ECOSTRESS Swath Geolocation Instantaneous L1B Global 70 m V003

The ECOsystem Spaceborne Thermal Radiometer Experiment on Space Station (ECOSTRESS) mission measures the temperature of plants to better understand how much water plants need and how they respond to stress. ECOSTRESS is attached to the International Space Station (ISS) and collects data globally between 52° N and 52° S latitudes. The ECOSTRESS Swath Geolocation Instantaneous Level 1B Global (ECO_L1B_GEO) Version 2 data product provides the geolocation information for the radiance values retrieved in the ECO_L1B_RAD Version 2 data product. The geolocation product gives geo-tagging to each of the radiance pixels. The geolocation processing corrects the ISS-reported ephemeris and attitude data by image matching with a global ortho-base derived from Landsat data, and then assigns latitude and longitude values to each of the Level 1 radiance pixels. When image matching is successful, the data are geolocated to better than 50 meter (m) accuracy. The ECO_L1B_GEO data product is provided as swath data. The ECO_L1B_GEO data product contains data layers for latitude and longitude values, solar and view geometry information, surface height, and the fraction of pixel on land versus water distributed in HDF5 format. Known Issues * Geolocation accuracy: In cases where scenes were not successfully matched with the ortho-base, the geolocation error is significantly larger; the worst-case geolocation error for uncorrected data is 7 kilometers (km). Within the metadata of the ECO_L1B_GEO file, if the field "L1GEOMetadata/OrbitCorrectionPerformed" is "True", the data was corrected, and geolocation accuracy should be better than 50 m. If this field is "False", then the data was processed without correcting the geolocation and will have up to 7 km geolocation error. * Data acquisition gap: ECOSTRESS was launched on June 29, 2018, and moved to autonomous science operations on August 20, 2018, following a successful in-orbit checkout period. On September 29, 2018, ECOSTRESS experienced an anomaly with its primary mass storage unit (MSU). ECOSTRESS has a primary and secondary MSU (A and B). On December 5, 2018, the instrument was switched to the secondary MSU and science operations resumed. On March 14, 2019, the secondary MSU experienced a similar anomaly, temporarily halting science acquisitions. On May 15, 2019, a new data acquisition approach was implemented, and science acquisitions resumed. * Data acquisition gap: From February 8 to February 16, 2020, an ECOSTRESS instrument issue resulted in a data anomaly that created striping in band 4 (10.5 micron). These data products have been reprocessed and are available for download. No ECOSTRESS data were acquired on February 17, 2020, due to the instrument being in SAFEHOLD. Data acquired following the anomaly have not been affected. * Data acquisition: ECOSTRESS has now successfully returned to 5-band mode after being in 3-band mode since 2019. This feature was successfully enabled following a Data Processing Unit firmware update (version 4.1) to the payload on April 28, 2023. To better balance contiguous science data scene variables, 3-band collection is currently being interleaved with 5-band acquisitions over the orbital day/night periods. * Solar Array Obstruction: Some ECOSTRESS scenes may be affected by solar array obstructions from the International Space Station (ISS), potentially impacting data quality of obstructed pixels. The 'FieldOfViewObstruction' metadata field is included in all Version 2 products to indicate possible obstructions: * Before October 24, 2024 (orbits prior to 35724): The field is present but was not populated and does not reliably identify affected scenes. * On or after October 24, 2024 (starting with orbit 35724): The field is populated and generally accurate, except for late December 2024, when a temporary processing error may have caused false positives. * A list of scenes confirmed to be affected by obstructions is available and is recommended for verifying historical data (before October 24, 2024) and scenes from late December 2024. * The ISS native pointing information is coarse relative to ECOSTRESS pixels, so ECOSTRESS geolocation is improved through image matching with a basemap. Metadata in the L1B_GEO file shows the success of this geolocation improvement, using categorizations "best", "good", "suspect", and "poor". We recommend that users use only "best" and "good" scenes for evaluations where geolocation is important (e.g., comparison to field sites). For some scenes, this metadata is not reflected in the higher-level products (e.g., land surface temperature, evapotranspiration, etc.). While this metadata is always available in the geolocation product, to save users additional download, we have produced a summary text file that includes the geolocation quality flags for all scenes from launch to present. At a later date, all higher-level products will reflect the geolocation quality flag correctly (the field name is GeolocationAccuracyQA). * During the time period of May 15th, 2025, through July 1st, 2025, ECOSTRESS data was noisier than expected. Cycling the payload resolved the issue, but researchers should use all levels of ECOSTRESS data acquired during this time period with caution.

