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Description

The Earth Surface Mineral Dust Source Investigation (EMIT) instrument measures surface mineralogy, targeting the Earth’s arid dust source regions. EMIT is installed on the International Space Station. EMIT uses imaging spectroscopy to take measurements of sunlit regions of interest between 52° N latitude and 52° S latitude. An interactive map showing the regions being investigated, current and forecasted data coverage, and additional data resources can be found on the VSWIR Imaging Spectroscopy Interface for Open Science (VISIONS) EMIT Open Data Portal.

In addition to its primary objective described above, EMIT has demonstrated the capacity to characterize methane (CH4) and carbon dioxide (CO2) point-source emissions by measuring gas absorption features in the shortwave infrared bands. The EMIT Level 2B Methane Enhancement Data (EMITL2BCH4ENH) Version 2 data product is a total vertical column enhancement estimate of methane in parts per million meter (ppm m) based on an adaptive matched filter approach. EMITL2BCH4ENH provides per-pixel methane enhancement data used to identify methane plume complexes, per-pixel methane uncertainty due to sensor noise, and per-pixel methane sensitivity that can be used to remove bias from the enhancement data.

The EMITL2BCH4ENH Version 2 data product includes methane enhancement granules for all captured scenes, regardless of methane plume complex identification. Each granule contains three Cloud Optimized GeoTIFF (COG) files at a spatial resolution of 60 meters (m): Methane Enhancement (EMIT_L2B_CH4ENH), Methane Uncertainty (EMIT_L2B_CH4UNCERT), and Methane Sensitivity (EMIT_L2B_CH4SENS). The EMITL2BCH4ENH COG files contain methane enhancement data based primarily on EMITL1BRAD radiance values.

Each granule is approximately 75 kilometers (km) by 75 km, nominal at the equator, with some granules at the end of an orbit segment reaching 150 km in length.

Known Issues

  • Data acquisition gap: From September 13, 2022, through January 6, 2023, a power issue outside of EMIT caused a pause in operations. Due to this shutdown, no data were acquired during that timeframe.

Version Description

The following changes and improvements were implemented for the EMIT Methane Enhancement Version 2 data product: (1) Methane uncertainty and sensitivity variables have been added. For more details on the uncertainty variable, see Section 6 of the Algorithm Theoretical Basis Document (ATBD) and Section 4.2.2 for details on the sensitivity variable, (2) Enhancement, uncertainty, and sensitivity data are now included for all granules, including those without plume complexes. Version 1 of this product only included enhancement data for granules where plumes were present, and (3) The matched filter used to produce methane enhancement data has been improved by adjusting the channels used to those that fall within 500-1340 nanometer (nm), 1500-1790 nm, or 1950-2450 nm. More details can be found in Section 4.2.3 of the ATBD.

Product Summary

Platforms
ISS
Instruments
EMIT Imaging Spectrometer
Spatial Extent

N: 54 S: -54 E: 180 W: -180

Spatial Resolution
60 Meters x 60 Meters
Location
GLOBAL LAND
Coordinate System
CARTESIAN
Granule Spatial Representation
GEODETIC
Temporal Extent
2022-08-09 to Present
Temporal Resolution
Varies
Data Partner
Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center (LP DAAC) ,
Earth Surface Mineral Dust Source Investigation, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, NASA (NASA/JPL/EMIT)
Concept ID
C3242680113-LPCLOUD
Data State
ACTIVE
Number of Files/Granules
206966
Processing Level
2B
Published
Updated
Science Keywords
Methane ,
Emissions

Citation

Citation is critically important for dataset documentation and discovery. This dataset is openly shared, without restriction, in accordance with the EOSDIS Data Use and Citation Guidance.

Copy Citation

Thorpe, A., Brodrick, P., Chadwick, D., Lopez, A., Villanueva-Weeks, C., Fahlen, J., Jensen, D., Bender, H., Vinckier, Q., Xiang, C., Olson-Duvall, W., Chlus, A., Lundeen, S., Thompson, D., & Green, R. (2025). EMIT L2B Methane Enhancement Data 60 m V002 [Data set]. NASA Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center. https://doi.org/10.5067/EMIT/EMITL2BCH4ENH.002 Date Accessed: 2026-02-19

File Naming Convention

EMIT_L2B_CH4ENH_002_20250912T003906_2525501_002.tif

The file name begins with the Sensor (EMIT) followed by the Processing Level (L2B), Product Type (CH4ENH), Product Version Number (002), Date and Time of Acquisition designated as YYYYMMDDTHHMMSS (20250912T003906), Orbit Identification Number (2525501), Scene Identification Number (002), and the Data Format (tif).

Documents

Data collected by NASA's Earth Surface Mineral Dust Source Investigation (EMIT) on April 23, 2024, indicates the location of a variety of planet communites across a swath of the mid-Atlantic United States.

EMIT Tutorial Series

In this three-part tutorial series, learn how to use Python to process EMIT reflectance data.
Tutorial
June 14, 2023
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Variables

The table below lists the variables contained within a single granule for this dataset. Variables often contain observed or derived geophysical measurements collected from a variety of sources, including remote sensing instruments on satellite and airborne platforms, field campaigns, in situ measurements, and model outputs. The terms variable, parameter, scientific data set, layer, and band have been used across NASA’s Earth science disciplines; however, variable is the designated nomenclature in NASA’s Common Metadata Repository (CMR). Variable metadata attributes such as Name, Description, Units, Data Type, Fill Value, Valid Range, and Scale Factor allow users to efficiently process and analyze the data. The full range of attributes may not be applicable to all variables. Additional information on variable attributes is typically available in the data, user guide, and/or other product documentation.

For questions on a specific variable, please use the Earthdata Forum.

Name Description Units Data Type Fill Value Valid Range Scale Factor
EMIT_L2B_CH4ENH Methane Enhancement Values ppm m float32 -9999 N/A N/A
EMIT_L2B_CH4SENS Methane Sensitivity Values N/A float32 -9999 N/A N/A
EMIT_L2B_CH4UNCERT Methane Uncertainty Values ppm m float32 -9999 N/A N/A
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