JPL built and manages the ECOSTRESS mission for NASA’s Earth Science Division in the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. ECOSTRESS is managed by NASA’s Earth System Science Pathfinder program at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. NASA/JPL-Caltech.
NASA’s ECOsystem Spaceborne Thermal Radiometer Experiment on Space Station (ECOSTRESS) captured new imagery of surface temperature in Los Angeles County. ECOSTRESS measures surface temperature rather than the air temperature reported by weather stations. The image was acquired during an extended period of high temperatures in the Los Angeles area. Cooler temperatures appear in blue; warmer temperatures in red. In the image taken on July 22 at 4:07 a.m., the hottest (reddest) areas are dark asphalt surfaces that are unshaded in daytime and remain warm through the night, such as freeways, airports, oil refineries, and parking lots. The cool (blue) areas are clouds and higher-elevation mountainous regions (dark blue).