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RESEARCH PRODUCT

Vicarious Calibration of the Landsat 7 Thermal Infrared Band and LST Algorithm Validation of the ETM+ Instrument Using Three Global Atmospheric Profiles

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description

Due to problems in the thermal infrared sensor on-board the Landsat-8 satellite, Landsat-7 (L7) can be an interesting alternative source of thermal data because it is the only source of well-calibrated, free, high-resolution data. To contribute to the quality of thermal data, a vicarious calibration (VC) of the enhanced thematic mapper instrument and a validation of the single-channel general equation and the water vapor approach algorithm in conjunction with an inversion of the radiative transfer equation (RTE) have been performed during 2013–2015 over two Spanish test sites. For this purpose, three global atmospheric profile data sets were used to better characterize the error due to atmospheric correction: 1) MODIS atmospheric product MOD07 version 5; 2) MOD07 version 6; and 3) national center for environmental prediction (NCEP) reanalysis data. The VC results show a negligible bias in our test sites while the land surface temperature algorithms validation present a root mean square error (RMSE) of 1.5 to 3 K, with the best performance for NCEP atmospheric profiles in combination with the inversion of the RTE (RMSE below 1.5 K).