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ECOSTRESS Science and Applications Team Meeting - Sept 16 - 18, 2025 will be hybrid. Register Here

International Workshop on High-Resolution Thermal Earth Observations, November 18 - 20, 2025 in Toulouse, France

News Flash: ECOSTRESS has received approval for operations through FY2026 with potential continued operations until FY2029, subject to a successful 2026 Senior Review!

News Flash: ECOSTRESS has now acquired over 570,000 scenes (after In Orbit Checkout)

ECOSTRESS acquires high resolution temperature and emissivity (composition) images of the Earth's surface. These are used for a variety of applications including:

• Determining how much water to put on fields for maximum crop with minimum water use
• Mapping wildfires and volcanic hazards
• Improving urban development and infrastructure
• Discovering critical mineral resources

Plants regulate their temperature by releasing water through tiny pores on their leaves called stomata.  If they have sufficient water they can maintain their temperature, but if there is insufficient water, their temperatures rise and this temperature rise can be measured with ECOSTRESS.  The images acquired by ECOSTRESS are the most detailed temperature images of the surface ever acquired from space and can be used to measure the temperature of an individual farmers field.

One of the core products that will be produced by ECOSTRESS team is the Evaporative Stress Index (ESI). ESI is a leading drought indicator - it can indicate that plants are stressed and that a drought is likely to occur providing the option for decision makers to take action.

NASA's ECOSTRESS Captures Southern France Wildfire

On August 6, 2025, NASA’s ECOSTRESS instrument captured high-resolution thermal imagery of an active wildfire front in the Aude department of southern France. The fire began earlier that week under extreme heatwave conditions affecting much of the region. The image above shows intense land surface temperatures during a key growth phase at 9:25:50 AM local time (GMT+2) on August 6th. In the ECOSTRESS thermal map, temperatures range from 24 degrees C (75 degrees F) in cooler, unaffected areas (purple) to 68 degrees C (155 degrees F) in the most active fire zones (yellow). This wildfire, showing multiple high-temperature cores, has burned across rural landscapes and forested hills, contributing to widespread smoke impacts and straining firefighting resources. It is one of several wildfires burning simultaneously across southern France during this period which is driven by drought, dry vegetation, and strong winds.

The visual was created by a 17-year-old student at Arnold O. Beckman High School as part of the UCLA COSMOS program.

ECOSTRESS (ECOsystem Spaceborne Thermal Radiometer Experiment on Space Station) uses a multispectral thermal infrared radiometer to detect fine scale variations in surface temperature, with a spatial resolution of approximately 70 meters. The instrument plays a key role in wildfire monitoring by identifying hotspots, tracking fire spread, and informing emergency response.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the ECOSTRESS mission for the Earth Science Division in the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. ECOSTRESS is an Earth Venture Instrument mission; the program is managed by NASA's Earth System Science Pathfinder program at the agency's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia.

Credits: Qianle (Bill) Chen (Arnold O. Beckman High School) and Dr. Joshua B. Fisher (Chapman University)