MODIS Data and Services at the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC)

Abstract:

For close to 15 years, the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) NASA Distributed Active Archive Center (NDAAC) has archived and distributed snow and sea ice products derived from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instruments on the NASA Earth Observing System (EOS) Aqua and Terra satellites. The archive contains a wide selection of snow and sea ice data products relevant to cryospheric science.

NSIDC offers a variety of methods for obtaining these data. Users can ftp data directly from an online archive which allows for a very quick download. The Reverb Search & Order Tool contains a complete set of metadata for all products which can be searched for and ordered. Reverb allows a user to order spatial, temporal, and parameter subsets of the data. Users can also request that they be added to our subscription list which makes it possible to have new MODIS data automatically ftp’d or staged on a local server as it is archived at NSIDC.

Since MODIS products are in HDF-EOS format, a number of tools have been developed to assist with browsing, editing, reprojection, resampling, and format conversion. One such service, Data Access, can be accessed through Reverb and performs subsetting, reformatting, and reprojection. This service can also be accessed via an Application Programming Interface (API) from a user-written client. Other tools include the MODIS Swath-to-Grid Toolbox (MS2GT) and the MODIS Interactive Subsetting Tool (MIST). MS2GT was created to produce a seamless output grid from multiple input files corresponding to successively acquired, 5-minute MODIS scenes. NSIDC also created the MIST to provide subsets of certain Version 5 MODIS products, over the Greenland Climate Network (GC-Net) and the International Arctic Systems for Observing the Atmosphere (IASOA) stations. Tools from other sources include HDFView from the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA), and the MODIS Reprojection Tool (MRT) and MRT Swath developed by the Land Processes DAAC (LP-DAAC).