Near real-time satellite data are used to revise or confirm 24-hour forecasts related to weather systems approaching land from the ocean, which in turn gives confidence for flood warnings. Satellite images are also useful in providing everyone with the same 'big picture' of severe storms.
Users can visualize imagery related to floods in Worldview, or download data from NASA's Land, Atmosphere Near real-time Capability for Earth observation (LANCE) using the links below.
MODIS and VIIRS Corrected Reflectance imagery are available only as near real-time imagery. The imagery can be visualized in Worldview and Global Imagery Browse Services (GIBS).
Information on MODIS Corrected Reflectance Imagery layers including:
Information on VIIRS Corrected Reflectance Imagery layers including:
Browse Corrected Reflectance imagery in Worldview
For more on the difference between Corrected Reflectance and Surface Reflectance Imagery
The Earth at Night shows the earth’s surface and atmosphere using a sensor designed to capture low-light emission sources, under varying illumination conditions. It is displayed as a grey-scale image. Sources of illumination include both natural and anthropogenic sources of light emissions. Lunar reflection can be used to highlight the location and features of clouds and other terrestrial features such as sea ice and snow cover when there is partial to full moon conditions. When there is no moonlight, natural and anthropogenic night time light emissions are highlighted such as city lights, lightning, auroras, fires, gas flares, and fishing fleets. This layer is useful for viewing storms as well as showing patterns of human activity and energy behaviors such as cities and highways, the holiday periods, the tracking of shipping and fishing fleets at night and, the burning of waste natural gas (gas flares) from on and off shore oil/gas production sites.
| Product and Download Link | Description | Browse imagery in Worldview |
|---|---|---|
VIIRS (Suomi NPP) | VIIRS/NPP Daily Gridded Day Night Band 500m Linear Lat Lon Grid Night NRT | Black Marble Nighttime At Sensor Radiance (Day/Night Band) and Blue/Yellow Composite |
VIIRS (Suomi NPP) | VIIRS/NPP Hourly Cumulative Gridded Day Night Band 500m Linear Lat Lon Grid Night NRT | Black Marble Nighttime At Sensor Radiance (Day/Night Band) and Blue/Yellow Composite |
VIIRS (Suomi NPP)
| VIIRS Nighttime Imagery (Day/Night Band, Enhanced Near Constant Contrast) The VIIRS Nighttime Imagery (Day/Night Band, Enhanced Near Constant Contrast (ENCC)) layer is currently only available as an imagery layer. The sensor resolution is 750 m at nadir, imagery resolution is 500 m, and the temporal resolution is daily. The is mainly a qualitative product and should be strictly used for image display purposes. References: Earthdata - Nighttime Lights Hillger, D., Seaman, C., Liang, C., Miller, S., Lindsey, D., & Kopp, T. (2014). Suomi NPP VIIRS imagery evaluation. Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 119(11), 6440-6455, doi:10.1002/2013JD021170. Román, M. O., Wang, Z., Sun, Q., Kalb, V., Miller, S. D., Molthan, A., … & Masuoka, E. J. (2018). NASA's Black Marble nighttime lights product suite. Remote Sensing of Environment, 210, 113-143, doi:10.1016/j.rse.2018.03.017. | VIIRS DNB ENCC |
| Product: Instrument, Platform and Download Link | Description | Browse imagery in Worldview |
MODIS (Terra and Aqua) | MODIS/Aqua+Terra Global Flood Product L3 NRT 250m The flood product has 3 compositing periods (1-day, 2-day, and 3-day) because the best product for a given flood event depends on four unpredictable factors: the specific area of interest; cloud cover; spatial extent of likely flood water; and likely duration of flooding. It is recommend that the user view both the 2 and 3 day products unless latency is a primary concern. Ultimately determining which product provides the best information for a particular event of interest will be up to the user. Product generation consists of three key steps:
The compositing step helps limit false-positives. For more information please see the MODIS NRT Global Flood Product User Guide. | Flood (2-Day Window) and Flood (3-Day Window) |
MODIS (Terra and Aqua) | MODIS/Aqua+Terra Global Flood Product L3 NRT 250m 1-day CS GeoTIFF | |
MODIS (Terra and Aqua) | MODIS/Aqua+Terra Global Flood Product L3 NRT 250m 1-day GeoTIFF | |
MODIS (Terra and Aqua) | MODIS/Aqua+Terra Global Flood Product L3 NRT 250m 2-day GeoTIFF | |
MODIS (Terra and Aqua) | MODIS/Aqua+Terra Global Flood Product L3 NRT 250m 3-day GeoTIFF |
Land Surface Temperature layer shows the temperature of the land surface in Kelvin (K). This measurement differs from air temperature measurements as it provides the temperature of whatever is on the surface of the earth for example, bare sand in the desert, ice and snow covered area, a leaf covered tree canopy and even the temperature of man-made buildings and roads. Land Surface Temperature is useful for monitoring changes in weather and climate patterns and used in agriculture to allow farmers to evaluate water requirements for wheat, or determine frost damage in orange groves.
