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Applications of Land Surface Temperature and its Combination with other Satellite Land Products

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A special issue of Remote Sensing (ISSN 2072-4292). This special issue belongs to the section "Biogeosciences Remote Sensing".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2018) | Viewed by 75982

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Special Issue Editors

Dr. Frank-M. Göttsche

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Guest Editor

IMK-ASF, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Hermann-von-Helmholtz-Platz 1, 76344 Eggenstein-Leopoldshafen, Germany
Interests: land surface temperature and emissivity; algorithm development; validation; diurnal temperature cycle

Prof. Dr. Isabel Trigo

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Guest Editor

(IPMA) EUMETSAT Land Surface Analysis - Satellite Application, Facility Project Manager Rua C ao Aeroporto, 1749-077 Lisboa, Portugal
Interests: remote sensing; land surface temperature; land surface modelling
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Dr. Benjamin Bechtel

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Guest Editor

Institut für Geographie, Universität Hamburg, Bundesstr. 55, 20146 Hamburg, Germany
Interests: urban remote sensing; land surface temperature; downscaling; time series analysis; annual temperature cycle; surface urban heat island; urban climates
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Satellite land products have a multitude of applications in a broad range of research fields, e.g., the mapping and monitoring of vegetation, drought detection, determination of evapotranspiration, soil moisture mapping, urban heat island research, land cover change analyses, or snow detection (Trigo et al., 2011). Applications of Land Surface Temperature (LST) often utilize one or more additional land products, e.g., as shown by Julien et al. (2011) who combined LST with a vegetation index to detect long term changes in the Iberian land cover. Despite an increased interest in LST, and a growing number of applications, remotely-sensed LST is still considered difficult to use, because 1) it is a directional quantity and its meaning more difficult to define, 2) reliable, simultaneous estimates of Land Surface Emissivity (LSE) were unavailable, 3) remote sensing in the thermal infrared is limited to clear sky conditions, and 4) it is a highly dynamic and variable quantity influenced by all fluxes of the surface energy balance rather than a single surface characteristic. Fortunately, large progress has been made to overcome most difficulties, e.g., LST has recently been defined as an Essential Climate Variable (ECV) and reliable daily estimates of LSE are now available (Hulley et al., 2014). Furthermore, instead of taking LST products as input, applications can use thermal surface parameters (Göttsche and Olesen, 2009; Bechtel, 2015), which are more closely related to the thermal characteristics of the land surface and can be combined meaningfully with satellite land products that change on similar time scales.

This Special Issue invites contributions describing applications of LST and its combination with other satellite land products. In particular, but not exclusively, researchers are encouraged to submit articles addressing the following topics:

Applications of multi-temporal LST and LSE data
Studies exploring the characteristics of annual and diurnal LST cycles
Combined applications of LST, LSE and other land products, e.g., vegetation parameters, Land-Use Land-Cover (LULC) information, etc.
Using LST and LSE data to improve land products, e.g. fire detection, land-cover classification, soil moisture retrieval, etc.
LST products with improved features, e.g., offering all-weather capability and corrected for surface anisotropy
Progress in estimating near surface air temperature from satellite LST
Novel applications of LST and LSE products

The contributions are intended to reflect the progress made possible by the latest generation of LST and LSE satellite products.

Related References:

