Abstract
Land Surface Temperature (ST) represents the radiative temperature of the Earth’s surface and is used as input to hydrological, agricultural, and meteorological science applications. Due to the synoptic nature of satellite imaging systems, ST products derived from space-borne platforms are invaluable for estimating ST at the local, regional, and global scale. In the past two decades, an emphasis has been placed on the need to develop algorithms necessary to deliver accurate surface temperature products to support the needs of science users. However, corresponding efforts to validate these products are hindered by the availability of quality ground-based reference measurements. The NOAA Surface Radiation Budget (SURFRAD) network is commonly used to support ST validation efforts, but their instrumentation is broadband (4–50 μ m) and several of their sites lack spatial uniformity. To address the apparent deficiencies within existing validation networks, this work discusses a prototype radiometer that was developed to provide surface temperature estimates to support validation efforts for spaceborne thermal instruments. Specifically, a prototype radiometer was designed, built, and calibrated to acquire ground reference data to be used to validate ST product(s) derived from Landsat 8 image data. Lab-based efforts indicate that these prototype instruments are accurate to within 1.28 K and initial field measurements demonstrate agreement to Landsat-derived ST products to within 1.37 K.
Highlights
Measurement of surface temperature (ST) is critical for a variety of Earth science applications, e.g., monitoring potential climate change [1,2,3], detecting areas of drought [4,5,6], predicting areas of vector-borne diseases [7], and measuring evapotranspiration [8,9,10]
Several algorithms necessary to deliver accurate ST products have been developed for existing imaging systems (e.g., MODIS, AVHRR, ABI, VIIRS and most recently, Thermal Infrared Sensor (TIRS) [11,12,13,14])
21 measurements concurrent with Landsat 8 overpasses have been collected with the prototype unit
Summary
Measurement of surface temperature (ST) is critical for a variety of Earth science applications, e.g., monitoring potential climate change [1,2,3], detecting areas of drought [4,5,6], predicting areas of vector-borne diseases [7], and measuring evapotranspiration [8,9,10]. As technology advances and sensor systems are designed with increased sensitivity, there is a fundamental need among the scientific community to drive down errors in satellite-derived surface temperature measurements. With an increased demand of ST product accuracy comes the apparent need for validation of these products. In the early 2000s, a comprehensive validation of MODIS ST products was conducted using a worldwide ground-based instrumentation network. The measurements acquired during this campaign were compared to MODIS-derived ST measurements to characterize the fidelity of the product [16]. The expense involved in such a campaign is not repeatable, pointing to the increased need for a simpler validation tool. Available online: https://dexterresearch.com/technicallibrary/ (accessed on 1 December 2019). Available online: https://sbir.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/319-000294{_}G.pdf (accessed on 1 December 2019).
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