ESA Land Surface Temperature Climate Change Initiative (LST_cci): Monthly Multisensor Infra-Red (IR) Low Earth Orbit (LEO) land surface temperature (LST) time series level 3 supercollated (L3S) global product (1995-2020), version 2.00

This dataset contains monthly-averaged land surface temperatures (LSTs) and their uncertainty estimates from multiple Infra-Red (IR) instruments on Low Earth Orbiting (LEO) sun-synchronous (a.k.a. polar orbiting) satellites. Satellite land surface temperatures are skin temperatures, which means, for example, the temperature of the ground surface in bare soil areas, the temperature of the canopy over forests, and a mix of the soil and leaf temperature over sparse vegetation. The skin temperature is an important variable when considering surface fluxes of, for instance, heat and water.

Daytime and night-time temperatures are provided in separate files corresponding to 10:30 and 22:30 local solar time. Per pixel uncertainty estimates are given in two forms, first, an estimate of the total uncertainty for the pixel and second, a breakdown of the uncertainty into components by correlation length. Also provided in the files, on a per pixel basis, are the observation time, the satellite viewing and solar geometry angles, a quality flag, and land cover class.

The dataset is comprised of LSTs from a series of instruments with a common heritage: the Along-Track Scanning Radiometer 2 (ATSR-2), the Advanced Along-Track Scanning Radiometer (AATSR) and the Sea and Land Surface Temperature Radiometer on Sentinel 3A (SLSTRA); and data from the Moderate Imaging Spectroradiometer on Earth Observation System - Terra (MODIS Terra) to fill the gap between AATSR and SLSTR. So, the instruments contributing to the time series are: ATSR-2 from August 1995 to July 2002; AATSR from August 2002 to March 2012; MODIS Terra from April 2012 to July 2016; and SLSTRA from August 2016 to December 2020. Inter-instrument biases are accounted for by cross-calibration with the Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer (IASI) instruments on Meteorological Operational (METOP) satellites. For consistency, a common algorithm is used for LST retrieval for all instruments. Furthermore, an adjustment is made to the LSTs to account for the half-hour difference between satellite equator crossing times. For consistency through the time series, coverage is restricted to the narrowest instrument swath width.

The dataset coverage is near global over the land surface. During the period covered by ATSR-2, small regions were not covered due to downlinking constraints (most noticeably a track extending southwards across central Asia through India – further details can be found on the ATSR project webpages at http://www.atsr.rl.ac.uk/dataproducts/availability/coverage/atsr-2/index.shtml).

LSTs are provided on a global equal angle grid at a resolution of 0.01° longitude and 0.01° latitude. Full Earth coverage is achieved in 3 days so the daily files have gaps where the surface is not covered by the satellite swath on that day. Furthermore, LSTs are not produced where clouds are present since under these circumstances the IR radiometer observes the cloud top which is usually much colder than the surface.

Dataset coverage starts on 1st August 1995 and ends on 31st December 2020. There are two gaps of several months in the dataset: no data were acquired from ATSR-2 between 23 December 1995 and 30 June 1996 due to a scan mirror anomaly; and the ERS-2 gyro failed in January 2001, data quality was less good between 17th Jan 2001 and 5th July 2001 and are not used in this dataset. Also, there is a twelve day gap in the dataset due to Envisat mission extension orbital manoeuvres from 21st October 2010 to 1st November 2010. There are minor interruptions (1-10 days) during satellite/instrument maintenance periods or instrument anomalies.

The dataset was produced by the University of Leicester (UoL) and LSTs were retrieved using the (UoL) LST retrieval algorithm and data were processed in the UoL processing chain.

The dataset was produced as part of the ESA Land Surface Temperature Climate Change Initiative which strives to improve satellite datasets to Global Climate Observing System (GCOS) standards.