The ECOsystem Spaceborne Thermal Radiometer Experiment on Space Station (ECOSTRESS) mission measures the temperature of plants to better understand how much water plants need and how they respond to stress. ECOSTRESS is attached to the International Space Station (ISS) and collects data globally between 52° N and 52° S latitudes. The ECOSTRESS Swath Attitude and Ephemeris Instantaneous Level 1B Global (ECO_L1B_ATT) Version 3 data product provides both ISS-reported and corrected attitude quaternions and spacecraft ephemeris data. Corrected values are derived by image matching against a global Landsat 7 orthoimagery base layer to improve navigation accuracy. The data are provided in 1 second intervals, and each product file contains vectors from the duration of the orbit. The ECO_L1B_ATT data product contains 10 data layers: both ISS-reported and corrected variables for attitude, ephemeris, position, velocity, and time, distributed in HDF5 format. These data are used to initiate the geolocation process for ECOSTRESS scenes. Known Issues * No spatial query in NASA Earthdata Search: This product does not contain spatial bounding box attributes, so granules cannot be searched by geographic location. Users should search for this data product by orbit number. * Solar Array Obstruction: Some ECOSTRESS scenes may be affected by solar array obstructions from the ISS, potentially impacting data quality in obstructed pixels. The 'FieldOfViewObstruction' metadata field is reliably populated and accurate for all products generated on or after October 2024, following fixes to the Product Generation Executive (PGE) docker configuration and updates to the L1A_RAW_PIX software. Prior to October 2024, the field was not reliably populated; a list of confirmed affected scenes was maintained and is recommended for verifying historical data. * Historical acquisition gaps and anomalies (2018–2023): Irrecoverable data loss occurred due to Mass Storage Unit (MSU) failures, resulting in permanent gaps in the observational record where no ECOSTRESS data was acquired. Other early issues, including band 4 striping (Feb 2020), 3-band TES mode limitations (May 2019–April 2023), and noisy data periods (e.g., May–July 2025), have been mitigated through reprocessing, firmware updates, and instrument recovery. Version 3 products incorporate these improvements where data exists and are unaffected by ongoing issues, but the permanent historical gaps remain, and caution is advised for time-series analyses spanning affected periods.

The ECOsystem Spaceborne Thermal Radiometer Experiment on Space Station (ECOSTRESS) mission measures the temperature of plants to better understand how much water plants need and how they respond to stress. ECOSTRESS is attached to the International Space Station (ISS) and collects data globally between 52° N and 52° S latitudes. The ECOSTRESS Swath Top of Atmosphere Calibrated Radiance Instantaneous Level 1B Global 70 m (ECO_L1B_RAD) Version 3 data product provides at-sensor calibrated radiance values retrieved for five thermal infrared (TIR) bands operating between 8 and 12.5 µm. Additionally, digital numbers (DN) for the shortwave infrared (SWIR) band are provided; note that the SWIR focal plane has been determined to be photon-limited and deprecated. The TIR bands are spatially co-registered to produce a variable spatial resolution between 70 meters (m) and 90 m at the edge of the swath. The ECO_L1B_RAD data product is provided as swath data and does not contain geolocation information. The corresponding ECO_L1B_GEO data product is required to georeference the ECO_L1B_RAD data product. The ECO_L1B_RAD Version 3 data product contains 18 variables, including radiance values for the five TIR bands, digital number (DN) values for the SWIR band, associated data quality indicators, interpolation uncertainty values, and ancillary data distributed in HDF5 format. Known Issues * Cannot perform spatial query in NASA Earthdata Search: This product does not contain spatial bounding box attributes, so granules cannot be searched by geographic location. Users should search for this data product by orbit number instead. * Solar Array Obstruction: Some ECOSTRESS scenes may be affected by solar array obstructions from the ISS, potentially impacting data quality in obstructed pixels. The 'FieldOfViewObstruction' metadata field is reliably populated and accurate for all products generated on or after October 2024, following fixes to the Product Generation Executive (PGE) docker configuration and updates to the L1A_RAW_PIX software. Prior to October 2024, the field was not reliably populated; a list of confirmed affected scenes was maintained and is recommended for verifying historical data. * Historical acquisition gaps and anomalies (2018–2023): Irrecoverable data loss occurred due to Mass Storage Unit (MSU) failures, resulting in permanent gaps in the observational record where no ECOSTRESS data was acquired. Other early issues, including band 4 striping (Feb 2020), 3-band TES mode limitations (May 2019–April 2023), and noisy data periods (e.g., May–July 2025), have been mitigated through reprocessing, firmware updates, and instrument recovery. Version 3 products incorporate these improvements where data exists and are unaffected by ongoing issues, but the permanent historical gaps remain, and caution is advised for time-series analyses spanning affected periods.

