This dataset contains monthly averaged land surface temperatures (LST) and their uncertainty estimates from the IMAGER onboard the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES-12 and GOES-13) and from the Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI) onboard GOES-16. The original surface temperatures are generated every 3 hours for GOES 12 and 13 and every hour for GOES 16, and in the L3C dataset a monthly average at each time step is provided. Data are distributed on a regular latitude-longitude grid with a resolution of 0.05ºx0.05º. The coverage is limited to land surfaces within the GOES disk, which encompasses North and South America.

LSTs are estimated from infrared measurements using a single channel algorithm in the case of GOES 12 and 13, and a split-window algorithm in the case of GOES 16. Observations are only available under clear-sky conditions. Quality of single channel algorithms is generally lower than dual channel ones, users are advised to read the respective Validation Report for more information on expected quality of these LST estimates.

The dataset was produced by the Portuguese Institute for Sea and Atmosphere (IPMA) as part of the ESA Land Surface Temperature Climate Change Initiative. The reader is referred to the LST_cci website for more information about how the data record was derived, and how to use the data and associated quality flags and estimated uncertainty.