Given the lack of near-real-time access to MODIS images of the western U.S. from our usual sources today, I decided to google for other data sources since it has been a while since I conducted such a search. I found three new sites of slight interest:
NOAA MODIS Near Real Time Processing: Provides mosaiced reprojected images of the whole U.S. from both MODIS Terra and Aqua, but they are low resolution and possibly late and/or missing.
NASA LaRC MODIS Image Browser: MODIS Aqua and Terra granule previews that are timely and include individual channels, but very low-resolution and only the eastern U.S.
Japan MODIS Near Real Time Data: High resolution reprojected images of Japan and Asia from MODIS Terra and Aqua.
None of the new sites are useful for our purposes, so our current data sources are the best we have for now. The most useful are UW MODIS Direct (timely and high-res but often misses the western U.S.) and UMd/NASA RapidFire (timely, covers the world, but not reprojected). The Naval Research Lab Aerosol Page has SeaWiFS and other data but often a day late and no MODIS data. If I have missed any other sites you know about, please feel free to email me.
What we here at U.S. Air Quality/Smog Blog need are: reprojected MODIS Terra and Aqua true color and aerosol optical depth images at preview and high (on request) resolutions within 2 hours of overpass for the whole U.S. and preferably the whole western hemisphere.
Posted by Jill Engel-Cox at November 21, 2004 4:38 PM