Land surface temperature from MODIS

Topics

Access

RESTRICTED: This link to the data set is only available for a restricted user group. The data set is only accessible in CEN/MPI net or accessible from external nets with a customer account. Please contact ICDC if you would like to access this data from outside the network.

View surface temperature data at LAS: AQUA TERRA
Access Terra and Aqua MODIS surface temperature data via OPeNDAP: AQUA | TERRA
Data access via file system (Aqua): /data/icdc/land/modis_aqua_landsurfacetemperature
Data access via file system (Terra): /data/icdc/land/modis_terra_landsurfacetemperature

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Description

Here we offer daily composites and monthly means of the land surface temperature as derived from infrared radiances measured with the Terra or Aqua MODIS sensors at its channels 31 and 32. From radiances obtained under clear-sky conditions the land surface temperature is obtained using a split window technique. This data set is the final product of a product chain. In this chain, the land surface temperature is calculated for each day first for single MODIS overpasses, then for tiles with 1000 m resolution (products MOD11A1 and MYD11A1) and finally for the climate modeling grid (CMG) with 0.05° grid resolution. These daily data are further processed in order to receive 8-day composites or even a monthly mean.

To produce this data set other parameters (actually all MODIS products) are required, that is the MODIS vertical temperature and water vapor profiles, the MODIS cloud mask, the land cover distribution, and the snow cover.

The data offered here are based on Terra or Aqua MODIS data of MODIS Collection 061.

For more and detailed information, please see the User's Guide under references

Last update of data set at ICDC: November 14, 2024.

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Parameters

Parameters of the MODIS LST data set
Name	Unit / Range
Land surface temperature (day)	°C
Land surface temperature (night)	°C
Error flag (day)	1: <= 1 K, 2: <= 2K, 3: <= 3K, 4: > 3K
Error flag (night)	like error flag for day
Quality flag (day)	-1: water, 0: good quality, 1: doubtful quality, 10: clouds
Quality flag (night)	like quality flag for day
Land fraction in grid cell	%
Mean local time of observation (day)	h
Mean local time of observation (night)	h

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Coverage, spatial and temporal resolution

Period and temporal resolution:

Monthly (MOD11C3 or MYD11C3): 2000-03 or 2002-07 to 2024-09
Daily (MOD11C1 or MYD11C1): 2000-02-24 or 2002-07-04 to 2024-09-30

Missing dates: MOD11C1: 2022-10-11 to 2022-10-23, MYD11C1: 2022-04-01 to 2022-04-16

Coverage and spatial resolution:

Global
Spatial resolution: 0.05° x 0.05° (about 5600 m, Climate Modeling Grid)
Geographic longitude: 179.975°W to 179.975°E
Geographic latitude: 89.975°S to 89.975°N
Dimension: 3600 rows x 7200 columns
Altitude: following topography

Format:

NetCDF

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Data quality

The data offered here are part of the well-validated new Collection 061 (also C6.1) of the MODIS product suite. Collection 061 includes substantial radiometric calibration improvements which ensures a consistent time series (see e.g. Lyapustin et al., 2014 in references). The accuracy of the retrieved land surface temperature is given in the data set in form of a quality flag (see parameters). Generally, only those grid cells contain a valid value where a proper land surface temperature retrieval was possible. Gaps in the data are almost solely based upon a persistent cloud cover. Compared to Collection 6.0 a number of cross-talk issues has been eliminated in Collection 6.1; also sensor drift has been taken into account in an improved manner.

The original data set includes a couple of more parameters such as the observation time, observation angle, number of days with clear-sky conditions during the month under consideration as well as emissivities of channels 20, 22, 23, 29, 31, and 32. All this information is not included in the data set offered here, however, in order to keep it simple and the data volume low.

New results indicate that there might be a cold bias (clear sky bias) of MODIS LST over winter-time snow covered areas.

Please look into the documents listed under references for calibration / validation activities and results.

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Contact

LPDAAC User Services
U.S. Geological Survey (USGS)
Center for Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS)
email: LPDAAC (at) usgs.gov

Zhengming Wan
Earth Research Institute
University of California, Santa Barbara, CA
email: wan (at) eri.ucsb.edu

Stefan Kern
University of Hamburg
email: stefan.kern (at) uni-hamburg.de

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References

Literature:

Collection-6.1 MODIS Land Surface Temperature Products Users's Guide (pdf, not barrier free)
MODIS Land-Surface Temperature Algorithm Theoretical Basis Document (LST ATBD) Version 3.3 (pdf, not barrier free)
Wan, Z., 2014, New refinements and validation of the collection-6 MODIS land-surface temperature/emissivity product, Remote Sensing of Environment, 140, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2013.08.027
Li, Z.-L., et al., 2013, Satellite-derived land surface temperature: Current status and perspectives, Remote Sensing of Environment, 131, 14-37, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2012.12.008
Westermann, S., et al., 2012, Systematic bias of average winter time land surface temperatures inferred from MODIS at a site on Svalbard Norway, Remote Sensing of Environment, 118, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2011.10.025
Ermida, S.L., et al., 2017, Modelling directional effects on remotely sensed land surface temperature, Remote Sensing of Environment, 190, 56-69., https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2016.12.008
Ermida, S. L., et al., 2019, Quantifying the clear‐sky bias of satellite land surface temperature using microwave‐based estimates. J. Geophys. Res.-Atmospheres, 124(2), 844-857, https://doi.org/10.1029/2018JD029354 .
Bulgin, C. E., et al., 2018, Quantifying uncertainty in satellite-retrieved land surface temperature from cloud detection errors. Remote Sensing, 10(4), 616, https://doi.org/10.3390/rs10040616.
Duan, Si-Bo, et al., 2019, Validation of Collection 6 MODIS land surface temperature product using in situ measurements, Remote Sensing of Environment, 225, 16-29, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2019.02.020
Lyapustin, A., Wang, Y., Xiong, X., Meister, G., Platnick, S., Levy, R., Franz, B., Korkin, S., Hilker, T., Tucker, J., Hall, F., Sellers, P., Wu, A., and Angal, A.: Scientific impact of MODIS C5 calibration degradation and C6+ improvements, Atmos. Meas. Tech., 7, 4353–4365, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-7-4353-2014, 2014.

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Data citation

Please cite the data as follows:

Z. Wan, S. Hook, and G. Hulley. (2024). MOD11C1 MODIS/Terra Land Surface Temperature/Emissivity Daily L3 Global 0.05Deg CMG V061. NASA EOSDIS Land Processes DAAC. http://doi.org/10.5067/MODIS/MOD11C1.061, last access: October 28, 2024, distributed in netCDF format by the Integrated Climate Data Center (ICDC), CEN, University of Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany.

Please replace MOD11C1 by MOD11C3 when using the monthly instead of the daily data.

Please replace MOD by MYD and Terra by Aqua when using Aqua MODIS data.

and with the following acknowledgments:

Thanks to ICDC, CEN, University of Hamburg for data support.

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