Fundamentals to use Hyperspectral and Thermal NASA Earth Observations
Overview
The new generation of NASA Earth Observations (EO) is bringing unprecedented spectral and temporal resolution, marking a new era for satellite remote sensing. This advancement promises to greatly benefit society by providing richer information on Earth’s resources and environmental changes. This two-day webinar is designed for researchers, scientists, and data analysts eager to leverage this wealth of information. We will cover the fundamentals necessary to work with NASA’s high-spectral resolution EO data, spanning the Visible to Short-Wavelength Infrared (VSWIR) and Long-Wavelength Infrared (LWIR) parts of the electromagnetic spectrum. The webinar will delve into: measurement acquisition, standard preprocessing methods, and data discovery and handling for key datasets like the Earth Surface Mineral Dust Source Investigation (EMIT), ECOsystem Spaceborne Thermal Radiometer Experiment on Space Station (ECOSTRESS), and Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, Ocean Ecosystem (PACE) missions. We will also include tutorials on how to synergistically use these EO datasets. These hands-on exercises will utilize open-source code and cloud platforms, specifically Python in JupyterHub cloud infrastructure and JavaScript in Google Earth Engine (GEE).
This workshop is hosted by NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, NASA Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center(LP DAAC), NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), and NASA Goddard Space Flight Center with support from the NASA Openscapes project. Hands-on exercises will be executed from a Jupyter Hub on the Openscapes 2i2c cloud instance. Enter your username and password to login and select 14.8 GB RAM, upto 3.75 CPUs Python Resource Allocation.
Agenda
July 21, 2025
| Time (EDT) | Description | Lead / Instructor | Slides | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1:00 pm – 1:20 pm | Introduction, overview, learning objectives, and logistics of the webinar | Africa Flores-Anderson | View Download | |
| 1:25 pm – 1:40 pm | ECOSTRESS Applications | Christine Lee | View Download | |
| 1:40 pm – 1:50 pm | EMIT Applications | Dana Chadwick | View Download | |
| 1:50 pm – 2:20 pm | PACE Mission Overview and Applications | Morgaine McKibben | View Download | |
| 2:20 pm – 2:35 pm | Questions/Answers(break) | |||
| 2:35 pm – 3:20 pm | Introduction to Visible-Shortwave Infrared Imaging Spectroscopy | David Thompson | View Download | |
| 3:20 pm – 4:05 pm | Fundamentals of Thermal InfraRed (TIR) Remote Sensing: Theory, Retrievals, Science | Glynn Hulley | View Download | |
| 4:05 pm – 4:35 pm | NASA Earthdata, Data Access, and Openscapes Cloud Intro | Erik Bolch | View Download | |
| 4:35 pm – 5:00 pm | GEE Platform Overview | Emil Cherrington | View Download |
July 22, 2025
| Time (EDT) | Description | Lead / Instructor | Slides | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1:00 pm – 1:20 pm | Cloud Workspace Setup | Erik Bolch, Emil Cherrington | ||
| 1:20 pm - 1:30 pm | Review of satellite datasets to use | Africa Flores-Anderson | View Download | |
| 1:30 pm – 2:00 pm | Exploring ECOSTRESS L2T Land Surface Temperature | Ayia Lindquist, Erik Bolch, Mahsa Jami | ||
| 2:00 pm – 2:45 pm | Exploring EMIT L2A Surface Reflectance | Erik Bolch, Mahsa Jami, Ayia Lindquist | ||
| 2:45 pm – 2:50 pm | Break | |||
| 2:50 pm – 3:30 pm | Exploring PACE OCI L2 Surface Reflectance | Africa Flores-Anderson, Erik Bolch, Mahsa Jami | ||
| 3:30 pm - 3:35 pm | Recap and Transitioning Cloud Environments | Africa Flores-Anderson | View Download | |
| 3:35 pm - 4:30 pm | Overview of PACE processing Hyperspectral Toolkit in GEE | Emil Cherrington | View Download | |
| 4:30 pm – 4:55 pm | EMIT and PACE Tutorial and Application Example Over Land | Africa Flores-Anderson | ||
| 4:55 pm – 5:00 pm | Final Remarks | Africa Flores-Anderson, Jennifer Brennan |
Learning Outcomes:
- Imaging Spectroscopy and thermal measurements 101, the electromagnetic spectrum and sensor specific considerations
- How to access EMIT, PACE and ECOSTRESS data
- Data Preprocessing and Exploratory Analysis
- How to manipulate, compare, and visualize EMIT, PACE and ECOSTRESS data
Learning Focus:
- Practical Skills for Science
- Knowledge and Career Level: Beginner, Intermediate
Target Audience:
- Earth and Planetary Surface Processes
- Global Environmental Change
- Ocean Sciences
- Science and Society
- Biogeosciences
Additional Resources
- NASA Earthdata Website
- NASA Earthdata Search - Find and Access NASA Earthdata datasets
- LP DAAC Website - Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center
- OB DAAC Website - Ocean Biology Distributed Active Archive Center
- LPDAAC-Data-Resources GitHub - User resources that demonstrate how to use LP DAAC tools, services, and data
ECOSTRESS
- ECOSTRESS Mission Website
- ECOSTRESS Collections - List of Available EMIT Collections and Details
- ECOSTRESS-Data-Resources - Tutorials and Scripts for Accessing and Working with ECOSTRESS Data
- JPL ECOSTRESS Tutorials - Additional ECOSTRESS Tutorials
- AppEEARS Tool - Easily search, subset, and transform ECOSTRESS data
EMIT
- EMIT Mission Website
- EMIT Collections - List of Available EMIT Collections and Details
- VISIONS Data Portal - Browse Coverage and Forecasts
- EMIT-Data-Resources - Tutorials and Scripts for Accessing and Working with ECOSTRESS Data
- Previous Webinars - YouTube playlist of previous EMIT webinars
- AppEEARS Tool - Easily search, subset, and transform EMIT data
PACE
- PACE Mission Website - Main webpage for NASA’s Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem (PACE) mission
- PACE Data Access - Live, up-to-date page with key information for all users of PACE data in one place. Start here. Bookmark and check back over time for updates
- PACE Data Products - Live, up-to-date page with all data products currently available from PACE, plus all products planned for future release
- PACE Collections - List of PACE data collections available now on NASA Earthdata and details
- PACE Data Tutorials at the Help Hub - Collection of Jupyter notebook, video, and other tutorials to help you retrieve and use data from
- Reprojecting and Formatting PACE Tutorial - A Jupyter Notebook to project PACE data from swath to grid and save as cloud-optimized geotiffs
- PACE OCI Toolkit - Google Earth Engine (GEE) JavaScript-based tools for working with NASA PACE OCI data
- About SeaDAS Tool - NASA article about the SeaDAS tool.
Contact Info
Email: LPDAAC@usgs.gov
Voice: +1-866-573-3222
Organization: Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center (LP DAAC)¹
Website: https://www.earthdata.nasa.gov/centers/lp-daac
¹Work performed under USGS contract 140G0121D0001 for NASA contract NNG14HH33I.