Terra Aqua Satellite Images

Designed and built in the 1980s and 90s nasa and lockheed martin engineers set out to build a satellite that could take simultaneous measurements of earth s atmosphere land and water.

Terra aqua satellite images.

For 20 years terra the flagship earth observing satellite has chronicled changes on earth. The broadcast is continuous with following exceptions. As this rapid response image and information provision capability became more visible news organizations began requesting custom geo referenced images for large newsworthy events. Aqua latin for water is a nasa earth science satellite mission named for the large amount of information that the mission is collecting about the earth s water cycle including evaporation from the oceans water vapor in the atmosphere clouds precipitation soil moisture sea ice land ice and snow cover on the land and ice.

Both terra and aqua modis instruments view the entire earth s surface every 1 to 2 days acquiring data in 36 spectral bands ranging in wavelengths from 0 4 µm to 14 4 µm. Select near real time products from the tables below. Modis or moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer is a key instrument aboard the terra originally known as eos am 1 and aqua originally known as eos pm 1 satellites. Register an earthdata login to start downloading data.

If you wish to receive information about specific instrument data issues subscribe to the relevant list s. During the time aqua is dumping its play back data which lasts about 15 minutes once per orbit. Subscribe to the lance users mailing list to receive general updates about lance. Nasa noaa satellite suomi npp and modis aqua and terra provide continuous imagery for am at local 10 30am and pm at local 1 30pm.

Daily imagery is provided by services from nasa s gibs part of eosdis. Daily imagery is provided by services from nasa s gibs part of eosdis. Terra s orbit around the earth is timed so that it passes from north to south across the equator in the morning while aqua passes south to north over the equator in the afternoon. The twin modis design was aimed to optimize cloud free imaging while minimizing the optical effects of shadows and glare that occur with morning and afternoon sunlight.

Terra s orbit around the earth is timed so that it passes from north to south across the equator in the morning while aqua passes south to north over the equator in the afternoon. By 2007 the rapid response system was producing data globally and had incorporated data and imagery from the modis instrument on the aqua satellite. Terra aqua modis modis or moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer is a key instrument aboard the terra eos am and aqua eos pm satellites. Data outages and known issues.

Historical imagery is sourced from microsoft and esri. Near real time versus standard products. Aqua s sister satellite terra began broadcasting selected portions of modis instrument data on x band on march 17 2000.