Bechtel, B. (2015). A New Global Climatology of Annual Land Surface Temperature. Remote Sensing, Vol. 7(3), pp. 2850-2870.
Göttsche, F.-M., and Olesen, F.S. (2009). Modelling the effect of optical thickness on diurnal cycles of land surface temperature. Remote Sensing of Environment, 113, pp. 2306–2316.
Hulley, G., Veraverbeke, S., and Hook, S. (2014). Thermal-based techniques for land cover change detection using a new dynamic MODIS multispectral emissivity product (MOD21). Remote Sensing of Environment, Vol. 140, pp. 755-765.
Julien, Y., Sobrino, J.A., Mattar, C., Ruescas, A.B., Jimenez-Munoz, J.C., Soria, G., Hidalgo, V., Atitar, M., Franch, B., and Cuenca, J. (2011). Temporal analysis of normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and land surface temperature (LST) parameters to detect changes in the Iberian land cover between 1981 and 2001. International Journal of Remote Sensing, Vol. 32, pp. 2057-2068.
Kalma, J.D., McVicar, T.R., and McCabe, M.F. (2008). Estimating Land Surface Evaporation: A Review of Methods Using Remotely Sensed Surface Temperature Data. Surveys in Geophysics, 29, pp. 421–469.
Karnieli, A., Agam, N., Pinker, R.T., Anderson, M., Imhoff, M.L., Gutman, G.G., Panov, P., and Goldberg, A. (2010). Use of NDVI and Land Surface Temperature for Drought Assessment: Merits and Limitations. Journal of Climate, Vol. 23, pp. 618-633.
Romaguera, M., Vaughan, R.G., Ettema, J., Izquierdo-Verdiguier, E., Hecker, C.A., van der Meer, F.D. (2018). Detecting geothermal anomalies and evaluating LST geothermal component by combining thermal remote sensing time series and land surface model data. Remote Sensing of Environment, Vol. 204, pp. 534-552.
Trigo, I.F., Dacamara, C.C., Viterbo, P., Roujean, J.-L., Olesen, F., Barroso, C., Camacho-de-Coca, F., Carrer, D., Freitas, S.C., Garcia-Haro, J., Geiger, B., Gellens-Meulenberghs, F., Ghilain, N., Meliá, J., Pessanha, L., Siljamo, N., and Arboleda, A. (2011). The Satellite Application Facility for Land Surface Analysis. International Journal of Remote Sensing, Vol. 32, pp. 2725-2744.

Dr. Frank-M. Göttsche
Dr. Isabel F. Trigo
Dr. Benjamin Bechtel
Guest Editors

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Keywords

Applications of Land Surface Temperature
Satellite Land Products
Multi-Temporal
Thermal Surface Parameters
Land Surface Emissivity
Vegetation

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14 pages, 1920 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Modelling of Wine Production Using Land Surface Temperature and FAPAR—The Case of the Douro Wine Region

by Clarisse Magarreiro, Célia M. Gouveia, Carla M. Barroso and Isabel F. Trigo

Remote Sens. 2019, 11(6), 604; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs11060604 - 13 Mar 2019

Cited by 9 | Viewed by 4685

Abstract

The vegetative development of grapevines is orchestrated by very specific meteorological conditions. In the wine industry vineyards demand diligent monitoring, since quality and productivity are the backbone of the economic potential. Regional climate indicators and meteorological information are essential to winemakers to assure proper vineyard management. Satellite data are very useful in this process since they imply low costs and are easily accessible. This work proposes a statistical modelling approach based on parameters obtained exclusively from satellite data to simulate annual wine production. The study has been developed for the Douro Demarcated Region (DDR) due to its relevance in the winemaking industry. It is the oldest demarcated and controlled winemaking region of the world and listed as one of UNESCO’s World Heritage regions. Monthly variables associated with Land Surface Temperatures (LST) and Fraction of Absorbed Photosynthetic Active Radiation (FAPAR), which is representative of vegetation canopy health, were analysed for a 15-year period (2004 to 2018), to assess their relation to wine production. Results showed that high wine production years are associated with higher than normal FAPAR values during approximately the entire growing season and higher than normal values of surface temperature from April to August. A robust linear model was obtained using the most significant predictors, that includes FAPAR in December and maximum and mean LST values in March and July, respectively. The model explains 90% of the total variance of wine production and presents a correlation coefficient of 0.90 (after cross validation). The retained predictors’ anomalies for the investigated vegetative year (October to July) from 2017/2018 satellite data indicate that the ensuing wine production for the DDR is likely to be below normal, i.e., to be lower than what is considered a high-production year. This work highlights that is possible to estimate wine production at regional scale based solely on low-resolution remotely sensed observations that are easily accessible, free and available for numerous grapevines regions worldwide, providing a useful and easy tool to estimate wine production and agricultural monitoring. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Applications of Land Surface Temperature and its Combination with other Satellite Land Products)

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31 pages, 6609 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Comprehensive In Situ Validation of Five Satellite Land Surface Temperature Data Sets over Multiple Stations and Years

by Maria Anna Martin, Darren Ghent, Ana Cordeiro Pires, Frank-Michael Göttsche, Jan Cermak and John J. Remedios

Remote Sens. 2019, 11(5), 479; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs11050479 - 26 Feb 2019

