Updated4/20/2024 10:33:00
 
Land Surface Temperature
Land Surface Temperature
Description: Touch the ground and you will feel the land surface temperature. Satellites can also measure this temperature from space, and that data is plotted here. Though related, land surface temperature is not the same as air temperature since the land surface heats and cools more quickly than air. Land surface temperature is also greatly influenced by land use and cover: bare or sparsely vegetated lands such as deserts are able to heat up to much greater temperatures than forested areas at the same latitude. This land surface temperature data is extensively used for modeling weather and climate and for other applications such as agriculture.

These daily data plots are generated by averaging all of the data collected by the NOAA AMSU and DMSP SSM/I microwave sensors from 4 different polar-orbiting satellites over a 24 hour period. Blue areas are cool and orange areas are warm.

Data Source: NOAA/NESDIS/OSDPD Microwave Integrated Retrieval System Land Surface Temperature data page

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