JAMES, MODIS Near Realtime, ADEOS FAQ
JASMES, MODIS NRT FAQ
FAQ ID : K001
  • Please show me how to read binary data using Photoshop.
  • 1. Choose [File] > [Open as].
    2. Choose [General format (*.RAW)] from the list, put the file name you want to open and press the [Open] button.
    3. Enter each value.
    a) Dimension of the image
      Width : number of pixels, Height : number of lines b) Number of channels
    c) Number of colors
      8 bit for 1 byte data and 16 bit for 2 byte data
    d) Byte order
      "MAC" for BigEndian
    e) Header size
      Number of pixels for 1 byte data
      Two times number of pixels for 2 byte data
    4. Press the [OK] button.
Mar. 28, 2013 
FAQ ID : K002
  • Please show me how to open HDF file.
  • HDF file can be opened by using commercially available software and free software.
Mar. 28, 2013 
FAQ ID : K003
  • Can I use data in the commissioned business?
  • If the consigner is a registered user, data can be used.
Mar. 28, 2013 
FAQ ID : K004
  • Can I use data in the fiduciary business?
  • The binary data provided from this Site can be freely used. For details, refer to Licene and note.
Mar. 28, 2013 
FAQ ID : K005
  • Please show me how to change (remove) my registration information.
  • Please send a message to to inform changed contents.
Mar. 28, 2013 
FAQ ID : K006
  • Is it possible to download files all at once?
  • It would be possible if you create a script by yourself.
Mar. 28, 2013 
FAQ ID : K007
  • Please show me how to obtain lat/long information of each pixel.
  • Please calculate using number of pixels and lines, maximum latitude and minimum longtitude values and each lat/long information stored in binary data.
Mar. 28, 2013 
FAQ ID : K008
  • I forgot how to access to the FTP site. Please give me a solution.
  • Please contact to
Mar. 28, 2013 
MODIS Near Realtime FAQ
FAQ ID : M001
  • I want to cut any areas from near-real-time processed data of MODIS. Can you please give me necessary information in order to do that?
  • Please calculate based on the pixel size, the line size, lat/long (top left) and information of each degree of lat/long stored in the header of binary data.
Mar. 28, 2013 
FAQ ID : M002
  • Please let me know the endianness of binary data.
  • It is "Big-Endian".
Mar. 28, 2013 
FAQ ID : M003
  • Please let me know the positional accuracy of geometric corrections.
  • The geometric accuracy is around 1-2 pixels.
Mar. 28, 2013 
FAQ ID : M004
  • Can you provide older data than these on the FTP site?
  • Data acquired after April 4, 2001 by Tokai University Research Information Center (TRIC) can be provided. Data acquired after June 28, 2004 by Earth Observation Center of JAXA (EOC) are also available.
Mar. 28, 2013 
FAQ ID : M005
  • Please let me know the format of binary data.
Mar. 28, 2013 
FAQ ID : M006
  • How do you produce moving images?
  • (1) Time direction :
    First, we strike an average of data for 30 days starting from the commencing date, regarding each pixel (0.01° x 0.01°) from data projected to coordinates of longitude and latitude. (Land, clouds and not observed areas are exempt.) 30-day average data is produced by moving the basic point day by five days.
    For example;
     Producing an average processed image for 30 days from Oct. 3 to Nov. 1, 2012
     Producing an average processed image for 30 days from Oct. 8 to Nov. 6, 2012
     Producing an average processed image for 30 days from Oct. 13 to Nov. 11, 2012
    (2) Space direction :
    We process moving average of the processed data by (1) procedure in the window of 7 x 7 pixels (0.07° x 0.07°).

    The 30-day average image of images produced every five days by above-described processings are displayed as moving images.
Mar. 28, 2013 
FAQ ID : M007
  • How many wavelengths are assigned to each binary data of normalized water leaving radiance (nLw)?
  • Three wavelengths, 645 nm, 551 nm and 469 nm are assigned.
Mar. 28, 2013 
FAQ ID : M008
  • Can you please explain the differences between the received data of Earth Observation Center of JAXA (EOC) and that of Tokai University Research Information Center (TRIC)?
  • The radiometric calibration table which is used for the Level1B radiance is different from each other due to difference of update timing.
    And it can cause difference of geophysical-parameters.