The ECOsystem Spaceborne Thermal Radiometer Experiment on Space Station (ECOSTRESS) mission measures the temperature of plants to better understand how much water plants need and how they respond to stress. ECOSTRESS is attached to the International Space Station (ISS) and collects data globally between 52° N and 52° S latitudes. The ECOSTRESS Swath Attitude and Ephemeris Instantaneous Level 1B Global (ECO_L1B_ATT) Version 2 data product provides both corrected and uncorrected attitude quaternions and spacecraft ephemeris data obtained from the ISS. The data are provided in 1 second intervals, and each product file contains vectors from the duration of the orbit. The ECO_L1B_ATT Version 2 data product contains layers of attitude and ephemeris data generated by the ISS, which are used to start the geolocation process. These layers also include Earth-centered inertial (ECI) position and velocity, and associated time elements distributed in HDF5 format. Known Issues * Cannot perform spatial query on ECO_L1B_ATT in NASA Earthdata Search: ECO_L1B_ATT does not contain spatial attributes, so granules cannot be searched by geographic location. Users should search for ECO_L1B_ATT data products by orbit number instead. * Data acquisition gap: ECOSTRESS was launched on June 29, 2018, and moved to autonomous science operations on August 20, 2018, following a successful in-orbit checkout period. On September 29, 2018, ECOSTRESS experienced an anomaly with its primary mass storage unit (MSU). ECOSTRESS has a primary and secondary MSU (A and B). On December 5, 2018, the instrument was switched to the secondary MSU and science operations resumed. On March 14, 2019, the secondary MSU experienced a similar anomaly, temporarily halting science acquisitions. On May 15, 2019, a new data acquisition approach was implemented, and science acquisitions resumed. * Data acquisition: ECOSTRESS has now successfully returned to 5-band mode after being in 3-band mode since 2019. This feature was successfully enabled following a Data Processing Unit firmware update (version 4.1) to the payload on April 28, 2023. To better balance contiguous science data scene variables, 3-band collection is currently being interleaved with 5-band acquisitions over the orbital day/night periods. * Solar Array Obstruction: Some ECOSTRESS scenes may be affected by solar array obstructions from the International Space Station (ISS), potentially impacting data quality of obstructed pixels. The 'FieldOfViewObstruction' metadata field is included in all Version 2 products to indicate possible obstructions: * Before October 24, 2024 (orbits prior to 35724): The field is present but was not populated and does not reliably identify affected scenes. * On or after October 24, 2024 (starting with orbit 35724): The field is populated and generally accurate, except for late December 2024, when a temporary processing error may have caused false positives. * A list of scenes confirmed to be affected by obstructions is available and is recommended for verifying historical data (before October 24, 2024) and scenes from late December 2024. * The ISS native pointing information is coarse relative to ECOSTRESS pixels, so ECOSTRESS geolocation is improved through image matching with a basemap. Metadata in the L1B_GEO file shows the success of this geolocation improvement, using categorizations "best", "good", "suspect", and "poor". We recommend that users use only "best" and "good" scenes for evaluations where geolocation is important (e.g., comparison to field sites). For some scenes, this metadata is not reflected in the higher-level products (e.g., land surface temperature, evapotranspiration, etc.). While this metadata is always available in the geolocation product, to save users additional download, we have produced a summary text file that includes the geolocation quality flags for all scenes from launch to present. At a later date, all higher-level products will reflect the geolocation quality flag correctly (the field name is GeolocationAccuracyQA). *During the time period of May 15th, 2025, through July 1st, 2025, ECOSTRESS data was noisier than expected. Cycling the payload resolved the issue, but researchers should use all levels of ECOSTRESS data acquired during this time period with caution.

