Skip to main content

Description

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.

Version Description

The following major changes and improvements were implemented for the ECOSTRESS Version 3 ECO_L1B_RAD product: (1) The band-specific radiometric calibration gain coefficients were updated to 0.9433, 0.9532, 0.9021, 0.9597, and 0.9516 for bands 1–5 respectively, revising the values applied in Version 2 (0.8757, 0.9429, 0.9148, 0.9507, 0.9448) to further reduce residual radiance bias, and (2) New interpolation_uncertainty_1-5 variables were also added, providing per-pixel uncertainty estimates for radiance values filled by the missing-scan interpolation algorithm.

Product Summary

Platforms
ISS
Instruments
ECOSTRESS
Projects
ECOSTRESS
Spatial Extent

N: 54 S: -54 E: 180 W: -180

Spatial Resolution
70 Meters x 70 Meters
Location
GLOBAL LAND
Coordinate System
CARTESIAN
Granule Spatial Representation
NO_SPATIAL
Temporal Extent
2018-07-09 to Present
Temporal Resolution
Varies
Data Partner
Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center (LP DAAC) ,
ECOsystem Spaceborne Thermal Radiometer Experiment on Space Station, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, NASA (NASA/JPL/ECOSTRESS)
Concept ID
C4187075419-LPCLOUD
Data State
ACTIVE
Number of Files/Granules
21330
Processing Level
1B
Published
Updated
Science Keywords
Land Surface Temperature

Citation

Citation is critically important for dataset documentation and discovery. This dataset is openly shared, without restriction, in accordance with the EOSDIS Data Use and Citation Guidance.

Copy Citation

Hook, S., Smyth, M., & Jovanovic, V. (2026). ECOSTRESS Swath Top of Atmosphere Calibrated Radiance Instantaneous L1B Global 70 m v003 [Dataset]. NASA Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center. https://doi.org/10.5067/ECOSTRESS/ECO_L1B_RAD.003 Date Accessed: 2026-08-09

File Naming Convention

ECOv003_L1B_RAD_40704_018_20250909T210452_0713_01.h5

The file name begins with the Sensor (ECO) followed by the Product Version (v003), Processing Level (L1B), Geophysical Parameter (RAD), Orbit Number (40704), Scene Identifier (018), Date and Time of Acquisition designated as YYYYMMDDTHHMMSS (20250909T210452), Build Identifier of product generation software (0713), Product Iteration Number (01), and the Data Format (h5).

Documents

USER'S GUIDE

ALGORITHM THEORETICAL BASIS DOCUMENT (ATBD)

ALGORITHM DOCUMENTATION

DATA PRODUCT SPECIFICATION

DATA QUALITY

ANOMALIES

Variables

The table below lists the variables contained within a single granule for this dataset. Variables often contain observed or derived geophysical measurements collected from a variety of sources, including remote sensing instruments on satellite and airborne platforms, field campaigns, in situ measurements, and model outputs. The terms variable, parameter, scientific data set, layer, and band have been used across NASA’s Earth science disciplines; however, variable is the designated nomenclature in NASA’s Common Metadata Repository (CMR). Variable metadata attributes such as Name, Description, Units, Data Type, Fill Value, Valid Range, and Scale Factor allow users to efficiently process and analyze the data. The full range of attributes may not be applicable to all variables. Additional information on variable attributes is typically available in the data, user guide, and/or other product documentation.

For questions on a specific variable, please use the Earthdata Forum.

Name Description Units Data Type Fill Value Valid Range Scale Factor Offset
data_quality_1 Data quality indicator for radiance_1. N/A int8 N/A 0 to 4 N/A N/A
data_quality_2 Data quality indicator for radiance_2. N/A int8 N/A 0 to 4 N/A N/A
data_quality_3 Data quality indicator for radiance_3. N/A int8 N/A 0 to 4 N/A N/A
data_quality_4 Data quality indicator for radiance_4. N/A int8 N/A 0 to 4 N/A N/A
data_quality_5 Data quality indicator for radiance_5. N/A int8 N/A 0 to 4 N/A N/A
EncoderValue Mirror encoder value of each focal plane in each scan N/A uint32 4294967295 0 to 1749247 N/A N/A
interpolation_uncertainty_1 Uncertainty in the interpolated value for radiance_1 pixels filled by the missing-scan algorithm. Set to 0.0 for pixels that were not interpolated. W m-2 sr-1 µm-1 float32 0 N/A N/A N/A
interpolation_uncertainty_2 Uncertainty in the interpolated value for radiance_2 pixels filled by the missing-scan algorithm. Set to 0.0 for pixels that were not interpolated. W m-2 sr-1 µm-1 float32 0 N/A N/A N/A
interpolation_uncertainty_3 Uncertainty in the interpolated value for radiance_3 pixels filled by the missing-scan algorithm. Set to 0.0 for pixels that were not interpolated. W m-2 sr-1 µm-1 float32 0 N/A N/A N/A
interpolation_uncertainty_4 Uncertainty in the interpolated value for radiance_4 pixels filled by the missing-scan algorithm. Set to 0.0 for pixels that were not interpolated. W m-2 sr-1 µm-1 float32 0 N/A N/A N/A
interpolation_uncertainty_5 Uncertainty in the interpolated value for radiance_5 pixels filled by the missing-scan algorithm. Set to 0.0 for pixels that were not interpolated. W m-2 sr-1 µm-1 float32 0 N/A N/A N/A
line_start_time_j2000 J2000 time of first pixel in line Seconds float64 N/A N/A N/A N/A
radiance_1 TIR calibrated radiance at 8.285 µm. Fill (-9999) for acquisitions May 15, 2019 – April 28, 2023 (3-band mode). W m-2 sr-1 µm-1 float32 -9999 N/A N/A N/A
radiance_2 TIR calibrated radiance at 8.785 µm. W m-2 sr-1 µm-1 float32 -9999 N/A N/A N/A
radiance_3 TIR calibrated radiance at 9.060 µm. Fill (-9999) for acquisitions May 15, 2019 – April 28, 2023 (3-band mode). W m-2 sr-1 µm-1 float32 -9999 N/A N/A N/A
radiance_4 TIR calibrated radiance at 10.522 µm. W m-2 sr-1 µm-1 float32 -9999 N/A N/A N/A
radiance_5 TIR calibrated radiance at 12.001 µm. W m-2 sr-1 µm-1 float32 -9999 N/A N/A N/A
swir_dn Uncalibrated SWIR digital numbers. The SWIR focal plane was determined to be photon-limited and was deprecated following a flight software change on 2019-05-21; no SWIR data has been collected since that date, and all swir_dn values are fill (-9999). N/A int16 -9999 N/A N/A N/A
You're viewing 18 of 18