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Full catalog/XAERDT_L2_MODIS_Aqua
XAERDT_L2_MODIS_Aqua·v1·dataset

Haze, dust and smoke in the air (Aqua, 10 km)

MODIS/Aqua Dark Target Aerosol 5-Min L2 Swath 10 km
atmosphere NASA LAADS Level 2 netCDF-4
In plain English

What it measures. Measures tiny airborne particles, haze, dust, and smoke, by reporting aerosol optical depth (how much these particles block light) and related properties, at about 10 km resolution every 5 minutes.

How it's made. Derived from the MODIS instrument on NASA's Aqua satellite using a special 'Dark Target' aerosol retrieval, produced as a Level-2 swath product.

How & where you'd use it. Useful for air-quality monitoring, tracking dust and smoke events, and studying how particles affect climate; part of an effort to make consistent aerosol records across many satellites.

What's measured

ATMOSPHERE › AEROSOLS › AEROSOL OPTICAL DEPTH/THICKNESSATMOSPHERE › AEROSOLS › AEROSOL OPTICAL DEPTH/THICKNESS › ANGSTROM EXPONENTATMOSPHERE › AEROSOLSATMOSPHERE › AEROSOLS › AEROSOL PARTICLE PROPERTIES

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span2019-01-01 → 2023-01-01
  • Measured byAqua (MODIS)
  • Processing levelLevel 2
  • Spatial extent-180, -90, 180, 90
  • FormatsnetCDF-4
  • 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 MODIS/Aqua Dark Target Aerosol 5-Min L2 Swath 10 km product, short-name XAERDT_L2_MODIS_Aqua is provided at 10-km spatial resolution (at-nadir) and a 5-minute cadence that typically yields about 140 granules over the daylit hours of a 24-hour period. The Aqua/MODIS L2 collection record spans from January 2019 through December 2022. The XAERDT_L2_MODIS_Aqua product is a part of the Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO)–Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) Dark Target Aerosol project under NASA’s Making Earth System Data Records for Use in Research Environments (MEaSUREs) program, led by Robert Levy, uses a special version of the MODIS Dark Target (DT) aerosol retrieval algorithm to produce Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD) and other aerosol parameters derived independently from seven sensor/platform combinations, where 3 are in GEO and 4 are in LEO. The 3 GEO sensors include Advanced Baseline Imagers (ABI) on both GOES-16 (GOES-East) and GOES-17 (GOES-West), and Advanced Himawari Imager (AHI) on Himawari-8. The 4 LEO sensors include MODIS on both Terra and Aqua, and VIIRS on both Suomi-NPP and NOAA-20. Adding the LEO sensors reinforces a major goal of this project, which is to render a consistent science maturity level across DT aerosol products derived from both types and sources of orbital satellites. The XAERDT_L2_MODIS_Aqua product, in netCDF4 format, contains 45 Science Data Set (SDS) layers that include 8 geolocation and 37 geophysical SDSs. For more information consult LAADS [product description page](https://ladsweb.modaps.eosdis.nasa.gov/missions-and-measurements/products/XAERDT_L2_MODIS_Aqua) or [Dark Target aerosol team page](https://darktarget.gsfc.nasa.gov/)

Get the data

xaerdt_l2_modis_aqua_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="XAERDT_L2_MODIS_Aqua",
    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 LAADS
Browsing CMR needs no login. Downloading or streaming bytes needs a free Earthdata Login + the earthaccess package.