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RESEARCH PRODUCT

Land surface temperature representativeness in a heterogeneous area through a distributed energy-water balance model and remote sensing data

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Land surface temperature is the link between soil-vegetation-atmosphere fluxes and soil water content through the energy water balance. This paper analyses the representativeness of land surface temperature (LST) for a distributed hydrological water balance model (FEST-EWB) using LST from AHS (airborne hyperspectral scanner), with a spatial resolution between 2–4 m, LST from MODIS, with a spatial resolution of 1000 m, and thermal infrared radiometric ground measurements that are compared with the representative equilibrium temperature that closes the energy balance equation in the distributed hydrological model. <br><br> Diurnal and nocturnal images are analyzed due to the non stable behaviour of the thermodynamic temperature and to the non linear effects induced by spatial heterogeneity. <br><br> Spatial autocorrelation and scale of fluctuation of land surface temperature from FEST-EWB and AHS are analysed at different aggregation areas to better understand the scale of representativeness of land surface temperature in a hydrological process. <br><br> The study site is the agricultural area of Barrax (Spain) that is a heterogeneous area with a patchwork of irrigated and non irrigated vegetated fields and bare soil. The used data set was collected during a field campaign from 10 to 15 July 2005 in the framework of the SEN2FLEX project.