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Full catalog/AG1km
AG1km·v003·dataset

How well land surfaces radiate heat (ASTER, 1 km)

ASTER Global Emissivity Dataset, 1 kilometer, HDF5 V003
land NASA LPCLOUD Level 3 HDF5
In plain English

What it measures. A global map of land surface emissivity, meaning how effectively different surfaces radiate heat, at about 1 kilometer resolution, along with surface temperature.

How it's made. Produced from the ASTER instrument on the Terra satellite by separating temperature from emissivity and correcting for atmospheric water vapor, using clear-sky scenes gathered from 2000 through 2008.

How & where you'd use it. A reference dataset for researchers working with thermal imagery, helping interpret heat measurements of the land and improving surface-temperature retrievals.

What's measured

LAND SURFACE › SURFACE RADIATIVE PROPERTIES › EMISSIVITYLAND SURFACE › SURFACE THERMAL PROPERTIES › LAND SURFACE TEMPERATUREBIOSPHERE › VEGETATION › VEGETATION INDEXLAND SURFACE › TOPOGRAPHY › TERRAIN ELEVATIONLAND SURFACE › TOPOGRAPHY › TERRAIN ELEVATION › TOPOGRAPHICAL RELIEF MAPSLAND SURFACE › TOPOGRAPHY › TERRAIN ELEVATION › DIGITAL ELEVATION/TERRAIN MODEL (DEM)LAND SURFACE › LAND USE/LAND COVER › LAND USE/LAND COVER CLASSIFICATION › VEGETATION INDEX › NORMALIZED DIFFERENCE VEGETATION INDEX (NDVI)

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span2000-01-01 → 2008-12-31
  • Measured byTerra (ASTER)
  • Processing levelLevel 3
  • Spatial extent-180, -90, 180, 90
  • FormatsHDF5
  • StatusCOMPLETE

What you can do with it

  • Track deforestation, fire scars and land-cover change
  • Monitor crop and vegetation health (NDVI/EVI)
  • Map how built-up vs. green an area is over time
Official description

The Terra Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) Global Emissivity Dataset (GED) land surface temperature and emissivity (LST&E) data products are generated using the ASTER Temperature Emissivity Separation (TES) algorithm with a Water Vapor Scaling (WVS) atmospheric correction method using Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) MOD07_L2 atmospheric profiles and the MODerate Spectral resolution TRANsmittance (MODTRAN 5.2) radiative transfer model. This dataset is computed from all clear-sky pixels of ASTER scenes acquired from 2000 through 2008. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), California Institute of Technology, developed the ASTER GED product. Known Issues * Known issues are provided in Section 4 of the User Guide.

Get the data

ag1km_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="AG1km",
    version="003",
    bounding_box=(-122.5, 37.2, -121.8, 37.9),  # your area (W,S,E,N)
    temporal=("2024-01-01", "2024-12-31"),       # your dates
)
files = earthaccess.open(results)   # stream straight from LPCLOUD
Browsing CMR needs no login. Downloading or streaming bytes needs a free Earthdata Login + the earthaccess package.