The MODIS Surface Reflectance products provide an estimate of the surface spectral reflectance as it would be measured at ground level in the absence of atmospheric scattering or absorption. Low-level data are corrected for atmospheric gases and aerosols, yielding a level-2 basis for several higher-order gridded level-2 (L2G) and level-3 products.

MYD09CMG provides Bands 1-7 in a daily level-3 product gridded on a simple 0.05 degree (5600-meter) Geographic projection. Data for each pixel is selected on the basis of low solar zenith angle, minimum Band 3 (blue) reflectance, and absence of cloud from level-3 intermediate files. Science Data Sets provided for this product include reflectance values for Bands 1-7, brightness temperatures for Bands 20, 21, 31, and 32, solar and view zenith angles, relative azimuth angle, ozone, granule time, and quality assurance assessment.

Collection-5 MODIS/Aqua Surface Reflectance products are Validated Stage 2, meaning that accuracy has been assessed over a widely distributed set of locations and time periods via several ground-truth and validation efforts. Although there may be later improved versions, these data are ready for use in scientific publications.