MODIS/Aqua: Daily Global Land Surface Temperature and Emissivity at 1km Resolution

Global land surface temperature and emissivity data produced daily from MODIS/Aqua satellite observations. The dataset is generated by NASA using a physics-based Temperature/Emissivity Separation (TES) algorithm applied to three thermal infrared bands. It is part of Collection 6.1, with the latest update noted in March 2026.

Use Cases

• Monitoring daily land surface temperature changes based on the physics-based TES retrieval algorithm.
• Analyzing spectral emissivity for different surface types based on the three MODIS thermal bands (29, 31, 32).
• Studying surface thermal anomalies, such as potential fires or lava flows, where high-temperature outliers are retained.
• Applying quality control filtering to remove contaminated pixels, as described in the known issues for desert regions.

Strengths

• Algorithm uses a physics-based TES technique to retrieve both temperature and emissivity simultaneously.
• Product includes seven Science Datasets (SDS) covering LST, quality control, three emissivity bands, view angle, and observation time.
• Incorporates an improved Water Vapor Scaling atmospheric correction for stability in warm, humid conditions.

Limitations

• Known issue of increased extreme high-temperature outliers in Version 6.1, especially over desert regions, requiring user QC filtering.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count and exact data volume are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Produced daily from daytime Level 2 Gridded (L2G) intermediate products, averaging cloud-free observations with good accuracy and over 15% coverage.

Time Range

Daily coverage.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03 12 23:50:04.636264; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Global coverage on a sinusoidal grid.