MOD21C1.061 Terra Land Surface Temperature and 3-Band Emissivity Daily L3 Global 0.05 Deg CMG

  • The MOD21C1 dataset provides daily Land Surface Temperature (LST) and 3-band emissivity data at a 0.05-degree global resolution.

  • The data is available from February 24, 2000, to October 15, 2025, with a daily cadence.

  • The dataset includes bands for daytime and nighttime LST, emissivity bands, quality control, and view angles.

  • This dataset has no restrictions on use, sale, or redistribution when acquired through the LP DAAC.
MODIS/061/MOD21C1
Dataset Availability
2000-02-24T00:00:00Z–2026-03-16T00:00:00Z
Dataset Producer
Earth Engine Snippet
ee.ImageCollection("MODIS/061/MOD21C1")
Cadence
1 Day
Tags
climate daily emissivity global lst nasa surface-temperature terra usgs

Description

The MOD21C1 dataset is produced daily in a 0.05 degree (5,600 meters at the equator) Climate Modeling Grid (CMG) from daytime Level 2 Gridded (L2G) intermediate LST products. The L2G process maps the daily MOD21 swath granules onto a sinusoidal MODIS grid and stores all observations falling over a gridded cell for a given day. The MOD21C1 algorithm sorts through these observations for each cell and estimates the final LST value as an average from all observations that are cloud free and have good LST&E accuracies. The daytime average is weighted by the observation coverage for that cell. Only observations having an observation coverage greater than a 15% threshold are considered. The MOD21C1 product contains the calculated LST as well as quality control, the three emissivity bands, view zenith angle, and time of observation.

Note that scale factors and offsets described in the MODIS documentation for MOD21C1 bands are already applied to assets ingested into Earth Engine.

Documentation:

Bands

Bands

Pixel size: 1000 meters (all bands)

Name Units Min Max Scale Offset Pixel Size Description
Count_Day 1 65535 1000 meters

Count of Daytime Input Values
Count_Night 1 65535 1000 meters

Count of Nighttime Input Values
QC_Day 1000 meters

Quality Control for Daytime LST and Emissivity
QC_Night 1000 meters

Quality Control for Nighttime LST and Emissivity
LST_Day K 7500 65535 0.02 1000 meters

Average Daytime Land Surface Temperature
LST_Night K 7500 65535 0.02 1000 meters

Average Nighttime Land Surface Temperature
LST_Day_err K 1 255 0.04 1000 meters

Root-mean-square-error Daytime Land Surface Temperature
LST_Night_err K 1 255 0.04 1000 meters

Average Nighttime Land Surface Temperature
Day_view_angle deg 0 130 -65 1000 meters

Average Daytime View Zenith Angle
Night_view_angle deg 0 130 -65 1000 meters

Average Nighttime View Zenith Angle
Day_view_time h 0 120 0.2 1000 meters

Average Daytime View Time (UTC)
Night_view_time h 0 120 0.2 1000 meters

Average Nighttime View Time (UTC)
Emis_29_Day 1 255 0.002 0.49 1000 meters

Average Daytime Band 29 Emissivity
Emis_29_Night 1 255 0.002 0.49 1000 meters

Average Nighttime Band 29 Emissivity
Emis_29_Day_err 1 65535 0.0001 1000 meters

Root-mean-square-error Daytime Band 29 Emissivity
Emis_29_Night_err 1 65535 0.0001 1000 meters

Root-mean-square-error Nighttime Band 29 Emissivity
Emis_31_Day 1 255 0.002 0.49 1000 meters

Average Daytime Band 31 Emissivity
Emis_31_Night 1 255 0.002 0.49 1000 meters

Average Nighttime Band 31 Emissivity
Emis_31_Day_err 1 65535 0.0001 1000 meters

Root-mean-square-error Daytime Band 31 Emissivity
Emis_31_Night_err 1 65535 0.0001 1000 meters

Root-mean-square-error Nighttime Band 31 Emissivity
Emis_32_Day 1 255 0.002 0.49 1000 meters

Average Daytime Band 32 Emissivity
Emis_32_Night 1 255 0.002 0.49 1000 meters

Average Nighttime Band 32 Emissivity
Emis_32_Day_err 1 65535 0.0001 1000 meters

Root-mean-square-error Daytime Band 32 Emissivity
Emis_32_Night_err 1 65535 0.0001 1000 meters

Root-mean-square-error Nighttime Band 32 Emissivity
View_Angle deg -65 1000 meters

MODIS view zenith angle
Percent_land_in_grid % 1 100 1000 meters

Percent of Land Detections in Grid Cell

Terms of Use

Terms of Use

MODIS data and products acquired through the LP DAAC have no restrictions on subsequent use, sale, or redistribution.

Citations

Citations:

DOIs

Explore with Earth Engine

Code Editor (JavaScript)

var dataset = ee.ImageCollection('MODIS/061/MOD21C1')
                  .filter(ee.Filter.date('2018-01-01', '2018-05-01'));
var landSurfaceTemperature = dataset.select('LST_Day');
var landSurfaceTemperatureVis = {
  min: 216.0,
  max: 348.0,
  palette: [
    '040274', '040281', '0502a3', '0502b8', '0502ce', '0502e6',
    '0602ff', '235cb1', '307ef3', '269db1', '30c8e2', '32d3ef',
    '3be285', '3ff38f', '86e26f', '3ae237', 'b5e22e', 'd6e21f',
    'fff705', 'ffd611', 'ffb613', 'ff8b13', 'ff6e08', 'ff500d',
    'ff0000', 'de0101', 'c21301', 'a71001', '911003'
  ],
};
Map.setCenter(6.746, 46.529, 2);
Map.addLayer(
    landSurfaceTemperature, landSurfaceTemperatureVis,
    'Average Daytime Land Surface Temperature');
Open in Code Editor
The MOD21C1 dataset is produced daily in a 0.05 degree (5,600 meters at the equator) Climate Modeling Grid (CMG) from daytime Level 2 Gridded (L2G) intermediate LST products. The L2G process maps the daily MOD21 swath granules onto a sinusoidal MODIS grid and stores all observations falling over a gridded …
MODIS/061/MOD21C1, climate,daily,emissivity,global,lst,nasa,surface-temperature,terra,usgs
2000-02-24T00:00:00Z/2026-03-16T00:00:00Z
-90 -180 90 180
Google Earth Engine