ECOSTRESS: Daily Evapotranspiration for the Contiguous U.S. at 70m Resolution

The Contiguous United States (CONUS) is covered by this dataset of daily evapotranspiration (ET) estimates at a 70-meter pixel resolution. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory produced the data using the ECOSTRESS instrument on the International Space Station and the DisALEXI surface energy balance algorithm. The product includes variables for daily ET, ET uncertainty, and quality flags, with data collected globally between 52 degrees N and 52 degrees S latitudes.

Use Cases

• Estimating crop water use based on daily evapotranspiration data.
• Monitoring crop phenology and health based on water stress detection.
• Providing early warning for drought conditions based on evapotranspiration estimates.
• Validating land surface and hydrological models based on spatially disaggregated flux data.

Strengths

• Data is derived from a physics-based surface energy balance algorithm (DisALEXI) described in an Algorithm Theoretical Basis Document.
• Product provides a high spatial resolution of 70 meters for the CONUS region.
• Algorithm has been evaluated against flux tower observations over diverse landscapes including crop, forest, and grassland sites.

Limitations

• Description metadata is limited; actual data quality requires manual inspection after download.
• Data acquisition experienced gaps and anomalies, including a period from May 2019 to April 2023 where only specific thermal bands were downloaded.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Collection Method

Derived from ECOSTRESS Level 2 land surface temperature and emissivity product using the DisALEXI algorithm with ancillary meteorological and vegetation data.

Time Range

Data collection began after the instrument launch on June 29, 2018, with specific acquisition gaps noted.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03 03:02:26.116461; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Contiguous United States (CONUS), with global data collection between 52 degrees N and 52 degrees S latitudes.