0000000000067346
AUTHOR
Raquel Niclòs
Evaluation of the MOD16A2 evapotranspiration product in an agricultural area of Argentina, the Pampas region
The Pampas Region is a big plain of approximately 520,000 km2 in Argentina. It is essential to estimate evapotranspiration (ET) in this region since the primary productivity is directly linked to water availability. Information provided by satellite missions allows monitoring the spatial and temporal variability of ET. In the current study, we evaluated the version 006 of MOD16A2 product (MOD16A2.006) of Potential Evapotranspiration (ETp) and Actual Evapotranspiration (ETa) in Argentinian Pampas Region (APR). MOD16A2.006 product was compared with Crop Evapotranspiration (ETc), calculated with local measurements from the Oficina de Riesgo Agropecuario (ORA), and Crop Coefficient (Kc) data (f…
An Autonomous System to Take Angular Thermal-Infrared Measurements for Validating Satellite Products
An autonomous system for field land surface temperature (LST) measurements taken at different observation angles was developed to be deployed easily at any conventional meteorological tower station. The system permits ground-truth data to be acquired on a continuous basis, and angularly scans land and sky hemispheres with a single thermal-infrared (TIR) radiometer. This paper describes the autonomous angular system and the methodology to assess ground-truth LST and relative-to-nadir emissivity data from system measurements. Ground-truth LSTs were used to validate satellite-retrieved LST products at two experimental sites (rice crop and shrubland areas). The relative-to-nadir emissivity valu…
Early assessment of crop yield from remotely sensed water stress and solar radiation data
Soil moisture (SM) available for evapotranspiration is crucial for food security, given the significant interannual yield variability of rainfed crops in large agricultural regions. Also, incoming solar radiation (Rs) influences the photosynthetic rate of vegetated surfaces and can affect productivity. The aim of this work is to evaluate the ability of crop water stress and Rs remotely sensed data to forecast yield at regional scale. Temperature Vegetation Dryness Index (TVDI) was computed as an indicator of crop water stress and soil moisture availability. TVDI during critical growth stage of crops was calculated from MODIS products: MODIS/AQUA 8-day composite LST at 1 km and 16-day compos…
Assessment of the Potential Evapotranspiration MODIS Product Using Ground Measurements in the Pampas
Evapotranspiration is the hydrological variable of greatest relevance in the Argentina Pampas Region (APR). The estimation of potential evapotranspiration (PET) in this area becomes essential since primary productivity is directly linked to water availability. In order to evaluate the MOD16_A2 product of evapotranspiration (ET), a comparison with in situ measurements was conducted. We used ET data provided by the Oficina de Riesgo Agropecuario, corresponding to 24 stations placed in the region covering all seasons for the years 2012 to 2014. Results show an overestimation of 86% and 52% in Autumn-Winter and Spring-Summer, respectively. Mean Absolut Error (MAE) range between ±0.9 and ±2.1 mm…
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…
Comparison of Radiosonde and Remote Sensing Data to Evaluate Convective Forest Fire Risk: The Haines Index
Haines Index (HI) has been associated with convective forest fires risk. Temperatures and humidities in low atmospheric levels are required to compute HI and usually, atmospheric sounding data are used for this purpose. However, spatial and temporal resolutions of these data are coarse and remote sensing data could improve them. Therefore, the aim of this work is to test remote sensing data from the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument on board the EOS Aqua satellite, specifically the Level 2 V6 products (AIRX2RET and AIRS2RET), for this purpose. First, we validated the remote sensing data with radiosonde daytime and nighttime data located in the Iberian Peninsula in 2014. Signifi…
Foam effect on the sea surface emissivity in the 8–14μm region
[1] The effect of foam on the sea surface emission has been studied in the microwave region, but its effect on thermal infrared emissivity and temperature has not been sufficiently analyzed in the literature. This paper presents thermal infrared measurements of foam-covered seawaters carried out under controlled conditions using a multichannel radiometer working in the 8–14 μm region. The experimental data show a negligible foam effect at low observation angles but a significant increase of emissivity with foam at angles above 45°. Differences between foam and foam-free emissivities are about +0.04 for observation angles of 65°, depending slightly on the radiometric spectral band. The effec…
