Skip to main content

Description

The Terra Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) Land Surface Temperature/Emissivity Monthly (MOD11B3) Version 6.1 product provides average monthly per pixel Land Surface Temperature and Emissivity (LST&E) in a 1,200 by 1,200 kilometer (km) tile with a pixel size of 5,600 meters (m). Each LST&E pixel value in the MOD11B3 is a simple average of all the corresponding values from the MOD11B1 collected during the month period. Each MOD11B3 granule consists of 19 layers including daytime and nighttime layers for LSTs, quality control assessments, observation times, view zenith angles, and number of clear sky observations along with percentage of land in the tile and emissivities from bands 20, 22, 23, 29, 31, and 32. Unique to the MOD11B products are additional day and night LST layers generated from band 31 of the corresponding 1 km MOD11_L2 swath product aggregated to the 6 km grid.

Known Issues

Version Description

The following changes and improvements were implemented for inputs to MODIS Version 6.1 land surface temperature and emissivity data products: (1) Version 6.1 Level-1B (L1B) products have been improved by undergoing various calibration changes that include: changes to the response-versus-scan angle (RVS) approach that affects reflectance bands for Aqua and Terra MODIS, corrections to adjust for the optical crosstalk in Terra MODIS infrared (IR) bands, and corrections to the Terra MODIS forward look-up table (LUT) update for the period 2012 – 2017, and (2) A polarization correction has been applied to the L1B Reflective Solar Bands (RSB).

Product Summary

Platforms
Terra
Instruments
MODIS
Spatial Extent

N: 90 S: -90 E: 180 W: -180

Spatial Resolution
5600 Meters x 5600 Meters
Geographic Region
GLOBAL
Coordinate System
CARTESIAN
Granule Spatial Representation
GEODETIC
Temporal Extent
2000-02-01 to Present
Temporal Resolution
1 Month
Data Partner
Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center (LP DAAC) ,
MODIS Adaptive Processing System, Terrestrial Information Systems Laboratory, Earth Sciences Division, Science and Exploration Directorate, Goddard Space Flight Center, NASA (NASA/GSFC/SED/ESD/TISL/MODAPS)
Concept ID
C2565788885-LPCLOUD
Data State
ACTIVE
Number of Files/Granules
98186
Processing Level
3
Published
Updated
Science Keywords
Land Surface Temperature ,
Emissivity

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

Wan, Z., Hook, S., & Hulley, G. (2021). MODIS/Terra Land Surface Temperature/Emissivity Monthly L3 Global 6km SIN Grid V061 [Data set]. NASA Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center. https://doi.org/10.5067/MODIS/MOD11B3.061 Date Accessed: 2025-12-14

File Naming Convention

MOD11B3.A2025182.h28v05.061.2025213153927.hdf

The file name begins with the Product Short Name (MOD11B3) followed by the Julian Date of Acquisition formatted as AYYYYDDD (A2025182), the Tile Identifier which is horizontal tile and vertical tile provided as hXXvYY (h28v05), the Version of the data collection (061), the Julian Date and Time of Production designated as YYYYDDDHHMMSS (2025213153927), and the Data Format (hdf).

Documents

USER'S GUIDE

ALGORITHM THEORETICAL BASIS DOCUMENT (ATBD)

PRODUCT QUALITY ASSESSMENT

SCIENCE DATA PRODUCT VALIDATION

GENERAL DOCUMENTATION

Variables

Variables are a set of physical properties whose values determine the characteristics or behavior of something. For example, temperature and pressure are variables of the atmosphere. Parameters and variables can be used interchangeably. Variable level attributes provide individual information for each variable.

The Name in this table is the variable name. Fill value indicates missing or undefined data points in a variable. Valid range is the range of values the variable can store. Scale factor is used to increase or decrease the size of an object and can be used to correct for distortion. For questions on a specific variable, please use the Earthdata Forum.

Name Description Units Data Type Fill Value Valid Range Scale Factor
Clear_sky_days Days in clear sky condition Bit Field uint32 N/A 0 to 4294967296 N/A
Clear_sky_nights Nights in clear sky condition Bit Field uint32 N/A 0 to 4294967296 N/A
Day_view_angl View zenith angle of day observation Degree uint8 255 0 to 130 N/A
Day_view_time Local time of day observation Hours uint8 255 0 to 240 0.1
Emis_20 Band 20 emissivity N/A uint8 0 1 to 255 0.002
Emis_22 Band 22 emissivity N/A uint8 0 1 to 255 0.002
Emis_23 Band 23 emissivity N/A uint8 0 1 to 255 0.002
Emis_29 Band 29 emissivity N/A uint8 0 1 to 255 0.002
Emis_31 Band 31 emissivity N/A uint8 0 1 to 255 0.002
Emis_32 Band 32 emissivity N/A uint8 0 1 to 255 0.002
LST_Day_6km Day Land Surface Temperature Kelvin uint16 0 7500 to 65535 0.02
LST_Day_6km_Aggregated_from_1km Daytime LST aggregated from 1km Kelvin uint16 0 7500 to 65535 0.02
LST_Night_6km Night Land Surface Temperature Kelvin uint16 0 7500 to 65535 0.02
LST_Night_6km_Aggregated_from_1km Nighttime LST aggregated from 1km Kelvin uint16 0 7500 to 65535 0.02
Night_view_angl View zenith angle of night observation Degree uint8 255 0 to 130 N/A
Night_view_time Local time of night observation Hours uint8 255 0 to 240 0.1
Percent_land_in_grid Percentage of land in the grid Percent uint8 0 1 to 100 N/A
QC_Day Daytime LST Quality Indicators Bit Field uint8 N/A 0 to 255 N/A
QC_Night Nighttime LST Quality indicators Bit Field uint8 N/A 0 to 255 N/A
You're viewing 19 of 19