Abstract
Methods for determining land surface temperatures (LSTs) from infrared satellite measurements are described. These include theoretical studies which provide algorithms in which the emissivity and atmospheric effects appear explicitly. Experimentally derived algorithms are also presented. These have been determined for a variety of surfaces including bare soils, partially vegetated and fully vegetated surfaces by using in situ surface mounted temperature sensors. Data from both the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) and the Along Track Scanning Radiometer (ATSR) are used to compare the in situ temperatures with satellite estimates. Single channel, dual channel, split-window and multi-angle algorithms are developed. An attempt has been made to indicate the limiting accuracy of satellite derived LSTs by choosing the simplest case of a flat soil surface with uniform land cover. For both the theoretically determined algorithms and the experimental algorithms, the limiting accuracy lies between 1 and 2 °C. A theoretically derived LST algorithm is proposed for continental Australia which makes use of climatological profiles of temperature and water vapour to correct the thermal data.
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