Cited by 72 | Viewed by 7898

Abstract

Global land surface temperature (LST) data derived from satellite-based infrared radiance measurements are highly valuable for various applications in climate research. While in situ validation of satellite LST data sets is a challenging task, it is needed to obtain quantitative information on their accuracy. In the standardised approach to multi-sensor validation presented here for the first time, LST data sets obtained with state-of-the-art retrieval algorithms from several sensors (AATSR, GOES, MODIS, and SEVIRI) are matched spatially and temporally with multiple years of in situ data from globally distributed stations representing various land cover types in a consistent manner. Commonality of treatment is essential for the approach: all satellite data sets are projected to the same spatial grid, and transformed into a common harmonized format, thereby allowing comparison with in situ data to be undertaken with the same methodology and data processing. The large data base of standardised satellite LST provided by the European Space Agency’s GlobTemperature project makes previously difficult to perform LST studies and applications more feasible and easier to implement. The satellite data sets are validated over either three or ten years, depending on data availability. Average accuracies over the whole time span are generally within ±2.0 K during night, and within ± 4.0 K during day. Time series analyses over individual stations reveal seasonal cycles. They stem, depending on the station, from surface anisotropy, topography, or heterogeneous land cover. The results demonstrate the maturity of the LST products, but also highlight the need to carefully consider their temporal and spatial properties when using them for scientific purposes. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Applications of Land Surface Temperature and its Combination with other Satellite Land Products)

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33 pages, 25393 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Mapping and Monitoring Rice Agriculture with Multisensor Temporal Mixture Models

by Daniel Sousa and Christopher Small

Remote Sens. 2019, 11(2), 181; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs11020181 - 18 Jan 2019

Cited by 13 | Viewed by 7360

Abstract

Rice is the staple food for more than half of humanity. Accurate prediction of rice harvests is therefore of considerable global importance for food security and economic stability, especially in the developing world. Landsat sensors have collected coincident thermal and optical images for the past 35+ years, and so can provide both retrospective and near-realtime constraints on the spatial extent of rice planting and the timing of rice phenology. Thermal and optical imaging capture different physical processes, and so provide different types of information for phenologic mapping. Most analyses use only one or the other data source, omitting potentially useful information. We present a novel approach to the mapping and monitoring of rice agriculture which leverages both optical and thermal measurements. The approach relies on Temporal Mixture Models (TMMs) derived from parallel Empirical Orthogonal Function (EOF) analyses of Landsat image time series. Analysis of each image time series is performed in two stages: (1) spatiotemporal characterization, and (2) temporal mixture modeling. Characterization evaluates the covariance structure of the data, culminating in the selection of temporal endmembers (EMs) representing the most distinct phenological cycles of either vegetation abundance or surface temperature. Modeling uses these EMs as the basis for linear TMMs which map the spatial distribution of each EM phenological pattern across study area. The two metrics we analyze in parallel are (1) fractional vegetation abundance (F_v) derived from spectral mixture analysis (SMA) of optical reflectance, and (2) land surface temperature (LST) derived from brightness temperature (T_b). These metrics are chosen on the basis of being straightforward to compute for any (cloud-free) Landsat 4-8 image in the global archive. We demonstrate the method using a 90 × 120 km area in the Sacramento Valley of California. Satellite T_b retrievals are corrected to LST using a standardized atmospheric correction approach and pixelwise fractional emissivity estimates derived from SMA. LST and T_b time series are compared to field station data in 2016 and 2017. Uncorrected T_b is observed to agree with the upper bound of the envelope of air temperature observations to within 3 °C on average. As expected, LST estimates are 3 to 5 °C higher. Soil T, air T, T_b and LST estimates can all be represented as linear transformations of the same seasonal cycle. The 3D temporal feature spaces of F_v and LST clearly resolve 5 and 7 temporal EM phenologies, respectively, with strong clustering distinguishing rice from other vegetation. Results from parallel EOF analyses of coincident F_v and LST image time series over the 2016 and 2017 growing seasons suggest that TMMs based on single year F_v datasets can provide accurate maps of crop timing, while TMMs based on dual year LST datasets can provide comparable maps of year-to-year crop conversion. We also test a partial-year model midway through the 2018 growing season to illustrate a potential real-time monitoring application. Field validation confirms the monitoring model provides an upper bound estimate of spatial extent and relative timing of the rice crop accurate to 89%, even with an unusually sparse set of usable Landsat images. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Applications of Land Surface Temperature and its Combination with other Satellite Land Products)

