True land surface color, daily (NOAA-11, 0.05 deg)
What it measures. Daily maps of how much sunlight the land surface reflects, after the haze and distortion of the atmosphere have been stripped out, so the colors reflect the ground itself.
How it's made. Derived from the AVHRR instrument on the older NOAA-11 weather satellite and reprocessed into a consistent daily global grid as part of a long-term climate record.
How & where you'd use it. Forms part of a decades-long record used to study how vegetation and land have changed over time, helping researchers track global climate change.
What's measured
Coverage & cadence
- Time span1988-11-08 → 1995-01-01
- Measured byNOAA-11 (AVHRR)
- Processing levelLevel 3
- Spatial extent-180, -90, 180, 90
- FormatsHDF-EOS
- 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 Long-Term Data Record (LTDR) produces, validates, and distributes a global land surface climate data record (CDR) that uses both mature and well-tested algorithms in concert with the best-available polar-orbiting satellite data from past to the present. The CDR is critically important to studying global climate change. The LTDR project is unique in that it serves as a bridge that connects data derived from the NOAA Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR), the EOS Moderate resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (SNPP) Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS), and Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) VIIRS missions. The LTDR draws from the following eight AVHRR missions: NOAA-7, NOAA-9, NOAA-11, NOAA-14, NOAA-16, NOAA-18, NOAA-19, and MetOp-B. Currently, the project generates a daily surface reflectance product as the fundamental climate data record (FCDR) and derives daily Normalized Differential Vegetation Index (NDVI) and Leaf-Area Index/fraction of absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (LAI/fPAR) as two thematic CDRs (TCDR). LAI/fPAR was developed as an experimental product. The NOAA-11 AVHRR Atmospherically Corrected Surface Reflectance Daily L3 Global 0.05 Deg. CMG, short-name N11_AVH09C1 is generated from GIMMS Advanced Processing System (GAPS) BRDF-corrected Surface Reflectance product (AVH01C1). The M1_AVH09C1 consist of BRDF-corrected surface reflectance for bands 1, 2, and 3, data Quality flags, angles (solar zenith, view zenith, and relative azimuth), and thermal data (thermal bands 3, 4, and 5). The AVH09C1 product is available in HDF4 file format.
Get the data
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc") # free Earthdata Login
results = earthaccess.search_data(
short_name="N11_AVH09C1",
version="6",
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 LAADS Browsing CMR needs no login. Downloading or streaming bytes needs a free Earthdata Login + the earthaccess package. Official links
- Overview of LTDR Products documents VIEW RELATED INFORMATION
- Search and order products from LAADS website. GET DATA
- Direct access to C6 N11_AVH09C1 data set. GET DATA
- A combined User's Guides for all L3 LTDR products VIEW RELATED INFORMATION
- Earthdata Search allows users to search, discover, visualize, refine, and access NASA Earth Observation data. GET DATA