National Surface Temperature Dataset for United States

We present a high-resolution surface temperature dataset for the continental United States, derived from Landsat 8 and 9 Collection 2 Level 2 (C2L2) data. Our workflow identifies and processes 5,911 summer scenes (May to August) with a maximum of 15% cloud cover, using Landsat Operational Land Imager (OLI) images from May 1, 2013, to August 31, 2023. The dataset ensures national coverage by leveraging the centroids of the Worldwide Reference System-2 (WRS-2) footprints, with up to 13 cloud-free scenes per centroid. The final dataset, stored in a single Hierarchical Data Format (HDF5) file, contains unmodified land surface temperature (LST) values from the original C2L2 files. The median surface temperature is also calculated across all available data for each pixel. Despite minor edge effects and occasional gaps due to cloud cover, the dataset provides a comprehensive surface temperature raster suitable for national-scale projects. This resource is crucial for understanding surface temperature variability across the United States and supports research on urban heat, environmental changes, and ecosystem assessments.