ECOSTRESS: Global 70-Meter Downscaled Air Temperature and Humidity

ECOSTRESS Gridded Downscaled Meteorology Instantaneous L3 Global 70 m V002 provides global estimates of near-surface air temperature and relative humidity. The data product is generated by NASA's ECOSTRESS instrument on the International Space Station, using a linear regression model with surface temperature, NDVI, and albedo as predictors. It has a spatial resolution of 70 meters and is projected on a 0.0006° grid, with coverage between 52° N and 52° S latitudes.

Use Cases

• Modeling plant water stress and evapotranspiration based on near-surface air temperature and humidity estimates.
• Analyzing microclimate variations in ecosystems based on the 70-meter spatial resolution data.
• Validating and downscaling global climate models using the bias-corrected, downscaled meteorological layers.
• Studying the relationship between vegetation health (via NDVI) and local atmospheric conditions.

Strengths

• Provides four specific data layers: near-surface air temperature (Ta), relative humidity (RH), cloud mask, and water mask.
• Data has a high spatial resolution of 70 meters on a globally snapped 0.0006° grid.
• Product uses a described downscaling and bias-correction method involving GEOS-5 FP data.

Limitations

• Description metadata is limited; actual data quality requires manual inspection after download.
• Data acquisition experienced known gaps and anomalies between 2018 and 2023, as detailed in the description.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Data is collected by the ECOSTRESS instrument on the International Space Station and processed using linear regression downscaling with GEOS-5 FP data.

Time Range

Acquisitions began after the instrument launch on June 29, 2018, with periods of anomaly and resumed operations.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 02:51:07.066246; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Global coverage between 52° N and 52° S latitudes.