The ECOsystem Spaceborne Thermal Radiometer Experiment on Space Station (ECOSTRESS) mission measures the temperature of plants to better understand how much water plants need and how they respond to stress. ECOSTRESS is attached to the International Space Station (ISS) and collects data globally between 52° N and 52° S latitudes. The ECOSTRESS Gridded Land Surface Temperature and Emissivity Instantaneous Level 2 Global 70 m (ECO_L2G_LSTE) Version 3 data product provides atmospherically corrected land surface temperature and emissivity (LST&E) values derived from the five thermal infrared (TIR) bands using the Temperature-Emissivity Separation (TES) algorithm. In addition, a Sea Surface Temperature (SST) variable is included that is valid over all water surfaces (ocean and inland water). The Level 2 LST&E and SST algorithms run on all pixels regardless of land, ocean, or cloud. This data product is projected to a globally snapped 0.0006° grid with a spatial resolution of 70 meters (m). The ECO_L2G_LSTE Version 3 data product is distributed in an HDF5 format file. Each granule contains 20 variables of LST, quality control flags (QC), band emissivities (bands 1-5), LST error, band emissivity error (bands 1-5), wideband emissivity (EmisWB), SST, precipitable water vapor (PWV), cloud_mask, water_mask, view_zenith, and height. Known Issues * Solar Array Obstruction: Some ECOSTRESS scenes may be affected by solar array obstructions from the ISS, potentially impacting data quality in obstructed pixels. The 'FieldOfViewObstruction' metadata field is reliably populated and accurate for all products generated on or after October 2024, following fixes to the PGE docker configuration and updates to the L1A_RAW_PIX software. Prior to October 2024, the field was not reliably populated; a list of confirmed affected scenes was maintained and is recommended for verifying historical data. * Historical acquisition gaps and anomalies (2018–2023): Irrecoverable data loss occurred due to Mass Storage Unit (MSU) failures, resulting in permanent gaps in the observational record where no ECOSTRESS data was acquired. Other early issues, including band 4 striping (Feb 2020), 3-band TES mode limitations (May 2019–April 2023), and noisy data periods (e.g., May–July 2025), have been mitigated through reprocessing, firmware updates, and instrument recovery. Version 3 products incorporate these improvements where data exists and are unaffected by ongoing issues, but the permanent historical gaps remain, and caution is advised for time-series analyses spanning affected periods. * Product formats: Version 3 discontinues swath-based (non-gridded) HDF5 products for Level 2 LST&E and Cloud outputs. Only gridded (ECO_L2G_LSTE and ECO_L2G_CLOUD in HDF5) and tiled (ECO_L2T_LSTE in Cloud-Optimized GeoTIFF) formats are available for Level 2 products. Swath-based products remain available for Level 1 products (e.g., ECO_L1B_RAD, ECO_L1B_GEO). Version 3 discontinues HDF5 products for Level 2 STARS, Level 3 Evapotranspiration, and Level 4 Evaporative Stress Index, and Water Use Efficiency outputs. Only tiled (Cloud-Optimized GeoTIFF) formats remain available for these products. Users transitioning from Version 2 should verify compatibility with the new structures. * Geolocation considerations: While geolocation is improved in Collection 3 tiled products (fixed Military Grid Reference System (MGRS) grid), gridded products may reference legacy "GeolocationAccuracyQA" flags. Use "best" and "good" scenes for applications sensitive to precise positioning.

