Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS)
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Summary: |
The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) data available on CDC WONDER are daytime and nighttime geographically aggregated land surface temperatures (LST) spanning the years 2003-2008. Temperature data are available in Fahrenheit or Celsius. Reported measures are the average daily temperature, the number of observations, the range for the daily maximum and minimum land surface temperatures, and the percent coverage for the both the day and night land surface temperatures. Data are available by place (combined 48 contiguous states plus the District of Columbia, region, division, state, county), time (year, month, day) and specified average land surface temperature value for day (1:30 pm local time) and night (1:30 am local time). County-level and higher data are aggregated from 1 kilometer square spatial resolution grids. |
Source: |
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) and the Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center (LP DAAC). In a study funded by the NASA Applied Sciences Program/Public Health Program (fully cited below), scientists at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center / Universities Space Research Association developed computer programs to process the MODIS data, including merging data from the two MODIS sensors They also identified in a Geographic Information System (GIS) the associated geographic locations of the centroids of the gridded MODIS LST dataset in terms of the counties and states they fall into to enable aggregation to different geographic levels in CDC WONDER. See also Data Source Information and Suggested Data Source Citation. |
In WONDER: | You can produce tables, maps, charts, and data extracts. Obtain average temperature, the number of observations, range, and percent coverage for the day (1:30 pm local time) or night (1:30 am local time) daily land surface temperatures, in Fahrenheit or Celsius. Select specific criteria to produce cross-tabulated average land surface temperatures measures for day or night. Data are organized into three levels of geographic detail: the 48 contiguous states, state (including multi-state regions and divisions) and county. County-level data are aggregated from 1 kilometer square spatial resolution grids. You can limit and index your data by any and all of the variables. |
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Contents: |
MODIS LST Data Request Data Source Information Additional Information Suggested Data Source Citation |
MODIS LST Data Request
Output: | You can produce tables, maps, charts, and data extracts. Obtain average temperature and the number of observations the number of observations, range, and percent coverage for the day (1:30 pm local time) or night (1:30 am local time) daily land surface temperatures, in Fahrenheit or Celsius. Select specific criteria to produce cross-tabulated average land surface temperature measures. Data are organized into three levels of geographic detail: the 48 contiguous states, state (including multi-state regions and divisions) and county. You can limit and index your data by any and all of the variables. | |
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Variables: |
You can limit and index your data by any and all of these variables:
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How? | The Request screen has sections to guide you through the
making a data request as a step-by-step process.
However, to get your first taste of how the system works,
you might want to simply press any Send button,
and execute the default data request.
The data results for your query appear on the Table screen.
After you get your data results, try the Chart and Map screens.
Or export your data to a file (tab-delimited line listing) for download to your computer.
For more information, see the Quick Start Guide and the following steps: |
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'By-Variables' | Select variables that serve as keys (indexes) for organizing your data.
See "How do I organize my data?" for more information.
Note: To map your data, you must select at least one geographical location as a "By-Variable" for grouping your data, such as State or County. |
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Help: | Click on any button labeled "Help", located to the right hand side of the screen at the top of each section. Each control's label, such as the "Location" label next to the Location entry box, is linked to the on-line help for that item. | |
Send: | Sends your data request to be processed on the CDC WONDER databases. The Send buttons are located on the bottom of the Request page, and also in the upper right corner of each section, for easy access. |
Step 1. Organize table layout:
Group Results By: | Select up to five variables that serve as keys for grouping your data. See Group Results By below for hints. | |
Select Temperature Scale: | Choose either Fahrenheit or Celsius scale. Click the round radio button to indicate your choice. | |
Select Measures: |
If checked, these measures will appear in the results table.
You must select at least one measure:
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Title: | Enter any desired description to display as a title with your results. |
Group Results By...
Select up to five variables that serve as keys for grouping your data. For example, you could select to group (summarize, stratify, index) your data by State and by County.
