The MOD08_M3 (Monthly) product will be produced at the MODAPS facility at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. MODAPS will produce 100% of the MODIS Atmosphere Monthly Product (MOD08_M3). The data volume will be a single HDF file of 600 MB per month.

Production Rules

For the MOD_PR08M process (PGE57) the following production rules apply:

Run PGE57 once every calendar month, at the end of the month when all atmosphere daily global product inputs (MOD08_D3) are available. Depending on calendar month, 28, 29, 30 or 31 input files are expected. If all inputs have not arrived by a week after the end of the month, run if at least one input granule is available.

• Required Input
  At least 1 and as many as 31 MOD08_D3 (Daily Global Product) files, depending on month
• Output File
  1 MOD08_M3 (MODIS atmosphere L3 Monthly Global Product) file

Production Rules Q & A

Is it true that the MODIS Atmosphere Monthly Product (MOD08_M3) may only contain 1 day of MODIS data?

Yes. It should be noted that there may be lengthy periods when the satellite is unable to transmit data or the data are corrupted or lost. In this case, the system works with the available data.

Would these MOD08_M3 files be regenerated later if later more days were to become available?

During reprocessing initiatives one expects to get a more complete input data stream and presumably a better product.

How would an end user know how many days (and which ones) went into a particular MOD08_M3 file?

The ECS metadata contains the temporal coverage of the processing period. It also provides the names of the input files used to generated the output product. However, it would be desirable to add HDF file metadata to indicate the number of data days used.