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 Geolocation Instantaneous Level 1B Global (ECO_L1B_GEO) Version 3 data product provides the geolocation information for the radiance values retrieved in the ECO_L1B_RAD Version 3 data product. The geolocation product gives geo-tagging to each of the radiance pixels. The geolocation processing corrects the ISS-reported ephemeris and attitude data by image matching with a global Landsat 7 orthoimagery base layer and then assigns latitude and longitude values to each of the Level 1 radiance pixels. When image matching is successful, the data are geolocated to greater than 50 meter (m) accuracy. The ECO_L1B_GEO data product is provided as swath data.

The ECO_L1B_GEO data product contains 10 data variables for latitude and longitude values, solar and view geometry information, surface height, land fraction, and a preliminary cloud mask, distributed in HDF5 format.

Known Issues

• 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.
• prelim_cloud_mask valid_max attribute: The valid_max attribute for prelim_cloud_mask is currently written as 0 in production files; the correct value is 1 (reflecting the field's 0–1 range: 0=clear, 1=cloudy). This is a known metadata error affecting all L1B_GEO V3 granules processed to date. The JPL science team has corrected the issue for future processing; LP DAAC will notify users when the fix takes effect and which granules are affected. Existing granules will not be reprocessed for this issue.
• Geolocation accuracy: In cases where scenes were not successfully matched with the Landsat 7 orthoimagery base layer, the geolocation error is significantly larger; the worst-case geolocation error for uncorrected data is 7 kilometers (km). Within the metadata of the ECO_L1B_GEO file, if the field 'L1GEOMetadata/OrbitCorrectionPerformed' is 'True,' the data was corrected, and geolocation accuracy should be greater than 50 m. If this field is 'False,' then the data was processed without correcting the geolocation and will have up to 7 km geolocation error.