    The value of brightness temperature, and geophysical parameters retrieved from brightness temperature could have some inconsistency due to time-lag of updating the radiometric calibration table which is practically different between EOC and TRIC in Level1B HDF.
Feb. 23, 2016 
FAQ ID : M009
  • What kinds of data are 250m resolution data and 500m resolution data?
  • We provide rayleigh corrected reflectance data of ground surface (HDF format) .
Mar. 28, 2013 
FAQ ID : M010
  • Please give me area numbers of the fixed area to be cut of binary data.
  • Fixed area numbers given to 1 km resolution binary data is correspondent to the areas shown under image.
Mar. 28, 2013 
FAQ ID : M011
  • What is the slope value and the offset value?
  • The slope and the offset are coefficients in order to transform digital number stored as 2 byte integral number to real value.
Mar. 28, 2013 
FAQ ID : M012
  • Please show me how to calculate 500m resolution chlorophyll-a concentration(chl-a).
  • 500 m resolution chl-a is estimated by calculating linear combination coefficient (LCI) of Frouin et al. 2006 from rayleigh corrected reflectance.
Mar. 28, 2013 
FAQ ID : M013
  • Please let me know datum of data.
  • We use "World Geodetic System of 1984 (WGS84)".
Mar. 28, 2013 
FAQ ID : M014
  • How accurate is positioning of map projection (geometric correction)?
  • Nominal value of MODIS data is 0.several pixels, but it is estimated 1-2 pixels from the processing results.
Mar. 28, 2013 
FAQ ID : M015
  • Do you have any products of turbidity?
  • We do not produce any products of turbidity. (But, as long as off-island, it would be possible to use chlorophyll-a concentration(chl-a) data because it is assumed that there is an empirical correlation between chl-a and turbidity.)
Mar. 28, 2013 
FAQ ID : M016
  • Can you provide 250m resolution chlorophyll-a concentration(chl-a) data?
  • Since 250m resolution MODIS data consist of bands of 620nm-670nm and 841nm-876nm, and lack adequate necessary observation bands for the going algorithm calculating chl-a, the highest resolution is 500 m.
Mar. 28, 2013 
FAQ ID : M017
  • Please give me missing values of binary data of 1km resolution sea surface temperature (SST) and chlorophyll-a concentration(chl-a).
  • Here are assignment of missing values.
    Cloud region:0
    Continental areas:65535
    Not observation images:65534
Mar. 28, 2013 
FAQ ID : M018
  • Is it possible to draw images published on the MODIS near real time homepage?
  • Anyone can download image data (thumbnail image/JPEG image). But, when you edit and redistribute the images, it is required to write clearly the origin of the images "Courtesy of JAXA/TOKAI UNIVERSITY".
Mar. 28, 2013 
FAQ ID : M019
  • About 1km resolution chlorophyll-a concentration(chl-a) data, is it impossible to use pixels covered by clouds in Rayleigh Corrected Reflectance(RcRefl) image acquired at the same observation time?
  • Dummy values are stored in binary data because the accuracy of chl-a is not good for not only cloud-covered areas of RcRefl image, for but also the pixels in the following conditions;
     a) Very high aerosol density areas (areas regarded as clouds)
     b) Areas that relfection of sunlight is high (sun-Glint regions)
Mar. 28, 2013 
JASMES FAQ
FAQ ID : J001
  • Please show me data format and file naming convention.
Mar. 28, 2013 
FAQ ID : J002
  • Do you have a sample program to read data?
  • No. We do not offer it.
Mar. 28, 2013 
FAQ ID : J020
  • Do you verify the accuracy of JASMES products?
May 16, 2013 
FAQ ID : J003
  • Please show me the data characteristics of photosynthetically available radiation (PAR).
  • The characteristics of data provided by Earth Observation Research Center (EORC) is descending PAR of ground surface (top of canopy) and shortwave radiation.
Mar. 28, 2013 
FAQ ID : J004
  • Do you have daily data of Photosynthetically Available Radiation (PAR)?
  • Yes. We provide it.
Mar. 28, 2013 
FAQ ID : J005
  • Which do I use in order to estimate the gross production of crops, Photosynthetically Available Radiation (PAR) or shortwave radiation?
  • In general, PAR is used to estimate the gross production of crops.
Mar. 28, 2013 
FAQ ID : J006
  • What is the difference between Ocean and Land Surface Temperature (OLST) products and Sea surface temperature (SST) products on the MODIS near real time page?