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25 pages, 4139 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Time Series Analysis of Land Surface Temperatures in 20 Earthquake Cases Worldwide

by Efthymia Pavlidou, Mark Van der Meijde, Harald Van der Werff and Christoph Hecker

Remote Sens. 2019, 11(1), 61; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs11010061 - 30 Dec 2018

Cited by 38 | Viewed by 5816

Abstract

Earthquakes are reported to be preceded by anomalous increases in satellite-recorded thermal emissions, but published results are often contradicting and/or limited to short periods and areas around the earthquake. We apply a methodology that allows to detect subtle, localized spatio-temporal fluctuations in hyper-temporal, geostationary-based land surface temperature (LST) data. We study 10 areas worldwide, covering 20 large (Mw > 5.5) and shallow (<35 km) land-based earthquakes. We compare years and locations with and without earthquake, and we statistically evaluate our findings with respect to distance from epicentra and temporal coincidence with earthquakes. We detect anomalies throughout the duration of all datasets, at various distances from the earthquake, and in years with and without earthquake alike. We find no distinct repeated patterns in the case of earthquakes that happen in the same region in different years. We conclude that earthquakes do not have a significant effect on detected LST anomalies. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Applications of Land Surface Temperature and its Combination with other Satellite Land Products)

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18 pages, 4013 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Seasonal Local Temperature Responses to Paddy Field Expansion from Rain-Fed Farmland in the Cold and Humid Sanjiang Plain of China

by Tingxiang Liu, Lingxue Yu, Kun Bu, Fengqin Yan and Shuwen Zhang

Remote Sens. 2018, 10(12), 2009; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs10122009 - 11 Dec 2018

Cited by 25 | Viewed by 3440

Abstract

Numerous studies have documented the effects of irrigation on local, regional, and global climate. However, most studies focused on the cooling effect of irrigated dryland in semiarid or arid regions. In our study, we focused on irrigated paddy fields in humid regions at mid to high latitudes and estimated the effects of paddy field expansion from rain-fed farmland on local temperatures based on remote sensing and observational data. Our results revealed much significant near-surface cooling in spring (May and June) rather than summer (July and August) and autumn (September), which was −2.03 K, −0.73 K and −1.08 K respectively. Non-radiative mechanisms dominated the local temperature response to paddy field expansion from rain-fed farmland in the Sanjiang Plain. The contributions from the changes to the combined effects of the non-radiative process were 123.6%, 95.5%, and 66.9% for spring (May and June), summer (July and August), and autumn (September), respectively. Due to the seasonal changes of the biogeophysical properties for rain-fed farmland and paddy fields during the growing season, the local surface temperature responses, as well as their contributions, showed great seasonal variability. Our results showed that the cooling effect was particularly obvious during the dry spring instead of the warm, wet summer, and indicated that more attention should be paid to the seasonal differences of these effects, especially in a region with a relatively humid climate and distinct seasonal variations. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Applications of Land Surface Temperature and its Combination with other Satellite Land Products)

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18 pages, 3756 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Snow-Covered Soil Temperature Retrieval in Canadian Arctic Permafrost Areas, Using a Land Surface Scheme Informed with Satellite Remote Sensing Data

by Nicolas Marchand, Alain Royer, Gerhard Krinner, Alexandre Roy, Alexandre Langlois and Céline Vargel

Remote Sens. 2018, 10(11), 1703; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs10111703 - 29 Oct 2018

Cited by 9 | Viewed by 4653

Abstract

High-latitude areas are very sensitive to global warming, which has significant impacts on soil temperatures and associated processes governing permafrost evolution. This study aims to improve first-layer soil temperature retrievals during winter. This key surface state variable is strongly affected by snow’s geophysical properties and their associated uncertainties (e.g., thermal conductivity) in land surface climate models. We used infrared MODIS land-surface temperatures (LST) and Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer for EOS (AMSR-E) brightness temperatures (Tb) at 10.7 and 18.7 GHz to constrain the Canadian Land Surface Scheme (CLASS), driven by meteorological reanalysis data and coupled with a simple radiative transfer model. The Tb polarization ratio (horizontal/vertical) at 10.7 GHz was selected to improve snowpack density, which is linked to the thermal conductivity representation in the model. Referencing meteorological station soil temperature measurements, we validated the approach at four different sites in the North American tundra over a period of up to 8 years. Results show that the proposed method improves simulations of the soil temperature under snow (Tg) by 64% when using remote sensing (RS) data to constrain the model, compared to model outputs without satellite data information. The root mean square error (RMSE) between measured and simulated Tg under the snow ranges from 1.8 to 3.5 K when using RS data. Improved temporal monitoring of the soil thermal state, along with changes in snow properties, will improve our understanding of the various processes governing soil biological, hydrological, and permafrost evolution. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Applications of Land Surface Temperature and its Combination with other Satellite Land Products)

