GEOLST4KHR: Hourly Land Surface Temperature for the Americas

From 2000 to 2016, this dataset provides hourly, per-pixel land surface temperature measurements for North and South America at a 4-kilometer spatial resolution. It is derived from data acquired by Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) 8 and 10 through 15 satellites. The product includes variables for cloud mask, latitude, longitude, land surface temperature, and land surface temperature error.

Use Cases

• Analyzing diurnal temperature cycles based on hourly increments.
• Modeling urban heat island effects using high-temporal-resolution land surface temperature.
• Validating climate models with long-term (2000-2016) satellite-derived temperature records.
• Masking cloud-contaminated observations using the provided cloud mask variable.
• Assessing land surface temperature error propagation in downstream analyses.

Strengths

• Provides a 17-year time series (2000-2016) for longitudinal climate studies.
• Offers high temporal resolution with daily data in hourly increments.
• Covers a broad spatial extent encompassing both North and South America.
• Is part of the NASA MEaSUREs program, indicating a curated, research-oriented product.

Limitations

• The dataset (Version 1) was officially decommissioned in December 2022, directing users to a newer version.
• Platform metadata conflicts on last update date (2016 vs. 2026), creating uncertainty about maintenance status.
• Specific row counts, file sizes, and detailed column structures are not provided in the available metadata.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) MEaSUREs program

Collection Method

Satellite remote sensing using GOES 8 and 10-15, processed with the MERRA-2/RTTOV Single-Channel CAMEL algorithm.

Time Range

2000–2016

Freshness

2026-04-10 03:20:18.287827 (from datagov, though this may reflect catalog metadata update, not data update)

Geography

North and South America