Generation of Landsat surface temperature product for China, 2000–2010

Abstract

Land surface temperature (LST) is a key parameter in the physics of land surface processes on regional and global scales. Although there are MODIS and Landsat land surface reflectance products, there is no LST product for Landsat data due in part to many challenges in the development of an operational Landsat LST product generating system because Landsat possesses only one thermal infrared channel. The aim of this article is to describe the Landsat LST product generation project launched by the Centre for Earth Observation and Digital Earth (CEODE), Chinese Academy of Sciences. The generalized single-channel (SC) algorithm proposed by Jiménez-Muñoz et al. is used for LST retrieval. It is fully operational, requires minimal input data requirements, and has acceptable precision. Total atmospheric water vapour content is the key input parameter required by the SC algorithm. In this project, the MODIS water vapour product is employed to derive total atmospheric water vapour content. In this way, an operational Landsat LST product generation program was constructed by integration of MODIS and Landsat satellite imagery.