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18 pages, 9672 KiB

Open AccessArticle

A New Methodology for Estimating the Surface Temperature Lapse Rate Based on Grid Data and Its Application in China

by Yun Qin, Guoyu Ren, Tianlin Zhai, Panfeng Zhang and Kangmin Wen

Remote Sens. 2018, 10(10), 1617; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs10101617 - 11 Oct 2018

Cited by 12 | Viewed by 3664

Abstract

Land surface temperature (LST) is an important parameter in the study of the physical processes of land surface. Understanding the surface temperature lapse rate (TLR) can help to reveal the characteristics of mountainous climates and regional climate change. A methodology was developed to calculate and analyze land-surface TLR in China based on grid datasets of MODIS LST and digital elevation model (DEM), with a formula derived on the basis of the analysis of the temperature field and the height field, an image enhancement technique used to calculate gradient, and the fuzzy c-means (FCM) clustering applied to identify the seasonal pattern of the TLR. The results of the analysis through the methodology showed that surface temperature vertical gradient inversion widely occurred in Northeast, Northwest, and North China in winter, especially in the Xinjiang Autonomous Region, the northern and the western parts of the Greater Khingan Mountains, the Lesser Khingan Mountains, and the northern area of Northwest and North China. Summer generally witnessed the steepest TLR among the four seasons. The eastern Tibetan Plateau showed a distinctive seasonal pattern, where the steepest TLR happened in winter and spring, with a shallower TLR in summer. Large seasonal variations of TLR could be seen in Northeast China, where there was a steep TLR in spring and summer and a strong surface temperature vertical gradient inversion in winter. The smallest seasonal variation of TLR happened in Central and Southwest China, especially in the Ta-pa Mountains and the Qinling Mountains. The TLR at very high altitudes (>5 km) was usually steeper than at low altitudes, in all months of the year. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Applications of Land Surface Temperature and its Combination with other Satellite Land Products)

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13 pages, 3774 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Land Surface Temperature and Urban Density: Multiyear Modeling and Relationship Analysis Using MODIS and Landsat Data

by Stefania Bonafoni and Chaiyapon Keeratikasikorn

Remote Sens. 2018, 10(9), 1471; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs10091471 - 14 Sep 2018

Cited by 46 | Viewed by 8078

Abstract

This work aims to model and relate the urban density and land surface temperature (LST) by a straightforward and efficient approach. Although the urban density-LST relation is widely addressed in literature, this study allows for its modeling and parameterization in an accurate way, providing a further scientific support for the city planning policy. The urban density and the LST analysis is carried out in the Bangkok area for the years 2004, 2008, 2012, and 2016; in this time interval, the city exhibited an evident urban expansion. Firstly, by using land cover maps obtained from Landsat reflective observations, the urban land density growth across the years studied is evaluated by applying a ring-based approach, a method employed in urban theory, providing urban density curves as a function of the distance from the city center. For each year, the urban density curve is well modeled by an inverse S-shape function, the parameters of which highlight an urban sprawl over the years studied and an outskirt growth in recent years. Then, employing 237 MODIS LST images, the night-time and daytime mean LST patterns for each year were processed applying the same ring-based analysis, obtaining LST trends versus distance. Albeit the mean LST decreases away from the city core, the daytime and night-time trends are different in both shape and values. The daytime LST exhibits a trend also modeled by an inverse S-shape function, whereas the night-time one is modeled by a quadratic function. Finally, the urban density-LST relationship is inferred across the years: For daytime, the relation is quadratic with a coefficient of determination r² around 0.98–0.99, whereas for night-time the relation is linear with r² of the order of 0.95–0.96. The proposed approach allows for reliable modeling and to straightforwardly infer a very accurate urban density-LST relationship. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Applications of Land Surface Temperature and its Combination with other Satellite Land Products)

