Ten Years of MODIS in space: lessons learned and future perspectives

The MODIS instruments, onboard the Terra and Aqua satellites, provide data to observe the Earth's land, ice, ocean, and atmosphere with unprecedented accuracy. Since the launch of Terra in 1999 and Aqua in 2002, there has been systematic data collection, calibration, product production, and dissemination of MODIS products to global users. MODIS satellite data and products have contributed remarkably to our ability to understand the Earth's coupled land-ocean-atmosphere system, to document with improved accuracies the evolution of climate, and to facilitate rapid response to natural disasters. This paper provides an overview of MODIS and highlights its contributions to Earth science research with a focus on land products and applications.