Land Surface Temperature 2012-2024 (raster 1km), Ground-Based Observations for Validation project sites - version 5.0.0, Dec 2025

Land Surface Temperature (LST) is the radiative skin temperature of the land surface, as measured from remote sensing instruments. It represents the temperature of the uppermost surface of the Earth (such as soil, vegetation, or urban materials), and is derived from thermal infrared radiation emitted by the surface. LST is expressed in degrees Celsius or Kelvin and differs from air temperature measured at standard meteorological stations.

The GBOV service (Ground-Based Observations for Validation) is a project funded by the European Commission. Its objective is to provide analysis-ready validation data to support the evaluation of Earth Observation products. The core aim of GBOV is to generate upscaled products derived from ground-based measurements.

This dataset consists of Land Products (LPs) generated using longwave in-situ measurements collected from stations located in North America, Europe, Australia, Africa and Asia. These ground data are combined with ESA-CCI LST data and ERA5 Skin Temperature data to build this upscaled LST LP.