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Full catalog/PREFIRE_SAT1_0-PAYLOAD
PREFIRE_SAT1_0-PAYLOAD·vR01·dataset

Raw instrument data (PREFIRE Sat 1)

Polar Radiant Energy in the Far InfraRed Experiment (PREFIRE) Satellite 1 Raw Payload R01
land NASA LARC_CLOUD Level 0 active Binary
In plain English

What it measures. The raw, uncurated readings from a polar-orbiting instrument that measures mid- and far-infrared heat the planet gives off, across 63 channels. Stored as raw digital counts, not yet meaningful science values.

How it's made. Captured by the TIRS spectrometer aboard the PREFIRE Satellite 1 CubeSat, recorded as raw instrument output roughly every 0.7 seconds.

How & where you'd use it. A raw building-block input for PREFIRE's later products. The mission aims to better measure polar heat loss to improve climate models, but this raw file is not used directly.

What's measured

SPECTRAL/ENGINEERING › INFRARED WAVELENGTHS › SENSOR COUNTSATMOSPHERE › ATMOSPHERIC RADIATION › EARTH RADIATION BUDGETATMOSPHERE › ATMOSPHERIC RADIATION › LONGWAVE RADIATION › UPWELLING LONGWAVE RADIATION

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span2024-06-07 → ongoing
  • Measured byPREFIRE-SAT1 (TIRS-PREFIRE)
  • Processing levelLevel 0
  • Spatial extent-180, -84, 180, 84
  • FormatsBinary
  • 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

Polar Radiant Energy in the Far InfraRed Experiment (PREFIRE) Satellite 1 Raw Payload (PREFIRE_SAT1_0-PAYLOAD) contains the uncurated raw measurements from one of two PREFIRE Thermal Infrared Spectrometers (TIRS-PREFIRE), which is a push broom spectrometer with 63 channels measuring mid- and far-infrared (FIR) radiation from approximately 5 to 53 µm. Most polar emissions are in the FIR but have not been measured on a large scale. PREFIRE aims to fill knowledge gaps in the global energy budget by more accurately characterizing polar emissions. This information will be assimilated into global circulation and other models to predict future conditions more accurately. This collection contains the raw and uncurated digital number counts for TIRS-PREFIRE aboard PREFIRE Satellite 1 (PREFIRE-SAT1). Data retrieval started in July 24, 2024 and is ongoing. Geographic coverage is global, with the greatest concentration of data in the polar regions. This data has a temporal resolution of 0.707 seconds and is available in binary format. Raw, Uncurated digital number counts for the sister instrument aboard PREFIRE-SAT2 can be found in the PREFIRE_SAT2_0-PAYLOAD collection.

Get the data

prefire_sat1_0-payload_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="PREFIRE_SAT1_0-PAYLOAD",
    version="R01",
    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 LARC_CLOUD
Browsing CMR needs no login. Downloading or streaming bytes needs a free Earthdata Login + the earthaccess package.