Hints:
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About charts:
You cannot make charts when your data has more than two By-Variables. -
About maps:
To make a map, you must request data with a geographic location variable, such as Region, as the first "By-Variable" in the "Group Results By" box. Send your data request, then click the Map tab when you get the results.
Average Temperature
The average temperature summary measure is the mean value of all of the daily temperature measurements that met the criteria for this cell in the results table. For example, if results are grouped by Year and limited to the South Region for years 2003-2008, then the first row shows the value 64.96 (F) or 18.25 (C) as the average daytime land surface temperature for year 2003 in the South Region. This summary measure is the mean of the daily values recorded for daily daytime (1:30 pm local time) land surface temperature measurements of the 1 kilometer square spatial resolution geographic-area grids in the selected time and place.
- First select your preferred temperature scale using the round radio button in section 1. Organize table layout on the Request Form.
- Then select the checkbox labeled "Avg Temperature" under the desired measurement in the "Select Measures" heading in section 1. Organize table layout on the Request Form.
Notes:
- The average temperature summary measurement is the mean value of all of the daily temperature measurements that met the selected criteria for time and place.
- This dataset contains average daily land surface measurements, daytime measurements taken at 1:30 pm local time, and nighttime measurements taken at 1:30 am local time. The measurements are summarized to the county-level, from 1 kilometer square spatial area grids covering the 48 contiguous United states (not including Alaska and Hawaii) plus the District of Columbia.
- MODIS temperature measurements are recorded for 1 kilometer square spatial resolution grids in the selected area. Temperature measurements from each grid are assigned to the county where the grid centroid is located. WONDER shows the summary the grid-level measurements into counties and larger area The county locations are from the 1999-2000 Federal Information Processing (FIPS) code set.
- MODIS temperature measurement data are sparse for some times and places, data are missing during times of cloud cover or satellite calibration operations. See Additional Information for more information about the filter algorithm for land surface temperatures.
Number of Observations
The number of observations is the number of daily temperature measurements that produced the summary measure. For example, for January 1, 2008, there were 5,625,017 land surface temperature measurements averaged to produce the national average daytime land surface temperature value of 35.98 degrees Fahrenheit. The observations are the daily land surface temperature values recorded for the 1 kilometer square spatial resolution grids in the selected time and place.
- First select your preferred temperature scale using the round radio button in section 1. Organize table layout on the Request Form.
- Then select the checkbox labeled "# of Observations" under the desired measurement in the "Select Measures" heading in section 1. Organize table layout on the Request Form.
Notes:
- The number of observations is the total number of daily land surface temperature values recorded for the 1 kilometer square spatial resolution grids in the selected time and place.
- This dataset contains average daily land surface measurements, daytime measurements taken at 1:30 pm local time, and nighttime measurements taken at 1:30 am local time. The measurements are summarized to the county-level, from 1 kilometer square spatial area grids covering the 48 contiguous United states (not including Alaska and Hawaii) plus the District of Columbia.
- MODIS temperature measurements are recorded for 1 kilometer square spatial resolution grids in the selected area. Temperature measurements from each grid are assigned to the county where the grid centroid is located. WONDER shows the summary the grid-level measurements into counties and larger area The county locations are from the 1999-2000 Federal Information Processing (FIPS) code set.
- MODIS temperature measurement data are sparse for some times and places, data are missing during times of cloud cover or satellite calibration operations. See Additional Information for more information about the filter algorithm for land surface temperatures.
Range
The range shows the minimum and maximum land surface temperature measurement for the criteria that defines the cell in the table, from all of the grid-level observations that contribute to the spatial average daily measurement. For example, when data are grouped by year and limited to the District of Columbia in the year 2008, for the 43,060 observations of Average Daytime Land Surface Temperature, the lowest daytime land surface temperature recorded was 27.77 degrees Fahrenheit and the highest daytime land surface temperature recorded was 116.87 degrees Fahrenheit.
- First select your preferred temperature scale using the round radio button in section 1. Organize table layout on the Request Form.
