Earth Science

Aqua

12,549 tracked publications and 451,977 citations from 2002–2026. Launched 2002. Life-cycle cost: $2.3B in 2025 dollars. Active Mission Window June 1, 2002 to January 1, 2024: 10,863 publications, 572 top-10% credit.

Orbiter · h-index 224 · 850 papers with 100+ citations · prime mission ended 2008

Lifetime

Scope Papers published from the first full month after science operations begin through 2 years after the mission ends. Citations are counted through the third calendar year after each paper appears. Methods Papers published from the first full month after science operations begin through 2 years after the prime mission ends. Citations are counted through the third calendar year after each paper appears. Methods Every tracked publication to date, with every citation to date. Methods

Key measures

Active Mission Window · papers June 1, 2002 to January 1, 2024
Tracked publicationsTracked publications: peer-reviewed research papers we found for the mission. The list may not be complete. Methods10,863
CitationsCitations received by the tracked publications in the selected scope. The two windowed scopes count each paper’s citations only within its citation window. Methods127,246
Mean citations per publicationMean citations: total citations divided by tracked publications in the selected scope. One blockbuster paper can lift it. Methods12
Median citations per publicationMedian citations: the middle paper’s citation count in the selected scope; half the papers have more, half fewer. A single blockbuster sways it less than the mean. Methods7
Uncited publicationsUncited publications: papers with no citations in the selected scope. Methods604 (5.6%)
Top-10% creditTop 10%: among the 10% most-cited papers from this division’s missions, ranked against papers published around the same time. A paper naming several missions is split evenly among the missions in this division that claim it, so counts can be fractional. Methods572 · 15% of division
Top-1% creditTop 1%: among the 1% most-cited papers from this division’s missions within the selected window. Not adjusted for publication year. A paper naming several missions is split evenly among the missions in this division that claim it, so counts can be fractional. Methods48 · 13% of division
Lifetime indices · every tracked publication to date, in any scope
h-indexh-index: the largest h such that h papers have at least h citations each. It only grows with time, so older missions score higher. Methods224
g-indexg-index: the largest g for which the g most-cited papers together hold at least g² citations. Like the h-index, but it lets the most-cited papers count for more. Methods374
m-index, as of October 4, 2026m-index: a mission’s h-index divided by the years since its first peer-reviewed paper. It falls every 1 January even when nothing else changes, so it belongs to the date shown; it also discounts the long operating life that larger missions paid for. Methods9.0
toritori (total research impact, from ADS): for every paper citing one of the mission’s papers, 1 divided by the citing paper’s reference count times the cited paper’s author count, summed, with self-citations removed. It favors citations from papers with short reference lists and from outside the mission’s own authors. Computed over the tracked citation graph, which can be slightly incomplete. Methods2,476
riqriq (research impact quotient): 1,000 times the square root of tori, divided by the years since the mission’s first paper. A rate, not a total, so it does not keep growing with age the way the h-index and tori do. Methods1,913

Tracked publications

  1. The MODIS Aerosol Algorithm, Products, and Validation.

    Remer, L. A., 2005, JAtS

    2,311 citations

  2. Global fire emissions and the contribution of deforestation, savanna, forest, agricultural, and peat fires (1997-2009)

