Land Surface Temperature from ECOsystem Spaceborne Thermal Radiometer Experiment on Space Station (ECOSTRESS) for the Southern California Wildfires, January 2025

Date of Images: 01/07/2025, 01/10/2025 Summary: Land surface temperature is the heat you would feel as you touch the ground, rooftop, or other surface. Certain materials retain more heat than others – for instance, beach sand is warmer than vegetated regions. Very recently burned areas will maintain some residual heat, and active fires will have very high heat signatures. Water holds onto heat for longer than land, so the ocean is warmer than the land at night and cooler than the land during the day. 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 as well as key biomes and agricultural zones around the world and selected FLUXNET validation sites. A map of the acquisition coverage can be found on the ECOSTRESS website. The ECO2LSTE Version 2 data product provides atmospherically corrected land surface temperature and emissivity (LST&E) values derived from five thermal infrared (TIR) bands. The ECO2LSTE data product was derived using a physics-based Temperature and Emissivity Separation (TES) algorithm. Satellite/Sensor: ECOsystem Spaceborne Thermal Radiometer Experiment on Space Station (ECOSTRESS) on the International Space Station (ISS) Resolution: 70 meters Credits: NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, International Space Station (ISS) For More Information: ECOSTRESS Project at JPL: https://ecostress.jpl.nasa.gov/ Hook, S., Hulley, G. (2019). ECOSTRESS Land Surface Temperature and Emissivity Daily L2 Global 70 m V001 [Data set]. NASA EOSDIS Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center. Accessed 2023-08-15 from https://doi.org/10.5067/ECOSTRESS/ECO2LSTE.001 Service URL: WMS Endpoint:

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.

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 Land Surface Temperature and Emissivity Instantaneous L2 Global 70 m (ECO_L2_LSTE) Version 2 data product provides atmospherically corrected land surface temperature and emissivity (LST&E) values derived from five thermal infrared (TIR) bands. The ECO_L2_LSTE data product was derived using a physics-based Temperature and Emissivity Separation (TES) algorithm. The ECO_L2_LSTE is provided as swath data and has a spatial resolution of 70 meters (m). The corresponding ECO_L1B_GEO data product is required to georeference the ECO_L2_LSTE data product. The ECO_L2_LSTE Version 2 data product contains layers of LST, emissivity for bands 1 through 5, quality control for LST&E, LST error, emissivity error for bands 1 through 5, wideband emissivity, Precipitable Water Vapor (PWV), cloud mask, and water mask. Known Issues * 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. To optimize the new acquisition approach TIR bands 2, 4, and 5 are being downloaded. The data products are as previously, except the bands not downloaded contain fill values (L1 radiance and L2 emissivity). This approach was implemented from May 15, 2019, through April 28, 2023. * 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. * Data alert: All users of ECOSTRESS L2 v002 products (ECO_L2T_LSTE, ECO_L2_LSTE, ECO_L2G_LSTE) should be aware that the cloud mask information previously available in the Quality Control (QC) layer in v001, is not available in the v002 QC layer. Instead, users should be using the 'cloud_mask' layer in the L2 LSTE product, or the cloud information in the standard cloud mask products (ECO_L2_CLOUD, ECO_L2T_CLOUD, ECO_L2G_CLOUD) to assess if a pixel is clear or cloudy (see section 3 of the User Guide). In v002 the mandatory QA flags in the QC bit mask provide the following information in bits 1 and 0: * 00 - Pixel produced by TES * 01 - Pixel produced by TES but certain conditions are met that may degrade the LSTE accuracy (see User Guide for details) * 10 - Not set (previously set to cloud mask in v001) * 11 - Pixel not produced (see bits 3 & 2 for additional information) * 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 2 data product provides atmospherically corrected land surface temperature and emissivity (LST&E) values derived from five thermal infrared (TIR) bands. The ECO_L2T_LSTE data product was derived using a physics-based Temperature and Emissivity Separation (TES) algorithm. 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 2 data product is provided in Cloud Optimized GeoTIFF (COG) format, and each band is distributed as a separate COG. This product contains seven layers including LST, LST error, wideband emissivity, quality flags, height, and cloud and water masks. Known Issues * 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. To optimize the new acquisition approach TIR bands 2, 4, and 5 are being downloaded. The data products are as previously, except the bands not downloaded contain fill values (L1 radiance and L2 emissivity). This approach was implemented from May 15, 2019, through April 28, 2023. * 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. * Data alert: All users of ECOSTRESS L2 v002 products (ECO_L2T_LSTE, ECO_L2_LSTE, ECO_L2G_LSTE) should be aware that the cloud mask information previously available in the Quality Control (QC) layer in v001, is not available in the v002 QC layer. Instead, users should be using the 'cloud_mask' layer in the L2 LSTE product, or the cloud information in the standard cloud mask products (ECO_L2_CLOUD, ECO_L2T_CLOUD, ECO_L2G_CLOUD) to assess if a pixel is clear or cloudy (see section 3 of the User Guide). In v002 the mandatory QA flags in the QC bit mask provide the following information in bits 1 and 0: * 00 - Pixel produced by TES * 01 - Pixel produced by TES but certain conditions are met that may degrade the LSTE accuracy (see User Guide for details) * 10 - Not set (previously set to cloud mask in v001) * 11 - Pixel not produced (see bits 3 & 2 for additional information) * 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. * Geolocation flags: 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). * Instrument noise: During the time period of May 15, 2025, through July 1, 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. * Missing variable: ECO_L2T_LSTE was generated without the lst_err layer/variable during the time period from December 16, 2025, to June 10, 2026. The impacted data will be reprocessed in the near future.

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 2 data product provides atmospherically corrected land surface temperature and emissivity (LST&E) values derived from five thermal infrared (TIR) bands. The ECO_L2G_LSTE data product was derived using a physics-based Temperature and Emissivity Separation (TES) algorithm. This data product is a gridded version of the ECO_L2_LSTE Version 2 data product that was resampled using nearest neighbor, projected to a globally snapped 0.0006° grid, and repackaged as the ECO_L2G_LSTE data product. The ECO_L2G_LSTE product has a spatial resolution of 70 meters (m). The ECO_L2G_LSTE Version 2 data product contains 8 layers distributed in an HDF5 format file including LST, LST error, wideband emissivity, height, view zenith angle, quality flags, and cloud and water masks. Known Issues * 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. To optimize the new acquisition approach TIR bands 2, 4, and 5 are being downloaded. The data products are as previously, except the bands not downloaded contain fill values (L1 radiance and L2 emissivity). This approach was implemented from May 15, 2019, through April 28, 2023. * 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. * Data alert: All users of ECOSTRESS L2 v002 products (ECO_L2T_LSTE, ECO_L2_LSTE, ECO_L2G_LSTE) should be aware that the cloud mask information previously available in the Quality Control (QC) layer in v001, is not available in the v002 QC layer. Instead, users should be using the 'cloud_mask' layer in the L2 LSTE product, or the cloud information in the standard cloud mask products (ECO_L2_CLOUD, ECO_L2T_CLOUD, ECO_L2G_CLOUD) to assess if a pixel is clear or cloudy (see section 3 of the User Guide). In v002 the mandatory QA flags in the QC bit mask provide the following information in bits 1 and 0: * 00 - Pixel produced by TES * 01 - Pixel produced by TES but certain conditions are met that may degrade the LSTE accuracy (see User Guide for details) * 10 - Not set (previously set to cloud mask in v001) * 11 - Pixel not produced (see bits 3 & 2 for additional information) * 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.