  • OLST is different from MODIS near real time SST data in not using climatic value SST to consider regional characteristic of atmospheric correction.
Mar. 28, 2013 
FAQ ID : J007
  • Ocean and Land Surface Temperature (OLST) products are not included information emissivity, is there any problem?
  • It causes a big error in dry areas and deserts.
Mar. 28, 2013 
FAQ ID : J008
  • Are Ocean and Land Surface Temperature (OLST) products not so accurate when only marine values are used?
  • In principle, the accuracy of sea surface temperature is not so bad, but they are untested because they are produced accompanying by estimation of PAR.
Mar. 28, 2013 
FAQ ID : J009
  • Is there any high resolution and validated products of Sea Surface Temperature, except Ocean and Land Surface Temperature (OLST)?
Mar. 28, 2013 
FAQ ID : J010
  • Do you have daily global images of simplified Rayleigh Corrected Reflectance (RcRefl)?
  • We process images striking an average reflectance twice-a-month. We are not producing daily mean images.
Mar. 28, 2013 
FAQ ID : J018
  • How dou you cut out the effect of clouds on the process of making NDVI products.
  • We detect the clouds flag using the visible and infrared data.
May 16, 2013 
FAQ ID : J019
  • Is there any effect of snow ice on the process of making NDVI products.
  • NVDI value tend to get lower on snow cover area.
May 16, 2013 
FAQ ID : J021
  • Is there any papers on shortwave radiation (SWR) ?.
  • The following are available:

    ftp://suzaku.eorc.jaxa.jp/pub/GLI/glical/Global_05km/monthly/readme_Global05km.txt

    Original algorithm (Ocean):
    R. Frouin, H. Murakami, Estimating photosynthetically available radiation at the ocean sruface from ADEOS-II global imager data, J. Oceanography, 63, 493-503, 2007.

    Application and short description about algorithm:
    N. Saigusa, K. Ichii, H. Murakami, R. Hirata, J. Asanuma, H. Den, S.-J. Han, R. Ide, S.-G. Li, T. Ohta, T.Sasai, S.-Q.Wang, G.-R. Yu, Impact of meteorological anomalies in the 2003 summer on gross primary Productivity in East Asia, Biogeosciences, Vol 7,641-655, 2010.
Mar 16, 2018 
FAQ ID : J011
  • How deep is the detectable snow depth of snow coverage flag (CSF) products?
  • Indeed homogenous and wide snow coverage over at least five centimeters depth can be detected, but less than five centimeters can not be detected exactly because of the difference on snow cover condition and the mixing of no snow coverage.
Mar. 28, 2013 
FAQ ID : J012
  • Why do summer-time snow coverage flag (CSF) products show there is snow coverage on the plains?
  • Pixels that ice clouds are wrongly determined as snow coverage sometimes remain.
Mar. 28, 2013 
FAQ ID : J013
  • When snow coverage flag (CSF) is calculated ,in the case that ground surface is forest, do you detect snow on forest floor by applying another algorithm?
  • We change threshold of snow detection in vegetation regions by using NDVI, but it is considered that not fully detected parts remain.
Mar. 28, 2013 
FAQ ID : J014
  • Accumulated days of half-month composite snow coverage flag (CSF) products differ depending on sites. Do you have any information about composite days?
  • Please use detailed information stored in HDF files. HDF files store number of clear days for half a month (Clear_Day_NUM, for example, number of days distinguished as clear regions for 15 days) and number of snow days (Snow_Day_NUM, number of snow coverage regions for 15 days as well).
Mar. 28, 2013 
FAQ ID : J015
  • What is the Water Stress Trend (WST)?
Mar. 28, 2013 
FAQ ID : J016
  • Please show me the making process of sea-ice products.
Mar. 28, 2013 
FAQ ID : J017
  • Why are there differences between sea ice cover opened on the website of International Arctic Research Center (IARC), University of Alaska Fairbanks - JAXA Information System (IJIS) and data published on JASMES?
Mar. 28, 2013 
Others (ADEOS, etc.) FAQ
FAQ ID : E001
  • Can I newly do a user registration for "OCTS and SeaWiFS I-LAC DATA Service"?
  • We can no longer accept new user registrations for "OCTS and SeaWiFS I-LAC Data Service". Please use the NASA's site "OceanColorWeb".
     https://oceancolor.gsfc.nasa.gov/
Mar. 28, 2013