0000000000034695
AUTHOR
Joan M. Galve
Comparison of Split-Window and Single-Channel Methods for Land Surface Temperature Retrieval from MODIS and AATSR Data
In this study, two different methods for retrieving the Land Surface Temperature (LST) from Terra/Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) and Envisat/Advanced Along Track Scanning Radiometer (AATSR) data are compared against a database of ground measured LSTs. These are the split-window (SW) and the single-channel (SC) methods. The SW method expresses LST as a combination of the brightness temperatures in the 11 iquestm and 12 iquestm channels with coefficients that can have local or global validity, depending on the way they are obtained. SC methods are based on the atmospheric radiative transfer equation. To solve this equation, convenient atmospheric temperature and water v…
Automatic generation of emissivity maps on a European scale
The remote sensing measurement of the land surface temperature from satellites provides an overview of this magnitude on a continuous and regular basis. The study of its evolution in time and space is a critical factor in many scientific fields such as weather forecasting, detection of forest fires, climate change, and so on. The main problem of making this measurement from satellite data is the need to correct the effects of the atmosphere and the surface emissivity. In this work, these corrections have been made using a split-window algorithm. The aim was to define an enhanced vegetation cover method and develop a system that used it, in order to automatically generate maps of land surfac…
Temperature and emissivity separation from ASTER data for low spectral contrast surfaces
Abstract The performance of Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) thermal infrared (TIR) data product algorithms was evaluated for low spectral contrast surfaces (such as vegetation and water) in a test site close to Valencia, Spain. Concurrent ground measurements of surface temperature, emissivity, and atmospheric radiosonde profiles were collected at the test site, which is a thermally homogeneous area of rice crops with nearly full vegetation cover in summer. Using the ground data and the local radiosonde profiles, at-sensor radiances were simulated for the ASTER TIR channels and compared with L1B data (calibrated at-sensor radiances) showing discrepancies up…
Ground measurements for the validation of land surface temperatures derived from AATSR and MODIS data
Abstract An experimental site was set up in a large, flat and homogeneous area of rice crops for the validation of satellite derived land surface temperature (LST). Experimental campaigns were held in the summers of 2002–2004, when rice crops show full vegetation cover. LSTs were measured radiometrically along transects covering an area of 1 km 2 . A total number of four thermal radiometers were used, which were calibrated and inter-compared through the campaigns. Radiometric temperatures were corrected for emissivity effects using field emissivity and downwelling sky radiance measurements. A database of ground-based LSTs corresponding to morning, cloud-free overpasses of Envisat/Advanced A…
A Cloudless land atmosphere radiosounding database for generating land surface temperature retrieval algorithms
A database of global, cloud-free, atmospheric radiosounding profiles was compiled with the aim of simulating radiometric measurements from satellite-borne sensors in the thermal infrared. The objective of the simulation is to generate split-window (SW) and dual-angle (DA) algorithms for the retrieval of land surface temperature (LST) from Terra/Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) and Envisat/advanced along track scanning radiometer (AATSR) data. The database contains 382 radiosonde profiles acquired over land, with nearly-uniform distribution of precipitable water between 0 and 5.5 cm. Radiative transfer calculations were performed with the MODTRAN 4 code. Different viewin…
Evaluation of different methods to retrieve the hemispherical downwelling irradiance in the thermal infrared region for field measurements
International audience; The thermal infrared hemispherical downwelling irradiance (HDI) emitted by the atmosphere and surrounding elements contributes through reflection to the signal measured over an observed surface by remote sensing. This irradiance must be estimated in order to obtain accurate values of land-surface temperature (LST). There are some fast methods to measure the HDI with a single measurement pointing to the sky at a specified viewing direction, but these methods require completely cloud-free or cloudy skies, and they do not account for the radiative contribution of surrounding elements. Another method is the use of a diffuse reflectance panel (usually, a rough gold-coated…
Soil Moisture Effect on Thermal Infrared (8–13-μm) Emissivity
Thermal infrared (TIR) emissivities of soils with different textures were measured for several soil moisture (SM) contents under controlled conditions using the Box method and a high-precision multichannel TIR radiometer. The results showed a common increase of emissivity with SM at water contents lower than the field capacity. However, this dependence is negligible for higher water contents. The highest emissivity variations were observed in sandy soils, particularly in the 8-9-μm range due to water adhering to soil grains and decreasing the reflectance in the 8-9-μm quartz doublet region. Thus, in order to model the emissivity dependence on soil water content, different approaches were st…
Laboratory calibration and field measurement of land surface temperature and emissivity using thermal infrared multiband radiometers
