ECOSTRESS L1B: Global Plant Temperature Geolocation Data from ISS

ECOSTRESS Swath Geolocation Instantaneous L1B Global data provides latitude, longitude, and geometry information for radiance pixels measured by the ECOSTRESS instrument on the International Space Station. The NASA mission measures plant temperature globally between 52° N and 52° S latitudes to understand water use and stress response. The data, last updated in March 2026, is corrected via image matching for geolocation accuracy better than 50 meters when successful.

Use Cases

• Precisely georeference ECOSTRESS thermal radiance measurements based on the provided latitude and longitude layers.
• Analyze solar and view geometry for radiative transfer modeling based on the included geometry information.
• Assess surface characteristics for pixel-level analysis using the surface height and land/water fraction data.
• Validate and correct land surface models by integrating accurately located plant temperature observations.

Strengths

• Geolocation accuracy is better than 50 meters when image matching correction is successful, as indicated by the 'L1GEOMetadata/OrbitCorrectionPerformed' field.
• Provides multiple data layers including latitude, longitude, solar and view geometry, surface height, and land/water fraction.
• Data is collected globally between 52° N and 52° S latitudes from the International Space Station.

Limitations

• In uncorrected cases, geolocation error can be up to 7 kilometers, significantly impacting spatial accuracy.
• The dataset has experienced documented acquisition gaps due to instrument anomalies in 2018, 2019, and 2020.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Collected by the ECOSTRESS instrument on the International Space Station, with geolocation processing that corrects ISS ephemeris and attitude data via image matching with a Landsat-derived ortho-base.

Time Range

Data acquisition began after launch on June 29, 2018, with operations resuming after anomalies in December 2018 and May 2019.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 03:01:42.507304; freshness should be verified.

Geography

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