Ordering MODIS Data

On Tuesday, 13 May from 8:30 a.m. until 4:30 p.m U.S. Mountain Time (USA Mountain Time), AMSR-E, ICESat/GLAS, MODIS, and NISE data will be unavailable for ordering.

The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) snow and sea ice data are available from four data sources: the Data Pool, the Search n Order Web Interface (SNOWI), the MODIS SNOWI, and the EOS Data Gateway (EDG). The following table gives the Web site link to each data source and also gives an explanation as to what each data source offers; thus, explaining why you may want to use one data source over another data source. The highest version number represents the best quality data available.

Data Source Link

Data Source Information

Data Pool

The Data Pool gives you direct FTP access to the NSIDC EOS data. Please note that the Date Pool may not contain the full time series for all data sets. It offers users the HEG - HDF-EOS to GeoTIFF Conversion Tool, which allows users to reformat, re-project, and perform subsetting operations. However, this version of the HEG tool does not have all the features of the standalone HEG tool, which offers stitching and mosaicing.

Subscription

Subscribe to have new MODIS data automatically sent via FTP to your local server, or staged on NSIDC's FTP site when the data becomes available.

SNOWI

You can use the Search n Order Web Interface (SNOWI) to access the entire archive of MODIS/Terra and MODIS/Aqua data. Easy interface to use. Can order 1500 granules per order. Only searches NSIDC data. It does not offer subsetting.

MODIS SNOWI

Can only search and order the following Level-3 gridded MODIS data by specific tiles: MOD10A1, MYD10A1, MOD10A2, MYD10A2, MOD10C1, MYD10C1, MOD10C2, MYD10C2, MOD29P1D, MYD29P1D, MOD29P1N, MYD29P1N, MOD29E1D, and MYD29E1D. Does not support swath data sets. Can order 1500 granules per order. Easy interface to use and easy tile search features.

EOS Data Gateway

To users of the EOS Data Gateway (EDG): Please note that the Warehouse Inventory Search Tool (WIST) will be replacing the EDG in the near future. At this time, we request that registered users migrate your user accounts and begin using WIST. We will send registered users an email with further information on WIST and the migration process in the next few weeks. We also encourage guest users to begin using WIST when it becomes available.

You can use the EOS Data Gateway (EDG) to access the entire archive of MODIS/Terra and MODIS/Aqua data as well as data from a wide variety of other instruments and other data centers. It also searches multiple DAACs. The EDG also allows you to tile search by parameter or spatial subsetting. However, you can only order 1000 granules per order, and it is a cumbersome interface to use.

For help using the EDG, see the following tutorials:

Ordering MODIS Snow and Ice Products Using the EDG
How to Search for MODIS Products by TileID on the EDG

To learn about the different versions of MODIS snow and sea ice products available from NSIDC, refer to the MODIS Product Versions Web site.

Browse images can help you select snow and sea ice products by providing an overall view of the geographic boundaries and cloud cover for a given scene. For browse images of MODIS snow cover and sea ice products, please visit the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center: MODIS Land Global Browse Images Web site. The MODIS Rapid Response System also produces browse images of visible MODIS imagery to assist in selecting cloud-free scenes.

MODIS data are in Hierarchical Data Format - Earth Observing System (HDF-EOS) format, which is the standard data format for all EOS data products. HDF is a multi-object file format developed at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) at the University of Illinois. Tools and information about reading data in HDF-EOS format are available from NSIDC's Hierarchical Data Format - Earth Observing System (HDF-EOS) Web site.

Page last updated: 04/14/08

MODIS Data at NSIDC