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19 pages, 4611 KiB

Open AccessArticle

A Methodology to Simulate LST Directional Effects Based on Parametric Models and Landscape Properties

by Sofia L. Ermida, Isabel F. Trigo, Carlos C. DaCamara and Ana C. Pires

Remote Sens. 2018, 10(7), 1114; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs10071114 - 12 Jul 2018

Cited by 22 | Viewed by 4872

Abstract

The correction of directional effects on satellite-retrieved land surface temperature (LST) is of high relevance for a proper interpretation of spatial and temporal features contained in LST fields. This study presents a methodology to correct such directional effects in an operational setting. This methodology relies on parametric models, which are computationally efficient and require few input information, making them particularly appropriate for operational use. The models are calibrated with LST data collocated in time and space from MODIS (Aqua and Terra) and SEVIRI (Meteosat), for an area covering the entire SEVIRI disk and encompassing the full year of 2011. Past studies showed that such models are prone to overfitting, especially when there are discrepancies between the LSTs that are not related to the viewing geometry (e.g., emissivity, atmospheric correction). To reduce such effects, pixels with similar characteristics are first grouped by means of a cluster analysis. The models’ calibration is then performed on each one of the selected clusters. The derived coefficients reflect the expected impact of vegetation and topography on the anisotropy of LST. Furthermore, when tested with independent data, the calibrated models are shown to maintain the capability of representing the angular dependency of the differences between LST derived from polar-orbiter (MODIS) and geostationary (Meteosat, GOES and Himawari) satellites. The methodology presented here is currently being used to estimate the deviation of LST products with respect to what would be obtained for a reference view angle (e.g., nadir), therefore contributing to the harmonization of LST products. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Applications of Land Surface Temperature and its Combination with other Satellite Land Products)

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22 pages, 2561 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Physical Retrieval of Land Surface Emissivity Spectra from Hyper-Spectral Infrared Observations and Validation with In Situ Measurements

by Guido Masiello, Carmine Serio, Sara Venafra, Giuliano Liuzzi, Laurent Poutier and Frank-M. Göttsche

Remote Sens. 2018, 10(6), 976; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs10060976 - 20 Jun 2018

Cited by 33 | Viewed by 6796

Abstract

A fully physical retrieval scheme for land surface emissivity spectra is presented, which applies to high spectral resolution infrared observations from satellite sensors. The surface emissivity spectrum is represented with a suitably truncated Principal Component Analysis (PCA) transform and PCA scores are simultaneously retrieved with surface temperature and atmospheric parameters. The retrieval methodology has been developed within the general framework of Optimal Estimation and, in this context, is the first physical scheme based on a PCA representation of the emissivity spectrum. The scheme has been applied to IASI (Infrared Atmospheric Sounder Interferometer) and the retrieved emissivities have been validated with in situ observations acquired during a field experiment carried out in 2017 at Gobabeb (Namib desert) validation station. It has been found that the retrieved emissivity spectra are independent of background information and in good agreement with in situ observations. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Applications of Land Surface Temperature and its Combination with other Satellite Land Products)

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19 pages, 1982 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Application of Thermal and Phenological Land Surface Parameters for Improving Ecological Niche Models of Betula utilis in the Himalayan Region

by Maria Bobrowski, Benjamin Bechtel, Jürgen Böhner, Jens Oldeland, Johannes Weidinger and Udo Schickhoff

Remote Sens. 2018, 10(6), 814; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs10060814 - 24 May 2018

