CAMEL: Combined ASTER and MODIS Land Emissivity Monthly at 5km

NASA's CAMEL dataset merges two major satellite emissivity products to create a monthly, global land surface record at 5-kilometer resolution. The integration uses 13 spectral hinge points and principal component regression to extend data to high spectral resolution. Known gaps exist for specific months between 2000 and 2016.

Use Cases

• Improving climate model parameterization based on high-spectral-resolution emissivity data.
• Analyzing seasonal vegetation changes using the included ASTER NDVI layer.
• Studying snow cover dynamics with the MODIS-derived snow fraction layer.
• Validating land surface temperature retrievals from other satellite products.
• Assessing surface type classification accuracy using quality flags for CAMEL, ASTER, and UWBF inputs.

Strengths

• Integrates two established datasets (UWBF MODIS and JPL ASTER GED V4) to capitalize on their respective strengths.
• Provides high spectral resolution emissivity derived from 13 hinge points using a principal component regression method.
• Includes multiple quality layers (CAMEL, ASTER, UWBF) for data reliability assessment.

Limitations

• Metadata completeness is medium; specific column names and dataset size are not provided.
• Contains known temporal gaps, missing data for at least 10 specific months between 2000 and 2016.
• Sources show a conflict for the 'last updated' date (2026-04-10 vs 2024-01-01).

Provenance

Source

NASA MEaSUREs program, combining University of Wisconsin-Madison MODIS Baseline Fit (UWBF) and JPL ASTER Global Emissivity Dataset (GED V4).

Collection Method

Satellite remote sensing data integration, aggregation, and spectral extension via principal component regression.

Time Range

Monthly data with coverage likely spanning years around 2000-2016, given the listed missing months.

Freshness

2026-04-10 03:56:31.962861

Geography

Global land coverage at 0.05 degree (~5 km) resolution.