About this dataset
Land surface temperature is how hot or cold the ground feels to the touch. An anomaly is when something is different from average. These maps show where Earth’s surface was warmer or cooler in the daytime than the average temperatures for the same week or month from 2001-2010. So, a land surface temperature anomaly map for May 2002 shows how that month’s average temperature was different from the average temperature for all Mays between 2001 and 2010.
What do the colors mean?
These maps show land surface temperature anomalies for a given day, week, or month compared to the average conditions during that period between 2001-2010. Places that are warmer than average are red, places that were near-normal are white, and places that are cooler than average are blue. Black means there is no data.
Images by Jesse Allen, NASA’s Earth Observatory using data courtesy of the MODIS Land Group.
Federal Geographic Data Committee Geospatial Metadata
View the FGDC Metatdata for Land Surface Temperature Anomaly [Day] (8 day)