ECOSTRESS Cloud Mask data from the ECO2CLD product over Lake Tahoe, California, Nevada, United States, acquired on March 7, 2019.
View full-size imageThe 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 as well as key biomes and agricultural zones around the world and selected FLUXNET validation sites. A map of the acquisition coverage can be found on the ECOSTRESS website.
The ECO2CLD Version 1 data product provides a cloud mask that can be used to determine cloud cover for the ECO1BRAD, ECO2LSTE, ECO3ETPTJPL, ECO4ESIPTJPL, and ECO4WUE data products. The ECOSTRESS Level 2 cloud product was derived using the five calibrated thermal bands in a multispectral cloud-conservative thresholding approach for acquisitions prior to May 14, 2019. For data collected after May 15, 2019, calculations are based on data values for TIR bands 2, 4, and 5 only to accommodate direct streaming of data from the ISS as mentioned in the Known Issues section. The details of the algorithm are provided in the Algorithm Theoretical Basis Document (ATBD). The corresponding ECO1BGEO data product is required to georeference the ECO2CLD data product.
The ECO2CLD Version 1 data product contains a single cloud mask layer. Information on how to interpret the bit fields in the cloud mask is provided in section 3.1 of the User Guide.
| Characteristic | Description |
|---|---|
| Collection | ECOSTRESS |
| DOI | 10.5067/ECOSTRESS/ECO2CLD.001 |
| File Size | ~30 KB |
| Temporal Resolution | Varies |
| Temporal Extent | 2018-07-09 to Present |
| Spatial Extent | Global (+/- 52 degrees latitude) |
| Coordinate System | None (Swath) |
| Datum | N/A |
| File Format | HDF5 |
| Geographic Dimensions | 400 km x 400 km |
| Characteristic | Description |
|---|---|
| Number of Science Dataset (SDS) Layers | 1 |
| Columns/Rows | 5400 x 5632 |
| Pixel Size | 70 m |
| SDS Name | Description | Units | Data Type | Fill Value | No Data Value | Valid Range | Scale Factor |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cloud Mask | Cloud Mask | Bit Field | 8-bit unsigned integer | N/A | N/A | 0 to 255 | N/A |
| Bit Field | Long Name | Result |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | Cloud Mask Flag | 0=not determined; 1=determined |
| 1 | Final Cloud Plus Region-growing | 0=no; 1=yes |
| 2 | Final Cloud, either one of bits 2, 3 ,or 4 set | 0=no; 1=yes |
| 3 | band 4 Brightness Threshold Test | 0=no; 1=yes |
| 4 | Band 4-5 Thermal Difference test | 0=no; 1=yes |
| 5 | Land/Water Mask | 0=land; 1=water |
Information on the quality of this product is not provided.
Data acquisition gap: ECOSTRESS was launched on June 29, 2018, and moved to autonomous science operations on August 20, 2018, following a successful in-orbit checkout period. On September 29, 2018, ECOSTRESS experienced an anomaly with its primary mass storage unit (MSU). ECOSTRESS has a primary and secondary MSU (A and B). On December 5, 2018, the instrument was switched to the secondary MSU and science operations resumed. On March 14, 2019, the secondary MSU experienced a similar anomaly temporarily halting science acquisitions. On May 15, 2019, a new data acquisition approach was implemented and science acquisitions resumed. To optimize the new acquisition approach TIR bands 2, 4, and 5 are being downloaded. The data products are as previously, except the bands not downloaded contain fill values (L1 radiance and L2 emissivity). This approach was implemented from May 15, 2019, through April 28, 2023.
Data acquisition gap: From February 8 to February 16, 2020, an ECOSTRESS instrument issue resulted in a data anomaly that created striping in band 4 (10.5 micron). These data products have been reprocessed and are available for download. No ECOSTRESS data were acquired on February 17, 2020, due to the instrument being in SAFEHOLD. Data acquired following the anomaly have not been affected.
Data acquisition: ECOSTRESS is now routinely acquiring and downlinking all 5-bands of thermal infrared data for the first time since the loss of both on-board Mass Storage Units in 2018 and 2019. This feature was successfully enabled following a Data Processing Unit firmware update (version 4.1) to the payload on April 28, 2023. To better balance contiguous science data scene variables, 3-band collection is currently being interleaved with 5-band acquisitions over the orbital day/night periods.