| Product: Instrument, Platform and Download Link | Description | Browse imagery in Worldview |
MODIS (Terra) MOD11_L2 MODIS (Aqua) MYD11_L2 | MODIS Land Surface Temperature and Emissivity The MODIS Land Surface Temperature and Emissivity (LST&E) product is available from both Terra and Aqua satellites. The sensor and imagery resolution is 1 km, and the temporal resolution is daily. doi:10.5067/MODIS/MOD11_L2.NRT.061 and doi:10.5067/MODIS/MYD11_L2.NRT.061 | Land Surface Temp (Day/Night) |
| VIIRS (Suomi NPP) VNP21_NRT | VIIRS Land Surface Temperature and Emissivity VIIRS/Suomi NPP Land Surface Temperature and Emissivity 6-Min L2 Swath 750m NRT products doi:10.5067/VIIRS/VNP21_NRT.001 | Coming soon. |
The Lightning Imaging Sensor (LIS) aboard the International Space Station (ISS) supplies near real-time lightning data over data-sparse regions, such as oceans, to support operational weather forecasting and warning. The LIS was placed on the International Space Station in Feb 2017 as part of the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) Space Test Program (STP)-H5 science and technology development payload. By placing LIS on the space station, which has a highly inclined orbit, a greater geographic range of measurements are obtained than previously measured by Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) LIS.
| Product and Download Link | Description | Browse imagery in Worldview |
|---|---|---|
LIS (ISS) | Lightning Imaging Sensor (LIS) aboard the International Space Station (ISS) Flash Count and Flash Radiance Level The ISS LIS Flash Count layer provides the number of lightning flashes and the ISS LIS Flash Radiance layer provides the radiance of lightning flashes measured in μJ/sr/m2/μm recorded by the LIS aboard the International Space Station (ISS).The ISS LIS provides total lightning measurements between +/- 48 degrees latitude which covers a geographic range that includes nearly all global lightning. ISS LIS monitors total global lightning in both day and night and provides important cross-sensor calibration and validation with the Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM) and ground-based lightning networks. NRT Lightning Imaging Sensor (LIS) on International Space Station (ISS) Science Data and NRT Lightning Imaging Sensor (LIS) on International Space Station (ISS) Backgrounds References: GHRC: About ISS LIS Data | GHRC DAAC Browse |
The AIRS Precipitation Estimate Day/Night layer is an estimate of daily precipitation measured in millimeters (mm) using cloud-related parameters of cloud-top pressure, fractional cloud cover, and cloud-layer relative humidity.
