Terra MODIS 8-Day Global Land Surface Temperature and Emissivity Grid

NASA's MODIS/Terra satellite provides an 8-day composite of land surface temperature and emissivity at a 1-kilometer resolution globally. The dataset includes daytime and nighttime temperature bands, quality assessments, observation times, view angles, and clear-sky coverage. It is produced by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and is available as Version 6.1.

Use Cases

• Analyzing urban heat island effects using daytime and nighttime land surface temperature bands.
• Modeling surface energy balance by incorporating bands 31 and 32 emissivities from different land cover types.
• Studying seasonal and interannual thermal trends with the 8-day composited time-series data.
• Assessing data quality for specific regions or periods using the associated quality control layers.
• Correlating surface temperature with vegetation health or drought indices using the consistent 1km grid.

Strengths

• Provides a long-term, calibrated record with improvements in Version 6.1, including corrections for optical crosstalk and response-versus-scan angle.
• Offers a consistent 1-kilometer spatial resolution across a global 1200x1200 km grid for each tile.
• Includes multiple associated data layers such as quality control, observation times, view zenith angles, and clear-sky coverage.

Limitations

• Specific row counts, total dataset size, and exact temporal coverage are not provided across any source.
• Sources conflict on license details; one specifies 'other-license-specified' while another lists no license.
• Known issues exist, requiring users to consult an external quality assessment website for complete information.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Satellite remote sensing data from the Terra MODIS instrument, processed into 8-day averaged per-pixel composites.

Time Range

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Freshness

2026-03-13 00:16:32.762972

Geography

Global coverage in a 1km Sinusoidal (SIN) grid.