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Land Surface Data Access and Tools

NASA data provide key measurements of Earth’s land, allowing researchers to accurately understand its composition, processes, uses, and interactions. Our datasets and tools help researchers translate these interconnected data points into actionable knowledge.

Dataset	Geographic Region	Temporal Extent	Data Format	Potential Application Areas	Related Subtopics
ALOS PALSAR High Resolution Radiometric Terrain Corrected Product	Global	2006-03-23 to 2011-04-22		High-precision forest structure and biomass estimation Detailed wetland classification and monitoring Fine-scale surface deformation detection Terrain analysis in densely vegetated regions Resource exploration and geological mapping	erosion/ sedimentation, geomorphic landforms and processes, land use/ land cover, topography
ALOS-2 PALSAR-2 Level 1 ScanSAR Product	Global	2014-08-01 to Present		Wide-area monitoring of land surface changes Regional vegetation and forest monitoring Large wetland area mapping and monitoring Continental-scale land use change detection Regional soil moisture assessment	geomorphic landforms and processes, land use/ land cover, topography
ASTER Global Digital Elevation Model V003	Global Land	2000-03-01 to 2013-11-30	Cloud Optimized GeoTIFF (COG)	Detailed topographic analysis 3D visualization of landscapes Geological feature extraction Slope stability assessment	topography
ECOSTRESS Tiled Land Surface Temperature and Emissivity Instantaneous L2 Global 70 m	Global Land	2018-07-09 to Present	Cloud Optimized GeoTIFF (COG)	High-resolution urban heat island analysis Plant water stress monitoring	surface radiative properties, surface thermal properties
EMIT L2A Estimated Surface Reflectance and Uncertainty and Masks 60 m	Global Land	2022-08-09 to Present	NetCDF-4	Surface mineralogy mapping Geological exploration and resource assessment Soil composition analysis Environmental impact assessment Critical mineral identification Spectral library development for earth materials	land use/ land cover, soils
GEDI L2A Elevation and Height Metrics Data Global Footprint Level V002	Global Land	2019-04-04 to 2023-03-16 2024-04-04 to Present	HDF5	Terrain model refinement under vegetation	topography
Global Hydrologic Soil Groups (HYSOGs250m) for Curve Number-Based Runoff Modeling	Global	2017-01-01 to 2017-11-28	GeoTIFF	Erosion potential mapping	land use/ land cover, soils
HLS Landsat Operational Land Imager Surface Reflectance and TOA Brightness Daily Global 30m v2.0	Global	2013-04-11 to Present	Cloud Optimized GeoTiff (COG)	Land cover and land use change monitoring Harmonized time series analysis with Sentinel-2	land use/ land cover, surface radiative properties
MAIAC Daily V01	Global	2015-06-13 to Present	PNG	Land cover and land use change analysis through improved atmospheric correction	land use/ land cover
MODIS/Terra Land Surface Temperature/Emissivity Daily L3 Global 1 km SIN Grid	Global	2000-02-24 to Present	HDF-EOS2	Regional thermal environment monitoring Urban heat island effect studies Climate model validation for land surface processes Land surface process energy balance studies	surface radiative properties, surface thermal properties
MODIS/Terra Surface Reflectance Daily L2G Global 250m SIN Grid V061	Global	2000-02-24 to Present	HDF-EOS2	Land cover change detection Time series analysis of surface conditions	land use/ land cover, surface radiative properties
NASA Shuttle Radar Topography Mission Global 1 arc second V003	Global Land	2000-02-11 to 2000-02-21	HGT	Global terrain mapping and analysis Geomorphological research Land use planning in variable terrain Erosion potential modeling	land use/ land cover, topography
OPERA Radiometric Terrain Corrected SAR Backscatter from Sentinel-1 Static Layers validated product (Version 1)	Global	2014-04-03 to Present	GeoTIFF XML	Long-term land cover monitoring with consistent reference layers Base mapping for change detection applications Terrain-corrected imagery for accurate spatial analysis Reference data for calibration of other SAR products Foundation for machine learning training datasets Consistent backdrop for time-series analysis	geomorphic landforms and processes, land use/ land cover,
SENTINEL-1A_SLC	Global	2014-04-03 to Present		Interferometric analysis for surface deformation detection Coherence-based change detection Polarimetric analysis for target characterization Phase-based classification of land cover Development of advanced SAR processing algorithms Time-series analysis for subtle change detection	erosion/ sedimentation, geomorphic landforms and processes, land use/ land cover, landscapes, topography
SENTINEL-1B_SLC	Global	2016-04-25 to 2021-12-24		High-resolution deformation mapping with interferometry Coherence analysis for subtle change detection Polarimetric target characterization Complex coherence analysis for vegetation structure Time-series analysis for seasonal change patterns	erosion/ sedimentation, geomorphic landforms and processes, land use/ land cover, landscapes, topography
Sentinel-1C Dual Polarization High Resolution Ground Range Detected Product	Global	2025-01-01 to Present	SAFE	Urban change detection and development monitoring Land cover classification with improved feature distinction	erosion/ sedimentation, geomorphic landforms and processes, land use/ land cover, topography
VIIRS/JPSS1 Land Surface Temperature/Emissivity Daily L3 Global 1km SIN Grid Day V002	Global	2018-01-01 to Present	HDF-EOS5	Surface thermal condition monitoring Climate change impact studies on land surface Thermal anomaly detection Ground frost mapping and monitoring	surface radiative properties, surface thermal properties
VIIRS/NPP Moderate Resolution 6-Min L1B Swath 750 m	Global	2021-12-15 to Present	HDF5 NetCDF-4	Multispectral environmental monitoring Land surface characterization Input for higher-level algorithms Vegetation monitoring Surface temperature retrieval input	land use/ land cover, surface thermal properties

