Michael D King
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center
Code 610
Greenbelt, MD 20771

E-mail: michael.d.king@nasa.gov
Phone: 301-614-5636
Fax: 301-614-5620

Support is requested to maintain five algorithms currently being run in production to process global MODIS data on both the Terra and Aqua platforms. These include: (i) the cloud optical properties component of the MODIS cloud product, a Level-2 algorithm for determining cloud thermodynamic phase, optical thickness, effective particle radius, and integrated water path for both liquid water and ice clouds (part of cloud product MOD06 for Terra and MYD06 for Aqua), and Level-3 combined atmosphere products at 1 x 1 latitude/longitude resolution, averaged over (ii) a day, (iii) eight days (half of the orbital repeat cycle of MODIS), and (iv) a month, and (v) a joint atmosphere Level-2 product containing the most important atmospheric retrievals sampled every 5-10 km to reduce the size of these data products for ease of use in global studies.

Specifically, we propose to:

1. refine and, where required, enhance, the Level-2 cloud optical and microphysical properties algorithm (MOD06/MYD06) including code efficiency and maintainability,
2. maintain and enhance, as required, the Level-3 algorithms for daily, eight-day, and monthly joint atmosphere products at 1 x 1 latitude/longitude grid size,
3. maintain a reduced resolution/subsampled combined level-2 joint atmosphere product at ~2.5 MB per granule during the daytime and ~0.5 MB per granule during the night,
4. maintain the MODIS Atmosphere Web site for the Earth science community to (i) examine browse and quicklook imagery, (ii) obtain documentation on file formats and software revisions, and (iii) access data handling, subsetting, and visualization tools for working with MODIS data.

This proposal will also support our continued participation on the MODIS Science Team, including the roles of MODIS Atmosphere Science Team Lead (M. D. King) and Atmosphere Team Science Lead to the MODIS Adaptive Processing (MODAPS) data processing and distribution system (S. Platnick).