- Then select the checkbox labeled "Range" under the desired measurement in the "Select Measures" heading in section 1. Organize table layout on the Request Form.
Notes:
- The range shows the minimum and maximum land surface temperature measurements for the daily land surface temperature values recorded for the 1 kilometer square spatial resolution grids in the selected time and place.
- This dataset contains average daily land surface measurements, daytime measurements taken at 1:30 pm local time, and nighttime measurements taken at 1:30 am local time. The measurements are summarized to the county-level, from 1 kilometer square spatial area grids covering the 48 contiguous United states (not including Alaska and Hawaii) plus the District of Columbia.
- MODIS temperature measurements are recorded for 1 kilometer square spatial resolution grids in the selected area. Temperature measurements from each grid are assigned to the county where the grid centroid is located. WONDER shows the summary the grid-level measurements into counties and larger area The county locations are from the 1999-2000 Federal Information Processing (FIPS) code set.
- MODIS temperature measurement data are sparse for some times and places, data are missing during times of cloud cover or satellite calibration operations. See Additional Information for more information about the filter algorithm for land surface temperatures.
Percent Coverage
The percent coverage measure reports the coverage of land surface temperature grid-level observations for the selected time and place reported in the table cell. For example, when data are grouped by year and limited to the District of Columbia in the year 2008, for the 43,060 observations of Average Daytime Land Surface Temperature, the percent coverage for the Average Daytime Land Surface Temperature was 53.97%, meaning of all of the possible observations recorded for 1 kilometer square spatial resolution grids in the selected area and time period, there were nearly measurements recorded for nearly 54% of the possibilities. Cloud cover obstructs remote sensor capability to measure land surface temperatures.
- First select your preferred temperature scale using the round radio button in section 1. Organize table layout on the Request Form.
- Then select the checkbox labeled "Percent Coverage" under the desired measurement in the "Select Measures" heading in section 1. Organize table layout on the Request Form.
Notes:
- The percent coverage measure reports the coverage of land surface temperature grid-level observations for the selected time and place reported in the table cell.
- MODIS temperature measurement data are sparse for some times and places, data are missing during times of cloud cover or satellite calibration operations. See Additional Information for more information about the filter algorithm for land surface temperatures.
- Location: the 48 contiguous United States plus District of Columbia by Region, Division, State, and County
Location
Data are available for the United States by Region, Division, State, County. Select the location(s) for the query. Any number of locations can be specified here.
- Click a round button to switch between the State and County list or the Region and Division list.
- See "How do I use a Finder?" for more information.
- See Finder Tool help for more hints.
- The default is all values (the United States).
- The Advanced mode let you easily pick several items from different parts of the list. Items are not selected until you click the "Move" button in Advanced mode. You may also enter values by hand, one code per line, in the Advanced mode. Use the Finder to see the correct code format. For example, 05 is the Arkansas state code.
- The "plus" symbol, "+" indicates that you can open the item, to see more items below it.
- The results to a search are shown in blue, and indicated by ">".
Region
Regions are multi-state groups. For regional data, you can group by Region, or you can select any combination of individual regions.- See Location above for instructions.
- See also Group Results By in Step 1.
- The Regions are identified by both name and codes in data extracts.
- The United States is split into 4 regions: Northeast, Midwest, South and West. The states that comprise each region are shown below.
Division
Divisions are multi-state groups, sub-sets of Regions. For division-level data, you can group by Division, or select any combination of individual divisions.- See Location above for instructions.
- See also Group Results By in Step 1.
- The divisions are identified by both name and codes in data extracts. To see all of the states in each division, group the data by Division and by State.
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The United States is split into 9 divisions by the Census Bureau:
- Division 1: New England, (CENS-D1)
- Division 2: Middle Atlantic, (CENS-D2)
- Division 3: East North Central, (CENS-D3)
- Division 4: West North Central, (CENS-D4)
- Division 5: South Atlantic, (CENS-D5)
- Division 6: East South Central, (CENS-D6)
- Division 7: West South Central, (CENS-D7)
- Division 8: Mountain, (CENS-D8)
- Division 9: Pacific, (CENS-D9)
The states that comprise each division are shown below.
