Collection 6.1 (061) Executive Summary

The MODIS Adaptive Processing System (MODAPS) is currently generating an improved Collection 6.1 (061) for all MODIS Level-1 (L1) and higher-level Level-2 (L2) & Level-3 (L3) Atmosphere Team products.  This decision to create a new improved Collection 6.1 (061) was driven by the need to address a number of issues in the current Collection 6 (006) Level-1B (L1B) data.  These L1B issues had a negative impact in varying degrees in downstream MODIS Atmosphere Level-2 (L2) and Level-3 (L3) products, which are more fully described below.  The MODIS Atmosphere Team decided to use this reprocessing opportunity to implement some science improvements in their L2 and L3 products.  The documents below describe Collection 6.1 (061) changes to L1B as well as all impacted (or improved) L2 and L3 MODIS Atmosphere data.  Collection 6.1 reprocessing began on 28 September 2017 (began to be publicly released beginning on 15 October 2017) and was completed on 7 March 2018. It should be noted that the parallel Collection 6.0 forward-stream processing ended on day 120 (year 2018) for both Terra and Aqua (30 April 2018) -- from that point forward only Collection 6.1 will be produced in the forward stream. 

 

Collection 6.1 (061) Change Documents

Below is a list of Collection 6.1 Change Documents that describe changes to each algorithm:

Level-1

• Level-1B Change Summary (MOD021KM, MYD021KM)  [v10, 1/2/18] View PDF
• Terra MODIS IR Bands Calibration Change Supplement (MOD021KM)  [v1, 6/27/17] View PDF 

Level-2

• Aerosol Dark Target (04_L2, DT)  [v2, 7/17/17] View PDF
• Aerosol Deep Blue (04_L2, DB)  [v2, 8/9/17] View PDF
• Cloud Mask (MOD35_L2), & Cloud Top (MOD06_L2, CT)  [v1, 6/27/17] View PDF 
• Cloud Optical Properties (06_L2, OD)  [v2, 8/17/17] View PDF
• Atmospheric Profile (07_L2) [v1, 11/8/17] View PDF

Level-3

• Change Summary Document (All Level-3: D3, E3, M3)  [v2, 8/23/17] View PDF
• Complete SDS Inventory Table (C6.1)  View PDF
• CDL File Specification for L3 Monthly (08_M3)  [v3045, 7/25/2017] View TXT

 

Collection 6.1 (061) User Guides

Below is a list of Collection 6.1 User Guides for several algorithms:

Level-2

Cloud Optical Properties User's Guide for C6 & C6.1
Final Version, v1.1, July 2018:
Platnick, Meyer, King, Wind, et. al   View PDF

Level-3

MODIS Atmosphere L3 Global Gridded Product User's Guide & ATBD for C6 & C6.1
Products: 08_D3, 08_E3, 08_M3, February 2019:
Hubanks, Platnick, King, and Ridgway  View PDF

L3 MCD06 COSP Cloud Properties User Guide   [v1.6, 8/6//20]     View PDF     View DOC 
Version 1.6, August 2020
Hubanks, Pincus, Platnick, Meyer

 

Collection 6.1 (061) Release Schedule

Overview (History) of MODIS Data Collections

Terra Platform
Last Updated: January 2020  (C6.1 Terra reprocessing rate during the past week = 1x) 

Aqua Platform
Last Updated: January 2020  (C6.1 Aqua reprocessing rate during the past week = 1x)