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Full catalog/globalir
globalir·v1·dataset

Worldwide infrared cloud images from weather satellites

INFRARED GLOBAL GEOSTATIONARY COMPOSITE V1
land NASA GHRC_DAAC Level 3 McIDAS
In plain English

What it measures. Global composite pictures stitched together from the infrared channels of many weather satellites, showing clouds and surface heat across nearly the whole planet.

How it's made. Assembled by combining infrared images from a fleet of geostationary weather satellites (GOES, METEOSAT, GMS, and others) and remapping them onto a single global projection.

How & where you'd use it. Gives a continuous worldwide view of clouds and weather systems. Note the images are not necessarily cross-calibrated between the different satellites, so direct comparisons need care.

What's measured

Spectral/Engineering › Infrared Wavelengths › Infrared Imagery

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span1995-06-04 → ongoing
  • Measured byGOES-16 (GOES-16 Imager) · NOAA-17 (AVHRR) · NOAA-15 (AVHRR) · GOES-12 (GOES-12 Imager) · METEOSAT-9 (VISSR-METEOSAT) · NOAA-16 (AVHRR) · METEOSAT-8 (VISSR-METEOSAT) · NOAA-18 (AVHRR) · GOES-11 (GOES-11 Imager) · MTSAT-1R (VISSR) · GOES-15 (GOES-15 Imager) · GOES-8 (GOES-8 Imager) · GOES-9 (GOES-9 Imager) · METEOSAT-6 (VISSR-METEOSAT) · GMS-4 (VISSR-GMS) · GOES-13 (GOES-13 Imager) · METEOSAT-7 (VISSR-METEOSAT)
  • Processing levelLevel 3
  • Spatial extent-180, -61, 180, 66
  • FormatsMcIDAS
  • StatusACTIVE

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 Infrared Global Geostationary Composite dataset contains global composite images from the infrared channels of multiple weather satellites in geosynchronous orbit. These satellites include the Global Mobility Service (GMS) from Japan, the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) from the United States, NOAA satellites, and the Meteorological Satellite (METEOSAT) from Europe spanning nearly the entire globe. The spatial resolution is 14 km before December 18, 2017, and 4 km after that with the data remapped into a Mercator projection. The data have not necessarily been cross-calibrated between sensors. The data are available in AREA McIDAS format from June 4, 1995, to January 24, 2024, and netCDF-4 format from January 25, 2024, to present.

Get the data

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

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="globalir",
    version="1",
    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 GHRC_DAAC
Browsing CMR needs no login. Downloading or streaming bytes needs a free Earthdata Login + the earthaccess package.