KEY CHARACTERISTICS OF MODIS DATA PRODUCTS

Forty science products totaling 600 GB of storage volume per day will be produced from NASA's Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS). Eighty-five percent of this data volume is in products that a re in the instrument's scan geometry (processing Levels 1 and 2) that are not earth located. Before ordering MODIS data products, users shou ld consider processing level, data formats, product size, and the uniq ue characteristics of MODIS products. Given the data volumes associate d with the MODIS Levels 1 and 2 products, the resources required to pr ocess them and the issues associated with the scanning geometry of the instrument, users are encouraged to order data products that are eart h located, These include Level 3 products, which are produced on fixed global grids and Level 2G products, in which observations and their e arth location have been stored in bins of the MODIS global grids.