MODIS MOD11A2 does not update frequently its LST images?

Question

I am working with the MODIS satellite, product MOD11A2, band LST_Day_1km. To access data I use the MODIS REST SERVICE.

With the following url I get the data from date 2020050 (2020-02-19) to date 2020071 (2020-03-11):

https://modis.ornl.gov/rst/api/v1/MOD11A2/subset?latitude=10&longitude=10&band=LST_Day_1km&startDate=A2020050&endDate=A2020071&kmAboveBelow=1&kmLeftRight=1

The product has a periodicity of 8 days but I only get one image, the request above returns me only data from day 2020-02-26 when it should return me also data from date 2020-03-05 (8 days after)

I searched in the documentation information about how often the data source is updated with the new data but I can't find anything and it is strange than it takes more than 16 days to add a date.

Answer 1

I did a little check on Google Earth Engine and get the same result as you, but get two images if I shift the year to 2019 as expected. I think you are just too early. The 8-day periodicity starts from the image date (as per the documentation the dates do not cross a year end and the 1st of January starts a new period - confirmed by the presence of images for 2019-01-01 and 2020-01-01). So the 2020-03-03 image has only just completed its 8 days (today only being the 11th) so it is not really 16 days late at all but "on-time" as it could not have been composited before the end of today. I expect it will be available tomorrow or soon after.