State FIPS Code Division 1: New England, (CENS-D1) Connecticut 09 Maine 23 Massachusetts 25 New Hampshire 33 Rhode Island 44 Vermont 50 Division 2: Middle Atlantic, (CENS-D2) New Jersey 34 New York 36 Division 3: East North Central, (CENS-D3) Illinois 17 Indiana 18 Michigan 26 Ohio 39 Wisconsin 55 Division 4: West North Central, (CENS-D4) Iowa 19 Kansas 20 Minnesota 27 Missouri 29 Nebraska 31 North Dakota 38 South Dakota 46 Division 5: South Atlantic (CENS-D5) Delaware 10 District of Columbia 11 Florida 12 Georgia 13 Maryland 24 North Carolina 37 South Carolina 45 Virginia 51 West Virginia 54 Division 6: East South Central (CENS-D6) Alabama 01 Kentucky 21 Mississippi 28 Tennessee 47 Division 7: West South Central (CENS-D7) Arkansas 05 Louisiana 22 Oklahoma 40 Texas 48 Division 8: Mountain (CENS-D8) Arizona 04 Colorado 08 Idaho 16 Montana 30 Nevada 32 New Mexico 35 Utah 49 Wyoming 56 Division 9: Pacific (CENS-D9) (Alaska)* 02 California 06 (Hawaii)* 15 Oregon 41 Washington 53 * Alaska and Hawaii are not included in these data. - Division 1: New England, (CENS-D1)
State
For state level data, you can select any combination of individual states. Or group by State and leave the Location Finder selection at the default (all locations or the 48 United States and the District of Columbia).- See Location above for instructions.
- See also Group Results By in Step 1.
- The states and the District of Columbia are identified by both state name and Standard Federal Information Processing (FIPS) codes in data extracts. See About FIPS Codes below.
County
County-level data are available for the United States and the District of Columbia. For county level data, you can select any combination of individual counties, or group by County. Leave the Location Finder selection at the default (all locations or the 48 United States and the District of Columbia).- See Location above for instructions.
- See also Group Results By in Step 1.
- The county coded represents the spatial average of data observations from 1 kilometer square spatial resolution grids. Grids are coded to the county that includes the grid centroid.
- The counties and the District of Columbia are identified by both county name and Standard Federal Information Processing (FIPS) codes in data extracts. The county locations are from the 1999-2000 Federal Information Processing (FIPS) code set.
- About FIPS Codes: The FIPS State and county codes were established by the National Bureau of Standards, U.S. Department of Commerce in 1968. This standard set of codes provides names and codes for counties and county equivalents of the 50 States of the United States and the District of Columbia. Counties are considered to be the "first order subdivisions" of each State, regardless of their local designation (county, parish, borough, census area). Washington, D.C.; the consolidated government of Columbus City, Georgia; the independent cities of the States of Maryland, Missouri, Nevada, and Virginia; and the census areas and boroughs of Alaska are identified as county equivalents. The system is standard throughout the Federal Government. The State codes are ascending, two-digit numbers; the county codes are ascending three-digit numbers. For both the State and county codes, space has been left for new States or counties. Some changes in the FIPS codes and county boundaries have occurred since 1968. See Location Updates for information on how these changes affect the data.
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About County Changes:
Comparable measures may be misleading for counties with changing boundaries.
See Location Updates for information on how these changes affect the data.
Due to boundary changes, data are available for some counties for a limited period of time.
The following county-level constraints apply to the data:- Alaska: data for Alaska are not included in this MODIS daily land surface temperature collection.
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Colorado:
- Broomfield county, Colorado (FIPS code 08014) - data are not available for this entity.
