Abstract:
The MODIS/Aqua Land Surface Temperature and Emissivity (LST/E) products provide per-pixel temperature and emissivity values in a sequence of swath-based to grid-based global products. The MODIS/Aqua LST/E 5-Minute L2 Swath 1 km data set (Short name: MYD11_L2) is produced daily at 5-minute increments, and covers both daytime and nighttime acquisitions including the polar regions.
The MODIS/Aqua
... version-041 (V41) products use a modified version-4 (V4) LST algorithm and version-5 (V5) data inputs. The V41 products primarily address underestimation problems in the V5 Climate Modeling Grid (CMG) products. Recent validation activities reveal that the V5 CMG products underestimate LSTs up to 6K especially in desert and semi-arid regions. The production date for this collection starts with MODIS/Aqua data acquisition from 2007-001. This beginning date is driven by the availability of the MODIS V5 data inputs (level-1B radiance data, geolocation data, cloud mask, atmospheric profiles, and land and snow cover data).
The MODIS/Aqua V41 level-2 LST/E data (Short name: MYD11_L2) incorporate 1 km pixels, which are produced daily at 5-minute increments using the generalized split-window LST algorithm. This algorithm is optimally used to separate ranges of atmospheric column water vapor and lower boundary air surface temperatures into tractable sub-ranges. The surface emissivities in Bands 31 and 32 are estimated from land cover types.
The V41 MYD11_L2 data set comprises swath data obtained in 5-minute sensor collection periods, and includes the following Science Data Set (SDS) layers: LST, quality control assessment, error estimates, Bands 31 and 32 emissivities, zenith angle of the pixel view, observation time, and the geographic coordinates for every five scan lines and samples. Produced daily, MYD11_L2 is an unprojected level-2 data set, which provides the input for the level-3 products.
The V41 Aqua/MODIS LST/E products, including MYD11_L2 are validated to Stage-2. Further details regarding MODIS land product validation for the LST/E products are available from the MODIS land team validation site.
The V41 MYD11_L2 product’s acquisition range started January 1, 2007 (2007-001) and will continue until the V6 reprocessing completes in 2011. The V41 LST products from 2007-001 will remain consistent with similar products from V4, and hence are amenable to combine them in a time series analysis. Users should exercise caution, and not mix the V4.x (i.e., V4 and V41) and V5 LST products in their analysis.
Data Set Characteristics
Area ~2330 x 2000 km (Latitude/Longitude)
Image Dimensions 2030 x 1354 (Rows/Columns)
Map Projection None (Swath data)
File Size (Average) 2.2 MB
Data Format HDF-EOS
Number of Science Data Sets (SDS) 9 
