Short noteAn operational MODIS processing scheme for PC dedicated to direct broadcasting applications in meteorology and earth sciences
Introduction
Since late 1999 the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) onboard the EOS Terra and Aqua platforms is available (King et al., 1992). NASA has established a Web-Interface for downloading MODIS data from level 1b upward (http://www.daac.gsfc.nasa.gov/) but this data still needs pre- and post-processing. Moreover, research activities focusing on the development of operational product algorithms still rely on the direct broadcast of satellite data since an operational data transfer of level 1b MODIS products from the DAAC (∼7.5 GB per day for central Europe) exceeds the intention of the web-interface. Several mostly mixed-language tools are available for single processing steps but there is a lack of comprehensive tools which operationally perform pre- and post-processing of the MODIS data and in addition, allow the implementation of own or third party higher-level products in the same framework. Hence the authors implemented an operational MODIS processing scheme (MOPS) solely based on Fortran and useable on both Linux and MS-Windows platforms with an extendable interface to higher-level products and a user-friendly Java GUI. So far the MODIS cloud mask product (Ackermann et al., 1998) and two cloud property retrievals (Nakajima and Nakajima, 1995; Kokhanovsky et al., 2003) not available from NASA are implemented. An advanced rainfall retrieval and a fog detection scheme will be available from 2005 on. Moreover the extendable program interface and the dynamically generated Java GUI allows an easy integration of algorithms developed by others.
Section snippets
General outline of MOPS
The general outline of the architecture of MOPS is presented in Fig. 1. Basically, MOPS is composed of the three packages MOPSPreprocess, MOPSProduct and MOPSPostprocess. Each package consist of several independent executable modules. The modules of MOPSPreprocess are necessary for initial geolocation and calibration, the modules from MOPSProduct compute higher-level products from the satellite band data and the ones of MOPSPostprocess project raw geometry data to a cartographic reference
Conclusion
MOPS is part of the Marburg Satellite Station data processing scheme and is designed for an operational pre-, product- and post-processing of MODIS data on both Linux and MS-Windows PCs. Currently, the product package consists of the standard MODIS cloud mask and two different cloud property retrievals that are not part of the NASA product algorithms. Additional products will be available in the near future. Thereby, the modular architecture ensures a straightforward integration for own and
Acknowledgements
The current work is partly funded by the German Federal Ministry for Education and Research in the scope of the GLOWA-Danube project (07 GWK 04). The authors would like to thank A. Kokhanovsky for his valuable contributions, T.Y. Nakajima and W.P. Menzel.
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