Integrated Multi-satellitE Retrievals for GPM (IMERG) is another NRT precipitation product that users may find useful. it is not listed in the table below as it is not a LANCE product (and does not meet the LANCE latency requirement) but it is visible in Worldview.
| Product: Instrument, Platform and Download Link | Description | Browse imagery in Worldview |
AIRS (Aqua) | AIRS Precipitation Estimate The AIRS Precipitation Estimate (AIRG2SSD) layer is a is a variable of the AIRS Level 2 Near Real Time Support Retrieval (AIRS) (AIR2SUP_NRT). The imagery resolution is 2 km and sensor resolution is 45 km. The temporal resolution is daily. References: GES DISC: Aqua/AIRS L2 Near Real Time (NRT) Support Retrieval (AIRS-only) V7.0 (AIRS2SUP_NRT); GES DISC - Near Real-Time Data | AIRS Precipitation Estimate |
LANCE provides the AIRS Precipitation Estimate Day/Night layer which is an estimate of daily precipitation and the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer 2 (AMSR2) surface rain over ocean. Precipitation is formed when water vapor condenses and becomes heavy enough to fall under the force of gravity. The characterization of precipitation over the ocean is important as, unlike on land, there are limited ground/surface stations that measure precipitation in the vast expanses of ocean. Integrated Multi-satellitE Retrievals for GPM (IMERG) is another NRT precipitation product that users may find useful. it is not listed in the table below as it is not a LANCE product (and does not meet the LANCE latency requirement) but it is visible in Worldview.
| Product and Download Link | Description | Browse imagery in Worldview |
|---|---|---|
AIRS (Aqua) |
AIRS Precipitation Estimate The AIRS Precipitation Estimate (AIRG2SSD) layer is a is a variable of the AIRS Level 2 Near Real Time Support Retrieval (AIRS) (AIR2SUP_NRT). The imagery resolution is 2 km and sensor resolution is 45 km. The temporal resolution is daily. References: GES DISC: Aqua/AIRS L2 Near Real Time (NRT) Support Retrieval (AIRS-only) V7.0 (AIRS2SUP_NRT); GES DISC - Near Real-Time Data | AIRS Precipitation Estimate |
AMSR2 (GCOM-W1)
| AMSR2 Surface Precipitation The Surface Precipitation (Day | Night) layer displays instantaneous surface precipitation rate over land and ocean, measured in millimeters per hour (mm/hr). The Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer 2 (AMSR2) instrument on the Global Change Observation Mission - Water 1 (GCOM-W1) provides global passive microwave measurements of terrestrial, oceanic, and atmospheric parameters for the investigation of global water and energy cycles. The GCOM-W1 NRT AMSR2 Unified Global Swath Surface Precipitation GSFC Profiling Algorithm is a swath product containing global rain rate and type, calculated by the GPROF 2017 V2R rainfall retrieval algorithm using resampled NRT Level-1R data provided by JAXA. This is the same algorithm that generates the corresponding standard science products in the AMSR SIPS. | Surface Precipitation |
The AIRS Precipitation Estimate Day/Night layer is an estimate of daily precipitation measured in millimeters (mm) using cloud-related parameters of cloud-top pressure, fractional cloud cover, and cloud-layer relative humidity.
