Forests are one of the most important components of the global biosphere and have critical influences on the Earth’s ecological balance. Regularly updated forest cover information is necessary for various forest management applications as well as climate modeling studies. However, map products are not widely updated at continental or national scales because the current land cover products have ...

Amongst the 36 spectral radiances available on the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) seven of them are used operationally for detection of clouds in daytime polar regions. While the information content of clouds inherent in spectral radiances is familiar, the information content of clouds contained in angular radiances (i.e., radiances emanating to space from the same object...

[1] We analyze the aerosol distribution and composition in the Northern Hemisphere during the Asian Pacific Regional Aerosol Characterization Experiment (ACE-Asia) field experiment in spring 2001. We use the Goddard Chemistry Aerosol Radiation and Transport (GOCART) model in this study, in conjunction with satellite retrieval from the Moderate-Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on EOS...

In this study we examine the relationship between remotely sensed, in situ and modelled land surface temperature (LST) over a heterogeneous land-cover (LC) enclosed in alpine terrain. This relationship can help to understand to what extent the remotely sensed data can be used to improve model simulations of land surface parameters such as LST in mountainous areas. LST from the MODerate resoluti...

Remote sensing of sea surface temperature (SST) is widely used in climate science because it provides a quasi-synoptic coverage of the ocean. However, the use of these data for near-shore habitats is hindered by the proximity of the coast, therefore further investigation is needed. We compared remote-sensing SST from the MODIS sensor (aboard the Aqua satellite) to near-shore seawater temperatur...

Strong seasonal variations in regional aerosol optical depth at 550 nm (AOD) and aerosol type were investigated over China’s Bohai Rim based upon six years’ worth of data from four sites. Aerosol loading was higher and particle sizes were larger in the spring and summer than in the autumn or winter in the region. The regional mean background AOD and Angstrom exponent (a) were 0.20 0.03 and 0.74...

For many parameters derived from satellite imagery, the accurate detection of clouds is essential. The determination of cloud or no cloud for each pixel is known as a cloud mask. Cloud masks are used to filter out cloudy pixels for clear-sky retrievals such as land and sea surface temperature and total precipitable water, and also to detect clouds for cloud parameter retrievals such as cloud ph...

On global and regional scales, earth observation (EO)-based estimates of leaf area index (LAI) provide valuable input to climate and hydrologic modelling, while fraction of absorbed photosynthetically active radiation (fAPAR) is a key variable in the assessment of vegetation productivity and yield estimates. Validation of moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer (MODIS) LAI and fAPAR produ...

Leaf area index (LAI) and fraction of photosynthetically active radiation (FPAR) absorbed by vegetation are key variables in many global models of climate, hydrology, biogeochemistry, and ecology. These parameters are being operationally produced from Terra and Aqua MODIS bidirectional reflectance factor (BRF) data. The MODIS science team has developed, and plans to release, a new version of th...