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Florida:
- Dade county, Florida (FIPS code 12025) - data are shown for the Dade county code value 12025, also the location of Miami, Florida.
- Hawaii: data for Hawaii are not included in this this MODIS daily land surface temperature collection.
Step 3. Select year, month and day:
- The Date Range control is selected at first by default, with the full time period of available data shown in the range controls. Use this control to select a continuous span of time, such as May 25, 2005 - September 25, 2006.
- Individual date fields allow you to separately limit or filter data for Year (2003-2008), Month (January - December), and Day of Month (1-31) or Day of Year (1-366). Use this control to select a specific point in time, such as the average measure for the months of June, July and August.
- The Aggregate Date Finder lets you select specific, discrete year/month/day dates, such as January 1, 2003.
- Click a round button to switch between Date Range, Individual Date Fields or Aggregate Dates.
- Hints for the Date Range fields:
- Click the down-arrow to the right of each field to open the drop-down list, then click on your selection in the list.
- Click the blue counter-clockwise swoop image to the right of the date range fields to reset the entries to the default values (all).
- Hints for the Individual Date Fields:
- To select more than one value in the list, press down the Ctrl key on your keyboard while you click your left Mouse button.
- To select a range of contiguous values, press down the Shift key on your keyboard while you click and drag your left Mouse button.
- Hints for the Aggregate Date Finder:
- See "How do I use a Finder?" for more information on using the Aggregate Date Finder.
- See Finder Tool help for more hints.
- The default for the Aggregate Date Finder is all values (1979/01/01 - 2011/12/31).
- The Advanced mode let you easily pick several items from different parts of the list. Items are not selected until you click the "Move" button in Advanced mode. You may also enter values by hand, one code per line, in the Advanced mode. The code format is YYYY/MM/DD. For example, 2003/09/01 is September 1, 2003.
- The "plus" symbol, "+" indicates that you can open the item, to see more items below it.
- The results to a search are shown in blue, and indicated by ">".
Dates
Select a range of continuous time. The default is the full time-period found in the data, 2003 - 2008.- Click a round button to indicate Date Range Fields.
- Click the down-arrow to the right of each field to open the drop-down list, then click on your selection in the list.
- Click the blue counter-clockwise swoop image to the right of the range fields to reset the entries to the default values (all).
Year
Select All Years or any number of individual years (2003 - 2008). For example, select year 2008 to get the average daily measures and the range of minimum and maximum measures in 2008.- Click a round button to indicate Individual Date Fields.
- Click your left Mouse button on any desired single option in the list box.
- Press the Ctrl key while clicking your left Mouse button to make multiple selections.
- Press the Shift key while clicking your left Mouse button and dragging the selection for a range of values.
Month
Select All Months or any number of individual months (January - December). For example, select June, July and August to get the average, minimum and maximum measures for the summer months, and the number of observations.- Click a round button to indicate Individual Date Fields.
- Click a round button to indicate Day of Month Fields.
- Click your left Mouse button on any desired single option in the list box.
- Press the Ctrl key while clicking your left Mouse button to make multiple selections.
- Press the Shift key while clicking your left Mouse button and dragging the selection for a range of values.
Day of Month
Select All Days or any number of individual days (1 - 31).- Click a round button to indicate Individual Date Fields.
- Click a round button to indicate Day of Month Fields.
- Click your left Mouse button on any desired single option in the list box.
- Press the Ctrl key while clicking your left Mouse button to make multiple selections.
- Press the Shift key while clicking your left Mouse button and dragging the selection for a range of values.
Data are reported as "Missing" when the selections in the Individual Date Fields are not found in the data. For example, if data are limited to Day of Month values (29, 30, 31) for All Years in the month of February, then data are only reported for February 29 in the year 2004 and the year 2008. If the query also shows the data grouped by "Day of Month" and shows zero-value rows, then you see "Missing" in the cells for days 30 and 31.