Accurate ground measurements of land surface temperature (LST) are necessary for validating satellite LST products. In order to provide reliable data, ground radiometers must be calibrated with reference to an international standard, and radiometric temperatures must be corrected for land surface emissivity. As opposed to water, land surface emissivity is not usually known for many ground covers, so an emissivity value has to be assumed, assigned from spectral emissivity libraries or measured for each land cover and spectral band considered. The aim of this study is to show the laboratory calibration and the methodology for simultaneous field measurements of LST and emissivity employed in t…
Estimation of atmospheric water vapour content from direct measurements of radiance in the thermal infrared region
Atmospheric water vapour content is a required parameter in thermal infrared (TIR) to carry out processes such as atmospheric correction or retrieving atmospheric factors (downwelling or upwelling irradiance, transmittance of the atmosphere and so on). This study proposes an alternative method to the ones already in use to measure water vapour content from direct measurements of downwelling atmospheric radiance in the TIR range. It was possible to estimate a linear relationship between atmospheric water vapour and downwelling atmospheric radiance using a simulated study, based on data from a radiosounding database. A subsequent validation concludes that it is possible to obtain water vapour…
Towards the Operational Spatialization of the Single Band Thermal Atmospheric Correction. Application to Landsat 7 ETM+
This work aims to improve the accuracy in Land Surface Temperature (LST) from single-channel thermal sensors by providing spatialized maps of transmittance, upwelling and downwelling atmospheric radiances required in the radiative transfer equation. Two different techniques are introduced for the estimation of pixel-by-pixel atmospheric parameters, focusing on the correction of Landsat Thermal Infrared (TIR) data. First technique is based on the linearization of the atmospheric parameters with the total column water vapor (W), extracted from the MOD05 product, whereas a second technique uses the Single Band Atmospheric Correction (SBAC) tool. Ground-measured values of LST in an agricultural…
Lysimeter assessment of the Simplified Two-Source Energy Balance model and eddy covariance system to estimate vineyard evapotranspiration
Abstract Estimation of crop water needs plays a key role in the water resource management in arid and semi-arid regions. Actual evapotranspiration (ETa) becomes the key term in both water and energy balances at this point. In this work we focus on vineyard due to the significance of this crop for La Mancha region, Spain, with the greatest concentration of vineyards in the world. Eddy-covariance (EC) technique has been traditionally used for ground observations of ETa. One of the aims of this work is to assess the feasibility of an EC system under the challenging conditions of a small drip-irrigated vineyard in a semi-arid environment. Two-source energy balance modelling allows for ETa estim…
Long-term accuracy assessment of land surface temperatures derived from the Advanced Along-Track Scanning Radiometer
Abstract The accuracy of land surface temperatures (LSTs) derived from the Advanced Along-Track Scanning Radiometer (AATSR) was assessed in a test site in Valencia, Spain from 2002 to 2008. AATSR LSTs were directly compared with concurrent ground measurements over homogeneous, full-vegetated rice fields in the conventional temperature-based (T-based) method. We also applied the new radiance-based (R-based) method over bare soil and water surfaces, where ground LST measurements were not available. In the R-based method, ground LSTs are simulated from AATSR brightness temperatures in the 11 μm band and radiative transfer simulations using surface emissivity data and atmospheric water vapor an…
An Atmospheric Radiosounding Database for Generating Land Surface Temperature Algorithms
A database of global, cloud-free, and atmospheric radiosounding profiles was compiled with the aim of simulating radiometric measurements from satellite-borne sensors in the thermal infrared. The objective of the simulated data is to generate split-window (SW) and dual-angle (DA) algorithms for the retrieval of land surface temperature (LST) from Terra/Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) and Envisat/Advanced Along Track Scanning Radiometer (AATSR) data. The database contains 382 radiosounding profiles acquired over land, with nearly uniform distribution of precipitable water between 0.02 and 5.5 cm. Radiative transfer calculations were performed with the MODTRAN 4 code for…
Temperature-based and radiance-based validations of the V5 MODIS land surface temperature product
[1] The V5 level 2 land surface temperature (LST) product of the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) was validated over homogeneous rice fields in Valencia, Spain, and the Hainich forest in Germany. For the Valencia site, ground LST measurements were compared with the MOD11_L2 product in the conventional temperature-based (T-based) method. We also applied the alternative radiance-based (R-based) method, with in situ LSTs calculated from brightness temperatures in band 31 through radiative transfer simulations using temperature and water vapor profiles and surface emissivity data. At the Valencia site, profiles were obtained from local radiosonde measurements and from Natio…
Evaluation of split-window and dual-angle correction methods for land surface temperature retrieval from Envisat/Advanced Along Track Scanning Radiometer (AATSR) data
