CAMEL: Monthly Global Land Emissivity Uncertainty at 5km Resolution

NASA's CAMEL dataset provides monthly emissivity uncertainty estimates at 0.05 degree resolution globally. The CAM5K30UC product includes three independent components of variability: temporal, spatial, and algorithm uncertainty, calculated for 13 spectral hinge points. Version 2 incorporates additional laboratory datasets to improve characterization of snowy scenes.

Use Cases

• Quantifying uncertainty in land surface temperature models based on emissivity uncertainty components
• Improving radiative transfer calculations for climate models based on spectral hinge point uncertainty
• Characterizing uncertainty in snow-covered terrain emissivity based on the Version 2 enhancements
• Assessing spatial and temporal variability of emissivity for land cover change studies
• Validating emissivity algorithms based on the provided algorithm uncertainty layer

Strengths

• Provides three independent uncertainty components (temporal, spatial, algorithm) for each measurement
• Offers data at 0.05 degree (~5 kilometer) spatial resolution globally
• Includes uncertainty for 13 spectral hinge points of emissivity
• Version 2 incorporates two additional laboratory datasets for snowy scenes

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Combined data from ASTER and MODIS satellite instruments processed under the MEaSUREs program.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 03:15:52.857226

Geography

Global