Land Surface Datasets

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Dataset Sort descending	Version	Platforms	Instruments	Temporal Extent	Spatial Extent
MERRA-2 inst1_2d_asm_Nx: 2d,1-Hourly,Instantaneous,Single-Level,Assimilation,Single-Level Diagnostics 0.625 x 0.5 degree V5.12.4 (M2I1NXASM) at GES DISC	5.12.4	MERRA-2	NOT APPLICABLE	1980-01-01 to Present	N: 90 S: -90 E: 180 W: -180
MERRA-2 instM_2d_asm_Nx: 2d,Monthly mean,Single-Level,Assimilation,Single-Level Diagnostics 0.625 x 0.5 degree V5.12.4 (M2IMNXASM) at GES DISC	5.12.4	MERRA-2	NOT APPLICABLE	1980-01-01 to Present	N: 90 S: -90 E: 180 W: -180
MERRA-2 instU_2d_asm_Nx: 2d,diurnal,Instantaneous,Single-Level,Assimilation,Single-Level Diagnostics 0.625 x 0.5 degree V5.12.4 (M2IUNXASM) at GES DISC	5.12.4	MERRA-2	NOT APPLICABLE	1980-01-01 to Present	N: 90 S: -90 E: 180 W: -180
MERRA-2 tavg1_2d_flx_Nx: 2d,1-Hourly,Time-Averaged,Single-Level,Assimilation,Surface Flux Diagnostics 0.625 x 0.5 degree V5.12.4 (M2T1NXFLX) at GES DISC	5.12.4	MERRA-2	NOT APPLICABLE	1980-01-01 to Present	N: 90 S: -90 E: 180 W: -180
MERRA-2 tavg1_2d_lnd_Nx: 2d,1-Hourly,Time-Averaged,Single-Level,Assimilation,Land Surface Diagnostics 0.625 x 0.5 degree V5.12.4 (M2T1NXLND) at GES DISC	5.12.4	MERRA-2	NOT APPLICABLE	1980-01-01 to Present	N: 90 S: -90 E: 180 W: -180
MERRA-2 tavg1_2d_ocn_Nx: 2d,1-Hourly,Time-Averaged,Single-Level,Assimilation,Ocean Surface Diagnostics 0.625 x 0.5 degree V5.12.4 (M2T1NXOCN) at GES DISC	5.12.4	MERRA-2	NOT APPLICABLE	1980-01-01 to Present	N: 90 S: -90 E: 180 W: -180
MERRA-2 tavg1_2d_rad_Nx: 2d,1-Hourly,Time-Averaged,Single-Level,Assimilation,Radiation Diagnostics 0.625 x 0.5 degree V5.12.4 (M2T1NXRAD) at GES DISC	5.12.4	MERRA-2	NOT APPLICABLE	1980-01-01 to Present	N: 90 S: -90 E: 180 W: -180
MERRA-2 tavgM_2d_flx_Nx: 2d,Monthly mean,Time-Averaged,Single-Level,Assimilation,Surface Flux Diagnostics 0.625 x 0.5 degree V5.12.4 (M2TMNXFLX) at GES DISC	5.12.4	MERRA-2	NOT APPLICABLE	1980-01-01 to Present	N: 90 S: -90 E: 180 W: -180
MERRA-2 tavgM_2d_lnd_Nx: 2d,Monthly mean,Time-Averaged,Single-Level,Assimilation,Land Surface Diagnostics 0.625 x 0.5 degree V5.12.4 (M2TMNXLND) at GES DISC	5.12.4	MERRA-2	NOT APPLICABLE	1980-01-01 to Present	N: 90 S: -90 E: 180 W: -180
MERRA-2 tavgM_2d_ocn_Nx: 2d,Monthly mean,Time-Averaged,Single-Level,Assimilation,Ocean Surface Diagnostics 0.625 x 0.5 degree V5.12.4 (M2TMNXOCN) at GES DISC	5.12.4	MERRA-2	NOT APPLICABLE	1980-01-01 to Present	N: 90 S: -90 E: 180 W: -180

