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Introduction

L3 CLDPROP COSP Product Information

A new L3 Monthly CLDPROP COSP Cloud product (CLDPROPCOSP) is now available. This product contains either MODIS Aqua (CLDPROP_L2_MODIS_Aqua) or VIIRS SNPP (CLDPROP_L3_VIIRS_SNPP) cloud mask, cloud top, and cloud optical retrieval data over daily and monthly timeframes, providing a set of custom cloud-related parameters, using specific dataset definitions, for better comparison with climate model output. This new dataset is provided in the Network Common Data Format Version 4 (NetCDF4) -- a data format widely used by the climate modeling community. There are two L3 COSP Cloud products derived from two instrument / platform data streams (L2 MODIS Aqua CLDPROP and  L2 VIIRS SNPP CLDPROP) at two temporal timeframes (daily & monthly). L3 Daily COSP products are tagged D3, which is short for L3 Daily. L3 Monthly COSP products are tagged M3, which is short for L3 Monthly. That being said it's the Monthly (M3) COSP that will be primarily used by climate scientists and modelers. The acronym CLDPROPCOSP (used at the beginning of the L3 COSP filename) is a combination of the inputs to the product CLDPROP; and the output format COSP.  Given below is a Cloud Mask Fraction image (Aqua MODIS) from the Monthly CLDPROP COSP product for February 2014.

Download Sample NetCDF4 Continuity MODIS Aqua CLDPROP COSP file (Feb 2014).