Paper Info
Title
Evaluation of Split-Window Land Surface Temperature Algorithms for Generating Climate Data Records
Abstract
Land surface temperature (LST) is a key indicator of the Earth's surface energy and is used in a range of hydrological, meteorological, and climatological applications. As needed for most modeling and climate analysis applications, LST products that are generated from polar-orbiting meteorological satellite sensors have spatial resolutions from several hundred meters to several kilometers and have (quasi) daily temporal resolution. These sensors include the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration advanced very high resolution radiometer (AVHRR), the earth observing system moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer (MODIS), and the forthcoming visible/infrared imager radiometer suite (VIIRS) series, to be flown onboard the National Polar-Orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (VIIRS flights begin approximately 2009). Generally, split-window algorithms are used with these sensors to produce LST products. In this paper, we evaluated nine published LST algorithms (or, in some cases, their slight variants) to determine those that are most suitable for generating a consistent LST climate data record across these satellite sensors and platforms. A consistent set of moderate-resolution atmospheric transmission simulations were used in determining the appropriate coefficients for each algorithm and sensor (AVHRR, MODIS, and VIIRS) combination. Algorithm accuracy was evaluated over different view zenith angles, surface-atmosphere temperature combinations, and emissivity errors. Both simulated and actual remote sensing data were used in the evaluation. We found that the nine heritage algorithms can effectively be collapsed into three groups of highly similar performance. We also demonstrated the efficacy of an atmospheric path-length correction term that is added to the heritage algorithms. We conclude that the algorithms depending on both the mean and difference of band emissivities (Group 1 in our nomenclature) are most accurate and stable over a wid- e range of conditions, provided that the emissivity can be well estimated a priori . Where the emissivity cannot be well estimated, the Group 3 algorithms (which do not depend on the emissivity difference) modified with the path-length correction term perform better.
Year
DOI
Venue
2008
10.1109/TGRS.2007.909097
IEEE T. Geoscience and Remote Sensing
Keywords
Field
DocType
radiative transfer simulation model,climatology,atmospheric measuring apparatus,remote sensing,earth observing system,land surface temperature (lst),modis,national polar-orbiting operational environmental satellite system,band emissivities,advanced very high resolution radiometer,polar-orbiting meteorological satellite sensor,view zenith angle,viirs,national oceanic and atmospheric administration,radiative transfer,split-window (sw) algorithm,surface-atmosphere temperature combination,land surface temperature,visible/infrared imager radiometer suite,noaa avhrr,climate analysis,climate data record,climate data record (cdr),moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer,split-window algorithm,earth surface energy,atmospheric temperature,surface energy,simulation model,spatial resolution,temporal resolution
Meteorology,Satellite,Moderate-resolution imaging spectroradiometer,Atmospheric temperature,Remote sensing,Algorithm,Advanced very-high-resolution radiometer,Temporal resolution,Emissivity,Mathematics,Radiometer,Zenith
Journal
Volume
Issue
ISSN
46
1
0196-2892
Citations 
PageRank 
References 
21
3.09
5
Authors
3
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Yunyue Yu111721.20
Jeffrey L. Privette236471.25
A. C. T. Pinheiro37812.65