The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS): Land Remote Sensing for Global Change Research

Authors

Christopher O. Justice, University of Virginia
Eric Vermote, University of Maryland
John R. G. Townshend, University of Maryland
Ruth Defries, University of Maryland
David P. Roy, University of MarylandFollow
Dorothy K. Hall, Goddard Space Flight Center
Vincent V. Salomonson, Goddard Space Flight Center
Jeffrey L. Privette, Goddard Space Flight Center
George Riggs, Research and Data Systems Corporation
Alan Strahler, Boston University
Wolfgang Lucht, Boston University
Ranga P. Myneni, Boston University
Yuri Knyazikhin, Boston University
Steve W. Running, University of Montana
Rama R. Nemani, University of Montana
Zhengming Wan, University of California
Alfredo R. Huete, University of Arizona
Wim van Leeuwen, University of Arizona
Robert E. Wolfe, Goddard Space Flight Center
Louis Giglio, Science Systems and Applications, Inc.
Jan-Peter Muller, University College London
Philip Lewis, University College London
Michael J. Barnsley, University of Wales

Date of this Version

1998

Comments

Published in IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON GEOSCIENCE AND REMOTE SENSING, VOL. 36, NO. 4, JULY 1998.

Abstract

The first Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument is planned for launch by NASA in 1998. This instrument will provide a new and improved capability for terrestrial satellite remote sensing aimed at meeting the needs of global change research. The MODIS standard products will provide new and improved tools for moderate resolution land surface monitoring. These higher order data products have been designed to remove the burden of certain common types of data processing from the user community and meet the more general needs of global-to-regional monitoring, modeling, and assessment. The near-daily coverage of moderate resolution data from MODIS, coupled with the planned increase in high-resolution sampling from Landsat 7, will provide a powerful combination of observations. The full potential of MODIS will be realized once a stable and well-calibrated time-series of multispectral data has been established. In this paper the proposed MODIS standard products for land applications are described along with the current plans for data quality assessment and product validation.