Global Surface Emissivity Spectral Atlas (GSESA) V01

The Global Surface Emissivity Spectral Atlas (GSESA) database contains global, monthly climatology infrared emissivity functional Empirical Orthogonal Function (EOF) scores in 0.25 x 0.25 latitude-longitude resolution. An eigenvector file and a reader file allow customers to produce emissivity spectra. The emissivity functional EOF scores were developed using the Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer (IASI) instrument on the METOP-A, METOP-B, and METOP-C satellites for the period 2007-07-01 to 2025-01-31. An inversion scheme, dealing with cloudy as well as cloud-free radiances observed with ultraspectral infrared (IR) sounders, was developed to simultaneously retrieve atmospheric thermodynamic and surface or cloud microphysical parameters. This inversion scheme was applied to the IASI instrument. Rapidly produced surface spectral emissivity (SSE) is initially evaluated through quality control checks on the retrievals of other impacted surface and atmospheric parameters. The GSESA data are provided in binary format, with sample reader files that can be used in a Fortan IDE to read a functional emissivity EOF compressed file (e.g., MFEMI_MONTH01_A_V5P.bin) and its EOF eigenvector file (IASI_B_EV_FUNC_GLOBAL_V4.bin) to produce spectral emissivity at a certain location (latitude and longitude). A sample reader file can be used in a Matlab IDE is also provided. These data were created with funding from the NASA Internal Scientist Funding Model for the National Airborne Sounder Testbed-Interferometer (NAST-I).

Data and Resources

Additional Info

Field Value
Maintainer Earthdata Forum
Last Updated September 15, 2026, 03:20 (UTC)
Created April 1, 2025, 16:06 (UTC)
accessLevel public
bureauCode {026:00}
catalog_conformsTo https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
harvest_object_id 9473dfe9-89a3-45e0-8eb0-10ea1bc3e404
harvest_source_id b99e41c6-fe79-4c19-bbc3-9b6c8111bfac
harvest_source_title Science Discovery Engine
identifier 10.5067/METOP/GSESA/L3.V01
license https://www.usa.gov/government-works
modified 2026-09-07T22:16:02Z
programCode {026:000}
publisher NASA/LARC/SD/ASDC
resource-type Dataset
source_datajson_identifier true
source_hash 6b6e99c74ff8f9ef8e001d9072ebb8c8f8309482985cda55b770af2a320801d9
source_schema_version 1.1
spatial ["CARTESIAN", [{"EastBoundingCoordinate": 180, "NorthBoundingCoordinate": 90, "SouthBoundingCoordinate": -90, "WestBoundingCoordinate": -180}]]
temporal 2007-07-01/2024-03-31
theme {"Earth Science"}