[1] Land surface temperature (LST) can be derived from thermal infrared remote sensing data provided that atmospheric and emissivity effects are corrected for. In this paper, two correction methods were evaluated using a database of ground LST measurements and concurrent Envisat/Advanced Along Track Scanning Radiometer (AATSR) data. They were the split-window (SW) method, which uses two channels at 11 and 12 μm, and the dual-angle (DA) method, using one single channel (11 μm) at two observation angles (close to nadir and around 55° forward). The ground LST measurements were performed in a large, flat, and thermally homogeneous area of rice fields during the summers of 2002–2005, when the cr…
Angular dependence of the emissivity of bare soils in the thermal infrared
Emissivity is one of the main factors to take into account when studying processes that take place in the Earth surface by using radiance measurements in the thermal infrared, such as surface energy balance, land surface temperature (LST) retrieval, classification of different types of surface, etc. For this reason it is necessary to study the factors that can influence the emissivity. The present work evaluates one of these factors: the variation of the emissivity with the zenithal observation angle over bare soils, specifically the variation of the relative emissivity calculated from measurements of radiances, almost simultaneous, at nadir (0o) and at a certain angle (Θ). The measurements…
Angular variations of brightness surface temperatures derived from dual-view measurements of the Advanced Along-Track Scanning Radiometer using a new single band atmospheric correction method
Abstract Surface temperatures derived from remote sensing data over heterogeneous, non-isothermal land surfaces depend on the viewing and solar angles mainly due to variations in sunlit and shaded fractions of the different elements in the field of view. The near-simultaneous dual-view capability of the Advanced Along-Track Scanning Radiometer (AATSR) can be used to estimate differences in brightness surface temperatures (BSTs) between the nadir (satellite zenith angle of 0°–21.7°) and forward views (53°–55.6°) in the 11 and 12 μm bands. BST is defined as the black-body temperature corresponding to the radiance at surface level (that is, corrected for atmospheric absorption and emission). W…
Monitoring 10-m LST from the Combination MODIS/Sentinel-2, Validation in a High Contrast Semi-Arid Agroecosystem
Downscaling techniques offer a solution to the lack of high-resolution satellite Thermal InfraRed (TIR) data and can bridge the gap until operational TIR missions accomplishing spatio-temporal requirements are available. These techniques are generally based on the Visible Near InfraRed (VNIR)-TIR variable relations at a coarse spatial resolution, and the assumption that the relationship between spectral bands is independent of the spatial resolution. In this work, we adopted a previous downscaling method and introduced some adjustments to the original formulation to improve the model performance. Maps of Land Surface Temperature (LST) with 10-m spatial resolution were obtained as output fro…
Land Surface Temperature From the Advanced Along-Track Scanning Radiometer: Validation Over Inland Waters and Vegetated Surfaces
The land surface temperature (LST) product of the Advanced Along-Track Scanning Radiometer (AATSR) was validated with ground measurements at the following two thermally homogeneous sites: Lake Tahoe, CA/NV, USA, and a large rice field close to Valencia, Spain. The AATSR LST product is based on the split-window technique using the 11- and 12- mum channels. The algorithm coefficients are provided for 13 different land-cover classes plus one lake class (index i). Coefficients are weighted by the vegetation-cover fraction (f). In the operational implementation of the algorithm, i and f are assigned from a global classification and monthly fractional vegetation-cover maps with spatial resolution…
Validation of Landsat-7/ETM+ Thermal-Band Calibration and Atmospheric Correction With Ground-Based Measurements
Ground-based measurements of land-surface temperature (LST) performed in a homogeneous site of rice crops close to Valencia, Spain, were used for the validation of the calibration and the atmospheric correction of the Landsat-7 Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+) thermal band. Atmospheric radiosondes were launched at the test site around the satellite overpasses. Field-emissivity measurements of the near-full-vegetated rice crops were also performed. Seven concurrences of Landsat-7 and ground data were obtained in July and August 2004-2007. The ground measurements were used with the MODTRAN-4 radiative transfer model to simulate at-sensor radiances and brightness temperatures, which were c…
Accuracy assessment of land surface temperature retrievals from MSG2-SEVIRI data
The accuracy of the Land Surface Temperature (LST) product generated operationally by the EUMETSAT Land Surface Analysis Satellite Applications Facility (LSA SAF) from the data registered by the Spinning Enhanced Visible and Infrared Imager (SEVIRI) on board the geostationary METEOSAT Second Generation 2 (MSG2, Meteosat 9) satellite was assessed on two test sites in Eastern Spain: a homogeneous, fully vegetated rice field and a high-plain, homogeneous area of shrubland. The LSA SAF LSTs were compared with ground LST measurements in the conventional temperature-based (T-based) method. We also validated the LSA SAF LST product by using an alternative radiance-based (R-based) method, with grou…