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…
RAMS-forecasts comparison of typical summer atmospheric conditions over the Western Mediterranean coast
Abstract The Regional Atmospheric Modeling System (RAMS) has been used in order to perform a high-resolution numerical simulation of two meteorological events related to the most common atmospheric environments during the summer over the Western Mediterranean coast: mesoscale circulations and western synoptic advections. In this regard, we take advantage of the operational RAMS configuration running within the real-time forecasting system environment already implemented over this Mediterranean area, precisely in the Valencia Region and nearby areas. The attention of this paper is especially focused on identifying the main features of both events and the ability of the model in resolving the…
Proposal and Validation of an Emissivity-Dependent Algorithm to Retrieve Sea-Surface Temperature From MSG-SEVIRI Data
A frequent and accurate determination of sea-surface temperature (SST) would permit an improvement in both the forecasting of natural hazards and the monitoring of the effects of climate change. The Meteosat Second Generation (MSG) spinning enhanced visible and infrared imager (SEVIRI) (MSG-SEVIRI) offers this possibility, since it has a temporal resolution of 15 min. Current algorithms for SST retrieval from MSG-SEVIRI data use angular-dependent coefficients, but they do not use sea-surface emissivity (SSE) as an explicit input. This letter proposes a both angular- and emissivity-dependent split-window equation, together with simple equations to estimate SSE and atmospheric water-vapor con…
Autonomous Measurements of Sea Surface Temperature Using In Situ Thermal Infrared Data
Abstract In situ and autonomous measurements of sea surface temperature (SST) have been performed with a thermal infrared radiometer mounted on a fixed oil rig. The accuracy limit was established at ±0.3 K for these SST measurements in order to meet the requirements of the Tropical Ocean Global Atmosphere (TOGA) program for global climate research and the Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) mission for salinity retrieval. With this aim, the optimal observation angle and spectral channel for SST measurements have been identified. Then, a methodology has been developed for the radiometer calibration and the emissivity correction, including the reflection of the downwelling sky radiance, w…
Comparison of in Situ Land Surface Temperatures Measured with Radiometers and Pyrgeometers: Consequences for Calibration and Validation of Thermal Infrared Sensors
Land surface temperature (LST) is a key magnitude in many exchange processes between the surface and the atmosphere. LST measurement from satellites provides an efficient way to monitor its change across wide areas on Earth, an essential issue being LST validation using in situ measurements to assess its accuracy and precision. Presently, there are two widely used methodologies: temperature measurements made by wideband radiometers observing the land surface with a given viewing angle and a limited field of view, and measurements provided by total radiation pyrgeometers with a nearly hemispheric field of view. Although both measurements are correlated, they are not equivalent; thus, it is r…
Estimating energy balance fluxes above a boreal forest from radiometric temperature observations
Abstract The great areal extent of boreal forests confers these ecosystems potential to impact on the global surface-atmosphere energy exchange. A modelling approach, based on a simplified two-source energy balance model, was proposed to estimate energy balance fluxes above boreal forests using thermal infrared measurements. Half-hourly data from the Solar-Induced Fluorescence Experiment, carried out in a Finnish boreal forest, was used to evaluate the performance of the model. Energy balance closure, determined by linear regression, found all fluxes to underestimate available energy by 9% (r2 = 0.94). Significance in the energy balance of the heat storage in the air and in the soil terms w…
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 Landsat-8 TIRS data recalibrations and land surface temperature split-window algorithms over a homogeneous crop area with different phenological land covers
