How hot the land surface gets (Terra, monthly, 0.05 deg)

In plain English

What it measures. How hot the land surface itself gets each month (the temperature of the ground, not the air above it), plus emissivity, a measure of how efficiently a surface radiates heat.

How it's made. Derived from the MODIS instrument on NASA's Terra satellite by averaging the daily land-temperature readings over each month onto a roughly 5.6 km worldwide grid.

How & where you'd use it. Tracking heat patterns across deserts, cities and farmland, studying drought and urban heat, and feeding climate and land-surface models.

What's measured

LAND SURFACE › SURFACE RADIATIVE PROPERTIES › EMISSIVITYLAND SURFACE › SURFACE THERMAL PROPERTIES › LAND SURFACE TEMPERATURE

Coverage & cadence

Time span2000-02-01 → 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 Monthly(MOD11C3) Version 6.1 product provides monthly Land Surface Temperature and Emissivity (LST&E) values in a 0.05 degree (5,600 meters at the equator) latitude/longitude Climate Modeling Grid (CMG). A CMG granule is a geographic grid with 7,200 columns and 3,600 rows representing the entire globe. The LST&E values in the MOD11C3 product are derived by compositing and averaging the values from the corresponding month of [MOD11C1](https://doi.org/10.5067/MODIS/MOD11C1.061) daily files. Each MOD11C3 product consists of the following layers for daytime and nighttime observations: LSTs, quality control assessments, observation times, view zenith angles, and number of clear-sky observations along with percentage of land in the grid and emissivities from bands 20, 22, 23, 29, 31, and 32. 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

mod11c3_access.py

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

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="MOD11C3",
    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