Step 4. Select temperature values:
- Day Land Surface Temperature - All Temperatures, -32 - 148 (F) or -36 - 64 (C)
- Night Land Surface Temperature - All Temperatures, -51 - 93 (F) or -46 - 34 (C)
- Click a round button to indicate Fahrenheit or Celsius temperature scales, in Section 1.
- Click a round button to switch between temperature Ranges or Lists, in Section 4.
- Hints for the Temperature Range fields:
- Leave the box blank to use the default value for the threshold, which is displayed below each box inside parenthesis.
- Type in your desired range of sunlight values, use whole numbers. For example, to limit data to all values above 100 degrees, you would type 100 in the lower range box and leave the upper range box blank.
- Click the blue counter-clockwise swoop image to the right of the date range fields to reset the entries to the default values (all).
- Hints for the Lists:
- Click your left Mouse button on any desired single option in the list box.
- To select more than one value in the list, press down the Ctrl key on your keyboard while you click your left Mouse button. You can select specific, distinct values that are not contiguous in the list.
- To select a range of contiguous values, press down the Shift key on your keyboard while you click and drag your left Mouse button.
Day Land Surface Temperature
Limit your data to the selected daily daytime (1:30 pm local time) land surface temperature values. First click the round radio button to show the preferred temperature scale in Section 1. Then use the round button to switch between temperature Ranges or Lists. Finally select a range of temperatures for limiting the data, or use the List to specify any combination of the individual values to limit the data.
- See "How do I use a radio button?".
- See "How do I select items from the list box?".
- See more hints above in the discussion under Section 4.
Notes:
- Note that the values in the list box are the range of daily county-level average values available in the data.
- Values are a spatial average of the daily daytime (1:30 pm local time) land surface temperature values recorded for each 1 kilometer square spatial resolution grid, aggregated at the county level.
- MODIS temperature measurement data are sparse for some times and places, data are missing during times of cloud cover or satellite calibration operations. See Additional Information for more information about the filter algorithm for land surface temperatures.
Night Land Surface Temperature
Limit your data to the selected daily minimum land surface temperature values. First click the round radio button to show the preferred temperature scale in Section 1. Then use the round button to switch between temperature Ranges or Lists. Finally select a range of temperatures for limiting the data, or use the List to specify any combination of the individual values to limit the data.
- See "How do I use a radio button?".
- See "How do I select items from the list box?". See more hints above in the discussion under Section 4.
Notes:
- Note that the values in the list box are the range of daily county-level average values available in the data.
- Values are a spatial average of the daily nighttime (1:30 am local time) land surface temperature values recorded for each 1 kilometer square spatial resolution grid, aggregated at the county level.
- MODIS temperature measurement data are sparse for some times and places, data are missing during times of cloud cover or satellite calibration operations. See Additional Information for more information about the filter algorithm for land surface temperatures.
Step 5. Other options:
Export Results: | If checked query results are exported to a local file. More information on how to import this file into
other applications can be found here.
How? See "How do I use a checkbox?" |
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Show Totals: |
If checked totals and sub-totals will appear in the results table.
How? See "How do I use a checkbox?" |
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Show Zero Values: |
If checked, rows containing zero counts are included in the results table.
If unchecked, zero count rows are not included.
How? See "How do I use a checkbox?" |
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Precision: |
Select the precision for rate calculations.
When the rate calculated for a small numerator (incidence count) is zero,
you may increase the precision to reveal the rate
by showing more numbers to the right of the decimal point.
How? See "How do I select items from the list box?" |
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Data Access Timeout: |
This value specifies the maximum time to wait for the data access for
a query to complete. If the data access takes too long to complete,
a message will be displayed and you can increase the timeout or
simplify your request. If you can't complete a request using the
maximum timeout, contact user support and we will try to run a
custom data request for you.
