in near-real time because it will be generated only at the end of a given year. Provided in the MYD16A3GF product are layers for composited ET, LE, Potential ET (PET), and Potential LE (PLE) along with a quality control layer. Two low resolution browse images, ET and LE, are also available for each MYD16A3GF granule. The pixel values for the two Evapotranspiration layers (ET and PET) are the sum for all days within the defined year, and the pixel values for the two Latent Heat layers (LE and PLE) are the average of all days within the defined year. Known Issues * Operational and uncertainty issues are provided under Section 3 in the User Guide. * For complete information about known issues please refer to the [MODIS/VIIRS Land Quality Assessment website](https://landweb.modaps.eosdis.nasa.gov/knownissue?sensor=MODIS&sat=Aqua&as=61).

Get the data

myd16a3gf_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="MYD16A3GF",
    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.