Science investigator-led global processing for the MODIS instrument

The Moderate Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS). instrument produces over 700 GB/day of global science products from science algorithms developed by over 20 principal investigators from the land, oceans, and atmosphere disciplines. In 1999, the MODIS Science Team assumed the responsibility for the operational production of MODIS products. This was a fundamental shift from the previous model in which 3 processing and data archive centers, developed, maintained and operated by the EOS Science Data and Information System Project (ESDIS), were planned to have responsibility for production of the MODIS products. Shifting responsibility for operational processing to the MODIS Science Team reduced the cost of producing the data products, shortened the time required to get software changes into production by weeks and gave scientists better control of production priorities