Abstract Successive re-calibrations were implemented in Landsat-8 TIRS data since launch. This paper evaluates the performances of both: (1) these re-calibrations, up to the last calibration update announced for TIRS data in the next Landsat Collection 2; and (2) single-channel (SC) corrections and split-window (SW) algorithms to retrieve land surface temperature (LST) from TIRS data. A robust and accurate multi-year (2014–2019) set of reference ground data were used, which included thermal infrared (TIR) radiance measurements taken along transects in a uniform and thermally homogeneous rice paddy area, but also emissivity measurements for the different ground covers at the site through the…
Land surface air temperature retrieval from EOS-MODIS images
The knowledge of the spatial and temporal patterns of surface air temperature (SAT) is essential to monitor a region's climate and meteorology, to quantify surface exchange processes, to improve climatic and meteorological model results, and to study health and economic impacts. This letter analyzed correlations between SAT and geophysical land surface variables, mainly land surface temperature (LST), to establish operative techniques to obtain spatially continuous land SAT maps from satellite data, unlike data provided by meteorological station networks. The correlations were analyzed by using EOS-MODIS images, meteorological station network data, and geographical variables. Linear regress…
Physics demos for all UVEG degrees: a unique project in Spain
Abstract The Physics Demo Project at the University of Valencia ( www.uv.es/fisicademos ) has developed a collection of physics demonstrations to be used during lectures. It consists of more than 130 experimental demos about different physics topics. More than 30 professors borrow them whenever they lecture on physics in any of our 40 courses in 17 different science or technical degrees, involving 246 ECTS and more than 3500 students. Each demo kit with a simple experimental set displays a particular physics phenomenon. An on-line user guide highlights the main physics principles involved, instructions on how to use it and advices of how to link it to the theoretical concepts or to technica…
Thermal-Infrared Spectral and Angular Characterization of Crude Oil and Seawater Emissivities for Oil Slick Identification
Previous work has shown that the emissivity of crude oil is lower than that of the seawater in the thermal-infrared (TIR) spectrum. Thus, oil slicks cause an emissivity decrease relative to the seawater in that region. The aim of this paper was to carry out experimental measurements to characterize the spectral and angular variations of crude oil and seawater emissivities. The results showed that the crude oil emissivity is lower than the seawater emissivity and that it is essentially flat in the atmospheric window of 8-13 μm. The crude oil emissivity has a marked emissivity decrease with the angle (from 0.956 ± 0.005 at 15 ° to 0.873 ± 0.007 at 65 °), which is even higher than that of the …
Evaluation of the B‐method for determining actual evapotranspiration in a boreal forest from MODIS data
Boreal forests occupy about 11% of the terrestrial surface and represent an important contribution to global energy balance. The ground measurement of daily evapotranspiration (LEd) is very difficult due to the limitations on experiments. The objective of this paper is to present and explore the applicability of the B-method for monitoring actual LEd in these ecosystems. The method shown in this paper allows us to determine the surface fluxes over boreal forests on a daily basis from instantaneous information registered in a conventional meteorological tower, as well as the canopy temperature (T c) retrieved by satellite. Images collected by the MODIS (moderate resolution imaging spectrorad…
Test of the MODIS Land Surface Temperature and Emissivity Separation Algorithm With Ground Measurements Over a Rice Paddy
The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) land surface temperature (LST) and emissivity separation (MODTES) algorithm is the basis of the MOD21 product, which provides 1-km LSTs and emissivities for bands 29 (8.55 μm), 31 (11 μm), and 32 (12 μm). The MODTES algorithm uses the TES method with the water vapor scaling (WVS) method for refined atmospheric correction. The performance of the MODTES algorithm was tested with a set of MODIS data concurrent with ground LST and emissivity measurements. The test site is a large area of homogeneous full-cover rice crops (graybody), with high atmospheric water vapor. The data included LSTs measured along transects with multiple calibrate…
An angular-dependent split-window equation for SST retrieval from off-nadir observations
