How hot the land surface gets each day (Terra, 6 km)

In plain English

What it measures. The daily temperature of the land surface and how efficiently it radiates heat, summarized over larger 6-kilometer cells, with separate day and night values and counts of how many clear views went into each.

How it's made. Produced daily from the Terra MODIS instrument by aggregating finer-scale surface-temperature measurements up to a 6-kilometer global grid.

How & where you'd use it. Helpful for regional and global studies of land temperature, drought and climate where a coarser, more stable grid is preferred over the sharpest 1-kilometer detail.

What's measured

LAND SURFACE › SURFACE THERMAL PROPERTIES › LAND SURFACE TEMPERATURELAND SURFACE › SURFACE RADIATIVE PROPERTIES › EMISSIVITY

Coverage & cadence

Time span2000-02-24 → ongoing
Measured byTerra (MODIS)
Processing levelLevel 3
Spatial extent-180, -90, 180, 90
FormatsHDF-EOS2
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 Terra Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) Land Surface Temperature/Emissivity Daily(MOD11B1) Version 6.1 product provides daily 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 MOD11B1 granule consists of the following layers for daytime and nighttime observations: LSTs, quality control assessments, observation times, view zenith angles, number of clear-sky observations, and emissivities from bands 20, 22, 23, 29, 31, and 32 (bands 31 and 32 are daytime only) along with the percentage of land in the tile. Unique to the MOD11B products are additional day and night LST layers generated from band 31 of the corresponding 1 km [MOD11_L2](https://doi.org/10.5067/MODIS/MOD11_L2.061) swath product aggregated to the 6 km grid. Known Issues * For complete information about known issues please refer to the [MODIS/VIIRS Land Quality Assessment website](https://landweb.modaps.eosdis.nasa.gov/knownissue?sensor=MODIS&sat=Terra&as=61).

Get the data

mod11b1_access.py

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

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="MOD11B1",
    version="061",
    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.

Official links

Earthdata Search allows users to search, discover, visualize, refine, and access NASA Earth Observation data. GET DATA
The technical information in the User's Guide enables users to interpret and use the data products. VIEW RELATED INFORMATION
The ATBD provides physical theory and mathematical procedures for the calculations used to produce the data products. VIEW RELATED INFORMATION
The File Specification provides a description of the product file including Scientific Data Sets and their attributes. VIEW RELATED INFORMATION
Validation at stage 2 has been achieved for all MODIS Land Surface Temperature and Emissivity products. VIEW RELATED INFORMATION
Further details regarding MODIS land product validation for the MOD11 data products are available from the MODIS Land Team Validation site. VIEW RELATED INFORMATION
The LDOPE Land Product Quality Assessment website provides known issues, maneuvers, and product quality of the land products. VIEW RELATED INFORMATION