Global Land Surface Temperature and Emissivity at 70-Meter Resolution

ECOSTRESS instrument data provides atmospherically corrected land surface temperature and emissivity values derived from five thermal infrared bands. Measurements are collected globally between 52° N and 52° S latitudes from the International Space Station. The dataset is produced by LPCLOUD using a physics-based Temperature and Emissivity Separation algorithm.

Use Cases

• Model plant water stress and evapotranspiration using land surface temperature (LST) and precipitable water vapor (PWV) layers.
• Analyze urban heat island effects by mapping LST values at 70-meter spatial resolution across different land covers.
• Assess surface material composition through the five bands of emissivity data provided in the product.
• Filter data quality for analysis using the provided quality control, cloud mask, and water mask layers.
• Investigate temporal changes in surface temperature by combining multiple swath acquisitions over the same geographic region.

Strengths

• High spatial resolution of 70 meters for detailed land surface analysis.
• Provides multiple derived layers including LST, emissivity for 5 bands, quality masks, and error estimates.
• Global coverage between 52° N and 52° S latitudes, capturing most of Earth's vegetated land area.

Limitations

• Contains known data acquisition gaps and anomalies, including a period from 2019-2023 where only 3 of 5 TIR bands were downloaded, resulting in fill values for missing bands.
• Swath-based data format requires georeferencing using a separate ECO_L1B_GEO data product for spatial analysis.
• Temporal coverage is not continuous due to instrument anomalies and operational changes, as documented in the known issues.

Provenance

Source

NASA ECOSTRESS mission, data processed by LPCLOUD.

Collection Method

Data collected by the ECOSTRESS thermal radiometer on the International Space Station and processed using a physics-based Temperature and Emissivity Separation algorithm.

Time Range

Acquisitions began after instrument launch on June 29, 2018, with ongoing collection.

Freshness

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Geography

Global coverage between 52 degrees North and 52 degrees South latitude.