An angular-dependent split-window equation is proposed for determining the Sea Surface Temperature (SST) at any observation angle, including large viewing angles at the image edges of satellite sensors with wide swaths. The proposed equation takes into account the angular dependences of the atmospheric correction and also the emissivity correction. An explicit dependence on the SSE is considered in an independent term. The inclusion of such a term is not common in the current operational SST algorithms but we consider it appropriate taking into account the non-blackness of the sea surface emission for large angles and also the dependence on wind speed. The equation has been adapted to the M…
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…
Comparison between different sources of atmospheric profiles for land surface temperature retrieval from single channel thermal infrared data
Abstract Different sources of atmospheric water vapor and temperature profiles were used with a radiative transfer model for retrieving land surface temperature (LST) from thermal infrared remote sensing data with the so-called single channel (SC) method. Retrieved LSTs were compared to concurrent ground measurements over homogeneous rice fields to assess the accuracy of the atmospheric profiles. These included radiosonde balloons launched at the test site near-concurrently to satellite overpasses, re-analysis profiles from the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP), and satellite sounder products from the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) and the Moderate Imaging Spectrorad…
The WISE 2000 and 2001 Field Experiments in Support of the SMOS Mission:Sea Surface L-Band Brightness Temperature Observations and Their Application to Sea Surface Salinity Retrieval.
Camps, Adriano ... et al.-- 20 pages, 16 figures, 3 tables
A simple equation for determining sea surface emissivity in the 3–15 µm region
The high level of accuracy demanded for the sea surface temperature retrieval from infrared data requires an accurate determination of directional sea surface emissivity (SSE). Previous models have permitted calculating SSEs using a physical characterization of sea surface roughness and emission. However, these result in complex equations, and make an operational application difficult. This paper presents a simple SSE algorithm based on a parametrization of one of these models, which was selected as a reference since it reproduces SSE experimental data to a reasonable level of accuracy. The parametrization provides the SSE variation with observation angle and wind speed from a given nadir S…
Comparison and Evaluation of the TES and ANEM Algorithms for Land Surface Temperature and Emissivity Separation over the Area of Valencia, Spain
Land Surface temperature (LST) is a key magnitude for numerous studies, especially for climatology and assessment of energy fluxes between surface and atmosphere. Retrieval of accurate LST requires a good characterization of surface emissivity. Both quantities are coupled in a single radiance measurement; for this reason, for N spectral bands available in a remote sensor, there will always be N + 1 unknowns. To solve the indeterminacy, temperature-emissivity separation methods have been proposed, among which the Temperature Emissivity Separation (TES) algorithm is one of the most widely used. The Adjusted Normalized Emissivity Method (ANEM) was proposed as a modification of the Normalized E…
Simulation of extreme heat events over the Valencia coastal region: Sensitivity to initial conditions and boundary layer parameterizations
The Valencia coastal region (Western Mediterranean) is especially sensitive to extreme heat events, where they are really common. However, due to its geophysical characteristics and climatic conditions, the incidence of high and extreme temperatures may still be modulated over this area by means of sea breeze circulations, defining a Sea Breeze Convergence Zone (SBCZ) due to the meet and interaction of these mesoscale conditions and Western synoptic-scale wind regimes. A proper definition of this convergence zone is of significant importance over the study area for the simulation and forecast of intense-heat meteorological events. This study analyses a week period in August 2010 over this a…
The 2016 CEOS Infrared Radiometer Comparison: Part II: Laboratory Comparison of Radiation Thermometers
AbstractTo ensure confidence, measurements carried out by imaging radiometers mounted on satellites require robust validation using “fiducial quality” measurements of the same in situ parameter. For surface temperature measurements this is optimally carried out by radiometers measuring radiation emitted in the infrared region of the spectrum, collocated to that of a satellite overpass. For ocean surface temperatures the radiometers are usually on board ships to sample large areas but for land and ice they are typically deployed at defined geographical sites. It is of course critical that the validation measurements and associated instrumentation are internationally consistent and traceable …