MODIS Technical Specifications
Orbit: 705 km, 10:30 a.m. descending node or 1:30 p.m.
ascending node, sun-synchronous, near-polar, circular
Scan Rate: 20.3 rpm, cross track
Swath Dimensions: 2330 km (cross track) by 10 km (along track at nadir)
Telescope: 17.78 cm diam. off-axis, afocal (collimated), with
intermediate field stop
Size: 1.0 x 1.6 x 1.0 m
Weight: 250 kg
Power: 225 W (orbital average)
Data Rate: 11 Mbps (peak daytime)
Quantization: 12 bits
Spatial Resolution: 250 m (bands 1-2)
500 m (bands 3-7)
1000 m (bands 8-36)
Design Life: 5 years
Primary Use Band Bandwidth Spectral Required
Radiance SNR
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Land/Cloud 1 620 - 670 21.8 128
Boundaries 2 841 - 876 24.7 201
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Land/Cloud 3 459 - 479 35.3 243
Properties 4 545 - 565 29.0 228
5 1230 - 1250 5.4 74
6 1628 - 1652 7.3 275
7 2105 - 2155 1.0 110
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Ocean Color/ 8 405 - 420 44.9 880
Phytoplankton/ 9 438 - 448 41.9 838
Biogeochemistry 10 483 - 493 32.1 802
11 526 - 536 27.9 754
12 546 - 556 21.0 750
13 662 - 672 9.5 910
14 673 - 683 8.7 1087
15 743 - 753 10.2 586
16 862 - 877 6.2 516
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Atmospheric 17 890 - 920 10.0 167
Water Vapor 18 931 - 941 3.6 57
19 915 - 965 15.0 250
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Primary Use Band Bandwidth Spectral Required
Radiance NE(Delta-T)
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Surface/Cloud 20 3.660 - 3.840 0.45 0.05
Temperature 21 3.929 - 3.989 2.38 2.00
22 3.929 - 3.989 0.67 0.07
23 4.020 - 4.080 0.79 0.07
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Atmospheric 24 4.433 - 4.498 0.17 0.25
Temperature 25 4.482 - 4.549 0.59 0.25
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Cirrus Clouds 26 1.360 - 1.390 6.00 150 SNR
Water Vapor 27 6.535 - 6.895 1.16 0.25
28 7.175 - 7.475 2.18 0.25
29 8.400 - 8.700 9.58 0.05
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Ozone 30 9.580 - 9.880 3.69 0.25
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Surface/Cloud 31 10.780 - 11.280 9.55 0.05
Temperature 32 11.770 - 12.270 8.94 0.05
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Cloud Top 33 13.185 - 13.485 4.52 0.25
Altitude 34 13.485 - 13.785 3.76 0.25
35 13.785 - 14.085 3.11 0.25
36 14.085 - 14.385 2.08 0.35
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Bands 1 to 19 are in nm Bands 20 to 36 are in um
Spectral Radiance values are in W/m^2-um-sr
SNR = Signal-to-noise ratio
NE(Delta -T) = Noise-equivalent temperature difference