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Land Surface Data Tools

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Tool Sort descending	Description	Services
ASF MapReady	Terrain-correct, geocode, and apply polarimetric decompositions to multi-pol SAR data	Processing
Earthdata Search	Earthdata Search enables data discovery, search, comparison, visualization, and access across NASA’s Earth science data holdings.	Search and Discovery, Access, Cataloging, Cloud Computing, Downloading
FLOOD	The FLOOD viewer facilitates the use and evaluation of LANCE flood products by allowing the user to browse globally and over time, and to compare to other flood products.	Monitoring Natural Events, Search and Discovery, Visualization
Giovanni	Giovanni is a web application for accessing, visualizing, and analyzing Earth science remote sensing data without downloading the data.	Search and Discovery, Analysis, Access, Visualization, Downloading, Subsetting
OB.DAAC File Search Utility	Find and download instrument data archived at OB.DAAC using mission parameters or filename patterns, including support for wildcard searching on partial filenames.	Analysis, Search and Discovery, Visualization
Ocean Color Level 3 and 4 Browser	The Ocean Color Level 3 and 4 Browser allows users to view, download, or order global composites at various spatial and temporal scales (level 3) or get results from analyses of lower-level data (level 4).	Analysis, Search and Discovery, Visualization
RTC Stack Processor	The radiometric terrain correction (RTC) stack processor tool facilitates time-series analysis of such phenomena as flooding events, deforestation, or glacier retreat.	Analysis, Processing, Search and Discovery, Visualization
SeaDAS	Sea, earth, atmosphere Data Analysis System (SeaDAS) is a comprehensive image analysis package for the processing, display, analysis, and quality control of ocean color data.	Analysis, Visualization, Processing
VEDA	NASA's Visualization, Exploration, and Data Analysis (VEDA) project is an open-source science cyberinfrastructure for data processing, visualization, exploration, and geographic information systems (GIS) capabilities.	Access, Analysis, Processing, Visualization, Geoprocessing
Vertex	Vertex is a graphical search interface for finding synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data.	Search and Discovery, Access, Downloading, Processing, Subsetting

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Land Surface Data Access and Tools

Commonly Used Datasets for Land Surface Applications

Land Surface Datasets

Land Surface Data Tools

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