Cited by 23 | Viewed by 5312

Abstract

Modelling ecological niches across vast distribution ranges in remote, high mountain regions like the Himalayas faces several data limitations, in particular nonavailability of species occurrence data and fine-scale environmental information of sufficiently high quality. Remotely sensed data provide key advantages such as frequent, complete, and long-term observations of land surface parameters with full spatial coverage. The objective of this study is to evaluate modelled climate data as well as remotely sensed data for modelling the ecological niche of Betula utilis in the subalpine and alpine belts of the Himalayan region covering the entire Himalayan arc. Using generalized linear models (GLM), we aim at testing factors controlling the species distribution under current climate conditions. We evaluate the additional predictive capacity of remotely sensed variables, namely remotely sensed topography and vegetation phenology data (phenological traits), as well as the capability to substitute bioclimatic variables from downscaled numerical models by remotely sensed annual land surface temperature parameters. The best performing model utilized bioclimatic variables, topography, and phenological traits, and explained over 69% of variance, while models exclusively based on remotely sensed data reached 65% of explained variance. In summary, models based on bioclimatic variables and topography combined with phenological traits led to a refined prediction of the current niche of B. utilis, whereas models using solely climate data consistently resulted in overpredictions. Our results suggest that remotely sensed phenological traits can be applied beneficially as supplements to improve model accuracy and to refine the prediction of the species niche. We conclude that the combination of remotely sensed land surface temperature parameters is promising, in particular in regions where sufficient fine-scale climate data are not available. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Applications of Land Surface Temperature and its Combination with other Satellite Land Products)

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20 pages, 9325 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Modeling the Distributions of Brightness Temperatures of a Cropland Study Area Using a Model that Combines Fast Radiosity and Energy Budget Methods

by Zunjian Bian, Biao Cao, Hua Li, Yongming Du, Huaguo Huang, Qing Xiao and Qinhuo Liu

Remote Sens. 2018, 10(5), 736; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs10050736 - 10 May 2018

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 3917

Abstract

Land surface temperatures (LSTs) obtained from remote sensing data are crucial in monitoring the conditions of crops and urban heat islands. However, since retrieved LSTs represent only the average temperature states of pixels, the distributions of temperatures within individual pixels remain unknown. Such data cannot satisfy the requirements of applications such as precision agriculture. Therefore, in this paper, we propose a model that combines a fast radiosity model, the Radiosity Applicable to Porous IndiviDual Objects (RAPID) model, and energy budget methods to dynamically simulate brightness temperatures (BTs) over complex surfaces. This model represents a model-based tool that can be used to estimate temperature distributions using fine-scale visible as well as near-infrared (VNIR) data and temporal variations in meteorological conditions. The proposed model is tested over a study area in an artificial oasis in Northwestern China. The simulated BTs agree well with those measured with the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER). The results reflect root mean squared errors (RMSEs) less than 1.6 °C and coefficients of determination (R²) greater than 0.7. In addition, compared to the leaf area index (LAI), this model displays high sensitivity to wind speed during validation. Although simplifications may be adopted for use in specific simulations, this proposed model can be used to support in situ measurements and to provide reference data over heterogeneous vegetation surfaces. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Applications of Land Surface Temperature and its Combination with other Satellite Land Products)

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Open AccessArticle

Enhanced Modeling of Annual Temperature Cycles with Temporally Discrete Remotely Sensed Thermal Observations

by Zhaoxu Zou, Wenfeng Zhan, Zihan Liu, Benjamin Bechtel, Lun Gao, Falu Hong, Fan Huang and Jiameng Lai

Remote Sens. 2018, 10(4), 650; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs10040650 - 23 Apr 2018

Cited by 31 | Viewed by 5689

Abstract

Satellite thermal remote sensing provides land surface temperatures (LST) over extensive areas that are vital in various applications, but this technique suffers from its sampling style and the impenetrability of clouds, which frequently generates data gaps. Annual temperature cycle (ATC) models can fill these gaps and estimate continuous daily LST dynamics from a number of thermal observations. However, the standard ATC model (termed ATC_S) remains incapable of quantifying the short-term LST variations caused by synoptic conditions. By incorporating in-situ surface air temperatures (SATs) and satellite-derived normalized difference vegetation indexes (NDVIs), here we proposed an enhanced ATC model (ATC_E) to describe the daily LST fluctuations. With Aqua/MODIS LST products as validation data, we implemented and tested the ATC_E over the Yangtze River Delta region of China. The results demonstrate that, when compared with the ATC_S, the overall root mean square errors of the ATC_E decrease by 1.0 and 0.8 K for the day and night, respectively. The accuracy improvements vary with land cover types with greater improvements over the forest, grassland, and built-up areas than over cropland and wetland. The assessments at different time scales further confirm that LST fluctuations can be better described by the ATC_E. Though with limitations, we consider this new model and its associated parameters hold great potentials in various applications. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Applications of Land Surface Temperature and its Combination with other Satellite Land Products)

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