Date (Publication): 2022-06-28T11:09:15

Date (Creation): 2022-06-28T11:09:15

Citation identifier: https://catalogue.ceda.ac.uk/uuid/785ef9d3965442669bff899540747e28

Citation identifier: NERC EDS Centre for Environmental Data Analysis / 785ef9d3965442669bff899540747e28

Citation identifier: doi / 10.5285/785ef9d3965442669bff899540747e28

Point of contact

Organisation name	Individual name	Electronic mail address	Role
Unavailable	Ghent, Darren	Unavailable	Author
Unavailable	Veal, Karen	Unavailable	Author
Unavailable	Perry, Mike	Unavailable	Author
NERC EDS Centre for Environmental Data Analysis		support@ceda.ac.uk	Custodian
NERC EDS Centre for Environmental Data Analysis		support@ceda.ac.uk	Distributor
NERC EDS Centre for Environmental Data Analysis		support@ceda.ac.uk	pointofContact
CCI Open Data Portal		support@ceda.ac.uk	pointofContact
NERC EDS Centre for Environmental Data Analysis		support@ceda.ac.uk	Publisher

Maintenance and update frequency: Not planned

Update scope: Dataset

Keywords

land surface temperature
ESA
CCI
infra-red

GEMET - INSPIRE themes, version 1.0

orthoimagery

Access constraints: Other restrictions

Other constraints: Public data: access to these data is available to both registered and non-registered users.

Use constraints: Other restrictions

Other constraints: Under the following licence https://artefacts.ceda.ac.uk/licences/specific_licences/esacci_lst_terms_and_conditions.pdf, appropriate use of these data may fall under unclassified use. This message is intended as guidance, always read the full licence. When using these data you must cite them correctly using the citation given on the CEDA Data Catalogue record.

Spatial representation type: Grid

Language: English

Topic category

Imagery base maps earth cover

Begin date: 1995-08-01T00:00:00

End date: 2020-12-31T23:59:59

Unique resource identifier: WGS 84

Distribution format

Name	Version
Data are in NetCDF format

Distributor contact

Organisation name	Individual name	Electronic mail address	Role
NERC EDS Centre for Environmental Data Analysis		support@ceda.ac.uk	Distributor

OnLine resource

Protocol	Linkage	Name
	https://catalogue.ceda.ac.uk/uuid/785ef9d3965442669bff899540747e28	CEDA Data Catalogue Page

OnLine resource

Protocol	Linkage	Name
	http://data.ceda.ac.uk/neodc/esacci/land_surface_temperature/data/MULTISENSOR_IRCDR/L3S/0.01/v2.00/monthly/	DOWNLOAD

OnLine resource

Protocol	Linkage	Name
	https://admin.climate.esa.int/media/documents/LST-CCI-D4.1-PVIR_-_i1r0_-_Product_Validation_and_Intercomparison_Report.pdf	Validation and Intercomparison Report (PVIR) V1.0

OnLine resource

Protocol	Linkage	Name
	https://admin.climate.esa.int/media/documents/LST-CCI-D4.3-PUG_-_i2r0_-_Product_User_Guide.pdf	Product User Guide

OnLine resource

Protocol	Linkage	Name
	https://climate.esa.int/sites/default/files/LST-CCI-D2.2-ATBD%20-%20i1r1%20-%20Algorithm%20Theoretical%20Basis%20Document.pdf	Algorithm Theoretical Basis Document v1.1

OnLine resource

Protocol	Linkage	Name
	https://climate.esa.int/en/projects/land-surface-temperature/about	ESA LST_cci webpages

Hierarchy level: Dataset

Conformance result

Title: Commission Regulation (EU) No 1089/2010 of 23 November 2010 implementing Directive 2007/2/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards interoperability of spatial data sets and services

Date (Publication): 2010-12-08

Statement: The data record has been produced by the University of Leicester working within the ESA Land Surface Temperature Climate Change Initiative (LST_cci), and supplied for archiving at the Centre for Environmental Data Analysis (CEDA).

Contact: data.lst-cci@acri-st.fr

Metadata

File identifier: 785ef9d3965442669bff899540747e28 XML

Metadata language: English

Character set: UTF8

Parent identifier: National Centre for Earth Observation (NCEO) partnered datasets
7fe9f59731ab47b6a20e792e0cba4641

Hierarchy level: Dataset

Date stamp: 2025-11-09T03:23:22

Metadata standard name: UK GEMINI

Metadata standard version: 2.3

Metadata author

Organisation name	Individual name	Electronic mail address	Role
NERC EDS Centre for Environmental Data Analysis		support@ceda.ac.uk	Point of contact

Overviews

Spatial extent

Provided by

Access to the catalogue

Read here the full details and access to the data.

Simple

Conformance result

Metadata

Overviews

Spatial extent

Keywords

Provided by

Share on social sites