EMIT: Imaging Spectroscopy, Surface Mineralogy, and Greenhouse Gas Products and Resources Available from the LP DAAC

This is a recording of a previous webinar entitled: “EMIT: Imaging Spectroscopy, Surface Mineralogy, and Greenhouse Gas Products and Resources Available from the LP DAAC”. This webinar was recorded on May 30, 2024.

The USGS Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center maintains the largest civilian collection of images of the Earth’s land surface. At EROS we study land change and produce land change data products used by researchers, resource managers, and policy makers across the nation and around the world. The EROS User Services team provides assistance and outreach to help users in the data community access and work with data distributed from EROS. As part of the outreach effort, the EROS User Services team provides a webinar series where we talk to staff at EROS to learn more about the data, tools, and services coming out of the USGS EROS. 

This webinar provided an overview of the Earth surface Mineral dust source InvesTigation (EMIT) data; how to access those data; and the available resources. EMIT data are available from NASA’s Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center (LP DAAC), which is located at the USGS EROS in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. The LP DAAC operates as a 30+ year partnership between the USGS and NASA and is a component of NASA’s Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS), managed by the Earth Science Data and Information System (ESDIS) Project.

The EMIT imaging spectrometer, aboard the International Space Station, measures the spectrum of light ranging from the visible to shortwave infrared (VSWIR). These data identify the distinct spectral signatures or fingerprints of surface materials present and can be applied across many scientific domains to map things like mineral types, vegetation species and health, snow grain size, water quality, dust, and greenhouse gases. The EMIT mission has embraced open science, making the entire science data system open source, enabling intercomparison and transportability between systems.

Available products include at-sensor calibrated radiance (EMITL1BRAD), estimated surface reflectance (EMITL2ARFL), estimated mineral identification (EMITL2BMIN), aggregated mineral spectral abundance (EMITL3ASA), methane enhancement data (EMITL2BCH4ENH), and estimated methane plume complexes (EMITL2BCH4PLM). Additionally, the LP DAAC provides resources and tools for working with the EMIT data. The EMIT-Data-Resources GitHub repository, see link below, contains learning-oriented Python workflows and Jupyter Notebooks designed to support scientists interested in working with EMIT. Another tool available for working with the at-sensor radiance and surface reflectance data is the Application for Extracting and Exploring Analysis Ready Samples (AppEEARS), see link below. AppEEARS allows users to easily subset, orthorectify, and convert outputs to GeoTiff, NetCDF-4 or ENVI file formats for these datasets.

Additional information on EMIT can be found at Home – EMIT (nasa.gov) and LP DAAC - EMIT Overview (usgs.gov).

A list of EMIT datasets distributed by the LP DAAC can be found at LP DAAC - Search (usgs.gov).

A PDF of the presentation from this webinar will live on the LP DAAC website at LP DAAC - E-Learning (usgs.gov).

Additional links mentioned in the video:

1. Earthdata Search
2. VISIONS (Coverage Map)
3. EMIT Data Resources on GitHub
4. Application for Extracting and Exploring Analysis Ready Samples (AρρEEARS)
5. VITALS Repository
6. EMIT Science Data System Repositories
7. LP DAAC Website

Sign up for an Earthdata Login account to access EMIT or a variety of NASA’s other Earth Science datasets. 

For any questions about EMIT data and data access or any other data, tools, or services provided by NASA’s LP DAAC, please contact lpdaac@usgs.gov 

Subscribe to the LP DAAC listserv by sending a blank email to lpdaac-join@lists.nasa.gov to stay up to date on the latest LP DAAC news.

For more information on the EROS User Group and to be notified of future webinars please visit EROS User Group | U.S. Geological Survey (usgs.gov).