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Full catalog/PREFIRE_SAT2_3-SFC-SORTED-ALLSKY
PREFIRE_SAT2_3-SFC-SORTED-ALLSKY·vR01·dataset

How well polar ground gives off heat (Satellite 2)

Polar Radiant Energy in the Far InfraRed Experiment (PREFIRE) Surface Emissivity Sorted All-sky Climatology from PREFIRE Satellite 2 R01
land NASA LARC_CLOUD Level 3 active netCDF-4
In plain English

What it measures. Describes how efficiently polar surfaces (like ice and snow) give off heat as far-infrared radiation, sorted by surface type and averaged over months.

How it's made. Built from the TIRS-PREFIRE infrared spectrometer aboard one of the twin PREFIRE CubeSats, processed into a gridded monthly climatology at 1-degree resolution.

How & where you'd use it. Helps fill a long-standing gap in understanding how much heat the poles radiate to space, information that improves climate models predicting future polar and global conditions.

What's measured

LAND SURFACE › SURFACE RADIATIVE PROPERTIES › EMISSIVITYATMOSPHERE › ATMOSPHERIC RADIATION › LONGWAVE RADIATION › UPWELLING LONGWAVE RADIATIONATMOSPHERE › ATMOSPHERIC RADIATION › EARTH RADIATION BUDGET

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span2024-06-29 → ongoing
  • Measured byPREFIRE-SAT2 (TIRS-PREFIRE)
  • Processing levelLevel 3
  • Spatial extent-180, -84, 180, 84
  • FormatsnetCDF-4
  • 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) Surface Emissivity Sorted All-sky Climatology from PREFIRE Satellite 2 (PREFIRE_SAT2_3-SFC-SORTED=ALLSKY) contains monthly climatologies of the Level 2 PREFIRE Surface Emissivity from the PREFIRE Satellite 2 collection (PREFIRE_SAT2_2B_SFC), which is derived from data collected by the PREFIRE Thermal Infrared Spectrometer (TIRS-PREFIRE) aboard PREFIRE-SAT2. Dual CubeSats each carry a PREFIRE Thermal Infrared Spectrometer (TIRS-PREFIRE), 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 then be assimilated into global circulation and other models to predict future conditions more accurately.PREFIRE_SAT1_3-SFC-SORTED-ALLSKY climatologies include 1) gridded, time-averaged spectral emissivity sorted by surface type, and 2) gridded standard deviations of time-averaged spectral emissivity sorted by surface type. The grids are 1°x1° and time averaging is currently monthly. Spatially, the cross-track dimension is retained, which consists of 8 distinct tracks. Full swath climatologies will be generated in addition to ascending- and descending-only subsets to account for diurnal variability. The purpose of this collection is to identify surface emissivity behaviors based on surface type and to assimilate PREFIRE surface emissivity data into climate models to further understand and more accurately predict future climates.The data format is NetCDF4.The sorted surface emissivity climatologies for the sister instrument aboard PREFIRE-SAT1 can be found in the PREFIRE_SAT1_3-SFC-SORTED-ALLSKY collection.

Get the data

prefire_sat2_3-sfc-sorted-allsky_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="PREFIRE_SAT2_3-SFC-SORTED-ALLSKY",
    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.