Abstract
The purpose of this study was to better understand the relationships between diurnal variations of air temperature measured hourly at the soil surface, compared with the thermal infra-red (TIR) emission properties of soil surfaces located in the Lower Colorado Desert of California, eastern Riverside County. Fifty air temperature loggers were deployed in January of 2017 on wooden stakes that were driven into the sandy or rocky desert soils at both Ford Dry Lake and the southern McCoy Mountains wash. The land surface temperature (LST) derived from Landsat satellite images was compared to measured air temperatures at 1 m and at the soil surface on 14 separate dates, until mid-September, 2017. Results showed that it is feasible to derive estimated temperatures at the soil surface from hourly air temperatures, recorded at 1 m above the surface (ambient). The study further correlated Landsat LST closely with site measurements of air and surface temperatures in these solar energy development zones of southern California, allowing inter-conversion with ground-based measurements for use in ecosystem change and animal population biology studies.
Highlights
Diurnal and seasonal variations in land surface temperature can influence numerous ecological and biogeochemical processes in desert landscapes, including wildlife population dynamics, plant germination, microbial activity, evapotranspiration, and trace gas emissions [1]
It is well documented that surface soil temperatures are a function of downwelling electromagnetic radiation and of the albedo of a soil surface [3]
The objective of this study was to quantify the relationship between air temperatures measured at the soil surface, ambient air temperatures measured at 1 m height, and Landsat surface temperature measurements over the same area and period of time in the Lower Colorado Desert of eastern Riverside
Summary
Diurnal and seasonal variations in land surface temperature can influence numerous ecological and biogeochemical processes in desert landscapes, including wildlife population dynamics, plant germination, microbial activity, evapotranspiration, and trace gas emissions [1]. The effect of extreme hourly temperature variations on desert ecosystems range from limited photosynthesis rates and evapotranspiration fluxes, to altered microbial symbiotic relationships through nitrogen fixing bacteria in root nodules [2]. It is well documented that surface soil temperatures are a function of downwelling electromagnetic radiation and of the albedo (reflectivity) of a soil surface [3]. When energy from the sun encounters any matter, whether it is the atmosphere or the ground surface, it will go through the processes of transmission, reflection, and absorption. Vegetative cover, water content, bulk density, and a host of other factors affect how much heat the soil absorbs or re-emits [4]
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