Global Plant Water Use Efficiency from ECOSTRESS Satellite

ECOSTRESS satellite data provides global measurements of plant Water Use Efficiency (WUE), the ratio of carbon absorbed to water released. The dataset is derived from the Breathing Earth System Simulator (BESS) Gross Primary Production and Priestley-Taylor Jet Propulsion Laboratory Soil Moisture transpiration estimates. It is produced by LPCLOUD from the ECOSTRESS instrument on the International Space Station, with data collection starting in 2018.

Use Cases

• Model regional drought impacts by analyzing spatial patterns in the Water Use Efficiency (WUE) layer.
• Validate terrestrial biosphere models by comparing simulated GPP against the BESS Gross Primary Production estimates.
• Assess vegetation health and stress by correlating the WUE values with ancillary climate or soil moisture data.
• Study carbon-water coupling in ecosystems using the derived ratio of carbon grams to water kilograms.
• Apply the cloud and water mask layers to filter and clean the primary WUE data for analysis.

Strengths

• Global coverage between 52° N and 52° S latitudes.
• High spatial resolution of 70 meters per pixel.
• Data provided in Cloud Optimized GeoTIFF (COG) format for efficient access.
• Separate data layers for WUE, GPP, cloud mask, and water mask.

Limitations

• Contains known data acquisition gaps, including a period from 2019-2023 where only 3 of 5 thermal bands were downloaded, leading to fill values in some products.
• Temporal coverage is non-continuous due to instrument anomalies and safehold events, such as in February 2020.

Provenance

Source

NASA ECOSTRESS mission, processed by LPCLOUD.

Collection Method

Derived from satellite measurements by the ECOSTRESS instrument on the International Space Station, using the BESS and PT-JPL-SM models.

Time Range

Data acquisition began June 2018, with ongoing collection.

Freshness

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Geography

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