MODIS/Aqua Land Surface Temperature/3-Band Emissivity Daily L3 Global 1km SIN Grid Night V

MYD21A1N Version 6 is a NASA MODIS/Aqua satellite data product providing daily, global land surface temperature and 3-band emissivity estimates at a 1km resolution. The algorithm uses a physics-based Temperature/Emissivity Separation technique on nighttime thermal infrared data, combined with an improved atmospheric correction scheme. This product was decommissioned on July 31, 2023, with users directed to the updated Version 6.1.

Use Cases

• Monitoring diurnal and seasonal land surface temperature cycles based on daily global coverage.
• Modeling surface energy balance and evapotranspiration based on physics-based LST and emissivity retrievals.
• Studying urban heat island effects based on high-resolution (1km) thermal data.
• Analyzing land cover change and desertification based on emissivity bands and temperature trends.
• Improving atmospheric correction models for satellite data based on the Water Vapor Scaling scheme.

Strengths

• Algorithm uses a physics-based Temperature/Emissivity Separation technique to retrieve both LST and spectral emissivity simultaneously.
• Product includes seven Science Datasets, such as LST, three emissivity bands, quality control, view zenith angle, and observation time.
• Improved Water Vapor Scaling atmospheric correction stabilizes retrievals during very warm and humid conditions.

Limitations

• Description metadata is limited; actual data quality requires manual inspection after download.
• Known issue of extreme high temperature outliers, especially over desert regions, requiring user-applied Quality Control filtering.
• Data has a two-month latency after acquisition due to input data delays.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Produced daily from nighttime Level 2 Gridded intermediate products, mapping swath data onto a sinusoidal grid and averaging cloud-free observations.

Time Range

Daily coverage, specific date range unknown from input.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 00:23:26.522844; freshness should be verified as the V6 product is decommissioned.

Geography

Global coverage on a 1km sinusoidal grid.