Satellite-derived land surface temperature: Current status and perspectives
Abstract Land surface temperature (LST) is one of the key parameters in the physics of land surface processes from local through global scales. The importance of LST is being increasingly recognized and there is a strong interest in developing methodologies to measure LST from space. However, retrieving LST is still a challenging task since the LST retrieval problem is ill-posed. This paper reviews the current status of selected remote sensing algorithms for estimating LST from thermal infrared (TIR) data. A brief theoretical background of the subject is presented along with a survey of the algorithms employed for obtaining LST from space-based TIR measurements. The discussion focuses on TI…
A comparison of different optimization algorithms for retrieving aerosol optical depths from satellite data: an example of using a dual-angle algorithm
Optimization techniques are often used in remote sensing retrieval of surface or atmospheric parameters. Nevertheless, different algorithms may exhibit different performances for the same optimization problem. Comparison of some classic optimization approaches in this article aims to select the best method for retrieving aerosol opacity, or even for other parameters, from remotely sensed data. Eight frequently used optimization algorithms were evaluated using both simulated data and actual AATSR advanced along track scanning radiometer data. Several typical land cover types and aerosol opacity levels were also considered in the simulations to make the tests more representative. It was obser…
Land surface emissivity retrieval from satellite data
As an intrinsic property of natural materials, land surface emissivity LSE is an important surface parameter and can be derived from the emitted radiance measured from space. Besides radiometric calibration and cloud detection, two main problems need to be resolved to obtain LSE values from space measurements. These problems are often referred to as land surface temperature LST and emissivity separation from radiance at ground level and as atmospheric corrections in the literature. To date, many LSE retrieval methods have been proposed with the same goal but different application conditions, advantages, and limitations. The aim of this article is to review these LSE retrieval methods and to…