    van der Werf, G. R., 2010, ACP

    2,090 citations

  3. Monitoring vegetation phenology using MODIS

    Zhang, Xiaoyang, 2003, RSEnv

    1,890 citations

  4. A simple method for reconstructing a high-quality NDVI time-series data set based on the Savitzky-Golay filter

    Chen, Jin, 2004, RSEnv

    1,705 citations

  5. The Collection 6 MODIS aerosol products over land and ocean

    Levy, R. C., 2013, AMT

    1,566 citations

  6. Change detection techniques

    Lu, D., 2004, IJRS

    1,522 citations

  7. Development of a two-band enhanced vegetation index without a blue band

    Jiang, Zhangyan, 2008, RSEnv

    1,517 citations

  8. On the Blending of the Landsat and MODIS Surface Reflectance: Predicting Daily Landsat Surface Reflectance

    Gao, Feng, 2006, ITGRS

    1,449 citations

  9. The MODIS Cloud Products: Algorithms and Examples From Terra

    Platnick, Steven, 2003, ITGRS

    1,417 citations

  10. A Continuous Satellite-Derived Measure of Global Terrestrial Primary Production

    Running, Steven W., 2004, BiSci

    1,350 citations

  11. Detecting trend and seasonal changes in satellite image time series

    Verbesselt, Jan, 2010, RSEnv

    1,298 citations

  12. A Landsat Surface Reflectance Dataset for North America, 1990─2000

    Masek, Jeffrey G., 2006, IGRSL

    1,287 citations

  13. Preliminary analysis of the performance of the Landsat 8/OLI land surface reflectance product

    Vermote, Eric, 2016, RSEnv

    1,255 citations

  14. An Enhanced Contextual Fire Detection Algorithm for MODIS

    Giglio, Louis, 2003, RSEnv

    1,231 citations

  15. Soil Moisture Retrieval From AMSR-E

    Njoku, Eni G., 2003, ITGRS

    1,126 citations

  16. Finer resolution observation and monitoring of global land cover: first mapping results with Landsat TM and ETM+ data

    Gong, Peng, 2013, IJRS

    1,091 citations

  17. The collection 6 MODIS active fire detection algorithm and fire products

    Giglio, Louis, 2016, RSEnv

    1,085 citations

  18. AIRS/AMSU/HSB on the Aqua Mission: Design, Science Objectives, Data Products, and Processing Systems

    Aumann, Hartmut H., 2003, ITGRS

    1,078 citations

  19. Biomass burning emissions estimated with a global fire assimilation system based on observed fire radiative power

    Kaiser, J. W., 2012, BGeo

    1,057 citations

  20. Sensitivity of global terrestrial ecosystems to climate variability

    Seddon, Alistair W. R., 2016, Natur

    1,052 citations

How we found these papers

We searched NASA’s Astrophysics Data System (ADS) for peer-reviewed articles naming Aqua in the title, abstract or keywords; standard filters drop articles that are not peer-reviewed and magazine pieces. SciX is ADS’s current interface.

(((abs:"Aqua" AND (=abs:"AIRS" OR =abs:"AMSU" OR =abs:"CERES" OR =abs:"MODIS" OR =abs:"AMSR-E" OR =abs:"HSB")) OR =abs:"Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer-EOS" OR (=abs:"Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer" AND abs:"Aqua") OR (=abs:"Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer" AND NOT abs:"Terra") OR (=abs:"Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit" AND (abs:(Aqua OR AIRS OR "AMSR-E") OR =abs:"Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer for the Earth Observing System")) OR =abs:"Humidity Sounder for Brazil" OR =abs:"Atmospheric Infrared Sounder" OR (=abs:"Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System" AND abs:"Aqua") OR (=abs:"Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System" AND NOT abs:"Terra") OR abs:"Aqua satellite" OR abs:"Aqua spacecraft" OR abs:"Aqua Earth-Observing" OR abs:"EOS-PM1" OR abs:"EOS PM-1")) AND property:refereed AND doctype:article AND pubdate:[2002-06 TO 2040-01] AND NOT bibstem:("A&R" OR "AIASJ" OR "AeAm" OR "AirSp" OR "AsNow" OR "AsUAI" OR "AvWST" OR "C&E" OR "C&T" OR "CAPJ" OR "E&S" OR "ENews" OR "IrAJ" OR "JCos" OR "JRASC" OR "LAstr" OR "MNSSA" OR "Met" OR "NewSc" OR "Orion" OR "PhT" OR "PhTea" OR "PhuZ" OR "PhyOJ" OR "PhyW" OR "PlR" OR "SciAm" OR "SpFl" OR "ZemVs")

Open in SciX

Added after review (1)

  1. Imaging gravity waves in lower stratospheric AMSU-A radiances, Part 2: Validation case study Analyzes AMSU-A gravity-wave radiances that include two Aqua overpasses. Decision 🤖

Removed after review (4)

  1. Development of a global evapotranspiration algorithm based on MODIS and global meteorology data Uses MODIS data from 2001, before Aqua launched; no Aqua data. Decision 🤖
  2. A comparison of geographic datasets and field measurements to model soil carbon using random forests and stepwise regressions (British Columbia, Canada) Uses MODIS data from Terra only; no Aqua data. Decision 🤖
  3. Snow cover change and its relationship with land surface temperature and vegetation in northeastern North America from 2000 to 2017 Uses MODIS data products from Terra only; no Aqua data. Decision 🤖
  4. Flooded area classification using pooled training samples: an example from the Chobe River Basin, Botswana Maps floods with MODIS images from Terra only; no Aqua data. Decision 🤖