The ECOsystem Spaceborne Thermal Radiometer Experiment on Space Station (ECOSTRESS) mission measures the temperature of plants to better understand how much water plants need and how they respond to stress. ECOSTRESS is attached to the International Space Station (ISS) and collects data globally between 52° N and 52° S latitudes.

The ECOSTRESS Swath Attitude and Ephemeris Instantaneous Level 1B Global (ECO_L1B_ATT) Version 3 data product provides both ISS-reported and corrected attitude quaternions and spacecraft ephemeris data. Corrected values are derived by image matching against a global Landsat 7 orthoimagery base layer to improve navigation accuracy. The data are provided in 1 second intervals, and each product file contains vectors from the duration of the orbit.

The ECO_L1B_ATT data product contains 10 data layers: both ISS-reported and corrected variables for attitude, ephemeris, position, velocity, and time, distributed in HDF5 format. These data are used to initiate the geolocation process for ECOSTRESS scenes.

Known Issues

• No spatial query in NASA Earthdata Search: This product does not contain spatial bounding box attributes, so granules cannot be searched by geographic location. Users should search for this data product by orbit number.
• Solar Array Obstruction: Some ECOSTRESS scenes may be affected by solar array obstructions from the ISS, potentially impacting data quality in obstructed pixels. The 'FieldOfViewObstruction' metadata field is reliably populated and accurate for all products generated on or after October 2024, following fixes to the Product Generation Executive (PGE) docker configuration and updates to the L1A_RAW_PIX software. Prior to October 2024, the field was not reliably populated; a list of confirmed affected scenes was maintained and is recommended for verifying historical data.
• Historical acquisition gaps and anomalies (2018–2023): Irrecoverable data loss occurred due to Mass Storage Unit (MSU) failures, resulting in permanent gaps in the observational record where no ECOSTRESS data was acquired. Other early issues, including band 4 striping (Feb 2020), 3-band TES mode limitations (May 2019–April 2023), and noisy data periods (e.g., May–July 2025), have been mitigated through reprocessing, firmware updates, and instrument recovery. Version 3 products incorporate these improvements where data exists and are unaffected by ongoing issues, but the permanent historical gaps remain, and caution is advised for time-series analyses spanning affected periods.