How? See "How do I select items from the list box?" |
Data Source Information
Data Sources: |
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) and the Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center (LP DAAC). In a study funded by the NASA Applied Sciences Program/Public Health Program (fully cited below), scientists at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center/ Universities Space Research Association developed computer programs to process the MODIS data, including merging data from the two MODIS sensors They also identified in a Geographic Information System (GIS) the associated geographic locations of the centroids of the gridded MODIS LST dataset in terms of the counties and states they fall into to enable aggregation to different geographic levels in CDC WONDER. MODIS (or Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) is a key instrument aboard the Terra Earth Observing System (EOS AM) and Aqua (EOS PM) satellites. 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. Terra MODIS and Aqua MODIS are viewing the entire Earth's surface every 1 to 2 days, acquiring data in 36 spectral bands, or groups of wavelengths (see MODIS Technical Specifications). These data improve our understanding of global dynamics and processes occurring on the land, in the oceans, and in the lower atmosphere. MODIS plays a vital role in the development of validated, global, interactive Earth system models with accuracy to assist policy makers in making sound decisions concerning our environment. To learn more about the methods and source of these data, please reference: |
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Additional Information
Suggested Data Source Citations: |
Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) Daily Land Surface Temperature (LST), years 2003-2008 on CDC WONDER Online Database, released 2012. Crosson, W.L., M.Z. Al-Hamdan, S.N. Hemmings and G.M. Wade, 2012. A daily merged MODIS Aqua-Terra land surface temperature data set for the conterminous United States. Remote Sensing of Environment, Volume 119, pages 315-324. doi:10.1016/j.rse.2011.12.019. The suggested citation including the original series for the data is shown below each table, chart or map. |
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Contact: | For data questions that are not addressed in this document, e-mail bill.crosson@nasa.gov or mohammad.alhamdan@nasa.gov | |
Acknowledgements: |
This work was part of a collaborative study funded by the NASA Applied Sciences
Program/Public Health Program (grant# NNX09AV81G), whose team members are:
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Other Topics: |
Reference the following topics:
Filtering Algorithm Locations: About County Level Changes Contact for Data Questions Suggested Citation |
Filtering Algorithm
There exist some unrealistically high or low MODIS land surface temperatures (LST) at the original 1 kilometer square grid resolution. These anomalies are the result of imperfect flagging of cloudy areas in the MODIS LST data, erroneous data collected during in-flight calibration of the sensor, or other sensor-related issues. An algorithm was developed and applied to filter out values which are outside of the normally observed LST range for a given location. The algorithm sets minimum and maximum temperature thresholds separately for day and night MODIS LST values based on linear functions of the latitude and elevation of each LST pixel value and on the day of year. In this approach, the highest threshold temperatures were fixed to July 15, and the lowest threshold temperatures were assigned to January 15.
This algorithm was used to eliminate MODIS LST pixel values from the calculation of county-level LST. The scheme is designed to exclude values that are extremely unlikely to occur at a given location and time. It does not filter out all inaccurate LST values, since these sometimes are within normal limits for a given location and date. On the other hand, a few extreme, but valid, LST values are likely incorrectly eliminated by this algorithm. In most cases, the effect on the county level and larger aggregation scales is very slight.
Location Updates: notes about specific county-level changes in boundaries and codes
Comparable measures may be misleading for counties with changing boundaries. The data collection may lag behind some Federal Information Processing (FIPS) location code changes. Some places, such as independent cities and New York City boroughs are included as unique locations in the data. Some county and census tract area (CA) locations are not included, instead the data are associated with a neighboring county or the previous location name and FIPS code. The list below of county-level changes is organized alphabetically by state name and then county name.