| Product and Download Link | Description | Browse imagery in Worldview |
|---|---|---|
AIRS (Aqua)
| AIRS Relative Humidity The AIRS Relative Humidity layer indicates the percent relative humidity at varying pressure levels measured in hectopascals (hPa). The vertical profile information produced by the AIRS instrument augments radiosonde data. Most radiosonde launch stations are situated on land, and the AIRS instrument improves this information as it can provide data for locations all over the globe such as large swaths of the ocean that do not have any regular measurements taken. The Relative Humidity layer is available at 500hPa, 700hPa, 850hPa. 500hPa is approximately 5.5 km or 18,000 fee, 700hPa is approximately 3 km or 10,000 feet and 850hPa is approximately 1.5 km or 5,000 feet. This information helps improve world weather observing and in improving the skill in making mid and long range weather forecast. L2 standard retrieval product using AIRS IR only | AIRS Relative Humidity: 500 hPa Day|Night, 700 hPa Day|Night, 850 hPa Day|Night, |
The MODIS snow cover layer shows the presence of snow cover over land and water bodies as an index related to the presence of snow. It is based on a Normalized Difference Snow Cover Index (NDSI) that is derived from the cloud free snow reflectance sensed by the MODIS instrument, and hence this layer shows presence of snow during day time and under cloud clear condition only. NDSI snow cover though could be retrieved in the valid range of (0, 1.0) at every pixel, additional tests like surface temperature screening linked with the surface height is used for accurate detection. Snow is precipitation that forms from water vapor in the atmosphere where temperatures are below 0° Celsius. If the ground temperature is also below freezing, snow will accumulate on the ground as bright, white layer of snowpack. Snow cover reflects sunlight back into the atmosphere, helping to cool the Earth’s surface. Snowmelt is used for drinking water, water for crop irrigation, and can moisturize soil to reduce the risk of wildfire in many areas in the world. When snow melts in the spring, too much snow can cause springtime flooding.
| Product and Download Link | Description | Browse imagery in Worldview |
|---|---|---|
MODIS (Terra) MOD10_L2 MODIS (Aqua) MYD10_L2 | MODIS Snow Cover (Normalized Difference Snow Index (NDSI)) The MODIS Snow Cover layer is available from NASA's Terra and Aqua satellites. The sensor and imagery resolution is 500 m and the temporal resolution is daily. DOI: doi:10.5067/MODIS/MOD10_L2.NRT.061 and doi:10.5067/MODIS/MYD10_L2.NRT.061 | Snow Cover |
The AIRS Temperature layer indicates the air temperature at varying pressure levels, measured in Kelvin (K) and the Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS) Temperature layer indicates the temperature of the atmosphere at the vertical atmospheric pressure level of 46 hectopascals (hPa) and is measured in Kelvin (K).
| Product and Download Link | Description | Browse imagery in Worldview |
|---|---|---|
AIRS (Aqua) | AIRS Temperature (Day|Night) The AIRS Temperature layer indicates the air temperature at varying pressure levels, measured in Kelvin (K). The Temperature layer is available at 500hPa (hectopascals), 700hPa, and 850hPa. 500hPa is approximately 5.5 km or 18,000 feet, 700hPa is approximately 3 km or 10,000 feet and 850hPa is approximately 1.5 km or 5,000 feet. This information helps improve world weather observing and in improving the skill in making mid and long range weather forecast. The Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) is an instrument aboard the Aqua satellite. The AIRS Temperature science parameter is a parameter of the AIRS Level 2 standard retrieval product using AIRS (AIRS2RET_NRT). The imagery resolution is 2 km and sensor resolution is 45 km. The temporal resolution is twice daily (day and night). | Temperature: 500 hPa Day|Night, 700 hPa Day|Night 850 hPa Day|Night, |
| MLS (Aura) ML2T_NRT.005 | MLS Temperature 46hPa (Day|Night) The Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS) Temperature layer indicates the temperature of the atmosphere at the vertical atmospheric pressure level of 46 hectopascals (hPa) and is measured in Kelvin (K). The MLS instrument measures naturally-occurring microwave thermal emission from the limb (edge) of the Earth's atmosphere to remotely sense vertical profiles of atmospheric gases, temperature, pressure, and cloud ice. The MLS Temperature 46hPa layer is derived from the MLS Temperature product (ML2T_NRT) available from the Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS) instrument on the Aura satellite. The sensor resolution is 5 km, imagery resolution is 2 km, and the temporal resolution is daily. | Temperature (46 hPa Day|Night) |
Super Typhoon Rai crossed the southern and central Philippines, as seen in NASA Worldview on December 16, 2021, having intensified to category 5 strength just hours before landfall. Read more in the Earth Observatory article Super Typhoon Rai.