Surface Albedo and Temperature Models for Surface Energy Balance Fluxes and Evapotranspiration Using SEBAL and Landsat 8 over Cerrado-Pantanal, Brazil

Lucas Peres Angelini,Hatim M. E. Geli,Marcelo Sacardi Biudes,George Louis Vourlitis,Anderson Ruhoff,Nadja Gomes Machado,José de Souza Nogueira

doi:10.3390/s21217196

Abstract

The determination of the surface energy balance fluxes (SEBFs) and evapotranspiration () is fundamental in environmental studies involving the effects of land use change on the water requirement of crops. SEBFs and have been estimated by remote sensing techniques, but with the operation of new sensors, some variables need to be parameterized to improve their accuracy. Thus, the objective of this study is to evaluate the performance of algorithms used to calculate surface albedo and surface temperature on the estimation of SEBFs and in the Cerrado-Pantanal transition region of Mato Grosso, Brazil. Surface reflectance images of the Operational Land Imager (OLI) and brightness temperature () of the Thermal Infrared Sensor (TIRS) of the Landsat 8, and surface reflectance images of the MODIS MOD09A1 product from 2013 to 2016 were combined to estimate SEBF and by the surface energy balance algorithm for land (SEBAL), which were validated with measurements from two flux towers. The surface temperature () was recovered by different models from the and by parameters calculated in the atmospheric correction parameter calculator (ATMCORR). A model of surface albedo () with surface reflectance OLI Landsat 8 developed in this study performed better than the conventional model () SEBFs and in the Cerrado-Pantanal transition region estimated with combined with and performed better than estimates with . Among all the evaluated combinations, SEBAL performed better when combining with the model developed in this study and the surface temperature recovered by the Barsi model (). This demonstrates the importance of an model based on surface reflectance and atmospheric surface temperature correction in estimating SEBFs and ET by SEBAL.

Highlights

Surface energy balance fluxes (SEBFs) are one of the most important biophysical processes in environmental and hydrological studies [1,2,3]
Given the importance of estimating surface energy balance fluxes (SEBF) and ET from the asup, which is in turn estimated by the surface reflectance and the Ts without atmosphere and the emissivity corrections, the objective of this study is to evaluate the performance of the asup and Ts recovery models for the estimation of SEBFs and ET by surface energy balance algorithm for land (SEBAL) in the Cerrado-Pantanal transition region of the state of Mato Grosso, Brazil
The surface albedo model developed in this analysis based on the surface reflectance of the Operational Land Imager (OLI) Landsat 8 is shown in Equation (32): asup = 0.4739ρ2 − 0.4372ρ3 + 0.1652ρ4 + 0.2831ρ5 + 0.1072ρ6 + 0.1029ρ7 + 0.0366 (31)

Summary

Introduction

Surface energy balance fluxes (SEBFs) are one of the most important biophysical processes in environmental and hydrological studies [1,2,3]. SEBFs represent the processes of partitioning of available energy on the surface, measured by the net radiation (Rn), to evapotranspiration (ET) and soil and air heating, represented by soil heat flux (G) and 4.0/). Sensible heat flux (H), respectively [1]. Among these SEBFs components, ET is widely studied due to its importance in climatic, hydrological, and agronomic strategy models [4]. Among the most used models, the surface energy balance algorithm for land (SEBAL) has been successfully applied in different climatic regions and land covers [6].

Objectives

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Discussion

Conclusion