MOD21A1D: MODIS Terra Daily Land Surface Temperature and Emissivity

Global land surface temperature and emissivity data produced daily from MODIS Terra satellite observations. The dataset contains seven Science Datasets, including calculated LST, three emissivity bands, and quality control information. National Aeronautics and Space Administration produced this Version 6 product, which was decommissioned on July 31, 2023.

Use Cases

• Monitor global land surface temperature trends based on daily satellite retrievals.
• Analyze emissivity variations across different land types based on three emissivity bands.
• Validate atmospheric correction models based on the Water Vapor Scaling scheme described.
• Compare physics-based TES algorithm performance against split-window techniques.
• Study thermal anomalies in desert regions based on known issues with extreme high temperature outliers.

Strengths

• Algorithm uses a physics-based Temperature/Emissivity Separation technique.
• Product includes seven distinct Science Datasets.
• Atmospheric correction uses an improved Water Vapor Scaling scheme.

Limitations

• Version 6 product was decommissioned on July 31, 2023.
• Known issue of increased extreme high temperature outliers over desert regions.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Daily aggregation from MODIS Terra Level 2 Gridded intermediate products.

Geography

Global