How can I know if I'm using terra or aqua satellite

Question

I'm using the MOD09GA product (mainly using band 6). I want to work only with the data from the Terra satellite; how can I know if the image is Terra or Aqua?

I looked in the MODIS Surface Reflectance User's Guide 1. In the user's guide, they wrote "The "MOD" prefix should be taken as referring to the dataset in general, not to Terra-derived data in particular. All programs discussed in this document process either Terra- or Aqua-derived data."

I also looked in the meta-data using SNAP and didn't find the satellite reference. Where can I see it?

Answer 1

Your quote of the user manual means that they used Terra product names as examples but the same would apply to their Aqua counterparts, so it is just a way to avoid repeating the same information twice.

Here is the full quote (the info you are looking for is in the section title):

4.5. All I've seen in this document is "MOD", meaning Terra -- what about Aqua (“MYD”)? The "MOD" prefix should be taken as referring to the datasets in general, not to Terra-derived data in particular. All programs discussed in this document process either Terra- or Aqua-derived data. All datasets referred to in this document will be referred to as "MOD" data, but meaning either Terra- or Aqua-derived data. No combined Terra+Aqua MOD09 products are available or planned for.

It is confirmed by information found on the NASA website: MOD09GA is the Terra product (https://ladsweb.modaps.eosdis.nasa.gov/missions-and-measurements/products/MOD09GA) and the Aqua equivalent is named MYD09GA (https://ladsweb.modaps.eosdis.nasa.gov/missions-and-measurements/products/MYD09GA).

So with MOD09GA you are using exclusively Terra data.