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Description

The MOD11B2 Version 6 data product was decommissioned on July 31, 2023. Users are encouraged to use the MOD11B2 Version 6.1 data product.

The MOD11B2 Version 6 product provides an average 8-day per pixel Land Surface Temperature and Emissivity (LST&E) in a 1,200 by 1,200 kilometer (km) tile with a pixel size of 5,600 meters (m). Each temperature and emissivity pixel value in the MOD11B2 is a simple average of all the corresponding values from the LST&E values from the MOD11B1 product collected during that 8-day period. Each MOD11B2 granule consists of 19 layers including daytime and nighttime layers for LSTs, quality control assessments, observation times, view zenith angles, and number of clear sky observations along with percentage of land in the tile and emissivities from bands 20, 22, 23, 29, 31, and 32. Unique to the MOD11B products are additional day and night LST layers generated from band 31 of the corresponding 1 km MOD11_L2 swath product aggregated to the 6 km grid.

Known Issues

Version Description

The following changes and improvements were implemented for inputs to MODIS Version 6 land surface temperature and emissivity data products: (1) Removed cloud-contaminated LSTs from Level 2 and Level 3 LST products, (2) Updated the coefficient look-up table (LUT) for the split-window algorithm with comprehensive regression analysis of Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) simulation data in bands 31 and 32 over wide ranges of surface and atmospheric conditions, especially extending the upper boundary for (LST – Ts-air) in arid and semi-arid regions. Increased the overlap between various sub-ranges to reduce the sensitivity of the algorithm to uncertainties in the input data (i.e., column water vapor and air surface temperature from MOD07), (3) Made minor adjustments in the classification-based surface emissivity values, especially for bare soil and rocks land cover types, (4) Tuned the day/night algorithm by adjusting weights to improve performance in desert regions where the incorporated split-window algorithm may not work well, and (5) Generated new gridded LST&E products with a 6 km spatial resolution for 8-day (MOD11B2) and monthly (MOD11B3) intervals in response to user community requests.

Product Summary

Platforms
Terra
Instruments
MODIS
Spatial Extent

N: 90 S: -90 E: 180 W: -180

Spatial Resolution
5600 Meters x 5600 Meters
Spatial Reference System(s)
MODIS Sinusoidal Tiling System
Location
GLOBAL
Coordinate System
CARTESIAN
Granule Spatial Representation
GEODETIC
Temporal Extent
2000-02-18 to 2022-11-16
Temporal Resolution
8 Day
Data Partner
Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center (LP DAAC) ,
MODIS Adaptive Processing System, Terrestrial Information Systems Laboratory, Earth Sciences Division, Science and Exploration Directorate, Goddard Space Flight Center, NASA (NASA/GSFC/SED/ESD/TISL/MODAPS)
Concept ID
C2763297236-LPCLOUD
Data State
DEPRECATED
Number of Files/Granules
0
Processing Level
3
Published
Updated
Science Keywords
Land Surface Temperature ,
Emissivity

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

Wan, Z., Hook, S., & Hulley, G. (2015). MOD11B2 MODIS/Terra Land Surface Temperature/Emissivity 8-day L3 Global 6km SIN Grid V006 [Data set]. NASA Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center. https://doi.org/10.5067/MODIS/MOD11B2.006 Date Accessed: 2026-02-15

File Naming Convention

MOD11B2.A2002273.h25v07.006.2015160225743.hdf

The file name begins with the Product Short Name (MOD11B2) followed by the Julian Date of Acquisition formatted as AYYYYDDD (A2002273), the Tile Identifier which is horizontal tile and vertical tile provided as hXXvYY (h25v07), the Version of the data collection (006), the Julian Date and Time of Production designated as YYYYDDDHHMMSS (2015160225743), and the Data Format (hdf).

Documents

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
Clear_sky_days Days in clear sky condition Bit Field uint8 N/A 0 to 255 N/A
Clear_sky_nights Nights in clear sky condition Bit Field uint8 N/A 0 to 255 N/A
Day_view_angl View zenith angle of day observation Degree uint8 255 0 to 130 N/A
Day_view_time Local time of day observation Hours uint8 255 0 to 240 0.1
Emis_20 Band 20 emissivity N/A uint8 0 1 to 255 0.002
Emis_22 Band 22emissivity N/A uint8 0 1 to 255 0.002
Emis_23 Band 23 emissivity N/A uint8 0 1 to 255 0.002
Emis_29 Band 29 emissivity N/A uint8 0 1 to 255 0.002
Emis_31 Band 31 emissivity N/A uint8 0 1 to 255 0.002
Emis_32 Band 32 emissivity N/A uint8 0 1 to 255 0.002
LST_Day_6km Daytime Land Surface Temperature Kelvin uint16 0 7500 to 65535 0.02
LST_Day_6km_Aggregated_from_1km Daytime LST aggregated from 1km N/A uint16 0 7500 to 65535 0.02
LST_Night_6km Nighttime Land Surface Temperature Kelvin uint16 0 7500 to 65535 0.02
LST_Night_6km_Aggregated_from_1km Nighttime LST aggregated from 1km Kelvin uint16 0 7500 to 65535 0.02
Night_view_angl View zenith angle of night observation Degree uint8 255 0 to 130 N/A
Night_view_time Local time of night observation Hours uint8 255 0 to 240 0.1
Percent_land_in_grid Percentage of land in the grid Percent uint8 0 1 to 100 N/A
QC_Day Daytime LST Quality Indicators Bit Field uint8 N/A 0 to 255 N/A
QC_Night Nighttime LST Quality indicators Bit Field uint8 N/A 0 to 255 N/A
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