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Full catalog/MOD11B2
MOD11B2·v061·dataset

How hot the land surface gets (Terra, 8-day, 6 km)

MODIS/Terra Land Surface Temperature/Emissivity 8-Day L3 Global 6km SIN Grid V061
land NASA LPCLOUD Level 3 active HDF-EOS2
In plain English

What it measures. How hot or cold the land surface itself gets (not the air above it), averaged over 8 days, plus how efficiently the surface radiates heat (emissivity). Separate daytime and nighttime values are provided at about 6 km resolution.

How it's made. Built from the MODIS instrument on NASA's Terra satellite by averaging the daily surface-temperature measurements collected over each 8-day period onto a global grid.

How & where you'd use it. Helpful for studying urban heat, drought stress, climate trends, and how different land covers heat up and cool down over time.

What's measured

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

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span2000-02-18 → 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 8-Day (MOD11B2) Version 6.1 product provides an average 8-day 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 temperature and emissivity pixel value in the MOD11B2 is a simple average of all the corresponding values from the LST&E values from the [MOD11B1](https://doi.org/10.5067/MODIS/MOD11B1.061) product collected during that 8-day period. Each MOD11B2 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](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

mod11b2_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="MOD11B2",
    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.