CAM5K30CFCLIM: Monthly Global Land Emissivity Coefficients

NASA's CAM5K30CFCLIM product provides Principal Components Analysis (PCA) coefficients used to generate high spectral resolution land surface emissivity. This monthly climatology is derived from a weighted average of ASTER and MODIS satellite data spanning 2003 through 2021. The dataset includes variables for PCA coefficients, sample weights, laboratory version numbers, and geospatial coordinates at a 0.05-degree resolution.

Use Cases

• Generating high spectral resolution emissivity spectra using the provided PCA coefficients and algorithm.
• Analyzing long-term climatological trends in land surface properties from 2003 to 2021.
• Validating land surface models by comparing derived emissivity with the temporally equivalent CAM5K30EMCLIM product.
• Studying spatial patterns of emissivity coefficients across different land cover types using the geospatial grid.

Strengths

• Derived from 19 years of satellite observations (2003-2021), providing a long-term climatological baseline.
• Includes source code for the high spectral resolution algorithm in both MATLAB and FORTRAN, supporting reproducibility.
• Corresponds directly with a validated emissivity data product (CAM5K30EMCLIM), enabling cross-validation.

Limitations

• Metadata conflict: last updated date is reported as both 2021-12-31 and 2026-04-10 across sources.
• Specific column names and dataset size (rows, file size) are not provided in any source.
• The dataset's utility is contingent on understanding the specialized PCA-based algorithm described in the ATBD.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) MEaSUREs Program

Collection Method

Weighted average of high spectral resolution emissivity spectra computed from combined ASTER and MODIS satellite data.

Time Range

2003 to 2021

Freshness

2026-04-10 16:50:37.432774 (most recent update reported, though a conflict exists).

Geography

Global land surface at 0.05-degree (~5 km) resolution