The ECOsystem Spaceborne Thermal Radiometer Experiment on Space Station (ECOSTRESS) mission measures the temperature of plants to better understand how much water plants need and how they respond to stress. ECOSTRESS is attached to the International Space Station (ISS) and collects data globally between 52° N and 52° S latitudes. The ECOSTRESS Tiled Land Surface Temperature and Emissivity Instantaneous Level 2 Global 70 m (ECO_L2T_LSTE) Version 3 data product provides atmospherically corrected land surface temperature and emissivity (LST&E) values derived from the five thermal infrared (TIR) bands using the Temperature-Emissivity Separation (TES) algorithm. In addition, a Sea Surface Temperature (SST) layer is included that is valid over all water surfaces (ocean and inland water). The L2 LST&E and SST algorithms run on all pixels regardless of land, ocean, or cloud. This tiled data product is subset from the ECO_L2G_LSTE data product using a modified version of the Military Grid Reference System (MGRS) which divides Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) zones into square tiles that are 109.8 km by 109.8 km with a 70 meter (m) spatial resolution. The ECO_L2T_LSTE Version 3 data product is provided in Cloud Optimized GeoTIFF (COG) format, and each variable is distributed as a separate COG. Each granule contains 18 variables of LST, quality control flags (QC), band emissivities (bands 1-5), band emissivity error (bands 1-5), wideband emissivity (EmisWB), SST, cloud_mask, water_mask, view_zenith, and height. Known Issues * Solar Array Obstruction: Some ECOSTRESS scenes may be affected by solar array obstructions from the ISS, potentially impacting data quality in obstructed pixels. The 'FieldOfViewObstruction' metadata field is reliably populated and accurate for all products generated on or after October 2024, following fixes to the PGE docker configuration and updates to the L1A_RAW_PIX software. Prior to October 2024, the field was not reliably populated; a list of confirmed affected scenes was maintained and is recommended for verifying historical data. * Historical acquisition gaps and anomalies (2018–2023): Irrecoverable data loss occurred due to Mass Storage Unit (MSU) failures, resulting in permanent gaps in the observational record where no ECOSTRESS data was acquired. Other early issues, including band 4 striping (Feb 2020), 3-band TES mode limitations (May 2019–April 2023), and noisy data periods (e.g., May–July 2025), have been mitigated through reprocessing, firmware updates, and instrument recovery. Version 3 products incorporate these improvements where data exists and are unaffected by ongoing issues, but the permanent historical gaps remain, and caution is advised for time-series analyses spanning affected periods. * Product formats: Version 3 discontinues swath-based (non-gridded) HDF5 products for Level 2 LST&E and Cloud outputs. Only gridded (ECO_L2G_LSTE and ECO_L2G_CLOUD in HDF5) and tiled (ECO_L2T_LSTE in Cloud-Optimized GeoTIFF) formats are available for Level 2 products. Swath-based products remain available for Level 1 products (e.g., ECO_L1B_RAD, ECO_L1B_GEO). Version 3 discontinues HDF5 products for Level 2 STARS, Level 3 Evapotranspiration, and Level 4 Evaporative Stress Index, and Water Use Efficiency outputs. Only tiled (Cloud-Optimized GeoTIFF) formats remain available for these products. Users transitioning from Version 2 should verify compatibility with the new structures. * Geolocation considerations: While geolocation is improved in Collection 3 tiled products (fixed MGRS grid), gridded products may reference legacy "GeolocationAccuracyQA" flags. Use "best" and "good" scenes for applications sensitive to precise positioning.