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Alaska boroughs and census areas:
Data are not available for the state of Alaska, nor Alaskan boroughs and census areas. -
Colorado: Broomfield county
Broomfield county, Colorado (FIPS code 08014) was created effective November 15, 2001 from parts of four counties: Adams, Boulder, Jefferson, and Weld. Data are not available for Broomfield county. Data are aggregated within the previous boundaries of adjacent Adams, Boulder, Jefferson, and Weld counties. -
Florida: Dade county and Miami city
Dade county, Florida (FIPS code 12025) was renamed Miami-Dade County and its FIPS code changed to 12086, effective November 13, 1997. The previous label and code, Dade county (FIPS code 12025), are used here. -
Maryland: Baltimore city and Baltimore county
The independent city of Baltimore, Maryland has been treated as a county. Data are reported separately for Baltimore city (FIPS code 24510) and Baltimore county (FIPS code 24005). -
Missouri:
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St. Genevieve county, Missouri
In order to achieve alphabetical consistency, the FIPS code for St. Genevieve, Missouri was changed in 1979 from 29193 to 29186. The new code (29186) is used here. -
St. Louis city and St. Louis county, Missouri
The independent city of St. Louis, Missouri has been treated as a county. Data are reported separately for St. Louis city (FIPS code 29510) and St. Louis county (FIPS code 29189).
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St. Genevieve county, Missouri
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Nevada: Carson City
The independent city of Carson City, Nevada (FIPS code 32510) has been treated as a county. Data are shown separately from the adjacent counties for Carson City, Nevada. -
New York: New York City boroughs
The five boroughs of New York City have been treated as counties and maintained as separate entities.
Borough County FIPS Code Bronx Bronx 36005 Brooklyn Kings 36047 Manhattan New York 36061 Queens Queens 36081 Staten Island Richmond 36085
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Virginia independent cities:
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Alleghany, Virginia
Alleghany, Virginia (FIPS code 51005) and Clifton Forge city, Virginia (FIPS code 51560) are reported separately. -
Clifton Forge city, Virginia
On July 1, 2001, Clifton Forge city, Virginia (FIPS code 51560), formerly an independent city, merged with Alleghany county (FIPS code 51005). However, data for Clifton Forge city are reported separately from Alleghany county, Virginia (FIPS code 51005) for all years. -
Nansemond city, Virginia
Nansemond city, Virginia (FIPS code 51123) has been part of the independent city of Suffolk, VA (FIPS code 51800) since 1979. For all years, data for Nansemond are aggregated and reported with those for Suffolk city. -
Table of Virginia independent cities and counties
The Virginia independent cities are treated as counties and appear on the data with the following FIPS codes:Independent City County
Name FIPS code Name FIPS code
Alexandria 51510 Arlington 51013 Bedford 51515 Bedford 51019 Bristol 51520 Washington 51191 Buena Vista 51530 Rockbridge 51163 Charlottesville 51540 Albemarle 51003 Chesapeake 51550 Clifton Forge 51560 Alleghany 51005 Colonial Heights 51570 Chesterfield 51041 Covington 51580 Alleghany 51005 Danville 51590 Pittsylvania 51143 Emporia 51595 Greensville 51081 Fairfax 51600 Fairfax 51059 Falls Church 51610 Fairfax 51059 Franklin 51620 Southampton 51175 Fredericksburg 51630 Spotsylvania 51177 Galax 51640 Grayson 51077 Hampton 51650 Harrisonburg 51660 Rockingham 51165 Hopewell 51670 Prince George 51149 Lexington 51678 Rockbridge 51163 Lynchburg 51680 Campbell 51031 Manassas 51683 Prince William 51153 Manassas Park 51685 Prince William 51153 Martinsville 51690 Henry 51089 Newport News 51700 Norfolk 51710 Norton 51720 Wise 51195 Petersburg 51730 Dinwiddie 51053 Poquoson 51735 York 51199 Portsmouth 51740 Norfolk city 51710 Radford 51750 Montgomery 51121 Richmond 51760 Henrico 51087 Roanoke 51770 Roanoke 51161 Salem 51775 Roanoke 51161 Staunton 51790 Augusta 51015 Suffolk 51800 Virginia Beach 51810 Waynesboro 51820 Augusta 51015 Williamsburg 51830 James City 51095 Winchester 51840 Frederick 51069
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Alleghany, Virginia