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Description

The Aqua Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) Water Reservoir Monthly Level 3 (L3) Global (MYD28C3) Version 6.1 product provides current data for 151 man-made reservoirs and 13 regulated natural lakes for a total of 164 reservoirs.
The MYD28C3 Version 6.1 data product is a composite of the 8-day area classifications from MYD28C2, which is converted to provide monthly elevation and water storage. Lake Temperature and Evaporation Model (LTEM) via MODIS Land Surface Temperature (LST) (MYD21) and meteorological data from Global Land Data Assimilation System (GLDAS) are used to produce monthly evaporation rates and volume losses.
The MYD28C3 data product contains a single layer with information about the reservoir identifier, dam location (longitude and latitude), monthly reservoir area, elevation, storage capacity, evaporation rate, and evaporation volume.

Known Issues

  • Water occurrence images generally show smaller surface area dynamics in high latitude regions, creating pixels with low occurrence values that have relatively large uncertainties. In addition, the quality of raw water area classification can be affected by lake ice coverage typically creating an overestimation of surface area in the enhancement algorithm. This issue will be addressed in a future release of the enhancement algorithm. For additional information about known issues, refer to Section 4 in the User Guide and MODIS/VIIRS Land Quality Assessment website.

Version Description

Aqua MODIS water reservoir data products were introduced in MODIS Version 6.1.

Product Summary

Platforms
Aqua
Instruments
MODIS
Spatial Extent

N: 90 S: -90 E: 180 W: -180

Spatial Reference System(s)
MODIS Climate Modeling Grid (CMG)
Location
GLOBAL
Coordinate System
CARTESIAN
Granule Spatial Representation
CARTESIAN
Temporal Extent
2002-07-01 to Present
Temporal Resolution
1 Month
Data Partner
Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center (LP DAAC) ,
MODIS Adaptive Processing System, Terrestrial Information Systems Laboratory, Earth Sciences Division, Science and Exploration Directorate, Goddard Space Flight Center, NASA (NASA/GSFC/SED/ESD/TISL/MODAPS)
Concept ID
C2565805823-LPCLOUD
Data State
ACTIVE
Number of Files/Granules
275
Processing Level
3
Published
Updated
Science Keywords
Lakes/Reservoirs ,
Total Surface Water ,
Bed Elevation

Citation

Citation is critically important for dataset documentation and discovery. This dataset is openly shared, without restriction, in accordance with the EOSDIS Data Use and Citation Guidance.

Copy Citation

Gao, H. (2021). MODIS/Aqua Water Reservoir Monthly L3 Global V061 [Data set]. NASA Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center. https://doi.org/10.5067/MODIS/MYD28C3.061 Date Accessed: 2026-02-14

File Naming Convention

MYD28C3.A2025091.061.2025212151208.hdf

The file name begins with the Product Short Name (MYD28C3) followed by the Julian Date of Acquisition formatted as AYYYYDDD (A2025091), the Tile Identifier which is horizontal tile and vertical tile provided as hXXvYY (), the Version of the data collection (061), the Julian Date and Time of Production designated as YYYYDDDHHMMSS (2025212151208), and the Data Format (hdf).

Documents

Variables

The table below lists the variables contained within a single granule for this dataset. Variables often contain observed or derived geophysical measurements collected from a variety of sources, including remote sensing instruments on satellite and airborne platforms, field campaigns, in situ measurements, and model outputs. The terms variable, parameter, scientific data set, layer, and band have been used across NASA’s Earth science disciplines; however, variable is the designated nomenclature in NASA’s Common Metadata Repository (CMR). Variable metadata attributes such as Name, Description, Units, Data Type, Fill Value, Valid Range, and Scale Factor allow users to efficiently process and analyze the data. The full range of attributes may not be applicable to all variables. Additional information on variable attributes is typically available in the data, user guide, and/or other product documentation.

For questions on a specific variable, please use the Earthdata Forum.

Name Description Units Data Type Fill Value Valid Range Scale Factor
Lake Evaporation Monthly aggregated global lake area, elevation, storage, evaporation rate, and evaporation volume. N/A OTHER -9999 N/A N/A
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